The words Peng Yuan had spoken that day struck like a heavy blow against her heart, and even after finishing dinner, they still echoed in Yunque’s ears.

She had never imagined the truth of the matter would be like this.

And she had never imagined that someone as proud and aloof as Lu Rangchen would go to such lengths for her sake — bending his pride, humbling himself.

It might sound heartless to admit, but at the time, Yunque had genuinely believed Lu Rangchen had quickly moved on to someone else. Even later, when he came to Australia looking for her, she still couldn’t bring herself to believe that no other woman had ever appeared in his life.

After all, men were like that.

They could love someone deeply, madly — and it wouldn’t stop them from getting involved with others.

And he was Lu Rangchen, of all people.

Yet now, Yunque felt she had never truly known him at all.

He wasn’t that kind of man.

The love he gave her was completely, purely hers.

If anything, it was she who had been wavering from start to finish — who had never stood firm, never trusted him.

Perhaps it was guilt working through her. All the way back to the apartment after dinner, Yunque held his hand unusually tight.

Lu Rangchen had been holding back for a long time too. The moment the apartment door swung open, he pulled her inside, nudged her knee aside, and pressed her against the door, claiming her lips.

He always liked doing this — even back when they first got together. No matter where they were or what the occasion, he would always pull her into some quiet corner away from the noise and kiss her there, unrestrained.

And this apartment near Jingda — this had been the only place they had ever been close like this. Even though the air carried the dusty, long-uninhabited scent of a space left alone too long, the familiar feeling still made Yunque’s head spin, her heart stirring with that bittersweet ache of returning somewhere that had once been home.

She let herself be kissed until she was nearly breathless.

When she finally opened her eyes again, Lu Rangchen drew back, his forehead resting against hers, his low, rich voice slightly husky as he said, “Peng Yuan spilled my secrets to you again, didn’t he?”

His warm breath tickled behind her ear, and Lu Rangchen was gently kneading her earlobe with his fingers — deliberately teasing her.

Yunque had no choice but to hold her breath as she looked at him and said, “Who told you to keep it from me?”

She looked away after saying it, a thread of quiet displeasure in her eyes.

Lu Rangchen curved his lips slightly upward, and suddenly felt a flicker of satisfaction.

Good thing Peng Yuan had confessed to him, too — otherwise he might never have known that those rather foolish gestures of his from back then had not been entirely without effect on Yunque.

At the very least, she had genuinely cared.

Lu Rangchen pinched her chin and tipped it upward, forcing her to meet his gaze. He raised an eyebrow and said, “I see it clearly now — you don’t just lack confidence in yourself. You have no faith in me either.”

She was seen through in an instant.

Yunque’s ears flushed warm.

She shook her head to protest, but Lu Rangchen bent down and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips, coaxing her softly, “What? Am I really so unworthy of your trust?”

“……”

If it had been before, Yunque might have actually nodded.

But now, she believed in him.

She tilted her head back slightly to look at him, and said, pressing her lips together, “It’s not that I don’t trust you… it’s that I don’t trust human nature.”

It was rare for the two of them to have an opportunity for this kind of honest, deep conversation.

Her eyes shifted gently as she said, “Lu Rangchen, I’m not like you. I didn’t grow up surrounded by love. In everything, I habitually assume the worst — it’s the only way I can anticipate danger, so I don’t have to worry about being unable to bear it when the worst actually happens.”

“Your mother must have hated me back then. She probably still does now… so even though I held my ground against your grandfather’s intimidation, I still had no confidence that you and I could last very long.”

“You’re so wonderful, so remarkable — so many people are drawn to you.”

Yunque let out a quiet, self-deprecating laugh. “What if one day you really do grow tired of me? The pain I’d have to bear then would far outweigh what I’d feel at that very moment.”

She said this, then looked at him with gently trembling lashes. “But I know — I’m being very selfish —”

“You’re not selfish.”

Lu Rangchen’s eyes darkened, drowning her in their depth. “I was the one who was too immature back then.”

His thumb pad slowly brushed Yunque’s face, the man’s throat working in a quiet, deliberate movement. He said, “Thank you, Yunque. Thank you for protecting yourself back then. And thank you for coming back — for giving us another chance.”

If Yunque had not been willing to return and look at him again —

Lu Rangchen feared he would never have had the courage to try for her once more, not for the rest of his life.

He had never felt so fortunate as he did now. Even though eight unbearable years had stretched between them.

