Page 67 of He Is My Bride

“Good.” Li Ying patted his thigh. “No other tricks. No threats, no scares. Clever moves, to take away his believability. Cut his claws.”

“Alright.” Hanjun understood.

Li Ying smiled. I can play this game just fine, Uncle Yiheng.

—

The health certificate came in the mail a couple of days later, as promised. It should have been faster, considering there was nothing to run through the lab, but Li Ying and Hanjun appreciated how it was more believable with a slight delay between the appointment and the doctor’s signature.

“That’s it, right? This is all we need?” Li Ying asked Hanjun as he slipped the paper in the sleeve containing all their marriage paperwork, marked by Li Ying with glittery heart stickers.

There were also their couple photos that were to be attached to the wedding certificate: they had dressed up smart for the studio, with Li Ying in a sleeveless black dress that contrasted well with the solid red backdrop they had chosen, and Hanjun in a simple black suit.

These were barely less formal than passport photos, with both of them smiling, and Li Ying hugging Hanjun’s arm while keeping his face forward.

The other photos were similar, with slightly different poses.

Li Ying smiled while looking at the pictures.

“We are such a cute couple. By heavens, it’s going to be official soon.”

“Mm. This is everything we need.”

Their appointment with the municipal office would be at the end of the week.

“We’ll be married by the time I’m back in New York! Hanjun…”

Li Ying hugged him, jumping up and down in excitement, when out of nowhere tears welled in his eyes. Li Ying sobbed.

“Li Ying?”

“I… It’s so stupid! Hanjun, I’m scared! ”

Hanjun held him. “It’s going to be alright.” I’m so sorry, love. What else can I say to make you less scared?

“Sometimes I just doubt whether I can really do this.”

Hanjun was quiet. What was the alternative?

Hanjun shut down when thinking of the possibility that Li Ying might call off the wedding and decide to stay back in America after all.

Or worse: leave him. For someone whom he could marry openly, someone who didn’t need to hide his spouse’s identity and isolate him from his family with all the secrecy.

When Hanjun said nothing, Li Ying worried whether Hanjun doubted his devotion.

“But you’re right,” Li Ying said, “it’s going to be alright.”

Why does it still sound like you are just left comforting yourself? Hanjun thought. Can’t you believe it when I say it?

How could he, when Hanjun didn’t even believe it himself?

Hanjun hated feeling so helpless, unable to please everyone. Unable to both fulfill his family’s expectations, and give Li Ying all the happiness he would have deserved. Yet somehow, he had to.

Is there nothing more I can say or do for you? For us?

Hanjun swallowed. He knew there was more he could have done, but it seemed he was a selfish man while Li Ying was so infinitely giving. But what if Li Ying was done giving? What if he didn’t want to give up his life for Hanjun and the Wu family? Hanjun had to be sure.

“Li Ying, are you sure you’re ready to do this?” Hanjun felt like he was free-falling and the ground was coming up to meet him. Please, say yes! I need you to say yes! I need you to…!

Li Ying was quiet for what felt like forever, and it tore Hanjun’s nerves. He was still falling.

Li Ying himself stood at a precipice. He was either going to take the leap and fly, through storm or sunny weather with Hanjun, or turn back to… what?

What did Li Ying have without Wu Hanjun in his life that would have mattered half as much?

Li Ying knew he couldn’t turn back. It was this or nothing.

And the terms Hanjun had set were clear: he had a business to run nd a legacy to honor, and while he loved Li Ying, he was a man of duty and filial piety.

Li Ying couldn’t ask Hanjun to give that up for him. Who was he to make such demands?

‘Selfish, entitled, ’ Mrs. Qian’s words echoed somewhere deep in Li Ying.

I will be deserving of you, Hanjun!

I don’t deserve you, Li Ying!

Li Ying nodded against Hanjun’s chest. “Yes. I’m sure.”

Li Ying felt Hanjun sigh out in relief under his cheek. Hanjun squeezed him and buried his face in his hair.

They held each other together until the emotions had washed over them, leaving both certain this was the path they were going to take.

—

A few days later, their marriage certificates were unceremoniously stamped for them in the municipal office while they squeezed each other’s hands numb behind the counter. They were handed one red, passport-like document each, that stated they were now husband and wife.

