The Amnesiac Omega Who Reels Me In Every Day – Chapter 114
by Little PandaSome Sweetness
Post-Marriage Extra
“How many strawberries does she have to plant before she’ll call it quits?”
Jiang Jinyi clung to Jiang Youwan like a sloth, kissing her for the longest time.
“Just how many strawberries1 is Xiao Jin planning to plant before she’ll call it quits?”
“I want lots and lots.”
Jiang Jinyi answered in a soft, sticky voice, sweetness and wheedling all tangled together.
So clingy. So saccharine. So sweet.
Jiang Youwan adored this kind of tenderness.
She raised a hand to stroke the back of Jinyi’s head, tilting her own chin up a little so the kisses could land easier — indulging her, spoiling her.
Letting her soak up even more of her scent without ever noticing.
Then the phone on the nightstand rang, cracking the mood between them.
Jiang Jinyi lifted her head, eyes flushed and annoyed, and leaned over to grab it. The moment she saw the caller, the annoyance evaporated into nerves.
She turned to Jiang Youwan. “It’s Mom.”
Youwan gestured for her to answer. Jinyi knelt up, licked her lips, and picked up.
“Hello? Xiao Jin.” Jiang Ningshu’s voice came through.
“Mom, what’s up?”
“Did you take the family’s household registration booklet2?”
“Ah…” Jinyi blinked guiltily, gaze darting everywhere before it settled, at last, on Youwan’s faintly smiling face. She steeled herself. “Yeah. I took it.”
“What did Xiao Jin need the booklet for?”
“Um…” Honestly, Jinyi still felt a little guilty. She’d gotten married without so much as consulting her mom — would it hurt her to find out?
Her own daughter had run off and married someone behind her back.
She looked to Youwan for help. Youwan just watched her with a look that said I’m waiting to hear you say it.
Jinyi took her hand, kneading gently at her knuckles. “To marry jiejie.”
Silence on the other end for two seconds before the voice came again. “Why didn’t you tell Mom? It’s done already?”
That tone — Jinyi knew the moment she heard it that her mother was asking with a frown.
“It’s done. I was just too impatient…” Jinyi clasped Youwan’s soft, unresisting hand in her own palm, rubbing it nervously. “Jiejie finally agreed to get back together, agreed to marry me — I was scared that if I waited any longer she’d change her mind. So I didn’t tell you first. I was just about to tell you.”
“…”
Jinyi’s long lashes trembled wildly.
She was nervous.
But the Jiang Ningshu on the other end only laughed softly. “Xiao Jin really has grown up.”
Jinyi used to be such a mama’s girl3, sharing everything with her mom, consulting her before every decision.
She’d never been able to keep a secret in front of her mother. And now she’d gone and gotten married, certificate and all, without a single word.
A grown daughter really can’t be kept at home4.
“Xiao Jin, come home tomorrow. Bring the booklet back — and bring your wife. The whole family will have a meal together.”
Wife…
Starlight flashed through Jinyi’s eyes; even the tips of her brows were leaping for joy.
“And don’t forget the booklet, alright?” Ningshu reminded her.
“Okay. Rest early, Mom.”
Call ended.
Jinyi whirled on Jiang Youwan, eyes sparkling, bright and clear. “Jiejie, did you hear what she called you just now? She called you my wife!”
Youwan answered lazily, “Mm. Heard it.”
Jinyi’s smile deepened until her eyes nearly vanished, the dimples at the corners of her mouth adorable. Youwan gazed at her tenderly, thinking that the little kid in her belly would inherit those dimples.
Youwan tugged her hand, pulling her down; Jinyi went with it, toppling against her, and Youwan murmured in her ear, “Even if she hadn’t said it — I’m your wife anyway.”
After the call, Ningshu had followed up with a WeChat reminder, and the next day Jinyi and Youwan washed up, dressed, and got ready to head out.
Since they wanted to show Mom the marriage certificate, Youwan took it out of the safe.
It had been days now since the wedding, and Jinyi had laid eyes on the certificate exactly once.
Right after they’d registered.
It had gone into Youwan’s safe almost immediately.
Not just the marriage certificate — Jinyi’s resident identity card had been confiscated by Youwan too.
Both locked in the safe, to which only Youwan held a key.
At the time they’d been kissing; Youwan had drawn back just far enough to tell her that if she ever needed it, she could ask jiejie.
Jinyi’s reaction made it abundantly clear that she couldn’t care less about her ID card — she hadn’t even bothered to answer, just leaned in for more kisses.
At times like that, Youwan would indulge her — let her kiss as deeply and as long as she liked.
When the kitty behaves, she gets the reward she loves.
And she’ll behave even better.
Youwan knew this was a little twisted. But this was precisely how she drew her sense of security — savoring the control.
Soon the two of them drove back to the Jiang Family Villa.
The moment they walked in, they found Jiang Ningshu and Song Lian seated on the sofa together, exquisitely and formally dressed, as though they’d been waiting.
Jinyi immediately sensed something off.
Normally, when Secretary Song was at her mother’s side, her mother sat and Secretary Song stood — a crisp, unmistakable boss-and-subordinate arrangement.
Secretary Song would never sit on the sofa beside her mother, and certainly not this close — and then… Jinyi’s pupils blew wide. They were holding hands.
Laughing and chatting, intimate in their every gesture.
