After a Flash Marriage with a Professor - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Bitter Memories

Yan Mingshu woke up in her own room. It didn’t face the sun, and the curtains were drawn, leaving the room in a dim gray. She had no idea how long she’d been asleep.

She reached for the small cabinet beside her bed and, in the darkness, fumbled for her phone. Pressing the screen, she saw it was only 2:30 in the afternoon.

The dire situation her family was in kept her from staying in bed. She got up immediately.

…

Two Days Ago

Two nights earlier, she had come home from work to the sound of a fierce argument and things being smashed. Her family didn’t own a home; they rented an apartment in an old residential building with no elevator. That night, the hallway lights were broken. Yan Mingshu used her phone’s flashlight to climb the stairs, listening to the loud fight between her parents.

As she reached their door, she saw her younger brother, Yan Wenxuan, squatting outside, playing a video game.

“Wenxuan, what’s wrong?” Yan Mingshu asked anxiously.

Yan Wenxuan stood up. His back made a ripping sound, and he knew without looking that there was a tear in his jacket. He took off the jacket in a fit of frustration, clutched it to his chest, and stopped playing his game. He didn’t answer his sister’s question.

“It’s okay. We can buy a new jacket. There’s a nail by the doorframe, just be more careful next time,” Yan Mingshu said with a smile, still unaware of what awaited her inside. She was trying to comfort her brother, who had been in a bad mood ever since he failed the college entrance exam.

“Sis…” Yan Wenxuan began, then hesitated.

“Hmm?” Yan Mingshu smiled and reached out to pat his head, thinking he was still worried about not getting into college. “You’re so much taller than me now, Wenxuan. I have to stand on my tiptoes to pat your head. There are so many possibilities for the future. Failing once is no big deal. You can retake the exam, or you can learn a trade…”

“Sis!” Yan Wenxuan suddenly became agitated. Yan Mingshu froze, wondering if her words had hurt her teenage brother’s feelings.

The door suddenly opened from the inside, and their father, Yan Hongbo—a man who looked honest and kind—peeked his head out, clutching his swollen right cheek.

“Why are you standing outside the door? Come on in,” Yan Hongbo said with a chuckle, already accustomed to appearing disheveled in front of his children.

“Dad, did Mom hit you again?” Yan Mingshu asked with worry.

“Don’t talk about that. You must be hungry. Come in and eat.” Yan Hongbo laughed and pulled both children inside.

Yan Wenxuan didn’t move and held onto Yan Mingshu. Thinking her brother was still worried about his torn jacket, Yan Mingshu patted his arm reassuringly.

“Haha, Wenxuan is just being childish again,” Yan Hongbo joked.

Yan Wenxuan wanted to say, “Sis, run! Never come home again!” But he looked at his father, swallowed the words, and released her arm.

At the dinner table, Yan Mingshu finally learned why her parents had been arguing. Her father’s gambling addiction had flared up again, and he had secretly borrowed from high-interest online loan sharks. The debt had snowballed, and two hours ago, debt collectors had come to their door with a knife. They told him that if he couldn’t repay the money within a week, they would chop off one of his fingers, and then one more every day after that until they ran out of fingers and toes.

Yan Mingshu was stunned. After she managed to compose herself, she said, “Loan sharking is illegal. We can call the police.”

Her parents immediately dismissed the idea, saying that loan sharks were part of the underworld—vicious criminals, many of whom had several criminal records and had just gotten out of prison.

“Then what can we do?” Yan Mingshu worriedly bit her lower lip.

Her father asked her, “Mingshu, if there was a way for you to help Dad, you would, wouldn’t you?”

Yan Mingshu nodded without hesitation. She believed that there wasn’t a daughter in the world who wouldn’t want to help her father. Even though her parents’ attention had shifted significantly after her brother was born, she still firmly believed that deep down, they loved her. No parent could not love their child, and no child could not love their parents.

“After this problem is solved, will you please stop gambling?” Yan Mingshu asked.

“Of course. Dad still wants to work hard to give you, Wenxuan, and your mother a good life.”

The next morning, when Yan Mingshu left for work, she saw that the white wall outside their door had been splattered with blood and marked with two large “X”s. She screamed in shock. At work, she was distracted all day for the first time. When she got home that evening, she saw Mr. Huang.

Her parents were warmly welcoming Mr. Huang, while her brother sat on the side, playing a game with the volume turned up high. His fingers moved furiously on the screen, and he cursed nonstop as if his words were meant for someone else.

At the time, Yan Mingshu didn’t sense that anything was wrong. She just thought her family had an unfamiliar guest.

It wasn’t until her parents started pushing her towards the guest that she realized something was terribly wrong.

“Mr. Huang, our Mingshu might look sly and foxy, but she’s a pure and good girl. She’s never even dated before,” Qin Shu said with a wide, high-pitched smile, as if she was certain she could successfully sell her most prized possession.

