Volume One, Chapter 85: I'll Just Bring Them Back

Qin Minshu was utterly exhausted, her whole body drained as she sat on the sofa, sobbing with tears streaming down her face.

Huo Mingtian did not comfort her; he simply waited quietly until she finished crying. The assistants and secretaries outside the president’s office heard her sobs but dared not disturb him, only calling on the internal line to remind Mr. Huo that his meeting time had arrived.

“I know,” Huo Mingtian said, hanging up the phone. He looked at the woman before him, her tear-soaked eyes staring blankly at him, and suddenly found himself unable to recall why he had ever gotten involved with her in the first place.

Qin Minshu could be considered his first love. His friends had even joked that she was his “white moonlight.” Yet when Huo Mingtian tried to remember what she was like during their university days, the memories were hazy at best.

Perhaps he had always been emotionally detached, his rationality overwhelming his sentiment. It was difficult for him to truly fall for anyone, but once he decided to leave, he did so swiftly and without remorse.

“Stop crying,” he said.

Huo Mingtian continued, “I will always be grateful for your donation of bone marrow to Cong’er. My promise to you stands; if you need anything in the future, you can still come to me. Whatever I can give, I will give.”

Qin Minshu sobbed twice, her voice trembling as she stubbornly asked, “What if what I want is for you to marry me, to make me the young lady of the Huo family?”

A cold, thin smile tugged at Huo Mingtian’s lips.

“A forced fruit is never sweet. There are many prominent families in the capital besides the Huo clan. While you’re still young, you should look elsewhere.”

He knew all too well that the title “Young Madam Huo” meant far more to Qin Minshu than being merely Huo Mingtian’s wife.

Perhaps what Qin Minshu loved had always been his status, his aura.

“If you need, I can introduce you to someone,” he added.

Qin Minshu bit her lip, her grievance overflowing. “But everyone in the capital knows I’m your woman. They know our wedding is imminent, and now you don’t want me anymore… Who would marry me?”

At this, Huo Mingtian’s gaze turned icy.

“I never promised you any title. Marriage, wedding—these were your own fantasies, your own boasts to others. You planted the seeds yourself; you cannot blame anyone else.”

He sneered again, “You can tell people I abandoned you, that I’m fickle, cold, selfish. Throw whatever mud you like on me.”

“You’ve done this before. It should come naturally to you.”

These last words were particularly cutting.

Huo Mingtian’s patience was truly exhausted; he no longer wished to speak, nor to linger.

“I have a meeting to attend, so I won’t see you out. In the future, please don’t enter someone’s office without permission. That’s basic courtesy and decency.”

He strode toward the door, but after just two steps, Qin Minshu abruptly stood up, her face flushed with desperation.

“After all this, do you regret divorcing Ye Sheng?”

Huo Mingtian’s steps halted.

Qin Minshu’s usual gentleness was gone, her voice sharp, “You’re angry with me, breaking up with me—because of Ye Sheng, isn’t it? Trending news, the hat incident—none of it matters. You’ve handled countless things for me before, whatever I wanted, whoever I wanted to deal with, you always agreed, always indulged me. So why is it that when it comes to Ye Sheng, you draw the line? Isn’t it because you care about her? Have you fallen for her?”

Her righteous, aggressive questioning made Huo Mingtian turn abruptly, his eyes darkening.

He gave a cold laugh. “Yes, I have fallen for Ye Sheng. I love her. Is that not allowed?”

Qin Minshu was stunned once more.

Of all the things he’d said to her today—calling her character vile, announcing their breakup—none had struck her so forcefully as this.

Huo Mingtian said he loved Ye Sheng?

How could he be in love with Ye Sheng?

“You—you’re crazy!” Qin Minshu’s face lost all color.

She rushed forward, clutching Huo Mingtian’s wrist, her eyes wild with panic, her words stumbling, “You and Ye Sheng are divorced now, you have nothing to do with her anymore. You can’t fall for her just because she’s now the chief doctor at Haici Hospital, just because she’s trending online or knows how to knit hats… You can’t, you mustn’t, love your ex-wife!”

Huo Mingtian shook off her hand, looking down at her with indifference and puzzlement.

“Why can’t I love my ex-wife?”

Qin Minshu could only shake her head, repeating “You mustn’t” in a broken whisper.

Huo Mingtian took a deep breath. He was sick of this entanglement, sick of the tears. In that moment, he suddenly remembered how decisively Ye Sheng had left him when she asked for their divorce.

She had turned away without a backward glance.

But how much disappointment had Ye Sheng accumulated before that day?

His heart gave a sudden, sharp ache.

“I don’t regret it,” Huo Mingtian told Qin Minshu, though it sounded as much for himself. “When Ye Sheng asked for a divorce, I agreed partly out of spite. Thinking back, I must not have done enough for her, otherwise she wouldn’t have left me.”

“Well, she left—so I’ll win her back.”

As long as she hasn’t remarried, he didn’t care who the man behind her was.

He spoke with such earnestness that Qin Minshu realized he was neither joking nor being petty. Panic overtook her.

She sobbed like a child, arms outstretched, wanting Huo Mingtian to hold her, to comfort her, to assure her that all this was just a scare, none of it real…

“Mingtian, I don’t want to break up. I love you, and you love me too, don’t you?”

Qin Minshu looked pitiful, fragile as a lily battered by rain. “Don’t love Ye Sheng. She’s not good enough for you. Back in university, no one liked her—”

“No, you didn’t like her, because you were jealous.”

Huo Mingtian refused to embrace her, coldly tearing away her facade. “You should see how you looked on the surveillance footage when you cut up those hats—how twisted and ugly you were. Qin Minshu, that version of you is hideous.”

A sharp, resounding slap seemed to strike her across the face. Qin Minshu froze entirely.