Chapter 41
◎I just wanted him to coax me, why did it turn out like this?◎
Time is like quicksand on your fingertips. In the blink of an eye, half a month has passed quietly.
Since they last lived together, Sang Xinqi and Liao Yishen have never been separated. Instead, the house where he lived became their cooking place.
Amid the clinking of pots and pans, the smell of fireworks gradually dispelled the loneliness of living alone.
On the 16th day of the lunar calendar, the three gold-plated words "宜嫁戚" (Good for Marriage) on the almanac are particularly eye-catching.
Chen Yanyan's wedding is scheduled on this auspicious day kissed by the sun.
At four in the morning, the city was still fast asleep, but the bride was already sitting in front of the dressing mirror, letting the makeup artist paint stars into the corners of her eyes.
Sang Xinqi stood aside holding a hot American coffee, watching the foundation brush sweep out a porcelain glaze-like luster on Shen Yanyan's face.
As the hairstylist was twisting the last strand of hair into a blooming rose, a flock of white doves happened to fly past the window, and the sound of their wings shattered the morning light condensed on the mirror. She looked down at her watch - it was exactly seven o'clock, and the bride's makeup had just been completed with the last highlight.
"So beautiful," Sang Xinqi handed over the straw cup.
When Chen Yanyan took it, the lace on the cuff of her wedding dress caught on the drawstring of the cup holder, like a knot accidentally tied by fate.
She smiled, the pearl patch on her cheek trembling slightly with the movement. "Thank you."
Tao Wen, bending over to adjust the bride's veil, stepped back and examined her carefully. "It's so beautiful."
Three figures suddenly appeared in the mirror: a bride in snow-white and two bridesmaids in formal dresses, like a beautiful oil painting.
"Alright, alright," Chen Yanyan fiddled with the gold bracelet on her wrist. It was the one her mother had put on her with tears in her eyes in the early morning. "If you say that again, I'll be blushing."
Before she finished speaking, her blush actually darkened a bit.
At ten o'clock sharp, the sound of firecrackers downstairs broke the morning mist.
Sang Xinqi saw the groom walking towards her through the gap in the curtains, collecting the bouquet. "Here he comes."
Upon hearing this, Shen Yanyan sat up straight and looked at the two of them, "I'm a little nervous."
Tao Wen smiled and said, "Don't be nervous, don't be nervous."
Then she added, "Why am I a little nervous too?"
Sang Xinqi laughed at her, "You're still comforting Yanyan."
While the three of them were chatting and laughing, the groom walked to the door.
As soon as he came in, the groom went straight to the bride, knelt on one knee, and raised the flowers in his hand to Chen Yanyan, "Yan Yan, meeting you is my most fortunate thing, and marrying you is the happiest thing in my life."
Every girl likes to have preferences, and Chen Yanyan is no exception. When she heard her groom's words, her nose felt sore and tears welled up in her eyes. She was worried that her makeup would be ruined, so she held back her tears. She reached out to take the flowers, "Me too."
The shoe search took longer than expected.
When the groom knelt on the carpet and lifted the same cushion for the third time, Sang Xinqi noticed Chen Yanyan's hand hanging on the edge of the bed. She was quietly hooking the veil of her skirt with her ring finger wearing a wedding ring.
Fortunately, the groom was sharp-eyed and smart, and he immediately said, "Honey, is it under your skirt?"
Chen Yanyan laughed and reached out to take out her shoes, "That's right."
After the game, the auspicious time came and the groom went out with his mother on his back.
The moment she got into the wedding car, Chen Yanyan couldn't hold back her tears. The groom kept comforting her and gently wiped her tears.
As the wedding car started, a feather from the colorful ribbons in the sky landed on Sang Xinqi's shoulder. She turned around and saw Shen's parents standing in the shadow of the spiral staircase. Shen's mother's pearl necklace was entangled in her husband's tie, and neither of them noticed.
The tears that fell on Mr. Shen's suit turned the dark blue fabric into an even deeper ocean.
