"I love you, my beloved."

One second… two seconds…. Three seconds…

Nothing happened after three seconds. I thought that meant the ritual had failed, and the truth had been revealed. Meng Bao didn\'t like me at all.

I didn\'t dare to open my eyes. I didn\'t want to see the disappointment in my family\'s eyes and the confusion in Meng Bao\'s eyes.

To be honest, all I wanted to do right now was to disappear from the world. I felt humiliated and ashamed to have brought someone that didn\'t love me to my household.

Meng Bao had played my heart well, and I fell with all that sweet words coming out of his mouth..

I waited until Meng Bao, or at least my dad, to open his mouth and ended this awkward ritual. But I waited for a while until my dad said, "Shi Ying, open your eyes!"

I immediately opened my eyes and saw Meng Bao looking down at the red string connecting our ring fingers.

"Wha—"

Magically, the red string glowed, and the red string disappeared slowly as if it never existed in the first place. Then, a red circle appeared on our ring finger.

I tried to rub it few times, but it was like a permanent tattoo. It signified that we had been married by fate.

My parents, alongside Shi Yanyue and Shi Meili, rejoiced when they saw this.

"Wait, what happened?" I asked. Of course, I knew what happened exactly. But I didn\'t want to believe it. I just couldn\'t believe it.

"Oh Buddha, finally, our prayers have been answered! Someone is actually in love with our daughter!" My dad said.

"Yes! Husband, we need to celebrate this. Don\'t let this guy escape. We need to tie him in the bed and make sure he wouldn\'t be able to leave Shi Ying!" My mom added. "Wait, let me prepare a strong rope first. We need to tie him as soon as possible!"

Shi Meili and Shi Yanyue helped my mom find a good rope while my dad was staring at us as if we were a pair of star-crossed lovers, ready to marry tomorrow.

He patted Meng Bao\'s shoulder and said, "Young man, you\'ll be my daughter\'s husband in the future, and also my son-in-law. I hope you will one satisfied with my daughter. She is very feisty, stubborn, and also a cheapskate. But she has a good heart… perhaps."

"Y—Yes, I understand… father-in-law," Meng Bao replied.

\'Wait, who allowed you to call my dad as your father-in-law?! I haven\'t even say anything about marriage!\' I yelled in my heart, but nothing came out of my mouth. Because I was still too shocked to react.

"Aish, don\'t call me father-in-law. Just call me dad, like how Shi Ying calls me. You will be part of our family soon," my dad said. "So, how about the marriage? When will you propose to my daughter? Don\'t be too long ah, my daughter is already twenty-seven years old. She\'s already a leftover woman at this age."

"Dad! I\'m not a leftover woman!"

"Aish, you\'re already a leftover woman ah! I don\'t want you to be unmarried until you\'re old! You need a man to take care of you! You\'ve worked too hard for this family!" My dad insisted.

Which I didn\'t want to accept. Because even after I got married, I\'d still work and provide for my family!

"No, no, even after I got married, I will provide! You guys don\'t need to work too hard!" I stubbornly refused. "Remember, dad. You\'re so old already. You have a back problem!"

"Aish, I can take care of myself!"

"U—Um…"

We stopped fighting when Meng Bao suddenly interrupted, "I—I will work hard to provide for Ying Jie. I will make sure that she is well cared for and takes responsibility for her family. Don\'t worry about money, dad…."

"That\'s my son! You\'re very responsible!" My dad slapped Meng Bao\'s back in excitement. But I saw that as a humiliation. First, because I could provide for them with my own money.

Second, I didn\'t want to marry someone who didn\'t love me!

"Who said that I will marry you in the future?" I crossed my arms and glared at Meng Bao.

Meng Bao looked flustered. He scratched his head and said, "But I want to make you happy, Jie. I want you to be the happiest wife in this world. And I also want you to never think about money anymore. As long as you want something, you can just point it, and I will buy it for you."

"Meng Bao, that\'s not what I need—Ugh!" I gave up with this kid. He still didn\'t understand the root of the problem.

