Xu Mi Yu looked at the two text messages on her phone, her mind feeling like a ticking time bomb ready to explode at any moment.
There was always the potential for a earth-shattering explosion, and a slight misstep could lead to complete destruction.
Xu Mi Yu read the contents of the messages again, trying to digest them and make sense of what they meant. Only by understanding their true meaning could she prevent the explosion looming in her mind.
She called the number that sent the messages, but it was unreachable.
The other party had turned off their phone.
Xu Mi Yu went to the kitchen, opened the fridge, and searched for water. She felt as if she were dying of thirst, her throat constricted, making it hard to breathe.
She just needed a sip of water, a moment to calm down, and then she could see through the prank behind these two messages.
A large glass of cold water gurgled down her throat, sending a chilling sensation straight to her brain.
Swiss Hotel, 13th floor.
She poured another glass of chilled water. Holding the cup with condensation forming on the smooth glass, her arm developed goosebumps.
Yesterday night, when she called Nie Yu Cheng for a video chat, he said the signal was bad. Thinking back, even during his business trips with poor signals, he would still video chat with her, even if it was choppy.
Also, last night when she returned from the hotel, the elevator stopped on the 13th floor. She encountered the delivery guy, Li Kunlun.
Li Kunlun seemed visibly stunned when he saw her.
Then he had that hesitant look on his face.
Yesterday, she thought it might be because her mother had troubled Li Kunlun during the day, and she felt particularly guilty about it.
But on second thought, Li Kunlun’s response was, “It’s not entirely because of your mother…”
What did he want to tell her?
13th floor.
At that moment, he had just delivered food to the 13th floor.
A spark ignited in Xu Mi Yu’s mind, finally setting off the explosive charge hidden inside her brain, making her almost lose her balance.
So, when Li Kunlun delivered the food, did he see Nie Yu Cheng again? In his eyes, this man was in the executive suite with his wife last night, and the next day, he was having dinner with another woman in a room on the 13th floor.
Was that the case? Li Kunlun’s stunned and hesitant reaction at that time was because of this?
Xu Mi Yu felt her whole body freezing from the icy cup in her hand, even her teeth were chattering.
She had to verify whether the messages were a prank and whether she had misunderstood Li Kunlun!
She hastily tidied herself up, grabbed the car keys, and left the house.
Ji Feng spent the night at Swiss Hotel again. After a short morning jog, he returned to the hotel for breakfast.
When he was about to reach the elevator area on the first floor, he saw the back of a woman. Her hair was slightly messy, and the buttons on her cardigan were misaligned, causing the hem of the shirt to be uneven. The most absurd thing was the shoes on her feet; she was wearing different pairs on her left and right feet.
With such a disheveled appearance, she was anxiously waiting for the elevator, tapping her feet back and forth as if something crucial would be delayed if she waited for even a second.
Ji Feng gave that figure a cold glance and immediately withdrew his gaze. He wasn’t concerned about what important thing someone else might be delayed.
He swiped the VIP elevator card, and it made a ding sound.
The woman turned around immediately upon hearing the sound.
Ji Feng took a glance at her face, and surprisingly, it was the same woman who tried to snatch the elevator yesterday.
Upon seeing him, her eyes hooked onto him like two hooks, firmly locked onto him, pleading, “Sir, I’m sorry to trouble you. It’s the peak time for using the elevator now. Could you please help me up? I really have an emergency!”
Ji Feng looked at her indifferently, planning to refuse.
However, before he could say anything, the woman had already walked into the VIP elevator on her own.
Ji Feng stood outside the elevator, a mocking smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.
She seemed quite familiar with this routine.
He was about to ask her to come out, but he saw her clasping her hands together, begging him, “Please!,” with a pitiful expression.
That look was truly pathetic.
The mocking smile on Ji Feng’s mouth became even more evident.
Women always used pity as a weapon to cover their stubbornness.
It seemed that no matter how much disdainful expression he showed her, she was determined to squeeze into the elevator.
Ji Feng didn’t bother to waste more emotions on this disheveled woman; it was better to get rid of her quickly.
He entered the elevator and swiped his card.
The woman stretched her arm to press the 13th floor button.
Ji Feng looked at this floor. It wasn’t the same as the executive suite floor she was on before. His brow twitched ever so slightly.
Thinking of what he witnessed at the front desk yesterday, he seemed to have guessed what her emergency was.
The elevator made a ding sound, stopping on the 13th floor. The woman didn’t wait for the doors to fully open before rushing out.
Ji Feng leaned against the back wall of the elevator, too lazy to go forward and press the close door button. He allowed the elevator doors to go from not fully open to fully open, then waited a few seconds before slowly closing.
During this time, he first heard a doorbell ringing from a room.
Then a woman’s voice sounded, filled with despair.
She was asking, “Why?”
