"Are you serious, Han? Are you really serious?"
Peng asked as he rose abruptly from the chair he had been sitting on. Han didn't answer immediately; the shock was still settling in his mind.
Peng rubbed his head lightly, realizing the outburst he'd just made, and said, "I understand. I swear, I spoke without thinking. I completely lost my composure."
Han nodded, not because the situation made sense to him, but simply in response, then said, "I'm serious. Mom just finished telling me. She said the man's name is Yibo."
Peng covered his mouth this time, searching for words. "Oh my God… Han, please confirm this for me again. I doubt it's true, because that's not how things ended between us."
Han replied, "There's nothing to confirm. Uncle Ruobing and the others already left the house. What else am I supposed to ask?"
Peng nodded slowly. "Alright, Han. Thank you. I'll get back to you."
They ended the call. Peng sat down heavily, clutching his head with both hands, breathing out sharply, almost in gasps. His eyes stayed fixed on the men standing in front of him until one of them turned and spoke to him. Remembering how important this deal was... and the hardship he had endured to get here... he forced himself to calm down, looked up, responded, and continued the discussion.
The very first thing he did after leaving that place was call Zhan. He tried at least three times, but there was no answer. Then he called Malo. He planned to speak with Fuyue after that.
As the ringing tone sounded in his ear, his heart pounded. A part of him hoped the call wouldn't disconnect untill Malo answered.
Peng exhaled sharply and said, "Malo… I just got terrible news. They say someone went to Zhan's family to ask for his hand in marriage. How is that even possible? Tell me...how is that possible? Didn't I tell you how things ended between us? Didn't I tell you that this plan was already in motion, that he assured me he would talk to those people? So how do I end up hearing this now? How?"
"Peng, slow down..."
Malo cut him off, realizing Peng was no longer making sense.
"Where did you hear this? Who told you?"
Peng closed his eyes, took another deep breath, and explained everything that had happened.
But the moment he mentioned the name Yibo, Malo's heart slammed hard against his chest. Everything went blank. He tried to process what Peng was saying, but his mind refused to cooperate. His thoughts scattered...picking up pieces, dropping others...none of it forming anything coherent.
When Peng finished speaking, Malo didn't respond immediately. Peng had to call his name to pull him back.
Malo exhaled slowly and said, "Listen, Peng. For now, I need you to calm down and focus on what brought you there. From today until tomorrow, I promise I'll do everything I can to find out what's really going on. And if it's true, I'll find out who Yibo really is."
Peng nodded. "I don't want any delays, Malo. The moment you locate Yibo, figure out how to remove him completely. He's useless. Completely useless."
After ending the call, the confusion Malo had been suppressing surged back violently. Without waiting another second, he grabbed his phone and stood up from the club where he'd been sitting. Upstairs, he spotted Josh with a group of women, as usual. It took effort to get Josh's attention, but eventually Josh handed him his car keys.
Malo pushed through the crowd and left.
Once on the road, he didn't hesitate. He drove straight toward the place his mind had already fixed on.. When he arrived, he parked outside the house. Just like before, he scanned both sides of the street, avoiding the gaze of the people sitting nearby. Gripping the gate with one hand, he climbed over.
Inside, he went straight to the door. Knocking was unavoidable, so he did...again and again, without pause...until Yibo opened it right in front of him.
Surprise flashed across Yibo's eyes, but it vanished almost instantly. He looked straight at him and called out his name.
"Malo...."
Malo didn't respond. He simply brushed past him and walked inside. Yibo closed the door and turned, watching as Malo stood on the carpet, his shoes planted between two open laptops Yibo had been working on. Yibo lifted his gaze from Malo's feet to his face just as Malo spoke.
"I came to ask you something I forgot to ask you earlier, Lion. Why? Why are you doing all this.... spending money, digging into Peng's life? Why do you care so much after all this time, after you walked away and built this life for yourself?"
He gestured broadly at the room around them.
Yibo stared at him for a few seconds, then calmly moved to one of the chairs facing him and sat down.
"Because I want to stop him from doing what he's planning."
"And because you're interested in marrying Zhan."
Malo cut in before Yibo could continue. He threw both hands into the air, shaking his head, clearly overwhelmed.
