Page 147 of He Is My Bride

Wu Yiheng had made the point that even their wedding wasn’t really forthem, but to send a message to the Shanghai elite, so Li Ying had told the wedding planner what he thought a dutiful daughter-in-law should say:

“I’ll defer to you. I want my guests to be wowed, but my fiancé is a traditional man and I want to respect that as well, and for his family to feel comfortable with everything, so nothing… weird.”

Now that I think of it,Li Ying had thought,I would have wanted a Mariachi band. And a staged fighting sequence where I combat off ninjas or something, when they try to get between me and Hanjun on the aisle. Something fun!Something weird.

It would have been more like him.

As for the dress, Li Ying asked if Anne would have wanted to do it as a collaboration with Huang Xiang again, but Anne had insisted a wedding dress should be handled by a specialized tailor:

“I know the limits of my skill and as a professional, I know when to defer to a colleague to make my client happy.”

Anne and Li Ying were having a kiki over at the coffee shop on Park Avenue.

“I would be happy if you made it, but I understand,” Li Ying said.

He was wearing skinny jeans and sneakers with an old, worn-out band tee that he had repurposed by cutting it up to an uneven cropped shirt, showing off his waist. He had also put on his leather and rhinestone choker, smudged on some eyeliner, and painted his nails black, since he had a few days off and didn’t need to be at the morgue.

Li Ying was not trying to pass, just playing around with his boy and girl styles, something he had done much more lately since he’d discovered how fun it was to dress in clothes other than jeans and t-shirts, without the alternative being stuffy chinos and collared shirts.

“I say we should find you a New York-based wedding tailor so you can go to fittings,” Anne said. “It needs to be perfect. Absolutely by someone who knows about traditional Chinese wedding dresses. I will ask around for you.”

“Thanks. I would be in trouble if I had to figure out the dress all by myself!”

“As if I would abandon you now that I have brought this so far.”

They shared a smile.

“So, do you have a date yet?” Anne asked.

“I will be a June bride!” Li Ying twirled a lock of hair around his finger.

It was fun for Li Ying to talk about the wedding with his new best friend. It was easier to get hyped when he could share the excitement with someone.

Anne was going to be the only guest Li Ying would bring, naturally as his bridesmaid, the only one outside Shanghai who even knew of him marrying. Li Ying tried to see the positive side of it: atleasthe had Anne.

“So, in a little over a year from now, that should be enough to plan everything. What will you tell your family, by the way, when you move to Shanghai permanently?” Anne asked.

Li Ying chewed his lower lip, a thoughtful frown on his brow. “I guess I’ll just tell them I’m moving there to work.”

“Will they settle for that?”

Li Ying shrugged. “They will have to.” He sipped his frappé. “Aside from the wedding, guess what we are gonna do with Hanjun when he next comes to New York?” Li Ying excitedly pattered his painted nails on the table, unable to contain his smile.

This was something he also worried about a great deal, but more than anything, it was the brightest light in his married future.

“Well?”

“We are visiting a fertility clinic!”

“Ooh! So you…? Okay, wait!” Anne was getting more excited than Li Ying had ever seen her.

“We are preparing for the whole process to take some time, at least a year, so we are getting started this summer so that I can start ‘expecting’ around the wedding date.”

“I guess you have to do it here?”

Li Ying nodded. “We do everything in the States over this year while I’m still here and when Hanjun is visiting. We will also spend the last months of ‘my’ pregnancy here, on the excuse that I’m more comfortable giving birth in an American private clinic before moving in with Hanjun for good. That way, I also don’t have to fake the belly for a very long time; I’m paranoid someone will figure it out. I will show off for the Wus with a fake belly at least once though, and we will arrange a public appearance where we know the press will be, so that there will be no doubt in anyone’s mind that I carried the baby.”

Anne nodded along. “They make very convincing fake bellies for women who can’t carry their child but want to be perceived as having done so. Where there’s a demand, there’s a supply.”