“Mom,” Yan Mingshu said softly, feeling nervous and unsettled.

Qin Shu didn’t hear her. She was too absorbed in telling Mr. Huang how wonderful Yan Mingshu was and how he wouldn’t regret marrying her.

Mr. Huang smacked his oily lips and lecherously looked Yan Mingshu up and down. “I also think Mingshu is very suitable to be a wife.”

“Shit!”

“What a load of trash!”

From the sofa across from them, Yan Wenxuan let out two curses. Qin Shu and Mr. Huang’s faces fell. Yan Mingshu was stuck in the middle like a sandwich cookie, as her mother kept pushing her from the side towards Mr. Huang. She was terrified and on the verge of tears, but her mother didn’t stop.

“Our Mingshu is so well-behaved. She always comes home on time and doesn’t hang out with bad people. She’s quiet and doesn’t make a fuss…” Qin Shu continued to talk animatedly.

Her father came out of the kitchen, carrying several dishes that had never appeared on their family table before. Yan Mingshu’s attention wasn’t on the food she didn’t recognize. She only noticed that her father’s smile was even wider than her mother’s. It stung her eyes.

“Mingshu, Mr. Huang brought you so many good things today. Look at this ham—it costs over a thousand yuan. He also brought Dad some liquor and cigarettes. Oh, and he brought you a gift, too. He helped me put it in your room.”

The more her father spoke, the wider his smile grew, as if a pair of wings had hooked his eyes and mouth. He was so happy he could fly.

Yan Mingshu was struck by lightning, remembering her father’s words from yesterday.

“Mingshu, if there was a way for you to help Dad, you would, wouldn’t you?”

Yan Mingshu suddenly felt a chill and couldn’t stop herself from trembling. Her parents were completely oblivious, or perhaps they simply didn’t care. At that moment, their entire focus was on pleasing Mr. Huang and making sure he wouldn’t marry anyone but her.

“Shit! Stupid teammates!”

Yan Wenxuan cursed as he stood up and pulled her away. “Sis, come team up with me. These people are all morons! They always hold me back.”

Yan Mingshu, who was in a living hell, was pulled out by her brother. He led her to a gray sofa with badly peeling leather. As she opened her phone to join his game, she whispered, “Wenxuan, you don’t usually curse. Why are you doing this today? It’s not good to curse. Don’t do it anymore.”

“Sis, I’m just scolding them indirectly,” Yan Wenxuan said in a low voice, glancing at the three adults.

Yan Mingshu’s frozen heart warmed a little.

When the food was ready, the small, square table in their rental apartment wasn’t big enough to hold all of it. A single leg of ham nearly took up the whole table. There were other expensive dishes too, which her parents said Mr. Huang had specially ordered from a fancy restaurant. Yan Mingshu kept her head down and didn’t say a word.

When they were assigning seats, her parents tried to make her sit next to Mr. Huang, but her brother got up and switched places with her. With her eyes lowered, she quietly ate the plain white rice that had nothing to do with Mr. Huang.

Mr. Huang tried to put food on Yan Mingshu’s plate, but Yan Wenxuan intercepted him.

“My sister isn’t used to those dishes. They’ll make her sick. I can eat them, just give them all to me.”

Mr. Huang let out an awkward laugh and didn’t bother to argue with a high school graduate. Yan Hongbo and Qin Shu smoothed things over. “That’s right, our Mingshu hasn’t been feeling well these past two days, so she can only eat plain food.”

“Oh, my mistake. I saw from the photos that Mingshu was too thin, so I wanted her to eat more and didn’t consider that the dishes would be too greasy.”

“These dishes are not as greasy as you are!” Yan Wenxuan blurted out. His voice wasn’t loud, but everyone at the table heard him. No one spoke again, and the table fell into a dead silence. There was no sound of chewing. Yan Mingshu couldn’t help but look up. She saw her parents’ shoulders shrug in unison as if they were holding their breath. Were her parents afraid?

She looked at the oily-faced Mr. Huang, who had a gloomy look on his face, as if a storm was about to break. But when he saw her looking, he hid his displeasure and smiled. Yan Mingshu saw a few pieces of meat stuck in his teeth and looked back down at her rice.

Yan Wenxuan, whose mouth had gotten him into trouble, was scolded by his parents, who took turns giving him a stern look. The young man suppressed his emotions, his eyes filled with anger.

Mr. Huang, being the bigger person, placed a few chopsticks full of food on the younger boy’s plate and said with a smile, “If you can eat it, then eat more.” Her parents told him to say thank you, but he didn’t say a word.

At this, Mr. Huang put down his bamboo chopsticks and patted Yan Wenxuan’s thin, frail shoulders. “You want to study abroad, don’t you, Wenxuan?”

