Ex-Husband's CallChapter 2

Tong Qiu has never lived on his own before.

Before marrying Huo Zhixing, he lived with his parents, and after getting married he lived together with Huo Zhixing, of course. dQ8Kji

Neither of their families were particularly well-off – they were middle-class, perhaps a little above average. Frankly speaking, they had both led a comfortable, ordinary life. Before they were married, Huo Zhixing had purchased a modest two-bedroom apartment and had to pay off the mortgage every month, but nonetheless, it was a place he could call his own.

When Tong Qiu moved in, he had planned on helping Huo Zhixing with the mortgage payments but Huo Zhixing had said, “let’s wait a year.”

Chrysanthemum Garden.

It made sense at the time and so Tong Qiu had agreed. In case they really were to get divorced, it’d be difficult to calculate the tab.

It didn’t matter one way or another to Tong Qiu but if Huo Zhixing found another partner and questions were asked, it’d be awkward having to explain the ‘equity’ that Tong Qiu owned in the property. em6lpL

It was getting late and Tong Qiu’s mind kept buzzing as he made his way home. When he arrived, he stood in front of his door and rummaged for a good while before he found the key. He hadn’t even had a chance to attach it to a proper keychain.

He opened the door – it was pitch-black inside.

Tong Qiu stood at the threshold and let out a long ‘ahhhhh’ but there was no one inside to answer him. Letting out a self-deprecating laugh, he turned on the lights and shut the door, then changed into his slippers and stared at the many boxes in annoyance.

He actually really hated cleaning up.

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While married to Huo Zhixing, he had tried to keep up the appearance of a good househusband and had forced himself to clean their apartment every day. He even asked his mother to teach him a few recipes.

But the truth was, Tong Qiu wasn’t that kind of man. His existence was like a cassette tape with two sides, A and B. When he was around other people, he always showed his ‘A’ side but when facing Huo Zhixing, he automatically flipped to the ‘B’ side.

It was almost as if he were some fresh-faced idol who had to constantly maintain their public image.

The past year of marriage was probably the most diligent and industrious year of Tong Qiu’s entire life. When there were no issues at work to deal with, he would clean the entire apartment every Saturday and as long as he was free, he would personally cook meals for Huo Zhixing. Even when Huo Zhixing was on call, he would climb out of bed and whip up a midnight snack for Huo Zhixing once he returned. GMhH4i

Of course, Huo Zhixing did his share of the work as well and the two of them would even fight to do the other’s chores.

Put that way, one would think their days as a married couple weren’t all that bad. Honestly speaking though, Tong Qiu was pretty tired, but it wasn’t a physical kind of weariness related to Saturday chores or waking up to make meals. It was as if he and Huo Zhixing were merely putting up a front, and were only united in appearance but not in their hearts.

There was no doubt that they were a married couple and they even had the marriage certificate to prove it, and yet, they barely held hands and were only physically intimate when they had sex. When they first got married, Huo Zhixing would give Tong Qiu a perfunctory goodbye kiss when he left for work, as if it were some sort of formality. Later on, even the goodbye kisses stopped. Everything that existed between them felt like a pretense, which is what drove Tong Qiu to bring up the subject of divorce.

Huo Zhixing was a good man and Tong Qiu’s opinion remained unchanged, even now. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a single spark between them. LKscqz

Given that he had already used up a lifetime’s supply of diligence over the past year, Tong Qiu didn’t have any leftover energy to unpack. He rifled through a few boxes, found the items he needed and ignored the rest – he’d deal with it after a good night’s sleep.

Once he had brushed his teeth and washed his face, Tong Qiu flopped onto his bed. He lifted his hand under a strip of moonlight and stared at his ring.

He forgot to take it off again. Maybe he should find a little box to keep it and return it the next time he saw Huo Zhixing.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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After Tong Qiu moved out, Huo Zhixing went back to his room and slept. Usually, he could sleep until noon but today was different. He woke up at around ten.

Tong Qiu wasn’t normally around at this hour but would still cook something for him before leaving. He often left long notes for Huo Zhixing instructing him to heat up the food before eating it and it had become a habit of theirs over time. g4Zmb0

There was no note today.

