Oneshot Part 5

The entire, only decent restaurant in the town was booked by the groom’s family. The bride’s family sat at a table, and Chunjun sat next to Grandma. Grandma was very festively dressed, and her face was glowing in red. Cousin Sister’s hair was done by Grandma in the morning. Grandma was eighty this year, but Chunjun saw that her hand didn’t shake at all when she braided her cousin’s hair.

A few men from the bride’s family were drinking white wine glass by glass with friends and relatives from the in-law’s side. The wedding banquet itself was chaotic, and Fulin tended to get overly excited with people around. Chunjun was in charge of watching Fulin. She had also been persuaded to have three glasses of white wine, and she became dizzy. Fulin dragged her to the entrance of the restaurant to look at the fishes.

A tube in the glass tank gushed oxygen into the water. The red fishes were swimming in the tank. Chunjun stared at the fishes as if she was looking at the red veil floating around. Everything in sight was red. She had really become drunk. Fulin pointed to the fish tank and said something, but she didn’t hear it clearly, and Fulin repeated his sentence, “There was a fox just now.”

Chunjun couldn’t understand. “How can there be a fox in the fish tank?”

Fulin nodded. “Not in the fish tank, is outside the fish tank. It was here just now, and now it’s gone.”

Chunjun bent down and looked at where Fulin pointed. On the other side of the fish tank was the street outside the restaurant, and there were no foxes on the street, only pedestrians and vendors.

Chunjun looked at Fulin. She felt that the chubby little kid was making up nonsense. If there was a fox on the street, passersby would have seen it. She asked, “What color is the fox?”

“It was red.” Fulin looked at her firmly. “Its tail is so big, so big, and it was sitting there motionless. I think it was staring at you.”

Chunjun felt creeped out, and goosebumps appeared on her arms. “Why would it stare at me?”

“Staring at you because you look like a bride.” Fulin’s tone was strange.

Chunjun thought she had heard it wrong and replied, “Huh?”

Fulin returned to normal and puffed out his chest. “It’s okay, Auntie. Don’t be afraid. I will protect you.”

*

At night, Chunjun went back to the village in the car of her distant relatives. Both her Big Uncle-in-law and Second Uncle-in-law vomited in the evening and made fools of themselves on the bed stove 1 .

During the bumpy journey home, Chunjun was tortured by the headache caused by the three glasses of wine she had. It would have been fine if she was able to take a nap in the evening. But they had celebrated in the wedding reception for a long time. That meal they had in the restaurant lasted for six to seven hours. At the end of the day, her ears were buzzing, and the sound of the people talking around her turned into noise.

Grandma was overjoyed. She said to Chunjun, “My third granddaughter, I’m waiting for you to get married.”

Grandma continued, “When Xiao Chun gets married, you will also sing to the fox.”

Chunjun only felt that getting married was so far away. She was only eighteen. Who would she fall in love with, who would she marry, and whether she would even get married or not were all question marks.

She lived alone on the second floor. After taking a shower, her hair was wet, but she was impatient to dry it, so she simply lay down on the bed.

Her phone was charging, and she had several new messages. During the wedding reception, the signal was not good, so she didn’t receive them. When Chunjun was about to turn over to reach for her phone, she felt something poking below her neck. She thought that it was just the hat of her hoodie. But then she remembered that she was wearing her mother’s dress, not a hoodie.

Hence, she reached down and felt something soft.

As she was pulling it out, firstly, a corner of red was revealed, and then, she saw the entire thing.

Chunjun’s mind went blank. It was the lost red veil!

Her scalp tingled. The red veil appeared particularly terrifying at night, like blood.

Chunjun noticed that there was something wrapped inside the veil.

A golden pheasant’s tail feather and a silver comb that was so exquisite that it did not look like something made in the present day.

When Chunjun saw the tail feather, goosebumps formed on her skin. She jerked up from the bed and didn’t dare to look at those two things. Her calf was twitching as she ran out of her room to find Grandma.

Grandma lived on the first floor. Chunjun’s tears were bursting out, her lips were trembling, and her whole body was shaking. None of the lights in this house were turned on. She hadn’t realized that there was something wrong. The house was usually not that dark!

“Grandma! Grandma!” Chunjun ran towards Grandma’s room.

The moonlight shone through the window, and a huge red fox was sitting in front of Grandma’s room, its eyes narrowed, looking at her with a half smile.

“Ah!!!” Chunjun was so shocked that she almost sat on the ground. Tears gushed out like a torrent. She ran out of the house in a panic, almost tripping over herself on the way.

*

The mountain road was harder to walk on than she thought. She didn’t know how she had gotten here. She first ran to the village, but every house was dark and doors were closed, with big red lanterns hanging at the door with the character “Double happiness” decorated on them. 2

Footnotes

炕 (Kang/bed stove)

(Pic source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kang_bed-stove#/media/File:Wanderer_warmed_by_kang300.jpg ) Chinese usually decorate everywhere with the character “囍” (Double happiness) during weddings.

(Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Happiness_(calligraphy) https://zh.m.wikipedia.org/zh-my/%E5%9B%8D )