Still Frame Chapter 81
byChapter 81: Humid True Love
Zhang Liuxin’s new jawline was tightly strained, his eyes were terribly red, yet he fiercely held back his tears. His lips were pressed into a straight line, his gaze swirling with anger and unspeakable grievance. Every breath he took was accompanied by an uncontrollable tremor.
Wen Jin couldn’t bear to watch. He leaned closer, trying to put an arm around him, just as he had grown accustomed to doing these past few days: “Liuxin, I was wrong.”
“Of course you were wrong,” Zhang Liuxin broke down, batting his hand away and overwhelming him with accusations. Tears streamed down his face like broken threads, yet his expression remained blank. “We shouldn’t have had any connection in the first place. Yes, I like you very much, but I never thought I absolutely had to marry you. My demands aren’t that high, and I wouldn’t dare to think that way. But weren’t you the one who wanted to marry me? Why did you agree to switch from Zhang Qiannan to me? Why, after we got married, did you treat me like this? So cold, so unwilling to talk to me, unwilling to sleep with me. Only after coming here did you talk to me more, and that was because you didn’t speak Bernlinian… Oh, that was a lie too.”
His accusations, along along with his tears, struck Wen Jin’s heart like meteorites, leaving him almost helpless. He could only watch powerlessly as his heart turned into a pitted ruin, until a tiny drop of Zhang Liuxin’s tear fell onto the back of his hand. It was a small drop, yet it abruptly made Wen Jin think of a heavy rain—the first time he had ever hated rain so much.
“So, that’s why you want to divorce me.” Wen Jin pulled out a tissue and gently wiped away the tears on his cheeks one by one.
Zhang Liuxin paused for a moment, then turned his head away again, dodging his touch. “All of you know about it.”
“The lawyer you hired is Lü Zixia’s university classmate.”
Mentioning this, Wen Jin’s tone hardened again, but the moment his eyes met Zhang Liuxin’s tear-filled gaze, he lost his resolve. He forced himself to soften his voice and leaned slightly forward. Zhang Liuxin pressed against the back of the chair, unable to avoid him, and had no choice but to meet his eyes.
Before this business trip, he had finished his work at the TV station. He received a notification from Zhang Jiming telling him about another banquet he had to attend next week. He received a notification from Levi telling him that he would be traveling with Wen Jin to Weiting Prefecture for a forum in a few days. He received a notification from Wen Jin telling him that he wouldn’t be back tonight, and that the following days were uncertain.
After reading these messages, Zhang Liuxin looked up and happened to see a couple across the street sharing a skewer of oden.
It was actually a very ordinary evening, a very ordinary couple, and even a very ordinary skewer of oden.
But he stood there and watched for a long time, watching how they finished a fish ball skewer, bite by bite, watching how they smiled with curved eyes while telling each other trivial things, watching their shoulders and thighs pressed intimately together. He watched for a long time.
After the couple boarded the bus, the driver from Wenfei Terrace pulled up and stopped in front of him—an expensive car with an expensive license plate and a driver who was utterly respectful toward him.
He suddenly felt a bit nauseous. In the end, he refused the driver, saying he wanted to walk.
Unknowingly, he walked to the base of a law firm building. Zhang Liuxin stared at the sign that read “Divorce Litigation” for a long time, then went into a pharmacy to buy a mask before pulling open the law firm’s door.
Of course, he couldn’t reveal his identity. When discussing asset distribution, he didn’t know what to say. The lawyer opposite him pressed him three times before he answered blankly that everything he currently possessed was given to him by his husband.
Even the ability to walk normally.
He left the law firm quickly. Even as he hurriedly got into the car, he was pathetically thinking, Please don’t let anyone take a picture and cause trouble for Wen Jin.
But the matter was still discovered, not just by Levi, but by Wen Jin too.
Zhang Liuxin found it hard to articulate his feelings that day. He didn’t know why he had impulsively run to a law firm to stammer out his thoughts. He had always felt that after being in this marriage for so long, he wasn’t someone who craved love that much, and wouldn’t do such a thing just because he saw a loving couple. But he couldn’t find any other reason.
So he simply nodded. “Yes, but I know it’s impossible.”
Even though he had known the news for a while, Wen Jin shattered again.
He learned the news in the Wen family study. He was discussing the fake kidnapping plan with his father, keeping it hidden from his mother, because Yue Yun would never allow it if she knew.
Wen Jin didn’t mind much, because Wen Huaichuan said he would give him a long vacation after dealing with Second Uncle. He decided to take Zhang Liuxin traveling during this long break, as the other man had been too depressed lately.
“I need to take a call.” Wen Jin looked at the name “Lü Zixia” flashing on the screen. For some reason, his eyelid twitched without warning.
“Hello, what is it?” Wen Jin stood on the balcony and answered the call, his gaze unfocused, resting casually on a spot in the back garden of the Wen residence.
“Wen Jin,” Lü Zixia’s voice was not as frivolous as usual. “I have a friend who runs a private law firm. The day before yesterday, someone went to him to consult about divorce. They were vague about asset division, marital status, and whether they had children.”
Wen Jin felt his heart rate gradually accelerate. He rested one hand on the railing and heard his own voice ask, “So?”
