There are still thirty days until the wedding ceremony.
When Sang Wuyan saw the small countdown blackboard on the wall, his heart suddenly started pounding and he felt a little nervous.
The wedding date was set a little hastily, and it was set for the 21st of next month, which was just a few days away. Because the date was so close, it took someone's help to book the hotel. Originally, according to Su Nianqin's personality, he would definitely not hold a wedding banquet, but under the strong request of Mother Sang, the future son-in-law gave in.
She took out the "Bride Preparation Manual" that Yu Xiaolu gave her yesterday, and sat upright on the sofa to study it carefully. Su Nianqin next to her was listening to the radio.
Sang Wuyan flipped through the notes on booking a wedding date, took a look and couldn't help asking, "People say it's best to choose even numbers on both the Gregorian and lunar calendars. Why?"
"For good luck." Su Nianqin said.
"Oh. Then we are all single numbers, so it's nothing."
"It's already been ordered, so forget it."
After a while, Sang Wuyan asked again: "Why do you have to avoid the menstrual period? Do you also think it's unlucky for women to have their period?"
She recalled that in the costume TV dramas she had watched before, many ancient men disdained this thing.
"What feudal superstition." Sang Wuyan said with disdain.
"This should have nothing to do with feudal superstition." Su Nianqin said.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Sang Wuyan wondered.
"Bridal chamber." Su Nianqin answered simply and straightforwardly.
“…” She blushed.
At night, she was in the bathroom looking at the calendar and thinking about it. Her menstrual period was on the 13th, so there was no conflict and they could have their wedding night.
I really didn't think about this when I set the date, but I didn't expect it to be so successful.
She made a victory sign in front of the mirror.
In the following days, Sang Wuyan did body slimming and beauty treatments, and also ordered her hairstyle and wedding dress style in advance.
On the last day, Sang Wuyan still felt that the dress was too long and needed to be altered. In the bridal shop, Sang Wuyan put on the dress again and fiddled with it in front of the mirror, while Xiao Lei, a clerk next to her, was doing her hair.
"Will you wear heavy makeup tomorrow?"
"No, just be natural."
"And the groom?"
"Just fix your hair."
Sang Wuyan frowned, "Can you make me prettier and make him uglier?"
"Why?" The clerk Xiao Lei was a little surprised.
"Lest others say I am unworthy of him."
Xiao Lei smiled. She had just been transferred from another store and had never seen the legendary "Mr. Su".
At this moment, a man walked up the stairs and stood there, looking at Sang Wuyan's back and laughing. He was dressed fashionably, and the shirt underneath was a light pink color.
Xiao Lei touched Sang Wuyan, and she noticed and turned around to look.
"Peng Ruixing!"
"Wu Yan, long time no see."
"How did you know I was here?" Sang Wuyan glanced at the strong chest exposed in Peng Ruixing's half-open shirt.
"I rushed here right after receiving Su Nianqin's wedding invitation. I just found out from Secretary Qin that you were here." Peng Ruixing walked over with a smile.
The wheat-colored chest was clearly visible, and it was particularly attractive against the shirt of that color. Sang Wuyan swallowed secretly.
"No," Peng Ruixing continued, "You still have a chance to regret it."
"What are you regretting?"
"Don't marry him. I can be a backup." Peng Ruixing really wanted to interfere because Su Nianqin's crazy look was really funny.
“Puchi—” Sang Wuyan laughed.
After Peng Rui left, Sang Wuyan's pre-marital depression suddenly broke out. She called Su Nianqin urgently, and then dragged him to several department stores, but still couldn't give up, and he didn't buy anything.
Su Nianqin asked: "Wu Yan, what's wrong with you?"
"I'm looking for something?"
"What?"
"A very simple pink men's shirt."
"What are you buying it for? As a gift?"
"For you to wear."
"Why should I wear pink?" Although he didn't have much idea about colors, he knew what could highlight a man's steadiness.
"You must prove that you look much better in it than Peng Ruixing, otherwise I won't be willing to marry you like this," she confessed.
