Chapter 499: The Divorce Settlement

"Yes, Miss Ye. You don't know how much Brother Dong missed you during this time!" Another guard piped up. The guards here, intentionally or unintentionally, did not call her Madam Pei but instead called her Miss Ye. Xia Ling was happy hearing them call her Miss Ye—as if the year of suffering had never happened.

"Hey, hey." Li Lei remarked jokingly in false anger. "Do you guys want to die? Are you flirting with my girl now?"

These guards were used to joking around with Li Lei and did not take his words to heart. They all laughed out loud.

Xia Ling felt her mood become better from the contagious laughter as she followed Li Lei upstairs.

It seemed that nothing had changed as she pushed open the apartment door.

Everything was how it was the day that she left — the fake mountain separator near the door, the pebble path, the glass stream. On the balcony, at the end of the glass stream was a leopard lying lazily on the ground, his fur coat shining under the sunlight. It was Er Mao.

Er Mao heard the noise in the living room and opened his eyes slightly to see what the commotion was. When he saw that Xia Ling was here, his ears started to move, and his tail began to wag before he went back into his lazy reverie on the balcony.

A little furball peeked its head out from under Er Mao's belly, letting out a squeaky "Meow." It crawled out and shook out its fur coat before starting to explore the surroundings.

"Hairball!" Xia Ling exclaimed in surprise as she took a few steps forward and squatted down by Hairball.

Hairball looked up at her and seemed not to recognize her. However, he soon realized who she was and jumped into her arms with another "Meow," rubbing his head against her chest.

"Let me look at you... you've grown so much!" Xia Ling lifted Hairball up to look at him under the sunlight. "Aiyo, you've gained weight. All of us lost weight in this period... only you gained weight."

Li Lei smiled as he watched her playing with the kitten, before proudly saying, "Of course, who raised him?" Ever since Xia Ling moved out of Luo Luo's apartment, Luo Luo had handed Hairball back to Li Lei under Xia Ling's instructions. Li Lei had many years of experience taking care of pets and took great care of the kitten. All he did was sleep and eat, or spend time playing with Er Mao. Both Hairball and Er Mao had gained weight.

Seeing Xia Ling happily playing with Hairball, Er Mao seemed to get a little jealous. He stood up and shifted over to place his head on Xia Ling's feet with a look of disdain, before turning his head away.

This leopard was much chicer than his owner.

Xia Ling reached out to pat Er Mao as she recalled the first time she met Er Mao and saw his beastly attack. She did not expect to be interacting so easily with Er Mao two or three years after that.

All thanks to his owner.

Xia Ling raised her head to look at Li Lei. "When I wasn't here, you had to look after both of them. It was hard on you."

"Hard indeed." Li Lei pulled Xia Ling into his arms. "It's going to be so much easier now that you're back."

Xia Ling laughed and patted his head as she did to Er Mao. She said, "Bring me to see the other rooms."

As such, Li Lei brought her on a tour of the apartment. As expected, everything was how it was when she left. It looked like cleaners frequently came, as everything was spotless.

"You seem to have been keeping it clean for me to return." Xia Ling remarked.

"It's not for you to stay." Li Lei's face fell.

Xia Ling looked at him. "Why?"

Li Lei smiled and said, "It was so hard to get you back... aren't you going to stay with me? Don't stay next door to me... just move into my house! Leave this apartment to Er Mao and Hairball... let's give them some privacy."

Give Er Mao and Hairball some privacy?

Xia Ling was appalled at his rubbish of an excuse.

Even Er Mao was giving his owner a look of disgust.

Li Lei was not bothered about it. "Sleep with me! Sleep with me!" He said unabashedly. He missed her dearly in this year where she had been kidnapped by Pei Ziheng. The pain of losing his fiance was just too much, and he resolved to treasure every minute and second that he had with her. He particularly did not want to lose out on every second that he could sleep with her!

Seeing his adorable attempts at winning her over, Xia Ling's heart softened. "Okay, let's sleep together."

She had missed him in the year that they were apart as well. Now that she was back, she did not want to be away from him for even a second.

Li Lei broke into a big smile before pulling her by the hand into his room.

His room was decorated to his preferences. There was a wide and comfortable living area, simply decorated with a genuine leather sofa and a thick carpet rug. It was neat and chic. Xia Ling walked over to the sofa and sat down.

Li Lei asked suddenly, "What's this?"

Xia Ling raised her head and saw that there was cabin-sized luggage in the corner of the living room. She remembered that Pei Ziheng had insisted that Nanny Zhou pass it to her when she was leaving his place in the morning.

"It's something I brought over from Pei Ziheng's place." Xia Ling said. "Weird, didn't I leave it at Skyart? In your office?" When she went to Li Lei's office, the wound on her abdomen had split open, and Li Lei carried her straight to the hospital. The luggage was left in his office then.

Hearing her words, Li Lei recalled. "When you were in the hospital, Tan Ying went back to the office and found this luggage in the room. He said that it looked important and asked me if he should keep it safe. I didn't know what it was and guessed that it was yours, so I asked him to bring it over here."

Tan Ying was also a regular guest of this apartment, and his coming and going wasn't restricted.

Xia Ling nodded. She did not know what was in the luggage, so she walked over to open it.

"There's a code lock." Li Lei accompanied her as they squatted down next to the exquisite leather case.

Xia Ling could not fathom what the code could be. No one told her of the code, so she could only guess.

She first tried the Pei Family house number. Incorrect.

She then tried Pei Ziheng's birthday. Incorrect again.

She tried her own birthday. Still incorrect.

Finally, she tried her birthday in her past life, which was also the day she met Pei Ziheng.

This time, it was right, and the lock opened. Her heart clenched a little, and her expression darkened. Li Lei noticed the change and knew that she had thought of something in the past. His mood was swayed by hers. Even though his Xiao Ling had left Pei Ziheng, it was difficult for her to rid her mind of him completely.

He pretended not to know anything and focused entirely on the luggage. "What's in it?"

The top-most document in the luggage had two glaring words: "Divorce Settlement."

Xia Ling was taken aback. She did not expect this to be the item that Pei Ziheng had insisted on her taking away. She reached out for the document and saw that Pei Ziheng had signed it already, leaving the other signatory blank.