Chapter 3
Just then, the wedding door games began.
The first few rounds were normal enough: push-ups, guessing lip prints, answering questions about the bride’s preferences.
For the last round, Jiang Yan suddenly had someone bring out a balloon.
“One bridesmaid and one groomsman. Get the balloon from here to the door without using your hands. Drop it and you start again.”
My friends immediately began urging me to do it.
I’d always been easygoing, and a wedding was supposed to be fun. I thought nothing of it, took the balloon, and looked toward the groomsmen.
My gaze scarcely bothered to search before settling on Jiang Heng.
I tipped my chin at him.
“Come on, young Mr. Jiang.”
Before I’d finished speaking, he was already walking obediently toward me.
The straight line of his mouth secretly rose by about two pixels. His steps were even a little quicker than usual.
The next second, a hand shot out.
Jiang Yan grabbed his arm. Caught off guard, he was hauled half a step to the side.
I stared in confusion.
Jiang Heng said nothing.
Jiang Yan noticed nothing amiss. She gave her brother a disparaging look.
“What are you joining in for?”
He frowned, as if he wanted to say something.
She simply pushed him aside and turned, locking straight onto Lu Wenchuan in the crowd.
“Counselor Lu!”
“You come. Pair up with Qingzhou.”
I gave her a laughing shove.
“Jiang Yan, give it a rest.”
“What did I do?”
She leaned close to my ear and lowered her voice.
“I’m going to all this trouble to give you an opening. What’s the point of playing with my brother?”
She even remembered to wave Jiang Heng away.
“Stand farther back. Don’t get in the way of Qingzhou’s love life.”
I instinctively looked at him.
The hand he’d already extended toward the balloon remained there for two seconds, then slowly withdrew.
His lashes lowered too.
I gave Jiang Yan a helpless look.
The culprit was already back on the bed, all smiles, waiting for the show.
In front of a roomful of friends and relatives, I couldn’t keep arguing back and forth over a game.
It soon began.
The balloon was held between Lu Wenchuan and me.
At first, it went smoothly. Halfway there, it suddenly slipped, and I instinctively leaned closer.
At a glance, it almost looked as though we were embracing.
The cheering exploded around us.
“Steady, steady!”
“Don’t drop it!”
“Can you handle this, Counselor Lu?”
A few steps away, Jiang Heng held some task cards left over from the earlier games.
The cheering grew louder and louder.
Between his fingers, the stiff cards folded in half. Then in half again.
By the time someone laughingly called, “Closer!”, a deep crease had been pressed into them.
He glanced down and crushed the cards into his palm.