Chapter 1 — Someone Else's WiFi Password

On the day we moved into our newlywed home, I casually asked my boyfriend what the WiFi password was, and my best friend, who had come over to celebrate our housewarming, blurted out:

"LZX1120."

I froze. LZX were the initials of my best friend's name, and 1120 was her birthday. At that exact moment, my boyfriend walked out of the kitchen. He chuckled and explained:

"Isn't Ha Ha a professional interior designer?"

"I figured she and you are such good friends, so I asked her to decorate our place."

"Surprised?"

I forced a nod, then spoke up:

"Should we change the WiFi password, though?"

1

"Why is the WiFi password 'LZX1120'?"

I held my phone, looking toward Jiang Tu Bai, who was busy in the kitchen. LZX stood for Lam Tri Ha, and 1120 was her birthday. A heavy silence fell over the room. Lam Tri Ha, who had been sitting on the sofa drinking water, stood up and gently tugged at my sleeve.

"I am so sorry, Ning Ning. When we were decorating the place earlier, I just typed that in out of habit to connect to the internet quickly."

"I will tell Jiang Tu Bai to change it right now."

"Change it? Why?"

Jiang Tu Bai furrowed his brow, clear disapproval coating his tone.

"We are all used to it by now, and besides, do you even know how many drafts Ha Ha had to revise for this house?"

"Just for the living room accent wall, she changed the color seven times, and she was still messaging me at two in the morning to confirm the paint swatch."

He paused for a brief second before adding:

"It is just a password. You are overthinking it; she just wanted convenience."

I swallowed the objections rising in my throat and spoke in a soft voice:

"Fine. Whatever you say."

I stopped pressing the issue and turned my gaze around the newlywed home I was about to move into. The bright yellow fabric sofa, the classic French-style coffee table, and even the curtains trimmed with delicate white lace. Six months ago, overwhelmed by my workload, I had handed the entire interior design process over to Jiang Tu Bai. But looking at it now, every single detail in this space reflected Lam Tri Ha's personal taste.

"Dinner is ready."

Jiang Tu Bai carried the last dish out of the kitchen. I nodded and turned into the kitchen to grab the utensils. I pulled open several drawers in succession, but they were all empty. While I stood there in confusion, Lam Tri Ha walked up behind me and expertly pulled open the dishwasher door, retrieving three sets of clean chopsticks and bowls.

"We did not take these out after doing the dishes last time."

She smiled and handed them to me. I stood rooted to the spot, my voice catching in my throat:

"Last time?"

"Yes. Sometimes supervising the renovations ran too late, so Jiang Tu Bai would ask me to stay for a meal."

Her tone was utterly casual, yet it completely stole the air from my lungs. I suffered from chronic gastritis, and to keep me from eating takeout, Jiang Tu Bai had gone out of his way to get a culinary certificate. But ever since the renovation of our new home began, he had used the excuse of an "tight schedule and being too busy" to stop cooking for me entirely. As it turned out, it was not that he had no time to cook; rather, in this home that was supposed to belong to me, he had been cooking for another woman instead. Returning to the dining table, I silently ate my plain white rice.

"Try this sweet and sour pork ribs, the heat was just right."

Jiang Tu Bai naturally picked up a piece of rib and placed it in Lam Tri Ha's bowl.

"It is way too sweet. You clearly know I have been watching my sugar intake lately."

Lam Tri Ha pouted as she picked the rib out of her bowl and dropped it back into Jiang Tu Bai's, then casually plucked the cilantro out of his dish.

"When are you ever going to get rid of this habit of not eating cilantro?"

"It is a childhood habit, impossible to break," Jiang Tu Bai replied with a gentle smile.

The two of them laughed and chatted, interacting with a seamless, intimate rapport that mirrored a couple married for many years. Sitting opposite them, I felt like an outsider who had accidentally stumbled into someone else's dinner party.

"You two..."

I gripped my chopsticks tightly, hesitating for a long moment before speaking in a hoarse whisper:

"Since when did you get this close?"

Jiang Tu Bai's movements faltered. He avoided my gaze and smoothly brushed it aside:

"We were working on the interior design, after all. We communicated every single day, and after running back and forth so much, we just naturally grew closer."

"That is right, Ning Ning. You are not actually jealous, are you?"

Lam Tri Ha rested her chin in one hand. "I was only helping you supervise the project."

They exchanged amused smiles, brushing the matter aside as if it were nothing at all.

2

That meal tasted like sawdust to me. Afterward, Lam Tri Ha showed no intention of leaving. She walked familiarly through the living room, pushed open the door at the end of the corridor, and called back:

"Jiang Tu Bai, hurry up, the game is starting!"

Jiang Tu Bai had just placed the last bowl into the dishwasher. Hearing her, he did not even bother to dry the water on his hands before striding rapidly in that direction:

"Coming, coming!"

I watched his retreating back and followed in silence. When I reached the doorway and took in the scene inside, a chill ran through me as if I had fallen into an icy cavern. During the initial layout planning of our new home, I had not interfered with any other design choices, only begging my boyfriend to preserve a nursery. But now, that space had been converted into a high-end gaming room. Two computer rigs glowed brilliantly, accompanied by ergonomic gaming chairs and a matching pair of black and pink gaming headsets. At that very moment, the pink headset was securely resting on Lam Tri Ha's head. Jiang Tu Bai pulled up a chair next to hers and reached for the black headset, but I stepped forward and pressed my hand firmly down on his wrist.

