Promises Were Meant to Be Broken

Li Chuntao stared at her phone with a confused expression written on her face. Why was her sister not answering her call? It had been two weeks since they last talked and she'd been trying to reach her since morning but her sister Ying never picked up her calls. 

Did something happen to her twin sister? She wondered. 

She gave one last try and dialed her sister's number again but Ying was still not answering her calls. 

'She must be busy,' Li Chuntao tried to convince herself. This wasn't the first time this had happened anyway. 

"Iris! Are you coming or not? Don't push yourself too hard and relax!" Her roommate called after her to get her attention. 

Iris… yes, in this foreign land which wasn't her home, she used the name, Iris. Like her name Chuntao, which means 'spring flowers', the iris flower also blooms in the spring season. 

Her roommate was right. She'd been pulling all-nighters for the past few weeks preparing for exams, she barely saw the sun outside. But no matter how busy she was, she would never forget to check on her twin sister. 

"Ying… I wonder what you're doing now.' she thought as she prepared herself to go outside with her friends to celebrate. 

The person in her mind was currently slumped on the floor watching as the darkness covered the whole city. Li Xiuying didn't know how to fix her shattered world. As she remained seated in her place, she wondered if fate truly hated her existence. 

Wasn't it enough that they took her parents at her young age? That her first child was also lost from a miscarriage? Was she really an unlucky one to suffer such torture?

Numb from the pain her husband caused her, Li Xiuying dragged herself to the bathroom and showered. Later she dressed up to meet her lawyer. Was she really divorcing Mu Jianyu? Was their years of marriage all for naught? 

As she stepped outside their room, she was greeted by the huge portrait of her and her husband. One that reminded her that she was once a happy bride standing next to the love of her life. 

She stared blankly at it, not realizing that tears were streaming down her cheeks again. The image of the loving man she had was shattered into millions of pieces. 

"I'll love you forever. You will never be alone, Ying," he promised her. 

His promise continued to echo within her mind, reminding her how much failure of a wife she was. 

"Lies! They were all lies! You shameless coward." she thought that she didn't have any more tears to shed but the mere sight of their wedding photo was enough to start another stream of tears. 

Promises were meant to be broken. There was no such thing as forever. 

For the past three months, Li Xiuying was forced to watch how her husband turned into a total stranger, and every time he was home, her heart felt like it was squeezing the life out of her. He wouldn't even touch her, not that she wanted him to. 

Mu Jianyu disgusted her, so much so that she purposely spent her nights in her workroom pretending to be busy with her paintings when in fact she just couldn't take the hypocrisy he was showing her. 

This world that she thought was perfect was nothing but a lie. Everything was a lie. 

She then turned swiftly, refusing to see the remnants of their happy days as husband and wife. Want to be rid of her so he could keep her mistress? Did he think that she was really stupid enough to allow the cheating couple to have their happiness at the cost of her heart and her life? 

Li Xiuying shut her eyes close as she sat in the driver's seat of her car and pondered her next plan. She'd been stupid to endure her husband's infidelity for months and now he was choosing her mistress over her. 

She arrived in time to meet her lawyer. 

"Madam Mu…" The lawyer was surprised that she'd call her on such short notice. 

"Please call me Miss Ying as usual," Li Xiuying corrected him as she sat across him. "I want to see the latest contracts and agreements that Li Corporation has entered into for the past two years." 

The old lawyer couldn't understand her sudden request but obliged nonetheless. He has been working for the Li family for a long time and this kind of request wasn't new to him. However, her request to be called Miss Ying again surely gave him vibes that something was not right. 

"There isn't anything suspicious on the contracts your husband entered recently. Are you perhaps worried that he's embezzling the company's funds?" he asked her as she flipped the folders of several contracts placed in front of her. 

She couldn't find anything wrong with it. A part of her was worried that not only did he betray her trust but her family as well. 

"I…" 

What was she supposed to say? That her husband was cheating behind her back for the past three months and now he intends to divorce her in favor of his mistress? 

Was she willing to accept defeat? She, a Li princess, had fallen so hard that she was left helpless and betrayed? 

Li Xiuying couldn't believe it. She cannot accept it. Not like this. 

Her eyes flashed menacingly. Something that the lawyer never saw from her. If it was Li Chuntao, it would be normal, but Li Xiuying? 

The coldness in her eyes reminded him of Li Yuren's several years ago when his sister and Madam Shen had been abducted. This was a Li family trait that he wouldn't get tired of seeing. They were a bunch of sleeping lions waiting for the right time to strike. 

The Li Xiuying he knew wasn't a spiteful woman. She was a beauty not only on the outside but also inside, so this kind of glint in her eyes was unusual. 

"No," Her muffled response came. There was a hint of desperation on her voice. 

The old man raised a brow, thinking that she hadn't come up on a decision yet. 

"However, Miss Ying, if you want to and need some help in divorcing him. I can recommend a good divorce lawyer to you."