“Being with you, every day feels like a year. Every day is worse than death. Please, Gui Niang, let me go, and let yourself go too.”
Yan Zidao shouted the words at the top of his voice. Gui Niang turned her back to him and listened in silence, giving no reply.
After waiting a while with no answer, Zidao sank into a chair and said gently,
“Tell my parents you’re willing to divorce me. They’ll listen to you. I know you’re a good woman, and I don’t want to watch you go on living in this four-walled estate without a husband’s love, hopelessly waiting out the rest of your life. Divorcing is the best ending for both of us…”
Gui Niang fought to hold back her tears. Sitting upright with her back to Yan Zidao, she felt them welling in her eyes, and her shoulders trembled despite her efforts. His gentle words were like a sudden wind stirring still waters. At last, her long-suppressed grief and anger erupted.
“Divorce? You talk about divorcing me every day. You say your life is worse than death. Well, I’m telling you, so is mine. But even if life is worse than death, I will never divorce you. I’ll keep the title of your wife forever.”
Gui Niang stood and walked toward Yan Zidao one step at a time. She bent down and looked straight into his eyes.
“You… you poisonous woman!” Yan Zidao cried, furious.
Gui Niang took his hand. Like any ordinary wife, she wore a tender expression as she softly spoke the words that cut deepest.
“Husband, ever since I was a child, I’ve hated my elder half-sister. I know you like her, and she likes you. How wonderful. As long as I refuse to divorce you, the two of you can never be together. Seeing you suffer, you have no idea how happy it makes me. Hahaha!”
One sentence sets the stage for a story of two people who can’t stand each other, and how they spend the rest of their lives together.
