Chapter 120 - Marriage
When the netizens saw Yu Tang say that he was meeting his father-in-law, they couldn’t be any more excited.
【The world changes too quickly, like a tornado!】
【There is nothing suitable to give a father-in-law, so give money ba.】
【Good luck, Your Majesty. Tell father-in-law that the empress is pregnant with your child, and he will definitely give his consent.】
One after another, the enthusiastic online users gave Yu Tang a bunch of rotten ideas, and they spontaneously became advisors as they ran over to Song Zicheng’s Weibo to persuade him. No one had ever paid him any attention, and only now did they realise that Song Zicheng’s Weibo was also quite splendid. There was a lot of content to do with Song Xiao: My son is in university now, my son gave me a present, my son can take over the company now…
While everyone amused themselves, they waited for news of progress. After waiting for two days, there wasn’t any news on Yu Tang’s Weibo, but Song Xiao had posted something.
“Unexpectedly, his family dog is called Zhang Xiaoren…” The attached photo was of a husky holding a bone-shaped biscuit in its mouth as it stared foolishly at the camera.
【Ahhhh, the empress went to meet his parents-in-law!】
【Why is such a handsome dog able to abuse me? Silently picks up my dog biscuit…】
【The emperor must be doing this on purpose, on purpose!】
The great general, whom Yu laoyezi had dumped here, crouched down in the courtyard of A City’s Yu residence and looked at the dog which was crunching a biscuit in front of him. “Zhang Xiaoren, you, too, have come to this.”
The husky raised its head to look at the great general with a ‘I don’t understand’ face.
Standing on the side, Dugu An posted the photo he took of the husky on Song Xiao’s Weibo. He turned to leave, but was stopped by the great general. “Anyi ah, you say, do you think this dog is really Zhang Xiaoren?”
Dugu An glanced at the great general. “How can one be sure?”
“Zhang Xiaoren committed regicide – it would be fitting for him to be reincarnated as an animal.” The great general tugged the dog’s ear and spoke resolutely.
Dugu An ignored him and lowered his head to edit a Weibo post. A secret guard’s duty did not include researching a dog.
Song Xiao, who was chatting with Yu Lin, saw that the two fellows were having a lively discussion, and shook his head as he laughed. The dog couldn’t eat its biscuit properly with all the noise, and pulled its ear out of the great general’s hand. Holding the biscuit in its mouth, it ran over to lie down next to Song Xiao’s feet. As expected, the two men didn’t dare chase it when they saw this, and it proudly wagged its tail.
Yu Lin looked at the dog on the ground. “Zhang Xiaoren, you’ve now been reduced to a dog. This is Heaven’s punishment for you. Do you still dare insist that what you did was right?”
The dog’s crunching paused for a moment, before it continued to eat its biscuit.
Yu Lin wrinkled his little brow, kicked off his shoe, and placed one foot on the dog’s head. “You dog thing, if it wasn’t because saozi acted quickly that year, I would have bestowed you death by a thousand cuts.”
The husky trembled imperceptibly for an instant, then raised its head to lick the bottom of Yu Lin’s foot ingratiatingly.
Yu Lin promptly couldn’t sit still and hastily withdrew his foot. However, his movements were too exaggerated, and his chair fell backwards. Luckily, Song Xiao reacted quickly and grabbed him, picking him up and going to find Yu Tang.
The past was in the past and revenge had already been achieved back then; it didn’t matter if this dog truly was Zhang Xiaoren.
A few days later, the netizens who were stupidly waiting on the homepages of these two individuals were finally greeted with a surge of bonuses. Yu Tang’s Weibo revealed two marriage certificates written in a foreign language and with large, golden stamps on them.
On its heels, an image was posted on Song Xiao’s Weibo of a beautiful island with a blue ocean and blue sky, and a white sandy beach. A handsome Yu Tang stood on the beach, wearing a suit and an exquisite bowtie, and looking over with a faint smile.
【Ma… Married?】
【Ahhhhhh! To be able to see two overbearing chairmen get married in my lifetime, this old man can die content!】
Those who were invited to the island were all Song Xiao and Yu Tang’s friends, and the group of youngsters made merry. A long carpet was laid out from the beach all the way to the front of a villa with a seaview. Under a beautiful flower arch, a chaplain stood on a wooden platform with a slight smile.
