To be honest, Ruan Qiuping couldn't follow Yu Huan's train of thought at all.
They had just gotten engaged in the evening, and when they returned to the hotel at night, Yu Huan suddenly said to him, "Ruan Ruan, why don't we get married tomorrow?"
Looking into Yu Huan's bright, dark eyes full of anticipation, Ruan Qiuping realized this person wasn't actually joking.
Ruan Qiuping was completely shocked: "Yu Huan... how can you be so impulsive?! We've only been engaged for how long? And you're already thinking about marriage."
Yu Huan looked up at Ruan Qiuping: "Then how long does Ruan Ruan think we should be engaged before getting married, under normal circumstances?"
Ruan Qiuping thought for a moment, then said: "At least three months, right?"
...Three months.
Your engagement with that person was also three months.
Yu Huan lowered his head and asked softly: "Then how long does Ruan Ruan think we should be engaged before getting married, given our situation? After all, I can't wait three months for Ruan Ruan."
Yu Huan paused, then looked up at Ruan Qiuping and asked: "Does Ruan Ruan want to marry me this year, or make me wait a year and marry me next year?"
Ruan Qiuping frowned worriedly.
Converted to heavenly time, it meant whether he wanted to marry Yu Huan today or tomorrow.
One day or two... there was practically no difference...
But if he told Yu Huan to wait a week, Yu Huan would have to wait seven years in the mortal world...
"...Then let's say next year," Ruan Qiuping said through gritted teeth.
"Alright, Ruan Ruan has promised me," Yu Huan smiled and took Ruan Qiuping's hand.
.
Back in heaven, Ruan Qiuping was in a daze.
When he went down tomorrow, he would be marrying the mortal Yu Huan.
Ruan Qiuping felt like he was standing in the clouds, floating.
Yesterday when he returned from the mortal world, he was still confused about what his relationship with Yu Huan was, and today, they had suddenly become almost husband and wife.
But he and Yu Huan had only reunited two days ago!
Two days ago, Yu Huan was still that 17-year-old kid in his heart.
Not even human-made rockets or heaven's instant teleportation could match their speed...
"What's wrong with your group?" The Recorder of Fate walked over with his hands behind his back, stroking his long beard. "Realized you made a mistake? Scared?"
Ruan Qiuping was startled by the Recorder of Fate's words and turned to look.
He saw that their group indeed looked lifeless.
Ruan Qiuping had just been worrying about the marriage, looking very anxious. Jing Yang was walking behind him, pale and lifeless. Chen Hai was at the back, looking very disheveled, and seemed dejected because Jing Yang had been ignoring him. He was also starving, looking like a walking zombie with his chest sticking to his back.
Ruan Qiuping suddenly remembered that he and Chen Hai had been caught fighting in the mortal world, so he quickly asked the Recorder of Fate about the outcome.
If he wasn't afraid of being infected by Ruan Qiuping's bad luck, the Recorder of Fate would have pointed at his nose and scolded: "Tell me! What were you thinking, two immortals fighting in the mortal world? I've been teaching for so many years and have never encountered such an outrageous thing!"
Just as Ruan Qiuping was about to speak, Chen Hai cut in: "I saw Ruan Qiuping bullying Jing Yang first! As soon as I came out of the water, I saw Ruan Qiuping throwing sand on Jing Yang... and Jing Yang was covered in sand while Ruan Qiuping was clean, if that's not bullying, what is it?! Also, after I called out to him, he deliberately threw more sand on Jing Yang's head right in front of me, isn't that provoking me..."
"Couldn't you tell we were playing?" Jing Yang said coldly.
"How could I tell? Your back was to me, and your shoulders were shaking. I thought you were crying..." Chen Hai said softly.
"I'm at fault too," Ruan Qiuping said. "I was too impulsive when I started fighting, forgetting we were in the mortal world. It caused quite a commotion. Teacher, you can punish us by making us write self-criticisms, as many as you want. I'll write them all."
"Of course you're at fault!" said the Recorder of Fate. "Self-criticisms are inevitable! But it's not just self-criticisms!"
Ruan Qiuping was stunned: "...What else besides self-criticisms?"
The Recorder of Fate put his hands behind his back and sighed: "After the leaders left yesterday, they said our class was actually not bad, except for one thing - our punishment measures were too monotonous! Writing self-criticisms doesn't make you deeply realize your mistakes! So it's better to have some practical punishments. Starting today, students who make mistakes will have their magic completely locked when they go down to the mortal world again, and even the invisibility function of the wristbands will only work for five minutes after descending..."
