Early morning, Q City Cemetery.
There were clearly no signs of a bad weather in the weather forecast, but when Song Shu arrived at the cemetery, it started to drizzle.
This cemetery has few cold stone bricks except for the steps, and most of the ground is based on mud. When raindrops fall, the area around the cemetery becomes particularly muddy.
As Song Shu walked up, mud spots splashed onto his shoes and calves, leaving spots all over them.
Bai Song's tomb is hidden in a pine forest.
The cemetery has always been cleaned and decorated by a special person. When Song Shu arrived, the tombstone was already filled with white bouquets. In the middle of the bouquets were various cards, and there were even more fancy signatures.
Song Shu knew that many of them were trying to curry favor with the Qin family just to get along with her - before the case was revealed, Bai Song's tomb had always been deserted, with few people coming all year round.
Therefore, Song Shu would naturally not even look at those works that had deliberately left signatures.
She stood alone in front of the tombstone in silence. In the small photo on the tombstone, the woman with the same voice, appearance and smile as in her memory also looked at her tenderly.
I don't know how long this silence lasted, but new footsteps came to Song Shu's side and then stopped. A few seconds later, Luan Qiao came forward and placed the bouquet in front of the tombstone.
She stepped back and asked, "Have you told your aunt that you are getting married?"
"Yes."
"You're lying," Luan Qiaoqing sighed, "I was standing over there just now and didn't hear anything."
Song Shu smiled silently, "I said it in my heart."
"Did your aunt agree?"
Song Shu thought about it and said, "She will agree."
Luan Qiaoqing hesitated for two seconds, and finally told the truth, but lowered her voice a lot, "I don't think so. He is not a good son-in-law to begin with, and he didn't even come to see her on her death anniversary. It would be strange if my aunt agreed..."
Song Shu looked at her helplessly, "Didn't I say on the way that Qin Lou had his own reasons?"
Luan Qiaoqing frowned, "Then I asked him but he didn't respond to me." Luan Qiaoqing paused, "Sister, you know, right? Did he tell you?"
“… He didn’t say anything specific, but I can roughly guess it.” Song Shu said.
Luan Qiaoqing asked quickly: "What is the reason?"
Song Shu stared at the tombstone in silence for a few seconds, then sighed softly, "Although Qin Fujun is not the only culprit in this incident, she is the cause and the fuse. Qin Lou has always felt that this incident was caused by him. If he hadn't existed, or if the relationship between us hadn't affected the division of the Qin family's property and power, Qin Fujun might not have chosen that path."
Luan Qiaoqing slowly opened her eyes, "You mean, Qin Lou blamed this incident... on himself?"
Song Shu was silent for a moment.
She turned back and looked at Luan Qiaoqing seriously, "Qiaoqiao, have you never blamed him?"
"I-"
Luan Qiaoqing was speechless.
Of course she did.
During the years when Song Shu was away, especially at the beginning when she could not accept the death of the two people closest to her, Luan Qiaoqing could not remember how many times she blamed Qin Lou. She remembered that she could not find anyone to blame, so she attributed everything to Qin Lou's late return, even though she knew that the person who would be most hurt by Song Shu's "death" was probably him.
Luan Qiaoqing slowly lowered her head.
"I'm sorry, sister, I was..."
Song Shu shook his head lightly, "Qiaoqiao, you don't have to apologize to me. It's enough that you can understand that he didn't come and stop blaming him."
Song Shu turned back, looked at the tombstone, and sighed softly: "After all, he blames himself not because of your blame. It's just that even you think so, so he can't help it. Psychologically, Qin Lou has endured much more than us since he was a child. We don't understand his truest feelings, so we shouldn't say anything - if staying there can make him feel better, then let him stay there. I will accompany him."
Luan Qiao seemed to understand what Song Shu said, but she could hear the sadness and worry in his words, so she didn't say anything in the end and just nodded.
Luan Qiaoqing stood here with Song Shu for a while, and then prepared to go down to the car to wait for Song Shu as usual. But before turning around and leaving, she stopped as if she thought of something, "Sister, has Qin Lou been to the cemetery before?"
Song Shu recalled, "His parents died abroad. He was very young at that time. I don't know if he attended the funeral. As for other things, I don't think he attended them."
Luan Qiaoqing nodded, "The only time Qin Lou came to the cemetery in his memory was probably at... your funeral."
Song Shu was startled and turned around.
Luan Qiaoqing recalled the day that had left a deep impression on her. She frowned slowly, and her expression showed some pain. "Your funeral was only a few days later than my aunt's. I remember it rained that day... Qin Lou's pain at that time was probably beyond description. It just suddenly occurred to me that this might be one of the reasons why he didn't want to come to the cemetery. If it were me, I would never want to come to this place again before I die."
