Page 41 of He Is My Bride

Was his brother just jealous of his ‘friend’s’ money and swag?

Kai’s mother placed huge expectations on her biological son’s studies and future success, so maybe he felt the pressure to be more like someone like Wu Hanjun?

Li Ying really didn’t understand what Kai’s issue with his relationship with the man was.

They arrived at the Qians’ townhouse in Brooklyn Heights. Amy must have been waiting by the kitchen window, looking out to the street, because when Li Ying got in the hall she was already there, running to hug him.

“Welcome home, A-Ying!”

There it is, that feeling: home. Despite having always been made to feel like an outsider in the family, this was still the home Li Ying had had for most of his life. Li Ying felt like he could have cried again but he was too dehydrated for that.

“It’s good to be back!” Li Ying hugged Amy back. “I got you all some souvenirs slash late Christmas presents, wanna open them now?”

“Let’s get you settled down first. Do you want tea, soda?” Amy took Li Ying’s jacket from him and put it on a hanger.

“Amy,” called Mrs. Qian as she was passing the corridor on her way to the living room, “come here, the boys can help themselves, it’s not like they are strangers. Hi, Li Ying.”

“Hi, Mrs. Qian!” Li Ying smiled at her, but she said no more and went on her way. Absolutely nothing had changed, but why would it have?

Li Ying, Amy, and Kai joined Qian Hong, Mrs. Qia,n and grandmother in the living room.

“Hi, everyone!”

“Welcome home, Li Ying,” said Grandma. “You look so tired! It must have been an exhausting flight?”

“It’s not the flight, Kai commented, “the first thing Li Ying decided to do after returning was to go and get wasted. ”

“Hey, it was New Year’s Eve!” Li Ying jabbed back and went to hug his grandmother, then Uncle Qian.

Uncle Qian held him for a while and Li Ying hugged him back very, very hard.

“Welcome back,” Uncle Qian said. “Tell us about your time in Shanghai?”

“Yeah, I’ll tell you all about it, but how were your holidays? And you gotta open your presents!” Li Ying picked up the bags and brought them under the Christmas tree that was still up in the corner near the fireplace. There were a few presents there.

“Those are for you,” Amy said.

Together they started unloading all the prezzies, and Li Ying curiously weighed his late haul in his hands, gently shaking, trying to guess what it was.

“Stop being greedy little children, come eat first,” Mrs. Qian said.

They sat around the long table in the dining hall, where Amy and Grandma had set the table. Li Ying began what he’d premeditated he could tell the Qians: he focused on telling which sights he and Anne had visited, describing the city and the vibe in the French Concession at length.

“We went there with some cousins of Hanjun’s, they were super nice.”

“Did you and Anne meet Wu Hanjun’s other family?” Qian Hong asked.

“Yeah. Not for Christmas dinner though, since they were all at work. We were at a mall for the entire Christmas, a mall! At that point I wished I had been here with you guys, but you know, it was an experience.”

“Li Ying is going to go back for Lunar New Year,” Kai said.

“Really?” Amy was surprised.

“Uh, yeah,” Li Ying admitted. “Hanjun offered. I thought why not. You know, I bet the New Year is an awesome affair in Shanghai and I’d like to see it.” Li Ying could tell his whole family was surprised .

“Are you going to attend the Wu reunion dinner as well?” Mrs. Qian asked, her voice laced with sarcasm. “It’s not a good look, going to another person’s family dinner on a special day like that. You ought to be with your own.”

Why am I suddenly ‘your own’ to you, after making me feel like an impostor my whole life? Li Ying thought bitterly. “I thought it would have been rude to refuse.”

“No, you should have refused,” Mrs. Qian said. “Wu Hanjun was probably just being polite when he invited you.”

“That’s what I said,” spoke Kai.

“Well,” Li Ying spoke firmly, “I already said I’m going, and I’m not going back on my word.”

“Being stubborn is not a good trait to have,” Mrs. Qian scolded.

“Li Ying seems to have decided to go,” Qian Hong intervened in his gentle but firm manner. “If Wu Hanjun did invite him, then it shouldn’t be an issue.”

“Maybe someday we could all go to China together,” Amy said hopefully. “Maybe visit the town grandmother is from?”

They talked about grandmother’s old hometown, letting her reminisce as Amy and Li Ying asked her questions about it. After a while, Qian Hong asked Li Ying:

“How is Anne? What was her family name again?”

“Lü, she goes by Anne Lü.”

“So, how are you two doing?”

Li Ying held his hand over his mouth to hold back a laugh, because his mouth was full of soup and he didn’t want to spew everywhere. “What? Uncle, we are just friends! If that’s what you were asking?”

