"Because it will no longer be valid once we get married."
Zhang Yixing was amused with Zhou Yuexi's train of thoughts. She didn't like 'Bro Xing' because it was cringe worthy to say but it's not with 'dear future husband'. The only problem was it's meaning would lapse over a period of time.
"For now, let's settle with that dear future husband and then just think of something to replace it with once we get married."
Zhou Yuexi did not reply as she was chastising herself over what she had just said. 'You dumb woman! You made it sound like you're too happy about the fact of having him as your husband!'
Zhang Yixing just took her silence as a sign of congruence.
"So...", Zhang Yixing trailed. "What type of wedding do you like? We will have it up to your preference."
"Is it really necessary to have one? I think such ceremony is only necessary if you have a lot of people to celebrate it with. For me, I only have my grandfather and myself, well, there's also my paternal grandparents but they're in City J of Country I and we are not really on amicable terms.", Zhou Yuexi stopped for a few seconds as memories from her childhood flashed in the back of her mind.
Zhou Yuexi's mother, having a rift with her father, Elder Zhou, flew to Country I to rebel. She then met Zhou Yuexi's father there, a wealthy Indonesian man. Zhou Yuexi's paternal grandparents strongly disapproves of her parents relationship, thus disowning their son after he got married to Zhou Yuexi's mother. They believed that the Chinese woman just wanted to leech of from their wealth, not knowing that the lady was an heiress to a business empire herself. After Zhou Yuexi and her parents got into an accident where she lost the both of them, her paternal grandparents blamed her for the unfortunate ending that their son had and refused to take her in. Elder Zhou then caught wind of what happened and personally flew to Country I to fetch his only granddaughter that her own daughter hid from him. That explains why she keeps her maternal family name, Zhou and another reason was that Indonesians don't usually use their family names.
Zhou Yuexi still remembers vividly exactly how her own grandmother berated her being a child of a gold digger and how she was a jinx that had both of her parents killed in one night. Such hurtful words were deeply in her heart, lowering her self esteem at such young age. She spent years of therapy just to recover from the trauma of her childhood.
Zhang Yixing looked at Zhou Yuexi's dazed face and decided to remain silent and let her take her time. Elder Zhou has already told him about Zhou Yuexi's emotional crisis and he didn't want to reopen the wounds that she tried hard to heal.
"I also have a cousin from my father's side which I have quite a close relationship with, but he's currently in America taking his master's degree at Harvard University. As for friends, I only have your sister. So it doesn't really matter to me if we have one or not. We can just go to the Civil Affairs Bureau and get our marriage certificate, that's all it takes to get married, since that's our purpose for all of this."
"Is that so? We can just celebrate it with my family.", Zhang Yixing said, not inquiring further about that subject.
Zhou Yuexi also considered a ceremony but something simple, not the grandiose kind. "If we really need to hold a wedding ceremony, I'd prefer if we do it in the garden of Zhou Family Villa. It's more convenient for my grandfather that way."
"I think we can do as you suggested. Let's skip the wedding and just get our marriage certificate at the Civil Affairs Bureau. Then we could host a simple dinner between our families at the Zhou Family Villa to celebrate. How does that sound to you?"
"Let's do that. It's more suitable for everyone. We can save time, effort and money."
Zhang Yixing nodded in agreement and chuckled the next second as thought passed his mind. "I can already see mom and Qingqing hustling and bustling preparing for a grand wedding. Too bad for them we don't plan on holding one."
Zhou Yuexi laughed along when she imagined it as well. " Those two are too excited for their own good. It's not like they're the ones getting married."
Zhang Yixing went back to the topic. "When should we get our certificate? Your grandfather wants it as soon as possible. I suggest we do it by the end of this month."
Zhou Yuexi took out her phone to looked at the calendar and realized that the end of the month is the next Friday. "That's next week already. Isn't that a little too soon? You know, we just got engaged earlier. What if your aunts suspect, we can never be too sure.", she asked.
