Duan Yujing’s voice exploded through the phone.

“Who are you?”

Shang Ye leaned against the sofa, completely relaxed.

“Her husband.”

“Give the phone to Su Ran.”

“No.”

“This has nothing to do with you!”

Shang Ye looked at me.

Then at our marriage certificate.

“It has quite a lot to do with me.”

“Su Ran is angry with me. Whatever she told you—”

“She didn’t tell me anything.”

Yujing went silent.

Shang Ye’s smile disappeared.

“I saw her post. I came. She agreed. We registered.”

“You think I’ll believe that?”

“You don’t need to.”

He ended the call.

I stared at him.

“That was rude.”

“He wanted you to apologize for refusing to become his sister’s fake mother.”

“Fair point.”

My phone rang again.

This time it was Yujing’s mother.

I declined.

Then his father.

Declined.

Then his sister, Duan Xinyi.

I stared at her name.

Shang Ye reached toward the phone, but I moved it away.

“This one is mine.”

I answered.

Xinyi was already crying.

“Sister Ran.”

I closed my eyes.

For four years, whenever she wanted something, I was Sister Ran.

“Sister Ran, my brother said you married someone else.”

“Yes.”

“How could you?”

I almost laughed.

“How could I get married?”

“You knew my brother was going to marry you!”

“He chose not to.”

“He was angry!”

“He gave me a condition.”

Her crying became louder.

“It was because of me, wasn’t it?”

I didn’t answer.

“I knew it. Everyone will hate me now.”

“No one needs to hate you.”

“But if you don’t help me, what am I supposed to do?”

There it was.

Not congratulations.

Not confusion.

Not even concern that her brother’s four-year relationship had ended.

What about me?

I looked down at my wedding ring.

“Tell the truth.”

Her breathing stopped.

“What?”

“You’re eighteen. You’re going to university. You’re also going to become a mother. Those are facts.”

“You don’t understand!”

“Then explain.”

“If people know, my life is over!”

“No. Your life will become difficult.”

I softened my voice.

“But making me legally responsible for your child doesn’t erase what happened. It only transfers the consequences to me.”

She started sobbing again.

“You’ve always hated me.”

“No, Xinyi.”

I looked at Shang Ye.

He was silent now.

Listening.

“I spoiled you.”

I realized it as I said it.

“So did your brother. That’s probably part of the problem.”

I hung up.

For a while, neither Shang Ye nor I spoke.

Then he handed me a glass of water.

“Regret it?”

I knew what he meant.

The marriage.

I looked at him.

“A little.”

His face collapsed dramatically.

“Ouch.”

“I married a man wearing a red leather jacket in July.”

“This jacket is imported.”

“That’s worse.”

He laughed.

Then his expression became serious.

“Su Ran.”

“Hmm?”

“If you want out, say it.”

I blinked.

He continued:

“I’ll cooperate. No games. No pressure. No using my family against you.”

“You just spent an entire afternoon buying wedding gifts.”

“I can lose money.”

He looked directly at me.

“I don’t want to become another man who uses what he’s done for you to force you into something.”

That was the moment the ridiculousness of the day stopped being funny.

“Why did you come so quickly?”

Shang Ye looked away.

“You posted.”

“Ten minutes, Shang Ye.”

“The shopping center is fifteen minutes from the civil office.”

“So?”

“I was nearby.”

“Wearing that?”

Silence.

I narrowed my eyes.

“You knew I was registering today.”

He coughed.

“Possibly.”

“How?”

“Your graduation group chat.”

“You’re not in my graduation group.”

“Connections.”

“Shang Ye.”

He finally sighed.

“I knew.”

“Why were you nearby?”

His smile vanished.

“Because I wanted to see you get married.”

I stopped breathing.

He stared at the floor.

“I thought if I saw it happen, I’d finally stop waiting.”

The room became painfully quiet.

“How long?”

He laughed without humor.

“You really want me to embarrass myself?”

“Yes.”

“Since we were seventeen.”

I stared at him.

“That was ten years ago.”

“I know basic mathematics.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I tried.”

“When?”

“Senior year.”

I frowned.

Then I remembered.

A folded candy wrapper.

I had opened it expecting another math formula.

Inside he’d written:

If nobody wants you someday, I’ll take you.

I had hit him with my textbook.

“That?”

“I was seventeen!”

“That was your confession?”

“It was romantic in my head.”

“It sounded like you were adopting a stray dog.”

“I panicked.”

I started laughing.

He covered his face.

“Please divorce me immediately.”

“No.”

His hands dropped.

I smiled.

“Now I want to see how much worse this story gets.”

Three days later, it got worse.

Duan Yujing appeared outside my university.

His sister was with him.

So were his parents.

Apparently, they had decided four people could pressure me better than one.

His mother rushed forward.

“Su Ran, enough.”

I stopped.

“Enough what?”

“This ridiculous marriage.”

Shang Ye wasn’t with me.

For the first time, I was glad.

This was something I needed to handle myself.

Yujing stepped closer.

“I’ve checked. You really registered.”

“Yes.”

“You married him to punish me.”

“No.”

