Chapter 48
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On Wednesday afternoon, Yang Wei took a half-day off from school and headed to the Civil Affairs Bureau with Qi Xiao Yan to legally register their remarriage.

The staff member who received them was the same one as last time, and he seemed to recognize her. After a stunned pause, he asked, "Hey, aren't you two the Goldbach guys from last time?"

Yang Wei: "..."

With a smile, she told him, "Goldbach eloped with Euler. Please help us through the remarriage formalities."

Staff member: "..."

After collecting their information, he began going through the procedures. Upon watching them signing their names on the application, he couldn't help but let out the sigh of an experienced veteran, "Establishing feelings requires a long period of mutual torture. The longer it lasts, the deeper one's emotions will be. Congratulations on your remarriage."

Yang Wei and Qi Xiao Yan simultaneously paused in their signing.

 

The two made their way out of the Civil Affairs Bureau, the divorce certificate on their hands back to a marriage certificate. Yang Wei opened the red folder she was holding and scanned through it. Nothing was different but the date.

"Congratulations, Mrs. Qi." A little smile playing about his lips, Qi Xiao Yan watched her. As she put away the certificate, Yang Wei whispered back, "No, it's you who should be congratulated, Stalker Mr. Qi."

Qi Xiao Yan didn't take offence at being called a stalker, but beside him, Yang Wei suddenly remembered something and halted in her tracks. Qi Xiao Yan glanced at her, puzzled. "What's the matter?"

Yang Wei pursed her lips in scorn. "Curly-bae, you never did propose to me."

She had gotten a license with him twice, yet he had never knelt down on one knee!

Qi Xiao Yan raised an eyebrow and pulled her into the car.

The peach blossoms lining the the road had already faded, leaving behind only lush green leaves. A few leaves blew in the wake of the black Audi as it made its way down the concrete road.

Back at the Civil Affairs Bureau, an older lady winked at her nearby colleague. "Don't forget my spicy jerky."

.........

 

Qi Xiao Yan drove home. As Yang Wei reclined on the sofa, he said to her, "I've made an appointment with the photo studio to take our wedding photos again this Saturday."

Stunned for a second, Yang Wei sat up cross-legged on the sofa. "Why are we taking those again?" She would have rathered that he got down on one knee and proposed marriage! With a big bouquet of roses!

"You graffiti-ed all over me, are you just going to let it hang there forever?"

Yang Wei thought about the wedding photo hanging in their bedroom and smiled. "I think it looks pretty good. Much better than the real thing."

Qi Xiao Yan gazed at her steadily, then a smile appeared on his lips as well. "I'll draw a version for you tonight, then. I've studied hard in your class for an entire semester, so I'm very confident."

Yang Wei: "..."

Flattening her lips, she said, "Shouldn't we still have a copy of the originals? Why don't we just reprint those?"

"I want to take another." Qi Xiao Yan's tone was as wayward and willful as any of the children she taught at school. "Although we won't be holding the wedding again, I want us to have a new beginning."

Yang Wei didn't fight it too hard. After all, what girl hated wearing a wedding dress? She would get to wear one twice in her lifetime, with the same man standing next to her.

This matter finalized, Qi Xiao Yan headed to the kitchen to cut her an apple. "By the way, my parents will be over on Friday. Let's have dinner at home. I can do the cooking."

Yang Wei picked up a small piece of apple and nodded. "Sounds good."

 

Before going to bed that night, Yang Wei took advantage of Qi Xiao Yan's shower to sneak out her phone, hidden under the pillow. She hadn't caught up on her web novels for a long time. Seeing Fang Cheng Ran yesterday had reminded her that she was currently following several novels online and wanted to see how they were doing.

Upon opening the app, the first thing she did was to go to Wait for Three More Minutes' page. Although they had undergone a great storm, Wait For Three More Minutes had insisted on completing their current work before retiring, and Yang Wei had been greatly impressed.

However, when the page loaded, she found that there had been no updates this week.

His prenatal depression must be quite serious.

On the top of the piece there was a long announcement, which Yang Wei read carefully--

With the increasing number of dog abusers from all walks of life, I see patterns of dog abuse emerging one after another. Right now, weak single dogs are in a severe survival crisis. As a leader of the single dogs, I feel the difficulty of surviving in this world deeply. Even when I'm just listening to music and relaxing, abuse can be sprung on me all unknowing. That's why from here on out, I have decided to devote myself to the great cause of defending single dogs. All my enthusiasm and love has been devoted to this cause - therefore, I have no time to update :)

Yang Wei: "..."

