Chapter 8: Eight Years of Marriage, Worth Eighty Thousand

When I'd worked through the night on experiments and collapsed at the test site, he'd held my hand in anguish and promised that once he succeeded, he'd never let me suffer another injustice.

Later, when he'd finally built his career, he'd held me and said he would acknowledge his wife's contributions at his promotion ceremony.

Now my contributions really were being acknowledged.

But they had nothing to do with him anymore. Nor was he the one acknowledging them.

Applause brought me back to the present.

I raised my hands and joined in.

Things were good as they were.

My position was secure. My heart was at peace.

Han Yansen was at the celebration banquet too.

He raised his glass.

"Zhihui, you really are remarkable."

I didn't clink glasses with him.

I didn't think someone under investigation and the person who had reported him had anything to discuss.

He gave a small, self-mocking laugh.

None of a major general's imposing air remained.

"I've decided to accept all your conditions."

"Shen Zhihui, you won this battle."

That surprised me a little.

After half a year, I'd thought he would remain stubborn to the end.

"All right."

That was my answer.

"Don't you have anything else to say to me?"

"No."

"From the moment you tried to send me away with eighty thousand yuan, there was nothing left to say."

I started to leave.

But his voice caught as he called after me.

"After you moved out, I found your medical records and supplements at home."

"Were you preparing to have a baby?"

My fingers tightened around my wineglass.

Then relaxed.

He loved children. I'd held off because I thought having one would delay my research.

I'd planned to step back from the front line of work after his promotion.

We could have a child then.

But before the child could come, Lin Xuan had arrived.

His eyes reddened.

"I never imagined you'd be willing to have my child. I always thought your feelings for me were lukewarm—that you could take me or leave me."

"Then I met Lin Xuan. She clung to me every day and needed me. I thought that was love."

"But I forgot the hard days you shared with me at the beginning."

I stopped listening to his repentance.

I went over to Zhou Hui.

She clinked her glass against mine.

"What does that bastard want now?"

"Don't tell me he's trying to come back?"

I shook my head.

"He's stopped dragging things out with the lawyers."

"He's agreed to divide the property and determine ownership of the research achievements according to the regulations."

"Why has he suddenly seen reason?"

I took a sip of wine.

"Because he can't keep stalling."

"Once headquarters intervenes in person, his situation will be even worse."

"So he's making one last gamble."

Once both sides had reached agreement and had no further objections, the lawyers and discipline inspection officers handled everything quickly.

From beginning to end, I'd had only one demand.

Clarify all the research achievements, rewards, and benefits whose ownership could be established.

I didn't want even the slightest connection with Han Yansen in future.

In the end, I added it all up. Compensation and research bonuses came to more than three million yuan.

The day the money reached my account, I gave myself half a month off.

In all those years, I'd never taken annual leave.

I could count my outings for relaxation on one hand.

At last, I could put down the burden and enjoy a trip.

While admiring the Gobi Desert in an unnamed little town in the northwest, I came across an internal notice ordering corrective action on Han Yansen's equipment project.

Its prospects were now a far cry from what people had predicted before his promotion.

In the end, his institute came last in the institute-wide assessment and lost its key laboratory status.

It all came to a swift, perfunctory end.

He sold the home allocated by the military district and returned the separate apartment.

I heard he and Lin Xuan were crammed into a rented place outside the compound.

They lived on the jewelry she sold off piece by piece.

At last, even she couldn't endure it. She proposed breaking up and returned to her hometown alone.

So her so-called true love had been built on rank and power.

The next time I saw Han Yansen was in his office.

I hadn't come to visit. I was there to discuss the further handover of research achievements.

The furnishings hadn't changed much.

Only their owner looked like a mine that had just collapsed.