Page 172 of He Is My Bride

“Thank you, Cousin,” Hanjun said, and Hanrong put his hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t worry, Hanjun,” he said, “we will handle things here. Meanwhile, I think you should enjoy your honeymoon. Hawai?i doesn’t sound too bad, I heard it’s very queer friendly.” Hanrong winked.His unwavering optimism never seemed to fail.

Hanjun blushed, but nodded in agreement. “We should catch ourjet.”

—

The jet took them to Tokyo, and on their way there, Hanjun arranged another one to Honolulu for the next day.

They hadn’t actually planned for a honeymoon yet, what with Hanjun having expected to be busy with work. Now he was going to put everything on hold, so they thought about taking a surprise vacation, waiting for the dust to settle in Shanghai.

“Kaua?i looks pretty nice.” Li Ying had bought a travel guide from the airport and was flipping through the pages. “Good beaches, a lot of green. We could go hiking.”

They were sitting in a small and intimate omakase restaurant in Roppongi, having gotten lucky with a last-minute reservation.

“But let’s stay a few days in Honolulu, all together, until Anne has to fly back to New York,” Li Ying added.

Anne said nothing. She was scrolling through her phone.

“Hey, Anne!”

“Hm?” She looked up.

“Rude!”

“Sorry, I was reading what people are saying on social media about this all. You probably don’t want to hear?”

Li Ying shook his head rigorously and popped the next perfect piece of sashimi into his mouth. “None of it.”

“Yeah, it’s really nothing nice.”

“Hanjun?”

“Mm?” Hanjun had been eating every artful dish in silence.

Li Ying thought he had been remarkably calm through all this.

While Li Ying could still pretend they were on their perfect honeymoon and not on the run, from their public shaming and potential criminal charges, he had not forgotten that consequences would catch up with them eventually. Yet something about Hanjun’s serene demeanor and what he’d said as they fled the altar had begun making Li Ying cautiously optimistic. Or maybe Hanjun had also chosen the same sweet state of denial. Perhaps for now, it was best to live in the moment.

“Can you delay the jet’s departure tomorrow?” Li Ying asked Hanjun. “I would like to go buy new clothes. We could both use some new beachwear, and Anne needs to see Harajuku while she’s in Tokyo.”

Hanjun looked at him quietly with soft eyes.

Li Ying blinked. “Unless… we’re in a hurry?”

“No hurry.”

The way he says it,Li Ying thought,it’s as if…

‘Everything will be alright.’

What did he mean?

This time, when Hanjun had said it, Li Ying had believed it.

—

They flew in and spent two nights together in Honolulu before Anne had to fly home for work.