And he hugged me, calling Lily’s name all
night.
A voice kept asking me, Lauren, do you really
not care?
Then why are your hands and feet so cold?
I sighed, forcing myself to pull out of the
memory, refusing to recall it.
I looked at the bedroom.
There was the man I loved most.
What happened before didn’t matter; the key
was now, I didn’t care anymore.
We started planning the wedding.
I went to try on wedding dresses, ignoring
several calls from Ethan.
But my phone kept buzzing.
It was Ethan, sending WeChat messages.
Before, he wouldn’t send so many messages
in a month.
“Lauren, I haven’t let you go yet!
<
Lauren, you’ll regret this!
What are you doing, answer me! You wouldn’t
ignore me for this long before!”
I couldn’t take it anymore, grabbed my phone
in the fitting room, and quickly replied, “I’m
trying on wedding dresses, stop sending
messages.”
The phone was silent for a moment.
Then, it vibrated frantically, non–stop, as if
the person on the other end had gone crazy.
I couldn’t handle it, I answered. “Ethan, if you
keep doing this, we can’t even be friends.”
He ignored me, just kept asking, “What’s so
good about him?
Lauren, marriage and dating are two different
things!”
He took a deep breath. “Lauren, listen to me,
do your parents agree to your marriage? Or
should I wait to go back and talk to them…”
I calmly interrupted him. “Ethan, stop it.”
<
The other end fell silent.
I said quietly, “Ethan, I’m really getting
married. He and I grew up together, we know
each other well, we’re in love.”
Ethan was about to say something, I
interrupted him again. “Lily will be unhappy if
you do this.”
He didn’t speak, his breathing was unsteady.
I sighed. “I told you, I grew up in an
orphanage, I don’t have parents. Why do you
always forget?”
Then I hung up.
Ethan didn’t call again.
Kai waited patiently outside the fitting room,
not asking why I was taking so long.
Only when I came out, he hugged me tightly,
unwilling to let go. “Ningning, thank you for
loving me.”
I hugged him back. “Thank you, too.”
We both grew up in orphanages; we cherish
く
every kindness we receive, feeling endlessly
grateful.
Unlike Ethan, a spoiled rich kid, his always
obedient ex–girlfriend suddenly getting
married, it’s understandable that he’d go
crazy.
But I believed time would heal everything.
Eventually, he would let go of his resentment
and move on.
But I overestimated Ethan’s ability to accept
- it.
A few days later, when I was about to get
married, needing my beauty sleep, Ethan
called again late at night.
He seemed to have been drinking. “Lauren,
you’re something else.”
I was already very impatient, planning to
block him.
He spoke slowly, his voice hoarse and low.
“Back then, why didn’t I think to look at the
photo.
If I’d just looked once, I would have known
something was wrong.”
He was hurt and angry. “But I didn’t look at all, I even brought him back from the
warzone, got him treated, and sent him to
you.
I’m a fool for only remembering to look at the
photo now, I put a green hat on myself!”
Ethan was so angry his voice trembled.
He lowered his voice, you could tell he was
trying to control his emotions, but he couldn’t
control the trembling in his voice. “Lauren,
were you… using me as a replacement?”
I was silent.
He was silent, too.
After a while, he gritted his teeth and yelled,
“Say something! Why aren’t you saying
anything!”
But I suddenly remembered what happened
<
back then.
Lily had another suitor, Ethan posted a photo
of my back on his Moments.
Wearing the latest luxury dress Lily wanted
that season.
It was the only time I wore a dress Ethan gave
- me.
I usually didn’t even take the tags off, just
kept them in the closet, but Ethan nagged me
to wear that dress that day, and took a
picture of me.
It was the first time he posted me on his
Moments, many people liked it, many people
asked in the comments who I was.
Ethan showed me, flippantly calling me,
“Wife, they’re all asking about you.”
When Ethan was in a good mood, he would
call me wife.
He twirled my hair around his fingers. “I said
you’re my wife, my buddies are so envious.”
i smieu, put my eyes caught a new comment,
from Lily: “I want to go to the music festival,
are you going?”
After a while, Ethan glanced at his phone, his
hand paused.
He turned his phone over, casually taking out
his credit card. “Go buy a few bags.”
Then he stood up, put on his coat, and was
about to leave.
Watching him walk out, I impulsively stopped
him. “Ethan, don’t go, okay?”
Ethan was holding the doorknob, hesitated
for a moment, turned around and smiled at
- me. “Lonely? Then go shopping for a while
longer, buy some more clothes, some more
jewelry.”
He turned and closed the door, and as the
door closed, he suddenly said, “I’ll be back
soon, wife.”
I watched the door slowly close, lowering my
<
head, unsure what I was feeling.
At that time, we had gone from college to
work, Ethan changed from calling me baby to
wife.
I had some feelings for him.
Looking at the credit card on the coffee table,
I looked at it for a long time, then put it in the
drawer and never touched it again.
I never had any thoughts again.
A few days later, Ethan came back.
The Moments photo of me, was gone.
A friend called him, asking why he deleted the
photo of his girlfriend, he said lightly, “Oh, it
was just a girl I saw on the street, I thought
she was pretty so I took a picture, I didn’t
delete it to avoid misunderstandings.”
I was in his arms at that time, motionless,
obedient and gentle.
He hung up the phone and kissed my ear.
“Wife is so good.”
<
He thought for a moment and posted my
picture back on his Moments, but only he
could see it.
