Gu Jing stood in front of the Department of Registry building. The sunlight brought back her soul. But the bright red marriage certificate and wedding photo in her hand blinded her eyes.
Gu Jing remembered ten minutes ago she signed a form in front of a noisy crowd, five minutes ago the noisy crowd dragged her to a chair and a photographer took a photo of her and Zhen Lang.
Gu Jing looked pitifully at her other hand and her signature on a copy of hers and Zhen Lang’s marriage registration form stared back at her. After more than twenty-five years of life, she realised in the eyes of the law she had to take responsibility for her signature.
Gu Jing looked closely at the wedding photo. In the wedding photo Zhen Lang looked handsome in a tailored suit, but she sat next to Zhen Lang in baggy clothes. She thought compared to past wedding photos taken at the Department of Registry, she looked like the scruffiest bride.
Gu Jing slapped her cheek and she berated herself for not prioritising her thoughts. She shouldn’t be thinking about whether she looked beautiful and compatible with Zhen Lang in the wedding photo. It was more important for her to think of a way to annul the marriage.
‘Is there a fly on your cheek?’ Zhen Lang asked. He wrapped an arm around Gu Jing’s shoulder. ‘The car’s on the left.’
‘Um,’ Gu Jing said.
Gu Jing pretended the marriage certificate, form and photo in her hands didn’t exist and that nothing happened.
Zhen Lang laughed. ‘You forgot something.’
Gu Jing patted her baggy clothes and she felt her wallet in her pants pocket. She didn’t think she forgot anything, but the certificate, form and photo in her hands felt heavy.
‘I didn’t forget anything,’ Gu Jing said and she glared at her heavy hands.
‘Son, mummy doesn’t need you anymore,’ Zhen Lang said.
Gu Jing panicked and she looked frantically for Dou Dou. Finally she saw Dou Dou hugged Zhen Lang’s neck and Dou Dou happily pulled Zhen Lang’s shirt.
‘Give Dou Dou to me,’ Gu Jing said.
The moment Gu Jing’s hands touched Dou Dou’s arms, he pouted his lips, turned his back toward her and he clutched Zhen Lang’s neck.
Zhen Lang’s arm moved down Gu Jing’s back and he wrapped his arm around her waist. ‘Let me hold Dou Dou.’
‘That’s right, it’s rare for a playboy to willingly change. Let him take responsibility for his wife and son. Let him bond with his son,’ the woman said.
‘It’s good to see him bonding with his son. A good man is someone who is responsible. It looks like my wife and I did a good deed,’ the man said.
Gu Jing turned her head around and her face twitched. ‘You’re both still here?’
‘Looking at you two newlyweds make me happier than I was on my wedding day,’ the woman said.
Gu Jing couldn’t believe the married couple who were going to divorce stayed married and hugged each other.
‘Wife, let’s not divorce, ok?’ the man asked.
‘Then will you give me your bank card and all your a.s.sets including shares?’ the woman asked.
‘If I have anything in my bank account or any a.s.sets I’ll give it to you immediately. But at the moment I don’t have anything,’ the man said.
Gu Jing looked at the happy married couple and she cringed.
‘Wife, let’s go home,’ Zhen Lang said.
Gu Jing shivered and she felt like her body was thrown on top of a snowy mountain. She felt the heavens didn’t own eyes, because the heavens allowed her to marry the jinx.
Gu Jing grabbed Zhen Lang’s shirt collar and she held up the certificate, form and photo. ‘How do I annul a marriage?’
‘Annul?’ the man and woman asked loud enough to pierce Gu Jing’s eardrums.
‘Ok. Then Mr Vet, how do we get a divorce?’ Gu Jing said.
‘Divorce?’ the man and woman asked louder.
Zhen Lang pretended to look pitifully at Gu Jing. ‘Are you joking? Now that you’re holding my home, land, bank card and shares in your hands, you want to dump me? You’re not loyal woman.’
‘That’s right! You’re not a loyal woman!’ the man and woman cried out.
‘I… I’m not holding your bank card,’ Gu Jing said softly.
Zhen Lang took out his wallet and he tucked his money and his silver bank card into Gu Jing’s hand. ‘It’s yours.’
‘Can’t you see he’s remorseful? If you can’t forgive now, you can be angry with him for a little while. But divorce isn’t a joke,’ the woman said.
