He Chose His Ex. I Chose Divorce

“Why did you hide it from me when something happened? Couldn’t you have called?” Three months into our cold war, that was the first question my husband asked me.

He had just learned that I had been badly scalded and gone to the hospital alone.

Yet earlier that very day, when I went in for my final dressing change, I saw him accompanying his exgirlfriend to the hospital.

She wore his coat over her shoulders and urged him not to miss her appointment. And I—his wife of three years, whom no one knew about—stepped aside with perfect composure.

Faced with my husband’s belated concern, I didn’t explain. I had no desire to argue anymore. I asked him only one thing. “Let’s get divorced.

All right?” Chapter 1 After a vicious argument, Fu Xun and I barely spoke for almost three months. He moved into an apartment near his office. We rarely saw each other.

This time, I didn’t give in first. I ate. I slept. I hardly thought about Fu Xun at all. When we ran into each other at the hospital, both of us froze.

He and Xie Shiyi walked side by side, chatting and laughing. The difference in their heights made them look perfectly matched.

Shiyi was lightly dressed, and Fu Xun’s coat hung over her shoulders. From a distance, they looked made for each other. I had come for a dressing change.

I never expected to see them there. If Fu Xun hadn’t been my husband, I would have thought they made a beautiful couple too. Strangely, though, jealousy wasn’t my first reaction.

I felt utterly calm. I was still deciding whether to have fried chicken or steak afterward. Fu Xun’s cool eyes met mine across the sudden distance between us.

I started to walk around them.

He caught my hand. “Why are you at the hospital?” Before I could collect myself or decide how to answer, Shiyi spoke. “Fu Xun. “It’s almost time for my appointment.

Can you come upstairs with me first?” Then she looked at me. I pulled at the corners of my mouth and gave them both a bright, sincere smile. “Then you two should hurry.

I’ll be going.” This was exactly the attitude Fu Xun had always wanted from me—generous, never asking about him and his ex, never jealous. I was perfectly capable of not caring.

My performance had been flawless. I deserved an Oscar. Who could possibly tell that I was Fu Xun’s wife? I removed my hand from his grasp and left the hospital.

Outside, I found a friedchicken restaurant nearby and sat down. After three months of dietary restrictions, I could finally eat whatever I wanted.

Zhou Yue called me. “AYun, have you eaten?” I told her I was eating fried chicken. “Fu Xun still doesn’t know about the miscarriage or the scalding?” I hummed softly. “But I saw him when I came in for my dressing change today.” Yue sounded surprised. “And you didn’t tell him?” I sighed. “No.” She pressed on. “Didn’t he ask why you were at the hospital?” I took a sip of soda before answering. “He was there with Xie Shiyi.

We had a terrible fight, you know? “As soon as it was over, I had a feeling Fu Xun and I were finished. “There wasn’t a good chance to say anything, and I couldn’t be bothered to force one.” Yue cursed. “Bastard.

What a piece of trash.” Anyone could feel the imbalance in my relationship with Fu Xun—whether they were inside it or looking on from the outside. He held all the power.

Chapter 2 He controlled my moods. Fu Xun was cold by nature and spoke little. Except for that one vicious argument, we never fought.

I was simply left to feel his indifference on my own. When Xie Shiyi returned from advanced training overseas, Fu Xun and his friends threw her a welcomehome dinner.

Fu Xun picked her up at the airport. I had just landed too. Shiyi and I had been on the same flight. I had changed my ticket and returned early without telling Fu Xun.

Since it was the middle of the night, I hadn’t wanted to disturb him. Then I walked through the arrivals exit and saw a tall man standing there.

In three years of marriage, he had never prepared a surprise like this for me. The airport was nearly empty before dawn, its overhead lights glaringly bright.

Fu Xun stood straight and striking, his expression cool. My eyes lit up. I was already raising a hand to wave.

How had Fu Xun learned that my flight was landing in Jing City before dawn? “Fu Xun.” A soft voice called his name. At last, warmth entered his distant eyes. He held a bouquet.

Fu Xun had always had excellent taste, whether in clothes or anything else.

The flowers were layered in gentle shades that blended into one another—not the loud, blazing red roses a clueless man might choose.