“That person was Zhang Liuxin. Wen Jin, what have you and your little sister-in-law been up to lately? He’s already thinking about divorce?”
Divorce.
Wen Jin didn’t know when the call ended. When he came back to his senses, Wen Huaichuan tapped on the study window, asking why a single phone call took so long.
Zhang Liuxin, went, to consult, about divorce?
Wen Jin seemed to find it hard to comprehend. He sat back down opposite Wen Huaichuan, his mind still swirling with the word “why,” until Wen Huaichuan, dissatisfied with his inattentive attitude, lit a cigar.
“Dad, could you not smoke? The smell is awful.”
Wen Jin finally snapped back, frowning slightly.
Wen Huaichuan ignored him and asked, “You’ll be gone for at least a week this trip. Remember to tell Zhang Liuxin clearly beforehand.”
Wen Jin’s throat felt uncomfortable from the smoke, and he drank several sips of water. Wen Huaichuan finally extinguished the cigar, saying he was over thirty and still so delicate.
“Let Zhang Liuxin come with me,” Wen Jin put down the water glass and suddenly spoke.
“Bring him along?” Now it was Wen Huaichuan’s turn to be surprised. “Do you think this is a vacation? Bringing the whole family.”
“Let him come with me,” Wen Jin repeated.
Wen Huaichuan frowned. “Aren’t you very protective of him? What if his leg causes trouble for you if something unexpected happens outside?”
“Then forget it,” Wen Jin stood up. “I’ll go talk to Mom.”
Wen Huaichuan: “Wait, who spoiled you into talking to me like that?”
Wen Jin sat back down, meeting his gaze calmly for a moment. Finally, Wen Huaichuan waved his hand. “Fine, do whatever you want. Go discuss it with Cheng Zhi, just don’t mess up my plans.”
Duan Cheng Zhi also didn’t understand him. No one knew better than him how much his younger brother cared about Zhang Liuxin, so he couldn’t figure out why he suddenly wanted to bring Zhang Liuxin along.
Wen Jin placed the prepared plums aside, pressed the space between his eyebrows, and after a while, said, “Zhang Liuxin wants to divorce me. I need to do something.”
“Huh?” Duan Cheng Zhi looked confused. “Why would he want to divorce you, and how do you know?”
“Yes, why, and how do I know.”
Wen Jin typed two lines and sent them to Aunt Lin, saying that he and Zhang Liuxin would be on a long business trip with an undetermined return date, and asked her to take good care of the cat at home.
“What does that have to do with you bringing him on the plane? Wen Jin, do you think this is a honeymoon?”
“It must be because something went wrong in Yinzhou that gave him this idea,” Wen Jin lowered his eyelids. “I really… haven’t talked to him much at home for a long time. Changing the location, changing to a place where it’s just the two of us, might help.”
“I don’t care what you were thinking in Yinzhou, I only care about now,” Wen Jin looked into his green eyes. “Has this ‘impossible’ idea of yours, as you call it, changed now?”
Zhang Liuxin lowered his eyes, avoiding his gaze, and remained silent.
Wen Jin suddenly laughed, the sound carrying a hint of loneliness.
“Didn’t you ask why I hid the fact that I speak Bernlinian?”
Zhang Liuxin raised his eyes again and looked over.
“Because that way, we would talk more.”
“…”
Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, Zhang Liuxin was first startled, then his eyes filled with intense absurdity and sadness, which scalded Wen Jin. He felt that he had pushed the other man even further away.
“Was it me who didn’t want to talk to you?” Zhang Liuxin’s eyes filled with tears again, but his tone was surprisingly calm. “Wen Jin, was it me who didn’t want to talk in Yinzhou?”
Wen Jin fell silent under Zhang Liuxin’s gaze.
“Wen Jin, why are you like this here, and like that in Yinzhou!” Zhang Liuxin couldn’t stop shaking his head, finally dropping his head weakly. “Is it because you feel guilty? You dragged me into this mess, so you’re being this good to me here.”
“How could that be,” Wen Jin frowned fiercely. “I am guilty, but I’m guilty for failing to protect you well.”
“I was wrong, Liuxin. I, I didn’t realize I treated you so poorly in Yinzhou that it made you want a divorce. I just wanted to take you to a different environment, and I wanted to change the way I interact with you. Perhaps in a new place, you could change your mind.”
Wen Jin finally understood that the meaning behind Zhang Liuxin’s words at the wedding, “You’re being a little too good to me,” was actually that he had been doing a terrible job before.
He didn’t know what excuse to find. Perhaps there was no excuse at all. His work was busy, his stress was immense, and the only method of marital interaction he had learned came from his parents, who were hailed as a model couple. So he learned to treat Liuxin the way his father treated his mother, providing him with a safe and comfortable life.
He had always been confident that they could manage this marriage perfectly because they had an extra layer of true love compared to his parents. This true love would be their best adhesive.
He just hadn’t expected, or rather, he had overlooked in his busy life, that unspoken true love was not an adhesive; it was potent poison, the final straw, the collapsing boulder on the edge of a cliff.
But he only understood this truth after coming here.
It was truly absurd. The time was wrong, the location was wrong, and the two people who had lost all identity except their marital relationship were also wrong. Yet, in the current intersection of multiple errors, they had somehow formed a unique, mutually understood true love. It was incredible.