In the evening, Xiao Qin took the schedule and confirmed every step for tomorrow with Sang Wuyan. Sang Wuyan kept remembering and forgetting at the same time, feeling completely unsure.
At night, according to the custom of the Su family, Su Nianqin would return to the old house for the first night, while Sang Wuyan would stay in the villa, and then Su Nianqin would come to pick her up early the next morning.
Li Lulu and Xu Qian came and stayed at home with Sang Wuyan. They knew she was nervous, so they kept her company. She was already nervous, and now that Su Nianqin was not around, she was even more nervous. By midnight, everyone was too sleepy.
Mother Sang said, "Okay, okay, go to sleep. You have to get up early tomorrow."
At Mother Sang's command, everyone went back to the house.
Sang Wuyan lay in bed, and could hear her heart beating so fast that it felt like it was about to burst out. She had been a carefree person since she was young. Before the college entrance examination, many parents tried every means to relieve their children's stress so that they would not be unable to sleep before the exam. But she was not nervous at all. During the exam days, she fell asleep as soon as she touched the pillow.
Father Sang secretly said happily: "Our daughter has a great psychological quality!"
Mother Sang explained unhappily: "What kind of mental quality is this? It's obvious that you are just a little stupid."
Sang Wuyan, who had never known insomnia for more than 20 years, suddenly couldn't sleep on the first night before her wedding. She stared with her eyes wide open, but she just couldn't fall asleep. She counted from Lazy Sheep to Big Big Wolf, but she still couldn't fall asleep. She just felt her heart beating fast.
She thought, what if it rains? Then she thought, what if her strapless wedding dress falls off? Then she thought, what if the car breaks down on the road? As she thought about it, she found it funny.
She took out the phone on the bedside table and saw that it was already two o'clock, and she didn't know if Su Nianqin was asleep. She suddenly wanted to call him, but she was afraid that he was really asleep and disturbed his sleep, or that he didn't have his phone at hand and alarmed other people.
After thinking it over, she typed two words and sent them over: Nianqin.
She had never sent a text message to him before, and she knew it was useless, but she did it anyway. After she sent the text message, she heard something like rain outside, and then her phone started to vibrate.
"Nianqin!" Sang Wuyan answered the phone excitedly.
"Yeah." He responded, his voice sounding a little sleepy.
"How did you know I called you?" I called you in the text message.
"When I heard the message, I wondered if you couldn't sleep and were looking for me," he said softly.
"You can't sleep either?" she asked with relief.
"I fell asleep with my phone under my pillow, and I woke up when I heard the noise."
The two began to chat quietly. In the end, Su Nianqin could no longer hold on and fell asleep. Sang Wuyan pressed her ear tightly against the receiver. She could hear his rhythmic breathing, long and steady. He didn't dream or talk in his sleep that night. He slept very peacefully.
Sang Wuyan gradually noticed that the sky outside the window was getting lighter and the rain had stopped. Only then did she start to feel sleepy while holding the phone drowsily.
I probably slept for less than an hour before I was woken up, and then the most important day of my life began.
By the time everything was finished, it was already nine o'clock in the evening.
Naturally, no one dared to come to Su Nianqin's bridal chamber to make trouble, and Mother Sang knew that the two of them must be exhausted, so she blocked Xu Qian, Li Lulu and the other little ghosts who wanted to make trouble.
They breathed a sigh of relief when they got home.
Su Nianqin said while untying his tie, "I'm going to take a shower first." This was originally a very ordinary sentence. The two of them had lived together for more than a year in total. However, with the orangutan bedding, the double happiness patterns posted everywhere, and the longan, lotus seeds, peanuts, and red dates on the bed, it became vaguely ambiguous.
Sang Wuyan blushed and said, "Oh. I'll go later."
Su Nianqin took a slower shower than usual this time, and when he came out, he was still wrapped in a thin bath towel as usual. He stayed in the bathroom for a long time, his face was red from the steam, and even his lips were darker than usual.
