divorce
In a private hospital in City B, China, Qi Feng pushed open the door of the VIP room with a stack of reports in his hand, frowning.
"Mrs."
The moment the door opened, the solemn expression on Qi Feng's face disappeared without a trace, replaced by a smiling face.
On the sofa, a thin and beautiful woman sat quietly. She was the wife that Qi Feng mentioned, the wife of Lin Shanglu, the boss of "Hengxing", one of the top luxury goods groups today - Chen Nanxing.
Today is the Great Cold, the coldest time of the year. Qi Feng just went outside to get a report and his five knuckles turned red from the cold. Chen Nanxing was attentive and took a look at his red nose tip and five knuckles.
She leaned over to pour a cup of hot water and pushed it to Qi Shouchao, glancing at the report in his hand:
"What was the result?"
Chen Nanxing didn't expect things to be too good. Not to mention the fleeting look of annoyance in Qi Feng's eyes when she entered the room just now, just the blood she vomited this morning made her know that her condition would not be too good.
"Advanced stage of poorly differentiated gastric cancer."
Qi Feng placed the report in front of Chen Nanxing and tried his best to hide the regret in his eyes.
His tone was very calm, and Chen Nanxing was even more silent. She didn't even pick up the stack of examination reports on the table to take a look.
The doctor waiting on the side had a bewildered look on his face. This was a late stage, poorly differentiated gastric cancer, a life-threatening disease. No matter if one was rich or poor, everyone would have a drastic change of expression and be grief-stricken upon hearing about it. The wealthy would react even worse. Why were these two people's reactions so...ordinary?
Qi Feng sighed secretly, holding the teacup with both hands, and the warmth spread throughout his body at the fastest speed:
"It's okay. Medical care is so advanced nowadays. The doctor said I just need to cooperate with the treatment..."
"Is he in the company?"
Chen Nanxing didn't want to hear the old-fashioned consolation, so she interrupted Qi Feng and asked about the whereabouts of her husband Lin Shanglu.
Qi Feng suddenly lost his temper. The lies that he could blurt out without blinking in the past were particularly painful today.
How should he answer the poor woman in front of him?
Tell her the truth, her husband called him early in the morning and asked him, as an assistant, to bring his wife to the hospital for a physical examination, but as a husband, he was accompanying another woman for a prenatal check-up?
How could he say it?!
Qi Feng couldn't say it. He looked away and spoke vaguely:
"...Well, normally, Mr. Lin should be in the company at this time."
Is that so? Is he in the company?
Chen Nanxing unlocked her phone and the last message on the WeChat chat interface was the one she sent to Lin Shanglu at eight in the morning.
【Will you go home for dinner tonight? 】
Is he really in the company?
Chen Nanxing lowered his eyelashes, and his black eyelashes cast a shadow under his eyes.
Why don’t you reply to messages at work?
Is he, a big boss, really so busy that he doesn't even have time to reply to his wife's message?
The only explanation is that Qi Feng is lying and Lin Shanglu is definitely not in the company.
However, Chen Nanxing also knew that Qi Feng's lies were just to protect her shaky self-esteem and dignity.
Yes, hasn’t she long been worthy of the title of Mrs. Lin?
Chen Nanxing laughed at himself, turned off the screen of his phone, put it in his bag along with the report, stood up and nodded to him:
"Assistant Qi, thank you for your help."
She was about to leave when Qi Feng quickly stopped her:
"Madam, the hospital recommends..."
"Assistant Qi, I don't want to be hospitalized."
Chen Nanxing's abnormally white hand pressed on his arm, interrupting Qi Feng's subsequent persuasion.
Chen Nanxing doesn't like hospitals. She is particularly sensitive to smells. No matter how good the private hospital is, the faint smell of disinfectant in the air still makes her feel nauseous.
Qi Feng did not expect Chen Nanxing to answer like this. He was stunned for a moment, and when he came to his senses, he saw that Chen Nanxing's eyes were indifferent, which was a kind of indifference to his own life.
A bitter taste welled up in his throat. No matter how much he tried to dissuade me, it all stayed in his throat. He closed his mouth and instead grabbed the clothes lying on the sofa and followed Chen Nanxing's back:
"Ma'am, I'll take you home then."
"Dingdong."
The phone in the bag made a notification sound of a new WeChat message. Chen Nanxing's eyes flickered slightly, and he immediately took out the phone from the bag to check the message.
It was a message from Lin Shanglu, with only one word.
【OK. 】
A gentle smile immediately appeared on Chen Nanxing's pale face, sweeping away the gloom on her face. She shook her phone at Qi Feng:
"No, I called a taxi. Thank you, Assistant Qi."
