Marriage certificate: Can you be a little more clear-headed?
When Su Xiaoman returned to Qiaoxin Village and saw the newly built house, she almost couldn’t stop herself from hugging Xie Mingtu and kissing him several times—if not for the people around them.
The little wooden building and courtyard were beautifully done. Su Xiaoman had always liked this kind of antique-style architecture. From the outside, it looked simple and elegant, the wooden structure blending perfectly with the tiled house beside it. Yet up close, the details—window ledges, eaves, and corners—were exquisitely crafted.
The newly built vine trellis in the yard hadn’t yet grown vines, but the few small cabbages underneath looked fresh and lively. What pleased Su Xiaoman the most was the bamboo swing. She sat on it and swung back and forth several times, directing Xie Mingtu to take photos of her.
Her “dog brother” was seriously too capable!!!!
Capable in every sense of the word!
Unlike Grandpa Jiang’s shaky “Parkinson-like” photography and Grandma Jiang’s strange angles, Xie Mingtu’s photography skills were practically perfect. Su Xiaoman adored him for it—having a husband who learned everything so quickly made it impossible not to love him.
At first, when she asked him to take photos, she had been worried, afraid he might inherit Grandpa Jiang’s shaky hands and produce blurred images even without motion. As for Grandma Jiang’s “fatal angles,” it was only thanks to their good looks that the photos didn’t turn out disastrously.
But Xie Mingtu was different. He was like the ideal boyfriend—he never messed up when taking photos. Every picture he took made Su Xiaoman look stunning. He paid attention to angles, lighting, and shadows—everything.
When she saw the developed photos, Su Xiaoman almost cried with joy. Finally, someone could take good pictures of her!!!
What she didn’t know was that after learning from her letters that she wanted a camera, Xie Mingtu had secretly studied how to use one and even read books on aesthetics.
“Mingtu, you made me look so beautiful!”
“These ones look great too!”
“When I wear my wedding dress, you have to take some photos for me!”
“How are you so good at this? Did you secretly learn behind my back?”
Xie Mingtu only smiled quietly at her, thinking that he would never let her down.
…
The wedding date had been chosen personally by Su Guodong. On that day, Su Xiaoman returned to her family home, back to the room she used to live in, as if she were still unmarried.
The room hadn’t changed. Even after she got married, Liu Shufeng had kept a space for her. Her old clothes, childhood doodles—everything was still there.
With her brows drawn and lips painted red, Su Xiaoman changed into her phoenix-and-peony wedding dress. Outside, the sound of firecrackers filled the air, along with her father’s loud voice talking to someone.
The courtyard must have been full of villagers watching.
Su Third Brother carried her out on his back, and Su Guodong personally placed her hand into Xie Mingtu’s. There was a smile on his firm face—he had finally accepted this son-in-law.
When his daughter was born, he had once imagined this moment: on a joyful day, he would hand her over to another man who would take care of her for the rest of her life.
A year ago, he had struggled with this decision. Now, he sincerely wished them a lifetime of happiness and many children.
“Take good care of my daughter,” he said, his voice trembling slightly.
“I promise,” Xie Mingtu replied solemnly.
There was no wedding car, but villagers accompanied them with laughter and blessings all the way. They understood the Su family’s desire to make up this ceremony and sincerely wished the couple happiness—even if they no longer lived in the village.
It was a year of good harvest. In the winter fish ponds, fish swam freely beneath the water. Mulberry trees swayed in the cold wind, their sparse leaves falling into the pond.
Xie Mingtu carried Su Xiaoman into the wooden house he had built. Though they were already like an “old married couple,” this time still felt like a newlywed moment. She held onto his neck, listening to his steady footsteps as he climbed the stairs.
“Don’t forget to take photos for me!”
Under her red veil, holding an apple, Su Xiaoman stood as Xie Mingtu, also dressed in red, took out the camera and snapped several pictures.
After hearing a few clicks, she thought that was enough and reached to lift her veil—only to have her wrist caught midway.
“Wife, don’t move,” Xie Mingtu said with a smile, gently lifting her veil himself.
When Su Xiaoman looked up, she saw his unbelievably handsome face—sharp features, tall figure, and those peach blossom eyes filled with affection and joy.
