Chapter 200: Love of My Life
Lian Li was exceptionally rarely at a loss for words, unsure how to respond.
At this very moment, the name Lian Jingcheng was like a magnifying glass; once mentioned, it would infinitely amplify her embarrassment and unease.
“When I came in just now, I saw you have a cello here. Do you also play the cello?” Lian Li tried to regain her voice. She was not good at handling intimate relationships, nor did she know how to behave with a mother she was meeting for the first time, her tone kept respectfully distant.
Ji Tan turned her face towards the cello left in the corner: “I haven’t touched it in over ten years. I used to play often when I was young, but I stopped after going abroad.”
Ji Tan was exceptionally beautiful. Unlike Zhong Yingyi’s seductive charm, her beauty was tinged with a sense of fragility. With just a hint of sadness, she could make hearts tremble. This slightly broken, exquisite beauty transcended gender; both men and women would be moved by her.
Lian Li felt a pang of heartache.
She precisely caught the words “going abroad.”
Did Ji Tan go abroad over ten years ago?
“Yingyi and I both played the cello from childhood. Her talent and skill on the cello were far greater than mine. I was quite mischievous when I was younger, often giving the teachers and cello masters a headache.” Ji Tan smiled as she said this, seeming to find her past self amusing. “Although Yingyi and I are cousins, our hobbies and temperaments were more similar than those of sisters. We both liked cello quartets 《 Butterfly Lovers 》. In our youthful infatuation, we even privately discussed what kind of boys we liked.”
“We knew that in that era, in a family like ours, it was almost impossible to decide our own marriages. So, we constantly convinced ourselves to accept fate’s arrangement. When my maternal grandparents called me to the study to discuss my marriage to the second young master of the Duan Family, my initial response was to obey their arrangements.”
Those who caught the eye of Old Madam Zhong and Old Master Zhong would naturally not be ordinary people. The Duan Family back then was even more prosperous than it is now, and a marriage alliance with the Zhong Family would be a union of equals.
Hearing this, Lian Li knew a twist was coming and unconsciously slowed her breathing, listening even more intently.
“The night the Duan Family’s betrothal gifts arrived at the Zhong Family, I sat in my room, holding the marriage proposal and reading it over and over. At that time, my name had not yet been changed back; I still carried my mother’s family name, Zhong. The name of the bride on the proposal was Zhong Tan,” Ji Tan said. “Any fate, no matter how complex or long, is actually reflected in a single moment: the moment people fully realize who they truly are.”
“That night, I suddenly realized, or perhaps rebelled, unwilling to accept that my life would be decided like this.”
“I fled the Zhong Family, fled the family alliance, and with my luggage on my back, I traveled across the country, meeting many people I had never encountered before and experiencing a life I could never have imagined in the first half of my life.” From a sheltered young lady of a prominent family who knew nothing of hardship, to walking alone in the mortal world, the suffering and trials she endured were beyond what others could imagine.
“People are always sentimental and forgetful. About the past, about what has ended, no matter how difficult or glorious, it becomes like carvings on stone eroded by wind, becoming rarer and more blurred. I still cherish that time, but I can’t recall the specific details.”
Ji Tan’s every word entered Lian Li’s ears clearly. Fine sweat beaded on Lian Li’s palms, her almond-shaped eyes flickered, a cascade of starlight.
So… Mom used a fake ID to prevent the Zhong Family from finding her? It wasn’t a premeditated deception?
Lian Li was full of questions, but she knew the best reaction now was to remain silent and wait patiently.
Waiting for Ji Tan to mention Lian Jingcheng.
She had already waited for over twenty years; what was a little longer?
The tea had gone cold. Ji Tan instructed a servant to get Lian Li a fresh cup before continuing, “No matter how long the journey, it always comes to an end. My father and Eldest Sister lived in Taipei for eight years. If I were to choose a place to commemorate the day of my escape, Taipei would undoubtedly be the best choice.”
At this point, Ji Tan paused briefly.
In the silence, though no one spoke, Lian Li felt her ear canals ache, as if someone were shouting directly into her ear with a megaphone.
Her fingers stiffly curled, she took a deep breath and asked, “What happened in Taipei?”
Ji Tan lowered her eyelids, her gaze seeming to dim, then to brighten.
“Later, I arrived at the simple and honest Coastal Village, where I met the love of my life.”
Lian Li stared at her blankly, her heart suddenly swelling with a dull ache. She took a deep breath, trying to alleviate the conflict brought on by “the love of my life,” but still couldn’t stop a suffocating tightness, like a lack of oxygen, from enveloping her entire heart.
It was Lian Jingcheng, wasn’t it? It was him…
“I had originally planned to stay in Taipei for ten days and then return to the Capital City, to the Zhong Family, to beg forgiveness from my maternal grandparents.” Ji Tan’s carefully controlled nervousness and distress, upon seeing Lian Li’s trembling fingertips, began to unravel bit by bit, her voice becoming choked and low. “But when fate descends, no one can escape it. That young, handsome man, occasionally clumsy, so purely foolish—the first time I met him, I had just shaken off the tail the Zhong Family had sent after me. My hair was messy, and he asked if I needed help. I said, ‘I need a place to stay, somewhere quiet and secluded.’ He thought I was in trouble, running from debts, and within two hours of meeting me, he offered to lend me money.”
Lian Li’s heart gave a sharp twinge.
Lian Jingcheng was that kind of person. He looked smart and calculating, but in reality, he had no ill intentions, so pure and naive.
Harmlessly foolish.
“Those were some of the rare happy times in my life.” Ji Tan looked at the begonia flowers blooming in the vase. Their petals were like delicate silk, tender pink and translucent, her eyes filled with a deep stillness. “Days of isolation are always so short. People from the Capital City suddenly informed me that my maternal grandmother was fading, her health worsening, and urged me to return quickly. At first, I thought it was a lie they fabricated to trick me into returning, so I didn’t act. Later, when I learned it was true, I rushed back immediately. But I never expected that once I left, I would never be able to return… Perhaps if I hadn’t been so self-assured, thinking I could handle everything, concealing my identity and the truth of my departure, I could have returned to Taipei and found someone waiting for me.”
On one hand, she felt she could handle it; on the other, she worried the Zhong Family would harm Lian Jingcheng.
Ji Tan seemed to be reliving the past, her eyes filled with complex, indescribable emotions. “When I returned to the Capital for my grandmother’s funeral, I discovered Yingyi had taken my place in the marriage alliance with the Duan Family… It turned out my recklessness had changed many people’s lives… After the funeral, I informed my maternal grandfather and the elders of the family of my experiences and plans. I expected support, but in the end, I was forced onto a plane to go abroad.”
Lian Li was stunned by this.
Forced to be deported abroad?
“Any fate, no matter how complex or long, is actually reflected in a single moment: the moment people fully realize who they truly are.”
From Borges.
