Boyfriend's passive-aggressive behavior, she turns the tables and makes him her backup option.

She sat down on the edge of the bed and said, "I didn't mean to not say hello to you outside the orchestra."

Xie Jingyao feigned surprise and asked, "So you can see me? I thought that after seeing that sickly man, Niannian's heart and eyes were filled with him, and she couldn't see any other man anymore."

Si Nian almost choked on her saliva. She couldn't help but cough a few times. "You know that my situation with Lin Tinghan is rather special right now, so it wouldn't be appropriate for me to stop and reminisce with you in front of him, would it?"

"Yes, he's your husband, so naturally he deserves special treatment."

Si Nian reached out and shook Xie Jingyao's arm. "Don't be angry. Please understand me."

Xie Jingyao pulled his hand back. "Why am I angry? Isn't it normal for you two to ride home together?"

"You don't need to keep saying 'he's my husband,' you know perfectly well that I want a divorce."

"I don't know, I can't tell."

Si Nian choked for a moment.

Xie Jingyao closed his notebook and put it aside. Then he reached out and grabbed Si Nian's arm, pulling her in front of him.

He looked down at the woman in front of him, staring intently into her eyes, and asked, "Are you thinking of backing out?"

Si Nian asked, "What are you going back on your word about?"

"The thing you promised me."

Si Nian couldn't immediately determine which of these things Xie Jingyao knew.

Seeing her blank look for a moment, Xie Jingyao tightened his grip slightly. "Si Nian, I've said it before, you can't have your cake and eat it too. If you want to make a deal with me, then cut off all your relationships."

When Si Nian heard Xie Jingyao say that one cannot have two relationships, she couldn't help but feel a sense of irony.

But she didn't show it; she just said to him in a tight voice, "I really want to divorce Lin Tinghan."

Xie Jingyao pressed his fingers against Si Nian's lips, gently rubbing them: "Don't just talk the talk, walk the walk. Give me a definite deadline, a week? Half a month? Or a month?"

"I also want to know when my mom will be free from this control—a week, two weeks, or a month?"

Xie Jingyao scoffed, "You've got a pretty good plan. You want to reap the rewards first, then fulfill the deal?"

"After all, I can't be sure if you're just making empty promises. I need to see some progress before I can feel at ease."

"In a week, you will see the truth about the murder of your mother."

"Okay, I'm really looking forward to it."

Xie Jingyao's hands moved downwards, he grasped Si Nian's cheeks, and lowered his head to kiss her lips.

Si Nian's waist was tightly held, and she was pressed into Xie Jingyao's arms, unable to move.

She could only raise her head and endure his forceful and aggressive kiss.

Her breathing became erratic, and the hand she was pressing against Xie Jingyao's chest unconsciously tightened.

The next second, my lips suddenly felt a sharp pain.

"Ugh." Si Nian groaned, feeling a stinging pain in her lower lip. She reached down and touched it, and sure enough, it was bleeding from being bitten.

"Why did you bite me?" She covered her lips, frowning as she looked at Xie Jingyao.

The culprit, looking like he hadn't had enough, licked his lips and said to her, "Sorry, it wasn't intentional."

"..."

"To avoid arousing your husband's suspicion, you'll have to see him less these next few days. I hope Niannian won't be upset with me?"

"Xie Jingyao, are you serious?"

Xie Jingyao withdrew his gaze from her lips. "You're right. You're worried that I'll make empty promises, and I'm worried that you'll make empty promises to me too. So, to put my mind at ease... write me a guarantee."

Si Nian almost thought she had misheard.

"What guarantee?"

Xie Jingyao proved to Si Nian that he hadn't misheard by pulling open the bedside table and handing Si Nian a stack of papers and a pen.

"Write down everything you promised me, so we can have it all in black and white and you won't renege on your promise."

Seeing that Xie Jingyao wasn't joking, Si Nian couldn't help but ask, "How should I write it?"

"Think for yourself."

Si Nian bit the pen cap. She had only heard of such a guarantee when she was a child, from her parents' generation; she had never actually seen one.

"Guarantee: Si Nian guarantees that she will divorce Lin Tinghan..."

Si Nian handed it to Xie Jingyao: "Is that so?"

Xie Jingyao frowned: "Is this how you're going to brush me off?"

He crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it on the ground, pointing to the new paper: "Rewrite it. If you can't write it well, you'll just keep writing."

Si Nian suppressed the urge to curse.

I picked up my pen and rewrote a few more lines.

"so?"

"In addition, after the divorce, I will absolutely not have any lingering contact with my ex-husband, and I will absolutely not rekindle our old flame."

Si Nian wrote it down quickly.

Xie Jingyao tapped his fingers on the table. "Add one more..."