The Monarch Butterfly - Chapter 6

“President Lu, besides the sofa and the fragrances, can you name a few more small details your wife arranged for you? You only need three.”

I raised three fingers as casually as if it meant nothing.

She stared at them as though they were three spirit banners summoning the dead.

Her eyes began to dart around.

She searched desperately through her memory.

I waited in silence.

I wanted so badly for her to name even one.

But I knew she couldn’t.

If she could have, she would not be my ex-wife now.

I turned my face slightly away from the camera.

I let out the softest of sighs.

The irritation in my voice was impossible to hide.

She trembled.

“Chu Tianshu, I…”

I immediately interrupted her with a smile. “President Lu, please call me Ms. Chu. We’re still on an interview program.”

She bit down on her lower lip. Her eyes were full of urgency and agitation, yet there was nothing she could do.

Whenever she encountered a question she could not evade, she used her body to muddle the issue.

She thought that if she made me feel good in bed, I would stop caring about everything else.

Part of me wished I could be as carefree as she wanted, and stop worrying about these little details.

But how could the things that mattered in our home be dismissed as “little details”?

There were only two of us in that home. Her indifference, deliberate avoidance, and apathy had caused it to collapse by half from the very beginning.

I had propped it up for three years.

I truly could not keep doing it.

I still loved her very much.

But I no longer wanted to build a home with her.

I could not drag her along.

I was so, so tired.

The comments finally seemed to understand.

Lu Zhiyao’s prolonged silence made the viewers furious.

“Oh… so that’s how it was. No wonder Chu Tianshu wanted a divorce.”

“Serves her right!”

“Where are the people who said Chu Tianshu cheated? Come out and take your beating!”

“What good are pretty looks? What good is all that money? Chu Tianshu wanted love…”

“If you don’t want to share everyday life with your wife, don’t get married! Marry your job instead!”

“She can’t name a single detail. My God, how hurt must Chu Tianshu have been…”

“Lu Zhiyao only fulfilled the obligations outsiders could see. Behind closed doors, she was no different from a ghost.”

“I understand why Chu Tianshu refused to replace the sofa herself. That sofa was Lu Zhiyao’s last chance.”

“If Lu Zhiyao had taken the initiative to replace it, had discussed what kind of sofa to buy with Chu Tianshu, maybe Chu Tianshu wouldn’t have left.”

“Three years. How did Chu Tianshu endure it?”

Lu Zhiyao’s breathing grew heavier and heavier.

She could not think of anything.

Not a single thing.

She only knew that after getting married, her life had become more and more comfortable. She had been happy.

She had never stopped to consider how hard another person had worked to create that comfort and happiness for her.

I looked at her and softened my voice. “President Lu, your wife told you about every single thing she did.”

Lu Zhiyao suddenly lifted her eyes and stared at me.

Her gaze was filled with despair.

I blinked, clearing the moisture from my eyes.

I tugged at the corner of my mouth. “But perhaps to you, all those things she chattered about were nothing but white noise.”

“You were busy with company business, your eyes fixed on the documents on your computer. How could you spare the attention to listen to those ‘unimportant’ ‘little things’ your wife was telling you?”

“But, President Lu.”

“Your wife had a career of her own too.”

“She was a journalist who had worked in the field for years and earned a modest reputation.”

“She could have immersed herself in grand narratives as well, just like you, and ignored the little details of a household.”

“But as you said, she was someone who loved life.”

“She loved life just as she loved you.”

“Because she loved you, she had no choice but to leave you.”

“Do you understand now?”