Qi Feng accidentally saw the message and reached out to stop it:
"...Madam, Mr. Lin today..."
No time.
Before he could finish his words, the door opened and then closed again. Chen Nanxing had already flown away lightly like a fluttering butterfly.
After hearing that Lin Shanglu was coming back for dinner, Chen Nanxing went to buy some dishes and then went to the dessert shop to pick up the cake she had ordered yesterday.
Today is a special day with dual commemorative significance. It is her 32nd birthday and the 14th anniversary of her marriage to Lin Shanglu.
The sky gradually darkened, the lights in thousands of houses dimmed, and the roaring range hood in the kitchen temporarily stopped its work for the day. Chen Nanxing came out of the kitchen carrying dishes that had been reheated three or four times.
The clock on the wall showed ten o'clock, but the person who said he would come back for dinner had not returned yet.
“Beep—beep—”
The ringing of the phone echoed in the empty three-bedroom apartment. Chen Nanxing was wearing an apron and slumped on the soft sofa. The curtains of the floor-to-ceiling windows were drawn. The lights in the living room were not on, and the house was surprisingly dark. Chen Nanxing stared at the glaring light of the phone and counted in his mind. When he counted to 27, the call was connected.
"Hello?"
The phone rings for 30 seconds, but he always answers her call when there are only 3 seconds left, even though it was obvious that a long time ago, her phone only needed to ring for 3 seconds.
She was in a daze, and the man over there was breathing a little heavily, because he didn't hear a response and showed a hint of impatience:
"Hello?"
Chen Nanxing came back to her senses and forced herself to ignore the familiar panting sound from the other end of the phone. Just as she was about to open her mouth to speak, a charming moan reached her ears first.
"Forest--"
Lin Shanglu quickly pressed the mute button, preventing the complete words "Mr. Lin" from reaching Chen Nanxing's ears. He pulled himself out of his lust and glared at Qing'er with his pair of phoenix eyes as a warning.
"What do you want to do?"
Qing'er said aggrievedly: "Boss Lin."
"If you cause any more trouble, get out!"
Lin Shanglu scratched his hair in annoyance, trying to think of something he could say to get away with it.
Before he could think of an explanation, Chen Nanxing turned the page first, as if she didn't hear the other woman's moan.
"Alu, is there a traffic jam on the road?"
What's the traffic jam? What's she doing?
Lin Shanglu's eyebrows twisted habitually.
After a long time, he finally remembered that he had promised on WeChat to go home for dinner tonight.
He secretly made a "tsk" sound in his heart, sat up from the bed, took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth, and the lame excuses that he had used countless times came out of his mouth again.
"I'm sorry, honey. I'm still working overtime. You can have dinner first and then go to bed early. You don't have to wait for me. I'm working overtime late, so I'll just stay at the company today."
A long string of lies without a single stutter.
Chen Nanxing closed his eyes, and tears suddenly surged up from his tear glands, filling his eyes.
She had heard these words for three years, and she was so familiar with them that she could recite the next sentence after hearing the first one. She thought she had been accustomed to it, but she didn't expect that she would still be heartbroken when she heard his insincere perfunctory response again.
She raised her head, resisting the urge to let the tears fall from her eyes, and whispered softly, trying to grasp any slim chance that he would change his mind:
"Lu, can you put work aside for a minute? We haven't had a meal together in two months. Today I made your favorite spicy chicken and steamed pork ribs..."
Qing'er in his arms squeezed into his arms with all her might, and Lin Shanglu's desire started burning again. He pinched Qing'er's restless hand and interrupted Chen Nanxing's announcement with annoyance.
"Alright, that's enough, don't report it. Your cooking has been awful for over ten years now. I'm grateful if you can just fry the vegetables well."
Chen Nanxing choked.
Really? Many years ago, when Lin Shanglu asked her to quit her job and stay home, she signed up for a cooking class. Since then, every meal he ate at home was cooked by her. Since when did he become so indifferent to her?
Lin Shanglu realized belatedly that his words were too harsh. Holding the beautiful girl in his arms, he suddenly felt guilty.
He calmed down and was about to say a few words of comfort when he heard Chen Nanxing remain silent for a few moments before cautiously asking him:
"Will you come back tonight?"
The guilt was gone, and this temptation to please him brought him back to the top of the relationship, and he grasped these advantages again:
"How can I go back home after I said I'd be working overtime? I work so hard outside to earn money for our little family. Can you please stop being unreasonable and be more understanding? Is that so difficult?"
The tears fell silently on the plain silver ring on the ring finger, splashing out a bunch of salty and bitter flowers.
Does Chen Nanxing really not know how to be considerate of him and send him to another woman's bed?
