We became closer through loneliness, healed in our embrace,279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNdSsHRvIp8
But we don't dare to easily say love.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl2fcvC6rQI
Some people you love and love and they change,279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOGlCuDT8TS
And the vows you love and love and is forgotten.
We walk forward in the glimmering light,279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcdAyRASQPy
Carefully searching for the logic to happiness in the ambiguity.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiAODL6jNM0
I'm only afraid that we'll love and love and give up.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRZlfXceH5A
Do we have the luck to love and love until forever?
Maybe forever is actually very easy.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOLPYi2qSeV
The hard part is who is willing279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrj64ewtIDQ
To give their whole heart, whole soul.
- Forever Love 爱着爱着就永远, Hebe Tien.
Translated by Tianlu @ chinesepandamusic.wordpress.com.
As usual, Tian Yu would stop before Zhi Xun couldnt handle his teasing. He enjoyed feasting on the erotic looks on her face. That moment of passion had only been a few seconds, but it had achieved its purpose in maintaining the excitement in their relationship.
She shivered as the cold water from the shower hit her like an ice bucket challenge. This was one thing she hated about living in the countryside. She felt that she was freezing everytime she took a bath back home.
When she came out from the bathroom, Yi Lian was waiting for her in the bedroom.
"Where's Tian Yu?" she asked.
"In the kitchen. Said you would be hungry."
So, he had went and cooked for her, after all, she thought. Even despite being a guest.. no, he claimed to be the perspective son-in-law. And then she realised what he had meant.
"Xun Xun," Yi Lian said, "I know you have a lot of questions on your mind."
Zhi Xun nodded.
"Do you feel that we have been harsh with you, by insisting you marry into a rich family, and because of this, you couldn't find love when you were much younger?"
"Yes, Aunt."
"And also about how we tried to push our traditional views on you so that you wouldn't lose your chastity to anyone?"
Zhi Xun gave a quick nod, and Yi Lian told her the truth behind their poverty. Originally, the sisters, Tang Yi Lian and Yi Qian, had been born in a rich family, but following their father's death, their mother remarried a younger man who squandered away their property, causing their mother to commit suicide in depression. The sisters grew up in an orphanage but Yi Qian, Zhi Xun's mother, still chose to marry a pauper. She later lost her husband in an accident and was later found to have a terminal illness. Zhi Xun was fifteen when she lost her father, and Yi Lian had been taking care of her ever since. On the other hand, Yi Lian had been somewhat well-to-do, but following a fall in stocks and having to foot her sister's hospital expenses, they lost a lot of money. Due to having never worked, she ended up working on the farm instead, but had to sell her farm when they couldn't afford Yi Qian's hospital expenses anymore and in addition, her husband's business failed and he was in debt. Yi Lian now worked at a convenience store to make ends meet, while her husband worked at a small factory in the countryside. In Yi Lian's point of view, had Yi Qian married a rich man, none of them would have to suffer.
Zhi Xun understood her aunt's plight and that she had lost a lot just due to her mother's bad luck in life, but she didn't understand why it meant that it would she would share the same fate as her mother, should she had chosen to marry someone who was not wealthy. Also, as it was already in the 21st century, times had changed. She strongly believed that she was not wrong to be sexually involved with Tian Yu, but at the same time, Yi Lian had turned a blind eye on her knowledge of the sexual aspect of her relationship with Tian Yu, just because she knew that Tian Yu was rich (and yet, humble). Zhi Xun hadn't known that Tian Yu was rich, but as Yi Lian was the younger daughter of an upper class family, she knew Tian Yu was masking his elite background very well. Perhaps Zhi Xun was just oblivious to that fact.
"Aunt, I don't understand why you think that I will end up like Mom if I don't marry someone rich," she said. "Also, I don't understand why you brought me up to be traditional and chaste, but when I bring Tian Yu here, you let us sleep in a room."
Yi Lian sighed. "You've grown up so much, but yet you are still so stubborn. My sister is lucky to have a daughter like you. You're already twenty-one, you should understand what's right from wrong. Never mind who has traditional views and who doesn't. I have a question for you, and I hope you can answer truthfully."
"Yes, I will," Zhi Xun said.
"Are you in love with the boy?" her aunt asked. "Just a yes or no is enough."
"Yes," she said firmly.
"Then you should consider what I've been trying to tell you. Just do it for the sake of your mom. We don't know how long she has. You have the rest of your life to live, but she doesn't."
