Sweet slice-of-life love story: Wife, Let's love again
Chapter 302 - 297: The Eve of the Wedding

Chapter 302: Chapter 297: The Eve of the Wedding

He was only proposing, not getting married right after the proposal, so Qin Guanglin was confident.

"I’ll brainstorm with Zhou Nan on how to give your girlfriend a surprise," said Xiao Yu.

He was brimming with confidence and the more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed, "We skipped all the proposal chaos and went straight to playing parents. In a way, it’s compensating for what we missed out on, and I’ll make sure it’s done beautifully."

"But make sure you think it through, don’t mess it up. Our relationship is definitely heading towards marriage next year, so this won’t have a huge impact, but don’t ruin your own wedding."

Qin Guanglin cautioned him, checked the time and saw it was almost eight, then stood up to take his leave, "Going back now, if there’s anything, look for me... Oh right—"

He sat back down, "I also have something to talk to you about."

"What?"

"This public account, take a look and follow it; I’ve been drawing comics... it’s quite popular, but I just can’t increase the frequency of updates, it’s all everyday stuff. If you don’t mind..."

Qin Guanglin looked a bit mischievous, "I’ll use you as material and occasionally draw a few episodes. The image can be altered, it’s just those stories... ’Hard-headed Kid and Violent Girl.’"

"What ’Hard-headed Kid’?!"

Xiao Yu wasn’t pleased, "We’re doing fine, our relationship is great, and now ’Violent Girl’... Alright, it is a bit violent. If you love to draw, then draw, but keep this image and just make me look handsome."

"Deal, on your wedding day I’ll give you a big red envelope as payment for using your likeness."

Qin Guanglin shared the public account with him and didn’t linger further, left and drove home.

He Fang didn’t ask him to pick her up. After work, she went to check on the decoration progress of the new apartment and discussed some details over dinner with the person in charge; it was also around eight when she returned home.

"How’s it going over there?" Qin Guanglin had been preoccupied with work and Xiao Yu’s wedding, leaving all matters related to their house to He Fang, not knowing the current progress.

"Everything should be finished in a little over a month, then we’ll air it out for two months. By summer, we can move in."

"Not bad, we are finally going to have our own place, ah~"

Qin Guanglin stretched and sighed, then grabbed He Fang to head out, "Our gym membership ends at the end of the year. It won’t be convenient to come back after the move, so let’s work out as much as possible to get our money’s worth. Can’t let it go to waste."

"You want to get even more muscular?"

"Muscular enough to lift you with one hand is fine."

"Keep dreaming."

...

The wedding was set for Saturday, and both Qin Guanglin and He Fang took Friday off to start the wedding preparations.

Chen Rui, holding the prepared contract details, wanted to show them to Qin Guanglin but discovered he had taken leave to attend a wedding, which almost drove Chen to chase him down to the wedding itself.

"I haven’t slept for days just thinking about this. Won’t you take a look?"

As long as the work is of good quality and can attract an audience, free promotion is still profitable—Chen Rui might even end up paying Qin Guanglin. Without any promotion, the public account already had over fifty thousand followers, with potentially even more unengaged users. This meant calculations had to be done in multiples.

"Let’s talk on Monday, talk on Monday."

Qin Guanglin hung up on Chen Rui’s call and joined a group of classmates and friends at Xiao Yu’s home to stick up joyous decorations and hang lanterns.

"Is this window flower facing up or down?"

Sun Wen held a stack of paper-cut window flowers in his left hand and a damp cloth in his right, still unable to distinguish the orientation.

"Like this..."

"Hey, pass me that tape."

"The red carpet is here. Who’s laying this thing down tomorrow?"

They worked together, with the group snatching up a large portion of the tasks usually done by wedding companies.

In the end, Yu Fei and Gao Xin laid the carpet, Zhang Dongming set off firecrackers, Sun Wen assisted the photographer with the lighting, and Yu Le also came, helping Sun Wen pull extension cords.

Qin Guanglin was relaxed, safeguarding Xiao Yu during the bridal pickup. Everything was ready; the only thing left was to bring the bride to the hotel at the auspicious time the next day. Then everyone would come together to celebrate, finish the ceremony, and bring the newlyweds home—completing the wedding.