‘That’s right. You’ve only been married to him for ten minutes, you shouldn’t be thinking about divorce. You two should hurry up and hold hands then go home and be happy together,’ the man said.
Gu Jing couldn’t believe the married couple turned on her and she didn’t know where their support for her disappeared. The married couple changed to Zhen Lang’s side. She could only glare at Zhen Lang and wait for a private opportunity to give Zhen Lang a beating.
‘Wife…’ Zhen Lang called. He hugged Gu Jing. ‘Shouldn’t we find a good restaurant to celebrate our wedding day?’
Gu Jing forced herself to smile and she sat inside Zhen Lang’s car with Dou Dou. The married couple waved and they looked enviously at her and Zhen Lang.
Zhen Lang parked in front a cla.s.sy restaurant. He carried Dou Dou and he held Gu Jing’s hand. ‘Let’s go and eat.’
‘Only a monster would celebrate a wedding day with you,’ Gu Jing said.
Zhen Lang smiled. ‘It’s lunch time, let’s eat lunch.’
In that moment Gu Jing didn’t want to be together with Zhen Lang for another second. ‘I want to go home and eat.’
‘Ok. Let’s go home and tell my parents, my dad-in-law and mum-in-law the good news,’ Zhen Lang said.
Gu Jing silently opened the pa.s.senger door and she walked outside the car.
Gu Jing worried if her parents and Zhen Lang’s parents found out they were married then she couldn’t dump Zhen Lang for the rest of her life. She was determined to get Zhen Lang to divorce her without neither of their parents’ knowledge.
Gu Jing smiled sweetly. ‘Let’s go and eat, my treat.’
Zhen Lang lifted Gu Jing’s chin and he smiled. ‘It’s only right if you let me pay for our first meal together as husband and wife.’
Gu Jing didn’t want to make a big deal about who would pay for lunch. She strode into the restaurant, she sat at a table and she silently waited for the waiters to bring lunch dishes to her table.
The waiters quickly brought lunch dishes onto Gu Jing’s table. She buried her head in her bowl and she ate the lunch dishes. On the inside she resented everything that happened during the whole day.
‘The way you eat is scarier than how children eat,’ Zhen Lang said.
Gu Jing lifted her head and she realised Zhen Lang held a bowl of soup and a spoon in his hands. She watched him feed Dou Dou, who sat in a high chair for children next to him. They looked like a pristine father and son. But she was a messy eater with rice stuck on her baggy clothes.
Gu Jing put her chopsticks down on the table. ‘Why did you ambush me? Don’t think that I don’t know what you did.’
Zhen Lang blew on the spoon of soup and he carefully fed Dou Dou. ‘I didn’t.’
‘I don’t believe you!’ Gu Jing said.
Zhen Lang put the spoon onto a clean plate. ‘I truly didn’t.’
‘Then why did you deceived me about going together with Chen Wei to the Department of Registry?’ Gu Jing asked.
‘Chen Wei bought a small apartment here. As her former cla.s.smate, shouldn’t I help her? There are authentication services at the Department of Registry too,’ Zhen Lang said.
‘Then why do you need to bring your family birth record? If you were helping her to authenticate property ownership then why did you two need to line up to register a marriage?’ Gu Jing asked.
‘After we moved to the city we didn’t update our family birth records. My mum-in-law said she’s busy and she asked me to update your family birth record for you. Of course I can grant my mum-in-law’s small request. As for Chen Wei, she isn’t married. To prove she’s not married and is the sole owner of her small apartment, she needed authentication doc.u.ments that shows she’s not married,’ Zhen Lang said.
Gu Jing felt another thunder bolt struck her head and she fumed.
‘If she has no relations with you, why would she buy a small apartment here?’ Gu Jing asked.
Gu Jing didn’t believe Zhen Lang and Chen Wei were only former cla.s.smates, because Chen Wei travelled a thousand miles to buy a small apartment in a small country town. She suspected Zhen Lang and Chen Wei were lovers.
Zhen Lang choked. He coughed and he wiped the corner of his eyes. ‘Don’t you remember Chen Wei’s cla.s.sroom was next to our cla.s.sroom in our senior year? Didn’t you know Chen Wei was born here?’
