Page 95 of He Is My Bride

“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? Didwelook 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.”