After saying that, Luan Qiaoqing looked at Song Shu apologetically, then turned and walked towards the lower steps in the middle of the cemetery.
Song Shu stood alone in front of the tombstone and did not come back to his senses for a long time.
On the ninth day of the ninth month, Song Shu and Qin Lou's wedding took place as scheduled.
The wedding was held in the Qin family's old house, and the wedding banquet was arranged in accordance with Song Shu's requirements, with everything kept simple.
Qin Yuzheng and Mei Jinghan don't have many close friends in China, so Song Shu's guests basically only include some of Bai Song's old friends and close colleagues or senior executives in the company.
As for Qin Lou, he limited the number of places to a few and handed them all over to the housekeeper to arrange.
So within a few days after the news of Qin Lou and Song Shu's wedding spread, the topic of who got the wedding invitation and who didn't became a hot topic of status division in the wealthy circle.
Before the wedding, the clumsy new servants were "thrown" out by the elders to do chores half a week in advance. The elders took care of all the wedding banquets, big or small, in order to ensure that the young master and young lady, whom they had watched grow up, would have a perfect wedding.
However, everyone was worried about the young groom, fearing that he would do something shocking and shocking on the wedding day - even though there were many rumors about the Qin family and Qin House - and ruin their long-prepared wedding.
To this end, the family, led by the old butler and the servants, held several emergency meetings, the focus of which was to discuss possible situations and necessary countermeasures.
After making n emergency plans, the old people finally felt relieved and waited for the wedding with smiles on their faces.
The wedding day.
Song Shu was "dug" out of bed early in the morning by the top-notch stylist team invited by Luan Qiaoqing, and was brought into the dressing room in a daze.
The exhausting makeup retouching lasted for several hours. Song Shu was so sleepy that she kowtowed in front of the mirror several times, but the makeup artist panicked and urgently rescued her and re-applied her makeup... After that, the process of changing into the wedding dress was equally long and terrifying.
As for Qin Lou, according to the requests of Qin Yuzheng and Mei Jinghan, Qin Lou was unable to see Song Shu for the entire week before the wedding.
After finally enduring until the first night of the wedding, Qin Lou listened to Luan Qiaoqing's "advice" with great difficulty. In order to prevent his little clam from attending the wedding with dark circles under his eyes, Qin Lou endured the whole night and did not sneak into Song Shu's room in the middle of the night to sleep with his clam.
As a result, early in the morning on the wedding day, after he changed into the groom's suit, he kicked away the makeup artist who was trying to use a bunch of messy makeup tools on his face, and rushed to Song Shu's room with joy and impatience, only to find that his little clam shell had been "stolen" by someone at some point in time.
This immediately set off the madman's explosives depot.
All the free servants in the Qin family went out together, but they were unable to stop the young master who was rushing to the bride's dressing room. Instead, several of them were knocked down by Qin Lou outside the dressing room.
When Qin Lou kicked open the door of the dressing room, he probably felt like a warrior who had snatched the princess from the clutches of the evil dragon. As for the makeup artists who had just recovered from their shock, they naturally thought that he was the evil dragon himself - the name of "madman" was destined to spread far and wide from that second on.
No matter whether it was a warrior or a dragon, Qin Lou's anger finally subsided after seeing his little clam.
After the makeup artist, who didn't speak the language and had to bring an interpreter with him, said timidly that he hadn't finished the bridal makeup yet, Qin Lou glared at him angrily, then reluctantly moved a chair and sat next to Song Shu, staring at Song Shu intently - fearing that someone would take away his clam shell when he wasn't paying attention.
Song Shu was used to it, but the makeup artist was really scared. She almost made the makeup lines crooked several times due to shaking hands. It was only with her world-class professionalism that she was able to fix it.
When the whole makeup was finally completed, the makeup artist breathed a sigh of relief and arranged for his assistant to quickly leave this dangerous place.
Luan Qiaoqing, who had invited the person, was extremely embarrassed. She secretly glared at Qin Lou for several times before she apologetically sent the internationally renowned stylist out with a smile.
When they reached the door, the other party looked behind him with lingering fear and mumbled something in a foreign language. Luan Qiaoqing smiled and nodded, then turned around and asked the translator she brought with her -
"What did he just say?"
"..." The translator looked at Luan Qiaoqing with a strange expression and lowered his head. "He said, is the person who just came in the groom? Rather than coming to get married, this groom looks more like someone who is trying to steal the bride."
Luan Qiaoqing: “…”
I have to say that what this international friend said makes a lot of sense.
Even though Qin Lou was reluctant, he had no choice but to be "driven" back to the wedding scene when Qin Yuzheng and Mei Jinghan finished their makeup and appeared backstage.
