Chapter 146: Bottomless
Xia Qiange had imagined what she would look like at her wedding more than once.
Long before the other children were playing house with their exquisite and expensive Barbie dolls, she was squatting on the side with a dirty and old teddy bear, watching them play the roles of father, mother, and child… she couldn’t join them, but that didn’t stop her from using her child’s unique innocence and romance to imagine the details.
She had thought very maturely that a wedding was just an insignificant step that opened the curtain of life. The time that was slowly passing in the hourglass was the culprit that was eroding the feelings between two people.
One party’s love, which was so passionate that it was almost bloody, could not restore a broken relationship. Even if it became a mirror that was forcefully glued together in the end, the people inside would have long since been unrecognizable.
She loved a person, so she had to understand and even plunder all of the other party’s emotions. She was like an endless black hole, and her desire was twisted into a vortex. She greedily squeezed all of the other party’s things to fill her heart, which was restless day and night because of her lack of security.
This was a twisted and morbid state, and it was also an incurable and chronic illness of hers.
Xia Qiange lowered her head and pinched her fingertips, watching as the blood under her skin turned pale. She bit her lower lip with some impatience, and she used the pain to calm herself down. She had specially ordered the simplest wedding process, but it was still so complicated that it was unbearable.
She was silently reciting the vows in her heart, and she was letting the etiquette lady slowly tie up her long hair, which she had kept for him, past her shoulders. She looked up at the unbearable time and thought of the few years she had been silently hibernating.
So bitter.
Her life was turned upside down. A person’s life was like a year. Her life had lost its weight because of him, but it was so heavy that she couldn’t breathe. That painful and tormenting period was a darkness that she was not willing to recall even when she closed her eyes.
…
Xiao Qi came in with a few cups of warm water. The first thing she saw was the bride looking up and meeting her gaze in the mirror. Her fair and slender neck was slightly raised, and she was as pure as an elegant and serene swan.
Her mind was blank for a few seconds, and she had forgotten to distribute the water in her hand and had put it aside. She quickly walked to Xia Qiange’s side and was stammering for a long time, unable to speak.
“Qian Ge, you’re getting married…”
“What’s wrong? Who bullied you?”
Xia Qiange smiled and turned her head, but she saw that the corners of the girl’s eyes were slightly wet and red.
“Nothing. It’s just that when we first met, you were the most serious at work in the company, and you didn’t like to go out and play. You rarely went to company parties. You were always alone. I was thinking that it would be a pity if such a beautiful girl was not doted on. And I was also wondering what kind of man could make you fall in love.”
Xiao Qi wiped her tears and forced a very forced smile. “But in the blink of an eye, you’re getting married. You haven’t told me how you met Su Yu. Was it love at first sight?”
“Yeah, love at first sight…”, she smiled and nodded, and she answered with great certainty.
Love at first sight. She had been sick and had loved him for more than ten years. She had loved him to the bone, and she was so sick that she was thin and emaciated, and she was not like herself.
The makeup artist had put the last touch on her eyebrows and eyes and was looking at her mature work with satisfaction. “Alright, go and see…”
Xia Qiange blinked her eyes. She looked up and looked at herself in the mirror. She was bright and moving, and she was breathtakingly beautiful. That was what she looked like in a wedding dress. The countless dreams she had had had finally become a reality that she could touch.
She smiled and waved at the mirror, and her bright red and translucent lips were slightly parted.
“You’re getting married, Xia Qiange.”
…
A few meters of a long corridor. She was holding the complex and exquisite hem of her skirt and was walking past. The silver jewelry between her slender and charming collarbones was faintly shining under the light. She was smiling brightly and generously, and the sound of her high heels was crisp. Her slightly pink earlobes were swaying with a faint light.
Unfortunately, there was no one in the audience to appreciate her heart-stirring beauty at this moment. The most important moment in her life was a little deserted and sad. She turned a blind eye to it, and her heart was calm. Her life, which had no branch to rely on, had long since been used to being alone.
