Jealousy

Wen Lingyi sat in the driver's seat. Her eyes looked out the window, and her gaze passed through the window glass and fell on the door of the flower shop called "Weiran Flower Shop" across the street. Two figures were sitting on low stools and busying themselves.

The heater in the car was turned on very high, making my cheeks slightly hot and giving them an unnatural blush.

Today is Su Qing's birthday. She drove to the largest flower and bird market in City C to pick out a special bouquet of flowers as a birthday gift.

She just didn't expect to see the figure that she thought had gradually faded from her memory here again in this way.

The moment she caught sight of the familiar figure, Wen Lingyi even thought it was an illusion caused by her lack of rest for several days.

Her fingers unconsciously tightened around the steering wheel, and she tapped the brake lightly. The car slowly pulled to the side of the road and turned off the engine.

Sitting in the car, through the dark one-way film, she was like a hidden bystander, quietly looking at the scene in front of the flower shop, taking everything in.

Zhou Jianxing was wearing a loose dark blue sweatshirt and khaki sweatpants. He seemed to be thinner than the last time they met, but the smile on his face was still bright, even brilliant.

She was very close to the exquisitely dressed woman next to her, chatting and laughing while skillfully fiddling with the branches in her hands. She still looked carefree and relaxed.

At that moment, Wen Lingyi felt as if something had suddenly struck her chest. She couldn't explain what it was, as it was too complicated.

He is very popular with women.

It turned out that she was the only one still trapped in the same place, tortured by those recurring emotions, while Zhou Jianxing had already withdrawn and started a new, sunny life.

I reached out and pressed the car window, and the glass opened up a gap that was neither wide nor narrow. The biting cold wind immediately came in, blowing away some of the heat in the car.

Wen Lingyi habitually reached out and took out a cigarette case and lighter from the storage compartment. He took out a slender cigarette, put it between his lips, and lowered his head to light it.

The weak flame licked the tobacco, making a slight hissing sound. She took a deep breath, and the gray-blue smoke slowly rose, blurring her vision.

The familiar smell of nicotine invaded the lungs, rolled around and was slowly exhaled. It seemed that the complex emotions lingering in the heart were temporarily dispelled with the inhalation and exhalation movement.

From beginning to end, Wen Lingyi's eyes never left the opposite side.

She saw Zhou Jianxing affectionately holding one of the woman's arms, shaking it gently, looking up at her with a slightly coquettish look on his face.

Sweet, innocent, clean, and unreserved.

That expression, the look of looking at someone intently, the long eyelashes drooping and then rising, the round eyes twinkling.

Wen Lingyi was once very familiar.

The fingers holding the cigarette stopped in mid-air, forgetting to flick off the accumulated ash.

A piece of gray-white ashes finally couldn't bear the weight and fell down, splashing on the lapel of her expensive black cashmere coat, leaving a few gray marks, like some dusty worries, or like a hole burned in her heart.

Before I knew it, so much time had passed.

Long enough for two people who were once closely entangled to completely go in different directions and start their so-called new life.

At least, in Wen Lingyi's current understanding, Zhou Jianxing had obviously stepped forward without hesitation.

She even began to wonder uncontrollably who the woman was that could make Zhou Jianxing show such an expression.

He looked at the strange woman carefully.

The other person was wearing a sapphire blue velvet cheongsam with a subtle luster, which perfectly outlined her curvy figure. She was wearing shimmering black velvet socks on her legs and a pair of velvet ankle boots in the same color as the cheongsam.

She wore a loose beige thick-knitted cardigan on the outside, with the collar slightly revealing a light gray-blue high-necked knitted inner layer. The woolen material added a gentle charm.

Her shiny black hair was tied up low with a dark wooden hairpin, her lips were painted with warm, deep rose lipstick, her eyebrows were thinly raised, and a pair of small pearl earrings hung on her ears.

When she smiled, it was not exaggerated, but the corners of her lips rose gracefully, and the corners of her eyes and eyebrows also moved, exuding a mature style and full of femininity.

