Three years ago, at a product launch, I punched my ex-wife Victoria’s then-boyfriend, Blake, so hard he went deaf in one ear. I was detained. Victoria filed for divorce the next morning. From a jail cell, I learned she’d married him. My friends knew how possessive I was, and they expected me to reclaim Victoria the moment I got out. Instead, I disappeared. Until my name was called out at a bustling tourist spot. “How many skewers do you want?” I asked politely, “And do you want extra spice?” Victoria’s eyes welled up. “You…you even forgot I never eat spicy food?” … My voice remained perfectly even, a flat professional courtesy. “Apologies. We serve hundreds of people a night. Safer to ask than to assume.” For a moment, the only sound was her sharp, indrawn breath, followed by the restless shuffle of the queue behind her. “Are you going to order or not? This is the TikTok spot. Move it or lose your spot.” Victoria stared at me for a long time, her eyes aching, before she finally lowered her head and quickly ordered a few skewers. “No spice.” I offered a polite smile. “Seven to ten minutes. Please wait over there.” With that, I bent my head, focused on the grill. Every movement was precise and efficient. Victoria stared at my cracked, swollen hands, then suddenly snatched the skewer right out of them. “Alex! Stop doing this!” I snatched the skewer back, a deep frown creasing my forehead. “Ma’am, please don’t interrupt my work. There are many other customers waiting.” The customer in line behind her sounded annoyed. “Are you out of your mind? You’re stopping the owner from making a living, do you want him to starve?” Victoria looked as if she’d been stung. “What do you guys know? Alex is completely wasting his talent here! You couldn’t possibly understand his ambitions.” The customers eyed me with amusement. “What, his old flame?” “I used to have big ambitions too, but now I drive a taxi every day.” “Right? I wanted to be a billionaire, but now I’m buried under loans.” Victoria looked at these people as if they were idiots, her eyes filled with disdain. “There’s no reasoning with you people.” She turned back to me, her eyes shining with fervor. “Alex, I…I believe you’re not doing this willingly. The code and programs you developed are the most brilliant things in the world. If you wanted to, you could make millions in a snap. Why are you wasting yourself here?” Before I could answer, her eyes reddened with self-reproach. “Is it because of me?” “I know what happened back then hit you hard, but I never imagined you’d fall into such despair, to end up like this…” Her eyes were filled with pity, as if I was doing something utterly degrading. My gaze remained calm. “Ma’am, if you don’t want to eat, I can cancel your order. Please don’t interfere with my business.” Victoria froze completely, her eyes a mix of disbelief and sorrow. She sat back down, tears welling up. “Who said I’m not eating? I want to eat.” I turned and continued to finish the skewers in my hand. Victoria ate while shedding tears, her eyes frequently darting towards me, hoping I would comfort her like I used to. But I only slightly frowned, then refilled her tissue box. “Ma’am, if you need help, there’s a police station about five hundred yards away.” At my words, Victoria finally couldn’t bear my indifference. She covered her face and ran off. It wasn’t until I was about to pack up my stall. Victoria, who had been hiding in the shadows for a long time, suddenly spoke. “How long have you been doing this?” She pulled out a stack of cash and placed it in front of me. “I’m here on vacation. If you spend two hours showing me around, you’ll earn more than you do with this stall.”
