Chapter 44: “Li Chunfeng, I Love You.” Part 2

Thus.

Lin Manyi—who had just passed her seventieth—saw, on the day after her birthday, her hard-won grandniece home again. The girl squatted before her like she’d committed some huge crime, phone in hand displaying another pretty face—the one she’d praised just yesterday.

The two faces side by side, both gazing at her sincerely, like they were posing for wedding photos.

Lin Manyi couldn’t stand it.

But she couldn’t bring herself to call Li Chunfeng on the phone.

She could only smack Qiu Yiran hard—or at least, not that hard. She just patted her shoulder.

After the smack, she sniffed.

“Seriously, you tricked a perfectly fine pretty girl from someone else’s family into marrying you. Now it’s so late she can’t even go home. She’s out here blowing in the cold wind, listening to my international call, and putting up with my temper.”

Qiu Yiran pretended to be knocked over.

Her body tilted to the side.

Then she raised the phone back up like a wave rolling in.

Li Chunfeng shouted from the phone again, “Auntie, actually, I was the one who tricked her into marrying me.”

“No, you weren’t.” Qiu Yiran retorted from this side.

“She says no.” Lin Manyi pointed confidently at Qiu Yiran.

She knew Qiu Yiran could be naive at times, but she would never forget to protect herself. After all, she’d lived alone abroad for so many years. If she were that easy to take advantage of, she’d have been scammed out of everything long ago.

“Anyway, our marriage wasn’t just her responsibility.”

Li Chunfeng said, then laughed again.

“We didn’t even know how we ended up eloping on impulse. Both of us were reckless, so some things happened afterward, and we didn’t get together right away. Now…”

“Now my issues here are mostly sorted out, and that’s when she finally made up her mind to tell you. I think the reason she kept it from you for so long was just to protect me.”

Qiu Yiran touched her nose—she had no idea how Li Chunfeng knew her thoughts.

Actually, ever since Lu Yun’s call revealed their marriage, she’d been wondering when to tell Lin Manyi. But Li Chunfeng’s situation had been rough back then, and they still had the lawsuit to deal with.

If she’d told her Li Chunfeng was an unemployed model facing a lawsuit, Lin Manyi might have taken a dim view of her.

So—

She’d just wanted Li Chunfeng to be a little more prepared before facing it.

She’d even gotten Li Chunfeng’s permission before returning to the country.

However, Li Chunfeng laid it all out more sincerely than the cautious Qiu Yiran.

You don’t hit a smiling face.

Especially not one across a screen that you couldn’t reach anyway.

Lin Manyi stewed with a belly full of anger, staring down Li Chunfeng on the screen.

After a while, she simply turned her back.

Qiu Yiran turned with her, moving in front to hold up the phone again. Their two pairs of bright young eyes lined up together, staring pitifully at her.

Lin Manyi sighed. “I’m just worried about you two. Life’s going to be hard down the road.”

She wiped her eyes again. “I just looked into it. Sure, it’s legal abroad, but what’s the point? It’s not legal back home. Everyone will laugh. And you two are both going to be in magazines and on the news. People will gossip, and you’ll suffer for it. You’ll get misunderstood so easily.”

Earlier, Qiu Yiran had formally introduced Li Chunfeng to Lin Manyi as an amazing model and her newlywed wife.

Lin Manyi had lived seventy years and seen plenty of the world’s bad people and bad things.

She couldn’t help thinking of the worst.

“No, it won’t.” Qiu Yiran said softly, squatting on the ground and looking up as she wiped Lin Manyi’s tears.

She knew this was still unimaginable for Lin Manyi, raised in traditional society.

“Auntie, this is all normal now. No one will laugh.”

“Exactly.” Seeing the mood shift, Xu Wuyi finally dared to scoot closer, hugging her knees to chime in.

“Everyone’s too busy shipping CP to laugh. They’ll just be yelling ‘ship ship ship’ nonstop.”

Lin Manyi didn’t speak. It was unclear if she believed them.

“Auntie.” Li Chunfeng spoke up from the phone again, her tone neither humble nor arrogant, but softer than usual.

“Did you know? My mom had the exact same attitude at first. She heard just a few words from Qiu Yiran and immediately told me to divorce her. She thought we weren’t from the same world, that Qiu Yiran would eventually toss me aside…”

At that, Lin Manyi’s expression finally changed. She seemed a bit indignant and glanced at Qiu Yiran.

“What did you say out there? Why would her mom say that about you?”

Qiu Yiran shrugged her nose tip pitifully.

Lin Manyi was a little displeased. “I never said anything like that about her kid.”

Li Chunfeng laughed. “But I didn’t agree.”

Lin Manyi huffed. “That’s more like it.”

She didn’t notice her own attitude had shifted.

“I told her we absolutely wouldn’t divorce.” Li Chunfeng added.

“Because we swore it to God.”

Qiu Yiran was squatting, so Li Chunfeng’s face was aimed at Lin Manyi. She couldn’t see Li Chunfeng’s expression, only heard her voice from the phone.

“Through sickness and health, poverty and wealth, I will love her until my last breath.”

Word by word, crystal clear.

Like they were marrying all over again, right in front of Lin Manyi.

In that moment, she could see it with her own eyes—

Even Lin Manyi, with her tightly drawn face, was visibly moved for a few seconds.

Hearing their wedding vows again.

Qiu Yiran felt shy and her nose stung, but she mustered her courage to face Lin Manyi alongside Li Chunfeng.