His eyes were intoxicating.
When she had made his wedding clothes, she often imagined how he would look wearing them. She had seen him in black—cold and distant like a star in the night. She had seen him in military uniform—upright like a poplar tree. Now, in red, he reminded her of a poem:
—“A face like peach blossoms glowing red.”
Even though it was winter, with no blossoms in sight, she saw spring reflected in him.
“Manman…” Xie Mingtu leaned down to kiss her.
She shyly pressed a finger to his lips. “Not yet. Tonight, you can do whatever you want.”
“We still have to go greet people later.”
“But…” she smiled mischievously, “lower your head.”
He obediently bent down. She cupped his face and quickly kissed him, leaving red lipstick marks on his lips.
She smudged them evenly with her finger and said boldly, “Sharing half of the bride’s lipstick.”
His eyes curved into crescents as he smiled warmly. Leaning close to her ear, he whispered, “Keep the rest on your lips. Tonight, I’ll eat it all myself.”
She laughed. “So greedy. It tastes bitter.”
“No,” he replied softly. “It’s sweet.”
…
That night, he kept his promise.
…
The next morning, when Su Xiaoman woke up, sunlight filled the room. The first thing she saw was Xie Mingtu looking at her gently.
A warm sense of happiness spread through her entire being.
She loved waking up and seeing him like this.
Her body felt weak in a familiar way, yet different—like the lingering taste of wine.
She sat up, hugging the blanket.
“Manman…” Xie Mingtu pulled her into his arms and kissed her again.
“I want to bathe,” she said hoarsely.
“Okay, I’ve heated the water.”
He fed her some porridge first, then carried her to bathe. The bath took a long time, and afterward, she fell asleep again from exhaustion.
Grandpa and Grandma Jiang chatted in the courtyard, not disturbing the young couple, letting them stay inside all day.
Su Xiaoman didn’t leave the room at all that day.
…
The next day, they visited her parents again. Liu Shufeng handed her grandson to her. “Here, hold your nephew. Hurry and give me a grandchild too.”
Su Xiaoman held the soft baby and poked his cheek. “Do you know who I am? I’m your little aunt.”
She laughed at herself, feeling like a silly bird repeating “aunt.”
Liu Shufeng tapped her forehead lightly. “Did you hear what I said?”
“You and Mingtu should start thinking about having a child.”
“Okay, okay,” Su Xiaoman replied casually.
That’s how elders were—before marriage, they urged you to marry; after marriage, they immediately urged you to have children.
Yesterday, she and Xie Mingtu had not used protection. As for whether there would be a child, that would depend on fate.
They did not stay many days before Su Xiaoman and her husband returned. Under the strong insistence of Grandpa Jiang, Grandma Jiang, and the other elders in the retirement compound, the two of them also had to hold another wedding banquet there.
Su Xiaoman felt exhausted. A wedding was the kind of thing that should only happen once in a lifetime. But she could not resist the enthusiasm of the old uncles and aunties, so she had no choice but to join in the fun again at the end of the year.
Before that, on the eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, Xie Mingtu got up early—no, more like in the middle of the night, around two or three in the morning. He forced himself to wait until dawn, then bundled Su Xiaoman up and rushed out with her to collect their warm, freshly issued little red marriage certificates.
When Su Xiaoman returned, she laughed at him with Grandpa and Grandma Jiang for being so impatient. Xie Mingtu ignored the three of them and simply held the two little red booklets, grinning to himself. The photo on the certificates was the military-uniform photo they had taken together at the photo studio that day.
Later, they had taken other photos too, but after choosing through the pile, Su Xiaoman still felt that their first military-uniform photo was the most natural. The later ones were beautiful, but they did not have the same intimate ease.
Xie Mingtu hugged the little red booklets and was happy for the entire day, perfectly demonstrating what a silly dog’s day looked like. When he was not holding the certificates, he stared at Su Xiaoman and smiled. He no longer called her Manman—he called her “wife.”
His state-certified wife.
“You can’t run away now, my wife Manman.”
“Little Rabbit’s Manman.”
Su Xiaoman hugged him and laughed. It was just a certificate, yet he was this happy. Even without the certificate, she had long been his publicly acknowledged wife. Where could she run?
