Chapter 152 - 62: Wedding, A Diamond Ring Worth Hundreds of Millions
Seeing Shen Yanzhi just standing there in a daze, Jiang Li licked her lips, tilted her head, and asked, "What’s wrong? Don’t I look good?"
Shen Yanzhi hastily replied, "You look beautiful!"
’She couldn’t be more beautiful.’
’So beautiful he wanted to hide Jiang Li away, so no one else could see her.’
The host immediately handed him the microphone. "Groom, is there anything you’d like to say to your bride?"
Shen Yanzhi took the microphone. "To be honest, I’m a little nervous right now."
He gave a signal to a staff member at the side, and the large, previously dark screen suddenly lit up.
Immediately after, a photo of them together appeared.
"This is a photo Xiao Li and I took back in college. I remember that day was the Qixi Festival, and we were at a café’s Valentine’s Day event. If you took a photo and posted it to your social media, you got a free cup of coffee."
Jiang Li was surprised. She hadn’t expected Shen Yanzhi to remember it so clearly.
She remembered how she had immediately hidden the post right after getting her free coffee.
They’d even given each other the silent treatment for an hour over it.
"This photo was from Xiao Li’s birthday. It was a perfectly good cake, but it all went to waste in the end..."
They had intended to eat it, but someone—no one remembers who started it—smeared frosting on Jiang Li’s face, and things spiraled out of control into a complete free-for-all.
Shen Yanzhi had gotten covered head to toe in frosting trying to protect Jiang Li.
A friend had even teased him, "Shen Yanzhi, anyone who didn’t know better would think you had a crush on Xiao Li."
But Shen Yanzhi’s reply, "I don’t just like her, I like all of you," had shattered Jiang Li’s heart into a million pieces.
There were 18 photos in total. For each one, Shen Yanzhi could state the exact time and place, moving Jiang Li so much that she started sobbing uncontrollably.
Shen Yanzhi’s hand at his side clenched into a fist. "Jiang Li, including today, we’ve known each other for 2,276 days. A lifetime is barely thirty thousand days long. We have another thirteen of those 2,276-day periods ahead of us, and I hope we can walk through them all together, hand in hand."
He reached up and gently wiped the tears from Jiang Li’s cheeks. "I’m not good with romantic words, and I can be a bit boring. But I’ll learn, and I’ll change. I hope you’ll be patient with me and give me a little time."
With that, he handed the microphone back to the host.
Even the host, who had officiated countless weddings, couldn’t help but be moved at that moment.
With his eyes red-rimmed, he looked at Jiang Li and asked, "And now, is there anything the bride would like to say to the groom?"
Jiang Li sniffled, took the microphone, and said with a perfectly straight face, "Shen Yanzhi, I can be a bit willful, I have a bad temper, and I spend money like it’s going out of style. But I’m not going to change, so you’ll just have to put up with me from now on."
The guests, who had just been moved to tears by Shen Yanzhi’s speech, burst into laughter upon hearing Jiang Li’s words.
Shen Yanzhi said with doting indulgence, "You just be yourself. I’ll handle the rest."
Jiang Li held out her hand. "Alright then, I’ll be in your care for the rest of our lives!"
Shen Yanzhi took her hand. "To hold your hand, and grow old with you. Like lutes in harmony, may our lives be peaceful and good. No matter what happens in the future, I will never let go of your hand."
Before Jiang Li could get emotional again, the host moved the ceremony along. "Alright, and now the bride and groom will exchange rings."
Even though Jiang Li had already bought a pair of wedding rings, Shen Yanzhi had bought a new pair just for the wedding ceremony.
His excuse was, "I felt the diamonds on the ones you bought were a little too small, so I got us a bigger pair."
So when Zhong Mufeng opened the ring box and Jiang Li saw the rings nestled inside, her jaw dropped.
’I knew the ring would be big, but I never expected it to be *this* big.’
’At a glance, it had to be over sixty carats.’
As Shen Yanzhi was slipping the ring on her finger, Jiang Li couldn’t help but whisper, "Exactly how much did you spend on this?"
Shen Yanzhi held out his hand. "Not much."
Jiang Li pressed, "How much is ’not much’?"
Shen Yanzhi rubbed the tip of his nose. "A few hundred million."
Jiang Li said exasperatedly, "You spendthrift!"
’A few hundred million! It would’ve been better if I’d bought it myself. At least I would have gotten a rebate!’
Shen Yanzhi pressed his lips together. "So... you don’t like it?"
Jiang Li glanced down at the diamond ring on her hand. "I love it."
’What woman doesn’t love a big diamond ring?’
Shen Yanzhi’s lips curled into a slight smile. "If you love it, then it wasn’t a waste of money."
Just as they finished putting the rings on each other’s fingers, they heard the host announce, "And now, the groom may kiss the bride."