Shen Li was somewhat speechless.
After taking a moment to recover and fully digest Xiao Chen’s words, he asked for confirmation:
“He… really wrote that?”
“Yes.”
Shen Li’s long, thick eyelashes trembled again. His thin lids lowered, concealing the irritation and slight surprise in his eyes—
Qian Xingzhi was being this brutally honest?
He even wrote that down?
Of course Shen Li had received the same questionnaire. But when answering every question, he followed the principle of being conventional, vague, and neutral—at the very least, cautious enough that no one could fault him.
For example, for the short-answer question 【Reasons for Divorce and Their Proportions】, Shen Li’s answer had been:
【Too little time together—50%; incompatible personalities—20%; incompatible living habits—30%】
And that genius Qian Xingzhi somehow managed to put “sexual incompatibility” at fucking fifty percent???
Yes. Fine.
After they married, things in that regard truly were not as harmonious as they had been before. But wasn’t the main reason for the disharmony still that the two of them could never coordinate their schedules and rarely had time to see each other? Later on, every time they did meet, Qian Xingzhi acted as though he had not eaten meat in several lifetimes, often leaving Shen Li unable to go to work afterward.
Of course Shen Li got angry.
The time he had been angriest was in Yuncheng.
Shen Li had squeezed time out of an impossibly busy schedule to fly over and visit Qian Xingzhi on set. For some reason Qian Xingzhi was already angry, and he dragged Shen Li straight to the hotel.
At first, Shen Li thought the bastard had gone insane and was trying some kind of fucking bedroom game.
Then his gaze met Qian Xingzhi’s gloomy, beautiful eyes, and he realized Qian Xingzhi was genuinely angry.
Shen Li kissed his face, stroked his hair to soothe him, and worriedly asked what was wrong. Instead, Qian Xingzhi forced him down in one motion. His low, cold, heavy voice carried the authority of someone accustomed to command as he rigidly demanded Shen Li’s cooperation.
That made Shen Li angry too, and his instinctive resistance grew stronger.
Qian Xingzhi was a full size larger than him, with even more strength than Shen Li, a police officer who had spent years on the front line.
That day, listening to footsteps passing back and forth in the hallway, Shen Li slapped Qian Xingzhi across the face and truly lost his temper, keeping his voice low:
“Qian Xingzhi, if you keep making unreasonable scenes like this, I’m not coming again.”
Qian Xingzhi gripped his waist, the hatred in his eyes growing fiercer. “Fine. You see me once every six months, but you have time every day to fool around with that pretty boy on your team, right?”
Shen Li froze, utterly baffled. “What pretty boy?”
“Zhao Rong.”
Shen Li’s brows furrowed even more deeply. “He’s a recent university graduate. My superior assigned me to mentor him. We’re just an ordinary master-and-apprentice pair.”
Coldness surfaced in Qian Xingzhi’s deep-set eyes. His jawline was hard and sharp, veins standing out clearly along his neck from the force of his movements, while the gloom in his gaze grew heavier. “I can replace every male assistant around me with women for your sake. Why couldn’t you request a female apprentice?”
Shen Li’s body trembled from pain, and his anger surged higher. “What men and women? I’m not exclusively gay to begin with. What difference does it make whether they’re male or female?—And don’t use entertainment-industry rules to make demands of me. What bullshit about avoiding suspicion? That’s my work. Whoever my superior assigns me to mentor, I have to mentor. I don’t know where you investigated his name from, but I’m warning you to stop while you’re ahead. No matter what method you used, probing into normal criminal-investigation work is a crime.”
“A crime?”
Qian Xingzhi sneered. “I’m your spouse. If I know a coworker’s name and know you two are close, that makes me a criminal?”
Shen Li: “……”
“Then what about Wang Liang? And your detachment captain Hu Quan, who always takes your side? And your idiot coworker Yu Zhiwen, who pesters you to go eat grilled skewers after work? Well? I can recite everyone on your team from memory. Arrest me, Officer Shen?”
Shen Li: “…Xingzhi, you don’t have to act like this.”
“I don’t have to act like this?”
Several sparks of anger burned in Qian Xingzhi’s eyes. His handsome, relaxed brows knotted fiercely, disappointment written across his face. “We’ve been married all these years. I even make a point of finding out when the cook at your unit gets replaced, and I rush to tell the new one that our Shen Li doesn’t eat spicy food. What about you? Do you have my assistant’s phone number saved? Do you even know my assistant’s name?”
