His Wedding Countdown, My Death Countdown - Chapter 26
(Qin Yuan’s Perspective)
Tang Zheng is dead.
She died in the eternally spring-like Yunnan.
She always said I was a carefree person.
I didn’t cry when she died.
But.
When I watched her being pushed into the crematorium.
When I saw the flames engulf her.
I suddenly collapsed.
That was Tang Zheng.
A perfectly fine person, who just the day before was smiling and coaxing me to take my medicine, and now, just a day later, she was being pushed into the raging fire.
When she came out again.
She had turned into a handful of ashes.
Contained in such a small box.
The auntie cried very sorrowfully.
She kept murmuring, “If I had known she was sick earlier, I would have made her something lighter.”
“Should I have made more soup for her?”
“The morning before last, she wore too few clothes, and when I urged her to wear a coat, my voice was a bit loud. Do you think the child felt I was scolding her?”
The auntie choked, “She was only 28, younger than my daughter by a year.”
I held Tang Zheng’s urn, my eyes red.
She always felt that she hadn’t grown up as purely as grandma had hoped.
She didn’t understand.
She was such a good person.
To make an auntie who had only known her for two months cry to the point of choking.
On the flight back.
I looked at the ethereal clouds outside the window and whispered.
Tang Zheng, we’re going home.
I buried her in the cemetery behind her grandma.
With grandma watching over her.
The portrait was one we had taken in advance.
The girl had short hair, clear brows and eyes, smiling brightly at the camera.
I placed flowers in front of her tombstone.
Whispering to her.
“You must be the prettiest ghost in this cemetery.”
I also swept the dust in front of grandma’s grave and poured some wine.
“Grandma, I’ve brought Zhengzheng to you.”
“Don’t blame her for coming down to accompany you so early, she was in too much pain, during her last days, she hurt a lot.”
“She finally doesn’t have to endure the pain, taking handfuls of painkillers.”
…
As I left, the sky drizzled lightly.
I walked out of the cemetery with an umbrella, only to meet someone head-on.
A man whose real face I hadn’t seen, but whose name I’d heard countless times.
Shen Zhou.
I paused for a moment, pretending not to recognize him and walked away.
But he stopped me.
He stared at me intently, his voice hoarse, “I’ve seen your photo, you’re Qin Yuan.”
“I checked the flight information, you went to Yunnan with Zhengzheng.”
“I searched for many days over there, but couldn’t find Tang Zheng.”
He seemed to realize something, his body suddenly started trembling, he looked up at the cemetery behind me, “What are you doing here?”
I looked into his eyes.
And said word by word.
“To send Tang Zheng off for the last time.”
“What?”
He staggered back a step, his eyes instantly reddening.
“Tang Zheng is dead.”
“She died right in my arms.”
Shen Zhou froze in place, the man rumored to have a violent temper, now shedding tears.
“Where… is she?”
“Tang Zheng doesn’t want to see you, if you want to cry at her grave, do it from afar, don’t disturb her reunion with grandma.”
I didn’t hide Tang Zheng’s death.
Because he would surely find out.
Tang Zheng’s tombstone is right behind grandma’s, as long as he goes to visit grandma, he will definitely see it.
But I had to tell him.
“I asked Tang Zheng if she would forgive you.”
Shen Zhou’s eyelashes trembled, his face ashen as he awaited my answer.
He knew Tang Zheng so well.
He could already guess her answer.
I said, “Tang Zheng said, unless you die.”
“Before she died, she washed away your name from her wrist bone, washed away the gardenia on her chest, she hated gardenias the most, she got a new tattoo of her favorite trumpet creeper on the other side.”
“She threw away the gifts you gave her, donated your money, burned all her belongings.”
“Do you know why?”
I spoke slowly, watching the dead silence in Shen Zhou’s eyes, feeling inexplicably relieved.
“Because she didn’t want to have anything to do with you anymore.”
“You’re too filthy, you disgusted her.”
“In fact, Tang Zheng had already seen Song Zhen’s video, every day you counted down to breaking up with Song Zhen, Tang Zheng knew.”
“You thought the countdown date on the calendar was her looking forward to, counting the days, anticipating your wedding?”
I suddenly laughed.
Shen Zhou lowered his eyes, his eyelids suddenly twitching violently.
I continued.
“She never thought of marrying you.”
“The countdown on the calendar was her calculating the days to leave you.”
“A man already rotten to the core, why would you think she still wanted to marry you?”
The man lowered his eyes, his shoulders completely slumped.
He choked, “I’ve always blamed myself for turning Tang Zheng into what she is now.”
“I know she did it for me, that kind of environment doesn’t allow for someone too innocent, the brothers wouldn’t follow a sister-in-law who is naive and inexperienced.”
“She was never a burden, it was me, I dragged her down.”
“Being with Song Zhen, I always saw her as Tang Zheng, I indulged her, just trying to make up for the Tang Zheng of those years in some way.”