“Dog Brother, give me the marriage certificates. Manman will keep them safe for you.”
Xie Mingtu refused. “No, I want to hide them myself.”
“I want to look at them again.” Xie Mingtu sat directly on the threshold, staring at the little red booklets in his hands and grinning foolishly. He already knew every word on them by heart. Manman was his wife, a wife with an official stamp.
“Fine, fine. Look all you want.”
Xie Mingtu looked at the little red booklets. Su Xiaoman and Grandma Jiang pulled over small stools and sat beside him watching. Grandma Jiang cracked melon seeds. Su Xiaoman cracked seeds for a while, then took out the camera and snapped several photos of that foolishly happy Xie dog.
Many years later, when Xie Mingtu looked back at these photos, would he deny being like Grandpa Jiang and insist that when he was young, he definitely had not been a foolish young lad and had never done such silly things?
When the time came, she could throw the photos in his face.
When you got your certificate, you were exactly this silly!
Su Xiaoman took seven or eight photos in a row, and the silly dog did not react at all. He still hugged the little red booklets in a daze. It seemed the certificates had shocked him too strongly, like a thunderbolt striking him from a wolf cub back into a Samoyed.
Sitting beside Xie Mingtu, she could not help feeling her hands itch. She reached out and rubbed his head.
How could this guy be so silly? His wife was sitting beside him, yet he did not hug her, only hugged the little red booklets.
Was his wife more important, or were the little red booklets more important?
Su Xiaoman was a little jealous.
Silly dog.
“Hey, did you marry me, or did you marry those little red booklets?”
“I married Manman.” Xie Mingtu suddenly lifted Su Xiaoman into his arms, happily jumping and spinning twenty times. He almost made Su Xiaoman dizzy enough to vomit. She told him to put her down and pretended she was going to throw up.
Xie Mingtu became extremely nervous and quickly asked, “Manman, are you… are you pregnant?”
Pregnant, my foot!
“Can you stop acting stupid today?” Su Xiaoman instinctively covered her stomach. Even if there was a little tadpole swimming around inside her right now, she still would not be able to feel its existence.
Grandma Jiang laughed so hard her teeth nearly disappeared. “Xiaoman, just let him be happy.”
Xie Mingtu held her, pressing his forehead against hers. “Manman, I’m really happy.”
“Manman will be my wife in this life, the next life, and the life after that…”
Su Xiaoman wrapped her arms around his neck and indulgently agreed, “Every lifetime from now on, I’ll be your wife.”
Xie dog, who had received the red booklets, was truly too happy. That evening, he took a jug of wine and actively challenged Grandpa Jiang to a proper drinking session. Grandpa Jiang naturally refused to show weakness. The grandfather and grandson sat together drinking, making Grandma Jiang shake her head at Su Xiaoman.
“If his eldest and second brothers were here too, that would be interesting.”
Su Xiaoman looked at Xie Mingtu gently and fed him a few peanuts. “Don’t just drink.”
That day, Xie Mingtu drank fiercely, very boldly, and got himself thoroughly drunk. Su Xiaoman coaxed him for a long time before finally getting him into the room to sleep.
But that was not the end. After Su Xiaoman wiped him down and lay beside him tiredly, the drunken Xie dog suddenly sat up in the middle of the night, insisting that his marriage certificate was missing and asking Su Xiaoman where it was.
Su Xiaoman: “???????”
Aren’t you the one who hid it yourself?
Now you’re asking me for the marriage certificate?
She thought, I haven’t even asked you for it yet.
He was drunk out of his mind. Why hadn’t he been more careful while drinking? Now he was acting crazy at night.
“Manman, where are our marriage certificates?”
“Manman, he said my marriage certificate doesn’t count, but I’m clearly already twenty. He said I’m only nineteen…”
“Third Brother secretly changed my age…”
…
Su Xiaoman did not know whether to laugh or cry. She hugged this drunken dog and coaxed him. “Look at you. Who knows how much you drank tonight? You’re completely drunk.”
Xie Mingtu held the person he loved, his tone extremely wronged. “Manman, where’s my certificate?”
“Can you wake up a little?” Su Xiaoman rubbed this silly dog’s face. He had hidden the marriage certificate himself, yet now that he was drunk, he came asking her for it.
