Volume One, Chapter 34: Draft a Divorce Agreement for Me and Send It Over

As she spoke, she reached out to gently stroke the back of her son’s head, her expression sorrowful. "My relationship with his father has reached its end. I must secure a sufficiently good job to win custody of him."

Qiao Silin’s pupils trembled in surprise. She was getting a divorce?

Qiao Silin cleared his throat and asked, "Are things not going well with your husband?"

Cheng Qian replied bitterly, "If they were, it wouldn't have come to this."

Qiao Silin’s deep, dark eyes flickered. He set down his teacup and chuckled softly. "The head of the Seed Research Institute is Dr. Ji. I attended his lectures in the past, so I owe him a debt of gratitude for his guidance."

Hearing this, the light in Cheng Qian’s eyes brightened. "Would you consider it, then?"

Qiao Silin replied with calm composure, "We shall see. I still have some family matters to attend to at the moment. Once I am finished with those, I should be able to consider my future career path."

Cheng Qian’s expression dimmed. Qiao Silin was a proud genius, and the path chosen by a genius was rarely conventional. Compared to the major biological companies and renowned research institutes that were extending olive branches to him, the fledgling Seed Research Institute was certainly not his first choice.

While Cheng Qian and Qiao Silin were dining and chatting about work while looking after the child, a camera lens extended from the shadows, capturing several photographs in quick succession.

A few minutes later, in the back seat of a Bentley, a slightly intoxicated man gripped his phone, viewing the photos that had been sent to him.

Cheng Qian had taken his son to meet her secret lover again.

"Damn it..." No man could tolerate his wife repeatedly trampling upon his dignity and bottom line.

The man’s solid chest heaved with rage, and his brow grew cold. A second later, he dialed a number. "Draft a divorce agreement and send it over to me."

The person on the other end was Li Zhinan’s assistant, Wang Rui, who held the phone in a daze, unable to process the request immediately.

"Mr. Li, who is getting a divorce?" Wang Rui asked, stunned.

Li Zhinan regained his composure. After a few seconds, he said coldly, "Never mind. I will draft it myself."

With that, Li Zhinan hung up and urged the driver to hurry home.

At the entrance of the villa, the man pushed open the car door and strode upstairs. The housekeepers, who had intended to greet him, were so frightened by the icy, unapproachable aura radiating from him that they dared not make a sound.

What was wrong with him now? Why was his expression so grim?

In the second-floor study, Li Zhinan irritably loosened his tie and took off his jacket, revealing a gray vest. The back was tailored to cinch at the waist, accentuating his broad shoulders and narrow hips with fluid lines, making his long legs and refined, charming demeanor even more striking.

Li Zhinan pinched his throbbing temples and slumped into the sofa, his eyes burning with turbulent fury. A moment later, he rose and opened a wall safe, pulling out a document.

This was the prenuptial agreement he and Cheng Qian had signed before their marriage.

The agreement wasn't long, but it contained about ten clauses, all directed at Cheng Qian. Back then, he hadn't intended to marry her, but she had been willing to accept all those terms in order to enter the Li family and for the sake of the child in her womb.

These included real estate, equity, stocks, and insurance funds, which the wife had no right to claim in a division of assets. It stipulated a separation of property, meaning that after marriage, each party’s assets and debts were not subject to the other’s control or responsibility. Furthermore, if the wife initiated the divorce, she would voluntarily waive custody of the child, unless special circumstances warranted a change.

Li Zhinan stared at the agreement, his eyes darkening with deeper resentment. He had heard that when a woman’s heart changes, her feelings for her child also fade. Cheng Qian had signed this agreement; she was well aware of every condition on it.

Now that she was teetering on the edge of divorce, was she planning to give up custody of the child?

Li Zhinan clutched the document and collapsed into his leather chair, his temples throbbing. He recalled their four years together. Cheng Qian had a cold, reserved nature; she never tried to fawn over him or curry favor just because he was the head of the Li Group. She had always been dignified, quietly focusing on her own research.

The only thing that made Li Zhinan feel she was different was their intimate life. When her reason was eclipsed by passion, the vivid, charming, and delicate way she appeared left him with a lingering sense of nostalgia.

But even if she had the ability to stir his desire, it could not absolve her of the crime of infidelity.

Li Zhinan opened his computer and, using the prenuptial agreement as a reference, drafted a divorce agreement. From the first clause to the final one regarding the agreement's effectiveness, there were ten in total. Once finished, he immediately sent it to his company’s legal counsel to be reviewed, ensuring there were no loopholes.

The legal counsel revised it and sent it back immediately. Li Zhinan’s expression remained icy.

"Cheng Qian, is this what you wanted?" Li Zhinan whispered a self-deprecating remark.

Night had fallen. On the way home, to keep his son from falling asleep, Cheng Qian played children’s songs the whole way. The little one sang along in his milky voice, clearly enjoying himself.

When Cheng Qian arrived home and saw the lights on in the study on the left side of the second floor, her heart tightened.

"Xiao Ye, we’re home. Mommy will carry you." Cheng Qian gently unbuckled her son’s safety seat and pulled him into her arms.

"Mommy, I still want to listen to the songs..." The little guy was reluctant to leave the car.

Cheng Qian chuckled. "Alright, I'll play them for you while I take a bath."

Only then did the little one happily bury himself in her arms.

Cheng Qian took her son upstairs, and the little boy immediately began wiggling his small body. "I want to go find Daddy."

Cheng Qian set him down, and the child scurried into Li Zhinan’s study.

At that moment in the study, Li Zhinan was leaning back in his chair, the cigarette in his hand having burned down to the filter. The room was filled with the smell of smoke.

The moment the child ran in, the man immediately stubbed out the cigarette and stood up to scoop him into his arms.

"Xiao Ye, don't stay here, it smells like smoke."

Xiao Ye happily reached out his short arms to wrap them around his father’s neck, rubbing his small face against his father's chin, before pushing him away with a look of disdain. "It'