The 99th Divorce

Li Sicheng walked back in. Seeing that she was in the room, he sat on the bed, speaking Italian. Su Qianci could understand him. She pushed the blanket back, looking at him. When he got off the phone, she asked, “Are you going on a business trip?”

“Yes, I think I need to make a trip to Italy.”

“When?”

“The day after tomorrow.” He lifted the blanket and pulled her close. “I’ll be right back. It will only take me 3 to 5 days.”

“Okay.” She was slightly disappointed. “Are you going to Venice?”

“No.” He couldn’t help chuckling, squeezing her face. “I will take you there in the future. This time I have some business to do.”

“Alright.”

“Go to sleep now.” He kissed her lightly on the forehead. “We will go to see grandpa tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

Su Qianci put her hands on his waist, looking down. Venice, Italy, the romantic city. She had always wanted to go there. But it was a good thing that he would be away. There was something she had wanted to do but was afraid to. While he was in Italy, she could go have an HIV test.

The light was turned out. Li Sicheng quickly fell asleep. He breathed evenly into her hair. Su Qianci tightened her grip on his hand. He was asleep. For the past few days, he had not touched her. He did not even kiss her often. Although she did not want him to, that was because she knew that she very likely had AIDS. However, on his part, was he no longer attracted by her? Had he known about the fact that she had been raped? Did he choose not to tell her?

Thinking of that, Su Qianci curled herself into a ball and moved away from him. So… He did not touch her because he did not want to… Right? Her voice choked, but she gritted her teeth, not making a sound. She reached out to grab her cell phone.

As soon the screen lit up, Li Sicheng was aroused from his sleep. He pulled her into his arms and whispered, “Can’t sleep?”

“Yes, I probably have slept too much. You go to bed, and I will look at my phone for a while.”

Li Sicheng was indeed tired out. He had been so busy these days that he could barely catch a break. Hearing her words, he nodded and let go of her. “Don’t stay up too late.”

When his arm was pulled away, Su Qianci’s heart felt empty. Turning her back toward him, she let her tears fall. “Okay.” Her voice was trembling slightly.

He did not notice it and turned around, closing his eyes.

She bit on her fist, letting her tears run down. Trying not to make a sound, she remained still. When he fell asleep again, she took out her phone and typed in the search engine: AIDS transmission routes. Hundreds of articles popped out, and she chose one of them.

Sex, blood, mother to child.

Handshaking, touching, and sleeping together would be fine. Kissing and hugging were also fine. There would be some viruses in saliva, sweat, and tears, but transmission was very rare. She felt relaxed seeing these. She continued on to search the early symptoms of AIDS: Some patients’ early symptoms were like a cold. Some even showed no symptoms at all and would not be aware that they had AIDS.