CHAPTER 200: MARRIAGE AND HONEYMOON
Obviously, it was too late.
The next day, Yan Jin scooped Xiao Yu out of bed, threw some clothes onto him, and stuffed him into the car.
The hotel venue was quite far, so they had to leave early. That was one of the reasons why Xiao Yu had dark circles under his eyes and immediately went back to sleep in the car. The rest could be attributed to his physical and mental exertion from yesterday’s kidnapping and a sleepless night after finding out about that day’s wedding.
Yan Jin had the financial resources to host the wedding himself, but the small villa they regularly stayed in was too small. Neither could he get everyone to follow him to the Four Seasons Manor, so in the end, he chose a hotel.
It was unheard of to announce an engagement and then get married two days later. The media hadn’t yet recovered from the shock of the previous announcement when news of the wedding broke, leaving them in complete disarray.
In some sense, that wasn’t an issue. After all, even one of the protagonists of the wedding was still disoriented by the news.
All of Yan Jin’s unfortunate cars were totaled, confiscated by the police, or sent to the auto repair center for “modification”. Not a single car was left.
Thus, they once again hailed a taxi to go to the hotel.
At the hotel, in his semi-conscious state, Xiao Yu was a marionette being fiddled with by all of Yan Jin’s arranged fas.h.i.+on designers, hair stylists, and makeup artists. Through his sleepy haze, Xiao Yu sensed Yan Jin hectically running around to and fro.
In the end, Xiao Yu only properly awoke when he heard the MC’s voice mixed with the sound of the opening fanfare that declared the start of the wedding.
Like a lightbulb that suddenly lit up, Xiao Yu jumped up from his seat, knocking over the makeup artist’s kit.
Bottles and jars scattered all over the floor. Their liquid and powder contents spilled and mixed together in a mess.
Xiao Yu bent over to help pick items up in a fl.u.s.ter while apologizing profusely, “Sorry, it was an accident! Can this bottle still be used…?”
He sounded like a rabbit whose tail had been stepped on…
Or maybe a hamster.
Yan Jin, who had been waiting nearby, strode forward to wrap the panicking Xiao Yu into a hug. He resisted the urge to ruffle Xiao Yu’s hair and instead settled for ma.s.saging his ear. “What are you doing? It’s time to go.”
“Ahh, but…”
Yan Jin knew what Xiao Yu was worrying about and decisively dragged Xiao Yu away by his ear. “You’re being nervous now? What were you doing in the morning?”
“Hey, ow, that hurts… I didn’t even have time earlier to be nervous…” Xiao Yu felt like he was being wrongfully blamed. “It’s all your fault for not telling me anything earlier. This was too sudden, okay?”
“I told you a long time ago,” Yan Jin reminded. “You said that you were okay with anything as long as your Aunty Fang would be present for the wedding.”
“Does this even count…?”
“And, this is just a wedding. It’s not that scary. The real marriage certificate and ceremony needs to be completed overseas. No need to be nervous. Relax!”
“f.u.c.k off, you hypocrite. Let’s see you relax first!” Xiao Yu felt he’d said something wrong the moment the words left his mouth. From the side, he looked up to see that Yan Jin’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“Dress to impress” really did have some truth to it. Today’s Yan Jin was particularly handsome.
His custom-made suit wrapped around Yan Jin’s model inverted triangle body type, supported by the powerful stride of his two legs. His face, which had already been ethereally handsome, now looked like it belonged to a photobook after the makeup artist’s delicate work. But, his most captivating feature was his tender eyes.
The eyes that had been accepted by the industry as the most fearsome held no threat or danger today.
The ever-frozen lake’s surface had been broken through overnight, revealing the clear glittering water.
If the previous Yan Jin had caused others to cower and could only be appreciated from a distance, today’s Yan Jin emitted a charm no one could resist.
Xiao Yu thought he had built up his immunity to Yan Jin’s good looks after so long together. Never had he expected that he would be blus.h.i.+ng from accidentally staring too long at him.
*Sigh*, it felt illegal for someone to be that handsome.
Feeling the heat increasing from the person in his embrace, Yan Jin looked down at Xiao Yu, puzzled. “Are you okay? You feel warm enough to be cooked.”
“You’re the one cooking! Your entire family is cooking!”
To avoid meeting Yan Jin’s eyes, Xiao Yu buried his face into Yan Jin’s chest again.
“Alright, stop being shy now. We’re up on stage next,” Yan Jin said.
“… Who’s here?” Xiao Yu knew it was impossible to escape. Even though he walked very slowly, he still obediently followed Yan Jin towards the stage.
“They’re all people you know. It’s a mix of colleagues and close friends. Relax.”
“I just realized that I didn’t tell some friends and family,” Xiao Yu groaned.
“The official ceremony will be overseas, so you can invite them to that one. I brought your Aunty Fang to this one; she’s sitting at the same table with Nan Wei and others.”
“Okay.”