Shen Li instinctively frowned. “Of course I do. Isn’t it Xiao Zhao? I have the number too.”
“Heh. Xiao Zhao?”
Qian Xingzhi squeezed Shen Li’s waist hard enough to leave red marks. “Xiao Zhao fucking quit half a year ago, and you’re still saying Xiao Zhao?”
Shen Li: “……”
Qian Xingzhi: “If you really dislike me this much, why did you marry me?”
“…I don’t dislike you.”
“But you care so little about me. The entertainment industry is this messy—aren’t you afraid I’ll cheat? Or do you not care even if I sleep with someone else?”
“…What kind of thing are you saying? I… mm…”
Qian Xingzhi’s kiss came down overwhelmingly. His tongue violently forced Shen Li’s lips apart and invaded without restraint, kissing him until Shen Li was dizzy and starved of oxygen without even giving him a chance to breathe. By the end, Shen Li had been pushed almost to tears, yet all he heard was Qian Xingzhi’s deliberately cold voice, each word stabbing into his heart like a needle:
“We meet twice a year, and every time we do, you look like you won’t let me do anything—Officer Shen, go ask around. Is there anyone else in the entire world like you?”
Shen Li froze, and the hands pushing him away stopped.
“Aren’t you supposed to have excellent stamina? Then why have you rejected me every time these past few years?”
Qian Xingzhi seemed to have drilled himself into a dead end.
If Shen Li answered “because I have to work” right now, Qian Xingzhi would definitely get angry again. So he could only endure, his brows drawn tight, silently taking the overreckless anger of the person he loved.
He could tell Qian Xingzhi was truly unhappy.
“I’m sorry…”
Shen Li felt how powerless his apology sounded.
Then he heard Qian Xingzhi say, Do you know there are actually a lot of people who like me? Do you know how many people throw themselves at me every day trying to climb into my bed?
Hearing that, Shen Li could not stop himself from swearing too. He snapped coldly:
“If you have choices, then why are you clinging to me—go on, find someone else!”
Qian Xingzhi really was the type of person with an enormous sex drive.
When Shen Li was younger, he still had enough time and stamina to indulge him however he wanted. But now, where would Shen Li find the time to accompany him for six or seven hours every time they started?
Was Shen Li supposed to stop working, or was Qian Xingzhi?
Even if Qian Xingzhi could skip work, could Shen Li?
Even after all these years, Shen Li still remembered that afternoon. When Qian Xingzhi left the room, the two of them had parted on terrible terms.
Fortunately, Shen Li was not someone who liked overthinking. He did not interpret Qian Xingzhi’s behavior as meaning anything beyond anger.
So after that unpleasant parting in Yuncheng, Shen Li left as soon as possible, intending to let Qian Xingzhi calm down by himself.
But later, while clearing out the house after the divorce, Shen Li found Qian Xingzhi’s medical records.
During the period when he was filming in Yuncheng, Qian Xingzhi had apparently been seeing a psychologist frequently.
In his treatment records, the doctor had written:
1. The patient suffers from severe insomnia and dreams that his partner has been in an accident every time he falls asleep.
2. The patient shows pronounced somatic symptoms and has been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
3. The patient has extremely severe sexual fantasies involving his partner.
The psychologist’s recommendation was for him to meet his spouse more often and communicate effectively.
The psychologist also noted that Qian Xingzhi’s sexual fantasies were more commonly seen in obsessive, infatuated secret admirers and were rarely seen in married couples.
Yet Qian Xingzhi’s symptoms had worsened rather than improved. In particular, after Shen Li went to Yuncheng to see him and Qian Xingzhi pinned him down and had sex with him once, the condition became even more severe than before.
The problem was that before their divorce, Shen Li had never once heard Qian Xingzhi mention any of this.
Logically, with Qian Xingzhi’s endlessly chattering mouth, he used to be able to turn even a stray dog giving birth into a whole story. Yet later, communication between them had become so impoverished that even something like this…
Qian Xingzhi stopped telling him.
So it was only after the divorce that Shen Li belatedly realized Qian Xingzhi had developed fairly serious psychological problems during the later years of their marriage.
And now, Qian Xingzhi had placed “sexual incompatibility” first among the reasons for their divorce and assigned it fifty percent. Once again, Shen Li clearly realized that Qian Xingzhi’s world seemed to contain an entirely different perspective Shen Li had never understood.
Perhaps the real reason Qian Xingzhi had asked him for a divorce truly was different from what Shen Li had assumed.