"Aren't you preparing for the bridal chamber?" Sang Wuyan asked.
"Are you still planning to save it for tomorrow's wedding night?"
"Uh—" That's right.
At this time, Su Nianqin had already approached, held her chin and kissed her. She kissed him back, then sat on the bed and pushed away the prickly longans and peanuts on the quilt.
His body pressed down, his lips began to move from her face to other places, his breathing gradually became heavier, and his hand reached under her skirt.
Sang Wuyan opened his eyes in a daze and saw that Su Nianqin's ears were red. This was what happened when he was aroused, his whole body would turn red.
The skin on Sang Wuyan's chest felt a little itchy from his stubble.
"I have to take a shower first," she said.
Su Nianqin let her go reluctantly.
As a result, Sang Wuyan came out of the bathroom less than ten seconds after entering it, looking at Su Nianqin with an innocent face.
"Nianqin..." a very embarrassed tone.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm coming."
The wedding night that comes once in a lifetime was ruined by an uninvited thing.
The next day, Li Lulu almost hit the ground with laughter when she heard Sang Wuyan's narration.
"Sang Wuyan, you are too much."
"It's none of my business." Sang Wuyan had never felt so wronged.
"I can imagine Master Su's expression at that time."
"I didn't do it on purpose. How could I know that this would happen ten days earlier? And I'm always pretty accurate." Sang Wuyan covered her face, wanting to cry but without tears.
After the marriage, a strange thing happened at home.
In Sang Wuyan's eyes, this strangeness can be explained as: the man has become more neurotic.
After graduation, Sang Wuyan worked at a community psychological counseling center in City A. Although the work was relatively easy, he often worked overtime or went out to hang out with friends. Therefore, most of the time, he did not go home earlier than Su Nianqin.
However, during the wedding banquet, as long as she was at home, she would always happily open the door to welcome the return of the eldest young master of the Su family and give him a big hug. Even if Su Nianqin was extremely tired after a busy day, he would still force a smile and kiss her forehead.
Su Nianqin had a small change. He used to take out his own key to enter the house, but since getting married, he no longer had the habit of taking out his key. Even if he carried it with him, he would still ring the doorbell and wait for the woman to open the door.
Sometimes I would stand there for three to five minutes to make sure no one was home before taking the key.
Neither the driver, Xiao Qin nor Sang Wuyan took it to heart until one day.
It was the weekend, but Su Nianqin had to go to the company for some important matters, so Sang Wuyan was alone at home, curled up on the sofa and watching TV. When Su Nianqin went home and rang the doorbell, she was watching the exciting part of the TV series and was reluctant to leave.
He never forgot his keys, but the doorbell kept ringing over and over again.
She grumbled unhappily as she went to open the door for him. After unlocking the door, Sang Wuyan was still thinking about the plot on TV, so she ran back to continue watching without meeting him.
After the episode was over, Sang Wuyan laughed happily. Then she remembered why there was no movement at the door. It seemed that Su Nianqin had not come in yet
impossible!
She muttered, she clearly opened the door. So Sang Wuyan put down the remote control and walked to the door to see: the door was wide open, Su Nianqin stood at the door with a sullen face, motionless, and the driver who sent him back was anxiously running around with an umbrella in his hand.
It was raining heavily at the moment. Although there was a wide eaves at the door to block the view, the rain was still blown in by the strong wind and wet his shoulders.
Sang Wuyan was a little confused.
"Why don't you come in?"
Su Nianqin had a gloomy look on his face and did not answer her. His expression was uglier than the gloomy sky outside.
Sang Wuyan thought: Did I offend him again? So she also started to get angry.
The two of them stood there, one outside the door, the other inside, for more than ten minutes. The old driver finally lost his patience and said, "It's raining outside, let's let Mr. Su in first."
Sang Wuyan suddenly felt distressed when she saw that Su Nianqin's clothes were getting more and more wet. She was about to compromise, but Su Nianqin just happened to have an outburst.