“You expect me to believe you suddenly love Shang Ye?”

“I never said I loved him.”

His face changed.

I continued.

“I married him because when you walked away, I realized something.”

“What?”

“I was relieved.”

That hurt him.

Good.

“For four years, I thought losing you would destroy me. Then you left me outside that office and I discovered I could breathe.”

His mother interrupted.

“All because of one small request?”

I looked at her.

“Would you register Xinyi’s baby as yours?”

Her face froze.

“That isn’t the same.”

“Why?”

“I’m her mother!”

“Exactly.”

I smiled.

“Then let the baby’s actual mother be its mother.”

Xinyi began crying.

Yujing immediately turned toward her.

“Don’t cry.”

And there it was.

The same reflex.

I had seen it hundreds of times.

Xinyi cried.

Yujing surrendered.

Xinyi wanted something.

I sacrificed it.

Xinyi made a mistake.

Someone else cleaned it up.

Yujing looked back at me.

“Just give me one month.”

“For what?”

“Divorce him. We’ll solve Xinyi’s problem another way. Then we can register.”

I stared at him.

“You still think I’m waiting for you?”

His expression stiffened.

“Aren’t you?”

“No.”

One word.

Four years ended inside it.

A familiar voice came from behind me.

“She answered you.”

Shang Ye.

He was wearing a normal white shirt this time.

I almost didn’t recognize him.

Yujing’s face darkened.

“You stay out of this.”

Shang Ye walked beside me.

But he didn’t stand in front of me.

That detail mattered.

He let me speak for myself.

Yujing pointed at him.

“You think she married you because she loves you?”

“No.”

Shang Ye answered calmly.

“I think she married me because she was furious.”

I turned toward him.

He shrugged.

“We should respect historical accuracy.”

I nearly laughed.

Then he looked at Yujing.

“But she stays with me only if she wants to.”

Yujing had no answer to that.

Because that had always been the difference between them.

One believed loving me gave him the right to demand sacrifice.

The other believed loving me required leaving the door open.

The Duan family finally left.

Xinyi’s secret didn’t remain secret much longer.

Her pregnancy became visible.

The university learned.

There was gossip.

There were cruel comments.

There were also people who didn’t care.

Her life did not end.

She continued studying.

The baby’s father eventually appeared too—a classmate who had been terrified of his own parents.

Both families fought.

Then negotiated.

Then slowly accepted reality.

Exactly what should have happened from the beginning.

No stolen identity required.

As for Shang Ye and me, our impulsive marriage became unexpectedly ordinary.

He didn’t get a university position.

I forbade it.

Instead, he drove me to campus whenever his schedule allowed.

Sometimes in the yellow convertible.

Sometimes in an ordinary sedan because I threatened to walk if he kept attracting attention.

He learned I hated cilantro.

I learned he couldn’t sleep without a fan running.

He learned not to buy me expensive jewelry without asking.

I learned the arrogant millionaire pepper secretly watched cooking tutorials because I once mentioned missing the noodles my foster mother used to make.

Six months after our registration, I came home and found the kitchen destroyed.

Flour everywhere.

A pot smoking on the stove.

Shang Ye stood in the middle of it wearing an apron.

“What happened?”

“Love.”

I stared at the blackened pot.

“Love needs the fire department.”

He laughed.

Then suddenly became nervous.

“Su Ran.”

“What?”

“I want to ask you something.”

“We’re already married.”

“That’s the problem.”

He wiped his hands.

“The first time was an emergency.”

He took out a small ring.

Not huge.

Not extravagant.

Simple platinum.

Like the pair I’d chosen on our first day.

“This time I want you to have time to think.”

My throat tightened.

He didn’t kneel.

Maybe because he knew I didn’t need a performance.

“Su Ran, would you choose me when you’re not angry at anyone?”

I looked at him.

At the boy who had fought for me when we were children.

The teenager whose confession had been catastrophically bad.

The man who had arrived ten minutes after my ridiculous post.

And the husband who, every day afterward, had made sure I knew that marrying him once didn’t obligate me to choose him forever.

I held out my hand.

“Yes.”

His eyes widened.

“That’s it?”

“What do you want?”

“Maybe tears?”

“No.”

“Emotional speech?”

“No.”

“Can I at least kneel now?”

“You can clean the kitchen.”

He pulled me into his arms.

I laughed against his shoulder.

The day Duan Yujing asked me to become the mother of his sister’s child, I thought my future had collapsed five steps from the civil office.

Instead, it was probably the first day I had ever made a decision entirely for myself.

I lost the man I had dated for four years.

I gained a husband in ten minutes.

But the strangest part wasn’t how quickly I married Shang Ye.

It was how slowly I realized I hadn’t married a stranger at all.

He had been beside me since childhood.

Waiting through every wrong choice.

Never demanding repayment.

Never asking me to carry someone else’s consequences to prove I loved him.

Duan Yujing had asked me to sacrifice my name for his family.

Shang Ye gave me his without asking me to sacrifice anything.

And six months after our ridiculous ten-minute wedding, when he asked whether I would choose him again—

this time, I didn’t marry him because I was angry.

I chose him because I was finally certain.