Him and Us

Lin Wan and Shen Yizhen were once a couple that others envied. In the past two years, they had shared the smell of coffee in the morning, and they had cuddled up to each other late at night to plan their future. Even their quarrels were full of passionate warmth. But I don't know since when, love has been ground into tiny silence by life. He no longer explained when he came home late from working overtime, and she only received a perfunctory nod when she complained about her grievances. The topics that once could be discussed until dawn gradually turned into silence at both ends of the dinner table. The first cold war lasted for three days, with everyone waiting for the other to bow first; later the quarrel became an excuse to avoid, and after slamming the door and leaving, only the solid air in the empty room was left. They tacitly avoided conflicts, but allowed the estrangement to grow wildly. Until one day, when she habitually wanted to share interesting stories, she turned around and saw him staring at his phone with no reaction. She finally swallowed her words "Today I saw a cat that looked like the one we had before". When the last bit of expectation was exhausted, there was no hysterical farewell, only the keys handed over and evasive glances. Those unspoken "I'm sorry" and "I still love you" ended up being silently turned around. This novel and its characters are purely fictitious. Any similarity is purely coincidental and should not be imitated.