Because everything didn\'t matter for now, since he didn\'t even like me! What was the point of spewing beautiful promises if you couldn\'t even fulfill them?

"Dad, there\'s no proposal or marriage! Nothing is happening here because he has someone else that he loves!" I stormed off the dining table and rushed to my bedroom.

I slammed the door and didn\'t even look back, knowing that my tears already welled up in my eyes.

"Meng Bao, you idiot! Just leave my home as soon as possible!" I yelled as loud as I could to vent my frustration. Even my parents could hear it.

**

[Yang Menghuo POV]

Yang Menghuo and Uncle Shi stared at Shi Ying, who suddenly stormed off to her bedroom. Uncle Shi, who was really happy before, glared at Yang Menghuo.

"Yang Menghuo, do you have someone else that you like?" Uncle Shi asked. "You know this red string of fate is not a joke, right? That red string of fate will determine whether you two love each other and whether you two are soulmates that have been blessed by Yue Lao. I don\'t want you to play with my daughter\'s heart."

"N—No, Dad," Yang Menghuo didn\'t know his plan to surprised Ying Jie by acting oblivious would bite him instead. Ying Jie must\'ve misunderstood that his childhood sweetheart was someone else, while in fact, both his past and current love were still the same person.

It was Ying Jie all along.

Yang Menghuo thought that Ying Jie must\'ve told his parents about Mengmeng a lot, so he didn\'t have to hide anything from them.

"Do you know Mengmeng?" Yang Menghuo asked.

"Mengmeng? Of course, she is that beautiful little barbie girl that my daughter accompanied when she was a child. We\'ve been searching for her to no avail," Uncle Shi replied, then he looked at Meng Bao with his scrutinizing gaze, "What about her? Do you have anything to do with Mengmeng?"

Yang Menghuo cleared his throat and pointed at himself with his thumb, "I am Mengmeng, Uncle. My real name is Yang Menghuo, and people called me Mengmeng before."

…

…

"WHAT?!" Uncle Shi gawked upon the revelation. "H—How? Did you do a gender reconstruction surgery? Aiya, Mengmeng, if you want to marry my daughter, then I will allow her ah, even if you\'re a girl."

"I don\'t want her to be a lesbian, but if she really wants to marry her Mengmeng, then I will allow her!" Uncle Shi said.

"N—No, I\'ve always been biologically a man…." Yang Menghuo sighed. "It\'s just my appearance back then. My grandma likes to keep my hair long because she said it\'s cute. And I\'ve always been called a Barbie doll due to my appearance. But I\'ve always been a man."

"Really?" Uncle Shi asked. He peered suspiciously at Yang Menghuo. "How come you haven\'t married my daughter yet? My daughter keeps saying that Mengmeng will marry her in the future."

"Because I\'ve just found her. I searched Batman Jie for fifteen years to no avail. There\'s no lead or whatsoever," Yang Menghuo explained. "I\'ve just found out about Ying Jie\'s identity as Batman Jie right now, and I\'ve been planning to surprise Ying Jie by proposing in the same place when we first met."

Uncle Shi still couldn\'t believe this coincidence, but if it was true, then Shi Ying and Yang Menghuo were definitely a couple blessed by Yue Lao, the matchmaker god.

"Then, what will you do next? How come Shi Ying suddenly exploded like that?"

"Um… that\'s because she thought I\'ve decided to leave her and return to my Childhood sweetheart instead. But she doesn\'t know that childhood sweetheart is also her," Yang Menghuo explained.

"Dad, I\'ve decided to propose to Ying Jie, but I need you and the rest of the people here to work with me to surprise her. Please let me stay here for two more days because the ring that I\'ve prepared for Jie will arrive in two days."

"Hmm…" Uncle Shi was contemplating for a moment and then nodded. "Alright, I will help you. But don\'t hurt my daughter, okay? I want her to be happy because she already worked so hard to provide for this family."

"Yes! I will work hard!"

Aunty Shi, Meili, and Yanyue returned from the shed with long ropes to bind Yang Menghuo. They looked around, searching for Shi Ying.

"Wait, where\'s Shi Ying?"