The elevator ascended to the top floor. Ji Feng shook his head, shaking off the dirty things he accidentally overheard on the 13th floor.
Xu Mi Yu, with a thick-skinned face, took the VIP elevator once again.
She had seen the cold rejection in the VIP’s eyes and the mocking smirk on his lips. But she didn’t care about that now. She just wanted a quick answer.
As soon as the elevator reached the 13th floor, she rushed towards room 1314 and pressed the doorbell.
She prayed in her heart that Nie Yu Cheng wasn’t inside, and everything was just a prank.
But the next second, her mind exploded, and something collapsed inside her.
Nie Yu Cheng’s voice came through the door, “Who is it?”
Who is it?
Your wife.
Xu Mi Yu clenched her fist. She didn’t speak and continued pressing the doorbell.
Soon, the door opened.
After seeing who opened the door, Xu Mi Yu felt as if the sky had fallen on her.
Lu Zhen Zhen.
It was actually her, Lu Zhen Zhen.
It was ridiculous. Initially, Nie Yu Cheng found this client named Lu Zhen Zhen annoying, with too many things going on and didn’t want to deal with it. Yet, she spoke well of her in the middle of the conversation.
When Nie Yu Cheng complained to her at home, a company had approached their travel agency to organize an anniversary trip, and the person in charge was a recent college graduate. The deal wasn’t significant, with no apparent contribution to the turnover, but the person in charge was constantly bothering them with all kinds of things. It was annoying.
When Xu Mi Yu asked Nie Yu Cheng about the name of the recent graduate, he said, “Lu Beibei,” while showing her the WeChat records, letting her witness the troublesome nature of this recent graduate.
Xu Mi Yu took a glance at the other person’s name and laughed immediately. It was clearly Lu Zhen Zhen.
The chat records were indeed filled with various trivial questions, some of which could be easily searched on Baidu. Because of these repeated questions, Nie Yu Cheng’s tone towards her became increasingly impatient.
Xu Mi Yu was advising Nie Yu Cheng at the time: The girl has just graduated from college. It’s normal for her to have more questions. If I were working now, I might ask even more annoying questions than her. Just be patient and treat her as if she were me.
Later, when Lu Zhen Zhen found out that she had spoken on her behalf, Nie Yu Cheng’s attitude became more patient, and he even came to thank her in person, saying he wanted to be good friends with her. After that, during holidays, Xu Mi Yu, feeling sorry for Lu Zhen Zhen being alone in Star City, occasionally asked Nie Yu Cheng to bring some meat stewed by her to Lu Zhen Zhen.
Now, Xu Mi Yu really wanted to turn back in time and slap herself who spoke well of the “recent graduate” who was, in fact, a woman who had long coveted her husband.
Thinking back, Lu Zhen Zhen might not be someone who knew nothing. She was probably seizing Nie Yu Cheng’s attention by asking questions.
See, it was her who had delivered Nie Yu Cheng to the woman who she thought was a “recent graduate” but was actually someone who had long been eyeing her husband.
Now she stood at the door of the room, staring at Lu Zhen Zhen in a bathrobe.
When Lu Zhen Zhen saw that the person ringing the doorbell was her, there was no trace of panic on her cheeks. She could even greet her.
“Sister Mi Yu, it’s you…”
Then she turned and shouted into the room, “Yu Cheng, you need to come out and deal with this.”
The man in the room walked towards the entrance.
He was also wearing a bathrobe.
Xu Mi Yu stared straight at Nie Yu Cheng. She believed that there was only hatred in her eyes now.
Looking at the face of the man who was already carved into her heart and mind, at this moment, she felt he was so unfamiliar. At this moment, he was like a knife thrust into her heart.
He approached her, full of bewilderment and guilt on his face, as if he couldn’t face her, and pulled her towards him, speaking to her, “Mi Yu, are you okay, Mi Yu? Don’t scare me…”
Xu Mi Yu separated herself from his hands.
She felt they were dirty.
She didn’t know if she had cried; she hoped she hadn’t. She looked up at Nie Yu Cheng, desperately wanting to ask him one question: “Why?”
“Why, Nie Yu Cheng? Why would you treat our marriage like this?”
Xu Mi Yu didn’t know how she got back home or how she spent the entire day.
Once home, she buried herself in the bed and slept.
Jiao Xiu Mei kept calling her incessantly, but she hung up and turned off her phone.
Not long after, there was a knocking sound at the door. Jiao Xiu Mei asked from outside, “Xiao Duoyu, why aren’t you answering my calls? Do you still consider me your mother?”
She ignored it, continuing to cover herself with the blanket.
Eventually, Jiao Xiu Mei angrily exclaimed, “This child must be dead in the room, right? She doesn’t even care about her mother anymore!” before leaving.
