The air hung heavy, thick with the cloying scent of lilies and the hushed, rustling whispers of a hundred guests. For Mei Lian, the world had slowed to a torturous crawl, each second an eternity of beautiful, agonizing ritual. She stood just a little apart from the joyful crowd, a dress the color of faded rose petals clinging to her frame. In her chest, her heart was not beating, it was a raw and bleeding thing, a wounded animal trapped behind her ribs.
Her eyes were fixed on him, a kind of silent prayer. Gu Yichen. He was a statue of perfect, unattainable grace in his black tuxedo, his jaw a sharp line of focus. His eyes, those deep, dark pools she had admired since childhood, were locked onto one person, and one person only.
Not her. Never her.
His hand wasn't reaching for hers, but for her sister's. Huayin, radiant and soft in a gown of pure white, a perfect porcelain doll brought to life. Huayin, who deserved all the happiness in the world. And Mei Lian, who had loved him first, loved him longest, could only watch as the man who was her entire universe was given away, like a sacred gift, to another.
The vows were a blur of promises and polite applause. Each word was a shard of glass, cutting into her with a precision that was both exquisite and unbearable. To have and to hold. For richer, for poorer. In sickness and in health. Each phrase was a testament to a love that was meant for someone else, a love she could only imagine in her loneliest moments.
When he finally kissed the bride, a collective sigh of happiness rippled through the room. It was a sound that sealed her fate, locking away the quiet dream she had held for so long and throwing away the key. For Mei Lian, it felt like the end of the world. It was a kiss that promised a future she could never be a part of.
She couldn't stay. To stand there and smile, to pretend joy for a man who now belonged entirely to her sister, was a cruelty she could not bear. With a heart that felt like it was crumbling into dust, she turned away from the celebration, from the man who was now a stranger, and walked, not toward the door, but into the quiet terror of her new reality.
The silence of the hallway was a stark contrast to the distant laughter. Her feet moved without conscious thought, carrying her toward a car her driver had waiting. Her phone rang, and a glance showed her mother's name. Mei Lian ignored it, the screen's light a sharp pain in her eyes. The tears she had been holding back for hours now began to fall, hot and unending.
She couldn't be the sister who stayed, the sister who watched their happiness from the sidelines. She couldn't be the living, breathing ghost in the family portraits.
In that moment, an old, reckless thought took hold. She wouldn't just leave the building; she would leave the country. She would sever every tie, every memory, every connection to this life. The pain was too great to be lived with, it needed to be escaped.
As the car pulled away, the grand wedding hall shrinking in the rearview mirror, Mei Lian looked at the city she had always known as home, and a part of her soul broke into a thousand pieces. She was leaving behind her parents, the life she had known, and the last shred of a hope she had clung to since childhood. But more than anything, she was leaving behind him. The man who had, with a single act of kindness, planted a seed of love in her heart-a love that had now been violently uprooted, leaving nothing but an aching, empty space behind. The darkness of the night enveloped the car, a fitting shroud for the end of her world.