“This won’t change just because I’m a woman.”

As everyone unknowingly held their breath, Li Chunfeng spoke again.

“And Auntie, did you know? Women actually have longer average lifespans on average. Since we’re both women, barring accidents, our lifespans should be about the same.

Qiu Yiran froze.

“I’m two years younger than her too.” Li Chunfeng suddenly laughed, as if struck by a thought.

“When she’s old, I can take care of her. And if I start taking good care of myself now, build up my health… as long as I’m alive, I really…”

Her voice was soft, but the weight was immense.

“…can love her until my last breath.”

The final words landed.

Qiu Yiran’s eyes reddened—

She knew Li Chunfeng must be anxious right now, alone in Paris with no support but this spotty phone signal. It could drop any second if Lin Manyi got mad.

So Li Chunfeng was working so hard through this call to stay by her side, show her resolve, and face it all together.

Qiu Yiran decided she’d give Li Chunfeng a big hug the moment she got back.

After those words, the living room fell silent for a long time. No one spoke.

Finally, Xu Wuyi clamped her hand over her mouth, on the verge of tears. “So touching.”

Qiu Yiran’s eyes were red too.

Lin Manyi stared dazedly at these young people—squatting, sitting, on the phone—all staring urgently at her.

She’d lived to seventy.

She knew they had long roads ahead, and she wouldn’t be by their sides.

“Seriously.”

After a long silence, Lin Manyi wiped her tears helplessly.

“You make me sound like some unforgivable villain.”

Qiu Yiran knew that meant Lin Manyi was relenting.

She let out a breath, stood, and hugged the frail Lin Manyi who’d grown thinner over the years. She wanted to cry too.

But in the end, she held back the tears and rested her head beside Lin Manyi’s.

“You have no idea how wonderful you are.”

–

That night, after the call ended.

Li Chunfeng still worried about Qiu Yiran alone in the country.

She wondered if saying all that to Lin Manyi over the phone came off as insincere.

After agonizing over it.

Li Chunfeng bought a ticket home.

She’d never experienced this and didn’t know if coming out to a family like Qiu Yiran’s meant facing a full trial.

If it did.

She could never let Qiu Yiran face it alone.

The flight was for the next afternoon.

Lu Yun called several times during that time, but she didn’t pick up.

The Fried Chicken Shop had scheduled her for the morning shift. To cover the ticket cost, she had to go.

Even though she and Qiu Yiran were married.

She wasn’t the type to let Qiu Yiran support her. She kept things clear-cut, and…

With her old contract fully ended, it was time to muster the courage for new things.

But that could wait until she got back from the country.

That day, while Li Chunfeng was frying chicken popcorn in the back kitchen, a coworker knocked and said,

“Someone’s looking for you.”

Li Chunfeng thought it was Feng Yu. After the lawsuit ended and she came back to Paris, Feng Yu had brought a wad of cash from selling shoes in Guangzhou. She’d met up with Qiu Yiran and boasted about making a comeback.

But she always ended up at Li Chunfeng’s part-time Fried Chicken Shop, guzzling extra-large iced Cokes at employee prices.

Li Chunfeng untied her apron and headed out.

She passed trays of fried chicken legs, wings, tips, and pineapple pies rushing by. Looking up, she saw a blurry figure outside the shop—

Late summer, sunlight poured in, air crisp and clear, blue skies and white clouds shimmering on the glass. The shop was packed with a line, and the figure looked travel-worn, lugging a bunch of random bags.

Wearing a baseball cap, but head tilted up, peering hard through the glass.

The second she spotted Li Chunfeng.

Qiu Yiran grinned, eyes squinting.

She glanced left and right.

Probably checking if anyone was watching. Qiu Yiran huffed on the glass.

Her fingers peeked cautiously from her sleeve and, on the foggy pane, shyly drew a heart first.

Her whole face framed inside it.

Then she peered left and right inside the heart, and carefully, stroke by stroke, wrote—

“Li Chunfeng, I love you.”

Since it was in Chinese.

No one inside or out noticed or could read it.

Except for that universal language of the heart.

A few sharp-eyed coworkers already started whooping, drawing customers’ eyes too.

Paris was a city that treated love as romance, always kind to lovers.

Li Chunfeng turned her face aside, laughing uncontrollably.

Noticing the stares, Qiu Yiran panicked a bit—probably hadn’t expected to get spotted. Her first instinct was to lift her sleeve to wipe—

But seeing Li Chunfeng’s eyes.

Qiu Yiran hesitated, as if terrified of being seen as cowardly, and steeled herself to face all the gazes.

She left the heart on the glass.

Li Chunfeng finished laughing.

She set down her apron and walked straight over.

Pushing open the outer window, the air outside was a touch warm, heat shimmering, with customers eyeing them.

Li Chunfeng darted past the outdoor tables and all those lingering stares.

She stepped into the circle drawn by that tiny heart and gave Qiu Yiran a solid, firm hug.

The shop erupted in cheers. Everyone saw the sky outside blue as an oil painting, clouds like cotton candy.

They hugged beneath the painting and candy.

The two of them circled by that small, small heart on the glass.

“I almost thought you’d been locked up at home.” Li Chunfeng laughed.

“I even bought a ticket to fly back and rescue you.”

Qiu Yiran hugged her back, patted her shoulder, and whispered in her ear, off-topic,

“I missed you too.”

She seemed to understand—

That casual line from Li Chunfeng really meant just that one thing.