Volume 14
Chapter 23: The Great Matter of Marriage
If a person knew they would be leaving in the not-so-distant future, what would they do? This is actually a simple yet classic philosophical question. If Lu Li’s life were given a countdown, the thing he would want to do most would not be to exit quietly in sorrow, leaving everyone with regrets, but to do something spectacular, so that everyone would be full of gratitude when they reminisced about him.
He wanted to get married.
No, just getting married was not enough. He wanted to have a wedding. The location had to be on a small island in South America, and he had to invite all the guests he could think of, with seats lining the entire lawn and beach, from the northern end of the island to the southern end. He wanted to have the story of this grand wedding carved on his tombstone, with the words “I loved them.”
This thought became especially strong after he had finished his call with Chen Jianing’s parents.
The Little Tiger hung up the video call and let out a long sigh. “Good, good. My parents seem to be quite satisfied with you. Lu Li, do you have time next week? Come home with me and get on good terms with them first, so they won’t… Lu Li, Lu Li, are you listening?”
Only then did Lu Li snap out of his thoughts. “I’m sorry. I was just thinking about getting married…”
The Little Tiger bit her lower lip.
“When are you planning to get married? Who… who are you going to marry…” Her voice trembled as she spoke. As the time drew near, she was actually afraid. What if Lu Li didn’t marry her? Her body had already been given to him. If Lu Li went back on his word… she would take the money from her little savings and go back to her hometown alone, open a small shop, and hide for a lifetime, never seeing Lu Li again.
“I’m planning to get married this year. Is it too early?” Lu Li pinched the flesh of the Little Tiger’s cheek. She was surprisingly obedient and didn’t bite his hand. “Let me think. I have to marry Baili, Hupo, Jingyi, Yameng, Zhu Qiao, Zhu Xi, and right, who else was there? Is that everyone…”
Chen Jianing angrily bit the fleshy part of his right hand between his thumb and forefinger. This girl really bit him. Lu Li sucked in a sharp breath in pain. As she bit, tears actually welled up in her eyes.
“Don’t bite anymore. I was wrong, I was wrong. There’s still the cutest and most beautiful Chen Jianing!”
Only then did the Little Tiger let go, standing beside Lu Li aggrievedly and pitifully, pouting as she stared at him without a word.
“Jianing, good senior, I was joking with you. Of course I’m going to marry you.” Lu Li bent down to hug the Little Tiger. He bent a little too much and almost collapsed. It was the Little Tiger who supported his chest with her small hands.
“Serves you right for bullying me so much last night. Now you can’t even stand up straight,” she huffed. “Let me help you to the sofa to lie down for a while. Even my dad said your complexion is bad. He’s very good at reading people. He can tell at a glance if anyone in our family has something wrong with their internal organs…”
He had indeed overindulged yesterday. Lu Li didn’t want the other girls to see him in this state, so he let the Little Tiger help him back to her room.
Lu Li lay on the bed, and the Little Tiger sat at the head of the bed, peeling an apple. After the apple was peeled, Lu Li opened his mouth wide, waiting to be fed. The Little Tiger shot him a look, but she herself took a bite of the apple. “It’s not for you. Don’t you dislike apples?”
Lu Li couldn’t help but laugh. He dazedly remembered that back then, it was Chen Jianing who was lying in bed, and he was sitting by the bed, peeling an apple for her. The way this girl chomped on the apple was like a cute little hamster. At that time, this girl had been very stubborn, liked to speak sarcastically, and was a proud little girl. As he was thinking, an apple with a few bites taken out of it suddenly appeared before his eyes.
The Little Tiger aimed the side she had bitten at Lu Li. “I’ll give you a bite, just one bite.”
Lu Li said, “Can you turn it around? I’ll eat the side you haven’t bitten.”
She blushed, as if from shame and anger. “No. You’ll eat this side. You’re disgusted with me.”
“Then you feed me with your mouth.” Lu Li opened his mouth wide.
Chen Jianing actually did as he said. She took a bite of the fruit, straddled Lu Li, and leaned down to feed him.
Lu Li suddenly realized that “resting for a few days” was, on the contrary, the most difficult thing for him.
…
To get married, he first had to invite the girls’ parents and get their blessings. A marriage without family support would ultimately not be happy. Women would always, on some night, miss the small family of their childhood and, in turn, be filled with regret and lament for their current life. An Baili’s old man, An Gulai, was still in jail, and Lu Li didn’t plan on inviting him to the wedding. Hupo’s biological father was a sycophant. If Lu Li were to invite her parents, he would be inviting her adoptive parents. There was no need to talk much about the Chu family’s parents. Zhu Youcheng’s feelings for Lu Li were mostly gratitude. He, on the contrary, fully supported Lu Li’s relationship with Zhu Xi and Zhu Qiao, perhaps because he owed the Zhu sisters’ mother too much in the past, and he was atoning for his sins toward his deceased wife by unconditionally indulging his daughters. Yameng was like him; she had never thought of finding her parents. So in the end, only the Little Tiger’s parents needed another visit. The matter of inviting the parents was much simpler and easier than Lu Li had expected.
Right…
He suddenly thought of himself. Of course, he wouldn’t think of finding his irresponsible parents. But for some reason, when he mentioned “father,” the aged figure from the time backtracking would subconsciously flash through his mind. The words Grandma Zhu had said would surface from his memory every night.
If not for the Colored Stone, would he, Lu Li, have just been a person who died in a corner of history?
…
In any case, amidst a chorus of laughter, the New Year of the Lu family came to an end. An Baili, from somewhere, brought out a mahjong set. She pulled the girls not to play cards, but to play mahjong instead. When Lu Li wasn’t around, they would gamble with money. When Lu Li was around, they would gamble with clothes. Later, Hupo really couldn’t stand their appearance and ran upstairs to paint. Lu Li always watched Hupo’s back, feeling powerless.
He always said he would rest for a few days, but he always broke his vow. It was either the Little Tiger deliberately being annoying and asking for a shag, or An Baili crawling into his blanket in the early morning, or Yameng always pulling him to take a shower together. The most fatal thing was that sometimes Zhu Xi would also join…
If this continued, let alone fulfilling his promise to Hupo, he didn’t even know if he would live to see the day he met Chen Jianing’s parents.
In order to buy himself some breathing room, Lu Li took the train to her hometown—Pingxiang County—with the Little Tiger on the tenth day of the new year. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to take a plane, but that he would have to transfer three times. The local area only had a train station, while taking the train would take only one night to arrive directly. Chen Jianing said that during the winter and summer vacations before, she would always drag her big suitcase and take the green-skinned train, swaying all the way home.
Lu Li had imagined many scenes of a son-in-law’s first visit to his wife’s hometown. For example, being looked down upon by her former classmates, and he, Lu Li, would let out a snort, reveal his hundred-million-yuan net worth, and a corner of his mouth would curl up. Or perhaps his mother-in-law would be sharp-tongued and harsh, and he would have a battle of wits with her, leaving behind a fine tale of a clever son-in-law and a sick Zhuge.
But in the end, he didn’t get to show off in front of others or fight with a wicked mother-in-law. The noble chairperson, half a royal family member, the Chu family’s son-in-law, the CEO of the Changle Group—Lu Li, Mr. Lu—was in Chen Jianing’s neighborhood, playing with firecrackers with a group of half-grown children.
