"All right. I won't kiss you now, but you have to give me three kisses after we're done here," Sheffield said, the familiar smile on his face.
"Greedy!" Evelyn pouted.
"That's me!" He never could get enough of her kisses. Finally, he gently kissed her black hair, inhaling her scent.
When they arrived at the Civil Affairs Bureau, Sheffield got out of the car first and then helped Evelyn out.
They walked into the Civil Affairs Bureau hand in hand.
There were quite a few couples waiting their turn to register marriage. Luckily, Sheffield had made an appointment in advance, so they didn't have to wait long.
When they were filling out the forms, the other newlyweds figured out who they were, and snapped pics of them.
During the photo shoot, they shed their coats. Whether dress shirt or blouse, they were all in white. Evelyn's long hair was tied back. She looked young and vital.
Everything went well and soon they had two marriage licenses with embossed seals.
Looking at the licenses, Sheffield exclaimed in satisfaction, "After three long years, Evelyn is finally mine. Mrs. Tang, let's make a better future!"
Evelyn giggled, her face beaming with joy. "I'm lucky enough to be Mrs. Tang. Mr. Tang, please come back home every night no matter how late it gets."
And now she thought of a poem that described the best love in the world: "Love the sunset with you in my spare time; in the kitchen, you ask me if the porridge is warm with a smile."
"Of course. From now on, I won't flirt with any other women. I'll be faithful to you forever!"
"Really? That's not what you said before!" Evelyn taunted.
Sheffield suddenly remembered that he had said he would sleep as many women as he could. 'Being faithful is for chumps...' He vaguely remembered he said something like that.
How he wished he could slap himself! He said fawningly,
"Honey, I was just kidding then! My dear Mrs. Tang, let's head home!"
"Sure!"
On a whim, Evelyn took a picture of their marriage licenses and uploaded it on social media, including WeChat Moments.
She almost never posted anything there. Many of her friends were shocked to see her update, and it was a picture of marriage licenses!
As expected, the Internet collectively lost their shit.
Sheffield shared Evelyn's pic of the licenses on Weibo, and wrote, "All good wishes come true."
He was a private man, and didn't post much. But when it came to his relationship with Evelyn, he wouldn't hesitate to let the whole world know how he felt.
So, he also downloaded some other social media apps that he never used, and made accounts one by one. After his accounts were verified, he posted the picture of their marriage licenses on those as well. Tencent QQ and Douban were among those he downloaded.
It didn't take long before all the gossip was about them. Everyone admired their display of affection.
Sheffield, Evelyn, and Gwyn went to Sunny Mountain County. They were going to visit Ingrid's grave.
The cemetery was near a river at the bottom of the mountain.
It was very quiet there. Birdsong and the fragrance of flowers filled the fresh air. Everywhere they cast their gazes, green leaves met their eyes.
With Gwyn in one arm, he held Evelyn's hand as they made their way to the gravesite. Evelyn held a large bunch of carnations in her other hand. Finally, they stopped in front of a tombstone.
This was the first time Evelyn and Gwyn saw Ingrid. They hadn't even seen her photo before.
The photo on the tombstone was taken when Ingrid was in her thirties. At the time, time hadn't left any trace on her face. She looked quite young in the photo. She wore the same smile as Sheffield.
After setting Gwyn down gently, Sheffield took both of their hands, and gazed upon Ingrid's photo. "Mom, this is Evelyn. I've told you about her. Beautiful, isn't she? I want to tell you something else. See this little girl? She's my daughter. Evelyn gave birth to her. Cute, huh? I think so."
Gwyn widened her eyes at the photo of the woman, as if she were wondering who that was.
Evelyn let go of Sheffield's hand, put the bouquet of carnations in front of the tombstone, and said softly, "Nice to meet you, Mom. I'm Evelyn Huo. I'm sorry I didn't come to see you earlier, but I just didn't know..."
'Thank you for giving birth to such a great guy. Thank you for letting him be with me.
He's wonderful. He treats me well. I'll take good care of him too. Please rest in peace.'
Hearing her apology, Sheffield half crouched down and touched her head. "It's my fault. I never told you, never brought you to see her."
Evelyn smiled back at him.
Sheffield then brought the little girl closer and pointed at the picture on the gravestone. "Come here, Gwyn. Let me introduce her to you. This is your grandma. Come on, call her 'Grandma.'"
Though confused, the little girl still called out in a cute voice, "Gramma."
Joy was written all over his face. Sheffield said to his mother, "Mom, did you hear that? Gwyn called you 'Grandma.'"
Gwyn took out a piece of candy from her pocket, slowly unwrapped the way her father told her and then lifted it in front of Ingrid's photo. "Eat... Gramma, eat..."
Sheffield was amused by her. He took the candy from her hand and placed it in front of the tombstone. "We'll put the candy here, and Grandma can have it."
Then, as usual, he put a box of candy before the tombstone. Evelyn stood up, held Gwyn's hand, and stepped back, making room for him.
Sheffield continued, "Mom, I transferred my household registration back to the Tang family, and will register Evelyn's and the baby's names there too. I'm getting along with Peterson for the moment. So, don't worry about me. Please take care of yourself there."
Taking a breath, he went on, "Now that I'm married, I'm happy. Please bless the happiness of our family forever, and give your blessing that Gwyn grows up happy and healthy."
Sheffield went on at length with his mother.
Evelyn listened to him patiently. She could tell that Sheffield loved his mother very much. No wonder he had tried his best to reverse the verdict of his mother's case, even though more than ten years had passed.
Finally, they bowed to the tombstone before leaving.
After returning to Y City, the most important thing was to pick out the wedding dresses for the pre-wedding photo shoot. Sheffield gave his work to a subordinate and headed to Evelyn's office in ZL Group. He watched her try on the wedding gowns one after the other. Finally, he picked out a few of them that they were both happy with.
They began traveling to different places to shoot the wedding photos.
Sheffield let Peterson take charge of the company for the moment, and hired a wedding planner to handle everything for their wedding ceremony. He focused on his trip with Evelyn.
The first place they stopped was a small town in H Country, where there was a well-known, beautiful lake called Posey Lake.
There were thousands of flamingos surrounding the mirror-like water. Their beautiful figures would be reflected in the lake when they flew in all directions.
Evelyn wore a green wedding dress that matched the color of the water, while Sheffield was in a white suit. They stood on a boat in the center of the lake, surrounded by a flock of flamingos searching for food. Retouched with some photo-editing software, the pictures looked grand and fashionable.
When they took a break, Sheffield used the time to take a few photos of the flamingos and sent them to Terilynn, telling her to show the pics to Gwyn. As if that weren't enough, he put his little girl on video chat, asking her if she wanted to see the beautiful flamingos. Gwyn pointed at the bird and nodded, "Yes, yes! I want!"