Chapter 114: Rainbow Donuts
Translated by Jouissance of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Disneyland was first built all the way back in 1955 in California, which meant that the Disneyland Lin ShuYi and others had come to was that first ever Disneyland built in 1955.
This immense theme park had a total of eight* different themed “lands”, including Adventureland, Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Mickey’s Toontown, etc. and ever since its opening on the 17th of July, 1955, it was one of the world’s most popular, most loved theme parks ever.
If there was anywhere you absolutely had to go when visiting Los Angeles, California, apart from Hollywood, it was Disneyland.
An enormous Mickey the Mouse statue, architecture of all colors, like fairytale castles, roller coasters that extended into the clouds… Xiao Yu stared, dumbstruck at the sprawling theme park in front of him and didn’t manage to recover for a good while.
“Daddy, this theme park is ma.s.sive! Even larger than grandpa and grandma’s amus.e.m.e.nt park.”
Shen Fu smiled. “Yup, that’s because this Disneyland acts as a template for all the other Disneylands. It’s the original, and the largest.”
TaoTao’s eyes went wide as well, like two round, watery grapes, as he pointed at the gigantic cotton candy inside. “Candy~ candy~”
The tag-alongs couldn’t help but laugh.
That’s right. Originally, they had planned for some family time together, just the four of them, but after everyone else found out they planned to go to Disneyland, the number of attendees had grown exponentially.
Luckily, this theme park was large enough, so after buying tickets, they all scattered and headed for what they were interested in.
Shen Fu took his family of four towards the relatively close Mickey’s Toontown.
Shen Yan and Jiang Cheng exchanged a look and then turned towards Adventureland in sync.
The rest then split into two groups as well, heading in different directions.
Mickey’s Toontown had the two cute cartoon mice everywhere, making Xiao Yu’s eyes shine. He was at the age where he adored cartoons. Though Shen Fu didn’t understand the appeal of these cartoons, he was happy that the two little ones were so happy. He turned to share his thoughts with Lin ShuYi, only to see that not only had the cartoon pictures drawn his sons’ attention, but even Lin ShuYi seemed entranced.
Shen Fu: …
“Daddy, look! That Mickey Mouse can move! It’s so big!!”
Shen Fu looked at the ma.s.sive plush with a face of “…”
It was like walking into a cartoon kingdom. Xiao Yu was curious about everything inside. There were quite a lot of other cartoon figures were inside as well. Shen Fu bought an autograph booklet for XiaoYu and then went to get signatures from each cartoon character inside. After giving it to XiaoYu, XiaoYu hugged it to his chest like a priceless treasure, absolutely delighted.
Seeing him so happy, Shen Fu took out his camera and had the three others stand together, taking a photo of them in front of each cartoon character.
Xiao Yu took photos as he asked Shen Fu if he could go home and get them printed to give to his friends.
Lin ShuYi knew that XiaoYu had few very close friends in school, so he thought for a moment before saying, “You can choose a few souvenirs and bring them back as presents for your friends.”
XiaoYu’s eyes sparkled, delighted. “Thanks, daddy!”
Not only were there shops to browse and things to look at, there were also plenty of rides and games and food, XiaoYu was interested in all the rides and games while TaoTao was especially interested in the food. There was the ma.s.sive rainbow cotton candy when they came in, then he saw the long, winding line for the rainbow donuts, eyes bright as he hugged Lin ShuYi’s face, turning him in that direction.
Lin ShuYi laughed to himself and said, “It looks very sweet. You can only have a little, ok?”
They didn’t know if TaoTao had understood or not, but he nodded with a look that said he’d agree to anything.
Lin ShuYi looked towards Shen Fu and Shen Fu accepted his fate, joining the long line to buy the donuts his son wanted.
It was only after he walked inside the shop that he realized that there was a reason the line for these donuts was so long. Donuts were a kind of fried good, and with the sugar and chocolate that went on them, the amount of calories they contained skyrocketed. It wasn’t something all that suited for Asians. However, this donut shop used fresh vegetable oil that they swapped out often, meaning that there wouldn’t be any carcinogens from repeated frying. The rainbow colored glazed sugar on the top wasn’t made from food coloring either, but healthier vegetable sap. It made sure that the colors were vivid and kept it healthy.
Shen Fu queued for ages, buying a total of four donuts.
Two rainbow glazed and two chocolate.
TaoTao was only allowed less than half of one, but even so, he managed to get it all over his face, very much content.
After filling their stomachs, the four properly toured Mickey’s Toontown, trying every ride and game they could, and letting XiaoYu play until he was satisfied.
Afterwards, they went to two other places. Clearly, it wasn’t possible to exhaust what Disneyland had in a single day. When they left, Shen Fu asked XiaoYu, “Before we leave, let’s go and see all the other places we missed, yeah?”
XiaoYu nodded. He was actually very satisfied with his day of fun already.
Apart from Shen Yan and Jiang Cheng who had gone who knows where to do who knows what, everyone else had already gone back. The family of four weren’t in a hurry, slowly driving back.
XiaoYu carried the cartoon figurines he planned on giving to his friends while TaoTao hugged a Mickey plush about as large as him, nodding off. In the end, he fell asleep on the plush, drooling.
In the few days following, they acted like they were just simple tourists here to visit Los Angeles, touring all the sites, because in the days following, they’d no longer have any time left.
The wedding was set to be held on the 23rd of July, and they chose one of the most famous cathedrals in Los Angeles to host it, the Christ Cathedral. They didn’t invite all that many people. Apart from the close kin and friends of the two families, it was the bunch of rich kids that Shen Fu hung out with in H City.
