Chapter 201

Chapter 201

The day before Qiu Ziyu’s wedding.

There were so many details to handle that Nan Mu’s parents came to the Qiu family home to help.

The newlyweds’ home was in an uproar. Everyone was busy arranging decorations and supplies, their voices constantly rising over one another.

“Has Ah Yu’s suit been pressed for tomorrow? It has? Then hang it up! It’ll wrinkle again by morning.”

“Are the red envelopes for picking up the bride ready? You-go to the bank and withdraw some more cash. We can’t let her family look down on us!”

“Where are the rings? Where did someone put the rings? Get them out now, or tomorrow we’ll still be searching everywhere… Hey! Why is the dog still here? Take it to the groomer and get it washed too!”

More hands did not make lighter work. With everyone talking at once, the confusion only grew worse.

“This is driving me crazy. Absolutely crazy.” Mrs. Qiu clutched a piece of clothing in her left hand and a freshly cut red double-happiness decoration in her right. The endless pile of chores made her head throb.

Mrs. Nan, however, watched her rushing around with unmistakable envy.

“What’s there to complain about?” Mrs. Nan patiently packed box after box of small gifts to be handed out the next day, her tone faintly bitter. “I’d love the chance to have these problems.”

“Why wouldn’t you?” Without looking up, Mrs. Qiu continued counting the gifts prepared for the bride’s family. “Nan Mu has already registered his marriage. Aren’t you planning a wedding?”

Mrs. Nan’s hands stopped. Frowning, she wondered whether Mrs. Qiu had confused her with someone else.

“Are you losing your memory? Who did you say registered a marriage?”

“Your Nan Mu.” Still bent over her counting, Mrs. Qiu paused, no longer caring whether she had reached thirty-one or thirty-two. She turned in surprise. “Don’t tell me Nan Mu never told you he got married.”

The news struck like a bolt from the blue. Mrs. Nan shot out of her seat. “My son? Married?!”

The fact that he had gotten married was shocking enough.

The fact that he had done it without telling her was equally shocking.

Overwhelmed by both revelations, Mrs. Nan did not even know which question to ask first. Instead, she asked again in disbelief, “How do you know? Did Ah Yu tell you?”

===

The instant Qiu Ziyu walked through the door, both sets of parents grabbed him.

Mrs. Nan was nearly apoplectic after learning that her son had gotten married without saying a word to her.

Qiu Ziyu knew he was in serious trouble. He wanted Nan Mu to rescue him, but Nan Mu was abroad. Help from that far away would never arrive in time.

Besides, Qiu Ziyu was the one whose loose lips had revealed Nan Mu’s marriage to his fiancée. Who could have known she would tell her mother, who would then tell Auntie…?

“Nan Mu thinks he’s all grown up and doesn’t need us anymore, is that it? Fine, he wanted to marry, so he married. Who was going to stop him?” Mrs. Nan complained furiously. “But registering a marriage is a major event. Why didn’t he tell his own parents first? I’m his mother, yet I had to hear the news from someone else. Did he ever consider how that would make me feel?”

Qiu Ziyu could only try to soothe her. “Auntie, it isn’t that Nan Mu didn’t want to tell you. He wanted to surprise you.”

“Surprise? More like a heart attack!”

Mrs. Nan scoffed. “I don’t think he respects his father or me anymore.”

“That’s really not fair to him,” Qiu Ziyu protested on Nan Mu’s behalf. “You know Nan Mu has been single all these years…”

“Who knows whether he was truly single? If he could hide an entire marriage from us, perhaps his single life was fake too.” Sitting behind them, Mr. Nan mercilessly twisted the knife.

“He really was single. The woman he liked was living abroad…”

“A woman he liked? What woman?”

Mrs. Nan turned to Qiu Ziyu suspiciously. Why had she never heard that her son had been in love with someone all this time?

“It’s true.” Qiu Ziyu raised one hand as if taking an oath. “He secretly loved her for years, but she was building her career abroad and only came back a few months ago. Nan Mu barely managed to persuade her to marry him. He was terrified she’d fly away again, so he rushed her straight to the registry office.”

