Starlight Descends - 24

Wedding

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"..."

Qi Yao froze for two seconds, snatched the keys from his hand, murmured a quick thank-you, and turned to hurry back to her seat.

What was that? Couldn't he have given them back later?

"Damn... what's going on... they came together?"

"Did you notice? They're both wearing white button-downs. Standing together, it looks exactly like a couple's outfit."

"Yao-mei's is a G brand, and so is Shu's... That seals it, right? My Qi-Gu ship has officially sunk, but why am I not sad at all?"

The whispers drifted to her ears on the breeze. Qi Yao kept her eyes down and navigated quickly through the crowd, settling back into her seat.

Even as the ceremony began, the rims of her ears were still faintly warm.

The couple walked down the petal-strewn aisle. A young woman in the front rows stole glances back at Qi Yao as they turned to watch.

Partly because she felt bad about accidentally digging a fingernail into her, but mostly because they couldn't help sneaking looks at Qi Yao, and at the person sitting beside her.

Of the hundred or so seats in the venue, each rattan chairs adorned with fresh flowers, over a dozen were still empty. Of all the places he could have sat, he chose the one next to her.

Qi Yao pretended not to feel the burning gazes. She looked quietly ahead, watching the couple slowly approach and come to a stop before the riot of flowers.

It must have been a carefully chosen day.

The sky was a clear, washed blue. The lawn stretched endlessly into the distance. Beneath the white canopy, a gentle breeze stirred the bride's veil.

The LED screen behind them played a montage of photographs and videos, piecing together the small moments of their love story, the warmth of two hearts finding each other.

The bride stood on the stage, holding the microphone, and briefly recounted how Li Xun had pursued her. The groom, in his navy blue suit, blush a deep red as the crowd roared with laughter.

Qi Yao laughed too. But as the wedding march began to play, that smile slowly faded.

She tilted her head slightly, watching the bride and groom exchange rings. The look in her eyes was so intent that it almost seemed as though she were gazing through them, at someone else entirely.

Yu Jiashu sat to her left. The sharp line of his trouser leg occupied a small corner of her vision. She didn't dare turn her head, yet the image of him remained vividly clear in her mind.

The lift of a young man's chin, eyes touched by the hint of a smile. The image had followed her from memory into the present, lingering through the years, resurfacing every so often in her dreams.

As a girl, watching idol dramas, watching those grandiose proposals and confessions, those tangled, veiled romances, who hadn't fantasized about their own future?

Qi Yao remembered a passage from Madame Bovary she'd read long ago, and never forgotten.

"She thought that love should arrive like a thunderbolt, with lightning and thunder, a hurricane from the heavens that sweeps down upon life, overturns it, tears away the will like a leaf, and carries the whole heart off into the abyss."

But that wasn't it.

She'd acted in so many scripts since then. Protagonists who transcended time, illness, every conceivable hardship life could throw at them, even life and death, clinging to love with relentless persistence. Yet she'd always found it hollow. 

Qi Yao thought that if, one day, she was fortunate enough to be with the person she loved, all they would need was to stand facing each other. No need for lawns, no need for flowers, not even guests.

The moment the cool metal slid over the ring finger, settling at its base: that single moment would be enough to unleash a tsunami in her heart.

She had even picked the song—

"Eat up, have fun! There's a barbecue tonight at the campsite, mahjong and karaoke in the villa, and the dining hall on the first floor!"

Applause surged in like a tide. Joyful blessings rose and fell from the crowd below as Li Xun and his bride, their faces glowing with sweet joy, greeted their guests.

Qi Yao snapped back to the present. Her fingers curled slightly. She retracted her gaze and began to rise, intending to leave. But the bride rushed over and caught her arm for a group photo, pleading with such soft insistence that Qi Yao found herself, bewilderingly, agreeing to stay for the meal.

The midday sun was too harsh. Everyone moved into the first-floor dining room.

Marble floors, European chandeliers, elaborate decor. Three or four round tables were draped in snowy white cloths, but the food placed upon them was earthily down-to-earth.

Sichuan cuisine took the lead, covering all four of China's great culinary traditions. Everywhere you looked, red chili peppers blazed.

"None of that pretentious stuff. If we're eating, let's eat right," said Chen Yinyin, who had changed into a red dress. She stuck out her tongue and joked quietly, "I can't get full on Western food anyway. Now that the ceremony's over, I can finally eat properly."