"How do you take on something this big, Lion? How?"
Yibo didn't respond. He simply stared at him as Malo continued speaking.
"You don't know who Pepe really is. You don't know him at all. There's nothing he wouldn't do for this job. Right now, he's ordered me to find you wherever you are and eliminate you before he returns to this city."
To Malo's surprise, Yibo suddenly smiled...a wide, untroubled smile...still holding his gaze.
"I was beginning to think is right now you'd actually start your job, Malo," Yibo said calmly.
****
A few days later…
In Zhan's reckoning, too many things had happened...so many that if he were asked to sit down and list them, he wouldn't know where to begin. In his mind, everything felt crowded, overwhelming, as if a pause button had been pressed on his life. Time had moved forward while parts of him were left behind.
If he could rewind everything...to the moment Yibo first entered his life and expressed his intention to marry him...Zhan would say that was the turning point he still hadn't fully understood. But everything truly fell apart the day Peng came to him, the day he said he was going to take his proposal to Uncle Elder.
Even now, Zhan didn't know what had pushed him to let that happen. Yet, through luck and the quiet power of prayer, everything changed. When Uncle Elder finally understood Zhan's distress, he asked him to introduce someone instead of Peng.
Only a few days after meeting Yibo, Uncle Elder personally came to the house to inform Nainai that the background checks they carried out matched everything Yibo had told them. Although he didn't have an impressive or established background, people spoke well of him. Everyone testified to his good character; no one had anything negative to say about him.
Zhan didn't realize that Nainai had already accepted Yibo's proposal until that very day. Her joy made it obvious. She told Uncle Elder that marriage wasn't built on background alone... everyone had family somewhere... and so she gave her full approval. She instructed that Yibo be called and told to send his parents so the process could move forward.
Zhan knew he had little say in the matter. If asked, he would have requested more time... not out of rejection, but to avoid rushing such a major decision. Yet every time he hinted at that, Nainai looked at him with a knowing expression that silenced him. After everything that had happened with Peng, he chose to keep quiet.
Peng
Two days after Yibo's visit to Uncle Elder's house, Peng arrived unannounced, clearly angry. Before his arrival, Zhan had seen his missed calls countless times, but he never answered... just as Aunty Shui had advised. He didn't block the calls either; he simply let them ring unanswered. That continued until the day Peng stepped into the house.
Fortunately, Aunty Shui was present, so Peng encountered her and Nainai before reaching Zhan.
Nainai spoke at length, explaining everything to him until Peng was visibly stunned. Though she admitted she wasn't entirely pleased with how things turned out, she said fate had already decided it. Neither she nor the rest of the family would force Zhan into a marriage.
Peng listened silently, his earlier anger draining away. When Aunty Shui tried to add something, he cut her off politely, said his goodbyes, and left. Zhan was certain Peng hadn't even left the gate when he called him. This time, Zhan answered. After everything Nainai had said, he felt it was better to let Peng hear him out...to let this be the final conversation between them.
But the very first words Peng said... "So this is how you repay me?".... froze Zhan instantly.
That single sentence told him everything: Peng was not letting go peacefully. He didn't even hang up until he made it clear that no one would stop him from achieving what he wanted with him. The words terrified him. He replayed them over and over in his mind, wondering if Peng's true goal had always been marriage.
When Zhan told Aunty Shui about the call, she advised him to erase Peng completely from his heart. Nainai herself had apologized and accepted Yibo's proposal. Zhan should focus only on what lay ahead. That, she said, had always been her wish... to free him from Peng's shadow, which had loomed over his life for far too long.
Whenever Zhan thought about Yibo, all those fears quieted. And when they spoke on the phone, Peng barely existed in his mind at all. During those days, Yibo visited him twice. Each visit reinforced the reality of everything unfolding. Yibo entered the house every time... into the formal living room downstairs. It felt unfamiliar to Zhan. If he were honest, he couldn't remember more than three people he had ever brought into that space since finishing high school.
The first time Yibo visited, Zhan's heart pounded wildly as he led him inside. But Yibo simply chose a seat at the far end of the room, where refreshments had been prepared. Their conversation soon washed away Zhan's nerves. Yibo asked gentle questions... about Zhan's life, his upbringing under Nainai's care.
