They filled out the forms.
They received two copies of the marriage certificate.
Cecilia Adler held the certificate, her heart filled with apprehension about the future.
Suddenly, her hand felt empty.
Ian Quincy took the marriage certificate. "I'll keep this safe. You go wait outside."
Cecilia Adler obediently nodded. "Okay."
Vivian Lee's eyes darted. She walked over to Cecilia Adler, leaned in, and whispered in her ear, "Sister, you should hold onto the marriage certificate yourself. Otherwise, if you want a divorce later, you won't be able to. There's something I have to warn you about. I heard Ian Quincy has some mental problems—that he loves getting into fights. You two are a legally married couple now. If he hits you, it's a domestic dispute. Outsiders can only try to talk him down; they can't interfere. You have to be careful he doesn't take his frustrations out on you when he can't let it out on others."
Cecilia Adler was already prepared for something like this.
But hearing it from Vivian Lee's lips changed the nature of the matter entirely.
She began to suspect that Mr. Lee knew as well.
Her mother died from complications during childbirth.
Her maternal grandparents raised her until she was fifteen, and then they both passed away, one after the other.
Her uncle and aunt stole the house her grandparents left her and planned to marry her off to an old bachelor in an exchange marriage.
That was when her father appeared.
She thought she could finally live a stable life. Who would have thought he was only looking for her to use her for social climbing?
She was furious.
"If you knew, why are you only telling me now? Do you just want to see me scared that badly?"
Her motives exposed, Vivian Lee grew flustered and angry. "Sister, I was just giving you a friendly reminder. How could you twist my meaning like that? No wonder Mom said you're ungrateful. She wasn't wrong about you at all! Just you wait until you get a beating." She turned and left.
'She mulled it over. The reason this life was so different, she felt, was because her fiancé was different.'
'Everything she was seeing now was just his disguise.'
'When no one else was around, he would show his true colors.'
Angered, Cecilia Adler pressed her lips together and clenched her fists.
The young man's voice called out, "Wife, did Vivian Lee upset you?"
Cecilia Adler snapped back to reality, her face flushing. She really wasn't used to him calling her that.
They had known each other for less than three days.
He said it like he'd been calling her that for years.
She first denied it, then said with annoyance, "She said that since we have the certificate, I should be living at your place. But we haven't even had a wedding ceremony yet. Think of how bad the gossip would be. Don't you agree?"
Ian Quincy was taken aback. He had assumed that once they had the certificate, they were a legal couple, and she could stay with him starting tonight. But since she was unwilling, waiting a little longer was fine. "Mm. Should we walk around for a bit, or head home first?"
"Let's go home." Cecilia Adler was eager to see how much money was in the red envelope.
As they walked on...
Cecilia Adler felt that something was wrong.
"Ian, aren't we going home first?" This road didn't seem to lead home, nor back to the courtyard house.
'Could Ian Quincy really be like Vivian Lee described—a man who resorts to violence? Is he taking me to some hidden place to torture me?' The more she thought about it, the more scared she became, and her voice trembled when she spoke. "Ian, where are you taking me?"
"You'll see when we get there." Ian Quincy took off his scarf and wrapped it around her neck. "Wear this. You're so cold your voice is shaking."
The scarf still held the young man's body heat.
A warmth spread around Cecilia Adler's neck. That, combined with the gentle way he tied the scarf and even thoughtfully brushed her hair out from under it...
...instantly soothed her fearful heart.
Once she calmed down, she was amused by her own thoughts.
'I'm so stupid. How could I have actually believed Vivian Lee?'
'Ian Quincy worked on a farm under military-style management. If he really had mental problems, could he have lasted ten years there?'