Nan Mu had planned to complete the registration first, then bring her home to meet his parents. But by coincidence, Wen Miao’s laboratory overseas suddenly summoned her back. The two registered their marriage that morning and flew abroad that afternoon.
Nan Mu worried his parents would object to their new daughter-in-law leaving the country immediately after the registration without even meeting them. So he simply said nothing, planning to explain everything at once when they returned.

Who could have guessed the situation would spiral this far?

“Think about it, Auntie. Isn’t your son smart? If he hadn’t moved fast, wouldn’t the wife he’d finally caught have flown away again?”

Once Mrs. Nan heard the full story, she finally felt somewhat better, though she remained annoyed. “He still should have told the family about something this important. Honestly…”

She was delighted that her son had finally agreed to marry, but she was also worried. She knew nothing about her new daughter-in-law-not her height, her temperament, or her character. “What does his wife… do abroad? Do you know?”

That happened to be Qiu Ziyu’s area of expertise. After learning Nan Mu had a secret love, he had made Wang Zheng tell him everything Wen Miao had ever accomplished.

“She was a top student in materials science and a graduate student at A University of Science and Technology. That’s when Nan Mu met her. Now she has a doctorate and works at a famous laboratory overseas.” As he spoke, Qiu Ziyu searched online for articles about Wen Miao. “Look at these reports from abroad! There are articles in physics journals and domestic academic publications too. She’s incredible. I heard she was even nominated for the Nobel Prize this year.”

“The Nobel Prize!” Mrs. Qiu retrieved her reading glasses from a drawer in the living room and leaned closer to Qiu Ziyu’s screen. “And this young woman is so pretty.”

She patted Mrs. Nan’s shoulder. “You have a wonderful daughter-in-law!”

Qiu Ziyu laughed and turned to his mother. “Your daughter-in-law is wonderful too.”

“Yes, yes.” Mrs. Qiu smiled. “They’re both wonderful.”

The tense atmosphere immediately relaxed.

Mrs. Nan, however, looked thoughtful. “Materials science… graduate student?”

So that was why the brat had given those exact requirements on every blind date…

He had been serious all along.

===

Three months later, Wen Miao returned to the Nan family home with Nan Mu.

Everyone adored her.

When Mrs. Nan learned that Wen Miao was an orphan, her heart ached for her.

She repeatedly warned Nan Mu to treat Wen Miao well and never bully her.

Nan Mu did not know whether to laugh or cry. “Mom, how could I ever bear to bully her?”

Mrs. Nan patted Wen Miao’s hand. “If this brat ever bullies you, tell me. I’ll teach him a lesson.”

“Okay,” Wen Miao agreed immediately, tilting her head and smiling at Nan Mu.

“Wonderful. My parents have become your parents. It looks like my life is going to be difficult from now on.”

When Mrs. and Mr. Nan went into the kitchen to prepare dinner, he deliberately put on a pitiful expression.

“Even without your parents, you’d better behave and listen to me. Otherwise, I’ll make you penniless,” Wen Miao threatened playfully.

Nan Mu stood with his hands in his pockets and regarded her calmly. “How will you make me penniless? By spending everything?”

Given Nan Huan Group’s current assets and Wen Miao’s spending habits, that would probably take several hundred years.

“Of course not. That would be the worst possible strategy.”

“Oh?” Nan Mu raised an eyebrow. A faint glow shimmered in his eyes, coolness and warmth mingling within them. “Then allow me to ask the great doctor: what is the best strategy?”

Wen Miao ran into the room, found a book, and pulled a note from between its pages. She looked at Nan Mu triumphantly. “You haven’t forgotten this, have you?”

Nan Mu took it and discovered that it was the note he had left during his first trip to the past.

He had been penniless then. He invited Wen Miao to eat, only to make her pay for the meal, so he wrote her an IOU redeemable ten years later…

Holding up the note, Wen Miao reminded him slyly, “You said it yourself. If I dared write down a number, you’d pay any amount.”

“A gentleman always keeps his word.” Nan Mu slipped an arm around her waist. “So how much do you want to write?”

“I’m not writing anything.” With a proud little lift of her chin, Wen Miao put the note away right in front of him. “I’ll wait. Maybe…”

She deliberately looked Nan Mu up and down, teasing amusement hidden in her eyes. “Someone might appreciate a little more.”

They smiled at each other where light and shadow intertwined.

===

I crossed time countless times, all so I could run toward you.