Chapter 512: Ritual
“Once he said that, I was so scared. I am familiar with my friend. He is a very calm person. Things must be bad to get him to call me at midnight.”
“Zhenliang,” My friend said, “I looked into Xiang Nan’s background. She lied to you. She was married and had a child!”
“I sighed in relief. He was talking about that. I already knew about Xiang Nan’s previous marriage. Of course, she didn’t tell me. I found out everything on my own after I noticed the strange things about Xiang Nan.
“However, when he heard my explanations, my friend became agitated. He interrupted me and said we were not referring to the same thing!
“I was confused. My friend told me to switch on my computer because he wanted to send me a picture. I obliged. The picture he sent was taken on his phone. It was of a picture frame hanging on an earthen wall. The picture in the frame looked old, at least 3 decades old. The edges were yellow and creased. The picture featured a couple, leaning on each other. From their clothes, they looked like countryside villagers.
“However, when I zoomed in and saw the woman’s face, his heart skipped a beat. The woman… was my wife, Xiang Nan!
“Despite the cotton clothes and mud on her pants, I recognised her as Xiang Nan. But why would she be inside this picture?
“A few seconds later, my friend told me in a strange tone that the picture was taken twenty years ago at a secluded mountain village to the west. I haven’t even heard of the village’s name before. This was a wedding picture of Xiang Nan and a local villager. Back then, her name was not Xiang Nan, but Wang Dongmei.
“20 years ago… Xiang Nan married another man. Plus, she looked the same. Or rather, she hadn’t changed over the past twenty years. Her beauty froze when she was at her prettiest. How was that possible?