Everyone sat where they pleased. Qi Yao was tugged along by Chen Yinyin to sit at the outermost table.

There were seven or eight of them in total: Li Xun, Chen Yinyin, Liu Pingping, and the group of girls who had asked for photos before the ceremony.

"Jiashu!" Li Xun leaned back in his chair and called out, waving him over.

Qi Yao resolutely did not look, focusing on what Chen Yinyin was saying.

"We specifically planned this as the friends-only event, no elders, none of the usual formalities. Just relax." Chen Yinyin said, still clinging to her arm, her eyes sparkling. 

"When I first became your fan, I only knew you were an alumna. I had no idea what year you were. Then Li Xun told me you were his classmate, I was over the moon. That's actually when I started saying yes when he asked me out."

The whole table burst out laughing, teasing Li Xun for his nonexistent standing in the relationship, needling him until his face glowed red.

Chen Yinyin cast them a fond glare, her eyes curving into crescents. "Anyway, Yao-mei, you're the biggest surprise of my wedding."

"I didn't know what you'd like, so I just brought a little something." Qi Yao said, her eyes crinkling as she handed over the gift. She meant it when she added, "You look so beautiful today."

"Just having you here makes me happy, never mind a gift." Chen Yinyin accepted it with delighted surprise, then her gaze slid past Qi Yao's shoulder and her words came to an abrupt halt.

With a soft scrape, the chair beside Qi Yao was pulled back.

A familiar scent, a shift of air, and someone sat down next to her.

Very, very naturally.

He lounged back in his chair, relaxed and unguarded, long legs stretched slightly apart. One elbow rested against the armrest, his long, well-knuckled fingers hanging loosely at his side. Completely at ease.

Openly. As if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Though perhaps, to him, it was.

Li Xun paused for two seconds, then withdrew his own hand from the chair he'd been about to pull out beside him, rubbing his nose. 

The entire table went silent for one second.

"Come on, let's eat!"

A key adult life is the ability to briefly suppress one's thirst for gossip, then subtly pick it up again later.

After the conversation had roamed through university, work, marriage, and other safe topics, Liu Pingping finally circled it back around to them.

"We haven't really been in touch since graduation. How did the monitor manage to invite Jiashu?"

"I've got his WeChat," Li Xun said. "Though we don't really chat. It was only after Jingfan acquired our company, once we had actual contact, that I felt comfortable asking him. Before that, I was worried he'd think I'm just fishing for a red packet."

Yu Jiashu laughed. "I'm your boss now, is that how you talk about me?"

"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare." Li Xun pressed his palms together in a pleading gesture, shaking them frantically. "Spare me, boss!"

"Doesn't you work at Hongtu Information? Is Jingfan moving into AI?"

"I'm working nine-nine-six, honestly barely surviving. Jiashu, can you take me in? Hire me for your company!"

"You've only got a bachelor's. Not qualified. I'm answering on behalf of my boss."

"Damn! Why the academic discrimination!"

The mood was light. After a round of laughter, another girl spoke up. "And what about Yao-mei and Jiashu?"

The girl was careful and polite, as if just making idle conversation, but she couldn't quite hide the avid, gossip-hungry gleam in her eyes. Across the table, a whole row of faces lifted with warm, attentive interest.

"You two seem close."

"..."

Qi Yao's hand froze on her glass. She paused, then said slowly, "Not really."

Right?

After almost eight years apart, exactly two WeChat messages were exchanged. They couldn't really be considered that close.

The person beside her showed no particular reaction, just let out a lazy, drawn-out "Mm," then added:

"Just the kind of relationship where we go home together."

The silence that followed was so profound, even the adjacent table went quiet. 

Go home... together?

As in, they were already...?

Li Xun's mouth formed a perfect O, then snapped shut, a pocket of air trapped in his cheeks, his eyes wide as brass bells.

Chen Yinyin was so stunned her chopsticks froze mid-air, a spare rib slipping off and splashing softly into the sauce.

Liu Pingping and the other girls' expressions shifted instantly, a flurry of meaningful looks flying between them in the span of a heartbeat, their faces clearly saying, "We knew it."

"..."

How did it come to this?

"No." Qi Yao felt head throb. Her fingers tightened around her glass. "We're neighbors!"

