Chapter 31
Upon learning that Gu Xi hadn't had breakfast yet, Shen Mingzheng took her to a nearby market to eat.
There are some food stalls here, full of lively atmosphere, and the prices are reasonable.
Shen Mingzheng bought soy milk, fried dough sticks, and steamed buns, all of which are traditional breakfast items, and the portions are quite large.
"Didn't you have breakfast?" Gu Xi asked in confusion, assuming they would eat too, which was why they bought so much.
Shen Mingzheng glanced at the child who was looking around and said, "He was afraid I would leave, so he stayed by my side early in the morning and refused to eat breakfast. He must be starving."
Upon hearing his brother's words, Shen Mingrong turned to Gu Xi and grinned foolishly.
Gu Xi patted his head helplessly and said, "You must eat breakfast, otherwise you won't grow tall and you'll be shorter than your older brother in the future."
Upon hearing this, Shen Mingrong quickly patted his chest and promised that he would definitely eat breakfast on time from now on.
"I want to grow taller than my older brother!" he said ambitiously. "Brother Qi once said that my older brother has always been taller than his peers since he was little, and he's also a good fighter..."
Before he could finish speaking, a hand covered his face, silencing him completely.
Gu Xi couldn't help but glance at Shen Mingzheng. "Is he good at fighting?"
By the way, I've heard Shen Mingqi mention before that Shen Mingzheng was a very good fighter before joining the army. It's just hard to imagine that someone as upright and serious as Shen Mingzheng would ever get into fights...
It seems that even the most steady and reliable person has had a rebellious teenage period, which must have been a very spirited and energetic time.
Shen Mingzheng felt a little uncomfortable under her gaze. After the stall owner brought over the soy milk and fried dough sticks they had ordered, he said, "Let's eat first."
As soon as he let go, Shen Mingrong quickly sat down next to Gu Xi, muttering complaints under her breath.
Gu Xi tore off a fried dough stick for him and soaked it in soy milk, urging him to eat it quickly. "If you want to grow taller than your older brother, you'll have to be over 1.9 meters tall. Good luck!"
After calculating how tall 1.9 meters was, Shen Mingrong felt somewhat discouraged.
This feels so difficult!
After breakfast, the sun was already high in the sky, and the weather was still very hot in late August.
They went to the department store instead.
As soon as they arrived at the department store, Shen Mingrong exclaimed "Wow!"
It's still quite early, but the department store is already bustling with activity. Besides the people coming and going, you can see a dazzling array of goods inside, which are clearly very comprehensive.
The first floor sells all kinds of daily necessities, such as pots and pans, clothes, shoes and socks, and even brooms, candies, pastries and fruits. In short, it's dazzling.
However, when Gu Xi was a ghost, she had seen shopping malls and supermarkets with a much wider variety of products in later generations, so she didn't feel anything special and was able to face it calmly.
So even though she hadn't actually been to the department store many times, she didn't find it to be bustling.
Only Shen Mingrong, a child who rarely comes over, is crying loudly.
He was still young, and the adults didn't bring him here often. Every time he came, he felt that the department store was so big, with so many things and so lively, that he couldn't take it all in.
There are more people on the first floor, but fewer people on the second floor.
They went to the watch counter on the second floor, where high-end watches were sold. The watches were expensive and required industrial ration coupons, so few people could afford them. Therefore, there weren't many people there. Even if there were, they would just pass by and glance at the watches without intending to buy anything. The sales clerks in front of the counter were wiping the counter with a cloth and ignored the passersby.
Shen Mingrong leaned closer, her eyes sweeping over the watches on the counter, and pointed to one of the women's watches, saying, "Sister Xi, this one is pretty!"
Gu Xi looked at it and saw that it was a rather delicate women's watch; judging from the brand, it was a Seagull.
She didn't pick and choose, and said to the clerk at the counter, "Give me this to try."
