On our wedding anniversary, my wife Rachel, a professional translator, once again received an urgent assignment and couldn’t spend the day with me. But before I knew it, she appeared in Ryan’s social media video, hurling insults at a group of old ladies in eighteen different languages. Gone was her usual elegant demeanor. The caption read: “Grandma says having a translator for a daughter-in-law is great. No one in the village will dare argue with me now.” I chuckled and liked the post, commenting: “Quite the spectacle.” My colleagues quickly flooded the comments section, even placing bets on whether I would explode this time. Rachel immediately called me, her voice cold as ice: “Jack Thompson, who told you to comment? Are you deliberately trying to embarrass Ryan in front of the team?” “He was being bullied in his hometown, what’s wrong with me showing some support? Someone like you, who’s been pampered all your life, wouldn’t understand how hard life can be for ordinary people.” “Delete that comment right now. I’ll make it up to you with another anniversary celebration in a few days.” I hung up with a bitter laugh, rubbing my aching stomach. In three days, the divorce cooling-off period would be over!
I asked the doctor to change my pain medication to an appendectomy. The doctor looked at me quizzically, “Why the sudden change of heart? Not going to be with your wife?” I smiled bitterly, “Because she just died.” The doctor froze for a moment, then gave me a strange, sympathetic look without saying anything more. As soon as I opened SnapChat, I saw Ryan tagging everyone in our work group: “Sorry for the misunderstanding, everyone. The post I shared earlier was just a joke. I hope you all don’t read too much into it.” This deliberate show-off of an apology made me want to vomit. Rachel immediately replied: “Ryan, you don’t need to apologize. It’s obviously a joke, and we’re not all so thin-skinned that we’d take it seriously.” As soon as our head translator spoke, those cunning colleagues who had been lurking suddenly chimed in: “Exactly! The office atmosphere is usually so dull, it’s refreshing to have some young blood cracking jokes.” “Rachel, your comeback was so sharp! That’s why you’re our boss!” “Ryan, looks like our only thin-skinned colleague hasn’t responded yet. Maybe you should message him privately to explain!” Watching my colleagues constantly sucking up and putting others down, I felt a mix of emotions. Half of these people were my former mentees. The more affectionately they used to call me “mentor,” the more cold-hearted they were now. What could I expect when Rachel was the head of the translation team and Ryan was her new favorite? To them, I was just a pushover who had cut ties with my parents for Rachel’s sake. I sighed deeply and exited SnapChat, not wanting to let them ruin my mood. But before I could put down my phone, Rachel called again. I answered impatiently, “What do you want?” She took a deep breath on the other end, seemingly suppressing her anger: “Jack Thompson, I need you to write a peace speech in English and Farsi right now. Ryan needs it for tomorrow! Make it easy to read, don’t use any complicated words, got it?” Her tone left no room for refusal, as if she were ordering a dog around. I instantly flared up. This trip to the Middle East wasn’t just about giving a peace speech; it also involved coordinating with humanitarian aid teams from multiple countries and communicating with locals. Ryan’s mediocre English skills were nowhere near sufficient for the job. But Ryan wanted this experience as a stepping stone for his career advancement, so he had begged Rachel to let him go. Rachel, completely focused on him, had assigned Ryan without any discussion. Now, with the departure date approaching and Ryan not even having prepared a speech, they were scrambling to have me clean up their mess. How shameless! So it wasn’t an emergency back home, but rather realizing his incompetence and potential exposure. Rachel took her little troublemaker to play the role of a grandson in the countryside, while leaving me here to write the speech. No way! “Hey, did you hear me? Send it to me for review first! If it’s good, I’ll pass it on to Ryan.” Rachel’s tone was impatient. I laughed coldly and refused outright: “I’m not writing someone else’s speech. If Ryan can’t write it himself, why don’t you help him? After all, you’ve been doing most of his work during his probation period. What’s wrong with helping him advance his career?” “Ms. Head Translator, if there’s nothing else, I’m hanging up.” Before I could end the call, Rachel’s furious voice nearly split my eardrum: “Don’t you dare hang up! Jack Thompson, have I been giving you too much face lately?”
