"We're here, the two of you." The taxi driver's greeting interrupted Ding Nan's thoughts. She was familiar with this foreign dialect that she had not heard for a long time. She sighed, opened the car door, and got out.
She looked up and saw that the building sign in front of her said " City G Civil Affairs Bureau." She turned around and waited for Lu Bo, who was paying. Then, the two of them walked in together.
After asking around in the courtyard, they went straight to an office on the second floor.
It was already four or five o'clock in the afternoon. There was no one else in the office except for a middle-aged woman in her forties who was wearing casual clothes. She was standing behind the desk, packing her things and preparing to get off work.
"Hello, let's go through the divorce procedures.”Lu Bo said in dialect.
"Did you bring your marriage certificate and ID card?”The woman looked up at them.
"Yes."
"Yes."
"Take it out and take a look."
The two of them handed over two marriage certificates one after another. They were bright red and bright red. Because they had not been flipped for a long time, they were still very new and very eye-catching.
The woman took them and flipped through them.
"Why do you want a divorce?"
"We don't have a good relationship." Lu Bo said first. Ding Nan glanced at him but did not say anything. She thought, Why don't you just say that I'm Chen Shimei?
"You have a child, right?" the woman asked.
"Yes." This time, she answered.
"For the sake of the child, both of you should understand each other and go back to live well.”the woman said.
It was said that before a divorce, there was a mediation process. It seemed that it was true whether it was a court ruling or a divorce agreement at the Civil Affairs Bureau. Ding Nan thought.
Neither of them said a word.
"Have you thought about it?" The woman looked at her watch and seemed to be in a hurry to get off work.
"We've already thought about it. There's no need to consider it.”Lu Bo said.
"Alright, here are three copies of the agreement. You can discuss what to do with the child and how to divide the assets. Then, write it down and sign it. Each side would have a copy, and there was a copy here.”The woman handed over three blank agreements.
Ding Nan took it and looked at it. The three agreements were the same. When he raised his head, he saw the words "voluntary divorce agreement".
According to their previous discussion, the two of them quickly filled it out and handed it over.
After the woman finished reading the agreement, she asked the two of them to press their fingerprints on all three copies. Then, she put away one copy and handed one to each of them. Then, she picked up a pen and wrote the words " Certificate expired. Divorce registration has been processed " and the time on both of their marriage certificates. She then filled in some information on the two dark red divorce certificates according to their identity cards and stamped them with a red stamp and a steel stamp. Then, she pushed them over.
Everything was over.
There were two books, one bright red and the other dark red. The only difference was that the marriage certificate had a photo of the two of them, while the divorce certificate only had her photo.
Life was really unpredictable! When he walked out of the Civil Affairs Bureau, Ding Nan could not help but sigh.
Since she was going to Beijing the next day, she had to stay here for the night. Standing at the entrance of the Civil Affairs Bureau, she stopped and hesitated, not knowing which way to go. She was not familiar with this place. When they were here, they mainly lived in a famous artistic town and rarely came to the city.
Lu Bo also stopped and quickly understood what was on her mind. He said,"Why don't you stay at my house?"
She shook her head. It was not convenient. Her identity was different now. She was no longer his wife and daughter-in-law. Why should she let the old man see her?
"How about this? We can find a hotel in City G. You're unfamiliar with this place, so I'll accompany you.”He said as he hailed a taxi and told them the name of the hotel. The two of them got in the car.
"Thank you." she said. Now that their relationship was different, it was no longer natural for him to do things for her.
They sat together in the back seat of the taxi. In the car, he reached out his hand again and grabbed her hand. She broke free again. Could it be that people only know how to cherish and miss each other when they feel that they can no longer hold on to each other?
At the entrance of the hotel, he said,
"Book a standard room with two beds. Let's sleep on one bed each and have a good chat at night.”
She thought about it. There was nothing much now. Besides, when they were separated, he had wanted to be intimate with her a few times, but she had rejected him. He did not force it, so there would not be anything, so he acquiesced.
At the registration counter, he pointed at the standard room price list of 258 yuan a night and said,
"Book a room like this for one night.”
"Identity card." The receptionist smiled and looked at the two of them with a knowing and ambiguous gaze.
Ding Nan could not help but feel embarrassed. They were still husband and wife ten minutes ago, but now they were treated as an improper couple who had a private meeting.
The two of them took out their ID cards and handed them over. The waiter took them and filled in the information according to what they had written. Then, he handed them over and casually threw the room card over.
After entering the room, they threw away the bags they had casually carried and only put their money cards and other personal items in their pockets before going out to eat. After closing the door, Lu Bo turned on the air conditioner in the room, saying that it would be cool when he came in.
They found a Sichuan restaurant and sat down. It was still early. It was around six or seven o'clock, and there were not many customers in the restaurant. There were some exquisite pictures of signature dishes pasted on the walls on both sides. They were all spicy and red, making people drool. The clean and tidy dark red wooden tables and chairs were like a layer of paint under the golden light of the setting sun. They were shiny but lazy, making people feel very comfortable.
This kind of quaint and elegant eight-square table and long bench was very common in Jiangnan. Whether it was in restaurants, hotels, or home environments, and regardless of whether the family was rich or poor, it was the main table and regarded as noble. This seemed to be the custom here. This made Ding Nan sigh. She remembered that when she was seven or eight years old, she had seen such tables and chairs in her home in the central region. Later, they were gradually eliminated, but this place was still in good condition. Normally, the rich and developed cities of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces should have more advanced and novel daily furnishings. Unexpectedly, compared to the central region, their traditional customs were better and more complete.