In a het marriage, there would be a flower girl and a page boy. When the two men got married, there was just one small boy. As the band played the wedding march, Yu Lin, dressed in a smart little suit, strode forward on his short legs in a dignified manner, waving as he walked and tossing out flower petals from the basket with a serious face.
Dressed in identical suits, one in white and one in black, the two men slowly walked forward to the sound of melodious music.
“Mr Yu, will you, from this day forth, stay by his side, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, and be steadfast and true?” the chaplain said in a warm tone.
“I will,” Yu Tang said with a solemn face.
“Mr Song, will you, from this day forth, stay by his side, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, reject intimacy with any other man and woman, not engage in a cold war even when you argue, return to the shared bedroom to sleep on time, and furthermore forgive Mr Yu for occasionally making trouble for no reason?”
Song Xiao’s lips quirked. Who would have these sorts of things in their wedding vows? He looked up at Yu Tang. So it turned out that the emperor also knew that he was making trouble for no reason ah!
Yu Tang stared back. Hurry up and say ‘I do’, or else you’ll be punished with the family discipline.
Sitting below the platform, Yu Miao covered her mouth and snickered. Mother Yu shook her head with a gentle smile. “This child.”
“…I will,” Song Xiao said helplessly. So what if he didn’t agree, it had always been like this.
“Very well, you may now exchange rings.” The chaplain put away the book of vows and indicated for them to swap rings.
Song Xiao took out a ring from his suit pocket, and when he picked up Yu Tang’s hand and placed it on his ring finger, he discovered that the usually warm and dry hand was unexpectedly a little sweaty today, and he raised his head to look at Yu Tang in astonishment.
Yu Tang took back his hand and secretly wiped off the sweat on his palm in his pocket. Even if this was his second time as a groom, he was still nervous. Taking out the ring, he grasped Song Xiao’s hand and placed it on Song Xiao’s ring finger, which still had the engagement ring on it. To Yu Tang, Song Xiao had always been his wife, and there should be something to symbolise this, such as wearing two rings.
Song Xiao saw that Yu Tang didn’t take off the engagement ring. Figuring out his meaning, he didn’t bother him about it.
“Alright, the newlyweds may now kiss.” When the chaplain said the words that everyone had been waiting for, the people below began to hoot and heckle.
The two of them looked at each other silently and slowly drew near.
A thousand years later, they had gotten married again. This feeling was too wonderful, and the blessedness they felt was also doubled.
The two of them tilted their heads to the right and rubbed their noses together slowly; for a very long while, their lips didn’t meet. That close, they could feel each other’s breath, and Song Xiao suddenly felt his nose sting a little.
The past drifted before his eyes, the various matters of the last life and the myriad of events in this one. At that very moment, there was only grat.i.tude to the heavens. Thank you, Heaven, for allowing me to be able to meet him again in this life.
Their lips met, and it was forever.
They were supposed to have their honeymoon on the small island after the wedding ceremony, but Yu Tang said he had an emergency and needed to leave for a while, and he ditched Song Xiao on the island.
“Imperial brother is too much. What can it be that he had to go right now?” Yu Lin was building a sandcastle as he complained.
Sitting on the beach, Song Xiao helped Yu Lin pile up sand. “Last time you said that it was Moye that brought our memories along. Why was that?”
Yu Lin extended his short hand and wrote out ‘Moye’ in the sand. Emperor Hongyuan learnt from Emperor Jingyuan, and his writing was forceful and strong. However, because he was a child now, he couldn’t exert much strength, and the written words were round and cutesy, and characteristic of a child.
Quirking his lips, the imperious air with which Yu Lin thrust out his chest just then instantly dispersed, and his shoulders sagged helplessly. “You remember the legend about Moye, right?”
Moye was a divine sword from the ancient past. In ancient times, a tyrant requested a blacksmith named Gan Jiang to forge a divine weapon from the essence of the gold and iron gathered from the five Sacred Mountainsas well as across the world. However, the iron essence wouldn’t melt no matter what. Gan Jiang’s wife, Moye, plunged into the furnace, and used her spirit to melt the iron essence. Then, when the sword Moye was forged, Gan Jiang heard his wife’s voice: “We will still be together…”
And so the divine sword Moye, in addition to protecting the country, could prevent a husband and wife from being separated.