“Hm, I see.” Qian Hong smiled.

“Don’t believe me? Just ask her and she will tell you straight. It’s not like that between us.”

“I believe you, I believe you,” Qian Hong assured with a smile .

Mrs. Qian had stopped eating and was staring ahead for a second before resuming. Amy began talking about school and the coming spring semester, and the topic stayed safely at her studies for the rest of the dinner.

After eating, the family returned to the living room to open the remaining presents.

Li Ying got some money in an envelope from Uncle Qian and grandmother, Mrs. Qian had gotten him a gift card to a department store, and Amy and Kai had bought him a ticket to a gig of a band he had been a long-time fan of.

Li Ying was especially happy about the last one, moved that his foster siblings had remembered one of his favorite bands.

Li Ying pulled them both in for a hug as he thanked them.

The Qians all were happy with their souvenirs, and after all the gifts had been opened, Mrs. Qian excused herself.

Amy demanded to see pictures from Shanghai, and Kai joined in too, but Uncle Qian just sat in his chair, enjoying having his kids still playing at his feet under the Christmas tree, although they were all grown up now.

Li Ying had prepared for this and opened the picture folder on his phone, which consisted mostly of landmarks and other sights.

There were a couple of shots of Anne, posing cutely before a group of mall Santas or at coffee shops in the French Concession.

Li Ying’s hand was visible in one picture where he was showing off his photogenic coffee cup, but he had turned his hand so that his done nails were not visible.

There had been only one picture with Li Ying’s face showing so far, a selfie he had taken of himself with no makeup against Hanjun’s living room window.

“Ooh, great view, where is this from?” Amy asked.

“That’s Hanjun’s place, actually.”

“Nice,” Kai commented.

“Why are there no pictures of you together?” Amy asked.

“Hanjun doesn’t like being in pictures.”

“There aren’t many pictures of you alone either, or with Anne,” Amy noticed. “Does Anne have more? ”

“She has some, yeah. I should remember to ask her to send them.” Li Ying felt bad for lying, even a little, but he had to.

Li Ying held his phone close to his chest and navigated through the picture folder, trying to find photos of himself that he could show while avoiding the ones where he was dressed as a woman.

He found the group selfie with himself, Anne and Yiyi, and Xinyu.

Li Ying zoomed into the picture so that he was cut out, and showed it to Amy and Kai:

“Look, those are Hanjun’s youngest cousins! Aren’t they cute? Did we look like babies when we were eighteen?”

“So cute!” Amy agreed.

“Don’t you think so too, Kai?” Li Ying teased.

“They look like your girly idol boys,” Kai said, looking at his sister.

“You should ask them over.” Amy playfully tugged at Li Ying’s sleeve and they giggled while Kai rolled his eyes.

Amy reached for Li Ying’s phone screen, and before Li Ying could stop her, she had zoomed the picture out, revealing the full image—and Li Ying in it.

Li Ying was, of course, in his full getup, looking different but absolutely recognizable.

Li Ying’s stomach sank. He smashed the back button, but too late. Shit, shit, shit…

Kai had frozen. After a second that felt like an eternity, he got up and said, “Well, that was nice. I’m going to the toilet.”

Real smooth, brother… Li Ying knew Kai had realized it was him in the picture. Li Ying sat there for another second before putting his phone away.

“Well, that was it.” If Li Ying hoped Amy wouldn’t have recognized him he would have been fooling himself.

Amy was looking at him, and Li Ying couldn’t figure out what she might have been thinking.

“I’m taking the gifts to my room. Do you want to come up?” Amy said and picked up her souvenirs .

Li Ying followed Amy to her room. She was the only one still living at home, although she was the oldest of them at twenty-six, but she had neither the internal drive nor the external pressure to move out before she had found a spouse.

Lately Mrs. Qian had begun to set up dates for her with the sons of affluent women she knew, having begun to nudge her ever so gently towards marriage.

However, unlike how Mrs. Qian had pushed Li Ying, she didn’t push her own children to move out before they felt ready.

Li Ying could easily have grown bitter over the preferential treatment, but his sister had never treated him with anything but kindness, and Li Ying loved her and wanted her all the best in the world. But what would she think of him now?

“Li Ying, was that you in the picture?” Amy asked in a neutral tone while sitting down on her bed.

“Heh, yeah,” Li Ying admitted. “I wasn’t going to show that to you.”

“Why? Can’t I see it again? I think you looked very nice.”

Li Ying stood quiet.

“Do you like that sort of thing?” Amy asked neutrally.

“Um, yeah. I like dressing up as a girl sometimes. For fun. I know it’s weird.”