And so —

“Can you give me a little more faith in you, starting now?”

When Lu Rangchen said this, his eyes were deep and clear, filled entirely with Yunque’s reflection. He said, “From this moment on, let me prove to you — I am far more dependable than you have ever imagined.”

“……”

Yunque’s eyes grew faintly moist. She curved her lips upward and nodded, saying softly: Alright.

Perhaps it was because of that promise.

That afternoon, the two of them ultimately decided to go register their marriage.

To be honest, it was rather rushed.

They hadn’t arrived home until one in the afternoon, and Yunque still needed to take a little time to dress herself properly.

After all, this was a major life event — she didn’t want to be too casual about it.

Fortunately, the marriage registration office happened to be at the nearest Civil Affairs Bureau to their apartment. Since it wasn’t a weekend or any particularly popular date, the bureau wasn’t crowded.

The suddenness of it all left Peng Yuan fairly flustered. He said he had already booked a follow-up photographer and a makeup artist for them — there was no way any of that could happen now.

While both sides were still on the phone with each other —

Lu Rangchen had already hailed a taxi and left with Yunque.

Both of them were wearing white button-up shirts — the discounted kind Yunque had deliberately bought at the shopping center before coming. Even so, Lu Rangchen wore it in a way that couldn’t conceal his natural, refined elegance.

Hearing Peng Yuan’s frantic distress over the phone, Lu Rangchen clicked his tongue and said, “Don’t make it such a big deal.”

He glanced at Yunque and said, “My wife is beautiful — she photographs well in anything. Just come yourself, that’s all we need.”

Being called “wife” was the first time she had ever heard it from him.

Yunque wasn’t sure why, but her shoulder — the one he had his arm around — went rigid for a split second, and her face flushed slightly warm. But then she thought: in just a little while, that title would be entirely official. She would have to get used to it sooner or later.

Still, she was at least a little nervous.

When they arrived at the Civil Affairs Bureau, Yunque discovered that her household registration booklet had been left forgotten in her luggage.

Lu Rangchen was truly amused by exasperation. He said, “Zhu Yunque, did you do this on purpose? Trying to back out of the wedding?”

Yunque’s eyelids twitched. She said she hadn’t.

For once without any of her usual sharp temper, she said to Lu Rangchen, “Wait here for me. I’ll take a taxi back to get it.”

She turned to go, but Lu Rangchen caught her and pulled her back right away. “I’ll call Peng Yuan — he can bring it over with him.”

He said this and then narrowed his eyes. “You stay right here and don’t move.”

He looked at Yunque with a meaningful, loaded glance, then let out a half-laughing, vaguely threatening sound. “Who knows whether you’re really going back to get it, or whether you’ll just hop on a flight and disappear back to your hometown.”

Yunque: “……”

Between the two of them, who exactly was the one with no confidence?

Unable to argue with him, Yunque ultimately let Lu Rangchen hand the household booklet errand off to Peng Yuan.

Peng Yuan proved quite reliable.

Not long after Lu Rangchen called him, he came rushing over out of breath, carrying the casual mirrorless camera he sometimes played around with, and Yunque’s household registration booklet.

By that point, Lu Rangchen and Yunque had already taken their queue number and were sitting in the waiting area.

Peng Yuan handed the booklet directly to Lu Rangchen.

Lu Rangchen took it and reflexively flipped to the first page — where he discovered that the household head listed was Yunque herself, not Zhu Ping’an or Feng Yanlai.

He turned his head to look at Yunque.

Yunque played dumb and said, “What’s wrong?”

Lu Rangchen let out a muffled laugh, placed the booklet in her hands, and said, “Didn’t expect you to be the household head.”

Yunque took it, pressed her lips together without any particular surprise, and said, “You’re one too, aren’t you?”

He had separated his household registration early on as well.

But that wasn’t what Lu Rangchen was referring to. He raised an eyebrow. “When did you separate yours?”

“……”

Her expression hesitated for a fraction.

Yunque’s cheeks bloomed with a faint blush, and she told the truth anyway. “After I came back from the capital.”

She didn’t look at Lu Rangchen after saying it.

As if one more glance from him would leave her little secret completely exposed.

Lu Rangchen curved his lips slightly, and didn’t press further — he only reached over and held her hand.

Without either of them knowing it, that moment was captured by the photography-obsessed man standing nearby.

Warming up to the task, Peng Yuan directed the two of them to switch poses a few times and took more shots. But before ten minutes had even passed, their number was called.