These were the local customs of Luo City. While they had shifted toward Western-style weddings in recent years, they still retained original characteristics—traditionally, there was no need to go to a hotel. The groom would wear paper cups on his nose and ears, carry a broom wrapped in red cloth to resemble Zhu Bajie, and piggyback the bride from the car in the street to the bed at home, which would signify a successful bridal pickup.

After finishing all the preparations, according to custom, close young relatives and friends had to pull an all-nighter at Xiao Yu’s house, staying up as late as possible, waiting for the auspicious time the next morning to follow the groom to fetch the bride. Everyone stayed put, setting up two mahjong tables and three tables for playing Fighting the Landlord—not just their group of buddies and friends, but also neighbors, distant relatives and various kin were spiritedly making merry. Those who couldn’t keep up either rested in the other rooms or went to the hotel that had been arranged.

Around midnight, the lively crowd of neighbors dispersed, leaving only their group of guys, one mahjong table, and one Fighting the Landlord table. Sun Wen and a few others who couldn’t stay awake lay sprawled on Xiao Yu’s bed, asleep, while Qin Guanglin dominated the table.

"Boom!"

"Counter boom!"

"Hey, I’ve got another bomb."

"Damn it, playing for a dollar and losing thirty-two in one hand—I’m done!"

"What about the toad explosion? Pay up first!"

Xiao Yu watched from the sidelines, chuckling to himself. It seemed after a few years since graduation, they’d all forgotten the terror of being dominated by Qin Guanglin.

After collecting and counting the money, Qin Guanglin promptly handed it over, "Hey you, get a full set of that instant noodles, sausage, and chicken feet."

"Sure, buying it all?"

Yu Le had not left, and he was supposed to join Sun Wen the next day to pull strings for the bridal escort. He was still energetically playing up to now.

"Buy it all...remember to get the bagged ones, those you boil in a pot."

"Okay!"

With the room clouded by their smoking, Qin Guanglin waved his hand in front of his nose and dragged Xiao Yu outside for some fresh air.

"Are you serious?"

"Could it be fake?"

"When and what’s the process?"

"If you want a surprise, don’t ask. You’ll find out when the time comes."

"I don’t want surprises; just tell me already."

Qin Guanglin, fearing he’d cause a scare, insisted on explaining his entire plan before he could relax.

"What are you two whispering about?" Gao Xin, who couldn’t sleep because of the noise from their card game, came out to pee and immediately noticed the two huddled by the door like sneaky dogs plotting something.

"Why are you out here instead of sleeping?" Xiao Yu asked.

"I’m here to pee."

"Hold it in—we’re discussing matters of national importance here."

"Damn it..."

Gao Xin turned and left; two jerks getting so excited over a wedding that they couldn’t sleep.

The two whispered conspiratorially for a while, and just as they were about to stand up and go back inside, Yu Le returned from outside with two big bags of snacks. He had spent more than a hundred yuan, but he really got a lot of stuff, and Qin Guanglin directly started cooking the instant noodles.

"Wake up, wake up, have something to eat before you sleep. You’ve got a long day ahead."

"Hi, how about some fried eggs? These noodles are tasteless..."

"Be glad there’s food to eat. You want me to fry just one for this big pot?"

With everyone cradling steaming bowls of noodles and slurping away, by the time they finished, it was nearly two-thirty in the morning. Xiao Yu couldn’t eat, so he just had some water, watching them devour their noodles with envy before turning to the side room to start getting dressed.

Getting married was truly exhausting.

Qin Guanglin lay on the bed, squinting for a while, then got up at four o’clock to change into his suit. He looked sharp with a small flower pinned to his chest—this was Sun Wen’s assessment.

"Ready to go?"

"Let’s go!"

Past four-thirty, it was still pitch dark outside, without a glimmer of light to be seen. The photographer was already in position, the group got ready, splashing their faces with water to freshen up, then they stepped out energetically, each taking their places—those with firecrackers, those managing the lights, holding the red carpet. Xiao Yu’s neighbor led the way to scout ahead, and the remaining people escorted Xiao Yu into the car, then returned to their own vehicles.

Firecrackers sounded as a convoy of over twenty cars set off majestically toward the suburbs.

Leaving the streets behind, the sky began to show a hint of dawn’s early light.