“It’s me who’s been giving you too much face, or else how would you have the nerve to ask me to clean up after your little mistress!” I couldn’t be bothered to hold back anymore and lashed out at her. There was a moment of silence on the other end before she spoke again, suppressing her rage, “Jack Thompson, what’s wrong with you? You’re being so vulgar. Have all those years of education gone to waste? I told you I’d make it up to you when I get back, why are you still angry!” “If I don’t receive Ryan’s speech in my inbox by tonight, then let’s just call it quits!” I clenched my fists tightly, “Fine, let’s call it quits. Who wants to be with you anyway!” Before I could finish, I heard Ryan’s voice on the other end, “Rachel, Grandma’s calling you for dinner.” Rachel covered the mouthpiece, her voice suddenly as sweet as a well-mannered college student, “I’m just arranging some work, I’ll be right there.” Then she turned back to me, her voice cold enough to kill: “What did you just say?” I laughed: “Rachel Walker, listen carefully. I said if you enjoy being a lapdog so much, then keep at it. Don’t get cocky and provoke your grandma into teaching you a lesson!” Rachel barely contained her fury as she shouted: “Ryan was bullied in the village, and I, as his mentor, am just helping him save face. What’s wrong with that? Do you think everyone is as heartless as you?” “Jack Thompson, if you can’t even write this speech well, then you don’t need to stay in our team anymore!” She hung up abruptly after saying this. I sat at the cold entrance of the operating room, rubbing my stomach, feeling a surge of bitterness rising within me. My relationship with her was like this painfully inflamed appendix – it should have been cut out long ago. After the surgery, I went home and fell asleep alone. But early the next morning, I was woken by urgent knocking on my door. I opened it to find officers from the National Security Department. They said someone had reported me as a foreign spy and asked me to cooperate with their investigation. I felt a sudden sense of unreality and reflexively asked, “How could I possibly be a spy? I’m even a member of the counter-espionage team!” But they showed me the report directly. I immediately felt dizzy and followed them back to the office. As soon as I entered, I saw the disappointed look in my boss’s eyes, and my heart sank. The report mentioned several translation receptions that I had indeed led, and confidential information had been leaked afterward. It was hard not to suspect me. But when I saw the witness, everything became clear. The so-called witness was the meeting recorder, also Ryan’s most loyal lackey. Remembering how the two of them had acted separately from the team several times, I suspected they might be the real spies. I hurriedly tried to explain: “Officers, he can’t be a witness. Everyone knows he’s Ryan’s man, and Ryan has a grudge against me!” “Besides, during those translation receptions, I was with everyone the whole time and had no chance to leak information. But those two…” “Shut up, don’t embarrass our translation team!” Rachel angrily interrupted me. She took two big steps towards me, keeping a disdainful distance: “What grudge? I think you’re just randomly accusing people because you’ve done something wrong!” “Jack Thompson, I used to think you were just petty and lacked quality, but at least I didn’t think you’d betray the country. I never imagined you’d do something so inhumane!” “Do you know what the punishment is for falsely accusing a public official? I can’t believe you’ve become so depraved as to turn traitor. You’re not human, you scum! You don’t deserve to be my husband!” My throat felt like it was blocked by a red-hot iron, and I couldn’t utter a word. After a long while, I finally squeezed out a few hoarse words, “Rachel, in your heart, am I the kind of person who would betray my country out of jealousy?” I stared straight at her, but saw her gaze growing colder and colder, “You didn’t have a chance to leak information on the day of the reception, but you knew several people from the visiting delegation. Who knows what you might have said when you met them privately?” Rachel’s righteousness in condemning her husband led to my immediate suspension pending investigation. Suddenly, a family member of one of the victims picked up a chair and smashed it on my head, causing me to bleed profusely. “You beast! You traitor! It’s all your fault for leaking secrets that got my sister killed!” The man unleashed all his strength on me, beating me until I was nearly unconscious. He only stopped when he saw I was barely breathing. As I lay on the ground, I saw Ryan approach, looking down at me with glee. “Jack Thompson, of all things, why did you choose to be a traitor? Now you’re getting what you deserve.”
Seeing his smug, disgusting expression of getting what he wanted, I struggled through the pain to get up from the ground and sneered back: “You know exactly what you’ve done, Ryan Miller. Your retribution will come sooner or later!” A flash of wariness crossed Ryan’s eyes, but he quickly adopted a righteous tone, pointing at me accusingly, “Jack Thompson, don’t try to implicate others! I’m not like you. I would never betray my colleagues! Let alone become a traitor! You’ve disgraced our entire team, our whole country!” I laughed bitterly, too tired to argue with him, and slowly started to move away despite the pain. But Ryan wouldn’t let it go. He came forward and grabbed me, touching my wound and making me wince in pain. Before I could react, he suddenly fell on his butt and started wailing like a bad actor. Rachel, who had been keeping a straight face until now, instantly panicked. She took two big steps, pushing me aside, and anxiously helped Ryan up from the ground, gently patting his back and comforting him softly. Seeing he wasn’t hurt, Rachel glared at me angrily, “Well, Jack Thompson, your parents worked hard to put you through twenty years of school, and this is what you learned? Betraying your country and deliberately hurting people? Apologize to Ryan right now!” I laughed coldly, but before I could speak, Ryan whined pitifully, adding fuel to the fire, “I just wanted to see if Jack was being wrongly accused. He just misunderstood me, he didn’t mean to push me.” But Rachel’s face darkened, “There’s no misunderstanding. He’s getting what he deserves now!” I had no outlet for my anger, and all I could manage was a flat statement, “You know who really deserves punishment.” Rachel’s face, which I once loved to death, now seemed completely unfamiliar to me. Even if she saw through Ryan’s act, even if she was willing to let me bear the label of a traitor and ruin my life, Rachel still chose him without hesitation. I don’t have evidence now, but the truth will come out eventually. I couldn’t be bothered to argue with them anymore. Pressing the bleeding wound on my head, I hurried to leave. Staying with them for another second made me want to vomit. As I was leaving, Rachel called out, “Jack Thompson, you’re a suspect now. You’re not allowed to leave the city. Report your whereabouts to me every hour.” Without turning back, I walked out of that dark room, saying, “Fine, but you’d better keep a close eye on Ryan Miller. Otherwise, you might end up in jail or worse!” Thinking about Rachel’s gritting teeth, I felt a secret satisfaction. She had intended to pressure me into cleaning up after Ryan, but this time I didn’t give an inch. She had hit a wall. And this spy accusation was far more complicated than it appeared on the surface. After leaving the office, I contacted a real estate agent to list the house I had bought for our marriage. The agent said that houses in good school districts were in high demand, and she had a buyer willing to pay even more than my asking price. The price didn’t matter to me. What mattered was that anything associated with Rachel now felt like a thorn in my side. Then I drove straight to the civil affairs bureau and finally got the divorce certificate I had been longing for. This mutually torturous marriage was finally over!
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