The 99th Divorce

A shiver ran up Ye Qianqian’s spine. She rubbed the gooseflesh off her arms as she said, “Say, do you think Heaven is trying to tell us something?”

“Bullsh*t.” Shen Zhilie laughed in exasperation. “I think it’s probably because I kept thinking about what you said after you related it to me, so it appeared in my dreams.”

As they say, “what you think about in the day appears in your dreams at night.” It was apparently true.

“Is that really the case?” Ye Qianqian found his explanation reasonable. “Sigh. It’s one day after another. When is it going to get better?”

“Go back to sleep. It’s fine.” Shen Zhilie embraced her and said, “Your body has to be healthy to get pregnant. Stop staying up late.”

“It’s not like I’m doing it intentionally. Oh my god, Old Shen. You gave me such a huge fright.”

Shen Zhilie raised his brows and asked, “I spoke in my sleep, too?”

“Yeah!” Ye Qianqian burrowed into his arms and replied, “You kept yelling ‘Grandmother’ and ‘Ye Qianqian.’ I kept trying to shake you awake, but to no avail.”

“That bad?” While Shen Zhilie found the prospect funny, he couldn’t help being perturbed by it, too. He had always been a light sleeper, and it never crossed his mind that he would one day experience something like that.

“Yes!” Ye Qianqian nodded her head. “You have no idea! I called and pinched you so many times, but you wouldn’t wake up!”

“What did you call me?”

“Huh?” Ye Qianqian was confused and didn’t know how to reply.

“You said you called me many times. What did you call me?”

“Old Shen,” Ye Qianqian replied matter-of-factly. “I always call you that.”

Shen Zhilie nodded his head and said, “All right. Got it.”

“Huh?”

“Psychologically, all of this can be explained. There is a popular theory that psychological and environmental factors have a huge influence on one’s dreams.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“In layman’s terms, it means that your dream was contagious and spread to me!”

“Yeah, right! How is that possible?”

“Well, it is.” Shen Zhilie hugged her and held her head close. “Go to sleep!”

“Sigh… fine.”

Not long after Ye Qianqian closed her eyes, Shen Zhille’s cellphone, which had been left charging by the bedside, suddenly chimed.

It was from an unidentified number, but the district code showed that it came from Kingstown.

When Ye Qianqian saw this, she asked, “Is it the police again?”

Shen Zhilie didn’t think that was likely. After looking at it for a moment, he replied, “It’s probably a prank call.”

He silenced the phone and placed it back in its original position. However, soon after the phone stopped vibrating, it began to ring again. It was from the same number.

“Answer it. What if it’s important?” Ye Qianqian asked.

Shen Zhilie checked the time; it was barely five in the morning. He answered the call, but could only hear wind blowing on the other end.

“Hello?” Shen Zhilie said.

A sudden cackle came through the line, and a very menacing voice could be heard saying, “I’m not happy at all. Since you dared to call the police, I have no choice but to repay the gesture with a huge present.”

Shen Zhilie had answered the call on speakerphone, and Ye Qianqian could hear every word clearly. Her heart skipped a beat, and her whole body began to tremble.

Just as she was about to speak, Shen Zhilie covered her mouth. The expression in Shen Zhilie’s eyes warned her to stay silent. Then, with a steady voice, he asked, “What do you want?”

“Ha ha! I don’t know what I want. Oh, right! I saw that you drive a Porsche, so I guess you do have a bit of money.”

…