Ruan Qiuping breathed a sigh of relief.
This wasn't so bad. After all, he mainly went down to see Yu Huan and didn't rely much on magic.
Chen Hai's face, however, turned very sour. He had nearly starved to death today when Qi Yue sealed his magic. Without magic, he couldn't even breathe underwater and basically had to eat grass to survive. If it was going to be like this every day, how could he live?
"Also, the budget will be reduced from 100 yuan to 10 yuan."
Chen Hai's expression worsened.
"Lastly, your time in the mortal world will be extended from the original 5 minutes to 10 minutes, which is 60 hours in the mortal world. During those 60 hours, you'll have to make do with just 10 yuan. You won't starve to death anyway, so it's fitting for you to suffer a bit. Since you used magic to fight this time, from now on when you go down, don't think of yourselves as immortals, just think of yourselves as mortals! Experience some hardship and suffering! As for the reports, since your time in the mortal world has increased, write double the amount! This punishment will be implemented for three days for now. Any problems?"
Chen Hai's face was ashen: "No, teacher..."
"No problem, teacher!" Ruan Qiuping hurriedly interrupted Chen Hai, his eyes almost sparkling. "But teacher, isn't three days a bit too short? Considering how big our mistake was this time, it would be appropriate for you to punish us for a few more days!!!"
"Three days is enough. After all, this is our first time implementing this plan, and we still need to adjust based on the situation. Let's not say more now, we'll discuss the details when we get back to the classroom," said the Recorder of Fate as he walked ahead.
Three consecutive days, ten minutes each day, 60 hours...
Yu Huan would definitely be happy to know.
Thinking about it, Ruan Qiuping's eyes began to brighten.
Just then, he suddenly remembered an important matter and quickly ran a few steps to catch up with the Recorder of Fate, asking in a low voice: "By the way, teacher, did Qi Yue mention anything about erasing Yu Huan's memories?"
"Oh, that matter? Yes, he did mention it."
Ruan Qiuping's heart immediately leaped into his throat.
Then he heard the Recorder of Fate say: "But I refused. Yu Huan has known you for quite some time, and these memories are not easy to erase. Moreover, I examined Yu Huan's fate book this morning, and you have already become one of his tribulations. Erasing his memories would actually be detrimental to him overcoming this tribulation."
Ruan Qiuping: "...I'm his tribulation?"
Suddenly realizing something, his expression became somewhat panicked: "Is it me? Am I bringing him bad luck? Is he suffering because of me? If..."
"There's no need to be so nervous," said the Recorder of Fate. "It's not that big of a deal, just a love tribulation."
"Love tribulation?"
"Yes, a love tribulation. You know, as immortals, although we can't say everyone is completely detached from emotions and desires, most of us have stronger willpower than mortals. We don't easily fall into things like love, hate, passion, or grudges like mortals do. But it's different when we descend to experience tribulations. When immortals descend to the mortal world, they become more susceptible to emotions, so basically every immortal who descends experiences a love tribulation. It's not a big deal, after all, when they come back, there's always the Memory-Restoring Potion. So don't be nervous, just do what you usually do and help Yu Huan overcome this love tribulation..."
.
As soon as Ruan Qiuping got home, he pulled out a box from under the bed and took out a small notebook.
He quickly flipped through a few pages until he saw the page about the "Memory-Restoring Potion" and let out a long sigh of relief.
This was good. Even if his bad luck struck and he couldn't prevent Yu Huan from drinking the forgetfulness potion, there was still a way to remedy the situation.
Fortunately, in order to dissolve Yu Huan's engagement to his sister and help Yu Huan remember his mortal lover, he had desperately searched for a way to counteract the forgetfulness potion at that time...
Thinking about it now, there were more than just one or two flaws in his "plan" back then.
It was only today, hearing the Recorder of Fate speak, that he first learned immortals undergoing trials in the mortal realm were very prone to falling in love, easily loving so intensely it felt like life and death.
Storybooks always loved to tell tales of tragic love between immortals and mortals, with immortals returning from their mortal trials and even storming into the halls of the King of Hell to be with their mortal lovers forever... These stories always ended at the moment the immortal found their lover.
But what would happen after the immortal found their mortal lover?
No storybook ever told that part.
