Qi Ruiming didn’t keep Qi Xi and Xi Wen waiting long. A day later, he called Qi Xi and agreed to a divorce by mutual consent, accepting the property division terms Xi Wen’s side had proposed—

“Xi Xi, Dad’s had time to think this over calmly. This whole thing really is Dad’s fault—getting to this point, that’s on me. But in a marriage, it’s never entirely one person’s fault either; over all these years, your mom and I both must have made mistakes as we tried to work things out. Now, taking a step back from each other and parting on good terms—I think what you said made sense. What I did wasn’t right, so I agree to let you and your mom keep the other properties. I’ll just keep the storefront.”

After all that preamble, Qi Ruiming’s real point was clear: “But Dad hopes this can end here. We’re still family, after all. Even though I did this, I never actually wanted to divorce your mother—I’m only respecting her decision. In my heart, I still consider her my one and only wife. And you’re still Dad’s most important daughter. We’re still family, no matter what.”

“Liangliang is a pitiful kid too. Before, to avoid hurting you and your mom, I always chose to keep his existence hidden. He’s grown up like a child who can’t see the light of day—even I only get to see him rarely. He’s already ten, not some kid who doesn’t understand anything—he’s suffered over his situation too. But none of that is his fault. I’m the one who’s failed him. Of everyone in my life, he’s the one I owe the most to. So Xi Xi, even if you can’t think of him as a brother, please, at least don’t hurt him. Okay?”

Qi Xi had grown too tired to keep up appearances with Qi Ruiming. “As long as you cooperate with the divorce and get through the cooling-off period quietly, once the divorce is finalized, none of us want anything to do with your son, and we won’t interfere in your life. Whether you go have another son later, or marry Wang Juan or some other woman—none of that concerns us. Whether your life turns out happy or miserable is yours to bear alone. Just don’t come bother us. From now on, we’ll stay out of each other’s way completely.”

Hearing Qi Xi’s assurances, Qi Ruiming’s tone immediately softened. “Xi Xi, Dad will absolutely never be with anyone else again. Dad’s only going to spend the rest of his life atoning for his past sins. An old man raising a ten-year-old boy alone, seeing him through to eighteen—that’s Dad’s responsibility now. Without you and your mother, Dad will just grow old alone…”

Swallowing her disgust, Qi Xi sat through Qi Ruiming’s maudlin, self-serving lies, confirmed a time to go file for divorce at the civil affairs bureau together, and worked out a few small revisions to the divorce agreement before finally hanging up, relieved.

She immediately shared the news with her mother, Gu Yan, and Gu Xuehan—everyone was thrilled.

Perhaps because Qi Ruiming couldn’t gauge exactly how much Qi Xi actually knew, or perhaps because he genuinely had other hidden assets he wanted to move quickly, he seemed eager to finalize the divorce as soon as possible—and as a result, the whole process went remarkably smoothly.

At the appointed time, Xi Wen and Qi Ruiming finally met and submitted their divorce application.

After the mandatory one-month cooling-off period ended, the two of them signed the divorce agreement in front of a civil affairs official, submitted all the required documents, and received their divorce certificate.

Though she’d braced herself for it, Xi Wen still couldn’t help crying during these two meetings with Qi Ruiming.

Years of love, a marriage—all of it now washed away, lost forever.

Their marriage certificate photo still showed two young, happy faces together; the divorce certificate left only a single, solitary figure.

Even though Xi Wen had shown remarkable strength and resolve throughout the process of gathering evidence, refusing to tolerate betrayal, her heart had still taken a devastating blow. In just over a month, the once gentle and refined Xi Wen seemed to have gone from a rose in the last full bloom of its beauty to one battered overnight by a violent storm, left withered and wilting.

Her mother had aged so much.

Qi Ruiming looked no better—he too had visibly aged.

Divorce, it turned out, wasn’t as easy as it might seem—not even for Qi Ruiming. Beyond a measure of guilt and confusion, he surely carried some psychological burden of his own. As he signed the agreement, he may have hesitated, felt reluctance, even shown flashes of guilt—yet it was he himself who had pushed everything to this point of no return.

On the day the divorce was finalized, Gu Xuehan came along with Gu Yan to accompany Qi Xi and Xi Wen to the civil affairs bureau. After the signing was complete, it was Gu Xuehan who walked out supporting Xi Wen.

