For years, I devoted myself to caring for the children and the elderly, neglecting my own health until I developed pancreatic cancer.
With my life drawing to a close, I returned to the old family home to sort through my things, only to discover a diary my husband, who had died ten years earlier, had hidden at the bottom of a box.
I opened it gently. The last page read:
“Chenxi, wait for me a little longer. I’ll be with you soon.”
Every page of his diary was about Lu Chenxi.
It turned out my husband hadn’t died in an accident. He had taken his own life for Lu Chenxi, who had died of an illness.
I sank helplessly onto a chair and stared blankly at my husband’s memorial portrait on the table.
“So the only person you ever loved was her. You were even willing to abandon your own parents and children for her...”
A coppery sweetness rose in my throat. Furious, I threw his portrait to the floor.
“Pei Zhouyu, I regret ever marrying you.”
To my surprise, I was reborn.
This time, I refused to repeat the same mistakes and resolutely left that loveless marriage.
He scoffed and bet his friends, “She’ll come crawling back to me within four hours.”
But three hours, three days, and three months passed, and I still hadn’t returned.
Later, he asked when I would come back to him.
With my arm linked through another man’s, I answered firmly, “Never.”
