*Knock Knock!*
Tang Hebe placed the glass of white wine on the coffee table and stood up. Fixing the belt of her sleeping gown, she opened the door. Looking at that figure standing before her, her lips curled up.
"Cousin, is it okay for you to abandon your husband on the night of your marriage just for me?"
Tang Ping sneered, "Get out of the way!" She pushed her and entered the room domineeringly. From the moment she saw Tang Hebe at her wedding, she had been meaning to come to see her. But she couldn't just leave her wedding. So, dealing with all the guests and other stuff, took her a while.
Fortunately, she learned that Tang Hebe was staying at the resort. So, she chose to come to her at this time of the night.
Tang Hebe looked at her before she closed the door and followed her in. "Since you're here. Have a seat, please."
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtTang Ping sat down and picked up the wine glass. Throwing her head back, she chucked the whole thing down.
"Tsk. You still have no appreciation for good wine," stated Tang Hebe in disappointment. "And by the way, that was my glass."
"So what?" retorted Tang Ping. "We have shared way too many things in our lives."
"True," was all Tang Hebe said and then sat down on the single-seater sofa. "Oh, and I'm still very hurt that you didn't even bother inviting me to your wedding."
"But you still showed up, didn't you?" was Tang Ping's response.
Tang Hebe poured herself another glass of wine and leaned back on the blue-colored sofa lazily. One leg crossed over the other, she gave off a very lazy feeling. Lapels of her sleeping gown slid down a little, giving the perfect view of her sharp collar bones, her creamy skin, and her cleavage. One had to say, she looked quite seductive just sitting there.
"I couldn't possibly miss out on your wedding," said Tang Hebe. She swirled the wine in her glass as she continued, "When we were young you once told me to come to your wedding even without an invitation. I think I took your words way too seriously, Pingping."
"I've missed you," said Tang Ping with a complicated look in her eyes. "Do you have any idea how mad I was when I couldn't contact you? I never had any hopes for anyone from the Tang family. You're always the only one. The only one I could depend on but you chose to abruptly leave. I didn't even know where to look for you."
"I sent you postcards," said Tang Hebe hiding her sad expressions behind the glass of wine.
"Postcards from all around the world," scoffed Tang Ping. "That only was the reassurance that you're alive somewhere out there." She gave her a look of accusation, "Couldn't you have told me before leaving so suddenly? I was so shocked when I learned that you divorced Shui Xian and then just left. Forget about me, do you realize what you did to him?"
Tang Hebe lowered her eyes to hide her emotions as she said, "Shui Xian will always be that one person who really deserves an apology from me. But the thing is, an apology is not enough. I can't even bring myself to face him. How am I gonna apologize to him?"
"What did you run from?" asked Tang Ping.
"A lot of things," replied Tang Hebe. "But more than anything, I was running from myself."
"Then have you stopped running? Are you ready to face whatever has been chasing you for so long?"
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmTang Hebe shook her head, "Nah! I was never that brave. If I had been, I wouldn't have started running in the first place." She took another sip of the wine before saying, "I'm back because of some business."
"Don't tell me that business is Shui Xian? He is already married."
Tang Hebe looked at her cousin, askance. "What do you think of me? Do you think I'm the kind of a person who would try to be a homewrecker? Do you have such little trust in me?"
"It's hard to say what's on your mind," Tang Ping spoke bitterly, clearly exposing how hurt she had been when Tang Hebe didn't even bother telling her anything back then and ran away just like that. She was mad at this cousin but more than anything, she had been worried. In her opinion, Tang Hebe wasn't an independent woman.
She was far from it. She always needed someone to protect her. She was always a simple and sweet kind of person. So, it was really worrying for her to know Tang Hebe was wandering in the world all alone. That's why even though Tang Hebe sent postcards every other month, she was still very worried about her safety.
Tang Hebe sighed out, "I never intended to come and ruin Shui Xian's life. I genuinely want him to be happy in his life. Why would I try to ruin that happiness for him? Even if we got divorced, he will always be my best friend. The friend who always protected me. In fact, he protected me so much from the world that I never even got to know what kind of a world I was living in."
Tang Ping stayed quiet when she heard that. She obviously knew what kind of a person Tang Hebe was. And she also knew how Shui Xian along with Cui Xukun always sheltered Tang Hebe to the point that this silly girl actually believed that the world was a happy place filled with sunshine and rainbows.
"How long are you staying for?" asked Tang Ping. "I mean will you be here after I come back from my honeymoon?"
Tang Hebe contemplated it for a moment and said, "If nothing unexpected happened, I'll be here." Suddenly, both of them heard the sound of whimpering that startled them.. Tang Hebe instantly stood up and ran inside the bedroom.