“Qi Xi, you’ve been through a lot this past month, under a lot of stress. Take the day off with Gu Yan, go relax properly. As for your mother, leave her to me.”

Gu Xuehan, normally so sharp and formidable, spoke with unusual gentleness now as she supported Qi Xi’s mother. “I’m older than both of you—your mother and I probably have more in common, closer in age.”

Qi Xi was clearly still worried about her mother. “But…”

Gu Xuehan glanced back at Xi Wen with a reassuring smile, then stepped closer to Qi Xi and lowered her voice to explain. “Your mother is someone who’s strong at her core. You’re her daughter, and no mother wants to appear weak in front of her own daughter—no mother ever gives up her instinct to protect her child.”

“Through all of this, your mother has suffered the most. She’s a mother, yes, but she has her vulnerable moments too. If you stay with her, she won’t let herself break down in front of you—she wants to be your pillar of strength. So let me be with her instead. Let her have a proper cry, let her release all the resentment, the grievance, the weakness she’s been holding in.”

If it weren’t for Gu Xuehan, Qi Xi never would have thought of this. It was true—even facing such a devastating blow, Xi Wen had remained remarkably composed throughout. But her mother wasn’t superhuman either; she had her moments of fragility too.

Qi Xi nodded gratefully at Gu Xuehan. “Then I’ll have to trouble you, Lawyer Gu! Thank you so much for your help this time—I really wouldn’t have known what to do without you…”

Gu Xuehan pressed her lips together in a small smile. “It’s nothing. Girls helping girls, right? Isn’t that the trend these days?”

“Sis, I know you helped a lot, but…” Perhaps feeling a bit overshadowed lately, Gu Yan cleared his throat, trying to reassert his presence, and asked with deliberate cheekiness, “Are you still even a ‘girl,’ though?”

Gu Xuehan, normally so composed, couldn’t help but roll her eyes at that. “Gu Yan, are you looking for trouble? Your sister will be a beautiful young girl until the day she dies! As long as you keep love and a sense of wonder alive in your heart, no matter your age, you can still be a little girl inside!”

The somewhat heavy atmosphere lightened at once thanks to this little exchange between Gu Yan and Gu Xuehan. Qi Xi laughed, and even Xi Wen, standing behind Gu Xuehan, couldn’t help a small smile.

The weather was clear that day, and watching her mother standing there in the sunlight, Qi Xi felt her eyes prick with tears.

Gu Xuehan was right—as long as there was still love and a sense of wonder in one’s heart, no matter the age, one could always start fresh, could always be full of life again. Her mother was still young! There were still decades of good days waiting ahead of her!

**

Gu Xuehan took Xi Wen off alone to help her unwind, but Qi Xi and Gu Yan didn’t actually go off to relax or have a date either—because Xi Wen and Qi Ruiming’s divorce was only the first step. Now that the bulk of the marital assets had been secured, the next step was suing Wang Juan for the return of the improper gains Qi Ruiming had funneled to her during the marriage.

Qi Xi brought Gu Yan back to her rented apartment, and the two of them worked together organizing the materials. Since they’d already prepared so thoroughly beforehand, it was now mostly a matter of organizing everything before they could take it straight to court.

“I’m not going to touch the Wang Qiliang situation—I’m not actually going to go spread information about him being illegitimate. Doing that kind of retaliation would put me on the same low level as my dad and Wang Juan. Just because a dog bit me doesn’t mean I need to bite back like a dog myself. Besides, if I expose Qi Ruiming’s illegitimate son, people that shameless could easily turn around and use our own private information to do something just as low. So that’s not something I’ll do—but within the bounds of the law, whatever justice I can win back for my mom, I won’t give up on.”

What Qi Xi hadn’t expected, though, was that even though she hadn’t exposed Wang Qiliang, someone else had.

Just as Qi Xi was about to take Gu Yan out to buy groceries—planning to cook dinner tonight to treat her boyfriend—Zhao Yiran unexpectedly came home early from work.

Getting caught by Zhao Yiran alone with Gu Yan at home, even though nothing intimate was happening, Qi Xi still felt her face flush a little, guilty as if she’d been caught red-handed, feeling awkward.