By the second visit, Zhan was far more relaxed. At one point, as Yibo told a story from his school days, Zhan laughed so hard he covered his face with his palm, while Yibo watched him with quiet amusement.
So, in Zhan's quiet observation of how events had been unfolding, this too became part of it...his growing astonishment at how Yibo had come to feel so familiar. Whenever he was with him, it never felt like someone he had known for only a short time. Instead, it felt as though Yibo had always been there, merely delayed, as if he had been standing somewhere along the path and had only just arrived.
That was why, when Yibo began speaking openly about his feelings and about sending his parents to formalize things, Zhan found himself unable to give a clear response. His only thought was that time should be allowed to stretch a little longer, that everything shouldn't happen all at once, that outsiders shouldn't see it as rushed.
And so, he hesitated.
Zhan would say he had never met anyone like Yibo...so direct, so decisive, without hesitation or unnecessary delays. When Yibo realized Zhan was uncertain, he simply contacted Uncle Sanxing, whose number he already had. From there, everything moved swiftly. Zhan didn't know how it happened or what was said; he only knew that before he could process anything, Uncle Elder had given his approval.
Yibo didn't even tell him himself.
Zhan learned about it the day Uncle Sanxing came to inform Nainai that a date had already been set for Yibo to send his parents.
The happiness Zhan saw on Nainai's face stopped him from expressing his full shock. When he called Aunty Shui to tell her, she brushed it off, saying it was nothing since approval had already been given. By the end of the call, she was telling him he should be grateful and happy...young men these days, she said, often kept someone waiting for years without ever making a clear commitment.
Zhan was left speechless. He trusted Yibo, and his heart felt calm with him, yet everything seemed to have happened far too quickly.
He remembered a classmate from after college whose wedding had been arranged just one month after meeting her husband. At the time, the story had fascinated them all...especially Zhan, who had never liked the prolonged strain of endless dating. But now that something similar was happening to him, it felt different. It made him uneasy, as though skipping that familiar period couples usually shared might somehow be wrong, as if something important would be left incomplete.
Still, he knew these were only his private thoughts. He couldn't voice them, especially now that his hospital work had ended. With the workplace closed and nothing to occupy his time at home, there was little he could do. They had already met with officials from the ministry, who said it would take another four months before the names of the hospitals selected for permanent placement would be released.
Yet even that wasn't what troubled him most. What truly unsettled Zhan was that it had been five days since he last heard from Yibo...not even a phone call. In the short time he had known him, Zhan had learned that Yibo wasn't one to call frequently. He was often consumed by work, and when something occupied him, he usually explained later. But this was different. Zhan had tried calling, only to find Yibo's phone completely switched off.
His worry grew by the hour. He began wondering why Yibo would turn off all his phones when a day like this was so close. He told no one...not even Aunty Shui...though with every passing moment, his anxiety deepened. A part of him feared that Yibo's relatives might not arrive today after all. And so, when he saw Aunty Shui busy preparing food, and Bai...who had received Nainai's permission...not going to school, Zhan felt his body grow heavy, his chest tight with dread.
With all his faith, he prayed that nothing would go wrong, that no obstacle would arise to leave him lost and directionless in his life. Each 'what if' that crept into his mind, he forced away, replacing it with 'maybe'. But when he heard that Uncle Elder had instructed them to open and prepare the large reception hall, a cold wave washed over him completely, leaving him unable to move, unable to do anything at all.
Zhan lay on his bed inside the room, listening to Aunty Shui and Noni complaining about Aunty Hsiao's absence, even though everyone knew what was happening in the house. Nainai defended her, saying they shouldn't jump to conclusions yet...perhaps she simply hadn't finished what she was doing.
Zhan drifted into thought, trying to remember the last time he had seen Fuyue. He couldn't. Their relationship had grown distant...far more than before. They had never been close, never truly spoken much, but now the gap between them felt wider than ever.
He lay there, lost in thought and silent prayers, when Aunty Shui walked in and scolded him lightly for locking himself in his room like a shy village bride. Since morning, he had been curled up on the bed in his sleepwear, a soft scarf that belonged to Nainai loosely wrapped around his head in a simple fold, his hair spilling out from behind it.
