Life is beautiful. Okay... maybe not so beautiful.
Life is the heavy, powerful punches the two sisters threw at each other, mercilessly raining down on shoulders, legs, and temples.
Until their bodies were covered in red marks, their shins even showing bruises.
Life is their hands pinching at each other, grabbing the tenderest flesh and twisting it a full one hundred and eighty degrees! Heart-wrenching screams were mixed with pained curses.
Strands of hair drifted down, floating past their bloodshot, murderous eyes.
Life is dolls flying everywhere, a coffee table kicked askew; it’s pillows thrown at the chandelier, a down pillow bursting open and showering the air with goose feathers.
The feathers drifted down, one by one, landing around them and on Chen Yuan’s head.
Dejected, he forced a bitter smile and sighed, looking to the heavens.
He shook his head and sighed, tears streaming down his face.
The slumped Chen Yuan seemed motionless, a stark contrast to the intense fight raging beside him.
The dispute had started because of him. All the days since he started college flashed before his eyes like a fleeting montage. Before, he didn’t know what he was afraid of.
Now, he knew.
It turned out he wasn’t afraid of the sisters’ arguments, accusations, or questions. The scene that he once thought would be world-ending wasn’t actually that terrifying.
The storm had arrived, and he was at its very center, yet he felt an extraordinary sense of calm within.
What he feared was one of the sisters crying and saying, "Chen Yuan, I’m disappointed in you. Let’s break up."
But even now, with things having escalated to this point,
neither Jiangg Ning nor Jiangg Yao had said they were tired, that they were weary, that they should just end it all.
Instead, they were filled with passion, their desire to fight surging. It was as if they were possessed by domineering spirits, blessed by a divine light, each blow fiercer and more satisfying than the last.
Why?
Why could their love be so righteous, so unafraid to be brandished at the other like a weapon? While he cowered like a filthy rat in the sewer?
It shouldn’t be this way.
Chen Yuan let out a long breath and, surprisingly, felt a rare sense of joy. A relieved smile touched his lips as he slowly rose to his feet, his eyes glowing with a soft light as he looked at the two sisters.
"Stop fighting," he said softly. "Let’s sit down and talk this out, okay?"
No one paid him any attention.
At that moment, the two sisters were busy with their no-holds-barred brawl.
"Hey, I said stop fighting! Can’t you two hear me?"
He felt this was the time to display the stature and dignity a man ought to have! So Chen Yuan strode forward, grabbing Ningning with one hand and wrapping his other arm around Yaoyao’s waist. With a low grunt, he pulled with all his might.
He forced the two of them apart.
"Can you just listen to me for one second!?" he said, his face stern.
As the only man in this house, no one could refuse to give him face.
The next moment.
"Who wants to listen to you? Get over there and kneel."
"You think a bastard like you is worthy?"
After a half-second stun, the two sisters cursed him in unison. After a brief gasp for air, they each threw a punch at the other. They were in the middle of a satisfying brawl; how could they allow it to be stopped so easily?
It all happened in a flash.
The two fists flew, a thunderous strike! But their angles were all off, and by a fluke of misfortune...
Jiangg Ning’s fist landed on Chen Yuan’s right chest.
Jiangg Yao’s fist landed on the small of Chen Yuan’s back.
With a blood-curdling scream that could be heard throughout the entire neighborhood, Chen Yuan doubled over, clutching his chest with one hand and the small of his back with the other, and immediately collapsed to the floor.
"Holy shit... Damn, you guys hit hard..."
Chen Yuan, who had been stern-faced just a second ago, was now kneeling on the ground in agony.
"Chen Yuan! Are you okay?"
"Chen!"
The two sisters, suddenly forgetting the argument and the marks on their own bodies from the fight, both dropped down to help Chen Yuan up. The genuine concern on their faces made them look like completely different people from the vicious shrews they were moments ago.
"Don’t... don’t fight anymore," he managed, his forehead pressed against the carpet, his voice a pained gasp.
Jiangg Yao quickly lifted his shirt. A large red patch had formed on his chest.
Jiangg Ning, meanwhile, lifted the back of his shirt.
"How could you be so vicious, you psycho? Look what you did! If you kill my boyfriend, are you going to replace him for me?! Huh?"
"You fatso, you have the nerve to talk? You think you hit him lightly? Don’t you know a man’s lower back is his most vulnerable spot?"
"I was aiming for you, that’s why I hit so hard!"
"You’re really asking for a slap, Jiangg Yao. Don’t you know my hand is itching for a fight? Weren’t you the one I just beat so badly you were looking for your teeth on the floor?"
