Chapter 2: Just married... just died

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One's future was really something of the unknown. That was truthful enough, she thought.

When she was sixteen, Bai Xiang thought that she wouldn’t see the following years come; but it hadn’t been the case, instead, her completely healthy father died prematurely in an explosion from the laboratory of his building. She accompanied her father to his last resting place. Now, two years later, she and that woman who turned into her legal tutor grew completely ignoring each other.

The same doctor that had asked her to cheat death, Wen Wu Yi,  announced to her that she certainly wouldn’t live past nineteen, if she came up to twenty then that would be considered lucky. Actually, he still wasn't her appointed doctor. That appointed doctor hadn't said anything, but the look on his face didn't have much confidence, he was still trying though, asking her to not lose hope. Losing hope would be the worst, he said, as long as she kept on fighting for her life it was okay, he would try his very best to save her. And she was grateful to him and kept on fighting but just in case, she wanted to know, to be prepared and only Wen Wu Yi, who now became her friend, and quite like an older brother, told her.

If she died just like this, wouldn't the happier person be Ming Xi? She was quite unwilling!

So when that persistent man who was chasing her for a year now proposed -once again!- She hastily agreed to his marriage proposal. Why not, it was the only wedding she would get to know maybe that was certainly because at the time there had been a wedding in the hospital and she was swayed by the mood if in doing so she could also ruin Ming Xi's happiness, wasn’t that formidable? It was good that Wen Wu Yi knew the right people to help her with her plan.

Those were thoughts from almost three months ago. Now, though, at this very instant, her wedding dress no longer white but instead tinted with blood, she was ready to pine the blame on said brother!

“I’m fine,” she said, combing her hair in a tick she couldn’t repress, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

‘What fine? How can anyone be fine? Are you an idiot? Do I look fine to you?’

She had way too many responses to give but not the strength to voice them so this short sentence would do.

Her whole body was shaking; her legs were becoming weaker as a vague sensation of darkness invaded her. But she fought it back and took it upon herself to stay awake. Her face paled and her eyes focusing on nothing, she let herself fall on the chair behind her, nearly missing it and thus avoided dropping unceremoniously and ungracefully in front of her invitees. Well, it still wouldn’t really captivate their attention. Not much anyway.

The highlight of the day, wasn’t it still on the floor, twenty to thirty feet away from her?

She brought the glass on the table to her lips, drinking it in one go, for once, not so caring about the microbes and not caring either, about the fact that she didn’t know whose glass of liquor it was. She just knew that it wasn’t strong enough – her medicines were way more efficient than that. Her nerves were still very much shattered and her fingers were still trembling. Really, those who claimed alcohol to be useful in time of shock were oh so wrong!

What had her taken aback wasn’t the corpse of her just-married husband on the floor – though as bloody as it was, it left her indifferent. And it wasn’t that of his mistress some meters away too. What really scared the life out of her was how easy it had been. To take a life was really way too easy. For all those years she spent at the hospital looking at people in a worse state than her, sneaking sometimes and going in the forensic department to see corpses, the idea hadn’t really sunk yet. But now, now, she knew. The reality of ephemeral frightened her. It startled her to know that she too could be alive one moment and the second after being dead. Where would all that money go then, how would it matter to her?

She glanced around the room, stopping one second to admire the contempt in the eyes of her stepmother and wondering still, how her gentle and loving father had fallen for her.

In retrospect, maybe, she never really tried to understand. She never tried to know that woman, never gave her any chance. But... it wasn't like the other party tried that hard either. The moment she got her part of the legacy, she never put feet in that hospital's chamber where she used to camp before.

The silence itself was eerie now. What a peculiar wedding's night.

She used to hate it when the groom tried to flirt with her. How she agreed to never him, she herself forgot but even more than that she used to hate it when he talked about wanted them married. Well... until she relented and thought if she had to die then dying in his arms and as his wife wasn't bad. Nineteen was also good. Many other people didn't live until their ninetieth years and that had nothing to do with any kind of sickness. 

Cai Hu, because that was his name, used to be a fellow patient in the same hospital as her; but had been discharged after three months whereas she would likely have her days’ end there. He pledged that he had fallen for her charm some months ago. Bai Xian knew it was false. Her sickness took really too much on her, on her body, leaving a strong stroll. She didn’t have hair anymore, she was quite skinny and her eyes made it look as though they would pop out of their sockets. Her face wasn’t exquisite to look at, she would be foolish to trust that liar. She didn’t look fascinating as he said, rather, she looked… sickly. That was what she used to tell herself. Don't trust him!

The first time he entered her room, she saw him tremble, scared, afraid. Wasn’t it proof enough? But having a father who since her infancy used to pay others to be her friends, she could say that she was quite used to hypocrites. No matter what age, young and adult, be it bribery by sweets or money, her father had no qualm at all, not batting an eye, his smile wide on his face, as he paid people to pretend friendship -Well, that was until she made him stop though. 

Maybe that was why she relented and told herself, it didn't matter anyway. At the very least she got to experience what love was. And telling herself so, she started confusing reality and sweet lies.

The man was anything but faithful. And that Cai Hu, of all the person he had to cheat with, why would he go for a woman that had a gun? Bai Xiang really didn't know at which point exactly that girlfriend walked in but turning around when dancing the first dance with her husband, she all but saw a woman dressed in full black, eyes red from crying, snots running down her nose, and holding a gun with trembling hands. She started to insult Cai Hu, asking what about their sick child? Did he know their sweet baby died when he was whoring around? And even getting married.

She had her gun pointed straight at Bai Xiang, questioning her too. Cai Hu tried to talk sense into her while the invitees were taking steps back. Who knew if she did it with purpose or not but the shot was freed and went straight for Cai Hu's head, who dropped on Bai Xiang, and both of them felt. Between the shouts resulting, another shot was heard. This time the girlfriend had shot herself, mumbling something about being one family in the afterlife, their child shouldn't be lonely. 

The room was becoming noisier with each passing seconds and soon, there were police officers and paramedics.

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