I Showed Up at My Friend's Wedding Wearing the Same Outfit as the Groom

Hi. I have a good friend. We grew up together, got along wonderfully, and had an unbreakable bond.

I don't know when it started, but she began making more friends besides me.

But she really is easy to like.

It's no big deal.

After all, once she's been out and about, she still comes home, grabs me, pulls me onto the sofa, and tells me who she doesn't like, who she doesn't like, and who she doesn't like.

It doesn't matter who they are. What matters is that she tells me.

Until she personally handed me her wedding invitation and told me herself that she was getting married.

I was suddenly shocked. I couldn't believe it.

"But, baby, you've always told me you didn't like him?"

She was even more surprised. She looked at me, then burst out laughing.

"Come on, man! He's been secretly in love with me since we were kids. He's been in love with me for twenty years, twenty years!"

She said it with such conviction, claiming that the man loved her to bits, and that this counted for a lot in her book.

I wondered what kind of advantage that was.

You and I have been best friends for twenty-five years.

When our mothers were pregnant, they went to the delivery room together.

My mom said the first thing I saw when I was born was you. Didn't your mom, my aunt, tell you that the first thing you saw when you were born was me, too?

My best friend got married.

I'd watched her boyfriend, her fiance, for a long time. He really was acceptable. Barely acceptable.

She looked happy.

I wanted her to be happy.

Of course I was happy for her.

But in the days before her wedding, I couldn't stop myself from overthinking.

But... wait... did that mean she hadn't been happy during all those decades with me?

I thought our friendship was solid, solid enough to last a lifetime without anyone else getting between us.

But clearly, my best friend didn't think so.

--

I'm a folklorist. I know that when people exhaust every effort and still can't achieve something, they turn to ghosts and gods for hope.

But I understand that there are no ghosts or gods in this world.

Praying to the gods and asking for divination is a pitiful plea.

--

The day before her wedding, my best friend died in a plane crash. Not a trace of her remained.

Her fiance was said to be so overcome with grief that he fainted several times, but each time he got back up, he insisted on going through with the wedding.

Baby's parents, and my parents, weren't any less grief-stricken than her fiance.

After all these years, our two families had become one.

That's right. We were family.

Why should this outsider get involved in our family's business?

Just because the groom's family said the wedding should go ahead, did that mean it had to?

Why should the wedding continue? If it weren't for that bringer of bad luck, my baby would still be alive and full of energy!

--

But her uncle and aunt said that Baby was most afraid of being alone, and that she loved her fiance most of all. They said to go ahead, to continue with the wedding.

Baby... loved... her fiance... most of all.

I was furious.

I couldn't accept it.

Everyone was startled by me. They said, "Have you gone crazy?"

I wasn't crazy. I knew I was perfectly rational, calmer than ever. But I didn't have time to argue with them about something as trivial as whether I was crazy. I had something more important to do.

--

The wedding hall.

This was a ghost wedding.

A coffin and a wedding dress, wedding rings and white flowers.

A pitiful plea.

When her groom saw me walk in, he calmly asked, "Why are you dressed like that?"

"Why are you dressed like that?" I shot back.

Besides, what's wrong with how I'm dressed? What right did he have to question me?

I'm Shen Jianzheng's best friend!

--

Hi. I have a good friend, and I showed up at her wedding wearing the same outfit as her groom.

--

Shen Jianzheng died. She became a ghost.

When she drifted back home, she found the place in complete chaos.

She'd only ever loved two men in her life: her childhood sweetheart, Li Anxiang, and her boyfriend, Zhao Linyuan.

The first was friendship, the second was love.

Later, both men died.

At her "wedding," they shouted things about bonds, the next life, and forever, then went and died.

Fighting to be first.

Shen Jianzheng: ?

--

Hi. The three of us were reborn at the age of eighteen.

(Blurb saved on 25-3-23)

Theme: Cherish life