**Chapter 2 Daily Parallel Lines**
The next morning, the alarm went off promptly at six-thirty.
Chen Zidong woke up first. He got out of bed quietly, afraid of disturbing Zhang Yijia, who was still sound asleep beside him.
After washing up, he went into the kitchen to prepare a simple breakfast: fried eggs, toast, and coffee. Over the years, this had almost become his daily routine.
Yijia got up around seven, her hair slightly messy, and walked into the kitchen. Seeing the plates already set on the table, the corners of her mouth twitched slightly, but she didn’t say thank you.
She hadn’t slept well the night before. That sentence “Whatever you decide is fine” felt like a thorn stuck in her heart.
“There’s a meeting in the procurement department today. I might get off work a bit late,” Yijia said while eating, her tone flat.
Zidong nodded and took a sip of his black coffee. “Okay, I’ll wait for you in the lab.”
The two left together and drove to the company building.
The familiar silence returned in the car, with only the radio news playing softly in the background. Zidong focused on the road while Yijia gazed out at the tall buildings.
For seventeen years, they had entered and left the company side by side almost every day. Colleagues had long grown used to seeing them as the “model couple”—stable at work and harmonious at home.
But only they knew how much unspoken exhaustion lay beneath that “harmony.”
At the office, they went their separate ways.
Zidong entered the sixth floor where the R&D department was located. Pushing open the lab door, the familiar scent of chemical reagents greeted him.
As a senior supervisor, he was reviewing data reports for a new project with his team today.
Colleague Xiao Li walked over with a smile. “Good morning, Section Chief Chen! I ran that dataset again yesterday—the stability looks really good.”
Zidong nodded, took the report, and studied it carefully.
His work style was always focused and efficient; his quiet personality had become an advantage here—he didn’t chat idly, just buried himself in the work.
During the meeting, he clearly pointed out several potential risks, earning the team’s respect for his expertise.
But when someone joked, “Director Chen, I heard you and Manager Zhang still commute together every day—how enviable,” he only gave a faint smile. “It’s fine.”
Fine? Even he felt how hollow those two words sounded.
On the fourth floor of the same building, in the procurement department meeting room, Zhang Yijia was on a video call with a supplier.
Her smile was polite, her speech professional, and she easily secured a sizable contract.
After the meeting, female colleague Xiao Mei leaned over to gossip. “Yijia jie, your husband is probably buried in work on the sixth floor again, right? You two are together all day—don’t you get tired of each other?”
Yijia smiled, though it looked a little forced. “It’s fine, we’re used to it.”
Used to it. She had been saying those two words more and more lately.
Back then, she had been moved by Zidong’s quiet care—
When the company first started, it only rented a small warehouse as a lab. There were stray dogs outside the factory that sometimes chased people. Yijia often felt too scared to ride her bike out alone, so Zidong would always escort her to the alley entrance. Even when he had to work overtime for experiments, Yijia would quietly wait nearby, helping him organize documents and data;
When she caught a cold, he would secretly leave a box of cold medicine on her desk. Knowing she was allergic to seafood, if he saw shrimp in a colleague’s lunch order, he would immediately pick it out for her.
That kind of understated affection had once been her most romantic fantasy.
But now, being together every day felt like two parallel lines—superficially overlapping, yet drifting farther apart inside.
During the lunch break, Yijia messaged Zidong: “Want to have lunch together?”
Zidong replied quickly: “Sure, I’ll wait for you in the staff cafeteria.”
The two sat facing each other in a corner of the cafeteria.
Yijia ordered her favorite spaghetti, while Zidong got his usual bento. He ate seriously, occasionally looking up to ask, “Did the project meeting go smoothly?”
“It was okay.” Yijia twirled her fork. “I was just thinking… if we book the Okinawa tickets earlier, they’ll be cheaper. Is there any place you especially want to visit?”
Zidong thought for a moment, then answered seriously, “Whatever you decide is fine. I’m okay with anything.”
That sentence again.
Yijia’s heart sank, her fork pausing mid-air.
She wanted to hear him say “I want to go see the sea with you” or “Let’s take photos at that famous shrine,” not this emotionless compliance.
She took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to complain. “Alright, I’ll check first then.”
In the afternoon, Zidong stayed late in the lab adjusting a reaction parameter. Yijia handled paperwork in the procurement department.
The sunlight outside gradually slanted. Though they were in the same building, each remained immersed in their own world.
Zidong occasionally recalled his wife’s slightly tired eyes from the morning. He wanted to show concern but didn’t know how to begin, so he could only turn that feeling into waiting an extra ten minutes for her after work.
After work, they walked into the parking lot together again. Yijia drove while Zidong sat in the passenger seat, habitually reminding her, “There are often scooters at the intersection ahead.”
Yijia gripped the steering wheel tightly but didn’t argue, only giving a soft hum in response.
Back home, Tingxuan had already arrived and was doing homework in the living room—at least it looked that way on the surface.
The girl glanced up at her parents, sensed the odd atmosphere, shrugged, and lowered her head again.
During dinner, Zidong spoke first: “The R&D department approved a new project today. I might need to go on a business trip to Chongqing for a week next month.”
Yijia paused while picking up food. “Okay, stay safe.”
The simple exchange felt like a routine task.
Zidong wanted to share more interesting work stories or ask about her day, but he was afraid of saying the wrong thing, so he ate in silence.
He loved this woman deeply—enough to spend all his time by her side—yet he still didn’t know how to express that love in a way she could understand.
Yijia watched her husband eating with his head down, her emotions mixed.
What she wanted wasn’t constant companionship, but the feeling of being truly “seen”—seeing her romance, her exhaustion, her small expectations.
After dinner, Zidong went to wash the dishes while Yijia leaned against the kitchen doorway, watching his broad back. Tingxuan poked her head out from her room: “Dad, Mom, there’s a school event tomorrow. Can I come home late?”
Zidong turned his head. “What event? Until when?”
Tingxuan waved impatiently. “I don’t know, but I’ll be with classmates—it’s safe!” Then she went back to scrolling on her phone, completely absorbed in her own little world… friends’ gossip, favorite idols, the upcoming school trip. To her, whatever was going on between her parents didn’t matter at all.
Yijia smiled and said, “Go ahead, have fun.”
The mother and daughter’s casualness contrasted once again with the father’s strictness.
Zidong wanted to say something but only nodded in the end. “Stay safe.”
That night, the bedroom lights were dimmed.
Zidong reached out to hold Yijia’s hand but stopped halfway, gently patting her shoulder instead. “Sleep early.”
Yijia turned her back to him and gave a soft hum, though the corners of her eyes were slightly moist.
She didn’t know how much longer these days would last, nor how much longer she could endure this “silent affection.”
《Chapter 2 End》
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