Chapter 942: Extra 15: Wedding 3

What does “push-ups with jump rope” mean?

It means they have to stay in push-up position, and when the jump rope swings over, their hands and feet have to leave the ground at the same time so the rope can pass underneath.

“As long as you can manage it once, we’ll count it as a success, and then we’ll tell you where the bridal shoe is.”

Li Yang: “…This is murder. How the hell are you supposed to jump rope while doing push-ups!? Even One Finger Zen plus Qigong wouldn’t pull this off.”

“Then let’s simplify it a bit,” Mu Qiu suggested, “one person jumps rope, and the other four do push-ups and clap. Once the person jumping can get nine in a row, the ones doing push-ups can get up.”

Li Yang let out a breath of relief: “That’s pretty simp—damn, you call this a jump rope?! This rope is way too short! And two people are swinging it? You’d have to jump up onto the roof to clear this thing!”

Guan Yu shortened the single-person jump rope even more, shot him a look and said, “You’re the one yapping and yapping. You’re the one who’s jumping!”

“!”

Li Yang was forced to take off his suit jacket, and was even thinking about taking off his leather shoes.

Luckily Shu Ran stopped him.

Cheng Zhirang and the others had already taken off their jackets, unbuttoned their shirt sleeves and collars, planted their arms and bent down into push-up position.

Those muscles, that narrow, lean waist and back—Mu Qiu secretly craned her neck to sneak a couple of glances.

Guan Yu and Zhao Yu took charge of swinging the rope: “Here we go!”

“Li Yang! Jump!”

Li Yang jumped straight up on the spot, failed, and got the rope stuck.

This wasn’t jump rope at all, this was a standing high jump! With tears in his eyes he jumped again, feeling like he was sacrificing way too much for these two people’s wedding. When he gets married, he’s going to make them pay it all back!

No wait, married people apparently can’t be the best man or maid of honor?

While he was desperately going for height, Cheng Zhirang and the others started on their push-ups—down, then up; on the way up they powered their arms so their upper bodies bounced a bit, clapped their hands in front of their chests, then caught themselves and went back down.

If your lower back’s even slightly bad, you can’t do this.

Beefcakes doing push-ups—now that’s a beautiful sight. Shu Ran swapped into Guan Yu’s spot, lifted the camera and started shooting away at them.

When Li Yang finally managed to gasp his way through nine jumps in a row, he plopped down on the ground, then joined Jiang Kai and Shi Yuhuai, who were also sprawled out on the floor panting, to drink water and wipe off sweat.

The two slightly older men present had no issues at all; Cheng Zhirang and Jiang Lu got up right after they finished, and Cheng Zhirang even rigorously rebuttoned his cuffs and collar.

Then he turned to Mu Qiu and asked, “Qiuqiu, can you tell us where the bridal shoe is now?”

Mu Qiu pointed at where her mom was sitting. Yuan Chun took the missing bridal shoe out of her bag.

Cheng Zhirang had actually already guessed this.

He strode over with those long legs and stood properly in front of Yuan Chun.

“Mom.”

They had already switched to calling her that.

Yuan Chun nodded. She didn’t hand him the shoe right away, but first cast a glance at Mu Qiu, watching her sit there, smiling like a flower, dressed in that bright red wedding outfit that tinted her cheeks pink—the shy look of a new bride.

Then she swallowed the ache in her chest and spoke to Cheng Zhirang with heartfelt earnestness: “Your future together will be like the way you just searched for the bridal shoe. There may be twists and turns, hardships, bumps, and unknowns. But since you’ve already spent so much effort to find it, I hope that means you’re willing, through all the unknowns and ups and downs, to walk hand in hand with her for life.

Love is hard to define. I only hope that you’ll be tolerant of her, respect her, protect her, and fulfill everything you promise her. Don’t go back on what you agree to. That’s the only way it can last.”

Cheng Zhirang nodded solemnly: “Mom, I understand. I will.”