Huo Zhixing lay in bed and looked at his phone but there were no exciting updates to entertain him. And despite being the type of person who rarely fell ill, he could feel the first signs of a headache developing.

He climbed out of bed, glanced around at his half-empty surroundings and couldn’t even bring himself to take any medicine.

There was no avoiding it – he had co-existed with Tong Qiu for so long that he couldn’t get used to Tong Qiu’s sudden absence. 0vUfVd

He cleaned a little, swept the floor a bit and changed the sheets. At around 11 o’clock, he ordered some take-out and watched TV while he ate. And then he put on his police uniform and headed to work.

It was the same routine he had had over the past year of marriage. Now that he thought about it, they hadn’t spent all that much time together. At the beginning, Huo Zhixing had promised to take Tong Qiu somewhere for their honeymoon. The trip never happened and Huo Zhixing couldn’t help but feel as if he had let Tong Qiu down.

When he reached the ground floor, Huo Zhixing bumped into their downstairs neighbour, Auntie Song. She had just returned and was holding large bags in both hands, so he offered to help her carry them.

Auntie Song smiled when she saw him and said, “Are you off to work? Last time I spoke to xiao-Tong he said he liked the fennel dumplings I made. I’m making some today so tell him to come over for dinner tonight.” ZcOkhs

Huo Zhixing helped carry Auntie Song’s things upstairs. He stood at her doorstep and said with a small smile, “He’s tied up with work today and will probably be back late. No need to wait for him.”

“You two are always so busy,” Auntie Song said with a pat on his shoulder. “I’ll save some dumplings for him and he can put them in the freezer when he’s back. The next time the two of you are too busy to cook, you can just boil some dumplings for dinner.”

Huo Zhixing thanked her and thought to himself, ‘Tong Qiu, you’re actually quite popular, aren’t you?’

The afternoon shift usually started at four o’clock but because he didn’t feel like staying home, Huo Zhixing arrived at around two. eup6Mm

“Woah, how come you’re so early today, shifu?” Zhao Heyu was a new recruit who had joined a year ago and had latched onto Huo Zhixing like a puppy to his new master.

“How’s everything? Did anything happen while I was gone?” Huo Zhixing walked over to fetch a cup of water before taking a seat. His head was still pounding and he had stopped by a pharmacy for some medication on the way over.

“It’s that Dong Ming from Sanhu Street again, the one who hits his wife. Took half the morning to deal with such a small case.”

“It’s not just a ‘small case’.” Huo Zhixing said after swallowing his pills and setting down his cup. “Domestic violence isn’t something that happens once or twice. What did his wife say?” dEAgfM

“She still doesn’t want to divorce him.” Zhao Heyu slapped a hand on his desk and sighed. “I don’t get it. With a man like that, why does she still stick around?”

Huo Zhixing shook his head.

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He sat down but when he opened his drawer to put away the medicine, his hand inadvertently brushed against the ring that was also inside.

The rules were that no jewelry could be worn while on duty, even wedding rings. In the past, Huo Zhixing would always take off his ring at the start of his shift and put it back on before he left. bRWyZi

It had become a ritual of sorts, a reminder that there was someone waiting for him at home.

However, he had forgotten to put it back on when he left this morning, his head too full of thoughts of Tong Qiu’s move. He was in such a rush that he had left the ring behind.

Huo Zhixing took the ring out and started toying with it in his hands. Zhao Heyu came over to watch and said, grinning, “Shifu, how are things going with shimu? Did you two actually get divorced?”

Huo Zhixing glared at him, then put the ring back in the drawer. “Mind your own business.” Tb3l1a

Zhao Heyu was a bit of a busybody and had been stunned when he first found out Huo Zhixing had married a man. It was back when same-sex marriage had just been legalized and it had caused quite a stir in the office when word got round that his shifu had taken a ‘first crack’ at the whole same-sex marriage thing.

