My Wife’s Other Summer

I was walking past a barbecue place after working late when the owner flashed me a broad smile.

“Hey, man! Add me on WeChat and I’ll give you a discount.”

I smiled back, scanned his QR code and added him.

After sitting down to order, I happened to open his WeChat Moments.

Summer doesn’t feel so hot with you here.

Beneath the caption was a photograph of two hands, fingers intertwined.

I scrolled down. A comment made my heart jolt.

The person saved in my contacts as “Wife” had written:

“With you beside me, I never feel tired.”

I stared at that familiar profile picture, then instinctively looked toward the kitchen.

There was Gu Wan, always so aloof and untouchable, setting up a barbecue grill like any ordinary worker.

The coals lit her face. Sweat covered her forehead.

When the young man beside her wiped it away and handed her water, she wore an expression of tenderness I had once known by heart.

Only now, she was looking at someone else.

An ache rose in my chest.

While her silent treatment had left me barely able to live with the pain, she had been hiding her identity and playing at love with another man.

I opened our chat.

Gu Wan. Let’s get a divorce.

I pressed Send. A tear fell with it.

I wasn’t going to keep torturing myself in this marriage.