It would be fine as long as he was there. There was nothing else to care about.
The master of ceremonies was dressed as a priest and was holding a thick and heavy Bible in his hand. His face was old-fashioned, and his expression was solemn as he stood on the stage. The melodious and gentle piano music was echoing around him. It was hard to tell if he was really so solemn and serious, or if he was just acting.
The woman’s appearance had made her, who had always been meticulous, feel a little uneasy. She knew very well the uncontrollability of a madwoman. At that time, she had just wanted to book the wedding as soon as possible and had left the capital for her honeymoon, so that she could completely get rid of this emotion. For a moment, her mind could not accommodate anything else, but she had not expected that she would have chosen this kind of purely Western-style wedding in a muddle.
Time was slowly passing in the silence. The priest put the Bible he was holding in his arms on the stage, and his thumb was gently caressing the leather cover. The air that was flowing in his breath was stuffy and viscous. He looked at the girl in front of the stage, who was always silent. She was standing in place, and her gaze was locked on the end of the long corridor. It seemed that she had not moved a single step.
Looking at the still-quiet chapel, if it wasn’t for the fact that he had been paid, it would be hard not to think that he was being made fun of. He cleared his throat with some annoyance, and he was silently reciting the vows in his mouth to pass the time that was already late.
The shadow at the end of the corridor deepened, and it was swaying in his eyes. The chaotic and noisy sound of footsteps was heard in the empty chapel, and a stone was thrown into the water, and it was spreading like a ripple.
Xia Qiange raised her head, and her slightly cold and dark eyes reflected the flustered expressions of Xiao Qi and the etiquette lady.
It was as if something had come back to life, and it was crawling on the heart in her chest. The blood was boiling, and the meridians were cramping. The hazy and thin gauze was covering the side of her plain white neck, and the dark green and thin veins were faintly visible under her flesh and blood.
The moment she had heard the news, her heart went numb. There was little doubt or sadness. She had been on guard for too long, and she was truly exhausted. She just wanted to rest for a little while. But the moment she let down her spider-web-like, sensitive mental defenses and tried to relax, the dagger—tempered with poison—ruthlessly stabbed into her heart.
Fresh blood gushed out, and the poison was heart-wrenching.
She was in so much pain that she couldn’t breathe.
“Qian Ge! Su Yu is gone. We’ve looked everywhere…”
Her fingertips were embedded in her flesh, and her fair fingers were red.
One drop, two drops… slid down her fingertips and seeped into the depths of her pure white gauze skirt.
The pain had aroused her fantasy of self-comfort. The priest’s murmuring was as if it had suddenly become heavy.
“Are you willing to marry him at a suitable age, to be always gentle and dignified, to obey this person, to respect him, to help him, and to live only with him…”
“Are you willing to acknowledge him as your…”
She was smiling, and she reached out her hand in a blurry and hazy light.
“I do…”
The light had left her in the next second, and her vision was no longer blurry. She was in a daze and saw clearly that her ring finger was empty, and her hands were covered in bright red and gushing fresh blood. The dripping blood was as sacred as the vows she had said.
The Lord had finally punished her for her sins. The sweet skin was holding the light of desire, and it had exposed her heinous ugliness. She was wearing a white gauze that symbolized beauty and purity, and she was being punished. The vows of blessing and promise, the blood had defiled the beauty that was built on lies.
…
The birdcage was empty, with a gap.
A golden feather was left by the side of the cage, a withered and corrupt flower on the windowsill, and a broken and tattered doll that had been abandoned in a corner…
The crowd was noisy and flustered. They were looking everywhere, and they did not forget to comfort her in the corner.
She tilted her head, as if the world had been turned upside down, as if she had returned to her past.
She was smiling, and the tip of her pink tongue was licking the scarlet and warm blood on her fingertips.
