Chapter 1: The Wedding
My best friend and my boyfriend were both autistic, both geniuses. I was the geniuses' assistant. At seven, they discussed high school textbooks while I organized their schoolbags. At seventeen, they were admitted early to a top university and casually chose a second-tier college next door for me. At twenty-five, they finished their doctorates and became the twin stars of a famous research institute. I was the receptionist. We shared an apartment. I handled the cooking, the cleaning, the schedules. I could never enter their conversations. Even my wedding became a place for them to discuss an experiment. "Chen Chuan, the ceremony is starting." I pulled him toward the stage. "What?" "The wedding." "I was not asking you." He did not look at me. He was staring at my best friend, Zhong Ke. "What were those parameters you mentioned?" Zhong Ke patted my hand and lowered her voice. "Do not be childish. We are talking about the experiment. You handle the guests." "It is only a wedding. We can have another one some other day." They went back to their data. Then, at the most exciting point, they stood up together and hurried to the laboratory. On the way out, they knocked over the champagne tower. I stood in the wreckage in my wedding dress. This time I did not clean it up. Another wedding? I did not need one. A genius's bride? I did not want that either. At two in the morning the door opened. They came in arguing loudly about parameters, waking me. Chen Chuan threw his clothes on the floor. "Xiao Yi, wash these. And make us noodles. Xiao Ke is hungry." He did not ask how the wedding had ended. "I am tired," I said. It was the first time I had refused.