Whispers Amidst Autumn's Tears 1
Cao Jinchang clicked her tongue as she observed the dusky sky darkening, a typical sign of an impending rainstorm. The clouds gathered ominously, obscuring the fading light of the evening sun. She rolled her shoulders, as though the action might stave off the waves of sorrow that threatened to overwhelm her deteriorating sense of control. The trill of her phone felt like a hammer against her restraint, the bitter taste spreading across her tongue as if her body physically rejected any and all reminders of her boyfriend. Her ex-boyfriend.
She and Wu Xin had been friends for a year before dating for the past three years. She treated him like family, something she believed she might never have had or have again.
Wu Xin: Hey, listen up. Gonna need your stuff gone from the place by tonight. Got my new girl moving in, and I can't have her getting the wrong idea, y'know? Gotta keep things crystal clear. Thanks.
She didn't bother opening her WeChat to respond; her throat felt a little tight. He didn't even have the decency to give her time to find another apartment, but she supposed that was expecting too much from such a brazen person. Even the previous night, when she had worked up the courage to ask him why he decided to end things when she was willing to forgive him for sleeping with his co-worker, he had looked her straight in the eye and said that Cao Jinchang was a woman who was too much of a mess for him to love.
That couldn't possibly be a valid enough reason. If it was, then he was the cruel one for leading her on despite already knowing some of her issues. Cao Jinchang was too good for someone like him; her tears were too precious to waste on someone like him.
The air became as heavy as the space in her lungs as the distant rumble of thunder echoed across the skies. Large raindrops began to patter against the cobblestone streets, their rhythmic percussion encouraging Cao Jinchang to walk to the back of the storefront.
Her footsteps echoed softly against the wooden floorboards. As she turned her head, she caught sight of some of her meticulously crafted metal work displayed on the shelves—pieces into which she had poured her unspoken emotions. The ambient lighting in the store cast a soft glow over her forged creations, highlighting their details and artistic finesse.
Her gaze lingered on one piece in particular, memories flooding back with a glance. She had crafted it during a time when grief had covered her like a suffocating shroud. Each curve, each twist of metal, held the weight of her emotions as she grappled with the loss of Feng Zhiyan, her friend and confidante—someone she had considered her older sister, having taken her in off the streets a few years prior.
As her eyes traced the contours, memories of their shared moments, laughter, and the quiet bond they had flooded her mind. The metal seemed to whisper fragments of her existence—echoes of pain and unspoken moments Cao Jinchang had grappled with since being the only one able to come in and identify her body.
She swept past the shelves, ignoring the rest of her metalwork, as those metallic glints were now tinged with the bitterness of betrayal and the overwhelming weight of grief. Her steps faltered briefly before she began her ascent up the stairs, needing to cut out another place from her emotions and life.