The chopsticks in Yan Wenxuan’s hand fell, wobbling on the edge of the small square table. Yan Mingshu’s heart trembled. She caught the chopsticks before they could fall and got up to go to the kitchen. While getting another pair of chopsticks for her brother, she took a deep breath. One wasn’t enough; she took three, so she wouldn’t feel so suffocated.

When she returned to the table, the atmosphere was much better. Her brother had no more friction with Mr. Huang for the rest of the meal or in the following days.

…

Back in Her Room

Yan Mingshu stood in front of her bedroom door. Before she could pull the handle, she paused. In this family, it seemed that she was the only one resisting. Everything and everyone was pushing her into Mr. Huang’s embrace.

Her phone vibrated in her hand. Yan Mingshu had social anxiety and was easily startled. Even when she wasn’t in a place that required her phone to be on silent, she still kept it that way year-round, worried about bothering others.

The call was from her friend, Jiang Lingyu.

“Mingshu, you’re awake already? Your face…”

“I’m fine. What happened this morning was a misunderstanding, Lingyu. You don’t need to stand up for me.”

“Mingshu, you…” Jiang Lingyu understood Yan Mingshu’s thinking. It was no use saying more. Yan Mingshu didn’t want her to step in and support her.

Feeling helpless, she changed the subject. “Why don’t you rest a little longer? The company said they’d give you three days off.”

“I have to think of another way, Lingyu. I really… I don’t want to marry Mr. Huang.”

“I know,” Jiang Lingyu sighed, thinking of Yan Mingshu’s family and everything that had happened that day. Her heart ached for her friend. “I’ll figure out a way to get the money. I have some saved up, and I’ll beg my parents. We should be able to raise it.”

“How can you do that?” Yan Mingshu said. “Lingyu, I already owe you too much.”

“You already paid me back the money you owed me before. I trust you, Mingshu.”

“But Lingyu, a million yuan is not a small amount. I know your family is better off than mine, but it’s still a huge sum. Even if you can get it, it will affect your family’s life. I don’t know when I’ll be able to pay it back. I think selling myself is the fastest way.”

“That’s nonsense!” Jiang Lingyu scolded gently. “Even if your parents and brother think that way, you absolutely must not.”

Yan Mingshu agreed with her friend’s words, but her heart was filled with a thousand worries, like a ball of yarn that had fallen to the floor. The strands were a tangled mess, impossible to unravel. She couldn’t find a solution.

After hanging up the phone, Yan Mingshu was still thinking that perhaps selling herself was the fastest way.

She couldn’t watch as the evil loan sharks came to chop off her father’s fingers. She couldn’t stay out of it.

Yan Mingshu leaned against the door, afraid to open it, afraid that if she did, her three closest relatives would all try to convince her to accept Mr. Huang.

She also didn’t dare to turn on the light, afraid that she would see the expensive gifts from Mr. Huang that she had cleared out of her room reappear again.

The room remained dark. She stared at the window, which was covered by the curtains. The window probably wasn’t shut tightly. She could faintly see the curtains moving, the movement very small, much like her own pointless struggle right now.

Suddenly, the wind picked up, as if it were about to rain. The curtains were blown open, and a dim ray of light streamed in. She saw the sky outside. It was gloomy, but it wasn’t dark. The wind made the trees sway, but they didn’t fall.

Could she also hold her ground and not give in?

Yan Mingshu didn’t know.

Just then, her phone vibrated twice in her hand. She recognized the vibration as a new message. She opened it and saw an invitation from a dating app called “True Love Online.” She felt annoyed and instinctively went to delete it, but as her finger hovered over the delete button, she paused.

“True Love Online,” as the name implied, was a dating and matchmaking site for finding “true love.”

Her friend, Jiang Lingyu, had dragged her into creating an account when she was fed up with being single, hoping to find a soulmate who was compatible in every way. But the truth was, she only ever received messages with different variations of a balding, greasy middle-aged man’s profile picture—they were clearly the person in the photo, leaving no room for hope. The two girls, who were full of romantic fantasies, were not attracted by material wealth.

“Why aren’t any nice, pretty ladies looking for us?” Jiang Lingyu had once shouted, grabbing her arm while drunk.

That’s right. Didn’t same-sex marriage just become legal?

Yan Mingshu sighed and deleted one of the greeting messages. Another one seemed different. She read it carefully.

The message’s content was roughly: If you’re willing to go to a local “True Love Online” branch, a senior relationship professional will provide you with a free assessment of your attractiveness scores to quickly help you find a suitable match and increase your chances of success.

The message gave Yan Mingshu a flash of inspiration.

If she had to marry for money to pay off her father’s debt, did her husband have to be the pot-bellied Mr. Huang with the face full of jowls?

Why couldn’t she choose a marriage partner she could more easily accept?

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