Today in the classroom, Ruan Qiuping had carefully inquired about this matter from Jing Yang.
Only then did he learn that before the forgetfulness potion came into existence, although many immortals returning from mortal trials were bewitched by the lingering warmth of their emotional tribulations, willing to climb knife mountains and descend into seas of fire to find their mortal lovers, very few actually ended up living happily ever after together.
After all, once they regained their immortal status, their mindset would become firm again. Moreover, most immortals who went searching for their mortal lovers weren't driven by love, but by a sense of unfinished business, or simply wanting to recapture the feeling of loving freely and intensely in the mortal realm.
Once they found it, that feeling would fade.
Over two thousand years ago, there was even an eccentric immortal who exhausted all his efforts, even dispersing half of his cultivation, to finally find his mortal lover and bring her to the celestial court. But instead of making her his partner, he had her become a minor fairy attendant in his palace.
However, such cases were rare.
In most cases, immortals returning from trials would retain some old feelings, gradually becoming "old friends" who occasionally met up with their mortal lovers a couple of times.
Actually, Ruan Qiuping didn't care much about these things.
He even felt that being good friends with Yu Huan might make him feel more comfortable than being lovers.
However, this was just his guess, since he had neither experience being someone's lover nor being someone's good friend.
Moreover, they still had an engagement binding them, so it seemed unlikely they could become ordinary friends.
But no matter what kind of relationship he and Yu Huan would have after Yu Huan's return, Ruan Qiuping didn't want Yu Huan to forget him.
After all, Yu Huan was the first person to hold his hand, the first person to embrace him, the first person who liked to touch him, the first person to say they liked him, the first person... who waited for him year after year with sincere feelings.
Yu Huan had already become a very, very important person to him.
Ruan Qiuping counted the ingredients needed for the Memory-Restoring Potion one by one.
The thousand-year lotus from Mangyi Snow Mountain, the bitter pearl of thought from the bottom of Sunset Pond, the lovers' fruit from Broken Peak Mountain...
For Yu Huan, he was willing to do anything, be it climbing snowy mountains or diving into deep pools.
.
"No way."
Ruan Qiuping coldly refused Yu Huan.
That's right, he could climb snowy mountains, dive into deep pools, and scale steep cliffs for Yu Huan, but that didn't mean he could kiss Yu Huan in public!!!
"Qiuping," Yu Huan said, "but this is a necessary procedure in weddings all over the world..."
Ruan Qiuping glanced at him: "All over the world? You're lying. Although I've never attended a wedding, I know that in our Celestial Court, even the bridal veil is lifted in private. How could there be public kissing?"
Yu Huan blinked: "Has Qiuping forgotten? Last time when we watched other people's wedding on the cruise ship, Qiuping cheered the loudest when the bride and groom kissed."
Ruan Qiuping: "..."
He had miscalculated. He shouldn't have cheered back then.
.
This time, as soon as Ruan Qiuping came down, before he could even tell Yu Huan the good news about his extended stay in the mortal realm, Yu Huan dragged him straight into a car and onto a private jet to the wedding venue.
The wedding venue was indeed on an extremely luxurious cruise ship, decorated quite grandly and beautifully.
The venue, the cruise ship, the flower suppliers, and so on... it seemed Yu Huan had prepared everything long ago.
No matter when Ruan Qiuping came, he could arrange the wedding venue in the shortest time possible.
While the guests were still on their way and Ruan Qiuping and Yu Huan hadn't finished their styling, they already had a disagreement over whether or not to kiss at the wedding.
In the end, Yu Huan compromised.
Ruan Qiuping breathed a sigh of relief.
After all, Yu Huan's family members were attending this wedding.
And Ruan Qiuping had met Yu Huan's younger brother, father, and stepmother before.
It's just that the last time he saw them, Yu Huan was still underage.
The memory of that group of family members was firmly tied to the image of Yu Huan as a child, making Ruan Qiuping feel that kissing Yu Huan in front of them... would be like committing a crime.
The wedding proceeded smoothly.
On Ruan Qiuping's side, Jing Yang was the only relative or friend, while the rest were all Yu Huan's guests.
Yu Huan's family members had changed a lot, applauding and congratulating them with fake smiles on their faces, making one seriously doubt whether they had been threatened to attend.
This was an extremely grand wedding.
The sunset was just about to fall, perfectly laying a beautiful and brilliant curtain over the sky. As the wedding reached its climax and night fell, the colorful lights on the ship twinkled like stars on the sea surface, and fireworks bloomed in the sky, one after another, like never-withering flowers.
