"Mu Dan! Mu Dan!" My Grandma came toward our straw home yelling out my name. I was worried with her brittle bones, all that running could cause her to fall.
"Grandma, what is it? Don't run!" I stopped sweeping and ran to her side. She was breathing heavily and then coughing uncontrollably.
"Yi Huai has come back! And he wants to get married to you in three days!" She placed her palms around my cheeks, laughing happily.
I felt a rush of overflowing joy in my chest. Yi Huai was going to become my husband and I was going to become his wife. He told me I was to be called 'wife.'
"Grandma, what do I prepare?"
"The Wu Family will send all the preparation over. I can't wait to see you in the bride's clothing. You're going to look so beautiful! Oh, thank the Heavens! Master and Madame, now I can finally face you in the afterlife."
I thought it was weird Grandma was talking about the afterlife. What did a wedding have to do with the afterlife?
Once the day came, our small courtyard held treasures that sparkled every time I opened the chests sent by the Wu family. My Grandma helped me into a red dress before putting on my red veil. She said she would wait for me at the house. Since I was to join Yi Huai's family, she said I should listen to them well. I didn't know why, but I started to cry. If I had to go live with Yi Huai and leave Grandma behind then I didn't want to marry Yi Huai.
"Be good. Don't cry. Your makeup will wash off." Grandma said this to me but down her wrinkled face endless tears came as well. I wiped her tears with my red sleeves, not caring that I should not get my beautiful red dress wet, she was my Grandma.
"You've always loved Yi Huai. Back then and now. Go and be happy, my child. Only then can I be laid to rest."
With those last words from my Grandma, I entered the red curtains into the palanquin. The men set off to the Wu family's home. I started to get nervous and dug my nails into my palms. All the people around me, Grandma, Madame Wu, the villagers made marriage out to be so complicated. What would change after I marry Yi Huai?
We finally came to a stop and the men set me down. After waiting a few minutes, no one came to get me from inside the palanquin. I wanted to go see Yi Huai. Opening the curtain, I peeked through my red veil and realized how quiet the Wu residence was. The men standing around the palanquin were not speaking to me. Lifting my veil, I decided to make my way inside to the main hall.
Very strange, there were no wedding decorations anywhere. I'd been to weddings before in the village, and even though they were not as grand as the Wu Manor, the villagers always had cheerful people gather and red decorating the home. The Wu's home was much too vacant.
The doors to the main hall were wide open with Master and Madame Wu sitting all the way at the end. I was greeted by a maid, and she brought me in front of my two parents-in-law.
They didn't say a word to me, but I felt the staring bearing into my skin.
Then Madame Wu said, "Mu Dan, Yi Huai is on his way from the capital city. Shouldn't be a minute more until we can start the ceremony."
That's weird.
"Um, but my grandma said that Yi Huai was back."
"She must have been mistaken. I merely said he was on his way."
"Oh, okay."
An hour went by. Then two. Then three. Just where was Yi Huai?
Master Wu and Madame Wu left me all alone in the main hall. I stood for five hours by myself. Just then a man came running into the hall and Master and Madame Wu came back from where they had gone.
"Master and Madame, Young Master has sent word," the man greeted them with his hands together.
"What is it?" Master Wu asked.
"He cannot make it to the wedding."
He-- what?
My heart was hurting. My legs wanting to fall. Yi Huai was abandoning me.
"Oh, just why is that?" Madame Wu asked but looked at me the entire time like she was watching me lose my mind.
"He said... he cannot marry Miss Mu Dan. Here's his letter... but he wished for me to say this to Miss Mu Dan because he knows... she cannot read well."
What? Just what words does he have for me? Is there hope?
The man approached me. My heart was about to jump out and run away. This was too much pain.
He said, "Mu Dan, I cannot marry someone stupid like you."
"We're sorry, Mu Dan. It is our fault to have given birth to someone so undutiful," Master Wu walked over to me and said this, but I could not find comfort in his words. Yi Huai really did not want to marry someone dumb like me.
"Right, you've been waiting for hours and he still haven't come. He doesn't truly love you at all."
Why were they saying all this? Why were they hurting me over and over?
"It's best if you return home," Master Wu said this to me before turning away.
"No. I will wait for Yi Huai. I want to hear him say that he doesn't love me. I want to hear him say that he doesn't want to marry me," I said with tears escaping my eyes, "Then I will leave."
Master and Madam Wu looked at each other before allowing me to wait. However, they said I could not wait in their home but outside because it would be inappropriate. It was better that way anyhow because if I was outside then I would be able to greet Yi Huai faster.
The whole night I waited with my arms around my knees, looking over to the path where he would have walked in from. I didn't see his face or even a shadow resembling him come.
I fell asleep at the door's gate when the next morning my Grandma came and started screaming at the Wu.
"If you didn't want to marry Mu Dan then you shouldn't have dishonored her like this! How are we going to live with you marring her reputation like this!"
When did all these carriages appear?
I must have been so tired from waiting, I didn't hear the Wu family's horse carriages come. Servants were piling goods and luggage onto the carriages.
"Please. I've told you countless times that the betrothal between my son and that girl should have been dissolved. But you were relentless. Now that Yi Huai has made it clear, he does not want to be with her. You both should move on," Madame Wu came out from the gates wearing a shiny cloak.
Master Wu also came out and said, "Old Lady Guo, it's best if you sent her off to a Buddhist Temple to pray for good karma. She's not going to marry anyone in her state."
"You shut your mouth, you old fool! If it wasn't for Mu Dan's family pitying you then you wouldn't be where you are today. Give me back our family's heirloom! I know you people still have it! Here! This? This useless jade ring? Take it back! We don't want to be tied to you evil beings!"
Grandma threw the ring in Master Wu's face. Grandma said it was the ring of promise to wed me and Yi Huai. How could she throw that away!
"You! You-- You dare insult me?" Master Wu rubbed his forehead from where Grandma threw the ring.
"Grandma! Grandma, how could you throw the ring away?" I cried running to pick it up from the ground. It was broken in half. It didn't fit my finger anymore.
"Ai-yah, silly girl! These people are worse than animals! Don't waste your time on them anymore. I said give me back our family's heirloom!" Grandma was so angry that she lunged at Master Wu's collar.
"If you want it then come get it in capital city! Move out of the way!" Master Wu pushed my Grandma to the ground. She fell and yelled out in pain.
"Grandma!"
They were bad people. I saw that now. How could they hurt Grandma?
They are Yi Huai's parents, so does that make Yi Huai bad too?
I helped Grandma up, and asked Master Wu as he entered the carriage, "Is Yi Huai in the capital city?"
He scoffed at me and climbed in without answering.
I have to find Yi Huai.