Xu Mi Yu, under the covers, thought, “Then let her think I’m dead in the room. It would be better if I were dead.”
She fell into a drowsy sleep. When she woke up, it was the bright light of an incandescent lamp that woke her.
She pulled down the blanket and saw that it was already dark outside. In front of the window stood Nie Yu Cheng.
He was back.
He stood with his back to her, facing the window, as if gathering some courage.
Xu Mi Yu looked at his back, feeling bitterness and dull pain in her heart.
He stood there, tall and upright, just like in their school days, handsome and tall.
But he was different now. He had tarnished their marriage and their love.
Nie Yu Cheng stood there for a while, as if finally gathering enough courage. He turned around, facing Xu Mi Yu.
His face was heavy as he said, “Mi Yu, let’s talk.”
Xu Mi Yu smiled.
“What is there to talk about? To discuss—your booking a room with another woman, specifically choosing room 1314?”
It was ironic. Cheating but still aiming for a lifetime commitment.
Nie Yu Cheng’s face twitched, “I… I didn’t pay attention to the room number.”
Xu Mi Yu turned her head and looked away.
“If you didn’t intentionally choose this room number, what does it matter? Are you trying to tell me it’s fate?”
Nie Yu Cheng stood by the bed, looking down at Xu Mi Yu, who was covered in the blanket.
He raised his hand to wipe his chin and asked, “What do you want to do?”
Xu Mi Yu couldn’t help but laugh again.
It was as if she were the one who had cheated.
She turned back, looking up at Nie Yu Cheng, locking eyes with him, and asked, “And you, do you have anything to explain to me? Why were you in that room while on a business trip?”
Her expression became more determined, her tone more somber, “Did you go to the wrong place during the business trip? Or did you suddenly get lost?”
Nie Yu Cheng rubbed his face with both hands. When he put his hands down, his expression became more resolute.
“Xu Mi Yu, take the energy you used to scold me just now and use it on your mother and your family. We wouldn’t be in this situation if they weren’t such bloodsuckers!”
Nie Yu Cheng seemed to have found an outlet for his pent-up frustration, letting out all the words that had been bottled up inside him. They flowed out even more intensely.
“Look at the life we’re living! My clothes, shoes, even your mother and sister, they all take whatever they want; the things I buy for you disappear in a few days, and these things can still be found in your mother’s house. When I try to talk to you about your mother, what does she say? She says I earn more, I have the ability, your family has good conditions, and in the future, I can still buy things for you. She wants the whole family to benefit from your success. I’m the savior of the entire family!”
“What about you? When your mother praises you like that, you don’t know which way is up. You just let her continue like this! Xu Mi Yu, let me tell you, I can’t stand this kind of life anymore. I didn’t marry you; I married a whole family of vampires! I’m not supporting you; I’m supporting your entire family! Even your brother and brother-in-law, I have to support them too! I’ve had enough!”
In Nie Yu Cheng’s accusations, Xu Mi Yu sat there, unable to speak.
She reflected on what Nie Yu Cheng said.
Why did she only complain when her mother and sister took things from her? Why didn’t she really settle the accounts and make them return everything? Indeed, she lived a bit better now, and she could have those things again in the future.
So, she repeatedly complained on the surface and compromised in action.
Xu Mi Yu looked at Nie Yu Cheng. Despite witnessing his infidelity, witnessing him standing in front of her with another woman in bathrobes, she couldn’t muster up the strength to be tough.
She could only ask Nie Yu Cheng with a bitter tone, “But when you pursued me, you knew about my family, about my parents. You said you felt more sorry for me because of it. You said you would treat me well for a lifetime, support me for a lifetime! How come, after six years, you can’t take it anymore? When you proposed, didn’t you tell me that you would face my family together with me, overcome all difficulties together?”
Nie Yu Cheng looked at her, his eyes reddening.
Author’s Note:
The family background depicted in the story has been condensed from a real-life situation of one of my middle school classmates. In reality, she is one of five siblings—four sisters and one brother. She is the fourth sister. The reality is even more exaggerated than fiction…
Writing this kind of female protagonist may not be well-received; the story may be cold, I know… But I really wanted to write it because girls from such family backgrounds, from childhood to adulthood, are accustomed to manipulation and brainwashing. They feel that they should support their younger siblings, and they don’t know how to love themselves. And behind the anger of those who find them annoying, there is a possibility that they don’t know how to save themselves and love themselves from such a family background. So, amidst their seemingly frustrating behavior, they are, in fact, the biggest victims. And I just wanted to write about a girl from such a family background who, from childhood, was accustomed to manipulation and lacked love but never gave up on self-rescue and self-love. She just lacked someone to lend her a helping hand. When someone finally pulls her up, awakening her gradually, she will grow into a shining personality that loves and values herself.
Hugs to every girl reading this. Love you all, have a happy weekend! ????
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