Chapter 47: Moonlight
At one in the morning, a series of phone rings woke Xiao Qi up from a deep dream after ten days of overtime.
With a strong morning grumpiness, she ruffled her messy hair and took out her phone from under her pillow. She squinted her eyes to see the caller on the screen, and her resentment paused for a moment. She rubbed her eyes and immediately answered the phone.
“Hello, hello, Qian Ge?”
“Yeah.”
“I thought you were missing. Your phone has been off all this time.” Xiao Qi sat up in bed, with a feeling of being in a dream. “Do you know how busy I’ve been every day since you resigned? I’m so tired…”
“I’m sorry…”, her voice was low and soft, and it was sandy, as if the other end of the phone were still a late autumn with falling leaves.
Xiao Qi’s personality was as straightforward as her short hair, which never went past her ears. “We’ve been colleagues for so long. Don’t say you’re sorry. Are you doing well?”
“I’m getting married.”
The night was quiet, and he could vaguely hear the sound of the electric current in the receiver. She chuckled. “He proposed.”
“Huh? You’re getting married again?”, Xiao Qi’s mouth was so wide that she could fit an egg in it. She raised her voice. “Qian Ge, it’s the middle of the night. What are you doing? Tell me where you are.”
“I’m at your door.”
Xiao Qi looked down at the time on her phone again. It was one twenty-four in the morning.
In the second half of the night, the moon was hidden in the clouds.
…
Xiao Qi was walking around the living room in her slippers. After a long while, she was still angry. She ran to Xia Qiange’s side and sat down. She held her hand, and before she could speak, she shivered from the cold.
“My dear, what are you up to?”
“I want to marry him.”
Xia Qiange pursed her pale and dry lips, and her face was pale and blue. Her porcelain-white neck was transparent, and a faint purple blood vessel was visible. Her face was very pale, and her whole person was as if she were not in the light. She was as if she would be blown away by the wind.
She was so thin that she was just a skeleton. How much cotton would it take to hold up her wedding dress? Wasn’t this all the fault of that unreliable dog of a man?
Xiao Qi was so disappointed that she couldn’t make a sound. Her tone was heavy. “This kind of person, it’s a blessing to see through him once. To do it a second time… is to be a fool. If he really had this in mind, why would he have run away in the first place?”
“I shouldn’t have lied to him.”
“What did you lie to him about?”
Xiao Qi was confused. She said that two people in love should not torture each other.
Xia Qiange just smiled and shook her head. She said that she was a little regretful. She tucked the messy hair by her ear, and her fingers slid from the ends of her hair to the ends. She used to have a head of dark and thick long hair, but now it was a little dark yellow, and the ends were slightly split, and it was not so beautiful anymore.
“Help me with my makeup…”, Xia Qiange looked at her pale face in the mirror. Her skin was dehydrated, and it was not so smooth and firm anymore. Even though her exquisite bone structure was still there, she probably needed to put on a very, very heavy makeup. She had rarely worn heavy makeup before, and she was very unfamiliar with it. She was afraid that it would not look good.
She touched her cheek, and the lipstick was on her lips with a bright color, and a mocking arc was on her lips.
“Otherwise, it won’t look good.”
“Alright, alright. I’ll do it. I’ll do it, okay?”
Xiao Qi just felt that her morning grumpiness was rising again. She couldn’t figure it out, but she could also understand a little.
She thought that a person who was so excellent that ordinary people could not reach her must have some unusual places. She was different from ordinary people. Then wasn’t she a madwoman?
“Crazy, crazy. I think you’re all crazy.”
She was muttering and ran back to the bedroom. “Wait. I’ll go and get my things. If you’re going back… you should look good. Don’t lose face!”
…
The late-night train, crossing the distance from the north to the south.
A hard sleeper, hunger, sleepiness…
Her head was on the car window, and her eyeliner was struggling between being half-closed and half-open. The long and dark night was as if it had no end. She only saw the black of the sky gradually dimming, and the large clumps of clouds were thinned by the southern wet wind, and the moon had revealed its shape again. A thin light was on her pale face.
The car was very quiet, and the sound of intermittent breathing was heard. Only she was awake, and it seemed a little unreal.
Xia Qiange suddenly remembered what Xiao Qi had asked her before she had left. She had asked her if she would regret it.
She had shaken her head and had said that she only regretted lying to him. But believing in a person was really a thing that required a lot of courage.
She was lacking too much love, and the blood that was flowing in her body was all cold. She could only hold him tightly. The her, who was terminally ill, was really helpless. A drowning person… was clinging to a straw for survival.
…
The train arrived at the station, and there was only the sound of the suitcase rolling on the concrete. The clouds and mist were hidden, and the gentle wind was like a thin mist. It was coming in gusts. The night was very deep, and there was still a distance from dawn.
Xia Qiange was dragging her empty suitcase and was walking on the bumpy and uneven sidewalk. She had left the cold and icy station behind her. The vast darkness was silent, and the birds and insects were singing in the deep part of the grass and trees. The people and cars were sparse in the distance.
As if she were used to it, she was in the darkness with a blank expression. She was all alone. She was used to the darkness, and she was also used to the dependence of having him.
She looked up at the sky. The moon was still hanging in the sky, and it was shining with a soft and thin light, like a pair of warm hands that were caressing the top of her head. It was so gentle that it was killing.
Where is he?
She is his bride.
A strange and sour feeling was frantically rushing up her throat, and her eyes were. After she had been treated with his gentleness, how could she have become so cowardly that she didn’t even dare to walk at night?
Her makeup was ruined by her crying.
A streetlight was broken, and it was dark under her feet. She raised her head to look for the light.
Her wet and red eyes were misty. She wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. In an instant, she was in a daze and was trembling.
A streetlight in front was dim, and the light was like a fine and dense rain, and it was on his shoulder. His dark and messy hair was a faint gold, and his neck was long and slender, and he was handsome and noble.
He was leaning against a dark black pillar with his back slightly bent.
Her heartbeat was irregular, and it was as if she were trembling. Xia Qiange threw down the suitcase in her hand and ran towards him as if she were crazy. The cold wind was in her stomach, and it was cramping. But her heart was beating faster and faster, and her palms were also wet with sweat.
She was getting closer to him, and his outline was getting clearer and clearer. She was getting more and more flustered, and the sweat in her palms was sticky, and her throat was tight.
It was not until she saw his sideways gaze and their gazes met that the air seemed to have reached its ignition point, and it was burning at the focal point.
Su Yu opened his mouth, and before he could make a sound, he was suddenly hugged.
He looked down and saw her raised face. Her cheeks were wet, and her dark black eyeshadow was smudged. The glaze on her lips was faint…
She was in a daze, and she didn’t quite understand. She thought she should be happy. “Why are you crying?”
She was silent. She buried her head in his arms, and her voice was blurry and delicate, and she was openly acting spoiled.
“Why are you here?”
“I… I’m here to pick you up. Yeah…”, he thought for a moment and added, “and to marry you.”
“Marry who?”
“Huh?”
The dazed and silly look really made her teeth itch.
“I’m asking you who you’re marrying.”
“Stop fooling around…”, he frowned.
Her eyes were red, and she asked with a sob, “Who are you marrying?”
After a while, a low and gentle male voice came from above his head.
“Marrying you.”
She was resting her head on his chest, and all the smudged lipstick was on his white shirt. She let out a light hum and smiled.
The moonlight was gentle in the wind.
The two of them had been tormented for too long. It was time to rest…