She looked like a well-off woman, probably married.

Wen Lingyi smiled coldly in her heart.

Did Zhou Jianxing find a new target after leaving her and get entangled with another married woman?

Su Qing's words rang in her ears again: The best way to forget an old relationship is to start a new one quickly.

It seems that Zhou Jianxing is well aware of this and has implemented it thoroughly. He has completely forgotten her and thrown himself into the arms of someone else.

But since she has chosen to get married, why does she still have to be so involved with other women and blur the boundaries?

Or does Zhou Jianxing particularly enjoy this kind of complicated, immoral and taboo relationship with a married woman?

Wen Lingyi should hate her, and she did.

Indeed, I still can’t let it go.

Suddenly, a clear burning pain came from the fingertips.

Wen Lingyi suddenly came to her senses and found that the cigarette had burned to the end, burning her fingers.

As if awakened, she quickly put out the cigarette butt in the car ashtray.

It's completely over. She told herself again in her heart, very clearly.

No matter what Zhou Jianxing does in the future, who he is with, or how happily he laughs, it will have nothing to do with her, Wen Lingyi.

He reached out and rolled up the window again, blocking out the whistling wind and the glaring scene outside. The engine started, and the car smoothly drove away from the roadside, merged into the traffic flow, and continued forward.

·

The Su family villa was brightly lit tonight, and melodious music and laughter overflowed from the open doors and windows.

As the birthday girl tonight, Su Qing naturally became the focus of the whole audience the moment she appeared. She was wearing a slightly exaggerated red sleeveless long dress, and her hair was ingeniously decorated with kingfisher pearls.

When Wen Lingyi arrived, the party had already started for a while.

Su Zhe did not return to China this year.

It is said that his boyfriend in Europe is breaking up with him recently, and Su Zhe has to stay there to deal with his emotional crisis.

This saved Wen Lingyi a lot of trouble.

Su Qing was like a busy butterfly, fluttering around and greeting every guest present. After dealing with them all, she finally walked towards Wen Lingyi with a glass of wine in hand.

In her hand was a glass of pink champagne, a type of rosé sparkling wine with a delicate color and fine bubbles.

"Lingyi." Su Qing's voice called Wen Lingyi back to her thoughts, which had drifted away. "What are you thinking about standing here alone? You look so lost in thought."

At this time, Wen Lingyi was away from the noisy guests, standing alone in a quiet corner in a daze.

Wen Lingyi raised her eyes and looked at her bestie, who was dressed up in her best clothes. She put on that perfect social smile that showed just eight teeth. "Nothing. I'm just admiring the most beautiful protagonist of the night. Our birthday girl is really shining today."

Su Qing's eyes fell on the red wine shaking in Wen Lingyi's hand. She reached out her hand calmly, took the high-heeled glass from Wen Lingyi's fingertips, turned around, picked up a glass of transparent sparkling water with fine bubbles from the long table next to her, and handed it to Wen Lingyi.

"Drink this." Her tone was natural, yet contained a hint of non-negotiability. "You promised me to drink less, how could you forget again?"

"Aren't you feeling better these days?"

Wen Lingyi looked at the glass of sparkling water that was stuffed into her hand, retracted her eight teeth, and put it back on the table beside her.

She pulled the corners of her mouth, with a forced smile: "Today is your birthday, a happy day, I just want to take advantage of the birthday star and have a few drinks with you to cheer you up."

"Stop it." Su Qing stopped Wen Lingyi's hand in time as it was reaching for the red wine glass again. She raised her eyelids and glanced over with some coldness.

"With so many people here today, I don't want to see you get drunk and act like a loser. If you really want to drink, go home and drink by yourself after this. No one will bother you."

She paused, looking at Wen Lingyi's slightly pale face and the faint blue shadows under her eyes, and her tone was mixed with a hint of disappointment: "How long has it been? Why do you still look so half-dead?"

She had just felt that Wen Lingyi's condition seemed to have improved a few days ago, but how come after just a few days of not seeing her, it seemed like she was back to square one.