"Did I not tell you that we needed to keep this room as a nursery?"

I suppressed the tremor in my voice, staring straight into his eyes. Jiang Tu Bai froze. He looked at me, a flicker of impatience crossing his features as he gave a dismissive wave of his hand:

"Ning Ning, we are only just preparing to get married."

"It is much too early to talk about children. Besides, leaving this room empty would be a waste, so we are just using it as a gaming room for now."

"Exactly, Ning Ning, do not take it so seriously," Lam Tri Ha blinked innocently at me.

"I just noticed your internet connection is fast, so I occasionally come over to use the equipment. It is no big deal."

Without waiting for my reply, she turned and tugged playfully on Jiang Tu Bai's sleeve:

"Hurry up, the ranked match is starting, and the enemy team picked your most hated assassin!"

"Fine, let me show you how I handle him."

Their attention was instantly recaptured by the screens. The clacking of keyboards and their synchronized laughter filled the entire room. Neither of them glanced back at me again. I stood by the door, feeling like an isolated trespasser. In this so-called home, even my standing to question them had been rendered redundant. I turned around and walked step by step back to the living room. Sitting on the sofa, I placed a hand gently over my flat lower abdomen beneath my loose sweater. Right there rested a tiny life that was barely three months along. Just before walking through the front door, I had been brimming with joy, imagining that I would pull out the ultrasound scan tonight and tell him we were going to have a baby. But now, feeling the thin piece of paper in my pocket, I felt only a chilling wave of utter discouragement. I looked around. In this newlywed home, not a single object belonged to me. Even the nursery that held all my hopes for the future had been usurped by someone else. I stood up, pulled my unopened suitcase behind me, and walked out into the night without looking back. If this place did not belong to me, I would take my leave with my dignity intact.

3

I spent a makeshift night at a budget hotel near my office. The next morning, the phone beside my pillow buzzed, displaying Jiang Tu Bai's name on the screen. I answered. His fatigued voice came through the receiver, sounding as natural as if nothing had happened last night:

"Ning Ning, Ha Ha and I gamed all night and we are starving with stomachaches."

"Did you go out to buy breakfast? On your way back, grab us two steamers of soup dumplings, will you?"

I held the phone, falling silent for a moment. He had not even realized that I had stayed out all night.

"Buy them yourselves."

With that, I hung up directly, got out of bed, and headed to work. Throughout the entire day, Jiang Tu Bai did not try to contact me again. It was not until dusk, just as I stepped out of the office building, that I spotted that familiar figure. Jiang Tu Bai was standing by the curb. Seeing me emerge, he reached out to take my bag and grasped my wrist with his usual familiarity:

"Let's go home."

I stood my ground, not moving an inch. Noticing the resistance, he turned back and lowered his voice into a soft, conciliatory tone:

"Still angry?"

"I know I was wrong. I should not have taken you for granted."

"Come home with me. I will listen to you from now on; you can remodel the house however you like."

Seeing that I remained cold, he let out a helpless sigh and played his final card:

"My mom just called. She wants us to come over for dinner this weekend."

Hearing those words, the rigid tension in my spine slackened slightly. Jiang's mother had been my junior high homeroom teacher. That bitter winter, my parents died in a highway car accident on their way back to our hometown. When the traffic police called the school, she was the one who pulled me out of the classroom to break the news. She was also the one who, when I felt utterly drained of strength and slid down the hallway wall, caught me in her arms. Afterward, when I tried to drop out of school, claiming I could no longer afford my education, she called me into her office. Without lecturing me on grand principles, she simply poured a cup of hot water and set it before me, her tone resolute:

"I will sponsor your education through university. You just focus on passing your exams."

She was the first and only person who reached out to pull me back from the brink after my parents passed away. Looking at Jiang Tu Bai's face, which bore a striking resemblance to Teacher Chu, I finally muttered a quiet concession:

"Alright. Let's go home."

Pushing open the security door, the living room lights cast a warm glow. I swept my gaze across the room. Inside, the slippers and mugs belonging to Lam Tri Ha had completely vanished. The door to the gaming room stood wide open. I walked over and peered inside. The twin computers, the gaming chairs, and the matching black and pink headset pairs were entirely gone. Jiang Tu Bai must have spent the entire day hiring someone to clear away every single trace Lam Tri Ha had left behind, then deep-cleaned the space all over again. He walked up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me tightly against him. Resting his chin lightly on the crown of my head, his deep voice drifted down from above:

"Ning Ning, I changed the WiFi password, too."

"If you don't like this interior style, we can redo the whole thing."

"Tell me what aesthetic you like, and we will decorate it accordingly."

"At first, I just assumed your tastes and Ha Ha's were somewhat similar..."

He rambled on with his explanations, but not a single word registered in my mind. My hand slipped into my pocket, my fingertips brushing against the thin ultrasound scan. I gripped the edge of the paper, stroking it gently.

"It's fine. Whatever you say."

I murmured a perfunctory reply. My hand slid out of my pocket, but the paper inside was never pulled out after all.

4

At dusk on the weekend, Jiang Tu Bai and I knocked on the door of Teacher Chu's home. The security door swung open, and the rich aroma of home-cooked food washed over us. Teacher Chu greeted us with a radiant smile and immediately shoved a thick red envelope into my hands. I pushed it right back:

"Teacher Chu, you sponsored my university education; I already owe you more than enough. How could I possibly accept your money now?"