Resisting Arranged Marriages: Starting with Myself - Chapter 2

“Are you going to marry me or not?”

A week later, in front of the Civil Affairs Bureau, Le Xiao sat in the car for ten minutes before finally losing his patience. He turned and snapped the question.

After a chaotic week of Le Jiancheng’s roaring and Wen Yan’s persuasion, Le Xiao finally buckled under the pressure. He agreed to register his marriage with Ye Jiming. Le Jiancheng, seizing the momentum, demanded they get their certificates immediately to prevent any further trouble.

“I am. Just give me a moment,” Ye Jiming replied from the driver’s seat, taking several deep breaths in an attempt to regulate his racing heart.

“You’re kidding. You need this much psychological preparation just to get married?” Le Xiao had already slipped into his role as the spoiled brat, mocking him. “If you’re this reluctant, let’s just skip it. Be quick about it and take me back.”

“I am doing it,” Ye Jiming said, not sounding angry. Instead, he flashed a smile. “A dream is coming true, so I am just a little nervous.”

With that, he stepped out of the car, walked around to the passenger side, and extended his hand to Le Xiao.

Le Xiao felt choked up for a second. He dodged the hand, got out of the car himself, and headed straight into the Civil Affairs Bureau.

Undeterred by the cold shoulder, Ye Jiming followed with a smile. He caught up in a few quick steps and took Le Xiao’s hand, wrapping it tightly within his own warm, dry palm. Le Xiao struggled twice but could not break free.

As document after document was placed before them, Le Xiao maintained a facade of composure, signing his name in a bold, flowing script without batting an eye. However, the moment the steel seal was pressed onto the marriage certificate, Le Xiao’s heart could not help but tremble.

It was not until they stood before the camera for their photo that he realized his facial muscles had gone stiff. It took a significant effort just to squeeze out a perfunctory, fake smile.

“Omega, please lean in closer to your husband. Be a bit more intimate,” the photographer coached.

Reluctantly, Le Xiao shifted his shoulder toward Ye Jiming. They were so close that he could smell the cedar scent on Ye Jiming’s shirt collar; it was a deep woody fragrance that enveloped his own fresh, pungent mint scent.

“Three, two, one!” The flash went off, and their likenesses were frozen within the small photograph.

Once the photo was taken, Le Xiao slapped the marriage certificate into Ye Jiming’s arms. He fully equipped himself with a hat, sunglasses, and a mask, then walked out without looking back.

“Making your wife angry on the day you register?” the photographer teased Ye Jiming with a laugh. “Go coax him, young man. You cannot go losing him right after bringing him home.”

“I won’t. Thank you,” Ye Jiming replied with a smile and a nod before jogging after him.

The moment they were back in the car, Le Xiao ripped off his mask and glowered at Ye Jiming with a cold expression. “Satisfied?”

“Satisfied,” Ye Jiming said with a smile, still carefully examining the two marriage certificates in his hands.

“I am setting three ground rules in advance.” Le Xiao took off his sunglasses, looking Ye Jiming in the eye for the first time that day. “First, my career is my freedom. Do not imagine for a second that I will obediently return to domestic life just because I am married. Second, if you regret this or develop feelings for someone else, tell me openly and I will go through with the divorce immediately. No sneaking around behind my back. Third, do not allow the public to know. No announcing our marriage in any form.”

He spoke each word with gravity. While his earlier tantrums might have been masks worn to play the spoiled brat, these three rules came straight from his heart.

Ye Jiming gazed deeply into his eyes, his stare so intense it seemed he wanted to burn a hole through them to see how much sincerity lay within. Le Xiao met his gaze fearlessly, staring at the slight reflection on Ye Jiming’s glasses.

After nearly thirty seconds of silence, Ye Jiming slowly uttered a single word: “Okay.”

“Then let us go.” Le Xiao turned away and put his sunglasses back on. “Take me back to Jing’anzhou.”

Jing’anzhou was a famous high-end neighborhood in City A. Featuring lakeside detached villas, it was home to A-list celebrities and business elites. After finding fame at seventeen, Le Xiao had bought a house here. Half was for his daily life, while the other half served as his studio and rehearsal space.