No one said a word.

After a brief, suspended pause, everyone resumed their motions. Some drank water, some ate, Chen Yinyin picked up the spare rib again. But the atmosphere had irrevocably shifted into a state of deeply unconvincing normalcy.

Li Xun swept a glance over the table, his tone carrying a note of admonition. "No worries. We're all old classmates here. Nothing said here leaves this table."

"Absolutely. This is a private gathering. We didn't hear a thing," Liu Pingping seconded.

"..."

Qi Yao was vibrating with frustration. All the words she wanted to say tangled up in her head like a ball of yarn, stuck and unspooled. Under the cover of the tablecloth, she reached out and shoved at the leg of the man next to her.

Her pale, slender fingers pressed against his black trousers, pushed twice with a hint of urgency, the soft pads brushing gently across the fabric. Delicate and tender.

She was truly anxious. 

Yu Jiashu laughed, his eyes lowered, but didn't move. He tapped two fingers lightly against the tabletop and asked, in a voice only the two of them could hear:

"Still avoid me in public next time?"

"..."

Qi Yao bit down sharply on the inside of her cheek. This man was truly insufferable.

She held on for several seconds, watching him sit there in perfect composure, even tilting his chin slightly as he took a sip of water, his Adam’s apple moving in a slow, unhurried rise and fall, clearly with no intention of budging. Finally, she ground out through clenched teeth, her voice barely above a whisper: "...No."

"No what?"

"..." Qi Yao gritted her teeth harder. "No more avoiding!"

The bright lights spilled across her face, making her eyes look even softer. With her slight movements, her hair brushed lightly over her shoulders. A faint, elusive fragrance lingered around her.

It smelled rather pleasant.

"Oh." Yu Jiashu withdrew his gaze and lifted his eyes idly.

Every person at the table instantly dropped their eyes, looking as guilty as students caught reading novels during study hall.

"Oh wow, this dish is amazing."

"Right? I think so too."

Qi Yao held her glass and took a sip of water, waiting for Yu Jiashu to restore her innocence. After a long moment, she heard him clear his throat, neither too light nor too heavy, and finally speak.

"We really are neighbors."

The table fell silent. One second, two, three.

"Really," he said.

And then nothing more.

Qi Yao: "..."

???

That's it?

***

After the meal, Chen Yinyin dragged Qi Yao upstairs to sing karaoke.

After so many years apart, surface-level pleasantries alone couldn't instantly thaw the atmosphere. It took a few jokes and teasing remarks to briefly reclaim that old familiarity. 

Nostalgia was, of course, unavoidable in such gatherings. 

Under the dizzying, psychedelic lights, people sank into the sofas, full and content, leaning back lazily. They draped an arm over the person next to them and began to ramble about old times.

"Hey, Yao-mei, can I ask about industry gossip? I'm dying of curiosity."

"Does Gu Heng really have a girlfriend? Is that something I can ask?"

"You can ask," Qi Yao said. "But I genuinely might not know. Like the answer to that question, for example."

"Yeah, that tracks. I've seen interviews where celebrities say they watch those gossip accounts too. Some things you just can't ask someone to their face."

Chen Yinyin added, "The wildest one I ever saw claimed Yao-mei and Ye Qingman are a couple."

"Cough!" Qi Yao was mid-sip of water and choked. She grabbed a napkin, eyes wide with alarm. "Please tell me you didn't believe that."

"Of course not!" They all burst out laughing at her horrified expression.

People were slouching every which way on the sofas, Qi Yao's gaze drifted past them to the other side of the room, where Yu Jiashu was.

Li Xun and a few other male classmates were talking to him in low voices. A bottle cap was knocked off against the corner of a table, clear liquid slowly pouring into glasses.

"Are you doing IP licensing next quarter? I caught wind of it. Are you releasing image processing tech?"

"Last meeting, my boss was still saying what a dream it would be if we could partner with Jingfan."

"Which company?"

He sat there at ease, back resting against a cushion, long legs slightly apart, propped out casually.

Half his face was hidden in the lurid, shifting lights, only occasionally, sparingly, revealing his full features.

They were mostly discussing work. When someone came over to toast him, he merely lifted his glass in a loose gesture, the clear liquid tilting along the rim with a crisp clink, contact made and broken in an instant.