‘In our senior year, all the school girls were deceived by you. I focused on training, why would I pay attention to where she’s born?’ Gu Jing said.
Gu Jing didn’t remember the school girls in her own cla.s.s let alone the school girls in another cla.s.s. But she still wanted to hear a proper explanation from Zhen Lang.
‘Then why did she show up at your parent’s home?’ Gu Jing asked.
Zhen Lang wiped Dou Dou’s mouth. He lifted Dou Dou and he hugged Dou Dou. Then he gently patted Dou Dou’s back. ‘Because I agreed to be her guarantee that she’s not married, she came to my parents’ home to thank me. Afterward my parents asked her to stay for dinner.’
‘She cooked dinner at your house!’ Gu Jing said.
Gu Jing didn’t believe Chen Wei was only a guest, because Chen Wei cooked the dinner dishes!
Dou Dou burped and Zhen Lang put Dou Dou back into the high chair.
‘She learned how to cook foreign dishes while she lived overseas. She told my parents she wanted them to taste new flavour combinations. You know my parents’ curiosity is like a child’s curiosity so of course they let her cook whatever foreign dishes she wanted,’ Zhen Lang said.
‘Are you saying everything is a coincidence?’ Gu Jing asked.
Gu Jing didn’t understand why the heavens wanted to play with her by giving her a fate full of suffering.
‘No…’ Zhen Lang said. He shook a finger in front of Gu Jing’s face. ‘Everything that happened is called live by the sword, die by the sword.’
Gu Jing realised everything happened because of her own actions. If she didn’t prank Zhen Lang and stopped him from marrying someone else then she wouldn’t implicate herself.
Zhen Lang picked up his bowl and he happily ate the lunch dishes left on the table. Everything tasted delicious to him like he tasted food for the first time.
‘Mr Vet, can we make a compromise about our marriage?’ Gu Jing asked.
Gu Jing felt like she sat on hot coals and in her eyes were antic.i.p.ation. She struggled to patiently wait for Zhen Lang to finish eating.
The moment Zhen Lang put his chopsticks down, Gu Jing prompted him. ‘Compromise…’
Zhen Lang wiped his mouth. ‘I’m happy to make any compromises with you about our marriage. But I’m not going to divorce in this lifetime.’
Gu Jing felt like her last hope disappeared.
‘If you want to dump me then why are you holding all my a.s.sets in your hands?’ Zhen Lang asked.
Gu Jing quickly gave the marriage doc.u.mentation and Zhen Lang’s bank card back to Zhen Lang. ‘I’m giving everything back to you.’
Zhen Lang glanced at Gu Jing’s hands but he didn’t take back anything from her hands. ‘Anything that leaves the door has no way to retreat.’
Gu Jing understood Zhen Lang meant if he entered her household then he had no intention of leaving her household.
‘But… we’re truly not compatible,’ Gu Jing said.
‘Not compatible? Is it hard for you to look at my face?’ Zhen Lang asked.
Gu Jing shook her head, because she thought if Zhen Lang’s face was considered hard to look at then ninety-nine percent of the male population would be sent to the zoo.
‘Am I poor?’ Zhen Lang asked.
Gu Jing shook her head, because if Zhen Lang was considered poor then rich emperors didn’t exist in the past.
‘Do I know how to do housework?’ Zhen Lang asked.
‘Of course you know how to do housework!’ Gu Jing said.
Gu Jing thought anything Zhen Lang cooked was delicious, he kept his home clean and tidy and she felt he ranked first cla.s.s as a househusband.
‘Do I have any bad addictions?’ Zhen Lang asked.
Gu Jing knew Zhen Lang was the definition of self-control, moderation and sternness. Gu Jing shook her head to the point her head spun.
‘Do you think I can take good care of children?’ Zhen Lang asked.
Gu Jing glanced at Dou Dou who happily played in the high chair and she nodded her head.
‘Do you think I’ll be a good husband?’ Zhen Lang asked.
Gu Jing realised she couldn’t deny Zhen Lang would be a good husband. ‘It seems like you’ll be a good husband.’
‘Then it’s settled,’ Zhen Lang said. He waved a waiter over to pay the bill. Then he patted Gu Jing’s arm. ‘Wife, let’s live a good life together.’
End of Chapter Thirty-Nine