My gaze landed on the thick wad of cash. Three, maybe four thousand. Enough for the doll Lily had been eyeing for weeks. The skewers were sold out. Only an idiot would walk away from honest money. “Alright, I know this place inside out.” I smiled, taking the money, not feeling any embarrassment. Victoria’s voice was unsteady. “You…you never used to care about money like this. Small money.” “There was that time…some heir tried to buy me a drink for half a million. You broke a million-dollar bottle of cognac over his head. It cost us a deal worth ten times that.” Looking at my grease-stained, cheap T-shirt, her expression was indescribable. “Your skin is sensitive. You couldn’t wear cheap polyester. You only wore tailored pure wool suits, and even a pair of plain socks cost enough to buy your entire stall.” She couldn’t understand how the once dashing, extravagant man could have changed so much. I didn’t respond, just smiled and pointed towards the building on the distant cliff, like a castle in the clouds. “That structure, built right on the cliff face, is a local landmark.” I naturally introduced the attraction to her, then turned back to ask. “Have you been up there?” Victoria had been watching me, and she shook her head blankly. “Go take a look. When you see the vast world spread out before your eyes, you’ll understand.” I once thought I could never let go of Victoria. Now, thinking back, it was truly laughable. Victoria met my honest gaze, devoid of any love, and felt a pang in her heart. “Okay.” On the way up the mountain, I acted like a dutiful guide, enthusiastically telling her about the local culture and traditions. When we passed other vendors, I’d greet them cheerfully. “Alex, moonlighting as a guide again?” “Young people certainly have stamina, working late guiding tourists up the mountain for extra cash.” Victoria looked at my slender profile and quietly asked. “Do you often work as a guide?” I answered frankly. “Sometimes I show tourists around, but none of them are as generous as you.” I flashed a wide, genuine smile. Victoria finally realized, at that moment, that I was genuinely happy about this small sum of money I would have scorned before. It wasn’t about trying to get a rise out of her. “Alex, don’t be like this.” She suddenly grabbed my hand, her voice earnest. “Even if we’re divorced, I don’t want to see you fall apart like this.” “You’re not an ordinary person. Even if you’ve been to prison, you can still make a comeback.” She pulled out her phone and quickly typed in a bank account number. “I was always afraid to contact you. I thought you were doing well, but I never expected you to…This money is what I owe you. Take it and start a new business.” Without a moment’s hesitation, she typed in the amount: five million. I just watched Victoria, silent. She thought I was silently accepting the money, but then her phone screen flashed a notification: the recipient’s bank account was closed. She was completely stunned. “Alex…do you hate me?” She looked up at me, her eyes brimming with tears. “This is the account you opened when you proposed. The number was my birthday and lucky numbers. You said you’d keep it forever, that every time you spent money, it was saving happiness for me. Don’t you want me to be happy anymore?” My gaze calmly shifted to the man behind her. “Your happiness is here.”
Victoria paused, then slowly turned her head. Blake stood quietly not far away, extending his hand to her. “Honey, I’ve been waiting for you up here.” He pulled out his phone. “I messaged you hours ago to meet at the summit. I didn’t expect you to take so long to come up. I was worried something had happened to you.” Victoria stared at me blankly, my words echoing in her mind. So brief, yet so hurtful. Seeing Victoria didn’t move, Blake walked forward and took her hand, then whispered intimately in her ear. “Who’s this?” Compared to three years ago, I had a few more lines of hardship on my face, but my looks hadn’t really changed. Blake, however, deliberately pretended not to recognize me. Victoria stiffly introduced me. “This…this is Alex.” Blake gasped dramatically, covering his mouth. “My God, Alex. What happened to you? You look…weathered.” His disgusted gaze fell on my faded T-shirt. “Adidai? Alex, really. If you can’t afford the real thing, must you try quite so hard? Wearing such an obvious counterfeit…it’s just sad.” Then he realized he’d said the wrong thing and shrank back behind Victoria, looking scared. “I’m always blunt, I didn’t mean any harm. Please don’t hit me again. Victoria spent millions getting me a cochlear implant.” Blake’s eyes were full of provocation, but I didn’t react at all. Victoria had always considered Blake’s bluntness a virtue, but now it sounded grating. “Blake, enough.” Blake rolled his eyes at me impatiently, then whined to Victoria. “Okay, my