chapter 4

After tending to his wound, Zhou Yan went to take a shower.

I rummaged through the pocket of his coat and fished out his phone, unlocking it with ease.

He had registered my fingerprint a long time ago, but I had never bothered to look.

We had been together for ten years.

I had always held a singular, absolute trust in him.

Just as he did in me.

So when it came to this affair, he hadn’t even thought to hide anything.

The chat history was glaringly obvious, filled with flirtatious messages between him and that young girl.

Her name was Yu Ran, a direct junior seven years below us.

Zhou Yan called her Ranran.

Because she complained about not getting along with her roommate, Zhou Yan rented her an apartment outside the school and got her a car.

Yu Ran liked Disney plush toys, so when he went to Shanghai on business, he bought her two big boxes.

She arranged those toys all over the sofa, took a photo, and sent it to him:

“You bought these just for me, right? Your wife doesn’t have any, does she?”

Zhou Yan replied, “No, she’s not like you. She doesn’t like these things.”

Yu Ran protested, “Are you saying I’m childish?”

“It’s cute.”

My fingertip slid down the screen, inch by inch, growing weaker.

So that was why, before the New Year, Zhou Yan suddenly went to Tibet.

He climbed three thousand steps to pray for a safety amulet for the sick Yu Ran.

And at the class reunion in June, when he suddenly said he had something to do and left halfway through-

It was because Yu Ran had gotten drunk, crying as she took a cab to find him.

Long, long ago, she had already become inseparably woven into every crack in the life Zhou Yan and I shared.

I forced myself to suppress the trembling pain and scrolled to the very bottom.

It was after today’s car accident.

“I took your wedding ring and threw it away.”

Yu Ran said arrogantly, “Just seeing it annoys me, it’s like that woman is flaunting herself in front of me.”

“What’s so great about her? She just met you before I did.”

“When are you two getting divorced?”

And just moments ago, before Zhou Yan came home, he replied to her:

“Wait a little longer. I’ll talk to her and make things clear.”