stress response

Time seemed to stand still for a long time before Wen Lingyi finally managed to break free from the overwhelming feeling of nausea.

She raised her head weakly. A glass of warm water had been placed on the table. She took a sip, and the warm liquid stung her throat, which had been burned by gastric juice.

Zhou Jianxing stood there at a loss, frozen in place, like a child awaiting trial for wrongdoing. She frowned anxiously at Wen Lingyi's pale face and bloodless lips, as well as the fine, cold sweat that oozed from her forehead due to extreme discomfort.

"Sister Wen," Zhou Jianxing slowly squatted down and raised her head, trying to catch Wen Lingyi's evasive gaze from below. She carefully considered every word, "Did I...did I do something wrong? Did I make you unhappy?"

This question, which was timid and flattering, fell into Wen Lingyi's extremely sensitive and suspicious ears, and he could hear a hint of guilt and an attempt to cover up his crime.

Did Zhou Jianxing really do something behind her back, which is why he was so humble, cautious, and testing her?

An irrepressible feeling of disgust suddenly surged in her heart. Wen Lingyi almost instinctively turned her head away with extreme disgust, completely avoiding Zhou Jianxing's sight.

That completely genuine and undisguised look of disgust deeply hurt Zhou Jianxing.

Her eyes slowly drooped, staring at the ground, her mind still desperately recalling and reflecting, trying to justify herself, even though she had no idea what she had done wrong to cause such a violent reaction.

A woman's mind is always hard to fathom, and Wen Lingyi's is even more unpredictable. Just two days ago... they were so close and affectionate, how could it suddenly change and become like this?

"I really don't know what I did wrong." She pinched her palms nervously.

Zhou Jianxing suddenly remembered that the last time Wen Lingyi got furious was because she suspected that she had hidden a secret in her phone.

So, as if grabbing a life-saving straw, she took the initiative to unlock her phone again and handed it to Wen Lingyi, with a very humble attitude: "My phone is here, you can look at it at will, really. I have nothing to hide from you."

"Can you please not be angry for now?" She bit her lower lip slightly, her eyes filled with unconcealable worry. "Can you drink some water first to calm down? Is your stomach feeling uncomfortable? Do you want me to go to the hospital with you?"

Humble to the dust.

Wen Lingyi looked at the mobile phone handed to her and felt it was extremely ironic.

She swung her hand suddenly, knocking Zhou Jianxing's phone to the ground with a crisp sound.

Oh, how naive. Would someone who deliberately concealed something and did something like that leave obvious evidence and records on their phone?

She paid a heavy price from Zhu Yang and learned enough.

Once bitten by a snake, one will be afraid of ropes for ten years. The deep trauma made her vigilance and suspicion grow wildly.

She picked up the glass of warm water on the table and forced herself to drink two more sips. The last bit of her remaining rationality faintly reminded her: Maybe she should ask clearly, maybe things were not as shown in the photos Su Qing brought, maybe there was a misunderstanding.

However, the surging anger and fear of betrayal were burning and devouring her remaining sanity.

Those questions came to my lips, but seemed to be blocked by something and I couldn't ask them at all.

She was afraid, afraid that the answer she would hear would be the one she feared the most and was most unwilling to face.

A single woman of marriageable age and a man who looks of similar age and has a close relationship with her go in and out of wedding companies together and go to chain jewelry stores together... The conclusions these behaviors point to are self-evident.

Do I have to ask clearly and openly, and let that loud slap in the face really hit me, so that I can wake up from the self-deceiving dream and face the bloody reality like last time?

Wen Lingyi found that she still did not have the courage to face that possible outcome.

She raised her eyes and stared into Zhou Jianxing's. Those eyes were too clear and bright, like the cleanest mountain stream, faintly reflecting her face, which was a little distorted and out of control at the moment.

The emotions in Zhou Jianxing's eyes were so straightforward: fear, helplessness, confusion, and deep worry. But Wen Lingyi could no longer tell whether these emotions came from the heart or were another more clever and deceptive disguise.

After all, Wen Lingyi had already experienced it thoroughly and deeply in another person, how deceitful a woman could be and how superb her acting skills could be.

Now, she dared not trust anyone except herself.

Whatever you do, there will always be traces left behind. Hearing something may be true, but what about seeing something with your own eyes?

She just didn't believe that if Zhou Jianxing was really two-timing, he could do it perfectly and erase all traces completely.