dearest wife, it’s my fault, I spoke without thinking. But Alex really has changed so much from three years ago. I was just too shocked.” Blake pulled a premium black card from his pocket. “I just heard Victoria wants to help you, but your bank account must have been frozen three years ago, right? This card has five million in it. It should be enough for you to live comfortably for the rest of your life.” I reached out to push the card back, but Blake sneered, then let go. The bank card slapped against the muddy ground. Blake looked at me apologetically. “Oops, my hand slipped.” “I remember you used to be a germaphobe. But I guess after selling BBQ for so long, you wouldn’t have that anymore, huh?” “I heard street food from stalls is often unsanitary and disgusting. You don’t mind selling this stuff for money, and you’re quite hardy.” The customers nearby, holding their skewers, all looked disgusted, questioning their food. My gaze instantly hardened, fixed on him. Victoria thought I was about to hit Blake, and she nervously shielded him. I picked up the mud-stained bank card and tossed it into Blake’s chest. “Every ingredient here passes inspection,” I said, my voice calm and firm. “If you have proof of wrongdoing, feel free to report it.” My response seemed to tip the scales. Customers stepped forward to defend me. “The lamb and beef skewers here are freshly cut and skewered by the owner early in the morning. We all saw it!” “He even livestreams the whole process-from buying the meat at the market to marinating it. Everything’s clean. There’s nothing unsanitary about this place!” Blake tried to say something else, but Victoria, her face hardened, pulled him back. “Blake, that’s enough.” Blake reluctantly shut his mouth, not daring to say more. Victoria looked at my eyes, devoid of any warmth, and her fingers slowly tightened. “I apologize for disturbing you today. It won’t happen again.” “You…you’ve changed so much.”
Three years ago, Victoria promised that after the product launch, she’d announce our marriage to the media. But when I changed into my clothes, I saw Victoria walk onto the stage with Blake. She not only praised him as a tech genius but also blushed and looked down when reporters asked about her love life, letting the public assume they were a couple. I wanted to suppress my anger and confront her after the press conference. But then an intimate photo of Victoria suddenly appeared on my phone. The man in it was Blake, on stage, smirking at me, as if I was already a defeated man. Back then, I was young, hot-headed, and couldn’t stand any disrespect. I stormed onto the stage and landed punch after punch on Blake’s face, beating him senseless. Victoria also recalled the scene, giving me a bitter, slightly fearful smile. “If you had been as calm then as you are now, maybe we wouldn’t have ended up this way.” As soon as she said that, Blake’s face instantly went pale. I remained silent, not responding, inwardly calculating how much time I had left. Her eyes, complex, lingered on me, then she finally sighed. “Blake’s behavior just now was inappropriate. I apologize for him.” She took the card from Blake’s hand, carefully wiped it clean, then handed it to me. “Please take it. If you don’t, I’ll feel terrible.” Blake’s eyes were red with anger, but he still pretended to be magnanimous. My gaze was calm as I looked at Victoria, then I stepped back, creating distance between us. “Since your husband is here, I won’t bother you two anymore.” “I don’t need this money.” Saying that, I pulled out a few bills from the money Victoria had just given me. “I originally planned to be your guide for two hours. It’s half an hour short, so I’m returning a quarter of the money.” I pressed the money into Victoria’s hand and turned to leave. “Alex!” She yelled at me. “Can’t you just give in a little!” “Three years ago, just because Blake went on stage before you to introduce himself, you beat him deaf and refused to apologize.” “And now, because of your pride, you’re refusing my help.” “Don’t you know you’re only hurting yourself?” “Didn’t you say you wanted to build a career, to make something of yourself? Look at you now…Your mom’s dying wish was to see you settled down with a family, have you forgotten?” Seeing the shift in my expression, Seeing the shift in my expression, Victoria pressed on. “Take this. Live a decent life. Find a wife, have a child. Consider it…my compensation.” Just as she was about to press the card into my hand, a little girl rushed into my arms. “Daddy, why aren’t you home yet? Mommy and I were so worried about you.” I broke into a wide smile, hugging my daughter and kissing her. “I’ll take you home right now.” Victoria’s expression instantly froze, and her voice trembled. “This…is this your daughter?”
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