Would he have a chance to figure it out on this show?
Shen Li was not sure.
He narrowed his long, cool eyes and met Xiao Chen’s gaze for a while before finally saying, “Mm. I probably… didn’t originally think it would account for fifty percent.”
Xiao Chen nodded. “Regarding the reasons for divorce, your ex also wrote one other item: ‘We’re not people walking the same road.’ He didn’t assign it a percentage. What percentage do you think that reason accounts for?”
Shen Li’s gaze instantly went slightly unfocused. With cool eyes, he answered almost automatically, “If those are the only two things he wrote, then probably the other fifty percent.”
“So you agree with that answer?”
“Mm.”
Xiao Chen’s next question followed immediately. “Then since both of you believe you’re not people walking the same road, why do you want to remarry?”
Shen Li could not answer because he had never seriously considered the question.
Remarriage, divorce, marriage—whether any of them happened had always been in Qian Xingzhi’s hands.
Fortunately, Xiao Chen did not make things difficult for him. “All right. If you’re not sure either, I’ll phrase it differently—during this time, have you ever thought about moving closer toward the road your ex is walking?”
At present, he had already left his criminal-investigation post.
Even if he had not resigned, his current physical condition was no longer suited to frontline criminal investigations. If he truly remarried Qian Xingzhi, perhaps he really could make some changes for the other man and adjust the way they got along.
But…
Qian Xingzhi’s road…
Pleasure, luxury, high society?
“I probably wouldn’t.”
Shen Li frowned and said frankly, “His road is too far from mine.”
Xiao Chen nodded and summarized, “So may I understand that as you hoping the other person will change, and specifically change in your direction?”
This time, Shen Li thought for a long while as well.
Then he shook his head, his refined brows drawing even tighter. “It wouldn’t be fair to force him alone to change either.”
Xiao Chen was stumped.
Shen Li had blocked both directions. She had no idea how to continue asking, so she could only forcibly cue the interview process and move to the next question.
After all the questions were finished, Xiao Chen explained the livestream opening procedure to him one more time. Shen Li confirmed everything one by one before finally being released from the pre-interview room. By then it was nearly eleven in the morning, less than an hour before the livestream began.
It was mealtime again. Xiao Chen invited him to eat with her, but Shen Li politely declined, mainly because he truly had no appetite.
Perhaps because he had gone too long without proper rest, Shen Li’s vision was swimming and his leg hurt. After thinking it over repeatedly, he decided to use the last little bit of unrestricted phone time to call Qian Xingzhi once more.
Qian Xingzhi might have been getting his makeup done because his assistant answered the phone.
“Hello, who is this?” asked an unfamiliar female voice.
That meant Qian Xingzhi had even deleted Shen Li’s contact label.
“Shen Li. Put Qian Xingzhi on.”
“Ah, Mr. Shen. Please wait a moment. Boss is doing an interview.”
“Oh. Then forget it. Goodbye.”
As if trying to save phone charges, Shen Li hung up the instant he hit an obstacle.
Yet roughly three minutes later, Qian Xingzhi called him back and went straight to the point:
“What is it?”
For some reason, Qian Xingzhi acted extremely aloof now. Even his voice carried that polished broadcaster tone and sounded cold.
It made Shen Li instinctively tense too.
Suppressing the speechlessness in his heart, Shen Li closed his eyes briefly before saying:
“We’re about to lose access to our phones. I think I should confirm one more thing with you. As a public figure, if there’s anything you don’t want people knowing, tell me in advance.”
After Shen Li finished, the other side paused for quite a while before that slow, deep voice replied coolly, “Mm. Nothing. I don’t care. Just be yourself. You don’t need to care what other people think, and you especially don’t need to care about me.”
Shen Li: “……”
Fine. Apparently he had meddled again.
But—
But last night you fucking…
Shen Li fought down the urge to curse at him. His knuckles gripped the phone tightly, but his tone remained seemingly casual as he continued:
“You were drunk last night. Do you remember?”
“Of course.”
“Then what about what you said?”
“What did I say?”
Qian Xingzhi’s voice sounded perfectly normal, not remotely like he was pretending.
Shen Li could not believe it. His refined brows drew together as he asked into the phone:
“You remember getting drunk but not what you said? Then what do you remember?”
The other side fell silent for two seconds.
Then the magnetic voice said:
“I remember kissing you—what about it? Captain Shen, are you going to fine me?”
Click.
Shen Li hung up with extreme coldness.