Lu Yicheng and Jiang Ruoqiao registered their marriage in early September.

The weather that day was beautiful. Lu Yicheng wore the white shirt Jiang Ruoqiao had given him, looking every bit the part of someone remarkable. Jiang Ruoqiao had put on the stunning dress that Yun Jia and the others had pooled their money to buy her. Even Lu Siyan was dressed in new clothes. The family of three strode into the civil affairs bureau in grand fashion. For Lu Siyan, this was a completely singular experience — he was actually witnessing his parents registering their marriage… how extraordinarily remarkable. After Jiang Ruoqiao and Lu Yicheng filled out the paperwork and had their registration photo taken, they walked out each holding a fresh, newly issued red marriage booklet.

And just like that, they became husband and wife.

Jiang Ruoqiao held the red booklet in her hands and didn’t feel much of anything yet, but Lu Yicheng kept flipping through his marriage certificate, a smile playing on his lips, and then tucking it back into his bag with the same careful reverence one might use to store a passbook. They were newlyweds, and yet they had brought their child along to celebrate at a restaurant.

Jiang Ruoqiao posted a photo of the marriage certificate to her social media —

*[Never in a million years did I expect that I, of all people, would end up with the “married too young” storyline…]*

That was the end of any peace.

From the moment she made that post, her phone vibrated without stopping — notifications piling up, comments and messages flooding in —

*[?? Let me check the calendar — today shouldn’t be April Fools’ Day, right??]*

*[I’ve never admired anyone in my life, but starting today I’m going to admire Lu Yicheng. How on earth did he pull this off?]*

*[I always thought you were playing the “living life freely” storyline. Never expected you’d get married young. Wow, you’re the first person in my entire social circle to get married — impressive, seriously impressive. Lu Yicheng — class act, absolutely class act!]*

*[Let’s crowdfund a book deal for Master Lu Yicheng, shall we? I need his secrets. He must be carrying some unbelievable technique!]*

Not to mention their shock — Jiang Ruoqiao herself firmly believed that if her twenty-one-year-old self had been told she’d be married before twenty-three, she wouldn’t have believed it for a second.

She had to admit: Lu Yicheng really did have something special going for him.

Someone like Lu Yicheng — once he had truly, officially become a husband, how could he hold back? He beat Jiang Ruoqiao to it and posted first. He barely ever posted on social media — maybe a handful of times a year — but every post since getting together with Jiang Ruoqiao had been about her, to the point where his friends, colleagues, and classmates, upon seeing a new post from him, didn’t even need to read the content to know it was going to be about showing off their relationship.

Only this time, without any warning, he had dropped an absolute bombshell.

He announced that he had registered their marriage!

He Li: *[?? So the reason you took leave today was to go register?! And your boss is still single, by the way — don’t you feel even a little bit of guilt?]*

Lu Yicheng replied: *[No. I’m planning to take my honeymoon leave next.]*

He Li: *[.]*

Lu Yicheng: *[Get your gift ready.]*

Wang Jiangfeng: *[Old Lu, old Lu — you become a married man without any of us knowing? Seriously, write a book. Guaranteed bestseller!]*

Lu Yicheng: *[Get your gift ready.]*

Du Yu: *[Holy cow holy cow holy cow, you really are the kind of person who stays silent and then stuns everyone, Luge!!]*

Lu Yicheng: *[Get your gift ready.]*

…

Everyone who could possibly know, now knew. And no one had seen it coming — that they would get married, and this soon, before even finishing their master’s degrees. Jiang Ruoqiao and Lu Yicheng kept a fairly low profile on campus now. With each new class came new stars; they had both graduated from their undergraduate years, and there were few underclassmen who still paid close attention to them. The people who had once followed their story had all graduated and were now busy adults navigating the world.

But on the day they registered their marriage, old threads about them on the campus forum were dug up and brought back to the top.

Other underclassmen: ???

Everyone was thoroughly confused.

Those who had been following from the beginning responded excitedly: I highly recommend everyone go and catch up on this one — it’s a particularly sweet, particularly intense story. And most importantly, the two main characters have now gotten married. This is true love!

And so the underclassmen with time to spare searched up the story of Jiang Ruoqiao and Lu Yicheng, then came back to the thread in a flood of enthusiastic replies.

*— I was a first-year when Jiang-xuejie and Lu-xuejie were in their third year. I watched their whole saga unfold back then. Now they’re in grad school and I’m almost graduating — I never expected to witness the ending this quickly. Jiang-xuejie is genuinely stunning and incredibly impressive — I hear she’s going to become a conference interpreter, and any English major knows how elite that is. Lu-xuejie is the same — to me, they really are the stuff of romance dramas, mutually striving and growing together. Campus beauty and campus king — they’re absolutely the perfect match.*

*— First-year here… so sad I missed watching their love story from the beginning. It must have been so exciting…*

*— Oh, it absolutely was! I still remember Lu-xuejie delivering breakfast to Jiang-xuejie and the entire girls’ dormitory building erupting in a frenzy!*

Jiang Ruoqiao had always believed that life was about the everyday — firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea.