As Aunty Shui continued talking, Noni stepped in to defend him, saying that shyness was an ornament everywhere. It was in this atmosphere that Uncle Elder arrived with two other elders from Nainai's side. Zhan could hear their voices as they spoke with Nainai in the living room, but the sound only made it harder for him to step outside. His body felt cold, his chest unbearably heavy, and it felt as though tears were gathering behind his eyes.
Where would he hide if Yibo disgraced Uncle Elder and these respected men?
Where had Yibo gone?
Why was his phone unreachable?
No matter how much Zhan tried to push away the stories he had once heard about deception among professionals, the thought forced itself back into his mind.
But if Yibo had deceived him, what would he gain from it?
What would be the point....playing with his emotions and those of his family?
Zhan remembered Yibo's eyes, his words, and his chest tightened painfully. What he had seen in Yibo felt far too real to be a lie.
When the elders eventually stood up to leave, and Uncle Ruining and Uncle Sanxing arrived shortly after, the scent of their cologne drifted into Zhan's room. The tears he had been holding back finally spilled. They rolled down unchecked, warm against his skin. His stomach twisted painfully with hunger and anxiety, and when he lifted his hand, he realized his fingers were trembling.
That day, Zhan learned just how long a single minute could feel. Each second dragged under the weight in his chest. Aunty Shui came in and out, spoke to him once or twice, then eventually left him alone to tend to her duties.
It was then Zhan truly understood what people meant when they spoke of emotional suffering. In the nearly two hours that followed, the turmoil inside him felt like two full years of agony. Then he heard Uncle Sanxing's voice from the living room, followed by Nainai's startled exclamation, then Bai's sudden scream.
The tears he had been suppressing broke free completely. This time, they burned as they fell, mixed with quiet, broken breaths drawn from deep inside his chest. His body shook violently, though no sound escaped his lips.
He expected Aunty Shui to burst in at any moment with news that would shatter what remained of his heart. But instead, before anyone entered his room, he heard Uncle Sanxing's voice clearly:
"…Whatever comes after this can wait. The marriage will be conducted now. Everything is ready."
Barely two minutes later, Uncle Elder himself entered Zhan's room. He didn't comment on Zhan's tear-streaked face or his sleepwear. He simply took his hand and led him straight into Nainai's living room.
The room was full of people, yet Zhan saw only Yibo.
He stood at the center of the room, surrounded by silence, wearing black jeans and a blue hooded sweater. His eyes were fixed entirely on him.
When Uncle Elder brought Zhan to stand beside him, Yibo stepped closer without hesitation and spoke clearly:
"Zhan, do you take me as your lawfully wedded husband... for better or worse,
in sickness and in health,
for richer or poorer, love and cherish me
until death parts us?"
Tears streamed down Zhan's face. His entire body trembled. He had never realized how terrified he was of losing Yibo... until this very moment. His mind was flooded with fear, and before he even realized it, his lips parted.
"I do."
He said it again.
And again....three times...nodding as though afraid the words might disappear if he stopped.
Yibo exhaled deeply, then spoke again, his voice steady and certain:
"I, Wang Yibo, gladly take Xiao Zhan as my legally wedded husband...
for better or worse,
in sickness and in health,
for richer or poorer,
to love and cherish him,
until death parts us."
He slid a silver ring onto Zhan's finger, then placed another ring into his palm, watching him closely. Zhan smiled through his tears and slipped the ring onto Yibo's finger.
Instead of the usual "you may kiss," Yibo handed Zhan a marriage certificate he had already signed.
Without hesitation, Zhan added his signature.
The room erupted in applause.
Congratulations echoed everywhere.
As Zhan looked around at the gathered faces, he noticed the pastor...who was meant to officiate...standing quietly to the side, shaking his head in disbelief.
There are many gaps in this chapter.
Something happened between Fuyue and Peng.
Something happened between Yibo and Malo.
Something happened between Peng and Malo.
There is something hid Yibo for two full days.
And there is something involving Peng, Fuyue, Malo....and even Aunty Hsiao....that caused the silence which led all events to this inevitable fate.