"Fine, let’s go then."
"You think I’m scared of a little piggy like you?"
"Who are you calling a piggy? You damn bitch..."
Chen Yuan hadn’t even had a chance to recover before the two sisters started fighting again, right over his body. This time, his back became their battlefield.
A few THUDS were heard.
Slaps and elbow strikes rained down, making him scream in pain, his face contorted in agony.
"STOP FIGHTING!!!"
A few seconds later.
Chen Yuan shot up in a rage and roared.
"Look at the two of you! You’re in your twenties, and you’re still fighting like children! Is this ever going to end? I fucking dare either of you to make another move!"
Chen Yuan rolled up his sleeves. He was genuinely angry this time. After pulling the two sisters apart, he glared at them with a grim face.
The two sisters seemed slightly intimidated and stopped fighting, but their chests were still heaving as they glared coldly at each other.
"Hmph!"
A moment later, they turned their faces away, one to the left and one to the right.
"I have something to say!" Chen Yuan said, enduring the pain all over his body as he looked at the two sisters. "Arguing like this won’t solve anything. It’s meaningless. I know you’re both angry, of course, but I’ve been thinking... if I don’t say this, the fighting over this will never end."
"Haven’t I been telling you to talk? You’re the one who’s been holding it in. How is anyone supposed to know what you’re thinking? I’m telling you, Chen Yuan, you’d better give me a good reason, or I will absolutely, positively never speak to you again! I’m not kidding," Jiangg Ning threatened as she straightened her messy hair.
"Me too!" Jiangg Yao quickly chimed in.
"Don’t copy me!"
"Who’s copying you?"
"Stop, stop, stop! Nobody says another word. Wait until I’m finished, and don’t interrupt me!" The moment Chen Yuan heard them bickering, his head started to throb as if a nuclear bomb had gone off inside it.
He struggled to get up and sit on the sofa.
He had already sorted out what he wanted to say.
But as Chen Yuan looked at Jiangg Ning and Jiangg Yao, he realized that starting to speak was much harder than he had imagined.
Ah, to hell with it...
He simply closed his eyes.
"Why did I do this? You two were half right. I really did enjoy the feeling of having two girlfriends. Of course, it wasn’t out of vanity or anything like that. It’s just that after I found out you were twins, from that moment on, I felt that this feeling... was a little off."
"There was a moment, many moments, when I desperately wanted to know: who did I really like, you or Yaoyao."
"I thought about it for a long, long time. You have no idea how long. From the day I found out, this question has been stuck in my mind."
"The reason I gave you was that you were both so good to me that I felt guilty, and that it would be incredibly painful to abandon either one of you... but that’s not it. Guilt is hard to bear, but it’s not enough to make me persist through so much pain. Is choosing one person really that difficult?"
"It’s not. And you’re both different, with distinct and unique personalities. It should have been easy to figure out who I really liked."
"At first, I thought I liked Ningning... Okay, Yaoyao, calm down, put your hand down, I’m not done," Chen Yuan said, cautiously backing away when he saw Jiangg Yao’s movement. "But then I felt that wasn’t right. Ningning is wonderful, but she lacks a certain lively spark. As a result, an image would always appear in my mind: her, standing far away. I couldn’t ignore the look in her eyes. Was it pity or... I don’t know how to put it. Whenever I had this thought, I always felt her brows furrow, that she was dissatisfied with me."
"Later, I finally found the answer... Whether it’s Ningning or Yaoyao, either one of you alone is incomplete to me. I realized that I love Ningning’s outwardly proper demeanor, your tolerance and care for me, the way you look at me with gentle eyes. You respect my soul. I realized that I love Yaoyao’s liveliness and cuteness, her dedication to recording every heart-pounding moment we spend together, the way she looked when she cried and told me she liked me—that’s a sight I’ll never forget in my life. The Love Letter she wrote, the things she said, the way she clings to me, the sight of her back every time she stood by my side."
"If you two were one person, fused together, then I think *that* would be who I truly love."
"But life isn’t perfect, is it? You both have your flaws, too. I can’t just enjoy the good without enduring the bad. It’s not that I can’t make a choice. I already have. My choice wasn’t to pick one and abandon the other, but to love the virtues you share and endure the flaws that come from you being separate."
"So why can’t I enjoy this life with a clear conscience?"
"I think... love at first sight and love that grows over time are equals."
"So, I hold this devout belief not out of selfish desire. I will do everything in my power to let you live completely, in love and being loved!"
"Ningning, Yaoyao... please, both of you, marry me!"