Rain pattered steadily, and splashes of water blurred the glass doors as they slid open and shut.
Qiao Yitang stared in a daze as the man drove off into the rain.
The young woman in the shop who had been helping her try on wedding dresses asked cautiously, “Miss Qiao, there are still three dresses left. Shall we keep trying?”
Qiao Yitang came back to herself. “No. Help me change out of this one.”
She looked at her reflection in the mirror, dressed in a pure white wedding gown. Her eyes stung, and tears were close to falling.
The man who had just rushed out was her fiancé, He Jingchuan.
A few minutes earlier, she had changed into the first wedding dress. Just as the curtain in front of her was drawn aside, her fiancé’s phone rang.
Despite the steady rain, Qiao Yitang could still hear the woman’s voice on the other end.
The woman called out anxiously, “Jingchuan, it’s raining outside. I didn’t bring an umbrella, and I can’t get a cab. What should I do?”
“Keyan, don’t worry. I’ll come get you!” He Jingchuan replied at once.
He hung up and said to Qiao Yitang, “Just pick whichever wedding dress you like. I have something to do, so I’m leaving.”
He didn’t even look at Qiao Yitang. He rushed out the door without a moment’s hesitation.
By the time Qiao Yitang came to her senses, even the car’s exhaust had vanished.
She blinked. The happy smile that had lit up her face moments earlier was gone, leaving only a bitter little smile.
She had known about Shen Keyan for a long time. She also knew that Shen Keyan was the woman He Jingchuan held on a pedestal.
Still, she had stubbornly wanted to marry He Jingchuan.
She thought the bond they had shared since childhood, growing up together, couldn’t be surpassed by some woman who had appeared out of nowhere.
She had spent a long time persuading He Jingchuan to accompany her to try on wedding dresses.
But one phone call from Shen Keyan—just because she hadn’t brought an umbrella, such a small thing—and He Jingchuan had gone running to her.
She should have seen it coming, shouldn’t she?
In the end, all those years of love couldn’t compete with the sudden arrival of the woman he cherished.
Qiao Yitang and He Jingchuan had been engaged since she was a baby. They grew up together and officially became a couple when they were sixteen.
As teenagers, she had once been the one He Jingchuan favored above all others.
When he was eighteen, He Jingchuan went abroad to study.
Before leaving, he solemnly told Qiao Yitang to wait for him, promising they would marry as soon as he returned.
Six years passed before He Jingchuan finally came home, but everything had changed.
He had kept his promise and agreed to marry her, but she was no longer the one in his heart.
No matter how hard Qiao Yitang tried, she couldn’t warm a heart that had already gone cold.
She numbly changed out of the heavy wedding dress, feeling like a clown in the mirror.
The young woman beside her wanted to say something comforting, but didn’t know what. In the end, all she could do was sigh.
She couldn’t help cursing inwardly: What a beautiful girl! Her fiancé must be blind!
The attendant had just put the wedding dress away when Qiao Yitang pushed open the door and walked out.
“Miss Qiao, it’s pouring outside! Wait for the rain to stop before you go!”
The young woman hurried after her with an umbrella, but the downpour drove her back inside. All she could do was watch Qiao Yitang’s figure recede into the distance.
It was the first rain of autumn in Jing City.
It was hard to get a cab in the rain. Qiao Yitang stumbled all the way home, drenched through.
She took a quick shower and collapsed into bed.
She didn’t know how long she had slept when she woke in a daze, her head pounding.
She glanced at her phone. It was already past eleven at night.
Still half-conscious, she instinctively called He Jingchuan. “Jingchuan, I think I have a fever…”
“If you have a fever, take some medicine,” He Jingchuan said impatiently. “I’m busy entertaining clients. Don’t bother me!”
Just before he hung up, Qiao Yitang heard Shen Keyan’s voice on the other end.
“Jingchuan, I’m done showering. You can go take yours.”
The fog in Qiao Yitang’s mind cleared at once.
She stared blankly as the screen slowly went dark. It felt as if a hand were clutching her chest, squeezing the breath from her.
Qiao Yitang went to the hospital alone and was soon put on an IV drip.
She drifted into a hazy sleep on the hospital bed, only to be jolted awake by pain in the back of her hand.
She pressed the call button. When the nurse came, she apologized over and over.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t notice your IV had infiltrated. I just had an emergency patient, and we’re short-staffed on the night shift.”
“It’s all right.” Qiao Yitang’s voice was so hoarse it was almost frightening.
The nurse asked, “Why are you here alone? No one’s here to look after you this late at night? Oh—why are you crying?”
Qiao Yitang froze. She wiped her face and realized it was wet.
She licked her dry lips and pointed to the back of her hand. “…It hurt too much.”
“I’m really sorry,” the nurse said again. She carefully tucked the blankets around Qiao Yitang before leaving.
After the nurse was gone, Qiao Yitang stared blankly at the ceiling.
The pain in the back of her hand wasn’t bad enough to make her cry. So why was she crying?
Maybe, in that moment, all the strength she had been pretending to have was shattered.
This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened.
Whenever she needed him most, He Jingchuan had abandoned her time and again to go to Shen Keyan.
Qiao Yitang had been at her limit for a long time.
She was twenty-four. She had spent the first sixteen years of her life growing up with He Jingchuan, and the next eight years in love with him.
She loved He Jingchuan with all her heart.
But all that passionate affection, all those youthful stirrings, had become a joke.
The drops of medicine falling through the IV line were so light, yet each one felt as heavy as a thousand pounds as it landed on Qiao Yitang’s heart.
They battered her heart until it was riddled with wounds.
She had accumulated enough disappointment.
Qiao Yitang made up her mind, took out her phone, and opened her chat with He Jingchuan.
“Let’s break up.”
She had expected to feel sad after sending the message, even to burst into tears. Instead, to her surprise, she felt utterly calm.
She also felt a sense of relief she couldn’t put into words.
Qiao Yitang closed her eyes in peace and drifted off to sleep.
She stayed in the hospital only one day before arranging to be discharged.
Before she had even left the inpatient building, Qiao Yitang received a call from Fang Heqiu.
Fang Heqiu was her aunt. When Qiao Yitang was eight, her parents had died in an accident, and afterward she was taken in by her maternal uncle’s family.
She had lived under their roof, dependent on them, ever since.
“Aunt, is something wrong?”
“Your older cousin was unhappy at work. He had a huge fight with his boss yesterday and quit. I want him to go work at He Group.”
“He doesn’t need a high position. Just give him a manager’s job. You and Jingchuan are getting married next month. All it would take is one word from you…”
Before Fang Heqiu could finish her shrill chatter, Qiao Yitang cut in.
“He Jingchuan and I broke up. We’re not getting married.”
There was silence on the other end for a few seconds. Then Fang Heqiu raised her voice. “Qiao Yitang, do you have a fever? What kind of nonsense are you talking?”
“Are you just making things up because you don’t want to help me?”
Qiao Yitang tightened her grip on the phone. “No. He Jingchuan and I are really over.”
“I can’t help you. I’m hanging up.”
Ignoring Fang Heqiu’s shouting, Qiao Yitang ended the call without hesitation.
She returned to the empty house. Everywhere she looked, she felt suffocated.
This was He Jingchuan’s house. She couldn’t bear to stay another second.
Every breath burned as though the air were laced with fiery liquor.
Qiao Yitang closed her suitcase and left without hesitation.