She had seen many authors drop their novels, but this was the first time she had seen such a mighty form of hiatus.

The latest comments under the announcement appeared extremely lively.

"So does that mean that there'll never be another update again until the author falls in love? [bye bye]"

"Don't be ridiculous, OP, if the author really fell in love then there would really never be an update again."

"The last time I saw such an unconventional novel drop announcement was on Boiled Lemon's microblog. [bye bye] "

"So the last post about love wasn't a public relations crisis but the real thing (⊙o⊙)?"

"Great God, isn't your boyfriend Octopus Ball? You're so outstanding, you shouldn't let fertilizer flow to outside fields :)"

Another little reader named 'Brother Fox Picking Flowers' wrote a long essay in a tone as warm as the spring breeze, caring for the author's broken heart and expressing that his own embrace was wide enough to accommodate them at any time.

"What are you doing so sneakily?" Who knew when Qi Xiao Yan had finished his shower, but he now stood behind Yang Wei, rubbing his wet hair with a towel and looking down at her.

Yang Wei felt like the mobile phone in her hand had suddenly become a hot potato. She turned the screen off hastily and smiled at him. "Sheng Lei wanted to have dinner on Friday. I told her I was too busy."

Qi Xiao Yan raised his eyebrows disbelievingly, but did not press the matter. She breathed out a sigh of relief, and looked up at him still drying off his hair. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and his gorgeous muscles were bare.

That perfectly sculpted chin connected to the arch of his neck, and his bent elbows formed a triangle with his shoulder and neck. The smooth lines were taut.

Yang Wei thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful picture of a handsome man taking a bath, then laughed with ill intentions. "Curly-bae, let me draw another picture of you."

Qi Xiao Yan's hands paused in his hair drying. "What do you want to draw this time?"

"A handsome man just out of the shower, of course."

His brow twitched just a little. "Need me to be nude?"

"No, it's fine as it is. It's more interesting to conceal a little." Yang Wei quickly dug out pencil and paper. It was time to give Curly-baby a little more education in the arts.

Qi Xiao Yan was very cooperative. Yang Wei posed him however she wanted, and he even agreed when she asked if she could touch his muscles, to feel the hardness for easy understanding.

Yang Wei's fair, tender paws ran over everywhere on his upper body. She poked his chest and abs for quite a while. After that came the abdominals. It was terribly convenient and would save her a lot of strokes of her pencil.

Qi Xiao Yan allowed her to do whatever she wished. Anyway, he had an excellent memory. Everything that she was touching right now he would pay back later.

When Yang Wei had finally touched enough, she began drawing in earnest. As he had told her before, she drew him very well. She could draw him with her eyes closed. When she was done, she showed him the finished product, elated. "Curly-bae, if I put your drawings into an album, it would sell like hot cakes."

Qi Xiao Yan made a faint sound, but then she continued, "But I won't publish it. These is my exclusive collection."

A sweet smile hung on her lips, and he almost seemed to smell the honeyed scent of cream. He couldn't help but feel a little thirsty and bent down to take a sip.

Yang Wei was caught off guard by the kiss. Her mouth opened slightly in surprise, allowing his tongue to make its way in to absorb more of her sweetness.

By the time she came back to reality, she had already been pressed onto the bed. Qi Xiao Yan held his own weight a little off her due to being careful about the little one in her womb, but the look in his eyes was so hot that Yang Wei felt her cheeks warm.

"Darling, did you hear what that worker said today?"

Qi Xiao Yan's voice was like sake, tasting light yet one's heart burned when it went down. Yang Wei replied vaguely. "Hm?" He bent, and as his words fell they brushed against her lips.

"Building emotions in a relationship takes a long period of torture. You've tortured me for a long time, and now it's my turn."

Yang Wei: "..."

Because there was that invisible but ubiquitous presence named Curly-baby, that torture could not be completely carried out. In the end, Yang Wei ended it with her own hands.

Qi Xiao Yan was breathing heavily into the crook of her neck. Yang Wei was also a little tired, her heart pulsing gently. He turned over and fell to her side. "Darling..."

