Volume 1, Chapter 188: Holding Your Hand, Growing Old Together! (Grand Finale)

In mid-May, the entire Imperial Capital turned out in full force.

Those who received invitations flew to the Musang Archipelago aboard Lou's private jet three days before the wedding.

Those who did not receive invitations made their own way there under the guise of delivering gifts and attending the ceremony, having to pull strings early to notify Lou Ye so they wouldn't be turned away at the island's gates.

The wedding was unprecedented in its grandeur, with the most eye-catching figures undoubtedly being the handsome groom and the stunning bride.

Next came the pair of little flower girls and page boys.

Lu Xiaomu wore a British-style mini suit, looking lively and adorable.

Tan Lanxing wore a pink princess dress, looking like a carved piece of jade.

There were nine people to a table, spanning 199 tables.

Only a single seat at the main table remained vacant.

Lu Jinnian did not come.

However, Lu Jinnian had Lu Xiaomu bring his wedding gift for Sang Wan.

It was already late at night when the wedding banquet concluded. Sang Wan and Lou Ye sat by the floor-to-ceiling windows to unwrap gifts, progressing all the way from Elder Lou’s astronomical-value courtyard house deed and Jiang Huai’s European royal jewelry to Lu Jinnian’s ink-blue envelope.

"A belated confession?"

Weighing the envelope in his hand, Lou Ye narrowed his eyes, unable to resist glancing out the floor-to-ceiling window at the deep blue sea.

He wondered if, folded into a paper airplane, this weight could smoothly fly out to the ocean and vanish without a trace at the far edge of the horizon.

"If you don't want me to look at it, then I won't!"

Sang Wan looked indifferent and stood up to take a bath.

Only to be dragged by her wrist into Lou Ye's arms.

Inside the envelope was a document and a sheet of letter paper.

Seeing the cover of the document clearly, Lou Ye raised an eyebrow slightly.

As a wedding gift, what Lu Jinnian gave Sang Wan was a Lu Corporation equity transfer agreement.

Sang Wan unfolded the letter.

[Wanwan, today's Lu Corporation has half of it belonging to you—this is what you deserve! As for the rest, consider it my wedding gift to you!

Wanwan, every single day since I let go of your hand, I have been filled with regret. But it doesn't matter, I can afford to wait! A lifetime is so long; I hope I still have a chance!

I won't wish you a happy wedding; I wish you happiness every single day!

——Lu Jinnian]

Even the equity transfer agreement hadn't caused a ripple in Lou Ye's heart.

Yet a handwritten letter instantly soured Lou Ye's mood.

Seeing that Sang Wan had finished reading, Lou Ye lifted a hand, crumpled the letter paper into a ball, and tossed it into the wastebasket.

Then, pulling at his tie, he walked toward the bedroom.

Was he angry?

"Lou Ye..."

Sang Wan chased after him, reaching out to hook his hand. "If you're angry, then you're just..." Doing exactly what he wanted!

"Angry?"

Lou Ye laughed, wrapping a long arm around Sang Wan's waist to pull her into his embrace and lower his head to kiss her. "He won't have that chance, and I firmly believe that. So, there's nothing to be angry about!"

"Besides..."

Lou Ye lowered his head to graze Sang Wan's lips. "Wife, on such a wonderful night, loving you is never enough. Using it to be angry would be far too wasteful, don't you think?"

Loving deeds were performed every single day in the past.

Yet today felt exceptionally different.

Sang Wan smiled faintly. "My husband is right!"

The night grew deep.

Waves crashed in a rhythmic symphony outside the floor-to-ceiling window.

Separated only by a pane of glass, deep affection filled the entire room.

When the fervor finally subsided, only each other's heartbeats and breathing lingered in the air.

"Sangsang, I love you!"

"...Mm, I love you too!"

"Wife..."

"Mm..."

Having risen at five in the morning to dress and apply makeup, enduring everything from the midday wedding banquet to the sunset bonfire party on the beach, and finally the night's festivities, Sang Wan felt so exhausted her bones practically felt like they were falling apart.

Accompanied by the faint, rolling sound of the waves and Lou Ye's deeply affectionate murmurs of "wife," Sang Wan didn't even remember when she had drifted off to sleep.

She only remembered that in the second before she fell asleep, Lou Ye was pecking at her ear, "Wife, I love you! For the rest of our lives, year after year, we must be together forever!"

Sang Wan didn't remember whether she had responded by saying, "Alright, together forever."

Even if she hadn't, it didn't matter. After all, a lifetime was so long; there would always be opportunities to tell him.

Weddings, honeymoons, and double honeymoons.

Sang Wan and Lou Ye returned to the Imperial Capital at the end of July.

Their private jet landed at the Imperial Capital Airport in the dead of night, and after returning to the hillside villa for a brief sleep of a few hours, Lou Ye departed for the Lou Corporation.

At the 9 a.m. executive meeting, the gathering of Lou Corporation executives beheld their big boss, who radiated vitality and high spirits.

If the Lou Ye of the past had been aloof and profound, then the current him could be summed up in a single phrase around his eyes and brows.

Radiantly triumphant.

The mid-year meeting was in full swing, yet Lou Ye kept getting distracted.

His phone buzzed with notifications every so often, and without exception, they all came from Sang Wan: [Husband, when are you coming back?]

It had always been him clinging to her.

In all the time they had been together, this was the first time Sang Wan had acted so clingy toward him.

Lou Ye concluded that a twenty-four-hour-unseparated double honeymoon was indeed effective.

Barely managing to wrap up his work by two in the afternoon, Lou Ye sped all the way home.

Pop!

