Chapter 1 — Freedom After Hands

When she said: "Let's break up, I'm tired", I was eating a bowl of spicy and sour noodles. I say okay. After finishing the last bite of vermicelli, I opened Alipay and turned to the payment sharing page. Hoa Bai, car loan, house rent, movie membership, gym membership, monthly nail package, pet spa... I flipped for three minutes. Eighty-seven entries. Cancel all. From tonight onwards, every free breath she takes will have to be paid for at her own expense. 【Chapter 1】 When To Oanh proposed to break up, I was actually a bit surprised. It's not a surprise because she asked to break up, but a surprise because she chose Wednesday. Wednesday was the day the supermarket near our house had a discount on eggs. I was planning to go buy two trays later. "Lin Vien, let's break up." She stood at the door, her suitcase already pulled, her eyes slightly red, her chin slightly raised, showing an expression like "I've been through a very long internal struggle". My movement of slurping noodles stopped a bit. "I'm really tired." She said, her voice shaking slightly. “For the past three years, you've been like a pond of dead water, I don't see any enthusiasm in you.” Spicy and sour noodle soup splashed on my chin, I used a tissue to wipe it away. “Okay.” She was stunned. Obviously stunned. Eyes blinked twice, lips moved, as if they had prepared a whole set of lines like won't you hold me back, can't you change a little for me, do you have a heart after all, everything is stuck in your throat, there's no room left to use it. "Are you... just like that?" "You're tired of talking." I put down my chopsticks. “If you're tired, rest.” She stared at me for five seconds. During those five seconds, I could feel her waiting. Waiting for me to stand up, rush to hug her and say "don't go". But the spicy and sour vermicelli noodles are cold and really not delicious. “Okay.” She nodded vigorously, pulling up her suitcase. “Lin Vien, you are truly that kind of person.” The door was slammed shut. Very loud. The noodle soup in my bowl also vibrated. I picked up the bowl, drank the last sip of soup, then took out my phone. Alipay, my item, share and pay for me. First item: automatically return Hoa Bai and To Oanh. Deduct money every month on the 8th. Cancel. Second item: automatic deduction of car loan, the Mini Cooper is in To Oanh's name. Every month on the 15th, three thousand eight hundred yuan. Cancel. Third item: pay the rent on your behalf, Lang Thi apartment in the east of the city, room 1802. Every month the 1st, four thousand five hundred yuan. Cancel. Fourth item: iQiyi year membership, To Oanh's phone number. Cancel. Fifth item: Youku gold membership. Cancel. Sixth item: NetEase Cloud music VIP membership. Cancel. The seventh item… I flipped for a full three minutes. There are some things that I even forget when I opened them. Monthly nail salon subscriptions, yoga studio memberships, automated cat food delivery, monthly blind boxes of certain brand's cosmetics... Eighty-seven items. Over the past three years, I suddenly built a self-operating living system for her. She just needs to be in charge of living. And now, the power source of that system has been unplugged by me. After canceling the last item, a precious card from a pet spa center that I was completely unfamiliar with, I put down my phone and stood up to wash the dishes. Feeling quite relieved. The phone lights up. Vuong Loi sent a text message: "What's for dinner, brothers?" I replied: "Just broke up, do you want to go downstairs to eat grilled skewers?" Three seconds later, his phone called. "What did you say? Say it again?" "We broke up, To Oanh suggested." The other end of the line was silent for two seconds. Then Vuong Loi let out a scream that was even more like winning the lottery: "Lin Vien! You're finally free!" I held the phone a little further away, afraid of damaging the speaker. "In ten minutes, downstairs, please." He spoke urgently. “No, please, now you save more than ten thousand each month

