"What?!" Sun Haowei demanded. "You can't do that!"
"Why not?" A drunk eyebrow was raised.
"I'm your only son!" Sun Haowei protested, willing his father to see sense. "If I'm gone, who is going to perform your funeral rites?"
"A goddamn priest." Sun Long took another mighty swig of whiskey from another shot glass. He wanted to throw it at his son, but he realised that was the last one.
He paused, thinking over it briefly. He flung it anyway. He could always chug whiskey from the bottle, but he needed his son to see sense.
"Listen here, you insolent whelp. I'm not so old that I can't make another son. You better get me a grandson within the year or I'll write you out of the will. In fact, if you can't impregnate your wife, get out of the way and I'll do it!" Sun Long roared, but there was a lecherous glint in his eyes as he thought about it.
His son's wife had a youthful face and a buxom figure, even in his drunken haze he could recall his daughter-in-law had bountiful breasts, even better than those among his staff. Sun Haowei couldn't stop the disgust from forming in him; how could his father think of stealing his wife?
"I understand Father," Sun Haowei said, his mind racing frantically as he thought of ways to get his wife to sleep with him. "I'll do as you say."
"You'd better, or I'll take your wife and your life!" Sun Long slammed a hand on his table. "Servant, where's the whiskey refill?"
"Yes Sir, here it is." A maid meekly replied, quickly uncorking a new bottle of premium whiskey with shaky hands. It wasn't a difficult task, but Sun Long made it exponentially harder by drunkenly squeezing her ass, his hands blatantly fondling her in front of his disgusted son. "Ah… Sir… please…stop… I need…"
"Who are you to tell me to stop?" Sun Long asked warningly, and the maid fell silent, enduring a rough slap on her ass with only a whimper. "Continue pouring. Spill a drop and I'll dock your pay!"
"Yes Sir." The maid said weakly, nearly bursting into sobs at her humiliation. She cast a hopeful look at Sun Haowei as though he could save her from the mess, but he only gave her a helpless look in response, whiskey still in his hair.
He couldn't even save himself. His Father was right; he really was useless when it came down to it. If he had Tai Cheng and Yue Niang by his side, perhaps things would be different… but then he clamped down on that train of thought.
There was no point in thinking about the impossible. Now, he had to save himself from being disinherited, and his wife from the odious attention of his father!
=========
"What happened to you?" Bi Yu's mouth fell open in shock as she saw her soon-to-be-ex- husband stalk towards her, a bouquet of red roses in hand.
"Go on a date with me."
"Are you drunk?" Bi Yu took an experimental sniff, and recoiled at the smell of whiskey. That man was practically drowning in it! Figures, he had to be drunk to do something so uncharacteristic for her. "Oh my goodness, you stink. Go take a bath!"
Beside her, Ming Yan looked at her boss as though he was a pile of dog poo that she accidentally stepped on. Luckily for her, Sun Haowei was too distracted to fire her for this sign of disrespect.
"I'm not drunk!" Sun Haowei clarified, thrusting the flowers in her direction. "You cannot divorce me!"
Bi Yu rolled her eyes. "Funnily enough, I can. In fact, the multiple lawyers I've consulted seem to all agree that it's feasible."
"Who are these lawyers? Give me their names?"
"So that you can threaten them? Do you think I was born yesterday?"
"This is for your own good! Your family will ruin you if you divorce me! Your reputation in society will be destroyed!"
'My father will try to fuck a baby in you!' He did not say, but she must have sensed some desperation behind his eyes. Bi Yu paused and looked over at him carefully.
"I'll live," Bi Yu replied. "Staying with you will also ruin me. I want my life back."
If her old friends could live like fugitives on the run, she could jolly well live in a cottage far away in the countryside where she would be free to garden to her life's content. Maybe she'll get a few cats so they can prance between the bushes.
"And what happened to you?" Bi Yu asked as she noticed the new cuts on his forehead. His hair was damp, and his shirt was also stained wet. "Did you get into a bar fight?"
"... You can say that." Sun Haowei said. He took an experimental whiff at himself and winced - he did smell like a bar, sans vomit. And there was a fight, only he ended up unable to even land a single blow.
"Tsk." Bi Yu gave him a judgemental look and shoved his flowers back at him, disgusted at his behaviour. "And you think this is the right way to ask me out? I see your lack of sincerity. You must think I'm an easy woman, so desperate for you to change your mind if you just throw me a bone? I can no longer stand the sight of you. Get lost."
"This is my mansion," Sun Haowei retorted instinctively. "I'm not leaving."
"This is my garden. You're standing on my soil." Bi Yu argued.
"Your garden is on my grounds."
"Then sign the divorce agreement and I'll be out of your grounds." Bi Yu said, landing the final blow.
"No. We are not divorcing. You must change your mind! You're making a huge mistake!" Sun Haowei demanded, now beginning to feel stirrings of faint panic crawling up his gut.
He could see his inheritance slipping through his hands, and his father's grubby fingers grabbing the woman in front of him. He didn't love his wife, but he didn't want her to end up with such a fate!
He didn't want to force her, but he might have to do it as a last resort!
"Oh, I must, must I?" Bi Yu said warningly. Her temper, normally placid and serene, was quickly dwindling rapidly thanks to this entitled man in front of her.
"I must endure a loveless marriage where I am treated like decorative furniture, or a particularly bothersome curtain? Sun Haowei, you think too highly of yourself. What reason have you given me to change my mind?"
"I - " Sun Haowei could only shove the flowers back at her, as though they could fix matters. Several rose petals fell to the floor due to the rough treatment.
"So far, you have ignored me, wasted my food, and showed up in front of me smelling like you bathed in whiskey. You claim that my actions, a direct result of your actions, might I add, are a mistake? And you try to bribe me with… only 17 roses? What on earth?"
After all she endured in the past year, she deserved an entire island of roses! This was just too cheap and insincere of her husband, who was a literal billionaire!
"The florist said this number means 'you are my wife'." Sun Haowei explained, with a frown on his face. "Did he lie? I'll have his shop destroyed."
Admittedly, he didn't want to tell the florist about his entire marriage fuckup. He didn't think there would be flowers to say 'I'm sorry for my behaviour - please don't divorce me - my inheritance is at stake and my father wants to have sex with you'.
Bi Yu took a deep breath, wishing for patience, and for that tiny flutter in her belly to die. This was insanity, and she had to put a stop to it.
"No. Don't destroy his shop, for goodness sake. Can't believe this is your first reaction… after how you treated me, you think 17 measly roses can salvage our marriage? Dream on!"