"The fake marriage plans," she uttered. "Will it really make her happy?"
The door had been open all this while, and she heard a male voice. "I have an idea."
"Have you been listening all this while?" Zhi Xun said, feeling a bit embarrassed that Tian Yu had heard her admit to her aunt that she loved him, although it was something they had admitted to each other before, under the effects of alcohol.
"I'm sorry, Dear," he said. "You left the door open, and I've brought breakfast."
She felt a warm feeling in her chest. "Okay, I'll forgive you this time. But what is your idea?"
"We'll only be here a week before you have to return for your studies. Remember, you're on a scholarship. But point is, you can't stay longer than a week, and today is already the second day. Why not, we just have a simple countryside wedding just to make your mom happy? After all, it won't be real, it's just a play."
"Err.. this..." Zhi Xun stammered.
"Just think it as a movie and you're the lead actress, I'm the lead actor, okay?"
"Can we really get all the things in a few days? And the auspicious date."
"There will be a super auspicious day in three days' time," Yi Lian said. "As for formalities, we don't need to follow all of them. I can ask for help getting the necessities, and for some, we can have them rented or borrowed from someone." With that, she closed the door and left the room.
"So.. are you okay with the act?" Tian Yu asked.
Zhi Xun looked towards the floor bashfully. "If it's just an act, maybe I'll consider it....I don't want to get married just yet. I don't think I'm ready to start a family."
"Don't worry," Tian Yu said. "When the time comes, I'll be sending horses and all the flowers I can get."
She blushed, and continued to look at the floor. "I'll try.. if it's just an act..."
............................................................................
(Fast forward to two days later)
"So, we're doing this?" she asked.
Her mother had liked Tian Yu, and was happy that they were getting 'married'. Zhi Xun agreed that Tian Yu must have some kind of charm that everyone else was following in love with this 'prospective son-in-law'. Furthermore, nobody was bothered by the fact that in the traditional countryside, they had slept together in the same room in the house.
"Why not? It's my blessing to have a wife, even if it's just an act." He placed his arms around her shoulders.
She lay on the bed. "There's so much to do for a wedding, and I can't believe they just let us marry, without following all the customary taboos."
"In this world, only legalised marriages count. So that should be my ambition, so I can tie you down and you can't make me a cuckold by having other men," he said teasingly.
"What if I insist?" she joked.
"Then I'll punish you hard," he said, pushing her down on the bed with his body, before kissing her roughly on the lips. Then he stopped.
"Tomorrow. I can't wait," he said and left the room.
A few hours later, she went to sleep, thinking about what was to happen the next day.
Even if it had been but an act, she had been waken by her aunt and uncle to do the customary hair brushing in place of her own parents. This usually happened on the night before the wedding. They also lighted a set of dragon and phoenix candles.
As everything had been done in short notice, she had been so tired. And in addition, she had only a few hours of sleep, before she had been woken up at four in the morning for her relatives' contacts to do her makeup and hair.
For their act, Tian Yu had rented a home-based accommodation through AirBNB. It was not that he couldn't afford a better accommodation, but he wanted it to be as meaningful as possible. As Tian Yu wasn't from her hometown, he had arranged for their tea ceremony held at a small restaurant instead. Fortunately, she had only a few relatives, so it was over in a few hours.
It had gone smoothly, and then she had collapsed from fatigue in bed. At least, her mother was happy. She stayed with Tian Yu at the accommodation, and two days later, they returned to stay at her aunt's place before she had to go back for her classes.
It was when they arrived, when Zhi Xun heard her aunt on the phone with her mother. "So, what did the doctor say?"
"My illness is stable now. In fact, I've recovered very well, thanks to that kind person donating so much funds for me to have an operation."
"So do you think we are lying to Zhi Xun by making her marry that rich fellow with your illness as an excuse?"
"It's as you said. A lie in good will is a good deed."
"Let's hope for the best."
"Isn't it easier that she doesn't have to go through what you did when you got married, and be a tai-tai (wife of a rich man)? She's suffered so much since she was born."
She had reeled over in shock, and Tian Yu had caught her quickly. "Let's go somewhere," she said. "I don't know what to do." The two people who she had trusted so much, had hurt her so much that she had found it so hard to believe that this was happening to her.
"They may have hurt you with their lies. But I will never forsake you," he whispered in her ear. "I will go anywhere you want to go."
She couldn't think of anywhere better to go than camping in the forest.279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpmwtlmEnyl
279Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJQrfoaZMMG
