My Girlfriend Ran Off for Her First Love Seventeen Times, So I Married My Junior Sister

Today was the eighteenth wedding I had held this month. The first seventeen times, my girlfriend ran off before the ceremony. Every time we reached the ring-exchange part at the end, her old flame would show up right on time. He would look at my girlfriend with deep emotion, and she could never bring herself to reject him. Then she would say to me guiltily, “Ethan, I’m sorry. I’m not ready yet.” After that, they would leave hand in hand, leaving me alone to face everyone’s gossip and laughter. At today’s wedding, her old flame showed up again, without fail. I lowered my head and laughed at myself. Since she treated my love like it meant nothing, I would take it all back. I beat her to it and spoke first. “Then I wish you both a happy marriage and lots of kids soon!” ...... The second my words fell, the guests below started whispering. They looked back and forth at Emily and her old flame, Ryan, and tossed out teasing remarks now and then. And Emily cared most about saving face. She got so angry that she slapped me across the face. “Ethan! Are you out of your mind? What the hell are you talking about?” Emily had been spoiled by me. No matter where we were, if she was unhappy, she would take it out on me. In her eyes, there had never been anyone but herself. She never cared about other people’s feelings, and she sure as hell never cared about mine. Countless times, over something small, she would insist on blowing it up. She would curse me out and trash me, then hit and kick me. The next day, she would cry to her mother and say I was bullying her. And all I could do was apologize like crazy. But Emily would not let it go there. After we got home, she made me kneel down and apologize to her, or she would break up with me. To avoid losing her, I had no choice but to do it. But she only got more and more outrageous. She started making me kneel and slap myself in the face at the same time. Watching me look so pathetic, she would smile and record me with her phone. She would keep filming as she said, “Wow, who is this? Who’s apologizing to me?” The person I loved most had personally trampled my dignity into the ground. When I came back to my senses, I looked at that arrogant face of hers and could not help saying, “What? I’m just helping love win. What’s wrong with that?” Emily got so mad when she heard that she rushed over and pointed at me as she yelled. “What do you mean helping love win? How many times have I told you that Ryan and I are just friends? Do you have to be this petty?” “When you said that, did you even think about my feelings? What are the guests going to think of me?” “So men really are all so fickle. You’re being so selfish right now!” With that, she threw the bouquet in her hand straight onto the ground. I laughed at her words. The abuser was calling herself the victim. Had I suddenly changed? A lot of things do not change all at once. If you really think about it, there were many moments in the past when disappointment and hurt kept piling up until they became change. I looked at Emily coldly and shot back, “I’m selfish? Did you forget the seventeen times you ran off before the wedding? Why didn’t you think about what the guests would think of me back then?” Emily froze, and after she reacted, she knew she was in the wrong. She started trying to cover for herself. “I just wasn’t ready yet. Why did you have to push me? Are you happy after making me like this?” It was honestly kind of funny. There probably wasn’t a more wronged man in the whole world than me. I could actually put up with my fiancée running off from the wedding seventeen times, even while she ran off hand in hand with her old flame. Time and time again, I gave in, and time and time again, I got hurt. Thinking about that, my heart finally went completely cold. “Since that’s how it is, let’s end this here.” “Ethan! Do you even know what you’re saying? I’m telling you, even if you kneel and beg me later, I will never forgive you!” she said in shock, staring at me. “Sure. Then let’s wait and see.” I left this farce by myself.After the wedding was canceled, our relationship was over too. Back then, because Emily still had feelings for Ryan, she suggested that we get married first and register later, and I agreed. Looking at it now, that really was a smart move. There was another person who was heartbroken in this relationship, and that was Emily’s mother. Before the wedding, in order to reassure Emily’s mother and let her hand her daughter over to me, I had specially prepared an expensive bride price. Ten ounces of gold, five hundred thousand dollars in cash, and some precious jewelry. But because the wedding got canceled, that bride price that was right there in front of us flew away. I still remember the next day after I left the wedding venue, Emily’s mother suddenly came to visit. She brought a big basket of fruit and my father’s favorite bottle of liquor. When someone flatters you for no reason, they are either up to something or no good. After opening the door, I did not let her in right away. Instead, I asked, “Mrs. Carter, what brings you here?” She bent slightly at the waist and said, “I came to apologize to you.” “I saw what happened just now too. It really was our daughter’s fault for starting all this.” “She shouldn’t have run off from the wedding so many times, but she was just not ready yet!” “For a girl to leave home and get married, it’s only natural to feel a little worried.” Seeing what she was thinking, I said directly, “So you still want me to marry Emily?” Mrs. Carter nodded again and again. I went cold. “Then where is she?” “Well...” Mrs. Carter suddenly stopped. “She’s busy, so she asked me to come and apologize to you.” Hearing that obvious lie, I could not help laughing. She was busy, all right. Just busy rekindling her old flame. Right then, my phone had just received a photo from Ryan. They were lying on white sheets. Ryan’s neck was covered in little red marks, and his chest was full of scratches. And my fiancée, Emily, was lying in his arms asleep. Even in her sleep, she was still holding on to Ryan. She looked just like a clingy little cat, a side of her she had never once shown me. I had already received this kind of photo many times. Every time Emily ran off from the wedding and did not come home that night, I would get photos sent by Ryan. Maybe it was provocation. Maybe it was mockery. But what really stung was the peace jade pendant hanging around their necks. I still remember that winter when Emily kept coming down with a fever. Every time she had one, it would last half a month. Every day, I would drive her to the hospital for IV drips. Looking at her pale cheeks and bluish lips, my heart ached. So I asked a friend to help me find a good piece of jade. I personally carved the raw jade little by little into the shape of a rabbit. Because Emily was born in the Year of the Rabbit. I put the finished peace jade pendant on her myself and said with a smile, “Em, I hope you stay safe and healthy.” Her eyes welled up with tears, and she wrapped her arms around me. “Ethan, thank you. I’ll wear it all the time!” Maybe it was the placebo effect. Maybe it was the effect of love. After Emily wore the peace jade pendant, her health improved quickly, and she hardly got fevers anymore. After we left the hospital, she took my hand on her own and said, “Mine is a little rabbit, so I’ll carve you a carrot!” “We both have to stay safe and sound, Ethan.” I spoiled her as I rubbed her head. “Okay.” But Emily always got excited for only three minutes. Because she thought carving it was too much trouble, she quickly wanted to give up. That day, she leaned toward me in a pleasing way and said carefully, “Ethan, I didn’t realize carving it would be so much trouble. Can I just buy you a jade piece instead?” Every time this happened, she would deliberately look pitiful, making it hard for people to refuse her. Of course I could not bear to be harsh with her either. I shook my head. “It’s fine. If it’s too much trouble, then don’t carve it. Your thought is enough. You don’t need to buy me anything.” She breathed a sigh of relief and hugged me. “Baby, you’re the best!” Looking at how relieved she was, I could not help feeling sad. Actually, the more someone pretends not to care, the more they usually do care. And now I was seeing a carrot-shaped jade pendant around Ryan’s neck. I suddenly remembered that day when I asked Emily why she wanted to carve me a carrot. She said it was because a rabbit could not live without a carrot. And a carrot without a rabbit would lose its meaning too. So love does not disappear all at once. It only gets transferred.Actually, I had always known that in Emily’s heart, I would never compare to Ryan. Ryan, Emily, and I were classmates in college. Ryan had once been my best brother too. After he found out I had liked Emily for a long time, he came up with a plan and said he would help me win her over. But later, I saw them walking hand in hand on the school track. After he got back to the dorm, I grabbed his collar and demanded, “Why did you do this to me?” He just smiled and said, “Ethan, you know feelings can’t be forced.” From that day on, Ryan and I were done. I originally thought he would treat Emily well, but who knew he would keep flirting with other girls nonstop. I could not help reminding Emily again and again. She accused me of trying to split them up. As expected, not long after that, Ryan asked Emily to break up. His reason was that things had lost their freshness. In a fit of rage, Emily confessed to me. Actually, I knew she was only doing it to perform for Ryan. But I still agreed, because I really liked her. I wanted to use my real actions to make her change her mind. So after we got together, I did everything I could to treat her well. If she wanted something, it would show up in front of her the next day. I even picked up a part-time job just to earn money and take her traveling. But I never expected that the better I treated her, the more spoiled she became. She started keeping her phone on her at all times, chatting with other people until midnight every day, and she would not let me ask too many questions. One night, after Emily fell asleep, I quietly tried to open her phone, only to find that she had already changed the passcode. So I lay back down, looked at her, and started crying without meaning to. I knew we would not make it to the end. I knew we would break up sooner or later, but I kept holding on. I kept trying to spend more time with her, to cling to her and talk more, trying to warm up our relationship. But I forgot that my soft heart was exactly where my pain came from. I put our wedding invitations into a metal basin and burned them all at once. Suddenly, my phone rang. I picked it up and saw it was Emily calling. I hesitated, but I still answered, maybe because there was still some hope I should not have had in my heart. I picked up and could not help asking in expectation, “What is it?” Emily said with a hint of teasing, “Ethan, you really are stubborn. It’s been so many days and you still haven’t apologized to me.” I lowered my head and laughed at how foolish I had just been, then asked back, “Why should I apologize?” Emily paused first, then continued, “If you kneel and apologize to me now, I can let go of the past and forgive you, and ...” “No need.” I could not help interrupting her. “What do you mean?” Emily sounded a little disbelieving. “Emily, I originally thought that even if you did not love me, you would at least feel a little reluctant to give up on so many years together.” “But now I realize you have no heart at all.” With that, I hung up immediately. I lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling. I often wished I was someone with a bad memory, but for some reason I remembered every single thing Emily had ever done to hurt me. In this relationship, the only one trapped was always me. I took a deep breath and slowly calmed myself down. My life and work still had to go on. I could not let one person control everything. I got up and cleaned the house, and soon I packed up everything related to Emily. Including the couple necklaces and couple rings I had once bought. I packed everything into a cardboard box and mailed it back to Emily. This relationship needed an ending. “Ding dong.” A text message came in on my phone. It was my shared-card spending statement. I scrolled up through the statement little by little, and I could not even see the end. I still remember that back then, because Emily’s family was not well-off, she had a strong sense of vanity. She would act spoiled all day and cling to me, making me buy her designer bags, designer clothes, and designer shoes. I gave her one of my cards. But her appetite only got bigger. She was no longer satisfied with having access to just one card. So she secretly linked a shared card to my phone. After I found out, she did not feel guilty at all. Instead, she blamed me. “What’s wrong with me spending a little of your money? If you’re already this petty now, how am I supposed to feel safe marrying you?” I had no choice but to let it go, only because I loved her. When I came back to my senses, I lowered my head and laughed at myself. “I’ve been a simp for so long, and I still haven’t even gotten a decent card in return.” So I unlinked the shared card on the spot, and I canceled the latest card I had given Emily too. A relationship like this was better off gone. I did not want to keep making myself miserable for love anymore.