• 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.

  • college to study medicine.

  • of enrollment, my dad handed me

  • adult now. Don’t

  • and counted

  • the blood ties

  • praised me for

  • that I could stay calm no

  • working, this became my

  • I knew–I was too scared to stop.

  • ང་ད

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

  • have abandoned

  • years, I’ve grown used to

  • laughed freely again or shed

  • would lose something even

  • I let

  • for so long, had

  • 09:23

  • of Velvet

  • 54.9%

  • Chapter 10

  • smile at the corners of his lips had disappeared.

  • was unusually serious.

  • only five years old at the

  • little puzzled.

  • and laughing are a

  • yourself because no one ever let you

  • voice was soft, but it struck me like a thunderbolt.

  • funeral, my dad stopped speaking to me

  • my needs were always

  • to juggle my studies and

  • wasn’t a single moment when I had been cared for as

  • had no one to rely on, so I understood that my tears and laughter didn’t

  • bury them deep inside.

  • I

  • impossible to

  • when I want to laugh, or

  • a sudden jolt ran through my ribs, like a mild

  • let out a strange yelp and

  • was Joseph poking

  • a playful smile, he said, “Who says

  • to dodge, but he

  • 09:23

  • 0%

  • Bride of Velvet Nights

  • Chapter 10

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

The Novel will be updated daily. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

Comments ()

0/255