Chapter 22 — The Bed of Your Own Choosing

"I thought so too. But I do not want to turn in an assignment simply because the deadline bell rings." "Then don't decide first." "Your parents will blame me." "They can blame, I'm responsible for explaining." She looked at me: "It's not you who has to block everything for me. Let's explain together." This was where she differed most from Shen Nianchu. It's not like she will always choose me. It's that she didn't ask me to turn her into someone who won't be blamed by anyone. And I finally accepted that my lover's work, family, and sense of self were as important as I was. Relationships are not about squeezing those things out. It's that we are willing to let each other enter the selection process.

The day we registered our marriage, neither of our parents knew. It wasn't intentionally done in advance and announced later, but because Meng's mother insisted on holding the wedding first, my father felt that not holding a party in his hometown would lose face. Our two families argued over the guest count, the hotel, and which side would host relatives after the wedding. Meng Lan and I listened two months, finally chose a Friday, asked for half a day off to go to the civil affairs department. While queuing, she asked: "Are you nervous?" "It's okay." "Your palms are sweaty." "The air conditioner in the lobby is hot." The employee raised his head to look at the temperature on the wall, twenty-two degrees. While taking pictures, the photographer told us to come a little closer. Meng Lan intentionally moved aside, I reached out to pull her back. Receiving the red book, she flipped it back and forth for a long time. "Does this count as marriage?" "Legally, it counts." "In terms of life."
live?" "Go home and take out the trash first." She kicked me. In the evening, we called our parents separately. My mother was silent for ten seconds, then asked whether Meng Lan had forced me. I said I had suggested it. Mother asked again whether I was pregnant. Meng Lan listened from the side and rolled her eyes repeatedly. My father just said: "If you've already registered, what can you do?" The party still has to be held." Meng's mother's reaction was even greater, crying for a while, saying that even if her biological mother did not inform her when her daughter got married, she would not tell her if she was upset in the future. Meng Lan did not back down as she had before. After hearing her mother cry, she said: "Mom, I didn't announce it because every time I mentioned my marriage, you first thought about how other people would see it, and then thought about whether I was happy. I did not want to explain why we had not arranged thirty tables on the day we registered." Meng's mother said she had no conscience. Meng Lan replied: "I have a conscience. That is why I did not let you spend more than a hundred thousand yuan on a party that would exhaust you." After hanging up, she sat on the sofa without speaking. I asked whether I needed to make another trip. "No need," she said, "But it's not about admitting mistakes, it's about stating the obvious." We went to her house first. Meng's mother's face was cold, she still made six dishes. Halfway through the meal, she asked how the family arranged it, when they would have children, and if Meng Lan would still have the surname Meng after marriage. The last sentence made me laugh. Meng's mother glared at me: "What are you laughing at?" "Auntie, she can't get married and change her last name to Zhou?" "In the past, when a woman got married, she followed her husband's family." Meng Lan put down her chopsticks: "I didn't join the Zhou family, and he didn't join the family either."
"Good. We will register our own household." "That's good. Which side will we go to in the future for Tet?" "Rotate, or whoever has work will go to that side." "Whose last name do you follow?" "Let's talk about it." Meng's mother was so angry that she stopped eating. I was in no hurry to mediate, just took the prepared family spending plan. Every year, both parents have a fixed health check and basic support, big sums are discussed at the same table, no priority is given to whichever house has the most people. Meng's mother finished watching and asked: "Who did this?" "We worked on it together," I said. She muttered that there were many expenses to get through each day, but I still put the paper in a drawer. When we went to my house, Dad still resented not having a banquet. He said at the table: "You city people feel that rituals are not important. In the countryside, there are relatives. When other people's children get married, they all announce it. When it's your turn, you don't show it. It's like your family is wasting money." I said I could set up ten tables, only invite close relatives, no money was accepted. Dad immediately objected: "If you don't accept money, then what if you were happy to let everyone leave empty-handed?" Meng Lan couldn't bear it: "Uncle, a wedding is a gathering of people, not a ledger of receivables." There was silence at the table for two seconds, my mother burst into laughter first. Dad glared at her, unable to hold back himself. In the end, the wedding held twelve tables. Meng's mother arrived, wearing a new cheongsam. When my father spoke on stage, he forgot his words and just repeated that Meng Lan was a good girl and told me not to bully people. There were no lavish hotels, no touching videos, and no Gu Cheng and Shen Nianchu suddenly appearing. Han Dongming drank a lot, hugged me and said that Room 407 had finally produced a marriage.
Zhao Yue corrected that he was getting married. Du Hang said that based on the family's power structure, it is currently impossible to judge. Meng Lan laughed so hard that her makeup smudged. For the first two years of our marriage, we still lived in two cities.