"Nope, I can just say that I can't wait too long to make you legally mine and they won't have a say against it. We can even get it first thing tomorrow and I'll make sure they won't be able to protest."
Zhou Yuexi's blushed from her cheeks all the way to her ears and neck at Zhang Yixing's resolve. "No, I'm fine with Friday. I'll have Ye Zixuan prepare the needed documents and send them to you."
"Okay, Lu Han will make the necessary arrangements for our certificate, all you have to do is be present that day."
"Oh, one more thing Yixing. Is it okay if we don't announce our marriage?", Zhou Yuexi asked.
"That's fine with me."
"Good. I just want to avoid some misunderstanding. Being married to you is bound to a lot of teeny tiny problems, no offense. You're currently the most eligible bachelor in Imperial, and you have a lot of fan girls." Including my secretary, Zhou Yuexi wanted to add but omitted. "If they get to know that I snatched they're prince charming right under their noses, I'd surely be the most hated person in Imperial, maybe even in whole China. You can let everyone know your married if you want to but just don't disclose my identity. I still want to live the rest of my life peacefully."
Zhang Yixing chortled at Zhou Yuexi's concerns. "Looks like my dear future wife is scared of my fan girls."
Zhou Yuexi rolled her eyes at Zhang Yixing. "Mind you, dear future husband, I'm not scared of them. Trust me, you don't know just how crazy those women are for you. Once they know the identity of the person you married, they would surely try to wreck havoc in my life. There'll be battalions of water armies that will bash me online, some will even try to harm me physically and lots of other crazy stuff. But I'm not scared because dealing with them is as easy as squashing some ants with my fingers. I just find it as a waste of my time to teach them a lesson. They're not worth even a second of my time."
Zhang Yixing chortled again. He really finds her expressions adorable and comical. Whenever she says something, her facial expression is always on point, in a sense that it makes her words seem alive. Zhang Yixing usually doesn't like talking, but whenever he has a conversation with Zhou Yuexi, words just naturally flows out of his mouth. They way Zhou Yuexi talks inclines him more into the conversation.
"Okay, if that's what you say. I'll have Lu Han prepare non-disclosure contracts for everyone in the Civil Affairs Bureau and one for him as well. Is that good enough dear future wife?"
Zhou Yuexi smiled at him. "Yes, thanks dear future husband."
"Anything else dear future wife?", Zhang Yixing teased.
Zhou Yuexi's mouth twitched at the sound of the pet name. "None. Are we really going to continue the 'dear future husband and wife' thingy?"
"We can make it shorter if you like. We'll cut it out to 'dear'. How does that sound dear?"
Zhou Yuexi deadpanned at the new pet name. 'Isn't that just the same? No... wait... It sounds more affectionate now. It's even more cringe worthy than 'Bro Xing' and 'dear future husband'.', Zhou Yuexi thought.
"Sounds exactly like how your mom calls me. Think of something else."
"Wait, let me think about it."
Silence then filled the car as Zhang Yixing picked a suitable pet name for the both of them.
After a short while of comfortable silence, Zhang Yixing spoke. "A lot of different endearments came in to my mind but they are super cheesy that I'm sure you would puke blood if you try to say it. So far the least cringe worthy of them all is still 'dear', but since I don't want to call you the say way my mom calls you, that's a nope. The next one in line is 'darling'. What do you think about that? Wait, no. It's settled. I will not ask for your opinion anymore. I'm pretty sure you'd dismiss this one as well.
Zhou Yuexi just looked incredulously at Zhang Yixing. Who could have thought that someone as mighty and snob as Zhang Yixing, also has this side to him. He always showed his cold and uncaring facade to everyone that even his own mother called him a block of ice. But right now, he was showing his childish side to Zhou Yuexi. Being so engrossed with mere endearments.
"Fine. As if I can convince you otherwise."
"Good, that you understand Darling Yuexi.", Zhang Yixing laughed.