Wen Lingyi's emotions were like a raging fire, but her mind was abnormally calm, like a piece of ice that would never melt.

This extreme torture of ice and fire made her temples throb with pain. She closed her eyes, took a few deep breaths, and used her willpower to force herself to calm down.

After a while, when she opened her eyes again, all the intense emotions on her face seemed to be wiped away by an invisible hand in an instant, and her expression became extremely calm and distant, even with a kind of indifference as if it had nothing to do with her.

It was as if the person who had just vomited uncontrollably and waved his phone angrily did not exist at all.

"Here you go." She bent down, picked up the phone on the ground, and put it back into Zhou Jianxing's slightly trembling hand.

Then, he pulled the corners of his mouth with great effort, forcing a stiff smile that was uglier than crying. He deliberately slowed down and softened his voice, and it even sounded a little apologetic.

"I'm sorry, that was my fault. I had a tough problem at work and I was in a bad mood. Did I scare you?"

Zhou Jianxing obviously did not buy this set of loopholes.

She continued to look at Wen Lingyi with eyes full of worry and confusion, and insisted, "Sister Wen, if there is really something I did wrong, you must tell me, okay? We can communicate properly. There may be some things I am not aware of, but if you tell me, I will definitely change. Don't be upset by yourself, it's not good for your health."

After experiencing an extreme shock of anger, people often fall into an abnormal and terrifying calmness.

But those surging negative emotions did not disappear; they were simply forcibly suppressed, accumulating and fermenting in deeper and darker places, waiting for the next more violent and thorough outbreak.

"I've already said that there's nothing more." Wen Lingyi's fingertips were a little cool as she gently lifted Zhou Jianxing's chin, but her eyes were like a searchlight, scanning Zhou Jianxing's face with scrutiny.

She tried to make her eyes slightly curved and the corners of her mouth curl upwards, trying to fake a calm or even gentle expression by precisely controlling the direction of her facial muscles. This was her specialty in social situations.

"It was really just an unexpected situation at work that made me a little irritated."

"I really have no appetite to eat now." She leaned forward, gently pressed her forehead against Zhou Jianxing's, closed her eyes, and spoke in a very soft voice, almost whispering, her breath brushing against Zhou Jianxing's skin.

"Right now I'd rather eat you... Go take a good shower, okay?" She paused, then added something ambiguous, "Wash a few more times, make sure you're clean."

After such a series of disturbing and sad events that had just happened, Zhou Jianxing was in no mood to engage in any intimate behavior.

Even her stomach began to ache slightly and feel uncomfortable due to the continued high tension and Wen Lingyi's abnormal behavior.

She had heard of a condition called neurogenic gastritis.

When people are extremely depressed, anxious, or under great stimulation, the stomach is often the first to keenly sense everything and react.

"Promise me, okay?" Wen Lingyi's voice was soft and gentle, deliberately imitating her usual bewitching and tender tone. "Zhou Jianxing, didn't you say it? Your world will revolve around me. Now, I need you."

Zhou Jianxing's eyelashes trembled violently, like butterfly wings struggling in the wind. After a moment's inner struggle, she looked into Wen Lingyi's seemingly calm yet bottomless eyes, and finally gave in. She nodded gently and said in a hoarse voice, "Okay."

·

The sound of water dripping soon came from the bathroom. After confirming that the sound of water continued, Wen Lingyi gently locked Zhou Jianxing's bedroom door.

She stood in the middle of the room, looking around at the space that had become somewhat familiar to her recently. Her eyes were cold and sharp, like a sophisticated scanner that had finally gotten into working order, and began to search calmly and methodically.

The first place she went to was the simple wardrobe.

What she saw most often were Zhou Jianxing's work clothes that were washed to a pale color. She actually had limited knowledge of Zhou Jianxing's private clothes.

Zhou Jianxing is tall and has a bigger frame than the average girl. She can't tell which of the casual clothes hanging in her closet that don't have obvious feminine features, such as loose T-shirts, work pants, and sports jackets, belong to Zhou Jianxing.

Which ones…may belong to someone else.

She put her face close to the clothes and sniffed them carefully.

However, what penetrated my nostrils was only the clean fragrance of soapberries after washing and the smell of sun-dried food, nothing else.

Driven by anger and preconceived notions, Wen Lingyi unconsciously made a mistake that many people would make, looking for problems with her own preset answers.