It was only after being with Lu Yicheng that she understood: beyond all of that, there was also romance that never wore thin.

When she thought about it carefully, perhaps that was why she had been willing to become Mrs. Lu this early.

For nearly three years of their relationship, Jiang Ruoqiao and Lu Yicheng had been in a semi-cohabiting state. They hadn’t truly lived together — Jiang Ruoqiao spent most of her time in the dorm. The reason it could be called “semi-cohabiting” was that for the better part of every month, she had all three of her daily meals at his place. They often went to the farmers’ market or the supermarket together, then came home laden with bags to cook. At the end of a late evening, Lu Yicheng would walk her back to the dorm.

Before the marriage registration, Lu Yicheng and Jiang Ruoqiao had already been looking for a new rental apartment.

Lu Yicheng had plans to buy a place eventually, but they both wanted to wait a bit longer — between selling the old apartment and what they had saved, they could only afford something on the smaller side, and he privately hoped for something bigger. At the very least she should have a walk-in closet; at the very least Siyan’s room should be properly sized. The only path forward was to push harder and get into a position to upgrade sooner. For now, renting it was. Lu Yicheng felt genuinely apologetic about it — he had proposed before having anything truly secured.

What possessed him to propose without having anything ready?

The more he thought about it, the more guilty he felt.

All he could do was swear to himself: even if he didn’t have it now, he would have it in time.

To which Jiang Ruoqiao said: Husband, I believe in you!

And she had good reason to. She had seen the Shuxiang Garden apartment.

Shuxiang Garden was spacious, the light was beautiful, the interior tasteful and refined. It was a warm and thoroughly lovely home.

In that future, that version of Lu Yicheng had achieved it. And so her Lu Yicheng would achieve it too — with the two of them working together, surely they could build a home of their own?

In the end, they rented a three-bedroom apartment near the university.

At their current income level, renting a place like that required none of the hand-wringing uncertainty of when they were twenty.

He Li’s company had good benefits. So did Jiang Ruoqiao’s employer. Between the two of them and their housing allowances, they were both living quite comfortably.

The three-bedroom apartment was decorated in a simple European style.

The master bedroom had a large bay window — that was Jiang Ruoqiao and Lu Yicheng’s room.

The second bedroom was given to Lu Siyan, who suffered upon discovering that his papa and mama had filled the bookshelf entirely with study books.

The slightly smaller third room became their shared study.

On the first day they moved in, Lu Yicheng was outwardly composed but inwardly buzzing with excitement — after all, this was the beginning of married life with Jiang Ruoqiao. But as it turned out, that very evening, the troublemaker Lu Siyan declared that he was scared to sleep alone.

This seven-year-old child, in his single-minded determination to sleep with his parents, was willing to employ any tactic available — even resorting to babyish repetitive speech.

*So scared-scared sleeping alone.*

*The air conditioning will make me all cold-cold.*

Lu Yicheng looked at his son with an expressionless face.

Jiang Ruoqiao had already gone soft-hearted — after all, it was a new environment, and it was completely normal for a small child to be afraid to sleep alone. She let Lu Siyan join them, and the family of three lay together on the 1.8-meter bed without it feeling too crowded.

From an angle Jiang Ruoqiao couldn’t see, Lu Siyan grinned at Lu Yicheng in smug triumph.

Lu Yicheng: “…”

Only by repeatedly consulting the paternity test results saved on his phone could he restrain himself from teaching that little rascal a lesson.

His own flesh and blood. His own flesh and blood.

…The next morning, Lu Yicheng had completely forgotten there was a child in the bed. Half-asleep and barely conscious, he instinctively reached out to pull the person beside him close.

But as he held on, something felt off.

That wasn’t the familiar faint sweet scent.

That wasn’t the familiar warmth he knew.

A deeply infuriating voice piped up: “Papa, why are you hugging me?”

Lu Yicheng lurched awake as though from the worst nightmare in the history of creation. He released his hold immediately — and was now fully, completely awake.

Lu Yicheng’s heart was still hammering. He glanced around the bed and asked: “Where’s your mama?”

No wonder he’d been startled.

This visit, Lu Siyan was seven years old. At seven, he was perfectly capable of sleeping on his own. During this period, Lu Siyan had been sleeping alone almost every night. Yesterday had been the exception.

Lu Siyan blinked. “Mama got up a long time ago and went to the bathroom.”

Lu Yicheng decided this was a teaching moment. In his most earnest and serious voice, he said: “Siyan, yesterday was a special situation. You’re seven now. From now on, you sleep in your own room.”

Lu Siyan — at five years old he had already talked circles around a roomful of people through sheer eloquence.

At seven, it wasn’t just his age that had grown.

Lu Siyan looked at his papa and said: “Right. I’m seven, so I sleep alone. But Papa — how old are you this year? You’re already twenty-three, and you still sleep with Mama.”

Just who, exactly, should be embarrassed here?