Many years later, when Tao Tao finally found the courage to look back on the past, it didn’t hurt as much as she had expected. She felt all right, calm and quiet. After turning it over in her mind, she could think of only four words: all good things come to an end. At the start of a marriage, everything looks beautiful. Then, as time goes by, things settle into the same old routine, followed by a mountain of petty domestic squabbles and meddling from exes and new partners, their influence sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle. Smart people can turn the tangible into the intangible, but she blew herself to smithereens. There was really no need to be so drastic. If she had held on a little longer, perhaps the sky would have opened up. But she didn’t believe marriage was a flag you could carry around to prove that life was peaceful and happy. Love is love, and no love is no love. She didn’t want to make herself miserable. She just never expected that one day, she would come back from the brink of death...
