Page 137 of He Is My Bride
“Damn right I don’t!” Li Ying declared proudly. “All I need to worry about is being pregnant for my husband and raising an army of little Wus to fight the Wangs!”
Anne’s groan on the line was like an audible facepalm. “I’m happy you and the dress are safe. Just… lay low for now, okay? I’m sure Wu Yiheng and his PR team have told you.”
“I’m basically under house arrest by Uncle Yiheng, so yeah. Well, talk to you later, Anne. Bye bye!”
“Bye, Li Ying.”
—
It was the third day of the new year, and traditionally people avoided house visiting on this day as it was believed to bring discord. Instead, visiting the dead was something the Wus had usually done on the third day.
Due to the entire PR hassle in the morning, then dealing with the lawyer and the police all noon, Hanjun hadn’t been able to join the visitations with the rest of the family, so later that afternoon, he was getting ready to visit the graves on his own.
Hanrong called him. Li Ying didn’t hear what they discussed as he was distracting himself with his phone, but afterwards Hanjun told him that Hanrong would come pick him up and join him.
“Huh, didn’t he visit the graves with the others already?” Li Ying asked.
“He did, but we have always gone together before, so he asked if I wanted him to come with me regardless.”
“Oh, alright then. By the way, we didn’t talk about this, but it’s alright if I come with you, right?”
Li Ying could read even less from Hanjun’s expression as usual. The man considered before speaking:
“You should avoid going out in public for a while.”
“Hanjun,” Li Ying spoke gently, “is it really about that, or would you rather not have me there? Just say what you want, it’s okay if it feels too… I don’t know, intimate or something? I understand.”
Hanjun stood quiet again, looking out of the window. Li Ying waited patiently for him to find the words.
“…You can come.”
“I would like to.” Li Ying got up and went to Hanjun, hugged his waist, and looked up into his eyes, trying to read the man. “I want to be involved in things that are important to you. Is that okay?”
Hanjun met his gaze, although his expression was still guarded. Li Ying loved him so much, even when he was being distant. Li Ying thought he was like a star sometimes: cold, bright, and far away, yet still perfectly lovely.
“Mm. I want you to come,” Hanjun said.
Li Ying smiled and kissed him. “Let me get dressed, then.”
—
Hanrong picked them up and drove them to the graveyard where the Wus had been buried for generations. It was an overcast day, now turning into dusk, yet the gloom was pierced by hundreds of lanterns, lit over the rows upon rows of graves. Incense smoke coiled in the air, and people here and there were praying to the departed, leaving offerings of food, drink, and joss paper.
Hanrong was recounting to Li Ying the names of all who were buried here, what year they had deceased, who they had been in the family, and Li Ying listened carefully. Li Ying knew it would behisfamily history through marriage, if fate would be so kind.
Fate, or Wu Yiheng.
Hanjun was quiet. They stopped by the graves to light incense and pray, the previous ones having burned out, yet the offerings made by earlier visitors were still fresh.
“These graves are so well cared for, so clean!” Li Ying noted. “Sure enough, they are Wus even in the afterlife.”
“An apt observation.” Hanrong chuckled. “Let us pay our respects.”
Li Ying lit an incense stick between his palms, then prostrated thrice before great-grandfather Wu’s grave, the company founder’s final resting place.
Hello, great-grandfather Wu! My name is Li Ying and I love your great-grandson very much! I would have it so that your grandson Wu Yiheng blesses our marriage. Could you help us?
Li Ying had an eerie feeling of being observed.…I confess! I’m actually a man!he said in his mind, staying bowed down for his third prostration.