Sang Xinqi and Tao Wen went over to comfort her.
"Sangsang," Mother Shen suddenly grabbed her hand, the cold wedding ring hurting her, "you must come back often for dinner."
These words should obviously be said to the bride, but they fell into the ears of the bridesmaid.
As the convoy passed Wutong Avenue, the two elderly people gradually turned into two small black dots in the rearview mirror. Tao Wen suddenly sobbed, and her makeup was smudged like a watercolor painting wet by rain.
Sang Xinqi stared at the shadows of the sycamore trees flitting outside the window. Her chest felt like it was entangled in a wedding ribbon, tight and astringent. She lowered her head to text Liao Yishen, her fingertips unconsciously tapping the same emoji over and over on the screen.
"My makeup will be smudged from crying. How can I be a bridesmaid for Yanyan?" She took a tissue and handed it to Tao Wen, and found that her voice was also damp.
Tao Wen pressed the tissue against the corner of her eye, but her mascara still smudged like an ink painting. "I just can't control myself..."
A furry head suddenly popped out from the front seat.
The best man, Liang Yu, treated the steering wheel like a guitar, tapping his fingers to the beat. "This is called crying tears of joy! If my brother Gu dares to treat my sister-in-law badly—" He suddenly swerved to avoid a pothole, and the amulet hanging on the rearview mirror shook violently. "Let's tie him up and throw him into the river first!"
The car suddenly became quiet.
Sang Xinqi saw Tao Wen's hand, clutching the tissue, freeze in mid-air, her nails stained with red nails digging into her palm. Then she said, "Don't talk about you guys. If things really go badly, I'll kill him even if I have a ten-meter-long knife."
As soon as she finished speaking, a burst of laughter came from inside the car.
The laughter stopped after a while, and the other party asked, "My name is Liang Yu, what are your names?"
"Sang Xinqi!"
"Tao Wen!"
"Are you two in a relationship?"
This question came like a sudden brake.
Sang Xinqi's phone screen lit up, and the message just sent by Liao Yishen popped up on the lock screen: [Remember to hold the bouquet steady].
She subconsciously turned the phone over and heard Tao Wen's nasal voice retort, "Mr. Liang, are you here to be a best man or for a blind date?"
The sunlight through the skylight danced on the back of Liang Yu's neck. The red on the tips of his ears was brighter than the silk decorations on the wedding car. "It's mainly because when you were crying just now..." He suddenly lowered his voice, "you looked especially like the lop-eared rabbits my grandma raised."
Tao Wen: “…”
Sang Xinqi watched Tao Wen throw the crumpled tissue ball toward the front seat.
The white ball drew a parabola in the air and happened to fall into Liang Yu's open suit pocket, where the boutonniere that had been squashed when he picked up the bride this morning was still stuck.
"Psycho!" Tao Wen's voice cracked as she cursed, but the rearview mirror clearly showed her secretly using the front camera of her mobile phone to check her makeup.
Liang Yu laughed so hard that the steering wheel was shaking. The car stereo suddenly started playing "Marry Me Today" automatically, and he immediately started singing along with the out-of-tune tune.
Sang Xinqi quietly lowered the car window a little, and the cold wind rushed in with the smell of residual gunpowder from firecrackers. She saw her face reflected in the car window. The corners of her mouth were raised, but there was a layer of mist in her eyes that she could not understand.
The phone vibrated again. This time, it was Chen Yanyan who sent a photo to the group of sisters: the snow-white wedding dress covered the entire back seat, and the hem of the skirt revealed half of the hidden wedding shoes, like a token left by the escaped Cinderella.
The shattered light from the hotel's crystal chandeliers fell like a gentle snowfall on the guests' shoulders. Sang Xinqi stood behind the bride, her gaze piercing the tiered champagne towers to Liao Yishen's table. Beside him sat a girl in an apricot dress, tilting her head upwards as she spoke to him, her earrings swaying like restless wind chimes.