For this reason, the young head of the Qin family stood beside the trembling master of ceremonies at his wedding in a groom's suit, his eyes and expression were very cold. If everyone present was not familiar with his legendary love story with Song Shu, many people would probably think that he was forced to marry.
Until the wedding march started.
Song Shu, wearing a snow-white wedding dress and long white gloves, took Qin Yuzheng's arm and walked along the long carpet covered with white rose petals, step by step to the music, to the emcee podium.
Under the gazes of the crowd, Qin Yuzheng solemnly handed Song Shu's hand to Qin Lou's. According to the arrangement of the MC and the preparations made by Qin Yuzheng and Mei Jinghan, a tearful speech of entrustment was inevitable.
After the speech comes the oath-taking session.
The MC took a deep breath:
"Mr. Qin Lou, are you willing to keep your wedding vows, no matter good times or bad, no matter poverty or wealth, no matter health or illness—"
"etc."
"!"
The emcee almost choked on his own breath.
People in their line of work are most afraid of the phrase "wait", because once this phrase is uttered, it basically means that a comedy will turn into a tragedy, and there may even be some bloody incident caused by a sudden wedding robbery.
But after the emcee quickly scanned the audience based on his professional instinct, he was shocked to find that this sentence was not said by someone else, but by the groom.
The MC had long heard of this person's deeds and reputation, and immediately laughed so hard that it was more heartbreaking than crying—
"Mr. Qin, do you have anything else to say?"
Qin Lou frowned, "I don't like this set of wedding vows, they are all the same and have no sincerity."
MC: “…”
If this wasn't a wedding, and if the person in front of him wasn't someone he really couldn't afford to offend, he would have cursed.
The host was silent for a long time, and then forced out a sincere smile: "Why don't you do it yourself, Mr. Qin?"
Qin Lou curled his lips and smiled wildly, "Come if you want."
Before the host could regret it, the microphone in his hand reached Qin Lou.
Those who knew Qin Lou's temper were almost holding their breath in fear. They didn't know what this "madman" was going to do next, and they all watched nervously.
Qin Lou took the microphone and stopped looking at the emcee. His gaze turned back to Song Shu.
The madman's wanton and reckless smile faded a little. A few seconds later, the microphone was still quiet. He looked at her, his smile gradually faded, slowly returning to calm and seriousness, without saying a word.
The air became quiet along with them.
When it was quiet to a certain point, a low, hoarse laugh came from the loudspeaker.
"It's really strange. I also have times when I have a lot to say but don't know what to say... I thought I wouldn't be nervous."
Song Shu said nothing, just looked at him quietly.
Qin Lou slowly clasped her ten fingers and hooked them tightly. "I have heard their oaths, and I know that they will let me say in the end - I will love you, cherish you, and be faithful to you forever."
Qin Lou paused, then lowered his eyes and smiled, "But I know that no relationship is forever."
"!"
The expressions of all the guests in the audience froze instantly, and some of them gasped.
The emcee almost fainted afterwards - he felt like he was about to witness a marriage turn into a divorce.
Qin Lou didn't care about the others' reactions. He lowered his voice and said, "I have known this matter very, very deeply since twelve years ago. It only takes one second, one small thing, one accident... death to completely cut off all my feelings for you."
Song Shu's eyes trembled slightly, "Qin Lou."
"But it doesn't matter," Qin Lou raised his eyes, "Since then, I have never expected to live forever."
"… "
Qin Lou laughed. Having just said this at his own wedding, his laughter made everyone in the audience feel like he was a madman.
But he didn't care.
In his eyes, there was only Song Shu standing there from beginning to end. So he only looked at this person.
Qin Lou smiled and said, "I think there should be no one in this world like me - attending the funeral of the person I love most, and then walking into our wedding scene with her twelve years later."
Song Shu was slightly stunned. After a moment, she lowered her eyes and smiled, "This sounds a bit scary, little lunatic."
"… "
Qin Lou held Song Shu's hand tightly and whispered.
"So no one is more qualified than me to say, I love you, it is the deepest and most intense love that even makes them afraid to avoid it, it is all the human emotions in my life from the time I met you to the end of my life. I dedicate them and myself to you - until the moment we stop breathing."
"Then, as I said, we will sleep together in life and be buried together in death, and be buried together after a hundred years. I can no longer express the feelings that I can no longer express. Let my soul and spirit, which have been burned to ashes, say, in that small black box, don't be afraid, little clam... because it will be with you forever and ever."
After Qin Lou finished speaking, he looked at Song Shu, whose eyes were red, and smiled slowly.
"What should we call this?"
Song Shu smiled with tears in his eyes.
"Just call it, you and I will be together till death."