Zhao Yiran, however, acted completely naturally—probably because Qi Xi had often stayed late working on cases with Gu Yan before, she wasn’t surprised to see him there. She just kicked off her heels at the door, still visibly shaken. “God, I nearly died running here. I was in the middle of sorting case files when suddenly some client who was unhappy with a previous ruling showed up at the courthouse waving a knife, saying he wanted to take a few judges down with him. Scared us all half to death, we all bolted. The police are there now clearing the scene, this afternoon’s hearings got canceled, and our chief judge told us to just go home.”

She flopped onto the couch and started scrolling her phone. “But why are you two just sitting around at home during work hours? Shouldn’t you be at Jingge right now?”

Qi Xi stammered a little, about to explain, when she heard Gu Yan calmly spin a lie without missing a beat. “Part of Jingge is getting some maintenance work done, and the formaldehyde smell is pretty bad, so we came here instead.”

Gu Yan added, “Qi Xi’s place is also closer to the firm, after all.”

Zhao Yiran looked satisfied with that explanation for a moment, but then narrowed her eyes suspiciously again. “Then why not just find a café near the firm or something? This place isn’t exactly that close either, and there’s no work atmosphere at home…”

Oh no, Zhao Yiran was onto them…

But to Qi Xi’s surprise, Gu Yan stayed perfectly calm and kept improvising smoothly. “Business hasn’t been great lately—my sister doesn’t have much work coming in, and besides our base salary, we don’t have much extra money. Cafés get expensive, so we’re cutting costs where we can.”

Hearing that, Zhao Yiran immediately looked sympathetic. “Wow, sounds like the economy’s really rough right now—even Jingge’s struggling like this…” She kept going, “I really need to talk my coworker out of trying to switch to a law firm. Don’t go making trouble for yourself—even Jingge can’t afford coffee anymore!”

“…”

Just as Qi Xi was racking her brain for an excuse to get out of the apartment before Zhao Yiran could ask anything else, she heard Zhao Yiran, who’d been scrolling her phone, suddenly slap her thigh and gasp—

“No way! This is wild!”

Curious, Qi Xi asked, “What’s going on?”

“Who would’ve thought our legal-world influencers would end up trending for drama.” Zhao Yiran looked utterly bewildered. “If it were some kind of proper professional showdown, people debating legal points back and forth, fine—but what actually got them trending?”

She explained briefly to Qi Xi. “Remember I told you about those female influencers in the legal niche? ‘Trickling Stream’ and ‘Meng Taotao Conquers the Legal World’—remember them? Turns out ‘Meng Taotao Conquers the Legal World’ got exposed for never even passing the bar exam, just marketing herself as some legal elite persona. And ‘Trickling Stream’ had been dragging her through the mud over it at the time, using the opportunity to build her own untouchable image, claiming she was the real self-made success story, a legal elite from a wealthy background. And now, guess what—’Trickling Stream’ just crashed and burned way harder than ‘Meng Taotao’ ever did!”

“What self-made success story, please—she became a mistress to some already-married older man right out of school, rode her way up by having his kid, and’s been living off him this whole time. She wrecked someone else’s family and didn’t even actually work at a law firm—she just slept her way to a partner’s bed…”

Zhao Yiran knew Qi Xi’s father was a lawyer, but she didn’t know his full name or which firm he worked at, so even seeing a post exposing details connected to Qi Ruiming, she had no idea of the real context. But Qi Xi and Gu Yan exchanged a tense, knowing glance, both frowning.

Zhao Yiran read their expressions as shock, giving them a look like they hadn’t seen the world. “They’ve laid it all out in perfect detail—her real name, ID number, the name of the partner she attached herself to, the firm’s name, even her son’s name, school, and age. Everyone’s photos got dug up too.”

As she gossiped, Zhao Yiran kept scrolling through the exposé post. “Wait, no way—she’s even here in Rong City? Her son Wang Qiliang goes to that fancy international school here too? We’ve got that kind of ‘talent’ right here in our own city? And the partner she attached herself to isn’t even that well-known—just some obscure little firm…”

At that, Qi Xi couldn’t sit still anymore. Pressing her lips together, she didn’t bother answering Zhao Yiran—she just pulled out her phone and searched for “Trickling Stream.”

The moment she’d typed just the first two characters, the autocomplete already suggested a string of related search terms about “Trickling Stream” clawing her way up as a mistress.