Jinyi wanted to cover her face. They might have picked a very bad time to walk in…
She gave Youwan’s hand a gentle tug. Youwan tilted her head. “What is it?”
Jinyi was about to suggest they slip back out, but Ningshu had already spotted them. “Xiao Jin, Youwan — you’re here?”
“Mom…” Jinyi had no choice but to steel herself and walk forward. Youwan calmly greeted Ningshu and Song Lian; Ningshu rose to her feet with Song Lian steadying her from the side.
Ningshu looked at Youwan, a faint smile on her face. “How have you been lately, Youwan? Has Xiao Jin been too much of a handful?”
“Of course not.” Jinyi pouted, cutting in first.
Youwan’s lips curved. “Not at all. Xiao Jin has been very good.”
“Good. Your jiejie is pregnant — you’re not allowed to upset her.” Ningshu looked at Jinyi. “Did you bring the booklet?”
Jinyi nodded. “I did.”
She fished the household registration booklet from her bag and handed it over. Ningshu tucked it into Song Lian’s bag, let Song Lian support her out the front door, and climbed into the car that had been waiting outside the courtyard all along.
She tossed out a single line over her shoulder: “You two amuse yourselves — we’re off to register a marriage. We’ll be right back.”
Leaving Jinyi standing there, utterly bewildered.
“What’s Xiao Jin thinking about?” Youwan asked with a faint smile.
Jinyi shook her head clear and stared at her, marveling aloud, “…They move fast.”
She told Youwan about how, a few days ago, she’d learned that Secretary Song had been her mother’s kept lover, and marveled all over again. “They really do move fast…”
“They’ve known each other for over twenty years, haven’t they? Loving someone for more than a decade without any standing wears a person down. If they’d loved each other all along, then this is already very, very late.”
“So late that the other one had already reached her limit — was about to walk away.”
Youwan said breezily, “Compared to them, Xiao Jin was the faster one.”
Was that a compliment? Jinyi’s lips curled — as if she’d laid hold of the most precious treasure in the world — and she hummed smugly, “That’s true.”
The weather was lovely that day, the sunshine bright. Jinyi carried her painting things out of the Art Studio, and Youwan lounged in the courtyard rocking chair, a flower-scented breeze stirring her hair — luminous, breathtaking.
Jinyi sat a short distance away painting her. Every ten or twenty minutes she’d set her brush down, walk over, crouch at her side, and demand a hug.
She couldn’t help being clingy — she had, after all, only just finished marking Youwan last night.
Youwan would hold her. Truthfully, Youwan missed her too, but Jinyi always got her arms around her first, before Youwan could say a word.
Five or six years ago, in this very spot, Jinyi had bullied Youwan — accused her flat-out of shattering the vase, and even after the truth came out, refused to apologize. The contrast with now could not have been sharper.
…
On and off, she finished a painting as the sun began to set. The chef had already started on dinner when Ningshu and Song Lian came back.
They’d registered their marriage.
Remarkably fast.
The four of them sat around the dinner table. Song Lian, usually so stern, seemed far gentler and warmer now, and Jinyi switched to calling her Aunt Song.
Over that meal the four of them talked about a great deal — when to hold the wedding ceremony, plans going forward, the child’s surname, and on and on…
Jinyi disliked the hassle. She disliked taking part in these “elders'” conversations — she much preferred having everything handled for her. So most of it was Ningshu talking to Youwan while Jinyi ate quietly and listened like a good girl.
Handing every decision over to Youwan.
Ningshu noticed, of course — a certain gap between her daughter and her daughter’s wife.
Youwan was far too deep, too calculating, and her daughter was half a naive sweetheart5. If anything ever went wrong between them, Jinyi wouldn’t stand a chance against Youwan — she’d only ever be on the receiving end of the bullying.
Of course, the odds of the two of them ever falling out were truly minuscule.
In truth, Ningshu was grateful to Youwan. Without her all these years, who knew how much worse Jiang Ya would have ravaged Xiao Jin.
In a sense, the two of them really were well matched.
Entrusting Xiao Jin to her — Ningshu could set her heart at ease.
She knew. Youwan would love and protect Xiao Jin just as she herself did.
Footnotes
- 草莓 | cǎoméi | 'Strawberry' — Chinese slang for a hickey, from the red, berry-shaped bruise a hard kiss leaves on the skin. 'Planting strawberries' means scattering love bites across someone's neck, one kiss at a time.
- 户口簿 | hùkǒubù | The PRC's official household registry booklet, listing every member of a family by name, birth date, and relationship. A legal marriage must be entered in it, so a couple cannot register without producing their family's booklet — which is why taking it amounts to announcing the marriage.
- 妈宝女 | mābǎo nǚ | Internet slang, literally 'mother's-treasure girl' — an adult daughter who defers to her mother on everything, sharing every detail of her life and seeking her approval before any decision. Jinyi once fit the type to the letter.
- 女大不中留 | nǚ dà bù zhōng liú | A classical proverb, literally 'a grown daughter cannot be kept (at home)' — the traditional rue that once a daughter comes of age, marriage will carry her off no matter how tightly her parents hold on. A mother's fond, resigned sigh.
- 傻白甜 | shǎ bái tián | Web-fiction slang, literally 'silly, innocent, sweet' — the archetype of a guileless, warm-hearted heroine with no cunning whatsoever; the exact opposite of a deep, scheming character like Youwan.
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