Chapter 1: The Wedding Car
When my parents tried to get into the wedding car, my fiancé stopped them. "Father-in-law, Mother-in-law, you do not need to attend today." I stared at him. "What do you mean?" Shen Xiuzhu smiled gently, as if he were doing me a favor. "Your parents have cerebral palsy. Their appearance is not suitable for a Shen family wedding. Weiwei's parents will stand in for them." His female friend Gu Weiwei, wearing a bridesmaid dress more expensive than mine, waved the bouquet at me. "We are all brothers here. You can borrow my parents." I held back tears. "And if I do not agree?" Shen Xiuzhu looked troubled. "It is only a ceremony. Weiwei's parents are important people. If anything, you are the one who benefits." He got into the car and locked the door. "If you insist on being stubborn, take your parents on bus 21 and go to the banquet yourself." Gu Weiwei laughed from the passenger seat. "Disabled people ride free. You only need three yuan to marry into the Shen family. Quite a bargain." The car drove away in a cloud of dust. Bus 21 arrived at the stop. I held my parents' hands. They were trembling. I took a breath. "Mom, Dad, let us go home. I am not getting married." I tried to pull them back, but they stood like two mountains. "Dad?" My father tilted his head and spoke with difficulty. "It is all right. As long as you are happy." He was wearing his best suit, bought with half his savings. Now he could only clutch the hem, his calloused hands shaking. "We have held you back," he said. My mother, who had never once looked down on herself, had dressed and combed her hair to attend her daughter's wedding. Now her face held a shame I had never seen before.