Day 29 of the Divorce Cooling-off Period, My Husband Lost His Memory - Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Zhou Yue’s memories began to return in fragments.
They didn’t come back all at once.
Sometimes, when he smelled disinfectant, he would remember the filthy things Zhou Ming had said in the emergency room hallway.
Sometimes, when he saw a red light, he would remember clutching the document envelope to his chest right before the accident, with Attorney Qin shouting over the phone for him not to run the light.
Another time, he was waiting for me downstairs from my rental apartment.
I came down to take out the trash and saw him standing beside a streetlamp, holding a bag of medicine.
“Stomach medicine,” he said.
I didn’t take it.
“How did you know my stomach hurt?”
He lowered his head and glanced at the medicine bag.
“You used to press here whenever you got nervous.”
He pointed to the upper left side of his abdomen.
“I saw you doing it at the police station earlier too.”
I was silent for a moment, then took the medicine.
“Thank you.”
He didn’t use it as an excuse to come upstairs.
He simply took a step back.
“There’s one more thing. The court is lifting the freeze on the guarantee dispute tomorrow. Attorney Qin said you need to go in person and sign the confirmation form.”
“Okay.”
After he said that, he still stood there.
I asked, “Anything else?”
Zhou Yue looked at me, as if he had been hesitating for a long time.
“I remembered the bridal shop today.”
My fingers paused slightly.
“What did you remember?”
“I got there that day.”
His voice was very soft.
“I was standing outside the shop when I saw you come out in a white dress.”
For a split second, my mind went blank.
I had gone that day.
Alone, I tried on three wedding dresses, and the shop assistant kept telling me how beautiful I looked.
I messaged Zhou Yue and asked when he would arrive.
He said he was on the way.
In the end, he never showed up.
When the shop assistant gathered up the hem of the dress, I sat in front of the mirror, my makeup ruined from crying.
Zhou Yue said, “I saw you.”
I looked up.
His Adam’s apple bobbed.
“My mom called me and said Zhou Ming had been held by his creditors. She said if I didn’t go, they’d destroy one of Zhou Ming’s hands.”
“At the time, I thought I’d go for half an hour first, then come back and explain everything to you.”
I laughed.
“You didn’t come back.”
“Yeah.”
He didn’t make excuses.
“Only after I got there did I realize it was fake. Zhou Ming had lost too much at the card table and called me over to pay his debt for him.”
“I got into a fight with him, and my phone was smashed.”
“By the time I got back to the bridal shop, it was already closed.”
I listened calmly.
Because the truth, arriving this late, couldn’t change what had happened that day.
I had gone home alone, taken off my makeup alone, and paid for the wedding dress fitting alone.
The next day, Zhou Yue bought me a cake.
He said, “Yesterday was a mess. Don’t be mad.”
I didn’t eat that cake.
I asked him, “Why didn’t you explain it clearly back then?”
Zhou Yue lowered his head.
“I was afraid you’d think I couldn’t even handle my own family.”
I looked at him.
“You didn’t handle it well in the first place.”
He nodded.
“Yeah.”
Under the streetlamp, his shadow stretched long across the ground.
Suddenly, I realized the biggest difference between Zhou Yue after his amnesia and the man he used to be was that he no longer rushed to absolve himself.
He would admit he was wrong.
Even if admitting it couldn’t bring anything back.