Half an hour later, the Maybach came to a steady halt in front of Jing’anzhou. Le Xiao jumped out and walked inside without a backward glance, looking as if he could not wait to leave.

“Xiao Xiao!”

He turned back impatiently to see Ye Jiming lowering the passenger window, waving the two red booklets. “You did not take the marriage certificates!”

“Keep them with you!” he shouted, turning to run back inside. The early autumn wind caught the hem of his clothes; there was not a hint of lingering attachment.

It was not until Le Xiao’s figure vanished around the corner that Ye Jiming’s gaze slowly returned to the certificates. He opened them again with almost religious devotion, his burning gaze lingering on the text: “Bearer: Ye Jiming” and “Bearer: Le Xiao.” Then, his lips pressed against the cold identification photo.

In the photo, Le Xiao wore a white shirt, his shoulder unnaturally angled toward the Alpha, his lips pulled into a stiff, joyless curve. Yet at this moment, he was submerged under the Alpha’s soft lips.

“Baby, I have finally come to marry you.”

After a long moment, Ye Jiming looked up. As if remembering something, he opened both certificates, pressed the two photos together, and took a picture. He downloaded a photo-editing app and spent quite a while tinkering with it. He chose a bright, smiling emoji to cover Le Xiao’s face and a bespectacled emoji for his own. Then, acting on a whim, he opened Weibo and posted from his alt account.

@Little_Leaf: A dream come true.

“This does not count as announcing the marriage, right?” he thought nervously yet happily after hitting send. Everything was so strictly covered up that nobody could possibly recognize him or Le Xiao.

Furthermore, this alt account had always been a silent lurker, never having posted a single thread anywhere. It was just an ordinary wedding photo, so it seemed impossible that it would attract any traffic.

He looked at the “1” in the view count at the top right corner of the post. Satisfied, he gave himself a like, put his phone away, and drove away from Jing’anzhou.

Ye Jiming felt lucky and believed he would not be recognized. However, the world is unpredictable, and he happened to run into a confusing recommendation algorithm and some remarkably resourceful netizens.

@Gossip_Pro_00010101: 99! (The person on the left looks a lot like Le Xiao)

@Le_Xiao_Number_One_Dream_Girl replying to @Gossip_Pro_00010101: You are not alone. From the style to the color, that hair looks exactly like Xiao Xiao’s!

@Xiao_Yao_You replying to @Le_Xiao_Number_One_Dream_Girl: Certified by a fan since debut; the body shape is a dead ringer too!

@Melon_Stabbing_Run_Tu: I have a bold theory.

@Xiao_Xiao_Official_Mic: Stop theorizing! Look at the collarbone peeking out of the shirt collar! The red mole on it!

Ye Jiming had closed Weibo to focus on driving. By the time he reached the office, the dense thicket of likes, comments, and private messages on his phone gave him a fright.

He was finished.

“Does Ye Jiming not understand human speech?”

Inside a conference room at Star Universe Entertainment, Le Xiao was curled up on a leather sofa, fuming like a cat with its fur standing on end. His palm-sized face was flushed red, and his chest was heaving violently.

The familiar swelling pain in his gland returned. The tiny gland felt as if it had a life of its own, throbbing incessantly at the back of his neck, accompanied by a continuous stream of heat that made it almost scalding to the touch. Waves of dense, aching soreness rolled over the gland one after another, as if dozens of syringes were piercing him at once and pushing medication in.

He tried to steady his breathing, inconspicuously covering the gland with his hand and massaging it gently.

“Forget it, forget it. Anger is bad for the body.” Beside him, Xiang Nan slowly stroked his back to help him calm down. “You cannot entirely blame him. Who knew your fans were all so resourceful? Every one of them is a Sherlock Holmes.”

“Now that the clamor is reaching its peak, how do we solve this?” Le Xiao sighed, opening the Weibo trending searches and holding it in front of Xiang Nan. “Look at this.”

The top trending search was a glaring line of text: Le Xiao Suspected to be Married.