Zhao Heyu has only met Tong Qiu a handful times but he knew that his shimu was a high school teacher and was quite handsome. At the time, Zhao Heyu had even joked that he would send his own children to his shimu’s school once he settled down and had kids of his own.

As things turned out, he hadn’t even found himself a wife yet but his shimu wasn’t even his shimu anymore.

“You look like you’re still hung up on him, shifu. You miss him, don’t you? Why did you get divorced then?” 9EdiM2

“Did you sort through the documents I gave you yesterday?”

Zhao Heyu clamped his mouth shut and stopped talking.

“Get back to work!” Huo Zhixing picked up the stack of documents on the desk and rapped Zhao Heyu on the head a few times before heading to the washroom.

If he was being perfectly honest, Huo Zhixing was still a little hung up on Tong Qiu. How could he not be, when it was someone as captivating as Tong Qiu? NQVdKW

But there were simply too many issues between the two of them and rather than try to hang on to Tong Qiu, he figured he may as well let go first, peel back the façade of ‘marriage’ so that they could approach each other with their true selves instead.

At around eight o’clock, Huo Zhixing received Tong Qiu’s text along with the photo of that pale, delicate hand and the wedding band that matched his own.

Huo Zhixing stared at Tong Qiu’s hand for a long while and couldn’t suppress his memories of the other parts of Tong Qiu.

Tong Qiu had five moles on his body and all were rather small, like five little sesame seeds scattered across milky white rice cake. There was one at the corner of his mouth, another on his index finger, one on his earlobe, one in the center of his chest and one last one on the right side of his soft, plush buttcheek. 1r4hYF

Huo Zhixing actually understood Tong Qiu pretty well – Tong Qiu was simply oblivious to just how well Huo Zhixing knew him.

Huo Zhixing didn’t reply immediately to Tong Qiu’s message about the wedding ring and waited until after midnight when his shift was over before responding with “hold onto it for now.”

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Hold onto it for now, because you might need it later.

It was a fairly peaceful night at the station. After clocking out, Zhao Heyu said, “Shifu, let’s go out for drinks.” bj IoY

“Drinks my ass.”

“C’mon, let’s go.” Zhao Heyu grabbed Huo Zhixing by the arm and dragged him inside. “Get changed first. I’ll buy you a drink.”

Under normal circumstances, Zhao Heyu would have lectured him on his impertinence before heading home, but today, there wasn’t anyone waiting for him at home anyway so Huo Zhixing agreed to tag along.

The two of them changed out of their police uniforms and Zhao Heyu drove them to the low-key bar they visited a few times before. dRAu3w

Zhao Heyu ordered a drink. Huo Zhixing ordered some soda.

Shifu, you’re always walking around with that swagger but when you’re at a bar, you act like a complete lightweight.”

Huo Zhixing wasn’t afraid to drink, he was simply allergic to alcohol. When he and Tong Qiu got married, they invited a dozen of their friends out for dinner and Tong Qiu had spent the entire night making excuses for him and downing drinks on his behalf.

Huo Zhixing ignored Zhao Heyu’s teasing – it was the same spiel every time they went out drinking. YG6oxB

“Real talk though, did you really get a divorce?” Zhao Heyu’s concern for his shifu came from the bottom of his heart. When he first started working as an officer, he had endured hours upon hours of Huo Zhixing’s angry lectures. Huo Zhixing had quite the temper and Zhao Heyu had given him the nickname ‘Wild Tiger’ behind his back. But after Huo Zhixing got married, his violent temper disappeared, and as long as Zhao Heyu didn’t mess things up too badly, Huo Zhixing wasn’t quite as ferocious with his scoldings.

To Zhao Heyu, Tong Qiu was an angel descended from the heavens whose sole purpose was to tame the ‘Wild Tiger’. But now that Tong Qiu and Huo Zhixing had broken up, Zhao Heyu was worried that Huo Zhixing would revert to his pre-liberated self, and might even be worse than before.

Seeing as Huo Zhixing was an aging divorcee, it was possible that his hormones would soon become out of whack and in the event that he hit menopause early, the person that would suffer the most would undoubtedly be Zhao Heyu.

