The Ripples [****]

It wasn’t the feeling she supposed to feel on what it supposed a special day.   Tsai Meiying never expected to felt so bitter when she left the National Household Registration Office with marriage certificate in her hands. It was only a piece of paper, but it was what shackled both her hands and feet into the situation she never expected. Glancing at her side, she saw a couple leaving the office with wide smile plastered on their faces. The bride was looking very glowing in her white short dress, ring finger sparkled with the diamond ring with micro pavé band she always dreamt of wearing.   Even the weather was celebrating the happiness the couple shared, showering them with a perfect lighting to emphasise the bride’s glowing but natural make up also the chiselled cheekbones of her husband. But she, on the other hand, was mocked by the sunlight as it defined the dark circle contours below her eyes. Her unruly brown-dyed hair fell around her face as she lowered her head to avoid any attention, afraid that she might be seeing one of her many patients.   Looking down to her own dull and plain golden band, she sucked her inner cheek not at the disappointment on how plain her ring was. But rather on the partner she was sharing the ring with.   The said man walked past her. The pleasant scent mixture of leather and sandalwood rushing across her skin in a gust of cold air, so pleasant she hated that it was coming from him.  With both gloved hands shoved into his pockets, He stopped in the middle to look over his shoulder as if commanding her to follow him, in which she obsequiously followed. Unlike her, he looked like a groom even in the suit he wore daily. His height easily towered the people he walked past by. However, his dark thick eyebrows and strong jawline defined the icy personality he had, making the passer-by too afraid to look at him.   Climbing on the passenger’s seat, Meiying buckled her seat belt and had her eyes staring at the busy road of Taipei at that noon. Her eyes stopped at the Taipei 101 building that easily blocked the sun with its height, proudly declaring how much the city was progressing since year 2004.   She loved watching the tower in sunset from the Elephant Mountain since young, telling herself how she would conquer everything in her life just like how it easily towered every building in the city. Her father always told her that she was a flower bud that would grow hope wherever she was, just like her name. She believed him, at least until that day…   When the man came out of nowhere and stole that hope away from her.   “… did you hear what I’m saying?”   “Eh?” Meiying quickly glanced at her so called husband, a cold hearted man called Wang Huijing who practically trounced her peaceful life into the most tumultuous state, even worst than her mother’s death.   “I said, other than seeing your father, you’re free to continue your private life,” he said with eyes focused on the road. His gloved hands were both on the steering wheel. It was almost unthinkable to see anyone wearing gloves on daily basis nowadays so she couldn’t help but wonder if it had something to do with his occupation.   “By private life, did you mean…”   “You’re free to date.”   Meiying almost laughed her guts out. “We just registered our marriage and now you’re saying that you’re okay with me having affair behind your back? How romantic,” she sarcastically added.   “You stay out of mine and I stay out from yours. Did I make myself clear?”   She snorted. “Should I remind you that you’ve seized that freedom to continue my private life the moment you made me sign that piece of s**t? This is Taipei for God’s sake! It won’t be long until the whole city knows,” she sarcastically said.   “I’m not asking for your opinion. Just answer my question,” he curtly replied.   “Whatever.”   Just when he stopped the car because the light was red, he tilted his head in her direction. A pair of black eyes staring right into her as if he tried to pierce his logic into her.   “When I ask a question, you give me an answer.”   Meiying felt herself trembled from the way he was looking at her. But she kept her expression straight and unfazed, refusing to show any weakness. Her determination shown in the way she glowered at him. Clenching her fists, she leant towards him and said, “I understand.”   It seemed that her answer satisfied him. He straightened his position and drove the car into their house. No words exchanged between them since then, and Meiying could only recall the day when everything began…