Five years without pregnancy means you're too weak; I remarried a powerful man and had triplets

The sun was shining so brightly on the asphalt road in front of the Civil Affairs Bureau that it was almost hot.

Shen Zhiyi stood on the steps, carrying a file bag, watching cars speed past her.

She arrived ten minutes early, as agreed, but now, half an hour has passed and she hasn't seen a soul, not even a ghost.

She had just spoken to her lawyer on the phone, and his words reassured her: "Ms. Shen, in your situation, requesting a 50/50 split of the joint property is entirely reasonable. Even if he disagrees and goes to court, the court will support him. The evidence is irrefutable; he is in the wrong."

But now, that reassurance seems to be stuck in my throat.

She waited patiently for another ten minutes, but the phone remained as silent as a brick.

Shen Zhiyi frowned and finally pulled Xu Zhesheng off the blacklist.

When you dial, the message says, "Sorry, the user you dialed is temporarily unavailable."

WeChat? It's like throwing a stone into the sea, not even a "typing" notification.

An unnamed anger suddenly surged up.

What's this man up to now?

Where did that defiant attitude go when you were forced to agree at the hospital?

Now he's putting on airs again, thinking that making her wait in vain at the entrance of the Civil Affairs Bureau will make him seem more powerful and more reluctant to give up this marriage?

Shen Zhiyi sneered and put away her phone.

She didn't dial a second time, nor did she send a single questioning message.

She turned around, walked straight into the Civil Affairs Bureau lobby, and went straight to the information desk.

"Hello, I have scheduled my divorce registration with my husband, Xu Zhesheng, but I can't contact him right now."

Her voice was calm, devoid of emotion. "I'd like to ask, if one party doesn't appear in court, when is the earliest I can get a case filed?"

The staff checked the system and were very polite.

"Madam, if your spouse doesn't show up today, the divorce settlement cannot be finalized. However, you can apply for pre-trial mediation or file a lawsuit directly."

"Okay, thank you."

Shen Zhiyi nodded, picked up the file bag, and turned to walk out.

She had no intention of indulging Xu Zhesheng's bad habits.

Not coming? Then see you in court.

Just as I reached the entrance of the hall, a black sedan screeched to a halt at the bottom of the steps.

The car door opened, and Xu Zhesheng stepped out with long legs. His suit was a little wrinkled, and there was sweat on his forehead, indicating that he had rushed over.

He saw Shen Zhiyi standing at the door and breathed a sigh of relief, but then his face hardened again, with a condescending tone, as if he wanted to regain the initiative he had lost by being late: "Have you been waiting long? There was traffic on the way, and my phone was dead."

Shen Zhiyi didn't reply, not even lifting her eyelids. She simply stepped aside to make way for the entrance, her tone as indifferent as if she were saying, "The weather is really nice today."

"Go in. If you dawdle any longer, we won't be able to get it done today."

Xu Zhesheng was taken aback by her unyielding attitude, completely unaffected by his sense of urgency, and the nameless anger in his heart flared up again.

He followed her into the Civil Affairs Bureau, and looking at her straight back, he suddenly felt that this woman seemed to have become a stranger to him, inside and out.

What upset him even more was that Su Manman was advising him to have a proper talk with Shen Zhiyi, but she acted this way, making him seem more inferior than her.

On what grounds?

Now that the child is born, she's still making a fuss. Does she think she can put the child back in?

He stared at her retreating figure, feeling a tightness in his chest, an unsettling feeling.

Fine, let's get a divorce. He doesn't believe a woman who can't have children can find someone better than him!

The air conditioning in the lobby was blasting, and the air was filled with the mixed smells of disinfectant and printer ink.

Shen Zhiyi sat on a plastic chair by the window, her back straight, her eyes downcast, staring at the divorce agreement that had been laid out flat on her lap.

Xu Zhesheng sat down beside her, with a gap large enough to fit a person between them, like an invisible Chu-Han boundary.

The entire form-filling process was eerily silent.

The only sound was the scratching of the pen tip across the paper.

Shen Zhiyi wrote quickly, her handwriting was messy but neat, as if she were completing a task she had long been tired of.

Hsu Che-sheng wrote slowly, each stroke of his pen as if he were challenging himself, occasionally pausing to glance at Shen Zhiyi out of the corner of his eye.

The impatience she had felt while waiting had vanished from her face, replaced by an almost numb calm.

This calmness made Xu Zhesheng even more uneasy than crying and making a fuss.

"Shen Zhiyi." He finally couldn't hold back any longer, lowering his voice to try and break the suffocating silence, "Don't you have anything to say?"

Shen Zhiyi didn't even look up, and neatly wrote "50%" in the "Property Division" column, her tone as calm as if she were reading a clause: "Everything that needs to be said is written in the agreement. You just need to sign."

Xu Zhesheng stared at the glaring "50%" and his Adam's apple bobbed.

He gripped the pen tightly, his tone tinged with a resentment he himself didn't realize: "Divorcing me will only get me half, but if..."

"There are no ifs." Shen Zhiyi interrupted him directly, as if she knew what he was going to say.

Her gaze was so cold, like an ice blade, that it instantly shattered Xu Zhesheng's ridiculous sense of superiority.

The staff at the window called out their numbers.

Submit materials, verify information, and take photos.

At the moment the photo was taken, Xu Zhesheng subconsciously wanted to move closer to Shen Zhiyi, trying to preserve some of their marital affection in the final image.

But Shen Zhiyi seemed to have eyes in the back of her head. The moment he moved, she subtly tilted her body ten degrees in the opposite direction, making their figures appear farther apart in the camera's view than they actually were.

"Click."

The shutter clicked, freezing this bizarre group photo in time.

Finally, it's stamped.

The staff at the window casually tossed two dark green booklets onto the table; the gold lettering on the covers was glaringly obvious.

"Receipt for Acceptance of Divorce Application".

"The formalities are complete, but according to regulations, there is a 30-day cooling-off period."

The staff member spoke in a formulaic tone, pointing to a notice on the wall: "During this period, if either party does not wish to divorce, they may withdraw their application by presenting their identification documents. Both parties shall come together to obtain the certificate within thirty days after the expiration of the period."

Shen Zhiyi held the receipt, her fingertips pausing slightly.

She had completely forgotten about that.

These thirty days felt like a scabbed wound being forcibly torn open again, waiting to become inflamed and fester.

Upon hearing the words "cooling-off period," Xu Zhesheng's previously lifeless eyes instantly lit up, as if he had grasped at a lifeline.

He suddenly looked up at Shen Zhiyi, his tone carrying a hint of urgency he himself didn't realize: "Did you hear that? Thirty days left! Zhiyi, we..."

Shen Zhiyi didn't let him finish speaking.

She slowly withdrew her gaze, folded the receipt in half, then in half again, and finally neatly stuffed it into the file folder.

This series of actions was so slow that it made Hsu Che-sheng feel uneasy.

"Xu Zhesheng," she finally spoke, her voice soft but sharp like an ice pick, "These thirty days are the law's way of giving adults a chance to change their ways. But I won't take it."

She stood up, looking down at him, her eyes filled not with hatred, but with a desolate weariness:

"You'd better not eat either. In the next thirty days, think carefully about your assets. Don't think I don't know you've secretly transferred some money. Remember to bring that part with you next time we meet."

She paused, her gaze passing over Xu Zhesheng, as if piercing through the thick walls of the Civil Affairs Bureau, and landing on a more distant place that could give her confidence.

"Otherwise, I'll go directly to court and sue. Then, it'll cause a huge uproar, and everyone will see how Director Xu cheated on his wife."