The counter clerk was quite perceptive. Although she seemed indifferent to the customers, she could tell from their clothes and demeanor that they came from well-off families and weren't worried about not being able to afford the items.
We'll be more welcoming to guests like that.
She took out the watch and handed it to Gu Xi.
Gu Xi tried it on and found the watch fit perfectly. Apart from needing to adjust the strap, there were no problems.
Shen Mingzheng looked at her wrists and found them incredibly thin. Were all women's hands this thin? It seemed like he could easily hold both of her wrists with one hand...
However, the watch chain was silver, and it looked good on her wrist; it's hard to describe the feeling.
"I'll take this one!" Gu Xi said to the waiter.
The salesperson was a bit stunned. This was the first time they'd ever seen a customer buy a watch just by putting it on and buying it without even looking at it. The whole process took less than five minutes.
However, the guests were agreeable, and they were happy.
Shen Mingzheng took out the ticket and money and paid the bill decisively.
Then he turned to ask, "Is there anything else you want to buy?"
Gu Xi thought for a moment, "I want to buy some paper and ink, and a fountain pen... The nib of the fountain pen at home is cracked and doesn't work very well."
Although she was very careful, pens are consumables, and the nib can easily break down if you write too much.
After buying the pens, ink, and paper, it was still very early, not even noon yet.
So Shen Mingrong suggested they go shopping. Luckily, his brother was there, and with his brother leading the way, they could visit many places.
He counted on his fingers: "I want to visit the Forbidden City, go to the Great Wall, and eat Peking duck... I haven't been to many places. My parents don't have time to take me. Qi-ge is free, but he thinks I'm too young and he'll have to carry me if I walk for too long. He's complaining about me! Big brother, you won't complain about me, right? If I get tired, you can carry me, okay? By the way, Xi-jie hasn't been to any places either..."
Ignoring his talkative underling, Shen Mingzheng turned to Gu Xi and asked, "Are you going?"
Gu Xi was about to say "whatever" when she saw Shen Mingrong looking at her pitifully, so she changed her mind and said, "Then let's go, I don't have anything to do today anyway."
Although she lived in Beijing for five years, she only traveled around her hometown during those five years, and at most went to her uncle's house and the Shen family's house. She didn't go anywhere else, and the Gu family never thought of taking her out to play.
Over time, she stopped going out much, except when she was going to school.
With her words, Shen Mingzheng naturally wouldn't refuse.
One day wasn't enough to see everything, so we arranged for two days to visit.
The elders are handling the wedding arrangements, so the couple doesn't really need to do anything. They can take advantage of the time to travel around before the wedding and then leave afterward.
When Feng Min saw that they didn't return until dark, she wondered why they had been gone for so long. But when she learned that Shen Mingzheng had taken Gu Xi out to play, her face immediately lit up with a smile.
"That's great!" she praised. "Mingzheng is finally acting like a proper man, knowing to take his female companions out to play! Your father and I are both busy and don't have much time to take Xixi out to play. As for the Gu family... well, thankfully Xixi is well-behaved and sensible, but she's too sensible. Doesn't she know that only the squeaky wheel gets the grease?"
Shen Mingzheng listened silently without saying anything.
He has already discovered that Gu Xi's attitude towards the Shen family and the Gu family is different.
It's not that she's deliberately putting on a show because the Shen family is her husband's family, but rather that she's relaxed, peaceful, quiet, and obedient at the Shen family's home, like a caring daughter. In contrast, at the Gu family's home, she's tense, sharp-witted, and indifferent. It doesn't feel like her home; it feels more like a place that could hurt her and make her instinctively wary.
Although Shen Mingzheng had never witnessed how the Gu family treated Gu Xi, he could glean some information from his mother and from the Gu family's attitudes during his several visits.
Perfunctory or negligent.
These two points alone are enough to make people unbearable.
As for Gu Xi, she might not be as well-behaved as her mother said. She might have done something to cause trouble for the Gu family, leading to their wariness and dislike of her...
