The 99th Divorce

The old lady ventured carefully and timidly. “Lili, are you angry?”

When Yu Lili saw how the old lady was acting, the annoyance in her heart evaporated. She couldn’t do anything but say to the old lady, “Old Mrs. Shen, you’re getting on in years. It’ll be better if you stay at home. If anything were to happen to you, you’re not the only one who would suffer. Your children and grandchildren will worry about you.”

“Is that concern you’re showing toward me?” Old Mrs. Shen asked with her eyes opened wide.

Her eyes were clouded with age, but, at this moment, they were filled with childlike hope.

Yu Lili didn’t know how to reply. Oh lord, have mercy!

She was just worried that the old lady would end up clinging on to her. Matters would get a lot stickier then if she truly couldn’t get rid of her.

What she didn’t expect was for this old lady to worm her way into her heart. It was as if she’d known that Yu Lili wouldn’t be able to resist her if she was soft and weak. This thought made Yu Lili somewhat frustrated and helpless at the same time.

The old lady had traveled a long distance to see her. There was no way she could just yell at her to go.

Looking at how Yu Lili was running out of options, Shen Zhilie stepped forward to hammer the final nail in the coffin by saying, “Yes, that’s right! Grandma, Lili is concerned about you. I told you not to run off. It’ll make her angry!”

Hearing Shen Zhilie’s voice made Yu Lili laugh in frustration. She smacked him right on his shoulder and complained, “How could you not let me know beforehand that you were coming?”

If he had told her, she would have hidden herself. This old lady was certainly a handful!

“Grandma said she wanted to give you a surprise,” Shen Zhilie answered as he rubbed the spot on this shoulder Yu Lili had hit. “You hit me really hard! Couldn’t you have used less force?”

When Yu Lili heard that, her anger bubbled over. She swung her palm for a slap and said, “Alright! I’ll use less force! Less force! Less force!”

With every repetition of the phrase ‘less force’, Yu Lili slapped Shen Zhilie hard on the cheeks.

“It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!” Shen Zhilie ran and hid behind his grandmother in a bid to avoid her attacks.

At the end of the day, he was only there because he’d been pestered incessantly by his grandmother to take her to visit Yu Lili.

“Whose fault is it that you refused to answer the phone or the video calls? Grandma missed you so much that she was asking about you every day!” Shen Zhilie rattled on. Suddenly, his eyes darkened. With a lowered voice he added, “Furthermore, I wanted to see you too.”

When Yu Lili heard that last sentence, she felt her resolve slip away. Shen Zhilie was kind of dumped by her, wasn’t he?

“I’m so hungry! Shall we go out to eat?” Old Mrs. Shen acted as if she hadn’t seen or heard their exchange. She rubbed her tummy. “Old people can’t stand going hungry. Being hungry makes me feel uncomfortable. Lili, let’s have Zhilie give us a treat, shall we?”

As she said that, she went over and held Yu Lili’s hand. “After we have our lunchie, we’ll go for a movie and go shopping along the streetsies, alright?”

Shen Zhilie felt goosebumps rise all over his body. Why were the words coming out of the old lady’s mouth so nauseating?

Lunchie, streetsies…

The last time he used such language, he’d received a slap from her. Shen Zhilie still bore a little of the previous grudge. He rubbed the spot on his shoulder that had been whacked by Yu Lili and asked Old Mrs. Shen, “Grandma, what would you like to eat?”

“I’ll leave it to Lili,” the old woman said.

Yu Lili looked helplessly at her hand in Old Mrs. Shen’s grasp and said, “I’m fine with anything!”