"Now please invite the bride and groom to exchange rings--" The host's voice suddenly rang out. Sang Xinqi suddenly came back to her senses and found that her nails had dug into the ribbon of the bouquet.
The sharp thorns of the rose pierced into my fingertips, but the slight pain could not suppress the bitterness surging in my heart.
After the ceremony, as she walked towards the table arm in arm with Tao Wen, her high heels felt like stepping on cotton on the carpet. It wasn't until she heard the sickly sweet "Sister Sang" that she could see her face clearly.
Gu Chaoyan's lips, painted with mirrored lip glaze, were curved into a crescent, but the hostility in her eyes was sharper than the pearl studs on her wedding dress.
"Ever since you broke up with Brother Yi Shen..." These words were like a blunt knife, suddenly cutting through the laughter at the table.
Liao Yishen put down the chopsticks in his hand. Sang Xinqi saw that his knuckles were white and the veins were faintly visible under his watch.
"We are fine now," he said softly, but the sweet smile on Gu Chaoyan's face froze instantly. Sang Xinqi noticed that her hand holding the napkin was shaking, and the carefully made crystal nails scratched tiny cracks on the fabric.
Sang Xinqi sat down leisurely, and Liao Yishen immediately held her cold hand under the table.
Gu Chaoyan's apricot-colored dress suddenly shook violently.
After they broke up that year, she stopped Liao Yishen and took the opportunity to confess her love to him, but he drove her away. In a fit of anger, she never spoke to him again.
Until today when her cousin got married, she met Liao Yishen again.
But she still likes him.
She had boyfriends over the years, but she always felt that they were not good enough, so she broke up with them within three months.
"I...I'm going to the bathroom," Gu Chaoyan knocked over the red wine glass when he stood up, and the wine spread on the white tablecloth like a fresh wound.
Sang Xinqi looked at her hurried back and suddenly felt a bitter taste of champagne in her mouth. Liao Yishen pinched her fingers under the table. There was gold powder from the wedding ribbons in his palm, which sparkled on her skin.
After the banquet, everyone left one after another.
Sang Xinqi and Liao Yishen took a taxi home, but they always kept a subtle distance from each other.
The scene at the banquet just now kept replaying in her mind. Although the two of them joined forces to make Gu Chaoyan angry and leave, when she arrived at the banquet, she saw that Liao Yishen actually tacitly let Gu Chaoyan sit next to him.
This image pierced her heart like a thorn, making her chest feel stuffy.
Her fingertips unconsciously swiped the phone screen, and she didn't even notice that she had opened and locked the lock screen countless times.
"What's wrong?"
Liao Yishen's voice suddenly sounded beside him, his tone as gentle as usual.
But somehow, these words only added fuel to the fire in her heart. She pursed her lips, pretending not to hear, and continued to fiddle with her phone.
The person next to him seemed to sigh softly, but ultimately did not ask any further questions.
Silence stretched between the two of them like an invisible wall.
Perhaps the driver also noticed the subtle and awkward atmosphere between them, so he drove very fast along the way. The journey that usually took forty minutes only took half an hour.
The two walked into the community and got on the elevator in silence.
The elevator soon stopped at their floor, and the mechanical prompt sound broke the frozen air. Two people walked out of the elevator one after the other, and their footsteps were particularly clear in the corridor.
"Click", the sound of the door opening rang out almost at the same time.
Sang Xinqi's grip on the door handle tightened slightly.
She deliberately slowed down her movements, but couldn't help glancing to the side, but Liao Yishen had already walked into the house neatly.
The moment the door closed, she finally couldn't hold it in anymore and threw her bag heavily on the sofa.
"What do you mean..." She bit her lower lip, her fingers twisting the corner of her clothes unconsciously. She just wanted him to coax her, so why did it turn out like this?
The more I think about it, the more wronged I feel——
Does he really care about her? Doesn't he even want to comfort her?
This thought kept circling in her mind, causing her heart to ache.
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