The truth was, before they came, Yunque had privately done her research.

Reading what people had written online — all those elaborate, dramatic accounts — she had somehow convinced herself the process would be very complicated.

In reality, it wasn’t complicated at all.

It was essentially just confirming that neither party had a spouse, that there was no direct blood relation or collateral relation within three generations between them, and then submitting photos and documents.

The only issue was that they had come in such a rush that they hadn’t taken a photo in advance.

So they had Peng Yuan take one on the spot.

Peng Yuan was something of a genius at this — he fiddled around for a moment and got it printed, and even adjusted the color tones slightly for both of them.

To be honest, Yunque and Lu Rangchen were both exceptionally good-looking.

There was truly nothing to retouch.

If there was one imperfection, it was that Yunque was a little nervous, and the expression on her face in the photo with Lu Rangchen looked slightly unnatural.

Lu Rangchen, on the other hand, was as composed as ever — lips curved into that lazy, slanted smile, and with that effortlessly charming, rakish energy of his, just looking at him was enough to make anyone’s heart race.

Once the photo was submitted —

It was time for the official signing.

Lu Rangchen signed his name the way he would sign a contract — clean, decisive, his pen strokes confident and deliberate. Yunque was slower, each stroke neat and graceful.

Though she couldn’t explain why, by the time she finished, there was a faint, thin sheen of sweat on her palm.

It was Lu Rangchen who took her hand in his and gently kneaded it a few times before she felt like herself again.

The final step was the oath.

Though it still felt slightly unfamiliar, Yunque had lost that earlier tension. Or perhaps it was because their relationship had now been definitively sealed — nothing could shake them anymore.

That grounded, settled feeling of having both feet on solid ground was new and unforgettable to Yunque.

Coming out of the Civil Affairs Bureau afterward, her heart felt considerably lighter too.

In any case, the feeling was completely unlike anything before. It was like even the arm Lu Rangchen had around her shoulders had grown more certain.

Even Peng Yuan changed how he addressed them. He said, “I’ve got a few things to take care of on my end — wouldn’t want to interrupt you two newlyweds’ private time. Eat, drink, enjoy yourselves. Just call if you need me.”

Newlyweds — the word made Yunque’s cheeks flush hot.

Lu Rangchen, perfectly composed, let out a small laugh and said: Sounds good. We’ll have you over for dinner sometime.

And so they bid farewell to Peng Yuan.

Peng Yuan was quite considerate — he left the car for Lu Rangchen to use.

Lu Rangchen unhurriedly took Yunque’s hand and got into the car.

In the privacy of that enclosed space, just the two of them, there was finally time to have a proper look at the marriage certificate.

But the one who kept turning it over and over was not Yunque — it was Lu Rangchen.

The man curved his lips in a faint smile, one hand holding hers, the other examining the certificate front and back several times before casually snapping a photo of it.

When he looked up, he found Yunque pointing her phone at him — and heard the soft click of a photo being taken.

Lu Rangchen narrowed his eyes slightly, smiling. “What are you taking?”

Yunque, her little heart hiding something, curved the faintest arc at the corner of her mouth. “Nothing. You’re imagining things.”

Without another word to him, she looked down and opened her photo-editing app to busy herself with something — though what exactly, she wasn’t sure even she could say.

She paid him no mind, so Lu Rangchen leaned over to peek.

The fresh, clean scent of gardenia drifted into his nose as he bent his head and saw that Yunque had not just stolen one candid shot of him — she had taken multiple, from multiple angles, and every single one looked good.

That irresistible urge to tease her rose up again.

Lu Rangchen couldn’t hold back a muffled laugh, and deliberately pinched her cheek with lazy ease. “So you’ve been secretly photographing your husband.”

The word husband rolled off his tongue openly and boldly.

Yunque’s heart gave an inexplicable lurch. She couldn’t help but turn her head and meet Lu Rangchen’s gaze.

Their eyes locked.

Something unspoken surged and pulled between them in silence.

Just as her heart rate kept climbing to that peak — Lu Rangchen suddenly laughed and asked her, “What are you thinking about? You look so dazed.”

She couldn’t quite explain why, but Yunque very much wanted to get back at him.

So she pressed her lips together, suppressing a mischievously straight face, and stated with all apparent sincerity, “Lin Zhi said one look at you and she could tell your reproductive vitality is very strong.”

“……”

“I was wondering if it’s true.”