Shen Mingzheng wasn't blind, but he didn't think it was a big deal. At worst, she could just stop associating with the Gu family. Since they weren't getting along, there was no need to force herself to. Not all family relationships are worth maintaining; some people are just naturally incompatible, and you can't force it.
After spending two days out together, when Shen Mingzheng took Gu Xi home to her family compound in the evening, he suddenly said, "I'll come pick you up tomorrow. Make sure you bring your household registration book and other documents."
Gu Xiren was still a little confused and subconsciously asked, "What's wrong?"
Shen Mingzheng: "Let's go get the marriage certificate."
Gu Xi then realized that they should get their marriage certificate the day before the wedding.
She was only in a daze for a moment before nodding, quietly agreeing, and then turning around and going home.
**
During dinner that evening, Feng Min also remembered this matter and reminded Shen Mingzheng that he should take Gu Xi to get their marriage certificate the next day.
"Since all the documents are already prepared, why not get the marriage certificate here first?" she grumbled. "After getting the certificate, we can hold the wedding, which would be perfectly legitimate."
Although the military had approved Shen Mingzheng's marriage application, in the eyes of the world, this was considered a marriage.
But it's still more reassuring to get a marriage certificate.
Then, as if remembering something, Feng Min said to her youngest son, who was busy eating, "Tomorrow you are not allowed to go and ambush your brother. Go out with your brother."
Shen Mingrong looked up, puzzled, and asked, "Why? I want to go too!"
The child likes to play with older children, and he also likes to play with his older brother and sister Xi, without any awareness of being a third wheel.
Anyway, Sister Xi really likes him. She holds his hand the whole way, and if they want to eat something, they just have to tell her, and her older brother will buy it for them.
With Sister Xi around, the eldest brother doesn't seem so stern anymore.
Feng Min looked at him speechlessly and said with disdain, "Your brother and Xixi are going to get their marriage certificate. If you go with them, what will the clerks think of them? People who don't know the situation will think that your brother is remarried and that Xixi will become your stepmother after marrying him."
The three members of the Chongchen Mountain family: "..."
These words were so explosive that Shen Zhongshan choked on them, Shen Mingzheng was speechless, and Shen Mingrong was stunned.
Shen Mingrong hesitated for a while, then looked at his brother and complained, "It's because my brother is so much older than me. If he were a few years younger, no one would suspect anything."
Even so, he didn't insist on going over there, lest the clerk misunderstand that he was his older brother's son, and people think that Sister Xi became a stepmother after getting married.
**
After returning home, Gu Xi told her family about getting the marriage certificate and asked Jiang Huijun for her household registration book and other documents.
The Gu family had already made preparations for this.
However, the Gu family had almost forgotten about this. Hearing her say this, they remembered that they needed to register their marriage, so Jiang Huijun quickly went to find the household registration book and other documents for her.
That evening, Gu Xi stared blankly at the documents spread out in front of her for a long time.
She still felt a sense of unreality; was she really going to get married?
Perhaps because it felt so unreal, she had another dream while sleeping that night. She dreamt of the decades she spent as a ghost, trapped in a place of death, wandering alone, watching the world change...
When Gu Xi woke up in the morning, she felt physically and mentally exhausted again, and even began to doubt whether she had really come back to life.
Is this really not just my imagination?
With this question in mind, when Shen Mingzheng came over, she couldn't help but reach out and touch his face.
It is warm, fresh, and has flesh and blood.
It's alive!
"Gu Xi?"
Shen Mingzheng looked at her with confusion, and when he noticed that her mental state was not right, his heart tightened slightly.
From the moment he met Gu Xiyi in the park, he sensed that something was wrong with her. Later, when she said she wanted to break off the engagement, her words were filled with a pessimistic sense that she might die...
"Xixi, what are you doing?"