“Manman, I’m not eighteen, and I’m not nineteen.” He held Su Xiaoman and burrowed into her arms several times, acting spoiled. “Manman, my head hurts. I want the marriage certificate.”
Su Xiaoman was helpless from his nuzzling. In the middle of the night, he was making a drunken fuss, and she had no idea how to deal with this drunkard. She murmured, “You’re not allowed to drink this much again.”
“Manman…”
“Be good. Our marriage certificates have already been put away by Manman. Sleep first.” She hugged the big dog and gently patted his back.
“I want to see them before sleeping.” Xie Mingtu suddenly lifted his head, extremely stubborn. Even drunk, he had to see his marriage certificate before he would sleep.
Su Xiaoman sighed. “The marriage certificate was hidden by you yourself, you stupid dog. Yet you’re asking me for it.”
“Manman, keep the marriage certificates for me.”
Su Xiaoman had no choice but to find a couple photo, draw a marriage certificate for Xie Mingtu, and hand it to him. Xie Mingtu stared at the “marriage certificate” in his hand and showed a doubtful expression.
“Manman, there’s no stamp. It’s not legal.”
Su Xiaoman: “…”
She dug out a rabbit stamp and stamped it on top.
“Alright, alright. Be good. Now there’s a stamp.” Su Xiaoman covered her forehead, unsure whether this stamp could fool the drunk dog in front of her.
Xie Mingtu examined the “marriage certificate” seriously. His back was perfectly straight, his expression solemn and stern. If he had not been holding the “marriage certificate” upside down, even Su Xiaoman might have been fooled by his serious appearance.
Su Xiaoman: “…”
She wanted to laugh.
The photo was upside down. What exactly was he looking at?
The drunken dog was finally fooled by this stamped certificate. He held it in his arms and obediently fell asleep.
Su Xiaoman picked up the rabbit stamp in her hand. This rabbit stamp had been made by Xie Mingtu for her. He had made a pair of little rabbits: one engraved with “Su Xiaoman,” and the other with “Xie Mingtu.”
She lowered her head and kissed the silly man on the lips, then planted a loud kiss on his cheek—stamping him as Su Xiaoman’s.
Then she picked up the other stamp and printed another red mark on her own face.
Sleeping in the man’s arms, both of them fell deeply asleep.
The next day, Xie Mingtu woke later than Su Xiaoman for the first time. It seemed last night’s alcohol had really been strong. When he woke, Su Xiaoman immediately asked him where exactly he had hidden the marriage certificates.
Half-awake, Xie Mingtu said, “Ah?!”
Then, as if remembering something, he began grinning foolishly again.
“In the box.”
After waking fully, Xie Mingtu was still overjoyed. He really had received a marriage certificate with Manman. This was something he had longed for and thought about for an entire year. He took the certificates out of the box and was still bubbling with happiness.
On the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, the two held another wedding banquet in the retirement compound. Not only did the nearby old uncles and aunties come to join in, but Jiang Liming and Xie Yazhi also came. When Xie Mingtu saw them, he did not say much and did not drive them away. Grandpa and Grandma Jiang called the couple into the house.
Their biological son was getting married. Although he still refused to acknowledge them, as parents, they still had to prepare something for him. Jiang Liming and Xie Yazhi discussed it. Afraid the child would not accept other things, they gave him a small courtyard house in the capital.
Speaking of this shabby little courtyard house, Xie Yazhi felt somewhat embarrassed taking it out. The courtyard had belonged to her mother’s dowry, meaning it was property left by Xie Mingtu’s maternal family, the Meng family. It was not a good house, nor was it the ancestral home. The land area was very small. The large three-courtyard house from before had been taken away ten years ago. The few remaining dilapidated courtyards had gone to other members of the Meng family. Xie Yazhi’s third brother and youngest brother, along with her mother—Xie Mingtu’s maternal grandmother—were still in the capital.
A simple courtyard house had been allocated under Xie Yazhi’s name. Previously, a family of distant relatives from the Meng side had lived there, but a few years ago, they were transferred south to a mountain city for work. Since then, the courtyard had been left abandoned. The house was truly dilapidated; most of the west wing had collapsed.
It could only be said that after some cleaning and repairs, it could barely be lived in.
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