Chapter 5 Getting the Marriage Certificate Because I Don't Dislike You.
Zhou Jinqin closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, but she still couldn't relieve her tension because she suddenly realized a very thorny problem: she... didn't seem to know her fiancé's name.
To say their conversation last night wasn't deep enough is an exaggeration; she even knew the exact amount of his account balance, a detail he had to count on his fingers to keep track of. How come she hadn't thought of such a crucial little detail...?
Zhou Jinqin rubbed her throbbing temples, and after a moment, she forced herself to remain calm as she walked toward the man who had been waiting outside the hotel.
The other person was watching a beginner cat care video on their phone and didn't notice the person approaching. Zhou Jinqin waited for a while without any response, hesitated for a moment, and then braced herself and called out to him, "Xiao... Ming."
Feeling a little guilty, she wasn't actually sure if her grandmother had said those two words on the phone.
Siu-man, that must be Xiaoming, she waited anxiously for her trial.
Liang Minghe put away his phone and looked at her with a half-smile: "Don't you know my name?"
He raised an eyebrow and called her name mischievously: "Zhou-Jin-Qin".
It was clearly meant to be a joke, but because the other person's voice was so pleasant to hear, it felt like a sweet, intimate kiss.
Zhou Jinqin's eyes darted around, and she admitted very quietly, "Um... I think I forgot to ask."
She never expected that the moment her resume fell to the ground, the other party would clearly remember her name, making it seem as if she hadn't cared at all.
"Liang Minghe." Liang Minghe took the initiative to defuse the situation. Fearing that he might not have been clear enough, he thoughtfully typed the corresponding text into their WeChat chat box manually.
The two added each other on WeChat this morning using that number. Before that, there was only one conversation, which Liang Minghe sent two hours ago.
Instead of a greeting or asking Zhou Jinqin about her thoughts after a night of contemplation, he casually sent her a voice message sharing his daily life, as if the two were already very familiar with each other.
Liang Ming took the cat to the vet for a check-up early this morning. The voice message was recorded when he took the kitten to get a bath after confirming that the kitten was alright.
The background noise is the cat's loud, vulgar howling, while the narration is from Liang Minghe, who is gloating.
"Listen, it sounds like a pig being slaughtered."
There was absolutely no transition.
Liang Minghe's name is composed of very basic characters, and with his clear pronunciation, you can actually guess what it is just by listening to him.
Zhou Jinqin blushed and nodded, then whispered his name under the intense gaze of the other man.
Liang Minghe nodded in satisfaction. He stared at her light purple cheongsam and said, "You look beautiful today."
Zhou Jinqin awkwardly touched her stray hairs that weren't held in place with clips, subconsciously thinking that the other person was complimenting her clothes: "My friend gave it to me, she has great taste."
Xiang Ziqing said that she was gentle in appearance and temperament, and her body was also gentle, so she was most suitable to wear this gentle and elegant clothes. As soon as she resigned and gained the freedom to dress as she pleased, the other party took her to Suzhou to buy some fabric and had this dress made to her measurements.
Liang Minghe shifted his gaze to those gentle, watery eyes, his expression calm, but his tone seemed to emphasize something: "You look beautiful today, both your clothes and yours."
If it rains in July, it must be boiling water, otherwise how can you explain Zhou Jinqin's face burning up silently?
Her eyes darted around, unsure how to respond, and she stammered, "The rain seems to be getting heavier, let's hurry up and go."
Liang Minghe took the suitcase from her, placed his hand on the passenger door, stared at her intently, and said, "Once you're in the car, there's no going back."
"Yes, I don't regret it." Zhou Jinqin looked up at him.
Even when she chose a husband who was completely different from the ideal son-in-law in her mother's mind, she felt a slight sense of pleasure under the guise of rebellion.
Soft music was playing in the car, but perhaps it was the random raindrops on the roof that were bothering Zhou Jinqin, as she couldn't calm down.
She stole a glance at the man in the driver's seat. He was wearing a very formal suit today, but it didn't look dull. In addition to the black suit, he wore a light purple tie to add color, which was embroidered with a dense array of funny cat heads with various expressions.
How did he manage to pick out a tie from among so many shades of purple that was almost the same color as the cheongsam she was wearing?
She lost her composure and became bolder in her gaze, which led to her being caught red-handed.
"Spying on me?"
Meeting those teasing, flirtatious eyes, Zhou Jinqin awkwardly touched her nose and forced herself to speak: "You look beautiful today too."
Liang Minghe chuckled softly, his voice, thin and husky, tickled the ear: "Are you nervous?"
"It is a bit..." Especially as the destination announced by the navigation gets closer and closer, that restless feeling becomes more and more obvious.
This was the first time Zhou Jinqin had made such a reckless decision. She didn't tell anyone, including her best friend, and decided entirely on her own who to marry, something she had never done before.
In the past, even when she planned to leave her job, she had taken precautions in advance.
But now she is beginning to feel a belated sense of panic: was it really the right thing to make such a hasty decision based solely on her own thoughts?
The message box, which was already set to Do Not Disturb, kept popping up with new messages. Her mother's patience had completely run out, and she started to humiliate, curse, and threaten her with vulgar and obscene words.
She cursed her to die out there, to have her heart and liver rot and be eaten by dogs, but in the last message she sent, she was full of tenderness and tears, saying she missed her and wanted her to come home soon.