"Nope, I won't come along, too tired." Yang Wei refused even before he had made the request. Qi Xiao Yan gazed at her for awhile, then a small smile fell on his lips. "We sweated so much. Let's take a shower."

He had said 'we', both him and her.

In chaos, Yang Wei was stripped naked and carried to the bathroom. They naturally tortured each other once again before the shower.

Qi Xiao Yan changed the sheets afterward, and Yang Wei climbed into bed, exhausted. He threw the sheets into the wash, followed her into bed, and cuddled her as they slept.

 

As promised, Qi Xiao Yan's parents came on Friday, bringing with them a load of supplements for pregnant women. They were all top of the line, with wrappers written in English and even French. Though Yang Wei didn't understand much of what they said, she accepted them all.

In the early days of her marriage to Qi Xiao Yan, Yang Wei had been worried about her relationship with her mother-in-law. After all, she had been poisoned for a long time by various TV dramas, and had the impression that all mother-in-laws must be as fierce as tigers. However, after having met his mother, she no longer had this worry - it wasn't that she was wonderfully kind, but that when one's mother-in-law was so highly educated, and on top of that was working wholeheartedly everyday to decode the human genome, one felt like the whole issue of mother-in-law vs daughter-in-law was not even cabbage on the table in the other person's eyes.

Both of Qi Xiao Yan's parents were researchers in the field of genetic engineering. Yang Wei didn't know much about it, so most of the time she felt quite unable to comprehend anything her mother-in-law was saying. For example, Qi Xiao Yan was at that very moment sitting with his parents and chatting together, and Yang Wei could only feel that it sounded much like Martian.

She lamented in her heart about this horrible family, at the same time reflecting deeply on her own lack of book smarts.

"Wei Wei," Mother Qi suddenly called out to her. Yang Wei came back to her senses with a jolt. She could only remember the double helix structure and that genes had base pairs, and if her mother-in-law was to test her, she might not be able to answer.

There was some anxiety in Yang Wei’s heart. Looking at Mother Qi wasn't at all like looking at one's mother-in-law, but more like watching the class teacher during a reading.

"Pregnancy is rough, hang in there. It was quite bad for me when I was first pregnant with Xiao Yan, but he was quite a clever child and refrained from kicking me all the time," Mother Qi merely shared her own parenting experience. Hearing gentle words greatly reassured Yang Wei.

As the two chatted in the living room, Qi Xiao Yan got up to cook in the kitchen. Father Qi also went to help out, which somewhat embarrassed Yang Wei. In the kitchen, Father Qi too stressed to Qi Xiao Yan to be kinder and more considerate to his wife.

When dinner was over, he sent his parents back home, leaving Yang Wei alone in the living room, studying the various supplement bottles.

 

Upon getting back, Qi Xiao Yan made his way over to her and sat down, holding her naturally in his arms. Yang Wei had her hands full with an English manual, which she was devouring enthusiastically. He chuckled softly over the top of her head. “Darling, do you really understand that?”

“Of course I do!" Yang Wei frowned, cross, and gracefully lifted up her head to glare at him. "I was supposed to study abroad. My English score was always in the top three in the grade."

Not knowing what she was thinking of, he could only hold her tight. "If you hadn't married me, would you have gone abroad?"

"Probably." After all, her father had been a great proponent of the matter.

Qi Xiao Yan wet his lips. In a low voice, he asked, "Do you blame me?"

"Of course not. Actually, I wasn't terribly keen on the idea of going abroad. I stayed overseas for a long time in elementary school, so I wasn't too fervent about it."

His gaze drooped and he kissed her ear. "I was very lucky to have met you at the right time."

"Of course you're lucky, to have married a clever and beautiful wife like me." Yang Wei turned her head to face him, a sly smile in her clear eyes. "And come to think of it, why didn't you tell your parents about our divorce? Were you going to hide it from them for the rest of your life?"

Qi Xiao Yan looked into her eyes and smiled suddenly. It was as though the sun had just broken through the clouds. "Of course not. I just had faith that we would be together."

 

Translating the last few chapters of a story is always a slog for me. There's usually no longer any interesting complications going on, it's all just sugar (and spice :P). But we are almost at the end!

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