Chapter 118 — Discussing Wedding Plans With Madam Li

It was Li Chuanmo that spoke, "We have actually talked about that. The first thing is to go and visit Auntie. From there, we can plan the meeting of both families, and then we would discuss the wedding."

Zhang Heying looked dissatisfied. "That's the proper order, but why does it sound so prolonged? When are you going to see her parents?"

"I was thinking we could go in about two weeks time. We would have rounded up some pressing projects by then."

"Two weeks?" Zhang Heying's tone of surprise made Li Chuanmo think he mistakenly said two years instead. He looked at his mother. "Yes, two weeks Mother. Is it too far?"

"Yes it's too far. Why not go this weekend?"

Pei Yueran blinked in surprise. She could not help but say, "The weekend is tomorrow Auntie."

"Exactly. The earlier the better. Fly over this weekend and meet with them. It would be great if the two families can meet in two weeks, and then we can hold the wedding next month!" Zhang Heying was getting excited the more she spoke. It sounded like the perfect plan.

Pei Yueran looked at Li Qianye in dismay, begging him to pull his wife back to earth. He tried to talk, "But Wife, don't you think that's too fast? We would need some time to prepare things."

Zhang Heying waved her hand airily, " No worries there. I have everything under control. Even if they want to wed tomorrow, it can be done."

While the three of them looked at her incredulously, she added, "Or you can both get the marriage certificate first, then we will hold the ceremony later. What do you think?"

Li Qianye cleared his throat. His wife's enthusiasm was a bit over the top. He whispered into her ear,

"Wife, have you forgotten it's their wedding? How can we plan it all without allowing them to have a say? Let's just follow their plans, okay?"

Zhang Heying looked like she just realized that fact. "I'm sorry, I was carried away with excitement. But I still think two weeks is too far. You need to go and get into her good books sooner. What if she is not satisfied with you?"

Pei Yueran almost laughed. Her mother could hardly wait to hear Li Chuanmo call her "Mom." How could she be dissatisfied?

But earlier was indeed better, so she spoke to him, "Chuan, let's go to my Mom next week then. We can go on Saturday after the meeting with Gaoyi on Friday, and then come back the next day."

Li Chuanmo nodded. "Alright."

Zhang Heying was finally happy. "That's better. Chuanmo, make sure you come by before leaving. I have something to give to my future in-laws."

She got up as if she wanted to go and get something, but then she sat back down abruptly. "Oh, look at my memory. I also wanted us to discuss how the announcement would be made. Do you want an engagement dinner? Or just an announcement in all the newspapers?

"Actually we should do both, that would give the strongest punch. Don't forget to schedule a press conference immediately you come back from City A.

"I was also thinking it would be great to buy that digital billboard at the city centre for full-time advertising, right? Or better still, we could pay for all the billboards in —"

Pei Yueran couldn't help it, she started coughing. She coughed till her eyes turned red and tears came out. Li Chuanmo quickly gave her some water and patted her back. He then spoke.

"Mother, we've discussed this and have decided not to make an official announcement."

"What?" Zhang Heying could not believe her ears. "Why not?"

It was Pei Yueran that spoke this time, "We were thinking that since we just launched GOLEM, we would like it to keep trending. We don't want the focus to shift away from our new product to our impending marriage.

"Besides, Chuan and I are private people and we don't want the press to snoop into our private lives."

Zhang Heying fell silent. She wanted to refute the first reason, but she could not argue with the second point. The press had hurt Li Chuanmo several times, and it made sense that he would not warm up to them now, not while preparing for a major personal event.

She eventually nodded. "Okay, you both have made good points. Let's do it your way then, I have no objections. But we would have to make a formal announcement after the wedding."

Both of them nodded in agreement.

Seeing that they had discussed and resolved everything, Li Chuanmo announced that they were going to take their leave. Zhang Heying then brought out some fruits and snacks for them to take home to the boys.

It was on their way home that Pei Yueran asked, "Did Xiao Chen invite you to his awards ceremony tomorrow?"

"Yes he did. As you can imagine, Xiao Chen is very excited about it, so you should expect us tomorrow. It's in the afternoon, right?"

"Yeah. So when we leave from the office, we go to pick them separately and meet up at the venue."

"Sounds good." Li Chuanmo said, but then his voice softened. "Soon, we would not need to go separately, we would be a family."

Pei Yueran's eyes were shining as she nodded.

She was looking forward to that day.

*****

"Qianhua, look here!" Camera lights flashed.

"That's good. Change your style now." Jiang Philip said, adjusting his position to be able to capture her image properly.

"Wonderful, beautiful. Another style now. Why don't you fix your eyes on the sand, you know? Like you're looking for something? It's the new style in vogue, I heard."

Su Qianhua laughed in amusement, her eyes lighting up. Jiang Philip took several snapshots in a row, feeling amazed. She was really enthralling, even with the slight bags under her eyes.

The past couple of weeks had been very hard on her. Just after finally accepting that the pregnancy would stay for now, the morning sickness began in earnest.

The intensity of it caught them off guard. She could not even smell anything remotely savory, much less eat. She kept vomiting after one bite of food, and Jiang Philip scrambled to find something she could stomach.

Noodles, rice, vegetables, steak, fish, it didn't matter. No matter how appetizing it looked, one whiff of it was enough to send her reeling.

If not for dry bread and crackers, she would have starved to death already. In spite of that, she had still lost quite a bit of weight over the last few days.

Forget about going to work, she could hardly leave her bed. Jiang Philip was alarmed at the turn of events.

Pregnancy was a really scary thing.