Time Travel: The Queen's Coronation

After putting the two children to sleep as usual, I returned to the room and found Rong Zixuan sitting by the bed, still awake.

"Why are you waiting for me?" I tried to liven up the atmosphere. We hadn't spoken a word to each other in days.

"Yes, I'm waiting for you," he finally spoke to me and I was surprised.

I sat down and hugged him, but he stood up and moved away. I was confused, "What's wrong with you?"

"I have something to tell you." His face was serious and I felt a little uneasy.

"Just say it, but there's no need to be so serious!" I continued to liven up the atmosphere.

"This is a serious matter!"

"what?"

Rong Zixuan hesitated for a moment, but still spoke, "Let's get a divorce!"

I couldn't believe what I heard and asked in disbelief, "What?"

"I've thought about it for a long time these days. It's not a momentary impulse. I think only if we divorce can I be relieved! So Aqing, let's divorce!" Rong Zixuan's voice was very low, but I could hear that he was serious.

"why?"

"Because you shine so brightly, I am inconspicuous next to you. I graduated from Jinghua and Massachusetts, and I don't want others to introduce me as Wei Qing's husband. I also want people to introduce me by my name directly, rather than adding the prefix 'Wei Qing's husband' in front of it!"

"Are you saying I'm too strong?"

"Not really. You didn't force me to do anything. Instead, you gave me freedom everywhere. But I feel very pressured around you. You are so outstanding, and it makes me look so bad! But I am obviously very outstanding!"

"You're not bad! Why do you always care about what others think?"

"I know I'm not bad, but compared to you, I look really bad! And when I'm around you, everyone's attention is on you, ignoring my efforts, my achievements, and my abilities! Yuanyuan was founded by the three of us, but everyone only remembers you and Xiao Yuan! We worked together on all the projects, so why should my efforts be erased?"

"But this is not a reason for our divorce!"

"No matter how much I achieve by your side, I will eventually be overshadowed by your brilliance. I am a man! I am unwilling to live under the shadow of a woman all my life! Even if that woman is my wife or my lover!" Rong Zixuan became more and more excited as he spoke.

"But you can pursue your career, and I'm not trying to stop you. Why do you have to get a divorce?"

"Do you know? When I was in high school, I always ranked second in the city-wide joint entrance exam, because you were always first! Everyone nicknamed me 'Eternal Runner-Up'! When I was in college, I fell hopelessly in love with you, but gradually I found that I was always living in your shadow. No matter what I do, with you around, I'm always second! I want to be first for once!"

"You don't have to put so much pressure on yourself. We still have two children. Are you going to leave them without a complete family? They are still so young!"

"But people are selfish. I am in pain because I continue to stay with you and maintain this marriage for them. You will also be in pain in the future. It is better to cut the Gordian knot now. They are still young and won't realize anything."

"Do you really want a divorce?"

"Yes! I am like an eagle with broken wings beside you. I can't spread my wings and fly high! I yearn for the blue sky and I also want to embrace my own world, so I beg you to let go!"

"You proposed to me the year we graduated from college, and now that we have graduated with a master's degree, you are asking for a divorce! It's only been two years! How could you change?" I questioned Rong Zixuan.

"I also want to be with you forever, but you're too outstanding. I can't be myself around you. I'm suppressed by you in every way. I'm inferior to you in every way. I won't accept this! I'm a man! I want to save face!"

"If you want face, go earn it yourself! Am I the one who doesn't give you face? I've always defended you in front of others. When have I ever rejected your face? You're second now, and I'm first, sure, but you should catch up to me, not just eliminate me from first place and let you naturally become number one! I'm not suppressing you, you're just running away from reality!"

"I also want to catch up with you, but I can't! No matter how hard I try, you're always one step ahead of me! I feel really bad that you, a woman, are better than me in every way! And I can also see that Xiao Yuan and Xu Jing are only being polite to me because of you. If it weren't for you, they wouldn't even bother to look at me! But I'd rather they look down on me than have them look up to me because of you!"

"When did you become so chauvinistic? You weren't like this before!"

