Page 173 of He Is My Bride

Their day was filled with beach-side restaurants, fruity cocktails, paddle boarding, and snorkeling—and still avoiding thinking about things too much. Anne was definitely worrying for all three of them, but she respected it when Li Ying said: ‘let’s just enjoy this for now’, and let it be.

On their third day on the run, Li Ying and Hanjun said goodbye to Anne as she left for the airport.

Hanjun had told Li Ying that the two of them would be leaving for Kaua?i later that day, but when they took the taxi, it didn’t take them to the airport, but to a yacht pier.

“Hanjun, I swear…” Li Ying said as the driver slowed down in front of the row of huge luxury yachts.

Hanjun’s face didn’t budge. He walked Li Ying to one of the docked private yachts, and a crewmember was there to greet them:

“Hey, Mr. Wu, Mr. Li? Welcome aboard your private yacht toKaua?i!”

“No you did not?!” Li Ying slid off his beach sandal and gave Hanjun a good whacking.

Hanjun cracked a tiny smile, unbothered by Li Ying’s playful thrashing. “Your last yacht trip was cut short, so I thought I’d give you this.”

“Um, are you guys okay?” asked the crewman, understandably confused—the crew had expected honeymooners, but these guys were already acting like an old couple.

“Yes! Get me on that boat!” Li Ying ran over, eager to board.

Sailing to the sunset, sipping Mai-Tais, and holding hands on the sundeck was somewhat ruined by Hanjun deciding he should finnally check his work emails, but Li Ying couldn’t blame him—Hanjun had ignored everything for a few days.

“So, what’s up in Shanghai?” Li Ying asked while Hanjun scrolled on his laptop.

“I have been put on administrative leave.”

“Crap…” Li Ying sipped his drink and was satisfied with the amount of rum in it. “Think you’ll get fired?”

“I don’t know. I suppose I should call Uncle Yiheng and clarify things.”

“How about you clarify things withme?You know, your—Can I even call myself your wife anymore?”

“…Husband?”

“But Hanrong said our marriage is likely null!”

“We called each other those things even before we visited the municipal office.”

“Yeah, but… Hanjun, what is this? What are we doing? What are wegoing todo?”

Hanjun looked at Li Ying as if he were being silly. “We areeloping.”

Li Ying dropped his pineapple wedge into the cocktail, and the drink splashed on his Guccis. He took the oversized sunglasses off.

“Do you know what words mean, Hanjun?” he asked while wiping his lenses dry.

“Why?” Hanjun tilted his head, frowning faintly. “We are‘running away together to get married?’”

Li Ying placed his sunglasses on his forehead, fished up his pineapple from the drink, and took a ponderous bite of it. He was staring at Hanjun, trying to decipher if this was one of those extremely rare cases of him joking.

“How many you’ve had?” Li Ying asked.

Hanjun looked at his drink. “Just one?”

“So, what? We go back to America and get married there? But what will you do? What about your family? What about the company?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“What?! You can’t just say it doesn’t matter after everything! Those things are important to you!”