Only then did Yuan Chun hand him the bridal shoe, letting him walk over to Mu Qiu and slip it onto her foot himself.

Then Cheng Zhirang bent down and scooped Mu Qiu up in a bridal carry, and amid everyone’s laughter, he carried his bride out with a grin.

Sharing their joy with the spring breeze, celebrating with the blazing sun.

This was the day of their shared happiness.

From the villa to outdoors, Mu Qiu changed into a white wedding dress, and under everyone’s gaze, was led toward Cheng Zhirang by Mu Zhi.

Most of the words that needed saying had already been spoken in the time after they got their marriage license; Mu Zhi didn’t have anything extra to say, and couldn’t get anything out.

His eyes were red, and even just two lines of blessings got choked off into broken, fragmented phrases. That set a film of water over Mu Qiu’s eyes too.

In the end he simply stopped trying to say blessings, patted his daughter’s hand, placed it into Cheng Zhirang’s, and said, “I’m handing over the precious daughter I’ve raised for twenty-something years to you.”

Cheng Zhirang held Mu Qiu’s hand: “Dad, don’t worry. I’ll treat her well.”

Two crystalline teardrops rolled in Mu Qiu’s eyes; she quickly ducked her head and blinked them away before they could slide down her cheeks.

Cheng Zhirang lowered his head and gently brushed at the corner of her eye, speaking softly: “Don’t cry. I promise, for the first twenty-four years you were your parents’ treasure, and from now on you’ll be mine. I’ll take charge of the rest of your life.”

Mu Qiu bit her lip, lifted her eyes to look at him, and suddenly broke into a bright smile shimmering with tears.

“You said it. You have to keep your word.”

“I’ll prove it to you.”

The bride and groom successfully exchanged rings; the groom kissed the bride’s ring finger, then, amid the hoots and hollers, leaned in to give her a light kiss.

Down below, everyone took turns snapping photos, screaming and egging them on, sending the atmosphere into a frenzy.

Riding that wave, Mu Qiu turned her back to the crowd of singles and flung the bouquet backward with all her might.

Those who wanted to get married jumped desperately to catch it; those who didn’t want to rushed off to the sides. In the end, the bouquet landed in the hands of someone totally unexpected.

That mixed-blood face that looked like the protagonist of a Western fantasy novel was still casual and unbothered; silver-rimmed glasses hid the sharpness in his eyes a bit, softening them.

It was Qing Rong, whom Mu Qiu and Cheng Zhirang had jointly decided to invite.

No one had expected the bouquet to end up with him, and Qing Rong himself hadn’t either.

He looked down at the bouquet, then glanced up, raised an eyebrow and said, “So this is foreshadowing that the male lead of my new book is about to meet his heroine?”

Mu Qiu burst out laughing.

“You’ve got three hundred thousand words in that new book and the heroine still hasn’t shown up? I’m speechless. Hurry up and drag her out already!”

Qing Rong laughed along with her.

They’d only been thrown into a brief awkwardness because of the sudden transition from online friends to meeting in real life.

Zoom out, and Mu Qiu was still that little fledgling author who got so exhausted from typing that she wanted to go out and seek the meaning of life, and Qing Rong was still that soul-mate of a net friend who could pick up any topic she started, the benefactor of her writing career.

They were still slightly-better-than-average online friends, but it was just that—nothing more.

After the wedding, Assistant Wen, who’d been recording and shooting the whole event, sobbed while uploading the day’s stunning photos to the studio’s Weibo, offering a bit of consolation to all the Cheng Zhi fans who’d been crying for live wedding pics.

The boss is getting married today, sob sob sob sob.

A year and two months ago, if someone had told Assistant Wen that his boss was about to have a girlfriend, he absolutely wouldn’t have believed it.

Even if there was a girlfriend, if someone had told him back then that his boss would quickly propose and then calmly, steadily walk into marriage, he’d have refused to believe it even if it killed him.

Now that the man is actually married, he has no choice but to believe it.

Who knew love would arrive this suddenly.