Such a young master's indolence.

It hit Qi Yao then, with sudden clarity, that he was, in fact, a young master, in the truest sense.

Back when she was still studying in Beijing, the second-generation rich kids of the capital's circles would throw parties every few days. And they liked to invite minor celebrities or film academy students.

Qi Yao had the "honor" of witnessing it once, dragged along by Ye Qingman.

It didn't matter if the guys were handsome or hideous, fat or thin. They'd just sit there on the sofas with that insufferable, arrogant ease, crook a finger, and the pretty girls would come running, eager to please. 

Ye Qingman couldn't stand it. She rolled her eyes and tried to leave with Qi Yao, only to be stopped with a few jeering remarks that sent the young lady into a full-blown fury.

Looking back now, those girls she'd glimpsed at those parties had either remained lukewarm and obscure, or had suddenly landed a golden opportunity, shot to fame overnight, and then just as suddenly vanished without a trace.

When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter.

And even if the tree never falls, if it simply tires of your presence, you'll scatter just the same.

Now, watching Yu Jiashu lean back so casually, chin tipped up in that unbothered ease, his Adam’s apple moving along the clean line of his throat, only then did one truly feel that “young master” aura.

As if he'd been born to inhabit a world of decadent luxury, as if heaven and earth existed solely for his sake.

If Yu Jiashu knew what she was thinking, he'd probably beat a gong and cry injustice.

Heaven knew, he was merely nursing a headache from someone's god-awful singing.

Chen Yinyin withdrew her gaze as well. She was quiet for a moment, smiling wistfully. "Back in high school, I genuinely, wholeheartedly liked him."

"Later, I understood. People like him just exist on a different plane from us regular people. It was only because we were all crammed into the same school that the biggest difference seemed to be just the distance between first place and last."

Qi Yao looked at her, catching the trace of melancholy in that smile.

"I even wrote him a love letter back then. He didn't even open it. The next day, it was returned, properly and politely, through a friend." Chen Yinyin laughed softly. "Call it coldness? At least he gave a response. Call it polite? You can't really feel grateful for it either."

A love letter... for him...

Returned?

Qi Yao’s breath caught, a subtle shift passing through her expression.

Chen Yinyin hadn't reapplied her lipstick. Her lips were pale as she pressed them gently together. Letting that flicker of melancholy dissipate, then she glanced over at Li Xun, her eyes clear and bright.

"But now I've found my own happiness."

Qi Yao watched as Li Xun meet his wife's gaze and immediately set down his glass, looking ready to come over. Something stirred in her chest at the sight. She exhaled softly and murmured, "That's wonderful."

She rose to give the newlyweds their moment, but Chen Yinyin caught her arm and leaned in for one last whisper.

"Yo, the groom's just walking off like that?"

"God, who is that singing? Can you please stop? My ears are bleeding."

"Hey, hey, can we get Yao-mei to grace us with a song?"

Chen Yinyin released Qi Yao's arm and called out toward the noise, "How big a head do you have? Think you deserve someone like her singing for you?"

The man pulled a mournful face and bowed three times in their direction.

"Sorry, sorry, I was just shooting my mouth off, no offense meant! Yinyin-jie, spare me! Yao-mei, spare me! Jiashu, spare me!"

What did this have to do with Yu Jiashu?

Qi Yao couldn't help but laugh. She accepted the microphone someone handed her. "But I'm really not much of a singer."

"Getting to hear you sing is like winning the lottery! Who'd dare complain?!"

Li Xun had taken her old spot. The sofa was packed to the gills. Aside from the far end, there was almost no space.

Qi Yao paused for two seconds, then slowly began making her way through the crowd toward that one spot.

People were everywhere. Playing dice, Truth or Dare, drinking. They sprawled across her path.

Someone was buried in their phone, oblivious to the calls to move, legs stretched out long and careless.

The gap was too narrow. Qi Yao couldn't get through.

The courage she had so painstakingly gathered was about to shatter against this tiny obstacle. Qi Yao pressed her lips together and was ready to just go to the standing microphone instead when she suddenly saw Yu Jiashu move.

He was still leaning back against the cushions as before, pale eyelids lifting with an air of languor. His long leg shifted slightly, and with a lazy, casual kick, he nudged the person blocking the way.

"Move.”

---

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