1
The wedding has been postponed for three years, yet my pilot wife has canceled our marriage certificate registration 18 times.
The first time, her male apprentice was on a test flight, and I waited outside the civil affairs bureau all day.
The second time, she received a call from her male apprentice on the road and hurriedly turned around, leaving me by the roadside.
After that, whenever I arranged with her to get the certificate, her male apprentice would have all sorts of issues.
Later, I decided to leave her.
But when I boarded the plane to Paris, she chased after me crazily to Paris.
01
Married for three years, Lin Xi still hasn't registered the marriage with me.
Today marks her one thousandth successful flight, and it's also the seventeenth time she promised to get the certificate with me.
However, at the celebration banquet, when her direct superior was forcing drinks on me, she was feeding drinks to her male pilot apprentice.
I was drinking close to fainting while enduring a high fever, and she didn't even glance at me.
Many colleagues in the company sighed and clicked their tongues, looking at me with eyes full of pity.
Anyone with sense could see that I endured my discomfort to drink for someone.
But after the celebration banquet, the Lin Xi who was supposed to go to the civil affairs bureau with me missed the appointment once more.
She drove the car to the entrance of the restaurant, blocking me with one hand as I was about to get in.
"Lu Chen drank too much on my behalf just now, I'll take him home, you take a cab back."
"I'm afraid we can't make it to get the certificate this afternoon, let's do it another day."
After saying this, she didn't care about my reaction at all, and hurriedly got out of the car, carefully helping Lu Chen into the front passenger seat.
Eight years in love, three years married, this was the seventeenth time Lin Xi delayed our registration because of Lu Chen.
Usually at such times, I would have collapsed and screamed, arguing with her: who exactly is her husband, and who just took the drinks on her behalf?
But this time, I just smiled faintly, "Okay, be careful on the road."
Lin Xi was stunned at my calmness today, slightly surprised, but soon returned to her indifference, saying, "I'll get you a gift for compensation when I come back tonight."
Saying this, she drove away, even closing the window for her male apprentice to prevent the drunk him from being caught in the wind.
In the past, she never allowed the smell of alcohol to remain in her car.
Every time I finished drinking for her, even in winter, she would open the convertible, let alone closing the window.
Looking back now, it's just because it was me in the car.
Guangzhou's midday is so hot that people sweat all over, but my heart was inexplicably cold.
I took a deep breath and put the household register back into my bag.
I knew it was time to let go of these eight years of feelings as well.
2
02
In the afternoon, I went back to the company directly and submitted my resignation letter to the leader.
"Does Lin Xi know you're resigning?"
The leader was quite surprised by my resignation, after all, I was the airline's gold medal flight attendant for seven years in a row, staying with the airline had limitless potential.
I gave a slight bitter smile, "I'll tell her tonight, but I doubt she'll care."
"Sigh, these years you both flew new routes together, won the best company award together, even the president attended your wedding three years ago, making everyone envious, but..."
The supervisor let out a long sigh, full of regret.
Yes, that really was a beautiful memory.
But memories are just memories, there's no going back.
After resigning and returning home, it was already past ten at night.
The house was especially quiet, empty.
And on my phone, a post from Lu Chen popped up directly because he specifically tagged me.
"Thanks to my beautiful mentor for spending the afternoon with me, as a reward, I'll take you to Jay Chou's concert tomorrow~ Looking forward to it."
I knew Lin Xi, who said she would come home at noon, wouldn't be coming back.
This situation has occurred too many times in the three years since we got married.
After making a simple bowl of noodles, I opened my email.
Seeing the invitations from airlines in more than a dozen countries, the cursor landed directly on the Air France invitation, and without thinking, I clicked to accept and booked a flight to Paris for two days later.
Five years ago, when Lin Xi was flying to Paris, she encountered the biggest accident of her career, and since then, the word "Paris" became a taboo for her.
Not only did she stop flying there, I never flew there again either.
Lin Xi, going to Paris, we probably won't see each other again in this lifetime.
3
03
The next morning, as soon as I woke up, I started packing my luggage.
I was only halfway through when Lin Xi returned home looking exhausted.
A strong scent of cologne entered with her.
I was slightly stunned by the overwhelming fragrance.
Lin Xi's skin is delicate and sensitive, allergic to many cosmetics; she despises the smell of perfume the most.
Because of this, in the years we've been together, even using shampoo would earn me a scolding from her, so I never used any skincare products.
Now it seems she didn't hate cosmetics; she just didn't like me using them.
Seeing me packing my luggage as she entered, she paused for a moment, "Lu Chen was too late sobering up last night, so I went to a hotel alone and didn't come back."
I looked up at her, somewhat surprised.
This was the first time in our three years of marriage that she had voluntarily offered me an explanation.
I nodded, without speaking.
She slowly walked up to me, lowered her eyes, and asked, "Are you packing because you have a work trip?"
I nodded, "Sort of."
Upon hearing my words, for some reason, she seemed to sigh with relief, and continued, "I have something to do today; I just came back to grab something, won't be having lunch."
"Okay."
I didn't look up and continued packing my luggage by myself.
I originally planned to tell her over lunch that I had quit my job, officially putting an end to our eight-year relationship. But it seems there's no chance now.
After speaking, Lin Xi took a red bag, picked up the clothes hanging by the door, and hurried out.
"Clatter!"
The photo frame, hanging on the door frame for eight years, suddenly fell to the ground as she left.
Glass shards scattered everywhere.
I looked over; it was a photo of Lin Xi and me at our first concert, both of us clasping hands with wide smiles.
That day she promised me that no matter how busy she got, she would accompany me to a concert every year. But since Lu Chen became her apprentice, she forgot all of this.
In the empty room, the clock ticked away.
After a long silence, I finally cleaned up the glass shards, then threw that photo full of happiness, along with my lingering reluctance, into the trash.