I couldn’t listen anymore and sneered, “Enough, who are you trying to disgust? Tang Zheng wasn’t dead when you cheated. Feeling guilty, but instead of making it up to Tang Zheng, you find a substitute?”
“That’s so damn funny, Tang Zheng suffered all the pain, and the compensation goes to a substitute, right?”
Shen Zhou remained silent, choking on his words.
“In this lifetime, I’ve only ever loved Tang Zheng.”
“Actually,” his voice trembled, “those days I indulged Song Zhen, it was just to say goodbye to the past, to say goodbye to the Tang Zheng of the past.”
“After the wedding, I will devote myself to her, make it up to her. I even went through a sterilization surgery-”
“Tang Zheng shielded me from a knife a couple of years ago, got injured, hurt her uterus. The doctor said, it’s probably hard for her to conceive.”
He laughed self-deprecatingly, “I had the surgery, planning to tell her after the wedding that I could live without children forever, as long as I have her.”
I cursed, disgusted.
Then laughed, “You actually did something human, you lost Tang Zheng, and now you’re childless, that’s great.”
I laughed in the rain, watching his karma unfold.
“Heard you lost your businesses?”
“Tsk, wife gone, child gone, friends turned against you, truly miserable.”
“Oh, by the way, Tang Zheng asked me to tell you, those businesses Lin Jing took over, she secretly helped with while she was alive.”
“She knew all your weaknesses.”
“But Tang Zheng was soft-hearted, she couldn’t bear to see her brothers who followed her for years fall into hardship, so she made an agreement with Lin Jing, leaving a way out for each brother. Following Lin Jing would only lead them to better development.”
I laughed, “See, Tang Zheng thought of a way out for everyone, even the stray cats she often fed. Before she left, she gave money to nearby shops to help take care of them. Except for you, you know how much she hated you, right?”
The rain grew heavier.
Drenching him completely.
While I left, umbrella in hand.
I didn’t hail a cab.
Walking along the road outside the cemetery.
My mind was chaotic, recalling many things from the past.
Some with Tang Zheng, and some even further back, Tang Zheng always said I was carefree, but actually, I once relied heavily on someone.
But was let down.
Eventually, I slowly came to terms with it.
Tang Zheng was luckier than me, she had a grandma who loved her, but I had no family.
I was an orphan, raised on the kindness of many families.
Suddenly, my thoughts were interrupted by a car speeding past.
A black Land Rover pierced through the rain.
Crashing heavily into the roadside barrier.
A loud bang.
That license plate ending in 999, I remembered, Tang Zheng had mentioned it.
It was Shen Zhou’s car.
I stood with my umbrella, coldly watching the flames soar.
Unfortunately, a passing vehicle called for an ambulance.
A kind-hearted driver dragged Shen Zhou out of the car.
I didn’t look back, hailed a passing taxi and left.
Because I knew.
No matter the injuries.
Shen Zhou wouldn’t survive this life.
…
Shen Zhou didn’t die.
But he was better off dead.
The person he loved most refused to see him even at the end, his brothers hated him for being heartless, blamed him for Tang Zheng’s death, abandoned him to follow Lin Jing, his businesses were gone, and all the money was donated.
The car accident didn’t take his life.
But it took his legs.
Shen Zhou became a true cripple, he didn’t even have the courage to commit suicide.
I guess.
It’s because he couldn’t face Tang Zheng in the afterlife.
Once, when I was visiting Tang Zheng’s grave, I saw him in the cemetery, wearing a long cotton coat, covering his legs, sitting rigidly in a wheelchair, staring blankly at Tang Zheng’s grave from afar.
In the wind and snow, like a rigid statue.
He watched for a long, long time.
Until I left, he didn’t dare to take a step forward.
However, this should be my last time visiting Tang Zheng’s grave.
Since her burial, my health has been deteriorating.
But.
Without Tang Zheng, no one coaxes me to take medicine anymore.
Sometimes, I wake up in pain at night.
Swallowing handfuls of painkillers, over and over.
Finally.
On a snowy day, my life reached its final moment.
I lay on the hospital bed, my gaze falling outside the window.
Bare branches covered with a thin layer of snow, all white, the trees seemed to have welcomed a rebirth.
My vision gradually blurred.
I seemed to see Tang Zheng.
She stood in the snow, reaching out to me.
“Come on, Qin Yuan.”
“Don’t be afraid.”
I closed my eyes, surprisingly able to accept death calmly.
I had already prepared my affairs in advance, even bought a burial plot.
Very close to Tang Zheng.
The tombstone next to mine was erected last year, the girl in the photo had a round oval face, with a small dimple on her left cheek when she smiled, gentle and beautiful.
The name on the stone was He Sui.
Suisui.
Very pleasant.
I really liked this new neighbor.
(The End)