Due to the distance, the invites weren’t sent via the traditional pen and paper way, but instead digitally via email. A large picture of their family of four was on the front. Shen Fu was dressed in a dark grey tailored suit, a blue tie and matching sapphire cufflinks, a champagne pink rose at his heart. The picture gave a profile view of his sharply handsome face, his gaze deep and loving, settled on Lin ShuYi’s smiling face. Lin ShuYi wore a similar colored waistcoat, the top b.u.t.tons of his shirt undone and his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His deep blue tie was also loose, matching his energetic and youthful looks perfectly as he held XiaoYu’s hand, his smile gentle and polite. XiaoYu wore a white short sleeved shirt, dark blue striped shorts and a smart little bowtie. The little gentleman held onto Lin ShuYi’s hand. TaoTao wore blue cartoon themed clothing, sitting on the wide chair in the middle by himself and hugging a balloon dolphin to his face. The entire picture was wonderfully beautiful and warm.
They didn’t bother with timezones when they sent the invites. Two hours after they made them, they were sent to their friends back home.
Then it was like a drop of water in a pot of boiling oil, everything erupted.
Many people knew about Lin ShuYi and knew that he was with Shen Fu and had even adopted a child, but apart from Chen Fang, no one knew that they were planning on getting married in Los Angeles.
After receiving the news, Chen Fang merely squinted at it before rolling over and continuing to sleep. After all, as Shen Fu’s best man, he had already booked his tickets to Los Angeles, so he wasn’t surprised about the invitation. But just because he wasn’t surprised, didn’t mean that other people weren’t.
In the next two hours, no one cared that it was already midnight in TianChao, they were all making calls, causing Chen Fang’s phone to ring so much that he shut it down. Before shutting it down though, he gave Shen Fu a call. “You did this on purpose, didn’t you?!!”
Shen Fu glanced at the grandfather clock in the middle of the living room which barely pointed at ten. In the TianChao timezone, it was one in the morning. Shen Fu grinned and replied with a single, affirmative noise, “Yup.”
Chen Fang instantly felt a tirade of curses building up behind his teeth. “I’ll forgive you seeing that it’s your wedding. I thought you’d told them all; didn’t realize you hadn’t.”
Shen Fu smirked. “I wanted to give them a surprise.”
Chen Fang rolled his eyes, complaining to himself in his heart. At the same time Shen Fu gave them a surprise, he also didn’t forget to give Chen Fang a shock. What a great bro.
Ending the teasing, Shen Fu moved onto more serious topics. “Did you book plane tickets yet?”
Chen Fang snapped in disgruntlement, “No.”
Shen Fu wasn’t bothered, smiling and saying, “That’s fine. If you don’t arrive on time… Well, it’s up to yourself to make sure you do.”
The pause in middle was extremely ominous and Chen Fang immediately regret his actions. “I have, I have. Get prepared to welcome me in two days.”
Shen Fu made a sound of affirmation and hung up.
After a moment, Chen Fang received a message from Shen Fu. “Tell me before you come, I’ll make sure there’s a feast prepared to welcome you.”
Chen Fang grinned, shut his phone off and went to sleep.
Though Mama Shen was there to prepare the wedding, many things still had to be decided by Shen Fu and Lin ShuYi personally, like the presents to give the attendees. Since they were all close friends and family, they had to decide what to gift them with care.
Shen Fu and Lin ShuYi went to quite a few wedding gift shops, and ordered a few of each of what they had chosen to give as return gifts to everyone.
Then, on the eighteenth of July, Chen Fang arrived before all the other guests as the only best man of this wedding. He arrived in the afternoon and informed Shen Fu and Lin ShuYi beforehand, so they didn’t go anywhere after noon, waiting for the news that the plane was about to land before driving over to collect Chen Fang.
Chen Fang pulled his little suitcase behind him, wearing a large pair of sungla.s.ses. He saw Shen Fu and Lin ShuYi almost immediately upon coming out and grinned. In the past he had never given it much consideration, but they just looked more and more like a match made in heaven with every time he saw them. Like they were born to stand next to each other.
Shen Fu saw him before he got close and whispered something to Lin ShuYi before the two looked over. Chen Fang grinned and waved at the two, like an old friend. “Did you guys prepare a feast? The plane set their mealtime too early, I’m starving now.”
Shen Fu pulled the car door open and put his suitcase inside before sitting in the driver’s seat and saying, “We didn’t have time to prepare a feast this morning, so we can only treat you to a feast outside. Let’s go.”
Chen Fang and Lin ShuYi nodded and climbed in one after the other. “As a guest, I’ll follow whatever you guys have planned.”
Shen Fu then took Chen Fang to a chain-branded hotel owned by Alan’s uncle.
This sort of hotel chain was different from places like KFC. There were only branches in America, and they weren’t fast and cheap like KFC was. The hotel was targeted towards smaller groups who wanted high cla.s.s dining. The décor was elegant and regal, the restaurant linked with the hotel area and there were many entertainment facilities available, too. Even if they were just staying here, it wouldn’t be boring.
After eating in the restaurant, Shen Fu arranged a room for Chen Fang, as well as a car, allowing him to freely move between the hotel and where they lived.
Apart from Chen Fang, all the other guests would be settled in this hotel as well, all the way until the wedding ended.
After eating and arranging the room, Shen Fu had Chen Fang stay and rest in his room. There was still several days until the wedding anyways, they didn’t need Chen Fang to do anything at the moment.
After deciding to take Chen Fang home the next morning, Shen Fu and Lin ShuYi went back home.
Jouissance: *As of 2019, there are now nine different themed lands in Disneyland Park, California, the newest one being the Star Wars one. However, this novel was written before 2019, so it’s 8 here.