5
At 3 p.m. on the day of the wedding, I finally arrived back in Shanghai. Thankfully, Li Zitong had kept everything simple: no ceremony in the morning, just one at the hotel in the evening. Despite this, the calls from relatives and the wedding company, urging me to get married, had been ringing non-stop since morning.
The hotel's wedding hall was already decorated, and many early guests had already arrived. I lowered my head and headed straight for the dressing room backstage. Halfway there, my arm was hooked.
"You're really good, you finally married her." The person who hooked his arm around me exclaimed.
I looked up and saw it was my good friend Gao Yang from high school. I had sent him an invitation last week, and when he found out who the bride was, he was surprised and promised to come.
He was talking cheerfully until he noticed something was wrong with my expression. "I was just joking, I didn't mean anything else... Don't get me wrong, it's all in the past, it's been so many years."
I forced a smile in response and pushed his hand away.
I flung open the dressing room door, startling everyone. After realizing I was the groom, the wedding makeup artist got mad. "Why are you just getting here? Why haven't you changed into your suit? I've worked on hundreds of weddings, and I've never seen a man as outrageous as you."
I didn't answer, trying to keep my voice down. "Please leave for a moment. I need to talk to the bride alone."
The makeup artist was like a gas tank, about to explode. "Have you understood the situation? It's almost time to welcome the newlyweds, and we're only halfway through the makeup. I might not be able to make it in time even if I rush. What do you have to say now?"
The others in the room also urged me to hurry up and prepare for the wedding. Knowing this would never end, I grabbed a vase from the cabinet and smashed it to the floor. The water from the vase seeped into the carpet, spreading like the German army conquering Europe during World War II. I stared at the French section and repeated, "Would you please step out for a moment?"
Everyone was stunned. The makeup artist was the first to stop, and the others followed her out. After the last person left, I closed the door and locked it. Li Zitong and I were the only ones left in the room.
She was wearing a pristine white wedding gown, her hair tied up in a bun, and she sat in front of the makeup mirror without looking back. I hadn't expected this to happen. I had expected her to look stunning in a white wedding gown, but I hadn't expected it to be so stunning that it would break my heart.
Through the reflection in the mirror, I saw no surprise on the delicately made-up face, only deep sadness.
"This is the first time I see you so angry," she said.
This was the first time in my life that I felt this angry. I felt completely betrayed.
"Okay, let's talk about this slowly." I didn't want to continue looking at her in the mirror. I looked at the patterned wallpaper and said, "According to the DNA test results, the body found in the river was not Li Tianci."
Li Zitong didn't say anything.
"Aren't you surprised?" I couldn't help asking.
"Should I act surprised?"
"At least pretend."
She shook her head. "You're so angry, it's definitely not just about this."
I closed my eyes and felt like I was falling freely from the top of the Oriental Pearl Tower. “Why did you keep it from me?”
She stared at the mirror blankly, "Because you didn't ask."
"If I asked you now, would you answer truthfully?"
She didn't answer. But I couldn't help asking.
"You know a man named Jiang Hao, right? He also lived in a children's welfare home."
She nodded.
"During the summer vacation of fifth grade, the seal you used to scare Zheng Kun away was given to you by him, right?"
"Yes."
"When I was in high school, I went to Shengang City to look for you. You had been persuaded to flee with me. But you changed your mind after seeing the handwriting and marks on the back of the photo."
"Now that our whereabouts have been exposed, he won't let us go."
"The videotape in the attic...is it real?"
Li Zitong fell silent. As if to stifle a scream, she stuffed the first joint of her index finger into her mouth and clenched it tightly with her teeth. Blood quickly seeped from her lips.
I immediately regretted it. "If you don't want to answer..."
"It's real," she said, putting her hand down before I could answer. Deep teeth marks were visible on her index finger. It was then that I realized she wasn't wearing a diamond ring today. Since she wasn't married and was a public figure, she couldn't wear a ring on her ring finger. But as far as I knew, she always wore it on her index finger, unless she was in public.
I had taken it off beforehand because I was going to wear it officially later. My heart ached beyond measure, and all my anger had completely dissipated. I grabbed a napkin from the table and tried to bandage her wound.
"Don't touch me." She pushed my hand away and I was stunned.
"You promised that you would never ask about my past."
I pulled out a chair and sat down dejectedly.
"I answered your questions truthfully. In exchange, please help me answer some of my questions." She said coldly, "How did you discover the truth?"
"While sorting through my father's belongings, I found quite a few case files. In chronological order, they point to a mass crime case, a disappearance case, and an unidentified corpse case."
"Tell me the details of the missing case," said Li Zitong.
I understand why she is only concerned about the missing persons case, and I agree that she does have the right to know.
"I found a missing person case in the files my father left behind. Zhang Panpan, a security guard at a hospital in Pingyao City, Shanxi Province, disappeared on May 4th, three years ago, and his whereabouts remain unknown. His age was recorded as twenty-one, and he disappeared six months before the theft of the 'Dawn Star,' which coincides with the time of death of the body found in your old house. His disappearance was extremely bizarre, and the police have found no leads to follow up on."
"His hometown is in a rural area in the northwest. He is the only son in his family, but he has two older sisters. They are a typical poor family, so poor that they have to rely on the minimum living allowance to make ends meet. He has had to help his family with farm work since he was a child, and his life was extremely hard. He is not very smart, his test scores are always at the bottom of the class, and he dropped out of junior high school. But he did not give up on his life. He took the initiative to apprentice to the village craftsmen and learned the craft of jade carving, intending to make a living independently as soon as possible. Because he always had a memory that his parents did not look like this, and that he had an older sister who treated him well, and the family lived in a house in the city. At the age of seventeen, he ran away from home, working menial jobs in the big city while searching for his relatives until he disappeared at the age of twenty-one."
She closed her eyes, clasped her hands together, and placed them on her lips. Through her fingers, she murmured, "So this is how my brother spent his life."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
