Chapter 57: Regarding Marriage ③

After returning to her room, Gu Yao still felt a bit dazed. She sat gloomily on the edge of the bed and looked at Su Yu, asking, "Tell me honestly, were you just teasing me on purpose earlier? All that stuff about candlelight dinners and dancing was just to throw me off, wasn't it?"

The man smiled slightly, sat down beside her, picked up her small, fair hand adorned with the ring, and pressed a gentle kiss to her knuckles. "Look, doesn't it feel much more surprising this way?"

Gu Yao pulled her hand back in a huff. "What surprise? You just had me acting all silly, eating cake so cautiously just in case I chipped a tooth on something!"

Recalling her expression from earlier, Su Yu couldn't help but chuckle. "You were quite cute. Not silly at all."

Gu Yao turned her head away, ignoring him. Yet, a moment later, she couldn't resist quietly lifting her hand to admire the ring. The piece was exquisitely designed, featuring a sparkling diamond embedded in the center that caught the brilliant sunlight. It complemented her skin tone perfectly and made her fingers appear even more slender.

"I had a designer custom-make this specifically for you, and I kept a close eye on the whole process. Are you satisfied?" Su Yu took the opportunity to lean in and kiss her cheek.

"Mm." She gave a tiny nod, turned, and burrowed straight into his arms. The two of them held each other softly for a while before her muffled voice drifted up, "I love everything about it—the sunrise just now, the ring, and you."

In the ranking she had just listed, she had placed him dead last, as if he were merely an afterthought attached at the very end. Su Yu felt a silent surge of amusement, but he simply tightened his embrace around the small woman in his arms, lifted her delicate chin, and kissed her.

With that, the mission of this cruise was successfully concluded. Although Gu Yao hadn't guessed that Su Yu would spring such a sudden surprise on her, she had roughly figured out the general direction, so she felt quite content. The following days were spent dragging him around to various sights, and once the cruise ship docked at its port of return, the two of them headed back to City Y.

After working for a few days, they picked a date. Early in the morning, Su Yu drove Gu Yao to obtain their marriage certificate. On the whole, the process was quite ordinary; as long as two people love each other, all other procedures are merely decorative trimmings.

Thus, neither of them placed too much importance on the formality. After getting their photo taken, they simply collected their certificates and hurried off to their respective workplaces.

Gu Yao had previously entrusted her old apartment to an agency for sale, and three months prior, she received the good news that someone had bought it at a high price—even exceeding her original expectations. This was largely due to the rapid rise in housing prices recently, and since her property was in a prime location, there had been a fierce bidding war.

Gu Yao was quite pleased with this outcome. Once the funds were in her account, she planned to purchase a new high-rise residence near the hospital.

Because of this arrangement, she was temporarily without a permanent place of her own; her old, run-down apartment had long since been returned to the landlord, and she had been living at Su Yu's place all along. Consequently, the entire moving process was conveniently skipped. After returning home in the evening, the two of them cooked dinner, ate, worked for a while, and then went to bed to fall asleep wrapped in each other's arms, just like a couple who had been married for many years.

Gu Shisheng was the first to find out the news. True to his habit, he sent a video call request that evening. Gu Yao sat on the sofa, eating a plate of fruit in one hand while holding up her phone with the other to chat with him.

On his end, Gu Shisheng was eating breakfast. A large glass bowl was filled with cereal, and after pouring in some milk, he stirred it with a spoon and chewed with loud, crunchy crunches, sounding uncomfortably like a close-up ASMR recording that made Gu Yao frown.

Holding her phone a bit further away, she wrinkled her nose and said with evident distaste, "Can't you eat a little quieter? It's so noisy."

Gu Shisheng nodded submissively, his chewing speed slowing down noticeably as he carefully nibbled on his cereal.

Only then did Gu Yao look somewhat appeased. She casually asked him about his situation over there, wondering how he was adapting to school life and the like. Gu Shisheng nodded and replied, "It's alright, I'm adjusting pretty well. It's just that I don't have many friends yet, not even anyone to go out and eat with..."

He sounded pitiful, so Gu Yao offered a few words of comfort. "You haven't been there long. Once you and your classmates get to know each other better, you'll naturally make friends."

Gu Shisheng nodded, lowered his head to take another slow bite, and right as he was about to say something else, he heard a man's voice calling out from his sister's end: "Honey, I put the marriage certificate in the drawer. Is that okay?"

Gu Shisheng didn't manage to swallow his mouthful of cereal in time, and his jaw dropped wide open in astonishment, unable to close.

Gu Yao, on her end, hadn't paid much attention to his expression. She glanced back at Su Yu and saw him holding the little red books they had collected that day, bending down to slide them into the bedside table drawer. She nodded and said, "Sure, anywhere is fine."

Then she turned her gaze back to the screen, showing utter disdain for her younger brother's silly, gaping look. "What's wrong with you? Did you suddenly lose your mind?"

"Sis, you... you... you're married?!" Gu Shisheng finally stammered out.

"Oh, yeah, we got married. What about it?" Gu Yao didn't understand why he was making such a big fuss. She then motioned for Su Yu to join her in the frame, pointed at him, and told Gu Shisheng, "Let me introduce you. This is your brother-in-law."

Of course Gu Shisheng knew Su Yu was his brother-in-law—who else could it possibly be? He was simply shocked that the two of them had gone ahead and gotten their marriage license without a peep, and afterward acted as if nothing had happened, without even notifying anyone.

He began to feel a bit suspicious. "Sis, you guys getting married... surely I'm not the only one who didn't know, right?"