"I've always been like this! You didn't notice it before because we were on equal footing, but as time went on, you were lucky enough to seize many opportunities to turn things around, leaving me far behind! On the other hand, I'm unlucky and can't do anything. The gap between us is getting bigger and bigger! It's like heaven and earth! You're a female CEO with a thriving career, while I'm now a bankrupt small business owner ridiculed by everyone, and it was all because of my own stupidity that I was bankrupted by a scammer!"

"This matter is over. The people who cheated you have received the punishment they deserved! Most of the money you were defrauded of has been recovered! You are not stupid, it's just that those scammers were too cunning! Now that the money is recovered, you can still continue to do what you want. I support you!"

"No! With you here, no matter what achievements I make, everyone will think it's all your credit! My efforts have been invisibly erased again!"

"Why do you have to be so calculating? We are husband and wife, we are one. It doesn't matter who succeeds, it will be the same for this family!"

"It's different! You succeed, and I'm the man behind the successful woman! Everyone will laugh at me for being incompetent, and mock me for marrying a wife who can save me fifty years of hard work! I worked hard to get into Jinghua University and study abroad in Massachusetts, but this is not what I want! What I want is my own success! I want my own brilliant and glorious life! I shouldn't be a foil on your road to success! My pride and self-esteem won't allow it!"

"Is there no other way? Are we going to end our six-year relationship just like that?"

"Then can you be a housewife? Let's go back to the traditional family model where the man works outside and the woman works inside! The two children are getting older now, and they'll be going to school in a year or two. You should spend more time with them, educating them, and raising them into outstanding men. Besides, we only have one son now, and I've always wanted both a son and a daughter. It's time for us to have a second child! All of this requires you to return to the family and focus on it. Are you willing to do all this?"

"Raising a child isn't just my responsibility; it's the responsibility of both parents. You can't use your career as an excuse to push the entire burden onto me. That's wrong! I have no objection to you wanting a second child. Having a second child doesn't conflict with my career much! I'm a senior executive, and I have flexible working hours!"

"If you have a career, you will definitely put it first, followed by the child, and then me! I am already ranked third in your mind! Why can't you put me and the child first?"

"You and the children always come first. My career is very important to me, but..."

Rong Zixuan interrupted me, "Don't kid yourself. Your career comes first in your mind! You are a career-oriented woman! When you were pregnant, you hesitated! You even thought about not having the child! It was only after my persuasion that you gave birth to the child!"

"Don't try to change the subject! Giving birth is very harmful to a woman's health, and I was unmarried and a student at the time. Giving birth to a child puts me under more pressure than you do! And after giving birth to a child, it's not just about feeding them and raising them. You also have to consider their future growth and education!"

"Giving birth hurts your body is just an excuse. Women have been giving birth this way for thousands of years, and you're younger so you'll recover faster! I'll be with you after the baby is born, but you're still hesitating! You're still thinking about your studies! You can postpone your studies, but if you lose the child, it's gone forever! You're still hesitating, which means your career is your top priority! You're a true career woman! Now that your career has taken off, you care even less about family!"

"Don't make subjective assumptions about other people. These are just your opinions! You are a man and I am a woman. We are born with physiological differences. You can't empathize with me when it comes to having children! And you also turn a blind eye to my efforts for this family! Ask yourself, who is putting the child to sleep every night? Who is taking the child out to play on weekends? Who is teaching the child literacy and language? What were you doing while I was doing all this? You only spend time with the child when you are free or happy. The rest of the time you go out under the pretext of work. Your company has been established for a year and has not launched any projects, so what exactly are you doing when you go out to work?"

"Yes! I'm so bad. I haven't made any profit in a year since I founded the company. Instead, the losses are getting bigger and bigger!" Rong Zixuan was furious, and every time he was exposed, he would try his best to change the subject.

"Then answer me, between you and me, who spends more time and energy on raising children?"

"That's fine by you! But this is what you, as a woman, should do! I'm a man, and my stage is outside, not in this little world at home!"