In fact, many things that seemed outdated were the final form of tradition. In China, or even in the world, the more developed the economy, the more well-preserved its traditions were. This was the tenacious resistance of the ancient civilization against the modern civilization, and also the victory of civilization over barbarism.
Thinking about it, wasn't it the same for people? Kindness, responsibility, loyalty, these were the most natural and civilized personality traits. In the modern era where the concept of material wealth was updated, these traits were more or less covered with dust. It often made people feel that they were wrong and regretful when they saw mountains and people.
In such an environment, with such a person sitting in front of him, he was affected by everything. Now that things were the same but people had changed, Ding Nan could not help but feel sad and emotional.
While they were deep in thought, the waitress with a Sichuan accent handed them the menu and asked them to order. Ding Nan could not help but be surprised that there were authentic Sichuanese in such a small restaurant in a third-tier city.
Lu Bo took the menu and casually flipped through it. He closed it again and ordered pickled fish, boiled pork slices, spicy pot, a bottle of Lulu, and a bottle of beer. They were all her favorite dishes. Every time the two of them ate, he would order her favorite dishes. Even when they were separated and their relationship was at its worst, he was still like this. Do you still care? Or was he like this to everyone? Was this his usual trick to please women? She did not know.
She kept looking at him as if she wanted to see through the person in front of her, but it was obvious that she was not strong enough. She still could not see clearly.
During the meal, he kept putting food into her bowl. There was even a look of pity and guilt in his eyes. She had never seen this in the long days of separation. She could not help but be surprised. Did he really have a conscience?
"Even so, we're still friends. If there's anything, I'll still help you like before. The child is still young, so don't tell him about this yet.”He said as he helped her pour the remaining Lulu.
She suddenly felt that such a scene, such a relationship, such reminders, such words, and such a future, everything was so unfamiliar. She could not help but feel confused. She looked at him blankly and looked at the mouth that was opening and closing opposite her. It was as if she was a real stranger in front of her, saying something inexplicable.
When he returned to the hotel room, the sky was already completely dark. He inserted the room card, and the room was immediately filled with a faint yellow light and a dense ambiguous atmosphere. She suddenly felt uneasy and looked around the room. Near the door was the washroom and bathroom. There were two beds separated by a coffee table. One was next to the bathroom, and the other was close to the window. Opposite the bed was a table with a television and two chairs. Everything looked very simple.
While he was watching TV, she went to take a shower and changed into a clean dress. She walked to the empty bed by the window and lay down to comb her hair. At this time, he walked into the bathroom to take a shower.
After he came out, the two of them lay on the bed and talked.
"What's wrong? Are you planning to marry that woman?" She spoke with a teasing tone as she turned her head to look at him.
"Which one?" He didn't seem to be able to react.
"Crazy! How many more do you have? That b * tch who answered my call.”Even though they were divorced, she was still brooding over it. Who could let go of such a humiliating matter?
"Are you talking about Qin Li? She went back to Inner Mongolia's H City."
"Not going back to Beijing? Disbanded?"
"Who knows? It was possible. Why would a young lady like her want to be with a poor girl like me?”he answered vaguely.
"You're not simple. You've been together for several years, right?”
He did not speak. The two of them fell silent. He watched the television while she took out the vocabulary book for the postgraduate entrance examination. She had bought this book a month ago and had made it a habit for herself to memorize a page of vocabulary every day. If she didn't remember it for a day, she would feel very anxious. It was said that people who took the postgraduate entrance examination had this kind of anxiety disorder.
"Can we be husband and wife again?" He suddenly asked, his face stretched out and he smiled awkwardly.
"What?" She thought she had heard wrongly.
"Come here." He called out to her, and his gaze became ambiguous.
After confirming that she had not heard wrongly, she simply pretended to be ignorant and ignored him. She continued to read her book while using her hands to write words on the bed.
He sat up, put on his slippers, and leaned over to pull her up.
She jumped to the window on the right, opened it, and said,""If you come over again, I'll jump down.”
He paused for about two minutes and kept looking at her, wondering if she would really jump. Thinking that she was scaring him, he took a few steps closer.
As she screamed, she climbed up the window and looked out. The room on the third floor was not high. It was summer, and there were lush trees downstairs that stretched out layers of branches, spreading out endlessly in the night. A few branches were within her reach, gently winding around and extending to the sky. She could even see the stars in the distance from the dense branches.
To be honest, she usually thought that as long as she insisted on not agreeing, he would not do anything to her. However, no matter which day it was, the situation had never been as passive or critical as that day. At that moment, she could no longer tell if her grasp and judgment of his habits were accurate or not. Where was his bottom line? If he were to compete with her, what if he was sure that she didn't dare to jump and really came over? When she thought of that, she felt helpless and tears flowed out. She looked down the stairs carefully and weighed the pros and cons. If she jumped down, the thick tree would definitely catch her. She should not die, but she was afraid that she would not be able to escape unscathed. She would fall and either be crippled or injured.
They were in a stalemate for another two minutes. She had already decided that if he made the slightest movement, she would jump down.
Fortunately, he stopped at the last moment. Seeing how stubborn and stubborn she was, he finally retreated while cursing. Thus, nothing happened that night.
This book is provided by FunNovel Novel Book | Fan Fiction Novel [Beautiful Free Novel Book]