“Why are you so concerned about whether or not I’m divorced?” Huo Zhixing leaned back in his chair and stared at Zhao Heyu. It was obvious the kid was overthinking things. n6H5Wa

“I’m just worried about you,” Zhao Heyu replied. “My shimu is beautiful, kind and devoted. And yet you went and let someone like him slip right through your fingers. Didn’t you say you really liked him?”

Huo Zhixing took a sip of his drink and mulled over his thoughts of Tong Qiu.

Shifu, it’s my turn to scold you. You might not cherish what you have right now, but don’t come crying to me later when shimu finds someone else.”

“Thanks for your concern.” Huo Zhixing finished his drink in one gulp and grinned. “It’s true that we’re divorced, but that doesn’t mean he’ll have the chance to meet someone else.” ZH2Kn9

“What do you mean?” Zhao Heyu suddenly became nervous. “Shifu, we’re officers. You can’t go about breaking the law! That police badge of yours has eyes and it’s watching your every move.”

Huo Zhixing grinned, “What are you going on about, kid? What I meant was, we might be divorced but there’s nothing stopping me from winning him back.”

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Translator's Note

little, added to names as a nickname

Translator's Note

master, a respectful term that Zhao Heyu uses to address Huo Zhixing

Translator's Note

master’s wife, referring to Tong Qiu

Leave a Comment

24 comments

  1. That’s actually so sad.. they both have positive feelings towards the other but they went through the motions and couldn’t open up to be their real selves towards each other… Please let there be enough banter and flirting to make up for the lost year.

    • ikr ? it is very sad to me since they obviously have affection towards each other but it hasn’t reached the love level yet. i would say it’s just a roommate kinda affection ? what’s frustrating is that (from what i can see) neither of them gave the marriage a try. it’s like they’re married and just went on with their own life. it sucks.

  2. I feel sorry for the two… But I think this time Huo Zhixing is to blame. He didn’t cherised Tong Qiu and took him for granted. It’s his turn to work Hard and make him fall in love again.

    Thanks for the chapter!

  3. Oh ho. So confident. I like it. Let’s see how he’s going to that tho’.

    Thank you for the update ❤️

  4. I feel like this isn’t just limited to married couples, it can happen to any relationship. You’re stuck playing a role, media and society tell you “this is how you behave in a romantic relationship” and that’s exhausting.

    People go into relationships believing that they can’t be their true selves and that only leads to misery because most of the time their partner can tell they’re faking it. Others go into relationships believing that once you’re married then you don’t have to care as much because I mean that’s the goal right?

    Tong was right in the first chapter, relationships are about responsibility on both sides. Tong was at fault for putting on a fake mask, and Huo was at fault for forgetting to cherish his husband. Hopefully they both grow and get together again 💕

  5. Honestly? They needed that divorce with the way they were. At least now, there won’t be any need to put up a front to be a good husband or anything.

    Thanks for the chapter! 🙂

  6. The one time where the “need to divorce before you can get together” trope makes sense.

  7. I feel like because they got married without getting to know each other first, they both unconsciously put up walls. They were basically strangers, so of course it’ll be hard to adjust especially if you put up a facade in front of the other every time which becomes repetitive and tiring. In the end, they couldn’t see each other’s real self because they were trapped by the expectation of how a ‘married couple’ should act. I suppose.. hopefully Hou Zhixing works hard to renew their relationship!

  8. Huo did not need to wait for divorce to change their relationship. He let Tong try so hard for a year without saying anything. 😕

  9. They need to let go of each other to remove that “arrange marriage” that caused them to doubt each other’s affections, especially since no one admitted that they fell in love with each other during the marriage(and tong qiu probably did not even realize it since he was afraid to show his real self which cause his weariness)

    its like a “home” was supposed to be the place they could relax but tong qiu couldn’t do it. I’m curious how they will walk back in each other’s life. what happened isn’t just one sided fault after all

  10. I think that we all want to know why did you two fcked up so much… Communication, kids, communication is the most important!

    Thank You for the chapter ( ˘ ³˘)♥