“After the two of you died, a warlock said that if Moye was buried with you, the emperor and empress might be able to meet again in their next life, so that’s what I did.” Yu Lin looked into the distance with a profound gaze. “Back when imperial brother gave you the sword, it was in the hopes that the two of you could live a long life.”
Song Xiao looked at the child who had a profound expression on his face, and he wanted to laugh, but was also a little distressed. Back when Song Xiao slit his throat, Yu Jinlin was only fifteen years old. Such a young teenager must have been scared. He slowly raised his hand and stroked Yu Lin’s head.
Yu Lin was embarra.s.sed by his saozi rubbing his head, but was reluctant to move aside. He squinted and rubbed against that palm, and then… was squeezed aside by a large head.
Song Xiao blinked. In a moment’s carelessness, the small head under his palm became Yu Tang’s big, fluffy head.
“You’re back?” Song Xiao withdrew his hand and smiled. His Majesty the emperor’s head couldn’t be touched so casually, and the consequences were very severe. At the very least, Song Xiao wouldn’t be able to get out of bed for three days.
Seeing that Song Xiao wasn’t rubbing his head, Yu Tang resentfully pushed his brother aside and picked up Song Xiao, striding into the villa.
The abandoned Yu Lin fell on the sand, flat on his back. Wearing a beach dress, Yu Miao pa.s.sed by and kicked her little brother with one foot that was covered in sand. “Little tortoise, what are you doing?”
“Contemplating life,” Yu Lin said, with a ‘nothing left to live for’ face.
Yu Miao tilted her head and lay down next to him, staring up at the dark blue sky. “What have you discovered from your contemplation?”
“I’m thinking that… you can’t do puppy love. You can only marry when you’re at least thirty,” Yu Lin furiously said. The Yu family members were all like this; once they had a wife, they would forget the little brother!
“Do you need a spanking?” Yu Miao reached out and tugged on one jug ear.
“Not allowed to pull my ears!” Yu Lin covered his ear and pushed Yu Miao. The two of them began to roll around like a ball on the beach. As for contemplating life, that was left unfinished.
Yu Tang carried Song Xiao back into the house and chased away the servants in the villa. After shutting the door, he mysteriously pulled out a long brocade box and shoved it into Song Xiao’s arms.
“What’s this?” Accepting the brocade box, Song Xiao didn’t realise it would be so heavy, and nearly dropped it.
“Wedding gift,” Yu Tang said expressionlessly, hands behind his back. However, his eyes shone with the light of ‘I did very well, hurry up and praise me’.
Song Xiao blinked. Placing the brocade box on the table, he slowly opened it. A red, velvet cloth was delicately wrapped around hard foam rubber. In the centre of the foam rubber was an indentation shaped to precisely fit the object, and in it lay an archaic sword.
The sword was a meter in length, and its entire body was pitch black, without a single decorative motif on it. It expelled ghosts and evil spirits, and kept away thousands of demons – this sword was called Moye!
Caressing the sword with trembling fingers, Song Xiao pursed his lips and couldn’t speak for a long while.
Yu Tang hugged him from behind and rested his chin on his shoulder. “Still recognise it?”
“…Was our tomb excavated?” Song Xiao’s lips quirked. Yu Lin had just said earlier that this sword had been buried along with them.
“Stolen by a tomb robber.” Yu Tang smiled. “Don’t worry, they can’t open Great Yu’s coffins.”
Song Xiao picked up the Moye sword and slowly stroked the hilt, but didn’t dare unsheath it.
Yu Tang caught his hand. “If you die first in this life, I’ll use this blade to cut my throat and find you.” Perhaps in their next life, they would still have their memories.
“A single rebirth consumes a lifespan of over a decade. It might take over thirty years next time.” Song Xiao placed the sword back in the box and covered it with the lid. The first hazy sixteen years of this life was in fact the lifespan taken in exchange for not forgetting the past.
Yu Tang’s arms slowly tightened around him, and he said hoa.r.s.ely, “I’m not afraid.”
I’m not afraid no matter how many years I lose; my only fear is forgetting you.
—- End —-