Chapter 14 — Marriage Book

The company's investigation results were released, determining that he seriously violated employee ethics rules. Even though he was respectful of his previous achievements, he was not fired, but being transferred to a position, demoted, and receiving a bonus was inevitable. From a promising project manager, he became a quiet employee in the corner of the office, his salary decreased significantly, and no one liked his posts about the project. The people who once called him "Mr. Chu" at the wine table are now polite and distant. The woman in the red dress, Lam Nhiem, at the most turbulent time, submitted her resignation letter and silently disappeared from the company. It is said that she moved to another city, worked at a smaller advertising company, and no longer appeared in his life. Sometimes, during his lunch break, he sits under the bench in front of the company and sees his colleague taking his lover out to eat. At that moment, he remembered a certain rainy night, remembered the "AA agreement" placed on the head of the bed, remembered himself on his wedding night, holding the computer, explaining about "fairness". Then he just felt nauseous. That winter, Chengdu rarely had snow. The streets are covered in white, cars slow down, and pedestrians wrap themselves in scarves. Snow fell on the trees along the road, then was quickly blown down by the wind. Chu Khai Hang stood at the bus stop, his hands in his life jacket pockets, his white breath gradually dissipating in the air. He no longer drives to work. He posted a high-rise apartment in Cam Giang district for rent. Every month the rent comes into his account, he unconsciously looks at the recipient's note, the familiar series of numbers that were once part of the "future life plan" that he and I calculated together. It's just that now, it's become a hole that he alone has to fill. That house, on paper only in his name, technically no longer has anything to do with me. But every time he remembered the bedroom, the lace wedding dress that had fallen on the bed, he felt like that place was occupied by something invisible, and he couldn't stay. Occasionally, on social networks, he will see people sharing a hot love article. Titles are always very eye-catching.

"On the wedding night, my husband forced me to sign the AA agreement. He said it was only fair. I smiled and signed, the next day he knelt down and begged me not to divorce."

The illustration is two black pens, one male and one female, each holding one, with four words "AA agreement after marriage" prominently displayed on the paper. He clicked on the article, read the added details, looked at the male lead's name being changed to a level worse than reality, suddenly a strange feeling of distortion arose in his heart. That person's name is... "Tham Tranh." It's clearly not him, yet there are his silhouettes everywhere. In the comments section, some people scolded the male lead for being a tramp, some scolded the author for deliberately leading public opinion, some exclaimed "there are definitely people like that in real life", some also said "the female lead is so cool", "after reading it, it seems real". He turned off his phone, the screen went black. For a moment, he really wanted to leave a sentence under the article, saying that "in real life it can't be that decisive, nor can the pain end in just a day or two". But he knows, if he really did that, people would just think he was admitting himself into the sentence story. He has no right to explain, nor is he qualified to justify. The only thing he could do, was on quiet nights, go back and forth alone over the AA agreement that had been saved on file, looking at every sentence and every word he had signed, like using a magnifying glass to look back at himself. Sometimes, he also dreamed of me. In the dream, I was still the same as before I got married, wearing a simple dress. When I smiled, the corners of my eyes curled slightly, holding a glass of hot milk and walking towards him. He wanted to reach out to receive it, but suddenly realized that in his hand was the pen signed that year. I looked at him, his eyes were no longer gentle, but calm, even a little strange.

“You see.” In the dream, I spoke up, my voice as light as that morning when I said "okay", "I always knew what I was signing, I just never thought, the other side would also learn to calculate like me."

Woke up, the pillow was wet, outside the window was a cold gray color. Such dreams gradually became less frequent, then almost disappeared. His life gradually returned to normal. It's just that "normal" is no longer peaceful, but a paralysis after losing a certain ability in life. During the time he no longer appeared in my life, I went very far.