Congratulations on Your Wedding - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

For a moment, I could only stare at his retreating back in a daze.

People often said I was Song Chenzhi’s unforgettable first love.

The truth was, I had been the one secretly in love with him in high school.

My mother later sent me abroad. It wasn’t until a class reunion six months ago that Song Chenzhi and I met again.

Once everyone had been drinking for a while, our class president got thoroughly drunk. He pointed at me and shouted, “Do you have any idea? Song Chenzhi waited five whole years for you!”

After that, our romance—two people separated for years who had somehow found their happy ending—became a favorite story among our old classmates.

But because I had been absent for those years, I knew almost nothing about Song Chenzhi’s life during them.

Three months ago, I came across an anonymous post.

The author described how her boyfriend of five years had abandoned her and proposed to his first love.

The details of the proposal were almost identical to the one Song Chenzhi had recently planned for me.

More troubling still, the boyfriend in the post was identified only as “SCZ”—Song Chenzhi’s initials.

I approached one of his friends and carefully asked about his past relationships.

That was the first time I heard Chen Qing’s name.

In the photograph his friend showed me, she was beautiful. When she smiled, she looked four or five parts out of ten like me.

His friend dismissed her with a shrug.

“Chen Qing is just the daughter of one of his graduate-school advisers. She’s pestered him for years, but he’s always rejected her.”

I believed him. I thought Chen Qing’s obsession was entirely one-sided.

But after what Song Chenzhi had done today, and after all the messages she had sent me lately, it was impossible not to wonder.

I opened the anonymous post again.

It had been updated only minutes earlier.

“He ran away from his wedding for me today.”

“So much for the irresistible power of a man’s first love.”

I canceled the wedding.

I was told Song Chenzhi returned less than half an hour later.

He did not get to see me.

After arranging for the guests to leave, I left the venue before he came back. Then I hired movers and began packing my things at his place.

It was evening by the time everything was boxed up. Only then did Song Chenzhi finally appear.

“Don’t go.” He seized my wrist and stared at me. “I can explain.”

At that distance, I caught the faint scent of a woman’s perfume, one I never wore.

Emotion surged violently through my chest. I wrenched my hand free.

Song Chenzhi tugged at his charcoal tie, a trace of aggression darkening his brow.

“She said she’d jump from the thirty-second floor if I didn’t come.”

“I promise this was the only time. Next time, I would never—”

“So what?” I looked up at him. “That means I deserved to be abandoned? That my wedding deserved to be ruined?”

He was silent for a moment. “Xixi, you know that isn’t what I meant.”

In the middle of our argument, my phone rang.

It was my mother. My grandmother had fallen at her home in the countryside and was still being resuscitated at the county hospital.

My parents had divorced when I was young. For all practical purposes, Grandma was the one who raised me.

The news sent me into a panic.

Song Chenzhi immediately took my hand and reached for his car keys.

“Don’t panic. I’ll drive you back.”

I looked at him through a haze of tears and finally nodded.

A sudden knock sounded at the door.

When it opened, Chen Qing stood outside.

I had seen her only in other people’s photographs. This was our first meeting face-to-face.

Studying her features, I had to admit that we did look somewhat alike.

“When I woke up just now, you weren’t beside me. I was so scared.”

Chen Qing ignored me. She looked pitifully at Song Chenzhi and reached for his arm, but he pulled away coldly.

“What is this? Now you want to act faithful to her?”

“You and I used to—”

She broke off abruptly, then turned to me with a radiant smile.

“I heard you canceled the wedding today. Congratulations.”

“You’re sick.” Song Chenzhi looked at her with utter disgust. “Get out.”

Her face went white for an instant. Then she returned to her wounded expression.

“It’s pouring outside, and I have a cold. Can’t I rest here for a while?”

Song Chenzhi gave a derisive laugh. “Chen Qing, you already tried pretending to be ill three months ago.”

He took my hand, his voice returning to its usual gentleness with me.

“Xixi, let’s go.”

Chen Qing’s shrill, desperate voice rang through the silent corridor.

“Song Chenzhi, you told me that time that you’d almost forgotten her. You said you did have feelings for me. You said you did!”

Song Chenzhi lowered his head. I could not tell what he was thinking.

I stiffly pulled my hand from his.

“I don’t need you to drive me. I’ll take a taxi to the train station.”

When I left the complex, I looked back once.

Song Chenzhi had not followed me.