red balloon

Part1

In the dark night, Xia Zhichen held a gun, walked slowly to the mirror, looked at himself in the mirror, as if he was exactly the same as the 17-year-old self, he slowly raised the gun, pointed at himself in the mirror, bang... …

Xia Zhichen was sweating profusely when he woke up, his vision gradually became clearer, and the surrounding environment gradually became familiar. Fortunately, everything was a nightmare.

"Ding dong..."

The sudden vibration of the phone brought his thoughts back to real life.

"Don't forget, I'm going to the studio to take pictures at two o'clock in the afternoon."

It turned out that it was his wife Fang Ruolan who sent the message, and Xia Zhichen remembered that his wife seemed to have mentioned that he wanted to take his daughter to take a group of family photos, so he hurriedly got up and prepared to rush there.

When Xia Zhichen arrived, it happened to be two o'clock. His wife was taking her daughter to play in this rather unique photography studio. The daughter was bouncing around in the new environment, perhaps because she wanted to have fun taking pictures with her parents.

At this time, the photographer assistant handed him a cup of coffee, "Hello, Mr. Xia, the photographer will be here soon."

"Thank you." Xia Zhichen had a strange intuition that something was going to happen today, he was a little nervous, frowned and looked at the cup of coffee, but didn't drink it.

Suddenly someone patted him on the shoulder, and he turned his head, in a trance, as if he had returned to that summer, returned to that classroom, returned to the moment when he turned around at the age of 17 and saw Li Xiangwan's bright smile.

……

"You don't want to learn how to take pictures, do you?" Li Xiangwan asked Xia Zhichen beside him curiously.

Xia Zhichen smiled, "You teach me."

"Come and let me take a picture for you." Li Xiangwan pointed the camera at Xia Zhichen, who showed a sunny smile.

If time can be turned back, Xia Zhichen hopes to stay in the days when she was with Li Xiangwan forever when she was 17 years old.

Part2

Xia Zhichen carried her daughter to the room and covered her with a quilt.Suddenly he caught a glimpse of his daughter's long nails, so he took out the nail clippers and gently cut her nails.

"Dong dong..."

Fang Shilan knocked lightly on the door of the room, attracting Xia Zhichen's attention, "I've finished watching," with a slightly serious expression.

"Then let's go to the living room." Xia Zhichen put away the nail clippers, they didn't want their daughter to hear the content of their conversation.

"I didn't put the division of the firm in these documents, I drafted a new one, you can take a look." Xia Zhichen took out another document and handed it to Fang Shilan.

"Don't read it, I believe you will handle it well." Fang Shilan signed the divorce agreement with a very lonely expression.She handed the signed divorce agreement to Xia Zhichen.

Xia Zhichen is a lawyer himself, and Fang Shilan believes that he will not treat her badly.

"From this second, we are all free, let's celebrate."

Freedom, these two words are really, very important to Xia Zhichen.He really waited a long time.

Fang Shilan took out a bottle of red wine and poured it for herself and Xia Zhichen. She raised her glass, "To our perfect but fake marriage."

Everyone in the world thought they were a harmonious and happy couple. When Fang Shilan entered Xia Zhichen's law firm, she had a crush on this serious and mature man, but she was rejected several times when she offered to ask Xia Zhichen. When she gave up, she didn't expect Xia Zhichen to propose to her. At that time, she was so happy that she couldn't speak, and suddenly felt that all this was a bit ridiculous.

For everything that ended, her face was full of resentment, but she knew that there were some things that she couldn't help.

She desperately poured herself wine, when Xia Zhichen stopped her and reminded: "Too much."

She gave Xia Zhichen a blank look, "Compared to the coincidences in my life, these are few." Then she grabbed a large glass of red wine and drank it all in one gulp.

Fang Shilan was crying, holding back tears, "You should have told me earlier, when I asked you if you knew him well, I should have noticed something was wrong."

When taking pictures in the studio today, Fang Shilan felt that it was not the first time that the photographer and her husband had met.

"It's been a year, Xia Zhichen, do you know how I survived? This year, every minute and every second, I was thinking about what I did wrong, and what I can do to make you change your mind, but today After I saw you and him, I finally understood why you didn't like to touch me so much for so many years." Fang Shilan continued to drink, her words were so unwilling and helpless.

Xia Zhichen seemed more helpless than her, "I...I'm really sorry, I'm just not suitable for marriage, okay?" He felt that Fang Shilan was talking nonsense.I proposed a divorce a year ago, but Fang Shilan has always disagreed, and the two began to live apart. After taking the photos today, she suddenly told herself that she agreed to the divorce. Although Xia Zhichen was a little happy and felt a little strange, she didn't over thinking. .

"Oh," Fang Shilan held his dizzy forehead, "You don't need to apologize, I should be the one to apologize..."

"You're drunk." Xia Zhichen didn't want to continue this incomprehensible conversation.

Fang Shilan patted the table lightly, looked at Xia Zhichen seriously, "I'm not drunk, today is the best time to confess..."

"What do you mean?" Xia Zhichen was a little puzzled.

Fang Shilan took out a bunch of photos, "I asked a detective to follow you, you know what, the detective told me that your husband is really boring, walks the same road every day, goes to work at the same time, reads the same newspaper , drink the same coffee, laugh at the same column, but one day every month, drive from Taipei to Taichung, go back to the old high school alone, do nothing but just sit there and stare at the playground .”

Speaking of this, Fang Shilan sighed, "I have been unable to untie the knot before, and today I finally know the reason. I didn't care about this photo before, but now I finally know why you hid it."

A year ago, after Xia Zhichen's father passed away, Xia Zhichen and Fang Shilan began to separate. Fang Shilan really didn't understand why her husband, who had always been gentle, suddenly wanted to divorce.

She threw the photo in front of Xia Zhichen, the two teenagers in that photo, young and sunny, smiling so happily.

Fang Shilan seldom sees Xia Zhichen smiling at others, even fewer sincere smiles.

When Fang Shilan secretly dug out this photo and took a closer look, there was another person in the photo with the same hairstyle as the photographer.

Xia Zhichen stared at the group photo and fell silent. That photo was his only precious possession for so many years. Without this photo, he might not know how he got here for so many years.

The moment he saw Li Xiangwan in the studio today, he told himself in his heart that after all these years, he still couldn't escape his concern for Li Xiangwan.