Okay?” I thought for a moment. Eighty-seven payments, an average of about twenty-three thousand each month. “Twenty-three thousand.” I said. The other end of the line was silent again. This time the silence was longer. “Lin Vien.” Vuong Loi said in an extremely complicated tone. “Are you sick?” I might be a little sick. But now it's gone. When I went downstairs, I passed by the supermarket and suddenly remembered. Chicken eggs are on sale today. I went in and bought two trays. For the first time I feel, Wednesday is a beautiful day. 【Chapter 2】 The first day after breaking up. I slept until I woke up at half past nine. Pulling out the curtain, the sunlight hit my face, warm and comfortable. Previously, at seven o'clock on Thursday morning, To Oanh's alarm would ring. Not because she wanted to wake up, but because she wanted to turn off the alarm and get some more sleep. That alarm bell was the sound of a dolphin, every time it startled me out of my dream. Not anymore. The world is as quiet as if soaked in cotton. I fried two eggs, made a cup of coffee, and sat on the balcony scrolling on my phone. At ten fifteen, To Oanh's friend circle was updated. A photo of a coffee cup, with the words: "New beginning, treat yourself a little better." Thirty-two likes, six comments. Truong Duyet commented: "Come on ladies, it's right to kick that tasteless man!" With an expressionless face, I clicked like. At 10:40, I received a notification that the payment failed. "The shared payment you set up, VIP iQiyi ending number 307, was canceled yesterday, automatic renewal for this month failed." I took a sip of coffee. The story has begun.——To Oanh's side of the story, I later pieced it together from all kinds of channels. It is said that that morning, she curled up on the sofa at her best friend Truong Duyet's house to watch a movie. As soon as she opened iQiyi, a notification box appeared on the home page: "Your VIP membership has expired, can you renew it?" She was stunned. Isn't it automatically renewed? She clicked close, then opened Youku again. Same message. NetEase Cloud Music. VIP music also expires. She sat up. Three platforms expired at the same time, this is not normal. Opened the Alipay invoice, there was no record of deduction. "What's wrong?" She muttered a sentence. Truong Duyet poked his head out from the kitchen: "What's wrong?" "My membership has expired, there must be something wrong with Alipay." "Then reopen it." To Oanh pressed the renew button. "Payment failed: insufficient balance." Her Hoa Bai limit is twenty thousand, currently eighteen thousand has been used. She frowned and logged out to see the balance in the fund. Three hundred and twenty-seven yuan. “…”To Oanh stared at that number for ten seconds. For three years now, she has never cared about these things. Expired membership will automatically renew, due Hoa Bai bills will automatically be paid, due rent will be automatically deducted, everything is as natural as breathing. She never thought who was standing behind those words "automatic". Or to put it another way, she had thought about it. Just felt like it was obvious. "Truong Duyet." Her voice was a bit dry. "Tell me... has he canceled the payment for her?" Truong Duyet walked over with two cups of yogurt and gave her one: "Who? Lam Vien?” “Yes.” “It's not that bad.” Truong Duyet sat down. "Let's just break up, do we need to be so stingy?"To Oanh said nothing, opened Alipay, searched for "share payment". Page jumps. Empty. All shared relationships have been canceled by the other party. Her finger holding the phone tightened slightly.——I was lazy at the company at that time. Lazy with peace of mind and comfort. Previously, every month my salary was twenty-one thousand, minus To Oanh's system, twenty-three thousand, every month I also compensated two thousand, based on the year-end bonus and

personal work to fill the hole. Now those twenty-one thousand are all mine. I even had a hallucination, as if I had just received a thousand percent raise. At noon, I went down to the cafeteria to eat and ordered another chicken thigh. Quality of life increases with the naked eye. At three o'clock in the afternoon, the phone rang. To Oanh sent a text message: "Lam Vien, have you canceled all the payments for me?" I replied: "Yes." The bubble on the other side jumping for a long time while typing. Thirty seconds later, the message appeared: "Can you stop being so childish? Couldn't you have given me an hour's notice before canceling? My bill this month hasn't been paid yet." I looked at this message, thought for a moment, typed a few words: "You said goodbye, I can say it. You're gone, I'll cancel." "Normal process." The other person was silent for a long time. Then a voice message was sent, but I didn't listen. Another text message: "So what about next month's Hoa Bai bill? As for the car loan, it's already been deducted on the 15th of this month." I put down the phone and went to get a glass of water. Return to work, look at the screen again. She sent three more messages: "You know I don't have a job right now, right?" "Can't you help me for another month? Give me a little extra time?" "Lin Vien?" I took a sip of water. "I can't." After sending those two words, I closed the chat box. Then open the food delivery app and order yourself a glass of milk tea. Full sugar. Add coconut jelly. Before, To Oanh didn't let me drink full sugar, saying it wasn't good for my health. But she's not here anymore. The first sip went down, so sweet that I squinted my eyes. 【Chapter 3】 The third day after breaking up. My mother called. When I picked up the phone, the first thing she said was: "To Oanh broke up with you?" "Yes, your news is really fast." "My mom called me." My mother's voice was very calm. "Speaking of your cold attitude, you won't even keep it." I leaned back in my chair: "She proposed to break up, I agreed, this is called respecting her choice." The other end of the line was silent for two seconds. Then my mother said: "So you canceled the twenty-three thousand monthly payments?" "Cancelled." Another three seconds of silence. "Son." Her voice suddenly changed, carrying tremors as if she had just survived an accident. "Have you been bewitched before?""...""Twenty-three thousand! Your monthly salary is only twenty-one thousand! What do you have in your head? Cotton?""Mom...""If my father knew, he would be so angry that he would jump out of bed! Wait there!" The phone had not yet been disconnected, I heard her shouting in another direction: "Lao Lam! Your son compensates that woman with two thousand every month! Compensates for three years!" Far away I heard my father's vague voice: "What?" Then there was the sound of slippers squishing, getting closer and closer. “What did you say?” My father's voice boomed through the receiver. “How much?” “Twenty-three thousand a month.” I said. The other end was silent. Scary silence. I thought the signal was cut off. Five seconds later, my father said calmly in an angry voice: "Lin Vien, listen carefully. From today, transfer five thousand to your mother every month." I looked at the black screen. Okay, from twenty-three thousand to five thousand, big words. That night, Vuong Loi found me to eat grilled food. We sat at a roadside restaurant, he gnawed on sheep kidneys, shaking his head as he gnawed. "Twenty-three thousand, three years." He calculated a little. “Eight hundred twenty-eight thousand.”