Chapter 3

After calming down, my biggest worry was that Jones might suddenly have regrets.

Life without him was incredibly liberating.

I grew up in a very traditional family. Conservative parents gave me a conservative education. The first half of my life had been completely by-the-book.

They taught me that at each age, you should do certain things. So after college, once my job was stable, I started a family with Jones, whom relatives had introduced.

Back then, my parents were very satisfied with him. He was a literature professor at a local university—handsome, respectable job, decent income.

My parents strongly promoted the marriage, and I thought Jones might be a good choice. I married him in a daze.

Jones and I never even discussed "love." It seemed we'd just reached that life stage and mutually chose each other for marriage.

I didn't even think this was a problem. After all, my parents were the same—introduced by others, formed a family, had me, lived their whole lives this way. I thought this was ordinary people's love.

Just when I thought my life would continue peacefully this way, Jones was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

In that moment I felt like the sky was falling. I thought it was reluctance born from loving my husband. But after the divorce, I realized it was just panic and helplessness facing a major life change.

Learning Jones's terminal cancer was a misdiagnosis, I was overjoyed. That sense of life returning to normal washed over me completely.

But now, my life had completely deviated from what I'd considered the "normal track," yet instead of panic, I felt liberated.

I tallied up the assets Jones and I had accumulated over the years—enough for me to live comfortably.

During the divorce cooling-off period, I learned to enjoy life.

I took vacation days and traveled to several places I'd always longed to visit. Without being bound by the identity of "wife," I felt relaxed and free.

Until during my travels, I happened to scroll past Jones's short video.

And his "Douglas."

The woman in the video looked under thirty, attractive, with long curly hair pulled back with a hair tie falling beside her face, shallow dimples when she smiled.

Her name was Douglas.

Whether the text, visuals, or filming style of Douglas's videos, everything was full of literary and aesthetic beauty. She didn't post frequently—starting with her alone sharing literary works, then a man appeared in frame, discussing their different literary insights together.

Jones in the videos looked the same as before, wearing a soft knit sweater, his gold-rimmed glasses making him look refined and ascetic.

Discussing love, Jones showed a thoughtful expression:

"Love is something completely unreasonable. When it happens, no one can resist it. Even facing worldly constraints and shackles, it can't stop its inevitability."

As he spoke, he looked tenderly at Douglas, his eyes full of unmistakable affection. Douglas lowered her head, loose hair falling by her temples, a blush coloring her cheeks.

I opened the comments section. Everyone was praising their romantic love:

"Oh my god, they're so good-looking, so easy on the eyes!"

"When a literature professor falls in love, it's naturally more romantic."

I looked at the comments, but didn't feel the slightest pain.

Witnessing this moment of him being affectionate toward someone else, I truly confirmed—I didn't love him either.

I smiled with relief and closed my phone.

After the cooling-off period ended, Jones and I went to city hall to get our divorce certificate.

Douglas followed beside him, looking at me with wariness, as if afraid I'd lose emotional control. But throughout the entire process I remained calm, even cheerfully so.

Jones was still the same: "Our union was wrong from the start. Now everything's back on track. I wish you find your own happiness in the future."

I smiled and waved the divorce certificate. "Thanks, I will. But definitely not through infidelity during marriage."

With that, I left without looking back. After getting home, I confirmed all asset transfer procedures were complete, then mailed Jones's cancer misdiagnosis notice to his current address.