His lips curved faintly. “After all these years, you finally decided to come back?” he asked lazily. My instincts told me this woman was Xie Shiyi.

In the three years I had been with Fu Xun, I had occasionally heard her name. I heard he had once loved her deeply. He had almost married her.

Shiyi blinked with a playful smile. “I couldn’t stay away from you.” I watched every subtle change in Fu Xun’s face. His smile stalled for a fraction of a second, then recovered.

What was he thinking in that instant? Did he regret not waiting for her? My mood plunged like a droptower ride.

I had thought my cold husband had finally learned how to be romantic. He hadn’t come for me at all. The disappointment left a sour ache deep in my chest. I took a taxi home.

The next day, Fu Xun didn’t mention Shiyi, and I didn’t tell him I had seen them at the airport. That evening, one of his friends shared a socialmedia post.

In the group photo, Fu Xun and Shiyi sat together. Because the dinner was for her, the two of them occupied the center.

The picture looked strangely like something taken after a wedding. Their friends might as well have gathered to witness Fu Xun and Shiyi’s union.

I hadn’t seen Shiyi’s face clearly at the airport. This picture captured every detail. My heart trembled at the first look. She was beautiful, but not in a sharp or aggressive way.

Her features were delicate, her skin almost snowwhite. It was obvious that she worked out. She had a healthy, shapely figure rather than a painfully thin one.

She was accomplished and came from an excellent family. I found records from her university years.

On the forum for the university she and Fu Xun had attended, several posts mentioned them. [Please help. That junior from the School of Foreign Languages, Xie Shiyi, is gorgeous.

Does anyone have her contact information?] [Xie Shiyi? I think she has a boyfriend.] [Hahaha, give up, OP.

Her boyfriend is pretty handsome too.] The more I learned about their past, the more it hurt. A fine, spreading bitterness seeped through my chest.

From those small details and the stories I had heard before, I pieced together Fu Xun and Xie Shiyi’s history. Between Fu Xun and me, he held the power.

Chapter 3 But between Fu Xun and Xie Shiyi, she had been the one with the upper hand.

The person who loved more would always become humbler, always more anxious about losing the other.

Shiyi had forgotten to deactivate an old Weibo account that chronicled her university years. When she and Fu Xun were together, he remembered the dates of her periods.

He had even washed her bloodstained underwear. He believed the childish legend that a couple who kissed at the top of a Ferris wheel would stay together forever.

The Fu Xun who had dated Xie Shiyi was nothing like the Fu Xun who married me. I closed Weibo.

Then I suddenly realized that Fu Xun’s WeChat name was “11.” Eleven—shiyi in Chinese—sounded like Shiyi’s name.

I had always thought Fu Xun was cold because that was simply his nature. Only after seeing him with Shiyi did I understand. He knew perfectly well how to be warm.

He just saved that warmth for someone else. Jing City’s first snow of the year fell that November. It had been one week since Shiyi returned.

After escorting a client to a hotel, I saw Fu Xun and Shiyi leaving together. My mind went blank at the sight of them. Something seemed to explode inside my head.

Fu Xun came out of the hotel just as I finished settling my client in. Our eyes met.

After hesitating for a long time, I asked, “Was that woman Xie Shiyi?” Fu Xun nodded. “Yes.” He made no effort to explain. We drove home separately.

I had always known Fu Xun was cold. But now that I had seen the other version of him—the one he showed Shiyi—I could no longer accept it.

He couldn’t even be bothered to offer me an explanation. His indifference was so complete that I couldn’t even find an opening for a confrontation.

Our vicious argument happened the day after I saw them at the hotel. Photos of Fu Xun and Shiyi entering and leaving together had been leaked.

When Fu Xun came home, his impassive face was dark. His gaze settled on me.

My heart tightened for no reason. “Gu Yun, did you release those photos?” I didn’t understand. “What photos?” He laughed coldly. “Still pretending?” Mockery edged his voice. “You followed me last night just to take these pictures?

To prove I cheated on you and got back together with her? “Do you want something to happen between us that badly?” When he put the photos in front of me, I understood.

He had misunderstood. But Fu Xun had already decided I took them. “These rumors could cost her the position she’s about to take. “She spent three years training overseas.