They said "I do" to each other amidst the fireworks, exchanging rings amid the cheers of the crowd.
Only then did Ruan Qiuping realize that their rings looked quite unique, like two intertwined, irregular lines.
Upon closer inspection, he remembered that Yu Huan had customized the "engagement ring" he had drawn with a pen on his ring finger the last time he came. The originally crooked lines, when made into a finished product, turned out to be quite artistic, like two life paths constantly drawing closer to each other.
The grand fireworks illuminated everyone's faces brightly. The officiant loudly called for them to kiss. Yu Huan smiled somewhat emptily at the officiant and gently refused.
Ruan Qiuping didn't know which wire in his brain had crossed, but he took the bouquet in his hand, covered his and Yu Huan's faces, closed his eyes and kissed him.
The moment their lips touched, Yu Huan's eyes widened in surprise, then he smiled, curving his lips. He tightened his arms around Ruan Qiuping's waist and gently deepened the kiss.
Ruan Qiuping sighed deeply in his heart.
Why was it that he could never refuse Yu Huan?
He couldn't even bear to see the disappointment in this person's eyes.
.
What comes after the wedding ceremony?
...The wedding night, of course.
Ruan Qiuping looked at the enormous red bed before him, at the rose petals and red envelopes scattered on the floor, at the glaring double happiness characters, and silently, silently took a step back.
These red envelopes, each printed with a shimmering double happiness character... looked very familiar, as if he had seen them somewhere before.
No, the red envelopes weren't the point. The point was — why were there dates, peanuts, cinnamon, and lotus seeds on the wedding bed of two men?!!
He suddenly realized that when he agreed to get married, he had indeed been a bit impulsive.
May I ask, is it... still possible to back out of the marriage now?
.
Wait a minute...
Ruan Qiuping suddenly turned his head to look at Yu Huan beside him, "Where's the Supreme Good Fortune Talisman? Do you have it with you? I made sure it was in your suit pocket during the wedding. But now that you've taken off your jacket, where has the talisman gone?"
Yu Huan looked up at Ruan Qiuping and said, "Tonight, can we do without the talisman? This is our wedding night, I don't want to see anything from others in this room."
"Where's the talisman?"
Ruan Qiuping didn't pay any attention to Yu Huan's words at all, his mind completely focused on where the talisman had gone.
Yu Huan was silent for a moment, then suddenly said, "I forgot, maybe it was taken away with the jacket by the servants."
Ruan Qiuping's tone immediately became serious: "This is no small matter. Before we find it, we'd better sleep separately, and it's best not to stay too close to each other."
As soon as he finished speaking, Ruan Qiuping ran towards the door as if his feet were oiled.
"Snap."
Yu Huan suddenly grabbed Ruan Qiuping's collar, and Ruan Qiuping froze in place. He hurriedly shouted:
"Don't touch me, you'll bring bad luck if you do! Let go quickly! Do you know how worried I'd be if something happened to you? Don't do anything now, don't touch me, hurry and find the talisman. If you can't find it, I won't even dare to see you!"
"Ruan Ruan is so panicked about losing the talisman."
"Yes, I'm very panicked."
Yu Huan raised an eyebrow: "Then why is Ruan Ruan smiling?"
Ruan Qiuping: "..."
Ruan Qiuping silently reached out and slowly pulled down the smile of apparent relief that he had forgotten to hide on his face.
Yu Huan, with one foot out of the room, slowly reached out and retrieved a golden talisman from the top of a wall lamp in the corridor.
Yu Huan waved this talisman in front of Ruan Qiuping, his tone completely flat: "Ah, found it. Turns out it wasn't lost after all."
Yu Huan walked into the room, stuck this Supreme Good Fortune Talisman under the pillow, and turned to look at Ruan Qiuping: "Ruan Ruan, sticking it like this should be effective too, right?"
Ruan Qiuping silently looked at the Supreme Good Fortune Talisman buried under the pillow, his heart filled with endless melancholy.
Oh talisman, it wouldn't have been so bad if you had actually gotten lost for a while tonight. You didn't need to be so dutiful.
After all, you're someone else's Supreme Good Fortune Talisman, but to me, you're a death warrant.
Then, he saw the owner of the death warrant turn to look at him and ask in a deep voice:
"Ruan Ruan, can we get down to business now?"