Meng Po Gave Her A Bowl Of Soup - Chapter 4

Wanyue busied herself the entire evening and finally managed to make a table full of dishes whose colors looked fairly decent and whose taste could just barely pass.

Mingyu really did understand her. After all these years of being pampered, she had barely cooked anything. Aside from one dish of braised eggplant and two cold dishes that she had made herself, in the end, she had no choice but to call in takeout as reinforcements.

Warm candlelight was lit, covering everything around them in a faint, soft glow. The scent of red wine and food drifted through the air.

Song Wanyue thought of Mingyu. She understood Mingyu best.

The food she made—even if it was burnt, even if it was a complete mess—Mingyu would definitely smile and eat every last bite. In the end, she would rub her stomach and tell her, “I’m so full. It’s all your fault,” then hold her and kiss her little by little.

Mingyu was always so considerate and gentle with her.

Song Wanyue looked at the time. It was almost nine o’clock. No matter which flight it was, she should be arriving soon, right?

Unable to suppress the anticipation in her heart, Song Wanyue secretly called Mingyu.

If she was on the plane, her phone should be turned off. It would not hurt to call once.

If it was on, that proved she was already almost home.

Almost… home.

Unable to control it, Song Wanyue’s heart thumped violently. Not only could others not understand it, even she herself could not understand why, after the two of them had loved each other for so many years, her heart could still flutter just as it had when they first met.

To her surprise, the call went through. Song Wanyue was nervous yet delighted, and her hand tightened around the phone.

The sound of “beep, beep, beep” came through once, twice, three times…

Wanyue’s expression gradually changed as well, from ecstatic joy at first, to confusion afterward, then to worry and anxiety when she called a second time. In just a few short seconds, her heart felt as if it had boarded a roller coaster.

She understood Mingyu.

Although Mingyu was usually busy with work, as long as it was Wanyue calling, she would always pick up right away.

Song Wanyue even had a little private habit. Every time she called Mingyu, she would secretly count in her heart.

By the time she counted to three, she would definitely hear Mingyu’s gentle, indulgent voice.

Mingyu knew about her little playfulness and had always indulged her, spoiled her, and could not bear to make her wait even one more second. She would always answer the phone at once.

For so many years, it had always been like this.

But now…

Song Wanyue bit her lip. Her brows furrowed, and uneasily, she called Xiao He.

Maybe the flight had been delayed?

But after so long, she should have called to tell her.

Before the call could be answered, another call came in. It was an out-of-town number. Looking at the first few digits, Song Wanyue froze for a moment, then immediately pressed accept.

The signal on the other end seemed poor. The background noise was chaotic, with all kinds of hurried voices crackling in and out, faintly mixed with the urgent blare of sirens, like a mass of darkness pressing down on a person’s heart in an instant.

“Are you Song Wanyue?”

Wanyue seemed to sense something. Her throat felt as though it had been choked shut. “I am… You…”

“I’m—” The signal on the other end cut in and out. Song Wanyue only heard the man’s hoarse voice saying fragments: Xiao Mingyu… car… guardrail… funeral arrangements.

At that moment.

At that instant.

Song Wanyue’s body seemed to plunge into an ice cellar. She was so cold, so frozen that her whole body trembled, so frozen that her heart solidified.

The phone fell to the ground. Her body slowly tilted backward, and at the corners of her eyes were drop after drop of frozen tears.

In the end, Zhang Hui and Song Wanyue went to the accident scene together.

Drizzle was still falling on and off across the horizon.

Rainwater washed over everything. At the road where the accident had happened, people from various departments were still salvaging the vehicle. The bright red bloodstains on the ground were already gone. Only a few scattered fragments remained, but the guardrail that had been smashed apart solemnly told everyone what had happened there.

After the violent collision, the large truck had overturned on the ground. The driver had been severely injured, but in the end, he had escaped death and was rushed to the hospital.

The traffic police retrieved the surveillance footage from the scene and determined that the large truck was fully responsible. A person wearing a police raincoat walked up to the two women. He looked at them, and a trace of pity and regret flashed through his eyes.