Zhou Jinqin closed her phone, rubbed her sore eyes, and turned to look at the man beside her, only to find that his gaze had already fallen on her.
Zhou Jinqin suddenly stammered, unsure of where to begin.
Liang Minghe raised his hand to turn off the music, his voice even clearer in the carriage: "You still have the right to regret it before you arrive at the Civil Affairs Bureau."
He made a concession, which was completely different from what he said before getting on the bus.
Zhou Jinqin paused, feeling a pang of guilt, wondering if the other person was annoyed by her repeated ambiguous and manipulative attitude.
She shook her head, lowered her eyes, and said, "I have nothing to regret. I know very well that I benefited from this marriage, but it doesn't seem fair to you. It seems I can't offer you anything..."
As the red light ended, Liang Minghe looked away and stared straight ahead again. His tone remained calm: "Don't worry, I don't do business at a loss. What you can offer me is far more than you think."
What could she bring? Before Zhou Jinqin could ask, the Civil Affairs Bureau was already in front of her.
Liang Minghe smiled arrogantly at her: "It's too late for you to back out."
During the typhoon, not many couples showed up at the Civil Affairs Bureau. Zhou Jinqin and Liang Minghe got their marriage registration number without having to wait in line.
As Liang Minghe filled out the registration form, Zhou Jinqin noticed something unusual besides the fact that he was a local resident of Shenzhen. She was slightly surprised to see the numbers on his ID card indicating his birth date: "You're actually two months older than me!"
In Zhou Jinqin's mind, she always thought Liang Minghe was only about twenty-five years old. Of course, it wasn't because he had a youthful face, but rather because of the deviation caused by his youthful nature.
Liang Minghe, holding a pen, tilted his head and looked at her: "Would you back out of the marriage just because we're not in a relationship where the woman is older?"
The staff member at the window was a middle-aged woman nearing retirement. Her ears were perked up, and her wary gaze swept over the two of them. Upon hearing the last two sentences of their conversation, her warning light flashed instantly. She asked with difficulty, her thick Cantonese accent cutting through her throat, "Pretty lady, handsome young man, you're getting married voluntarily, aren't you?"
Zhou Jinqin nodded awkwardly, "Don't worry, it's voluntary."
Even after she answered her older sister's question, she was still uneasy. She turned her head and cast a probing gaze at Liang Minghe's face, as if he were a gigolo who had slept with a rich woman for money.
Liang Minghe was not angry about being misunderstood; he still smiled and said, "We have all thought this through carefully."
Having thought about it all night, how can that not be considered a well-thought-out decision...?
After the entire process, the red stamp was affixed, and the two people, who were not related by blood, were completely bound together on July 9th.
Looking at the bright red certificate in her hand, Zhou Jinqin felt a sense of unreality welling up inside her.
Liang Minghe quickly adapted to his role as the groom. After taking the photos, he returned the marriage certificate that belonged to Zhou Jinqin to her and asked, "Want to have dinner tonight to celebrate?"
The two got their marriage certificate in the afternoon, and it was already past four o'clock when they finished. Although it was a bit early to have dinner, it was still reasonable.
Besides, Zhou Jinqin hadn't eaten much today, so she naturally agreed: "Okay, I don't have anything in particular I want to eat, you decide."
Liang Minghe nodded and drove her to a private restaurant in the suburbs.
The restaurant is elegantly decorated, but the menu is surprisingly down-to-earth. You can scan a QR code to see free-range chickens that have been walking for 200 days leisurely roaming in the mountains.
Zhou Jinqin took the menu, ordered only two vegetable dishes, and handed it back: "You're a local, you should know a lot about this, you order."
Liang Minghe took the menu without refusing. He glanced at the dishes and asked her, "Are there any dietary restrictions?"
"No," Zhou Jinqin shook her head. "Just order whatever you like."
Zhou Jinqin comes from a county-level city in Jiangsu Province, which is close to Shanghai. She prefers light and fresh food and doesn't eat much spicy food, which is roughly the same as the taste in Guangdong.
Without worrying about dietary differences, Liang Minghe simply ordered three of the restaurant's signature dishes: poached chicken, roast goose, and steamed pomfret.
However, Zhou Jinqin did not seem to accept everything as she had said. She ate very little of the meat dishes served, and did not touch the fish at all.
Liang Minghe asked, "Is it not to your liking?"
Zhou Jinqin said somewhat shyly, "No, it's delicious, it's just that I'm a bit of a picky eater..."
As she spoke, she habitually reached out to pick up some food, as if she was eager to prove something, but Liang Minghe moved the fish away, leaving her empty-handed.
She looked up blankly at the man opposite her: "What's wrong?"
"If you don't like it, then don't eat it." Liang Minghe pushed the vegetables she had eaten more of forward. "Adults have the right to refuse to do things they dislike and to refuse to eat things they dislike."
Zhou Jinqin was somewhat shocked to hear this for the first time. Her lips parted slightly, but she didn't speak for a long time before saying, "But you actually hate being pressured to get married, right?"
She asked, puzzled, "But why did you compromise and choose to marry me?"
Liang Minghe's eyes lingered on her for a long time. Suddenly, his eyebrows curved into a bright smile: "Because I don't dislike you."
A note from the author:
----------------------
Thank you everyone for the nutrient solution! [Hugs]
Liang Minghe is just being charming like this [doge emoji]
Don't be afraid to say no to things you hate. [shrug]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com