Lin Shanglu could no longer bear it while hugging Qing'er, and his tone was filled with a hint of impatience:
"Don't eat the dishes you cooked. You might get food poisoning if you do. I'll call Qi Feng and have him pack a few dishes for you from the restaurant. Oh, dear, stop messing around. I'm busy here. Bye."
There was a busy tone on the phone. Chen Nanxing seemed to be frozen by black magic, maintaining the posture of answering the phone without moving, until the light on the phone screen went out and the only light in the living room was swallowed up by darkness.
Chen Nanxing suddenly threw away her cell phone, folded her body, and vomited into the trash can, as if she wanted to vomit out everything in her stomach, but there was nothing in her stomach to begin with, so no matter how much she vomited, she could only vomit out acid.
When he had vomited nothing more, Chen Nanxing leaned back on the sofa with his head tilted back, covering his abdomen with his hands and his eyes red.
She had severe stomach pain, not only in her stomach, but also in her heart. She felt like dying from the pain.
They have known each other for seventeen years and have been married for fourteen years. From the naive high school uniforms to working and starting a business, from a remote county town to the prosperous City B, from a dark and damp basement to a bright and clean high-end community, they have gone through seventeen years of sharing joys and sorrows together, and are a model couple that all media outlets are vying to report on.
In fact, just as the media reported, the first nine years of their marriage were full of love and Lin Shanglu only had eyes for her. But starting five years ago, Lin Shanglu changed and his heart became wild.
Chen Nanxing closed her eyes and casually placed her sickly white wrist over her eyes. She was thinking about when she first noticed that Lin Shanglu was cheating on her.
Maybe it was when I smelled another woman's perfume on him, or saw a faint lipstick mark on his shirt, or found a curly hair on his coat...
It had been so long that she couldn't remember the exact opportunity.
It's not that she doesn't care, she just deliberately forgets.
She was afraid that if the truth came to light, her only salvation in life would be gone.
She is conservative, turning a blind eye, deceiving herself that she knows nothing in order to maintain superficial peace.
Just half an hour ago, she was preparing lunch to be sent to her husband's company in this three-bedroom apartment. The popular actress Su Qiao knocked on their door with a pregnancy report and sat on the sofa they had bought together, begging her to spare her husband and let them be a family of three.
How ironic.
Are they a family of three?
Her husband's lover came to her with her belly in her hands and begged her for a divorce so that their child could have a legitimate identity.
But why? Why should she give birth to their child when her child cannot be born?
Yes, they had three unborn children between them, two miscarriages and one induced abortion.
The tears were like unruly children, they had just been stopped but now they were flowing out again.
Chen Nanxing spread out her hands, and there were clearly tears on her delicate wrists, but she seemed to feel the warmth of Lin Shanglu's tears, the warmth of Lin Shanglu's tears when she induced labor for the last time.
It was also the temperature of her tears when she was diagnosed with lifelong infertility.
He was completely drunk that day, his head resting on her legs, his face buried in her hands, and he kept saying how sorry he had been to her in his life, that he didn't want children anymore, and that he only loved her in this life...
Her tears fell again.
She should have understood long ago that promises only count when there is love. Now that Lin Shanglu no longer loves her, his promise is gone too.
She was so stupid that she was still searching for evidence that he still loved her.
Fifteen minutes ago, she had even thought that as long as Lin Shanglu remembered that today was their wedding anniversary and her birthday, and was willing to come back for dinner with her, she could let bygones be bygones and continue living her life in a muddle.
After several years of dreaming, it is time for her to wake up.
Chen Nanxing wiped away her tears, stood up, took off her apron and walked towards the bedroom.
An hour later she put on a coat and walked out of the room pushing a suitcase. In her other hand she held two briefcases, one thick and one thin.
The thin one contained the divorce agreement that she had commissioned a lawyer friend to draft ten days ago, and the thick one contained the evidence of Lin Shanglu's infidelity over the years.
Chen Nanxing placed the file bag neatly on the coffee table, along with the plain silver ring on her right ring finger.
The silver ring had been polished to a shine by the years, and it shone brightly on the file bag. In a trance, Chen Nanxing seemed to see today fourteen years ago, in the basement they rented, under the candlelight of cheap cakes, Lin Shanglu took the silver ring and knelt on one knee like the men on TV, and said to her: Marry me?
Twenty-year-old Lin Shanglu was very poor, with a small heart that could only accommodate a girl named Chen Nanxing, and now...
Chen Nanxing laughed at himself, no longer reluctant to leave, and dragged his suitcase to catch the early morning flight from City B to Licheng.
Fourteen years of marriage, three deaths and one injury. It was God's retribution. She had committed three sins of murder, and now, she was going to die too.
This marriage has come to this point, damn enough.
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