In 2023, on February 9th, Luo Qingmeng was preparing to get a divorce.
Just a month earlier, she had gotten married and moved into her husband’s apartment. She had originally lived over by Clearwater Rock, only three or four subway stops away. A few days before, after they had gotten their marriage certificate, her new husband had said, “Why don’t you come live with me? We can save on rent and buy you a nice bag with the money.”
It made sense to Luo Qingmeng. Her monthly salary was only four thousand eight hundred-yuan, and after rent, she barely had anything left. Besides, now that they were married, there was no need to be shy about living together—they would have to do it eventually anyway.
Li An was thirty-two, a high-level executive at a foreign company. She was twenty-eight and worked as a cashier at a bookstore. Luo Qingmeng felt incredibly lucky to have met Li An and started dating him. She had a quiet personality, a poor education, and came from a modest family background. Around Li An, she always felt like she couldn’t quite hold her head high.
The two of them spent the day moving her things back and forth. That night, they were supposed to consummate their marriage. Li An had stripped down to just his underwear when she caught a whiff of his sweaty odor—the kind of pungent, sticky man-sweat that turned her stomach. It was her first time, too, so she resisted and said, “I’m so tired. My shoulders are killing me. Can we do it tomorrow?”
Li An said he was tired too and went to take a shower with his phone in hand.
Luo Qingmeng felt terribly guilty. The next day, she swapped shifts with a coworker, thoroughly cleaned the apartment, bought some orange-scented air freshener from the supermarket, picked up ingredients for dinner, and prepared a nice meal with wine, waiting for Li An to come home.
Li An got back early. He opened the door and affectionately called her “wife,” then went to the bathroom to shower with eager anticipation. He had left his phone on the bed, screen still unlocked. Luo Qingmeng hadn’t planned to look—Li An wasn’t drop-dead handsome, but he was well-read, refined, and a total gentleman. She trusted him completely. But then the screen lit up with an incoming call, and she couldn’t resist.
That’s when she found several explicit photos in his phone’s album. They weren’t very clear—blurry enough that she could only make out a tattoo on the woman’s chest and some legs peeking out from under tiny shorts.
But she recognized the woman at a glance. It was Qiu Shuxue!
There were more photos after that, but once she knew who it was, Luo Qingmeng couldn’t bear to look any further. She frantically scrolled back through the chat history.
Qiu Shuxue had come over to Li An’s place for dinner before. Li An had invited some colleagues, and Shuxue had been among them. Luo Qingmeng, as his girlfriend at the time, had helped cook and clean. And… and when Shuxue got drunk, Luo Qingmeng had warmly insisted that she stay the night since she lived alone. Out of propriety, Shuxue had showered with her and slept beside her.
The next morning while Luo Qingmeng was making breakfast, Shuxue had stood nearby praising her cooking and calling her a virtuous and capable wife. Shuxue had smiled, leaned close to her, and called her “sister-in-law” in that intimate way. That’s when Luo Qingmeng had learned about the tattoo on Shuxue’s chest and the birthmark on her thigh.
Every time she thought back on it, Luo Qingmeng had always felt that Shuxue was so gentle and down-to-earth. She genuinely liked her from the bottom of her heart and envied how someone so young could land a translator job at a foreign company.
But now, Luo Qingmeng was so furious she thought she might explode. The dates on those photos went back to the time Shuxue had come over for dinner.
Luo Qingmeng had clearly been played for a fool. She felt so wronged that she wanted to cry. When Li An came out bare-chested, trying to get intimate with her, she gripped his phone and smashed it right into his crotch. Thinking it was some playful foreplay, Li An leaned in closer. Still fuming, she yanked the plugged-in curling iron from the outlet and hurled it at his crotch too.
She heard Li An scream, saw smoke rising from him. Tears blurring her vision, she bolted out of the apartment. She was only wearing her pajamas, and February in the north was still bitterly cold. Her face went numb, her body shivered uncontrollably, but she ran all the way without seeing Li An come after her to apologize or explain.
Fortunately, she ran into a traffic cop, who took her to the police station.
Sitting on a bench at the station, Luo Qingmeng huddled in the cotton jacket an auxiliary officer had given her, shivering as she choked back sobs. She opened WeChat Moments and tapped on Shuxue’s profile, only to see a sexy photo.
Shuxue was wearing a low-cut, V-neck black lace dress, her finger playfully hooking a strand of hair over her shoulder. She hadn’t shown her face.
Luo Qingmeng cried so hard she nearly bubbled snot from her nose.
She hadn’t even realized it that night when they’d slept together.
That evening, Shuxue had come out of the adjacent bathroom dressed so provocatively and sat on the bed. She had deliberately tugged at her own shoulder strap and asked, “Sister, do you think this style makes me look womanly?”
Luo Qingmeng had assumed it was just girl talk about feminine secrets and hadn’t thought twice. Blushing, she had said it looked good on her.
Shuxue had complimented her in return. “Sister, I’m just forcing it. Yours are the real deal—mature and gorgeous. Simple style with that little moon pendant in the middle; it’s so alluring. And your figure is amazing.”
Luo Qingmeng had a full figure, C-cup plus, but she always bought loose bras to downplay it, never daring to push them up. At work, she often felt self-conscious and hunched her shoulders. Being praised like that had made her heart bloom; she had even added Shuxue on WeChat right then, and the two had chatted a few times afterward.
Thinking back on it now…
Shuxue had been showing off.
Luo Qingmeng scrolled through their chat history, feeling so distraught that her tear-streaked fingers slipped, and she accidentally hit the video call button.
It rang twice.
Shuxue picked up.
