Huí Guāng Fǎn Zhào - 回光返照

Chapter 2 - Wedding

Jiang Yuming was the child who other parents often compared their own to. Even his birth was special compared to others and his impressive family name only enhanced that. As the third son, the pressure on his shoulders was not as intense as his older siblings, but nonetheless he shined as brightly as they did. The only fly in the ointment was that Jiang Yuming was destined to have a short life.

His mother, Li Lijuan originally went to get her son's fortune read at the request of her mother-in-law. She had gone to see the fortune teller for her oldest son and daughter and believed it was merrily symbolic and tradition to do so. However after her third son was born she believed in every word the fortune teller told her, after all they had correctly foretold how her child would be born 10,600 meters above the earth. For the years that followed, Li Lijuan spent much of it trying to extend the destined short life of her third son.

On a warm spring day, the news was released that the third young master of the Jiang family had passed away overnight. No one was sure exactly how he passed, as the family did not allow for an autopsy to be done, but the speculation was that it was a brain aneurysm. Li Lijuan was devastated, the son she had tried so hard to save for the last two decades was gone. Amidst planning for the funeral, Gao Daomei reached through the fortune teller with a proposition.

The Gao family would offer their up a son who would marry Jiang Yuming and accompany him in this life and the next. In exchange, the Gao family wanted financial support that only the Jiang family could give. When the Jiang family heard the proposition it was immediately turned down, however Li Lijuan agreed to a dinner request by Gao Chaoxing. Who knew that after that dinner, Li Lijuan would agree and even started planning the wedding. Jiang Qiqiang could only indulge his devastated wife and signed the agreement with the Gao family.

It was four years later on the night of the wedding that Li Lijuan would meet Gao Guiren, the son-in-law she desperately was awaiting. Gao Guiren was delivered to the wedding hall in the morning with a suitcase and a smile that did not reach his eyes. Li Lijuan had the staff whisk him away to be polished up for the private family ceremony. It would include her husband and her remaining children along with Gao Guiren and his mother. Upon conclusion of the ceremony they would head to the reception hall where all the guests were waiting to congratulate them.

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Gao Guiren had no intention of making life harder for himself, he knew which car he would choose the moment Gao Daomei gave him his choices. Throughout the awkward ceremony, he kept his head down and followed the directions that were given to him. The reception that followed was grating on his nerves and took all of his will power just to make it through. The congratulations from the guests were mixed, there were those who came to buy soy sauce and gawk at the poor soul who had to marry the Jiang's dead son. Those that were well informed of what happened were there to see how the Gao family managed to pull one over the Jiang family. Regardless, everyone was there hoping to see a good show.

Finishing his glass of wine, Guiren looked for an exit. The crowds of people were beginning to suffocate him and the temperature seemed to be getting hotter. Slipping behind a waiter, he managed to exit the hall through a service door and found himself in the hallway behind the hall. The hall was barren, unlike the lavish hall outside, it's painted cinder block walls trapped in the cold and gave a sterile feeling. Gao Guiren greatly appreciated the cold as he pressed his face against the wall, praying that tonight would end soon. The voices in the hall could still be heard through the door, but Guiren picked up on a conversation.

"Mother, explain to me why exactly you would agree to this ludacris wedding?"

"Ming'er, listen to mother, only by marrying Gao Guiren does your older brother have a chance of coming back to life."