“Congratulations on your marriage,” said the clerk.

And that was it: Li Ying and Wu Hanjun were officially married.

—

Doctor Wang Yan was leaving the hospital late at night. She had had to stay late to assist her seniors with a sudden combo-transplantation surgery. Now she was very much done for the day and ready to go home, take a long, hot bath, and make it up to her girl.

She was walking through the parking lot, looking down at her phone as she messaged her girlfriend, letting her know she was now on her way .

Wang Yan only looked up when she thought a car had been driving too slow behind her for a moment too long: she turned to look and saw a black Rolls Royce Cullinan.

There was a suited, large man behind the wheel and another man sitting at the back, but Wang Yan didn’t see his face.

The car pulled up next to her, and though she kept walking, the driver kept her lined with the tinted backseat window, which was now rolling down.

“Can I offer you a ride home, Wang Yan?” asked Wang Guosheng from the backseat.

Wang Yan stopped, so did the car. She knew this was not a request.

“I had understood that our business was concluded,” she said. She had guts and nerves of steel, but if anything put a healthy fear into her, it was her family head.

“It is not. Get in the car, let us talk like family.”

Wang Yan had no choice. She went around and got into the SUV.

It felt spacious inside, and the seats were upholstered with black leather.

There Wang Guosheng sat at the other end of the bench, clad in his burgundy suit and monk strap shoes, one leg crossed over the other.

He didn’t look at Wang Yan. He put his finger on a button on the door panel.

“Keep driving,” he told the driver.

At the press of the button, a soundproofed partition rose between the front and the backseat. The driver took them out of the parking lot and started cruising aimlessly. Wang Guosheng crossed his hands on his lap and looked at Wang Yan:

“You issued Li Ying the health certificate. They are now married.”

“Li Ying is a woman.” Wang Yan said without hesitation. The way Wang Guosheng looked at her made her feel like he was seeing right through her, but she refused to accept such a notion. It made no sense.

“Really?”

“I could not perform the pelvic examination, Wu Hanjun had forbidden—”

“And what did I tell you? Are you a Wang or a Wu?”

“I’m a doctor .”

“Yet you failed to perform your duties and fell to corruption. How do you think the authorities responsible for your doctor’s license will take that? So, Wu Hanjun told you not to perform the pelvic examination? Don’t you find that curious?”

“When I came to work, I was told by my supervisor that Wu Hanjun had forbidden his fiancée to be touched in such a manner on cultural grounds, and that his and Li Ying’s wishes were to be respected in all circumstances.”

”‘On cultural grounds?’ And do you believe that?”

“It’s what I was told. These screenings are not my field of expertise, I was only there that day because you had told me to, I didn’t know what—”

“What about my orders were unclear to you, Wang Yan?” Wang Guosheng interrupted.

“I don’t know for certain whether Li Ying is a woman or not, but I saw no real reason to doubt that.”

“Some doctor, can’t tell male from female. You took samples of Li Ying’s blood at least, yes? Are you telling me it didn’t occur to you to run a DNA test on that, if you were too scared of Wu Hanjun to put your hands directly on his whore?”

Wang Yan didn’t say anything. Telling Wang Guosheng how Wu Hanjun had had her destroy the samples would have been as good as confirming his suspicions that Wang Yan hadn’t been loyal.

“Either you have not complied with my orders to find out the truth about Li Ying, for which you know the price, or you are lying to me. Tell me: is Li Ying a woman or a man?”

“Li Ying is a woman!”

“And do you swear this on your life?”

Wang Yan nodded. “Yes.”

“What about your girlfriend’s life?”

Wang Yan froze .

“Yes…” There was a malicious glint in the man’s eyes, but he didn’t smile.

“If I were to go and find out for myself what is between Li Ying’s legs, and if I were to find a cock in there, you would have been lying to me.

I would then destroy much more than your career.

I can take away everything you love, Wang Yan. You do not lie to me.”

“You wouldn’t…?”

“Oh yes, yes I would, to force your hand when you don’t seem to value your career nor your own life. So tell me, Wang Yan: is Li Ying a woman… or a man?”