Qi Xi clicked into one of the trending topics at random and found that the scale of “Trickling Stream’s” exposure was on the level usually reserved for celebrity scandals—not only had several influential bloggers in the legal community reposted and weighed in, but a huge number of gossip accounts had jumped on it too. Scrolling through the topic, beyond the flood of genuine users condemning Wang Juan as a shameless mistress, there were clearly coordinated bot accounts stirring things up, which had helped push the whole thing straight to the top of the trending list, generating massive discussion.

Though Wang Juan was something of an influencer, her actual reach could never have generated this level of attention on its own. And frankly, the way this exposure had unfolded was suspicious—while she had flaunted plenty of luxury goods on Weibo, given her awareness of her own less-than-clean status, she’d never revealed any personal details before.

For her private information, the identity of the man she was involved with, and details about her illegitimate son to be dug up this thoroughly, someone clearly must have used other means.

Zhao Yiran, a longtime connoisseur of online gossip and influencer drama, understood the question immediately. “She’s obviously been targeted by someone. Didn’t I mention before that she and ‘Meng Taotao Conquers the Legal World’ don’t get along? When ‘Meng Taotao’ got exposed before, apparently ‘Trickling Stream’ had been stirring things up behind the scenes the whole time, posting all sorts of snide, passive-aggressive stuff on Weibo mocking her. ‘Meng Taotao’ held a grudge over it and even publicly clapped back at ‘Trickling Stream’ once, suggesting her image might be fake too—she nearly got torn apart by ‘Trickling Stream’s’ fans for it at the time.”

“So you’re saying this exposure is probably ‘Meng Taotao’s’ doing?”

Zhao Yiran nodded. “Yeah. I’ve got a friend lurking in ‘Meng Taotao’s’ core fan group who told me this whole ‘Trickling Stream’ thing was organized and coordinated from the start. ‘Meng Taotao’ apparently comes from money, and reportedly spent a fair bit to have ‘Trickling Stream’ investigated. They probably just meant to dig up some minor dirt, but ended up uncovering something this huge, so they went all in on it. After all, ‘Meng Taotao’ got dragged pretty badly last time and was basically canceled—she’d clearly been sitting on that resentment. This has turned into a total celebration for her fanbase.”

As she gossiped, Zhao Yiran also sighed a little. “Honestly, why can’t these so-called influencers stop building such fake personas? What were they even thinking—not only is her education and ability nothing special, she didn’t even claw her way up through hard work, she just wrecked someone else’s family as a mistress, and had the nerve to flaunt it online. Now that it’s blown up and she’s getting torn apart, she deserves every bit of it!”

“Maybe it’s precisely because there’s nothing real to show for herself in real life that she had to build a fake image online for people to admire instead,” Qi Xi said, watching the one-sided wave of condemnation against Wang Juan online, feeling a strange, wistful unease.

Online public opinion was always easy to distort and steer. Once, Wang Juan had relied on exactly that dynamic to attract followers and reap countless compliments and benefits—now, that same dynamic had brought her crashing down just as hard.

It had to be said, whoever was behind this exposure had steered it masterfully—first playing on everyone’s shared hatred of mistresses, then using the fact that Qi Ruiming had abandoned his wife and daughter for a son as another point of attack, perfectly matching the current social mood. Both Wang Juan and Qi Ruiming were being torn apart online like stray dogs, to the point that they’d had to shut down comments on their social media accounts entirely.

A furious public, chasing what it saw as justice, had effectively turned into a mob meting out its own form of punishment.

“That’s not even the worst of it for Wang Juan—someone dug up her home address and sent funeral wreaths to her door. As for that old man, someone’s already reported him to the bar association, accusing him of moral corruption. The firm’s phone lines have been jammed nonstop with angry callers, and apparently his personal cell number got leaked too—people have been flooding him with abuse.”

“But the worst off is the kid. Apparently the school’s official social media and website got completely overrun—the comment sections are full of people calling him a bastard and telling him to just die…”

…

Qi Xi usually felt sympathy for people who got dragged online like this. But when it came to Wang Juan, she found she genuinely couldn’t summon any.

Qi Xi had always believed that fate had its own arrangements—that taking shortcuts through immoral, illegal means always eventually had to be paid back. Wang Juan had done wrong, and while retribution might not come immediately, sooner or later, within a year or several, the truth would come out, and she would eventually meet the consequences of her own misdeeds.

After all, stolen things always have to be returned eventually.