"Close the door! Start over!" Su Nianqin said angrily as she strode forward and closed the door.
There was a loud bang when the door closed.
Sang Wuyan was so frightened that he almost jumped.
What does it mean to start over again? she asked herself.
Three seconds later, the doorbell rang again.
Sang Wuyan was really confused, wondering what happened to Su Nianqin. To find out, she opened the door again, saw Su Nianqin, and waited for his reaction. Unexpectedly, he took off his shoes as usual, stretched out his hand, and said calmly, "I'm back, Wuyan."
Sang Wuyan uttered a blank "hmm" and took the hand that Su Nianqin extended to her. Then he placed her on his chest and gently kissed her forehead.
Su Nianqin went into the bedroom, took out her things, ran the water, and took a bath... all in an orderly manner. Sang Wuyan was left standing at the entrance in a daze for a long while.
Everything seemed the same as usual, except that his face was still a little gloomy, the kissing movements were a little stiff, and his lips were already frozen cold outside.
In order to verify where the problem occurred, Sang Wuyan repeated the same trick the second week.
She anticipated the time he would return home and left the door ajar.
Su Nianqin still rang the doorbell.
The third time, she simply left the door wide open and went to do other things. Su Nianqin still rang the doorbell when she returned home.
She finally understood that instead of Su Nianqin asking her to open the door, it would be more accurate to say that he was forcing her to welcome him home!
Why? Sang Wuyan complained to Cheng Yin on the phone: "He thinks he is a Japanese man? He also wants me to bow and say 'Welcome back, you have worked hard' at the entrance every day?"
Although he has a good financial status in the family, he can't be so overbearing. She can support herself.
Cheng Yin laughed on the other end.
"Can you please stop laughing? I'm already very distressed."
"What did he say?"
"He said nothing."
"What about usual times?"
“Other than this, life is normal.”
Sometimes, Sang Wuyan would deliberately forget him outside the door after opening it. Whether it was twenty minutes or an hour, Su Nianqin would never give in. She had to start over: she held his hand, and he kissed her forehead.
"Just leave him there and see if he can still stand upright all night?" Cheng Yin said heartlessly.
"If I ignore him, he will probably really stand there until dawn." Based on Su Nianqin's temper, it is absolutely possible.
“You deserve it.”
"I..." Sang Wuyan had a bitter face, but she felt distressed.
The next week, Sang Wuyan had lunch with colleagues from the community center at noon, and one of his colleagues suddenly started talking about some cases that everyone had recently taken over.
She studied child development and cognitive psychology, so she mostly dealt with child patients. But her good colleague Zhao Meng encountered many marriage cases, which were quite interesting.
After dinner, Zhao Meng still ended the conversation with the sigh, "Alas, marriage."
That day, this ending statement that she had heard many times suddenly resonated in Sang Wuyan's heart. In the afternoon, she sneaked into Zhao Meng's studio and told her about Su Nianqin's abnormal behavior after marriage.
"We lived together before we got married, but this kind of thing never happened before," Sang Wuyan added.
Zhao Meng smiled and said, "This is a man's ritual. Before marriage, you are just lovers, but after marriage, he has to express in a certain way that you are his wife and become a real part of his life."
"Why did you choose this method?"
"He doesn't want you to ignore him."
"Does it mean that I didn't neglect him if I greeted him home warmly?"
"Men like to express themselves in a specific way, such as asking you to wear a ring to prove your identity, and also want to use something to express that he ranks first in your heart. This is their ritual."
"So can I interpret this as him loving me so much?"
"Of course." Zhao Meng folded his arms and nodded affirmatively.
"Unless I divorce him, I will have to put up with him like this forever?"
"In a way, he is childish. When he truly matures mentally and feels secure in his marriage, that will naturally disappear."
Childish? Sang Wuyan pondered over these three words on the way home. Li Lulu, who also studied social psychology, always thought that Su Nianqin's dominance was a manifestation of masculinity, while Zhao Meng said it was childish.
(End of this chapter)