As the elevator doors opened, a sky full of confetti drifted down lazily.

"Happy birthday!"

"Happy birthday, Daddy/Uncle Yeye!"

"..."

Jiang Ke'er led the two little ones, along with 2S and their newly raised Samoyed, turning the entire villa upside down in a lively uproar.

The adults were laughing, and the children were making a ruckus.

When Sang Wan brought out the cake she had baked with her own hands, Lou Ye was reminded of what she had said to comfort him last year.

At that time, she had promised: on his birthday this year, she would definitely accompany him.

She had fulfilled it.

And he, having achieved his heartfelt wish, had finally married her!

As the guests dispersed, the villa grew quiet.

Sang Wan crooked her finger, signaling Lou Ye to hold out his hand. "I have a gift for you!"

The black-and-white ultrasound image made the conclusion of pregnancy crystal clear at a glance.

At the age of twenty-seven, Lou Ye became a father.

...

Lu Jinnian had always believed that he could afford to wait.

Sincerity can split open metal and stone; a lifetime was so long, and he refused to believe Lou Ye would never make a mistake, nor that his persistence could fail to move Sang Wan.

He only needed one chance.

Just once.

At the end of the first year after Sang Wan and Lou Ye's marriage, she gave birth to their daughter, Lou Yue.

Lu Jinnian thought that Elder Lou had never liked Sang Wan in the first place, and since it was just a little granddaughter, leaving the Lou family without a direct male heir, the pressure Elder Lou placed on Lou Ye must be unimaginable.

Yet that year, Lou Ye served as a full-time stay-at-home dad at home for an entire year. By the end of the year, the Lou Corporation's financial performance hit record highs once more, and Sang Wan secured several major awards to become the director of the project design department.

In the third year of their marriage, Sang Wan gave birth to a pair of fraternal twins: an older brother named Lou昱 (Lou Yu) and a younger sister named Sang Yu.

Lu Jinnian thought that just as her career was finally taking off, she would be dragged down by children; Sang Wan certainly wouldn't be able to endure it, and it wouldn't be long before Lou Ye was squeezed out.

Yet that year, Lou Ye continued to stay at home as a dad. At the year-end gala of the Lou Corporation, Sang Wan was promoted to executive vice president of the corporation, taking full charge of all presidential affairs.

In the seventh year of their marriage...

The seven-year itch wasn't far off, Lu Jinnian mused to himself.

On May 20th, Lou Ye walked out holding flowers, towing three ridiculously gorgeous toddlers by the hand, appearing at the airport together to welcome Sang Wan back from an overseas project.

Before the Maybach could even drive out of the airport, photos of the family of five overflowing with happiness flooded the entire internet.

In the tenth year of their marriage...

The operations of the Lou Corporation were fully taken over by acting vice president Yang Yan.

Lou Ye was either accompanying Sang Wan on business trips to negotiate projects or driving the children to school, occasionally loading up the three little ones to come to the Lu family villa to pick up Lu Xiaomu.

In the blink of an eye, another year had passed.

Once the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month rolled around, Aunt Wang and the others were given their holiday leave, before Lu Jinnian could even decide whether to go to Ireland to see the auroras or vacation in Hawaii this year.

Lu Xiaomu asked him hesitatingly, "Dad, President Lou said, if he dares to invite you, do you dare to go?"

Ever since a few years prior, every twenty-ninth day of the lunar new year, Lou Ye would invite him to the hillside villa to spend Lunar New Year's Eve, under the high-sounding pretext of showing care for empty-nesters.

Two men in their thirties would still act as childish as ever when bickering.

Yet this year, whether it was because he was already forty and had matured a bit,

or because he didn't want Lu Xiaomu caught in the middle and torn between them,

Lu Jinnian quickly figured it out. "What would I not dare to go for? With your mom there, would he dare to eat me?"

Facts proved that Lou Ye indeed did not dare, nor did he have any intention of eating him.

After all, he who laughs last laughs best; as a victor, he just needed to enjoy the fruits of victory.

At the hillside villa that year, fireworks lit up the night sky.

Though past forty, Sang Wan's naturally stunning face didn't possess even a hint of crow's feet at the corners of her eyes.

Now a globally renowned architect, Sang Wan possessed an air of elegance and poise that had only grown more regal and magnificent through the precipitation of time.

And Lou Ye, his gaze upon her remained exactly as it had been back then.

Lu Jinnian finally understood why Lou Ye had dared to be so arrogant all those years ago.

With him serving as a cautionary tale of the past, Lou Ye would never give him even a sliver of a chance.

Heavy snow swirled outside the window.

Inside, accompanied by a cat, a dog, and a crowd of children, the festive holiday atmosphere surpassed the past dozen years combined.

Lu Jinnian thought, then... let it be like this.

They stayed up together to ring in the new year. Past midnight, the bell chimed, and the gathering drew to a close.

Lu Jinnian took out red envelopes he had prepared beforehand and distributed them to the children. Ignoring the earnest and persistent efforts of Sang Wan and Lou Ye to make him stay, he drove away from the hillside villa.

Watching the car recede into the distance, Lou Ye held Sang Wan's hand and turned to walk back toward the house.

The heavy snow fell in flurries, and in just a short stretch of path, the two of them had snow-white hair.

Lou Ye looked back, saw this, and burst into laughter. "Wife, I think I can already picture what we'll look like when we're in our seventies and eighties..."

Lifting her gaze to see the snow atop his hair, Sang Wan smiled faintly. "Me too."

To hold hands with one's child, and grow old together with that person.

A lifetime is so long; I have plenty of time to love you well...

......................End of Text......................