Zhang Hui’s hands and feet were ice-cold. She could not believe this was real, but fortunately, she still had reason left. When she saw the traffic officer come over, she hurried to meet him.

As for Song Wanyue, her face was deathly pale. She bent down and crouched beside the highway, where the area had already been cleared and cordoned off with barriers. Beneath the desolate cold wind, her body was like a fallen leaf, trembling faintly.

Mingyu…

Her Mingyu…

The place where Xiao Mingyu had gotten into the accident was right at the highest point of the mountain. Her car had been hit by the large truck and sent flying straight off. In a situation like that, there was almost no possibility of survival, not to mention that below the cliff was a vast stretch of sea, making the salvage operation extremely difficult.

The rain fell harder and harder.

After eight hours of salvage efforts, neither the person nor the car had been brought up.

If this continued, the various departments would also be in danger. Under the unified dispatch of the municipal bureau, they gradually began to withdraw.

Zhang Hui also knew that this time, Mingyu… this time, it was grim. Her heart hurt so badly it was unbearable, but what pained her even more was Wanyue’s reaction.

She watched Wanyue…

Watched the woman who had grown up with her since childhood, who had been held in her parents’ palms as a treasured pearl in her youth, and who, after reaching adulthood, had been kept at the very tip of Mingyu’s heart like a princess—kneel again and again to the people around her.

The rain poured down in torrents, falling on her body and blending together with her tears. Humbly and bitterly, she begged them again and again.

“Please… please, don’t go. Save her, save her…”

Her Mingyu would not leave. She would not just let go of her like this.

She had promised she would come home.

She had promised her…

Zhang Hui could not stop her tears from streaming down her face. She went over and tugged at Wanyue’s arm. “Wanyue, don’t do this. Get up…”

Mingyu.

If she saw this, she would hurt to death.

Mingyu, Mingyu, how could you bear to leave her alone?

The vehicle and the body were salvaged the following afternoon.

Song Wanyue seemed to have lost her soul. She watched her Mingyu, the person who had once given her countless smiles and endless happiness, being pulled bit by bit out of the crushed, deformed car.

She watched as Mingyu was lifted onto a small stretcher, watched as she was covered with a white cloth, watched as the people around them removed their caps and looked at her in sorrow.

Song Wanyue walked over step by step. She did not believe it. Her hand touched her bit by bit, stroking Mingyu’s arm.

She was so cold.

Her body was so cold.

Song Wanyue could not help taking her hand and gently breathing warmth into it. She looked at the ring on Mingyu’s hand, and blood seeped from the lip she had bitten.

Beside them, the medical examiner in a white coat handed Song Wanyue a transparent bag containing a phone. “This is the phone we found in the car. When the deceased was discovered, one of her hands was bent upward. We infer that she may have wanted to call someone at the very end, but didn’t make it in time.”

The phone had already been ruined by the water. It could not even be turned on.

Hearing this, Song Wanyue’s tears surged down her cheeks.

Mingyu must have wanted to call her. She must have wanted to hear her voice one last time…

No matter what happened, she always had to tell Wanyue in advance. That was a habit Mingyu had developed when they were young.

Back then, when their love had been exposed and met with Wanyue’s parents’ fierce opposition, Wanyue had been kept under control. Mingyu could not see her, and no one answered the phone.

But there was a stubbornness in Mingyu’s heart. Day after day, she called Wanyue, watching the name “Wife” appear again and again on the screen, and only then could her spasming heart breathe for a brief moment.

Like self-torture, day after day, Xiao Mingyu suffered through the waiting.

Finally, one day, Wanyue answered her call. Wanyue knew that during those days, Mingyu must have been waiting in a darkness without daylight, that she must have been doing terribly and endured many grievances.

But her Mingyu had not complained at all. Instead, she had smiled gently and soothed the crying her. “All right, Wanyue, don’t cry.”

She had promised Wanyue that no matter where she was.

She would always find her.

Mingyu knew that only by hearing her voice would Wanyue feel at ease.