As his manager, Xiang Nan knew the severity of the situation even before Le Xiao did. He squeezed Le Xiao’s hand encouragingly. “The company’s stance is to take this opportunity to have you and Ye Jiming go public directly.”

“Go public?!”

“Yes.” Xiang Nan’s gaze was firm. “Instead of being secretive and letting rumors ferment, it is better to be open and go public. Besides, you are not an idol; dating and marriage will not affect your career development.”

“The company also looked into Ye Jiming. He is the founder and CEO of Mingkong Technology. Mingkong is the best-performing emerging tech company in recent years with a limitless future. He does not have any dark history himself; he is quite clean. It will not have a negative impact.”

Le Xiao listened to Xiang Nan in silence, his brow furrowed as he rubbed his face in distress. Although he was ten thousand times reluctant, he knew in his heart that Xiang Nan was right.

That afternoon, Le Xiao’s Weibo account reposted Ye Jiming’s post.

@Le_Xiao_V: Married.

The fans were shocked. Weibo was boiling. The top search “Le Xiao Suspected to be Married” rapidly transformed into “Le Xiao’s Early Marriage,” followed by a deep purple “EXPLOSIVE” tag. Not long after, the servers finally lived up to expectations and crashed.

@Le_Xiao_Number_One_Dream_Girl: Xiao Xiao really is married. You must be happy.

@Xiao_Yao_You: Wow, wow! 99 to Xiao Xiao and Brother-in-law!

@Little_Xiao_Xiao: Happy wedding, Xiao Xiao! 99!

@Just_Love_Boy_Mom: Unbelievable, Mommy’s dear son!

“We managed to get through that without any major incidents.” Xiang Nan put his phone away, rubbing his eyes which were sore from staring at Weibo for so long. “Overall, the trend of public opinion is quite favorable for you. Do not worry too much.”

Then, as if remembering something, he let out a laugh. “The biggest victim of this whole thing is probably Ye Jiming’s alt account. It has been completely turned inside out by netizens. Luckily he had not posted anything before; it is like a new user. Otherwise, even his private information would have been exposed.”

He was about to continue when he was interrupted by a ringing phone. Le Xiao watched as Xiang Nan answered the call. The smile on his manager’s face slowly faded, and his expression shifted from the earlier playful tone to a serious one. That was the look he only wore when discussing business.

A few minutes later, Xiang Nan put down the phone and said, “Xiao Xiao, Director Zheng just told me he is preparing a dating show. He wants to invite you and Ye Jiming to join.”

“A dating show?!” Le Xiao bolted upright. “But Ye Jiming and I are fake!”

“Then you will have to act like it is real.” Xiang Nan’s gaze was sharp. “Xiao Xiao, you just went public with your marriage. Going on a dating show now is a great opportunity. It satisfies the public’s curiosity and entertainment needs while increasing your exposure to promote your new album next year.”

“Is Ye Jiming not the CEO of Mingkong? Would he even agree to be on a variety show?”

“Director Zheng said he has already agreed. It just depends on your attitude now.”

“Xiao Xiao,” Xiang Nan’s voice softened, sounding soothing. “You have just gone public. Right now, the outside world thinks you are newlyweds in the middle of a honeymoon phase. It would be hard to explain if you refused at this point.”

Le Xiao bit his lower lip hard, unsure if it was out of a sense of grievance or the effort to endure the throbbing pain in his neck. “But did you not say before that I should act like a spoiled brat to drive Ye Jiming away? If we are showing off our love on a show together, how can I be a brat?”

Xiang Nan slapped his hands together. “Recording a show is exactly the opportunity you need to perform! Now that the certificates are signed and the deed is done, the only way to get rid of him is through divorce. If you two never see each other, how will you get the chance to act out and create the conflicts needed for a divorce?”

“Just use the dating show as an opportunity to live with him for a while. Be as difficult as you want off-camera. Once he has had enough of your temper, wouldn’t a divorce be the natural outcome?”

Le Xiao pressed his lips together and remained silent, slowly weighing Xiang Nan’s words in his mind. The more he thought about it, the more sense it made.

That is, what he would do.

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