Dance is the most important thing in her life. “Are you really that determined to ruin her?” So this was who I was in Fu Xun’s eyes. My nose stung.

Heat gathered behind my eyes. “Fu Xun. “If the two of you had nothing to hide, a photograph wouldn’t frighten you. “When you went to a hotel with your ex while married, why didn’t you think about her career then? “She knows you’re married.

Does she understand what it looks like when she keeps crossing lines with her ex?

Does she know people will think she is knowingly becoming the other woman?” Dark fury gathered beneath Fu Xun’s brow. “Gu Yun. “She was my first love.

I still wasn’t over her when I married you. None of this is new information. “You’re jealous now?

Why didn’t you object to my having an ex three years ago?” Before marrying him, I had indeed known that he had a first love.

Chapter 4 My mind seemed to detonate after Fu Xun said those words. Emotion lodged in my throat. What he said was unbearably cruel.

Xie Shiyi was the spotless first love in his heart. In his eyes, I was a scheming villain. “Fu Xun, I hate you.” Tears spilled down my face. It was our first fight.

I hated how easily I cried. Crying at a moment like this felt like surrender. It was humiliating. Neither of us spoke to the other afterward.

Jing City’s first snow of the year fell that November. It was already dark when I left work. I slipped. I hit the ground hard. Agony twisted through my lower abdomen.

The pain felt too wrong to ignore. Few people stayed late at the office on winter nights. No one was nearby.

I called emergency services and waited where I had fallen for the ambulance. After calling emergency services, I still held out hope and phoned Fu Xun. The call connected.

The background on his end was noisy. “Xun, are you here to pick up Shiyi?” The pain was too intense for me to speak. I didn’t know when the call ended.

I knew only that Fu Xun was with Xie Shiyi. An ambulance took me to the hospital. I heard a doctor ask beside me, “You’re pregnant. Did you know?” I hadn’t known.

Tears ran past my temples as I lay on the operating table. I signed the surgical consent form myself. Breathing in the disinfectant, I received the anesthetic. Then I fell asleep.

I didn’t contact Fu Xun again. I told Zhou Yue what happened and hired a hospital caregiver. Three days later, I was discharged.

From that day on, Fu Xun and I drifted farther apart. I stopped reaching out first. When he stayed out late, I no longer messaged him.

When business dinners kept him out, I stopped leaving a light on. Once I let go, life felt much easier. The vicious fight and the miscarriage might as well never have happened.

Yue worried I would be devastated, so she made me stay at her place for a night. She tried to comfort me with one speech after another.

I smiled and shrugged. “Yue, I’m not sad. “You don’t have to worry about me.” She looked unconvinced. “Really.” Eventually, Yue realized I truly wasn’t grieving.

I went skiing with friends. I even ran into Xie Shiyi at the resort. It was the first time we had met facetoface.

As we passed, she glanced at me with an unreadable smile in her eyes. I didn’t dwell on it. I also used some vacation days to travel with Yue.

That was the second month of our cold war. At home, we would meet each other’s eyes, look away, and continue with our separate lives. We had almost nothing to say.

Fu Xun rarely volunteered anything about his work or his life. I had always been the one who found subjects for us to discuss.

Once I stopped, there was naturally no conversation left. In the third month, I was eating hot pot when a server lost control of the pot. Scalding broth splashed over me.

Blisters rose almost instantly. The pain made me want to writhe on the floor. That was when I ran into Xie Shiyi and one of Fu Xun’s friends, Lu Jinghe.

Shiyi’s social circle overlapped almost completely with Fu Xun’s. She knew all his friends too. Jinghe saw me and came over to ask whether I was all right. I shook my head.

I wanted as little contact as possible with either of them. When I went to the hospital for my final dressing change, I never expected to find Fu Xun there with Shiyi.

I returned home after the appointment. Chapter 5 Fu Xun came home too.

His brows drew together as he looked me up and down. “Lu Jinghe told me you were scalded at a hotpot restaurant last week. “Why did you hide it from me when something happened?

Couldn’t you have called?” Silence stretched between us. Only after a long while did I speak. “Fu Xun, maybe we should stop. “Let’s get divorced.” He