"You're really becoming more and more unfamiliar. I don't know why you suddenly changed! You were willing to give your child my last name, but now you're forcing me to be a housewife? What on earth happened to you?"

"I just can't bear to be suppressed by you in every way! I also want to have a wife who worships and admires me like other men! Men all want to conquer women, not be suppressed by women!"

"I'll ask you one last time, do you really want to divorce me?"

"Yes! I'm sober now! I've been thinking about it for a long time!"

"How about we calm down for another month? If you still want a divorce after a month, then we can get a divorce!"

"Aqing! I have thought about this for a long time! Don't struggle in vain! I hope we can part ways in peace! I will sleep in the guest room tonight, and I hope you can give me an answer tomorrow." After saying that, Rong Zixuan left without looking back.

Rong Zixuan left, leaving me alone in an empty room filled with our memories. I stayed awake all night, watching the sky outside the window turn from black to white. At seven in the morning, he knocked on the door and came in. Judging from his appearance, he had probably not slept all night either.

"So, have you made up your mind?" he asked me with a tired face.

"Give me a month, okay? Just one month! Or half a month would be fine! Or at least a week would be fine! If you still insist, then we'll go straight back to Gyeongju to handle the paperwork!"

"Ah Qing! I've made up my mind! So let's not waste time, okay?"

"It seems that being around me makes you very depressed, and you can't wait to leave. Well, since you have made up your mind, what else can I say?" My tears flowed unconsciously.

"I'm sorry!" Rong Zixuan lowered his head and didn't dare to look at me.

"Don't be sorry, we haven't done anything wrong to each other! We just have different standpoints!"

"When will we return home?"

"Next week! We need to get rid of the things here first!"

"Is tomorrow possible? I checked the flight schedule and there's a suitable flight tomorrow."

"Do you have someone else outside? Why are you so impatient?" I asked suspiciously.

"No, I just want to get out of your shadow as soon as possible. After the divorce, I will go to Germany to work. A company has sent me an offer."

"Can you speak German? Go to Germany."

"We can communicate in English, please clean up and wash up first."

I felt drowsy all day. Night fell, and I once again faced an empty room. But the difference was that I fell asleep out of exhaustion, escaping reality in my dreams. In my dreams, I saw Rong Zixuan, the man who had persistently asked for my WeChat ID during military training. I also saw Rong Zixuan, the man who had been willing to protect me in life-or-death situations. I also saw Rong Zixuan, the man who had just become a father, crying tears of joy...

Dreams are just dreams, and the alarm clock pulled me back to reality. Rong Zixuan had already prepared, even taking care of the two children. Once I was done, I was ready to go. We took a flight of over ten hours to land in China, and then took the train for over an hour back to Gyeongju. We immediately went to the Civil Affairs Bureau to complete the divorce procedures. This divorce was even more urgent than his last marriage. How ironic!

Walking out of the Civil Affairs Bureau, Rong Zixuan felt relieved, "Then let's end it here! I hope you can find your happiness again!" He stretched out his hand to me. I looked at the man in front of me who was both familiar and unfamiliar. I didn't know what to say, so I also stretched out my hand to say goodbye to my first love and my marriage!

I returned to my hometown in the countryside with my children and told my parents about my divorce. They didn't say anything, but I could tell they were worried about me, though they couldn't express it. I asked them not to reveal the fact of my divorce yet. I was still a frequent media source, and if they knew about it, I would be all over the news. I just wanted to spend this time quietly and alone, healing myself slowly, and my parents agreed. After a week in my hometown, I returned to the United States with my two children and successfully applied to Harvard for a doctoral program. This decision almost angered Xiao Yuan, as he was still waiting for me to return and fight alongside him to expand his territory. But unexpectedly, I chose to continue my studies in the United States.

Back home in Boston, while the surroundings haven't changed, Rong Zixuan is missing. The house is filled with our memories, and I want to continue living alone in this place, accepting the torture of the sweetness of the past. I've considered moving, but I have to pick myself up where I fell. I can't escape! I have a long life ahead of me; this is just a relationship. I can't let it control me! Since love can't be retained, I'll focus on my career!