"No, you're the first to know."

Hearing his sister's reply, his mental equilibrium was somewhat restored, and he grew immensely pleased with himself, boasting smugly, "Really? I'm the first to know? What an honor!"

After hanging up the video call, Gu Yao turned to look at Su Yu and said with helpless resignation, "With Gu Shisheng's big mouth, he's definitely going to spread the word. Our days of peace and quiet are over."

As it turned out, her prediction was spot on. Not even five minutes had passed before both of their phones began ringing in relentless succession.

The two exchanged glances and, with tacit understanding, grabbed their respective phones and retreated into separate rooms to avoid interfering with each other's conversations.

"Mom, it's just getting married! We're living our lives well, and that's all that matters. I really don't feel like arguing with you about this," Gu Yao sat on the bed in the bedroom, pressing her fingers to the bridge of her nose as she spoke in a soothing tone.

Her mother was unrelenting on the other end. "What do you mean by 'it's just getting married'! Your attitude is entirely unacceptable. Such an important matter, shouldn't you have informed your own mother?!"

She could only offer a helpless chuckle, softening her tone. "Well, aren't I informing you now?"

"This isn't you informing me! I found out from Shisheng! If he hadn't told me, I'd still be completely in the dark!"

After a lengthy back-and-forth between mother and daughter, Gu Yao finally managed to appease her mother's anger. No sooner had she hung up the phone than Su Yu walked into the bedroom, looking equally resigned.

She burst out laughing with schadenfreude. "How about that? You got chewed out too, didn't you?"

"Mm." The man shoved his hands into his pockets and let out a rare sigh. "After Gu Shisheng told Su Zhou, that big mouth Su Zhou passed it on to my mom. Now my mom is strongly demanding that we hold a wedding as soon as possible, and she's even drawn up a guest list..."

Gu Yao couldn't help sighing in response. "My mom is the exact same..."

The only reason the two of them had wanted to keep their marriage a secret in the first place was to avoid hassle. In fact, right after the proposal, they had already agreed to skip the wedding and keep everything as simple as possible.

However, they still couldn't overcome their respective mothers. The next day happened to be the weekend, and neither Gu Yao nor Su Yu had to work. After making some preparations, they arranged a meeting between both sets of parents.

Because Gu Yao's father was away performing in a concert, and Su Yu's father was in poor health and could only recuperate in a nursing home, the actual meeting consisted solely of the two mothers.

Ms. Qin Manfeng wore her usual professional attire—a form-fitting dress paired with striking red high heels. Her makeup was exquisite, and her hair was swept up into a high bun, making her look both formidable and somewhat flashy.

In contrast, Su Yu's mother was dressed much more casually in an elegant light-purple cheongsam with a matching silk scarf draped over her shoulders—the very gift Gu Yao had given her earlier.

Because her son hadn't allowed her to disturb Gu Yao too often, Su Mother hadn't seen her daughter-in-law in quite a while. The moment they met, she beamed and pulled Gu Yao over to ask all sorts of questions, looking thoroughly affectionate.

Once they were seated in the private dining room, the two mothers began to chat. Although Ms. Qin Manfeng appeared stern and unsmiling, she soon found herself flustered under the warmth of Su Mother's smiles, chatting awkwardly. It was clear she rarely interacted with someone so genuinely warm and simple-natured.

Watching from the side, Gu Yao found it immensely amusing, rarely ever seeing her mother looking so out of her element. It wasn't until she caught a sideways glance from her mother that she smiled and chimed in with a few words to rescue her.

Before long, however, the two mothers had completely warmed up to each other. Shortly after, they stood united on the exact same front, strongly demanding that the couple hold a wedding and generously offering to take charge of every single arrangement themselves.

Naturally, Gu Yao remained reluctant. The more other people fussed over organizing things, the less control she would have in the end; there was no telling what kind of outfit they would dress her up in, leaving her to stand in the center like a circus monkey for the guests to admire.

Fortunately, Su Yu's stance was equally firm. With a solemn expression and an unyielding demeanor, he simply dropped a single sentence: "The two of us are not having a wedding."

That settled the matter once and for all.

Realizing they couldn't persuade the couple, the two mothers reluctantly gave up. They both looked thoroughly displeased, and after finishing their meal, they shot a final glare at their respective children before linking arms and heading off to drink coffee together.

Su Yu finally smiled, stood up to settle the bill, and pulled Gu Yao out with him. As two rebellious children who refused to listen to their mothers, they happily climbed into the car, went to see a movie, strolled around leisurely for a while, and then headed home to buy groceries and cook dinner.

Although they weren't having a wedding, after some discussion, they decided to take a honeymoon trip instead. They both applied for marriage leave, and with Su Yu behind the wheel, the two embarked on a month-long self-driving journey.

Unlike their previous trip to Tibet, this time there were no third-wheel light bulbs in the car, and with plenty of time to spare, they drove at a leisurely pace. Whenever they felt tired, they found a guesthouse to rest; whenever they reached a scenic spot, they got out to explore. Every single day was wonderfully fulfilling.

Little Su Yu was born one year after their marriage.

Before deciding to conceive, Gu Yao and Su Yu had already discussed it and agreed that they would only ever have one child in this lifetime. Regardless of whether it was a boy or a girl, they would pour all their devotion into raising the child, offering the unique love of two parents.

Consequently, after getting pregnant, the two of them didn't specifically discuss the baby's gender. Instead, they prepared for both possibilities, buying clothes suitable for both baby boys and baby girls and picking out a name for each, waiting until the child was born to decide what to call them based on their actual gender.