At this moment, she looked at every neutral-style piece of clothing in her closet, and the more she looked at it, the more she felt that it looked like men's clothes, and no matter how she looked at it, she felt that the body shape was similar to the man in the photo.

Her brain even began to automatically fit these clothes to the vague image of the man. Many contradictory and untenable details were selectively filtered out and ignored by her.

The anger in my heart continues to accumulate and intensify.

She closed the wardrobe door and turned to the bookcase against the wall. Her fingertips quickly traced the spines of the neatly arranged rows of books, mostly martial arts novels with plain covers.

Martial arts novels? Isn't that the kind of thing men traditionally prefer? Zhou Jianxing seemed to have never mentioned this hobby to her.

A thought that made her feel even more suffocated popped up uncontrollably.

Did she and that man once read these martial arts novels together in this room, leaning against the headboard? Or even lying on the bed in each other's arms, sharing the same book?

Her eyes scanned the area, then suddenly settled on a corner of the middle shelf of the bookcase. There were several photo frames. One of them was a picture of Zhou Jianxing and the man in the photo.

Both of them were wearing the same blue and white, slightly old high school uniform. They were openly arm in arm, smiling brightly and sunny at the camera, full of youthful energy, and their relationship seemed very close.

Wen Lingyi's breathing suddenly became extremely rapid, her chest felt tight, and she had a suffocating feeling as if her heart was about to stop beating.

It turns out... they are not just ordinary friends, but childhood sweethearts with such a long past.

So... could it be that she, Wen Lingyi, was the third party who appeared later and inadvertently intervened in other people's feelings?

Just like the time with Zhu Yang?

Wen Lingyi was breathing heavily and felt her body was about to collapse.

Although she believed that there seemed to be enough "evidence" in her heart, Wen Lingyi still did not give up, or rather, she had a masochistic impulse to find something more conclusive and able to completely defeat her.

She closed the glass door of the bookcase stiffly, carefully pretending that it had never been opened, and moved towards the old desk with unsteady steps.

The desk was clean, and apart from a few pens and an open maintenance notebook, there was no obvious handle to grab.

Wen Lingyi took a deep breath and opened the bottom drawer of the desk.

The moment the drawer was fully opened, she felt as if all the blood in her body had completely solidified.

Because of the sudden cessation of flow, the world fell into dead silence. She seemed to be able to hear the absolute silence made when the blood solidified.

Inside the drawer, two boxes of condoms lay quietly. One was still sealed, the plastic film intact. The other had already been opened.

As if driven by some invisible force, she reached out, picked up the opened box, and numbly counted the number of individually wrapped items inside - two were missing.

Her mind went completely blank, her stomach began to spasm violently and uncontrollably, and sour gastric juice flowed back wildly, as if someone was holding a red-hot iron, cruelly burning her from her throat to her stomach, from the inside out.

Wen Lingyi could no longer hold on, so she squatted down, hugged the trash can at the foot of the table and began to retch violently. The acidic gastric juice corroded her throat, causing her unbearable pain.

She vomited so violently that her body shook violently and she almost fainted from exhaustion, as if she would not stop until she vomited out her broken heart as well.

It turned out that she was not as calm and restrained as she had imagined.

All disguises and strength are vulnerable in the face of these evidences.

You never fall in the same place twice? That's just a lie.

Fighting back the dizziness and feeling of weakness all over her body, she used her last bit of strength to stand up, and with trembling hands, she carefully put the box of condoms back to its original place in the drawer, then closed the drawer and carefully wiped away all traces, pretending that she had never opened it and never discovered it.

There is no need for anything more.

This is enough.

She had witnessed Zhu Yang's infidelity with her own eyes, and those scenes were still her nightmares.

She didn't need anyone to describe more details to her. Her brain was enough to automatically create countless vivid, detailed, and heartbreaking pictures based on these "evidences".

In fact, it is clearer and more cruel than what really happened.

Wen Lingyi staggered to the door and opened the locked door.

The sound of water in the bathroom had not yet stopped, still gurgling. She picked up her handbag and car keys, and without even glancing at the room, she hurried away.

She controlled the sound of the door closing to be extremely gentle, as if the owner had simply gone out to pick up a package. As the old door closed, it emitted a long, soft creaking sound, like a helpless and exhausted sigh, drowned out by the continuous sound of water.