• Chapter 10

  • Chapter 10

  • Perhaps it was because he first shared his family stories so openly that I found it easier to speak.

  • Hesitating, I said,

  • “My mom passed away, and my dad, like yours, cut ties with me.”

  • That year, at my mom’s funeral, a sea of people came, all dressed in black.

  • The master of ceremonies gave a long eulogy, but I couldn’t fully understand it. My mind wandered midway.

  • I remember looking at my mom’s photo, where she seemed to smile at me, and I smiled back.

  • The next second, I was slapped to the ground by my father.

  • He roared, “Your mom’s dead! How can you still smile?”

  • Everyone turned to look at me as if I were some kind of monster.

  • In that moment, I was terrified.

  • Tears welled in my eyes, but I bit my lips and didn’t dare make a sound.

  • In the first year after my mom’s passing, my dad often sat in the living room at night, flipping through her letters and photos.

  • By the second year, he had packed her belongings into a few boxes and pushed them into a dusty

  • corner.

  • By the third year, he had remarried.

  • The new stepmom dumped the boxes into the yard, saying she wanted to burn them all.

  • I desperately rummaged through the pile and saved the camera, holding it tightly to my chest.

  • I burned myself in the process.

  • 09:23

  • Chapter 10

  • From then on, the camera became the only thing left of my mom.

  • Later, my younger sister was born.

  • The love and attention of the whole family shifted to her.

  • I grew up as if invisible, turning eighteen without anyone noticing.

  • went to college to study medicine.

  • day of enrollment, my dad handed me a thick

  • adult now.

  • counted

  • blood ties

  • teachers and classmates praised me for

  • calm no matter the situation.

  • working, this became my

  • composure, but only I knew–I was too scared to stop.

  • ང་ད

  • on the day of the funeral, I hadn’t angered

  • he still have abandoned

  • years, I’ve grown used to

  • that if I ever laughed freely again or shed

  • lose something even

  • let out a small sigh.

  • so long, had never been

  • 09:23

  • Bride of Velvet Nights

  • 54.9%

  • Chapter 10

  • usual faint smile at the corners of his

  • tone was unusually serious.

  • have you forgotten? You were only

  • froze, a little

  • said, “Crying and laughing

  • one

  • it

  • stopped speaking

  • sister was born, my needs were always pushed

  • juggle my studies and find ways to

  • moment when I had been cared for

  • had no one to rely on, so I understood that my tears

  • better to bury them

  • head, I said

  • I’m an adult now. It’s impossible to act like a

  • when I want to laugh, or cry when I want to

  • as I finished speaking, a sudden jolt ran through my ribs, like a mild electric shock.

  • strange yelp and turned

  • Joseph poking my

  • he said,

  • but he grabbed me.

  • 09:23

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  • of Velvet

  • Chapter 10

  • if there was a switch on my waist–I couldn’t stop laughing, no matter how hard I tried

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