Page 76 of He Is My Bride

“I am not him!” Hanjun startled as he heard his voice rising, but he knew he couldn’t back down now.

Not this time. “I know you fear that I would end up like him if I married out of love, but when I said I’m not him, I mean that I will not compromise.

I will choose Li Ying over my career.” Hanjun felt Li Ying’s hand on his shoulder, and it gave him strength to put it all into words.

“If it should have been better for me to never have known happiness at all, now it’s too late for that, so let me have a chance at it with Li Ying.

If you make him the next chairman, Hanrong will always have my support, even if we must work together from the world over.

If I’m still allowed to help the company, I won’t leave him to manage things alone like father left you.

Just… let me have something for myself!”

Wu Yiheng was silent on the line.

“We will do what we can to help you get the company out of this with its reputation intact. Disown me if you must—”

“Hanjun,” Li Ying began, “don’t make any hasty—”

Hanjun lifted his finger over Li Ying’s lips and quieted him.

“No!” Wu Yiheng said immediately over the phone. “No… I will not. I cannot. The company needs you.”

“But I don’t need the company.”

“…I see.” Wu Yiheng was beginning to sound defeated. “Still, we will find another way through this mess. You will always be a Wu; we can’t afford to lose you.”

“Even if I’m a—?”

“No matter what you are! But if this is the path you choose, you’d better go to America and stay there!

Even if you get away with a nullification of your marriage and a fine here, you and Li Ying will never have a future in Shanghai, and it’s better for the company and the family that you stay away from harming our reputation. ”

“I know. I understand.” Hanjun found it hard to speak. He had made his decision, but it still wasn’t easy to hear the final verdict from his uncle.

Wu Yiheng sighed on the line. “Are you sure, Hanjun? If you choose this, if you choose to stand with Li Ying in this matter, the worst case scenario is that you can never come back to China on the threat of prosecution.”

“Hanjun,” Li Ying spoke softly, seeking his eyes, “are you sure?”

“Uncle,” Hanjun spoke into the phone, determined, his eyes on Li Ying’s, “I’m sure.”

“…Very well. Hanging up.”

Hanjun hung up first.

After a moment’s silence, Li Ying spoke, “I’m so sorry—”

“No need.” Hanjun smiled at him with wistful eyes. He gently gripped Li Ying’s chin and pulled him into a kiss. “You don’t need to be sorry. It’s better this way.”

“Am I wrong to assume you didn’t make that decision on a whim on this boat right now?” Li Ying asked. He put down his glass and climbed on Hanjun’s lap to straddle him, arms around his neck.

Hanjun shook his head. It was hard for him to speak, the finality of Wu Yiheng’s tone having shaken him. He couldn’t believe what he’d said, either: that he had stood up to his uncle, his whole family legacy. Yet in his heart Hanjun knew he had finally made the right choice.

“So…” Li Ying caressed his cheek. “What’s this about eloping and marrying me? Again? Do I need a new dress?”

“You can wear whatever you want.”

“Yeah?” Li Ying grinned. “But when did you decide we would elope?”

Hanjun turned his gaze back up to Li Ying. “I promised Anne something at the door when I came to fetch you: I couldn’t have my bride if I didn’t promise his bridesmaid that I would make him as happy as he can be in this life.”

“Junjun…”

“I’m sorry it took me so long to—”

“Shh,” Li Ying hushed gently, brushing his finger across Hanjun’s lips. “‘No need to be sorry,’ right?”

Hanjun loved that smile. It shone warmer and more beautiful than the setting sun over the Pacific.

“No, Li Ying, I do owe you an apology. I had long since realized you wouldn’t be happy in Shanghai, pretending you were something you are not, and I’m not talking about being a woman.

You wouldn’t have been happy there, yet you were ready to make all the sacrifices for us by uprooting your whole life.

I’m ashamed that it took me so long to decide what was truly important to me, but I had finally made that decision before you joined me on the altar: that no matter what I would have to give up, I would move with you to the States after the wedding, so that we could make our lives our own.

So that you, we both , could be truly happy, without pretending, without lies.

I’m sorry I have been so selfish, that it took me so long to finally put you first.”

“No, Hanjun, you weren’t being selfish—”

Hanjun silenced him with a kiss that made Li Ying heady.

This is really happening? Li Ying still couldn’t believe it.

“Yes, I was,” Hanjun said when he parted their lips. “But no more: from here on, I promise that you will be my priority, not the company. I want to leave a different legacy—with you.”

“But what was your plan? And why let the wedding proceed, if you had already decided to elope with me?”

“I thought we could have let Shanghai enjoy the theater and continue to be legally married in China, in order to give legitimacy to our child. Meanwhile, we would have moved to live openly in the States. I might not have been able to act as the next chairman while working from abroad, but I could have supported Cousin Hanrong while keeping our relationship secret from the Shanghai circles. We would have run the risk of being found out, but as much was always true, and your happiness would have been worth the chance. It doesn’t matter now, either way.

Hopefully I can still do something for Wu Pharma, but at least now you can be open about us with your family, and be yourself. All of yourself.”

“So we…” This is really happening! “We’ll move to the States and marry openly as a gay couple? And I can invite the Qians?”

Hanjun nodded. “And we can raise our children to know who their father loves.”

“Hanjun…” Li Ying had to blink back tears. “I’m so happy!”

Hanjun smiled. That’s all that mattered now. He pulled Li Ying into another kiss.

“For now, let’s enjoy this early honeymoon. We’ll figure out everything else after. ”

“Yes, yes, Hanjun…!” Li Ying kissed Hanjun and felt his arms around him, holding, bringing him close, and let Hanjun’s hands wander down his body.

Soon the lovers found themselves lying on the deck, bathed in the last rays of the sun as they embraced each other—and a future that truly looked like their own.