The 99th Divorce

“I want to eat Thai food! Curry! Sawadee ka,” Old Mrs. Shen said excitedly as she pulled Yu Lili along. “Lili, do you like curry as well? Let’s go for some curry!”

Yu Lili looked at Shen Zhilie curiously.

Shen Zhilie shrugged his shoulders and said, “Grandma has always loved curry. I didn’t tell her that you like it.”

“Look! Look! We’re indeed birds of the same feather,” Old Mrs. Shen said. “Zhilie, take us there quickly! Let’s go!”

Before Old Mrs. Shen could drag her off, Yu Lili snatched her hand back and went in to retrieve her handbag. Afterward, they set off.

Yu Lili hadn’t switched on her phone since the night before. Once she did, all the unread messages and missed calls came chiming in. Her phone sounded for a good half a minute before finally settling down.

With their curiosity piqued, both Shen Zhilie and Old Mrs. Shen stared at the phone she was holding.

Yu Lili opened the log and realized that a number of the calls were from Shen Zhilie. Another two were from an unidentified number in the Capital. It went without saying that those two probably had come from Old Mrs. Shen.

Following that were calls from Ou Ming, Jiao Ziqing, and a landline based in Kingstown. Without a doubt, all those called had been made by Ou Ming.

Yu Lili checked the time. It was already 1 p.m. Ou Ming should have already eaten lunch.

After the three of them had gone down in the elevator, Yu Lili changed her mind. “Why don’t you go ahead for lunch? I have some urgent matters I need to tend to.” As she led the old lady out of her apartment complex, she said, “There’s a big shopping mall about half of a mile up ahead. It has a Thai restaurant. Shen Zhilie, take your grandmother there quickly. I won’t be going.”

“How could you? My grandmother came all this way to look for you! Are you so unwilling to even have a meal with her?” Shen Zhilie started to get angry on behalf of his grandmother and spat out, “You’re so heartless!”

Yu Lili felt herself trapped between a rock and a hard place. “I really have something to tend to. I was just about to leave the house because of that when you came…”

“Alright, then,” Old Mrs. Shen said as her head bowed down in disappointment. “Go ahead and do what you need to. But, will you be coming home at night?”

“Yes,” Yu Lili said.

“Then as a consolation, will you let me stay with you tonight?” Old Mrs. Shen looked at Yu Lili with two round eyes shining with hopefulness.

Faced with that expression, Yu Lili couldn’t bear to reject her. It was evident that the old lady was truly fond of her. All the video calls aside, she had come all the way from the Capital just to spend some time with her.

Yu Lili felt like she wouldn’t be able to answer to her own conscience if she continued to brush the old lady off. If not for her worry that Ou Ming would refuse to eat on his own, Yu Lili would have wanted very much to eat with Old Mrs. Shen.

Looking into Old Mrs. Shen’s hopeful eyes, Yu Lili finally nodded her head and said, “Alright. I’ll see you again later tonight.”

The old lady finally cheered up. Her face lit up in a smile. She stuck her finger out toward Yu Lili. “OK! Then pinky-promise with me.”

Yu Lili was speechless. Why was this old lady so childish? Under the old lady’s expectant gaze, she relented and stuck her finger out.

Yu Lili quickly hailed a taxi and left. With a satisfied look on her face, Old Mrs. Shen looked at Shen Zhilie and said, “Isn’t your grandmother awesome? This is what you’d call retreating in order to advance. Look, just like that, I’m able to spend the whole night alone with her!”

Shen Zhilie started to pity Yu Lili. She was unlucky indeed to have caught the eye of such an old lady.