After I Blocked the Matchmaker Customer Service, He Came for Door-to-door Service - Chapter 6
Chapter 6
I saw myself at six years old.
That night, the rain was pouring.
My mom carried me into Liangyuan Shop, both of us soaked through.
Chen Huaili sat behind the counter, smiling like a decent man.
He said, “Turn a bad marriage fate into the child’s blessing, and both mother and daughter will be all right.”
My mom asked, “Will it hurt her?”
Chen Huaili said, “Children forget easily. She’ll sleep it off.”
I saw my tiny self sitting in a chair, holding a piece of candy.
I still had no idea what was happening.
Chen Huaili tied the Red String around my wrist.
When the string burrowed into my skin, I cried from the pain.
My mom rushed over to hold me.
But Chen Huaili held her back.
“If we cut it off now, she’ll suffer even more in the future.”
My mom knelt on the ground, saying she was sorry over and over again.
The scene shifted.
I saw my senior year of high school.
My deskmate received his admission letter and hugged me, laughing and crying at the same time.
He said, “Jiang Mian, you really are my lucky star.”
I smiled and congratulated him.
Then I turned around, went into the bathroom, and threw up until I couldn’t stand.
The scene shifted again. It was the day I broke up with my boyfriend in college.
He knelt downstairs from my dorm and said he couldn’t live without me.
But what he couldn’t live without was the smooth sailing that string gave him.
I saw myself explain away every injury as a coincidence, again and again.
I also saw my mom rummaging through old pill bottles at night, secretly taking sleeping pills.
It wasn’t that she didn’t love me.
She had simply been trapped in that mistake too.
At last, I saw Xie Chi.
He was sitting in a tiny office, the desk piled high with complaint forms.
My name was right on top.
A coworker asked him, “This user already blocked you. You’re still going to deal with it?”
Xie Chi stared at the screen.
“She’s not filing malicious complaints.”
“Then what is she doing?”
“She’s asking for help.”
Something bumped lightly against my heart.
The vision shattered.
I returned to the backyard.
The Red String was still wrapped around me.
Xie Chi was holding my hand, helping me steady the Old Scissors.
The back of his hand was covered in blood.
“You’re awake?”
“Yeah.”
“What did you see?”
I looked at Chen Huaili.
“I saw someone use candy to trick a child.”
Chen Huaili’s expression changed.
Xie Chi said, “The Old Scissors can see the memories of a connection, but they’ll also suffer backlash from a faulty string.”
“Then why are you still holding on?”
He said quietly, “I was afraid you’d let go.”
My chest ached.
“Xie Chi.”
“Mm.”
“Where do we cut?”
Xie Chi held my hand and pointed to the blackened main line buried deepest along the well’s edge.
“There.”
Chen Huaili lunged at us.
The old woman flung a handful of paper money into the air.
The paper money ignited without flame, blocking his path.
Xie Chi and I pushed together.
Snip.
The main line broke.
All the Red Strings in the backyard lost their support and fell one after another.
Chen Huaili let out a wretched scream. Dense, threadlike marks surfaced on his wrists.
His face aged rapidly.
Xie Chi took out a repair order and stamped the source of malfunction field.
The red seal came down.
Chen Huaili vanished on the spot, leaving only a charred length of Red String behind.
My mom knelt on the ground, covering her face as she cried.
This time, she cried loudly.
As if she were finally crying out twenty-three years of apologies, fear, and regret.
I walked over and hugged her.
She kept saying, “Mianmian, I’m sorry.”
I didn’t say it was okay.
Those three words were too light.
Too light to hold twenty-three years.
I only patted her back.
“Mom, don’t choose for me again.”
She nodded through her tears.
