Chapter 9: The Shattered Obsession and the Trajectory of Rebirth
538 Words
Abed's change was like a sudden downpour. At first, it was just the lipstick mark on his collar when he came home late, and he casually said it was "a joke from a client". Later, there were increasingly explicit messages on his phone, and he irritably accused Lissie of "being suspicious". Until a woman named Millie Tisrana, like a sharp thorn, pierced Lissie's world brutally.
Millie was an intern in Abed's company, as young as a thorny rose, with undisguised desire in her eyes. She dared to take Abed's arm in front of Lissie and coquettishly say, "Brother Abed said he'll take me to the celebration party tonight. Sister Lissie, you don't mind, do you?" She dared to use Lissie's treasured out - of - print poetry collection to pad the coffee cup and laughingly explain, "Oops, I didn't notice. But old books are not as valuable as new loves anyway."
What suffocated Lissie the most was Abed's connivance. When Millie deliberately broke the antique vase left by Lissie's mother, Abed gently patted Millie on the back to comfort her, saying, "It's okay. We can just buy another one." Then he turned to Lissie, who had red eyes, and frowned, "Can't you be more generous? What are you arguing with a young girl for?" He even gave Millie the key to the island villa that he had promised Lissie but never fulfilled at Millie's birthday party. The photo was taken by someone else and spread online with the glaring title - "Abed's new favorite, gifted a ten - million - dollar mansion".
Lissie's heart gradually became numb from the repeated dull pains. She was once at the top of world literature. At the age of 23, she swept international awards with a novel, and readers said her words "could make flowers bloom in winter". But after being with Abed, her desk gathered dust, her inspiration was worn away by trivialities and quarrels, and finally, she even felt strange looking at herself in the mirror - haggard, sensitive, like a resentful woman revolving around a man.
One day, she got the diagnosis in the hospital: long - term anxiety had led to endocrine disorders, and the doctor said, "If it continues like this, your body will break down." Walking out of the hospital, she happened to see Abed's car head - on. Millie was sitting in the passenger seat, affectionately feeding him strawberries. The sunlight shone through the car window, making their shadows glaring. At that moment, the last bit of Lissie's obsession with "love" completely shattered.
She didn't go home but went to the government affairs hall. When she handed over her ID card, the staff looked up at her, "Are you sure you want to cancel your household registration? Once cancelled, all your identity information will be erased." Lissie looked at the gray sky outside the window, and her voice was as light as a sigh, "Yes, I'm sure." She threw away her phone, changed all her contact information, dragged a small suitcase, and boarded the departing plane in the night. Without a farewell, without nostalgia, like erasing a wrong code, she completely formatted herself out of Abed's world.
When Abed found out that Lissie had disapp
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