That being said, Xiao Yu actually didn’t have too many friends to invite. He was no longer certain of his relations.h.i.+ps with the ones he used to consider as friends in light of the previous events.
While Xiao Yu’s mind was wandering, Yan Jin brought him on stage.
As applause shook through the room, Xiao Yu scanned across the sea of familiar of faces.
He saw his fellow colleagues.
He saw the young lady from the human resources department.
He saw Shao Yue, who clearly looked like he wanted to start trouble, standing up and applauding.
He saw Nan Wei, who had somehow become his student.
He saw Madam Fang, who was in a supremely formal qipao, clapping solemnly. [TLN: Chinese dress]
In that instant, Xiao Yu suddenly felt an urge to cry.
……
Just as Yan Jin had said, the wedding wasn’t as scary as Xiao Yu had expected.
He knew all of the attendees. The reporters were mostly kept outside, and those who had managed to blend into the crowd to get in were quickly kicked out by all the invitees who knew each other. As per normal procedure, the two of them cut their wedding cake, exchanged rings, and took their vows.
After the oaths and exchanging “I do”s, an unknown feeling washed over Xiao Yu.
At that moment, Xiao Yu was more aware than anyone else that the scales beneath him and Yan Jin were finally equal.
Because of mutual love, they were equal.
Henceforth, Yan Jin was no longer the unreachable chairman, nor was he the owner of Mr. Mystery. When Yan Jin avowed his love with Xiao Yu’s figure reflected in his eyes, he was just Yan Jin, the Yan Jin who loved Xiao Yu.
After they’d gone through all the standard wedding procedures, Yan Jin ended the wedding with a deep kiss with Xiao Yu. Scooping up Xiao Yu bridal style, Yan Jin was trailed by curses from those who wanted to play pranks on the newlyweds. [TLN: Chinese wedding custom]
Essentially all of YL’s employees had come to the wedding. Even the janitor was fortunate enough to bear witness to this age-old ceremony. It was important to note that reporters had schemed endlessly and still failed to receive an invite. Some of the employees had never thought Yan Jin and Xiao Yu would get together. For them, it was like rewriting the history books.
Of course, since there were those who found this hard to accept, there were also those who looked upon this favorably such as YL’s small group of fujos.h.i.+s. They felt they were getting free treats from how sweet Yan Jin and Xiao Yu were together, putting an end to the company’s rumored anti-h.o.m.os.e.xual stance.
In the wedding’s aftermath, newer employees such as Qin Xi who hadn’t experienced hards.h.i.+p because of Yan Jin silently awaited their treats as well. However, no one expected the two newlyweds to not only deny them any benefits, but even throw aside all their responsibilities for their honeymoon!
*Sigh*, news of the honeymoon pained their hearts so much.
……
Yan Jin had prepared the necessities for their honeymoon well in advance.
But truthfully, he still hadn’t learned his lesson. With everything going right, he’d accidentally forgotten Xiao Yu’s distaste of traveling for sightseeing.
“By travel, do you mean the trip to France?”
“… Huh?”
“Hmm? Are you referring to the international jewelry exhibition?”
“No, I’m talking about our honeymoon.”
Xiao Yu wore a complicated expression. “Two adult guys going on a honeymoon, doesn’t that make you cringe?”
“You can just treat it like normal sight-seeing,” Yan Jin said.
“That’s even worse. The Autumn Conference is just two months away; this year it’s a little earlier. Are you preparing to lose the harsh battle against the new SI? Even if you’re okay with getting completely embarra.s.sed, I’m not!” Once Xiao Yu got started on work-related matters, he didn’t know how to stop his chattering. “Right after the Autumn Conference is the international jewelry exhibition. I haven’t been overseas is so long, so I need to check if my pa.s.sport has expired. We can’t go empty-handed either; doesn’t YL want to expand internationally? For this heavy responsibility, I wish I could split every minute into two. How is there time to go sight-seeing?”
Yan Jin: “…”
“And, back to the original point, why should two guys travel for a honeymoon? Company projects are more important, understand?”
Yan Jin very unwillingly gave a “Mhmm”.
Xiao Yu began to laugh unkindly at Yan Jin. It was the kind of laugh that if he weren’t supporting himself on the table, he would have fallen off his chair.
Under Yan Jin’s surprised stare, Xiao Yu wiped away his tears while gasping between guffaws, “Hahahahaha, you didn’t think I was being real, right? It was obvious I was joking, okay okay, I’ll stop teasing you.”
Xiao Yu couldn’t take the condemnation from Yan Jin’s aggrieved expression, so he hurriedly stopped laughing. In between breaths, he said, “Okay, well, we definitely can’t go anywhere too far. Close-by places are still okay.”
“Like?”
“Like… Four Seasons Manor?”
Yan Jin silently placed the travel placards of domestic tourist locations from the Office of Tourism back into his folder.
“You aren’t bored from going there so many times?”
“Of course not. Also, the previous times we went, I was there as your pet. This time, I’ll be going as your significant other. It’s completely different, okay?”