Gu Yuanzheng and Gu Yuanxiang, who were entertaining Shen Mingzheng, both looked embarrassed. Gu Yuanhui also looked like he had seen a ghost, thinking that Gu Xi had gone crazy. In broad daylight, she actually touched a man. Even if he was her fiancé, she shouldn't do this.
Luckily I was at home, otherwise I would definitely have been arrested by the security team.
These days, even if you're in a relationship, you can't do intimate things like holding hands or hugging in public.
Tomorrow is the wedding, and Gu Yuanzheng specially took the day off today. He will be taking people to deliver the dowry that the Gu family has prepared for Gu Xi to the Shen family later.
For this reason, Feng Min and Shi Ailing both took leave to start decorating at home.
Gu Xi snapped out of her daze, glanced at them, said nothing, and turned to Shen Mingzheng, saying, "I'm ready, let's go."
Shen Mingzheng responded, though he was somewhat worried about her condition, but it wasn't appropriate to say anything there.
As he was leaving, he subtly squeezed her hand and found that her palm was icy cold, as if she had been frightened in her sleep. He couldn't help but feel a little displeased.
"Hang in there for one more day, and tomorrow will be better." His tone softened, showing a rare gentleness.
She seems to be having a very difficult time at the Gu family home.
He'd only been back for a few days, and his face had already lost all color, returning to the paleness he'd shown when he'd seen her last month, as if he were ill. Just a few days ago, when he'd returned, she looked so vibrant and gentle, not the gloomy, indifferent woman she was now.
Gu Xi felt her cold palms warmed by the warmth of his hand as he held them.
She looked up at him and then gave a small smile.
To make herself look more energetic, she specially put on lipstick today. The lipstick was bought for her by Feng Min. It did make her look much more energetic. However, in Shen Mingzheng's eyes, even though her lips were bright red and added a bit of color, the fatigue in her eyes could not be hidden.
Once outside, the two walked side by side, some distance apart.
On the way, we encountered some elderly people from the family compound who were unemployed or retired, and we asked them one by one where they were going.
"Grandma Li, we're going to get our marriage certificate," Gu Xi said politely, looking a little shy.
Upon hearing this, the elderly people laughed and said, "Oh, so you're going to get your marriage certificate! Congratulations!"
"No wonder Xixi looks so energetic today! Xiao Shen is also energetic, they look like a perfect match!"
Gu Xi was a little embarrassed, "We'll bring you wedding candy when we get back later."
Shen Mingzheng also nodded slightly to the elderly people.
"Okay, okay, I'm waiting for your wedding candy."
After saying goodbye to everyone, the two left the family compound and headed to a nearby marriage office.
There weren't many couples getting their marriage certificates today, so the two of them only had to wait a short while before it was their turn.
The person who processed their paperwork was a middle-aged woman with a sharp eye; she could tell at a glance that the couple who came to get their marriage certificate today were a soldier and his family.
The uprightness and spirit of soldiers are something that ordinary people can hardly match.
Sure enough, upon checking the records, it was found that one of them was indeed a soldier.
Her attitude softened, her routine inquiries became more friendly, and she asked a colleague to help check the documents.
The main issue is that there's a lot of information about military personnel, so it needs to be reviewed carefully. As long as it's confirmed that there are no problems, that's fine.
Shen Mingzheng's marriage application was approved by the military. Although there were many documents, the clerk quickly processed their marriage certificate after confirming that there were no problems.
Gu Xi was somewhat surprised to see the marriage certificate, which looked like an award certificate.
Having gotten used to the little red booklet of the future, looking at this certificate-like marriage certificate now, I always feel that it will easily oxidize, turn yellow, and then rot, making it difficult to preserve.
However, getting married for the first time in two lifetimes still feels different.
The clerk dutifully said, "You can take your marriage certificate to the supply and marketing cooperative to get wedding candy, snacks, peanuts, and melon seeds. You don't need any coupons."
"Thanks."
Shen Mingzheng politely thanked him.
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