…

Song Wanyue’s parents stood nearby and watched, both of them shedding old tears. After all these years, Mingyu had moved these two feudal and stubborn elders through her actions.

Before leaving for the business trip, she had even secretly contacted the two elders, saying that when she returned, she planned to propose and give their daughter a surprise.

And now… now…

After Mingyu’s mother, back in their hometown, learned of this terrible news, she was sent directly to the hospital. Even now, she still could not get out of bed.

In the end, Wanyue’s trembling hand lifted the white cloth bit by bit.

Beneath the white cloth, Mingyu lay very peacefully. She did not look as though she had left at all. She looked more like she had fallen deeply asleep.

Once upon a time.

Wanyue loved most to look at Mingyu’s innocent sleeping face like this. She felt that her Mingyu was probably the most beautiful person in the world.

Her lips.

Her eyes.

Her brows.

Song Wanyue caressed Mingyu’s cheek bit by bit. She did not cry, but even the police officers around them, who had seen life and death countless times, could not help reddening their eyes at the sight of her like that.

At last, Song Wanyue lowered her head and kissed Mingyu’s lips. Icy tears slid down her cheeks after all. She choked on sobs, she suffered, her heart being torn apart.

“Mingyu, wake up. Hurry and wake up.”

You promised me you would take care of me for a lifetime.

We were about to get married.

How could you leave me like this?

…

Everything that followed.

Song Wanyue had actually once thought about it before. She and Mingyu would have a day when they parted in the end.

Perhaps it would be one morning when both their hair had turned white, and the old lady who left first would kiss the old lady who had already fallen asleep and gone to heaven.

They had agreed that if it was a scene like that, neither of them would cry.

The one who left first would wait properly in heaven for the other.

In this life, they had loved and stayed by each other’s side.

In the next life, they would continue being wives.

Her wife.

Her spouse.

…

But now.

Song Wanyue was going to see her Mingyu for the last time.

In the white, suffocating mortuary.

As she usually did, Song Wanyue gently kissed Mingyu’s forehead. She stroked Mingyu’s brows again and again with her hand. She gently rubbed her neck against Mingyu’s cheek. Her slender arms wrapped little by little around Mingyu’s slender waist.

“The most romantic thing I can imagine is growing old with you, little by little…”

This was the song Mingyu most often sang by her ear.

Before, when Mingyu sang it for Wanyue, Wanyue was always very happy.

But now, Wanyue sang it for her, and she had no reaction at all.

Cruel Mingyu.

Zhang Hui and Song Wanyue’s parents waited outside for a full three hours, unable to withstand the crematorium staff urging them again and again.

She had no choice but to go in and check on Wanyue.

When she entered.

Wanyue was sitting on the ground, one leg half-kneeling, her upper body leaning against Mingyu. One of her hands held Mingyu’s waist, while the other had their fingers interlocked, and she murmured, “Mingyu, I’ve been talking for so long. Why are you still ignoring me? Didn’t you used to like nagging me the most?”

“Will you wake up? I promise you, from now on, I’ll never eat greasy food again. I won’t order takeout anymore.”

“I’ll be good and obedient. Every day, I’ll wait at home for you to come back.”

“Was this ring meant for me? Fool, you still haven’t put it on me with your own hands.”

“I bought a wedding dress, Mingyu. You would definitely like it.”

“Mingyu, how could you lose me? I’m your wife…”

…

Zhang Hui covered her mouth with her hand. Turning around, she pressed her back against the icy wall and bit her lip hard, restraining herself from crying out loud.

…

“Don’t go, Mingyu. I’m begging you.”

“I’m begging you…”

The lingering, sorrowful pleas of a lover echoed through the empty desolation.

Xiao Mingyu could no longer give her any response.

And Wanyue could only watch as her lover—the person who had once slept beside her every night, who would kiss her forehead first thing upon waking and say she loved her, who had spoiled her to the heavens and said she would never leave her—finally turned into nothing more than a handful of cold ashes, scattering across Song Wanyue’s heart.