"It's not the first day you've known me." Wen Lingyi smiled indifferently, as if she didn't care about her friend's accusations.

But she finally compromised and stopped trying to get the wine. Instead, she reached out and picked up the glass of sparkling water that she had placed on the table.

On the transparent wall of the cup, countless tiny bubbles are scrambling to rise from the bottom of the cup, and then burst quietly after reaching the top.

Wen Lingyi's fingertips unconsciously stroked the cold wall of the cup.

She brought the cup close to her lips, and the transparent glass edge was imprinted with her rich lipstick, but the special non-stick material of the cup prevented any lip marks from being left on the rim.

Wen Lingyi's gaze fell on the clean rim of the cup, with no expression on her face.

I wish love could be like this, happening without leaving any traces or aftereffects.

Although she had told herself over and over again in her heart that her relationship with Zhou Jianxing was over, and that things were separate, everything about the other party had nothing to do with her.

But his mind kept replaying uncontrollably the scene he saw at the entrance of Weiran Flower Shop - Zhou Jianxing was smiling at another woman and holding her arm affectionately.

The hand holding the cup tightened unconsciously, and the pale blue veins on the back of the hand bulged slightly.

The heart was beating, but what drove the blood to flow was no longer the heart itself, but her hatred, her unwillingness, and her jealousy.

Her eyes, which were obviously out of focus and immersed in her own world, did not escape Su Qing's observation.

Su Qing took a sip of the rosé in her hand, the sour wine rolled over the tip of her tongue, and finally a light berry sweetness remained at the root of her tongue.

Even when she broke up with Zhu Yang, Wen Lingyi never acted like this.

When Wen Lingyi broke up with Zhu Yang, it was a huge fight. She felt like she was wrapped in flames of anger and burning. Although it was fierce, it gradually subsided after burning out, leaving only a piece of cool ash.

This time, breaking up with Zhou Jianxing was like suddenly falling into a long and endless ice age. All of Wen Lingyi's emotions froze into ice. She looked calm on the surface, but inside, endless coldness and sadness spread silently in her desolate heart. Even she, who was standing next to her, was almost frostbitten.

No one knows when this ice age will truly end.

"Wen Lingyi," Su Qing hesitated, then tentatively spoke again, her voice lowered. "You've been separated from that person for quite some time. Even if you don't want to have another serious relationship for the time being, you can find another woman to divert your attention, right?"

At least last time, it worked.

Wen Lingyi shook the cup in her hand, watching the bubbles continuously appear, rise, and burst.

Her voice seemed to be filled with these tiny bubbles, and it was stagnant. "Su Qing, I always thought that we were very similar in many ways."

She paused, turned her head, looked at Su Qing calmly, and continued, without any emotion in her tone: "But in fact, you and I have never been the same kind of people."

This was a bit nonsensical. Su Qing was stunned for a moment and didn't know how to respond.

"I will no longer punish myself for other people's mistakes." Wen Lingyi's voice was cold, and her smile was also cold.

But it was the most sincere smile Su Qing had ever seen Wen Lingyi show tonight.

"Loveless sex doesn't bring me anything. Punishing myself like this to get revenge on someone who no longer deserves it is self-abuse."

Therefore, people will always grow, even if the process is slow and painful. She matured through the setbacks in her relationship.

It won't help to turn yourself into another bad person for the sake of a bad person.

Moreover, that kind of sex that is purely for venting cannot make her truly enjoy it.

"Remember to open the gift." Wen Lingyi put the glass of sparkling water in her hand back on the table.

Even though I barely drank any alcohol tonight, my stomach felt like it was being burned, and a dull pain was brewing. Even standing here and forcing myself to smile became an unbearable torture.

"I'm going back first." She walked forward and gently hugged Su Qing, whispering in her ear, "Happy birthday to my best Qingqing."

After politely bidding farewell to the elders of the Su family, she walked through the still noisy crowd and headed alone into the dark night outside the door.

From behind, it looks like a lonely crane, about to wade across a shallow, cold pond.