At 6:30 p.m., He Wancheng arrived at the wedding banquet hotel ahead of schedule. Now that his nephew and Luo Yu were together, his relationship with Jiang Shenghe has grown even closer.
Upon entering the banquet hall, he saw that Xu Xiangyi’s family had arrived even earlier than him.
Xu Xiangyi waved to him, gesturing for him to sit at the head table.
His connection and collaboration with Xu Xiangyi began with Jiang Shenghe. They met frequently over the past year and only after getting to know each other did they discover that they both admired the oil painting master, Teacher Yu.
He Wancheng roughly knew how much Jiang Shenghe had invested in creating this banquet hall. He had always been curious just how stunning a 5D immersive wedding banquet scene, created with such a huge investment, really would be.
After entering, he looked around carefully. The floor was different from before. The most eye-catching thing was the huge canopy covering the entire banquet hall. Apart from that, he didn’t see anything different.
Xu Xiangyi pulled out the chair next to him and said with a smile, “When I came in, I was just like you, staring at the ground and staring at the ceiling, unable to figure out how immersive it could be.”
“Old Zhao told me that if their hotel had invested in building such a banquet hall to host high-end wedding banquets, even if they included all the auspicious days of the year, they still wouldn’t break even in ten years.”
He Wancheng still didn’t understand if it was really necessary to spend so much on a wedding.
He picked up his water glass, drank some water, and shook his head with a smile.
Xu Xiangyi said, “I can understand it a little. Others live one day at a time, but for him, each day felt like a year. Think about how he got through those seven years.”
The wedding started at an auspicious time: 19:19
All the complicated procedures were eliminated; everything else were kept for the wedding in Beijing.
At 19 minutes past the hour, all the lights in the banquet hall went out, and the scene suddenly shifted, from the floor to the ceiling and then to the sides, transforming into a concert hall in the Suzhou Theater.
In the spotlight on stage, Chu Lin had sat in front of the grand piano at some point, and cheerful and melodious music now spread throughout the banquet hall.
He Wancheng was stunned and even felt a little dizzy. He reached out to hold onto the edge of the table, and after adjusting, he was both amused and exasperated. “I hadn’t even started drinking yet, how did I get so drunk that I thought I was listening to Chu Lin’s concert in a concert hall?”
When the music ended, the guests were still reluctant to leave the experience.
At Jiang Shenghe’s arrangement, Chu Lin chose a popular song that was appropriate for the misty Jiangnan region as her second choice.
He Wancheng had heard this piece before and was enjoying it when suddenly a gust of wind blew past his head. Xu Xiangyi also felt it, and the cool breeze brushed against his cheek.
He thought it was a hallucination; this was a banquet hall, where would the wind come from?
He Wancheng laughed, “It’s really the wind, it’s blown your hair all over.” His hair was messed up too.
Xu Xiangyi was the officiant and would be going on stage soon, so his hair couldn’t be messed up. He quickly asked his wife to fix it, complaining, “What is Jiang Shenghe doing?! Spending so much money just to have a gust of wind mess up my hair?!”
His wife almost burst out laughing, and took the opportunity to ruffle his hair again, making it even more unkempt.
The guests in the banquet hall hummed along to the piano music while looking around, wondering where the wind was coming from.
As the gust of wind swept through, the dimly lit banquet hall slowly came into light, and looking up again, one could see the sky filled with swirling clouds.
Suddenly, a child shouted excitedly, “It’s raining! Mom, it’s raining!”
The rain fell softly and gently, and the ground was ‘wet’. Just as they were wondering where the wind and rain came from, the scene changed from the concert hall to an ancient alley in Suzhou.
Xu Xiangyi didn’t feel anything special, but He Wancheng recognized it; it was a street scene unique to Suzhou during the rainy, plum season. Most of the guests today were locals from Suzhou and they were drawn into old memories.
Thirty years have passed, everything has changed, yet it seemed like nothing has changed at all.
Jiang Shenghe led Luo Qi onto the red carpet.
Three children appeared on the street projected on the side of the banquet hall. One said in their soft Suzhou dialect, “I can’t run anymore.”
“Then I’ll push you.”
The speakers were Luo Xin and Luo Yu when they were young, and there was also a beautiful girl with big eyes and snow-white skin who was about the same height as Luo Xin. It was Luo Qi.
Luo Qi held Luo Yu’s hand, and Luo Xin pushed her forward. The three children walked and played, while Luo Zhiqiu recorded them from behind.
Luo Qi looked at her childhood self on the stone-slab street, then turned to look at Jiang Shenghe, wondering how he managed to recreate the childhood video in the scene.
When her gaze returned to the ancient alley and the stone bridge, Jiang Shenghe was holding an umbrella and holding her in his arms; they were taking wedding photos.
You could even hear the sound of rain pattering down.
The piano music continued when suddenly several colorful umbrellas appeared in the sky, like hot air balloons slowly descending. At that moment, the wind calmed and the rain stopped.
Some children stood on tiptoe, trying to grab a handful.
Night fell, the stars twinkled in the sky, and the moon rose.
He Wancheng snapped out of his daze. “Isn’t this the oil painting that Teacher Yu painted for Jiang Shenghe?” There was a wooden window in front of him. He reached out and had a kind of illusion that the window was really open.
The people at the next table who had been queuing up to take photos in Luo Qi’s living room earlier today all thought they were in Luo Qi’s house again.
The moon set and the stars faded away; it was a new day.
After the rain, the sky was clear and blue, tall buildings now lined the streets, and there were bustling crowds and passing cars.
He Wancheng didn’t get confused this time. He smiled and said to Xu Xiangyi, “It really feels like we’re on the streets of Manhattan, meeting up for coffee.” Even the sound of passing cars felt so real.
In the scene, there was an intersection ahead, and Luo Qi was waiting for the traffic light to turn green.
With only two seconds left on the red light, someone called out to her from behind, “Luo Qi?”
Jiang Shenghe appeared in the picture.
They were both very young then.
Just as the guests below the stage were all wondering if the Luo Qi in the scene would respond and turn around, at that moment, Jiang Shenghe led Luo Qi onto the stage.
The scene changed, and the entire banquet hall became dreamlike, with day transitioning to night, making everyone feel as if they had entered a castle.
Fireworks filled the sky, as if they were blooming overhead.
A grand wedding was being held on the castle’s lawn, and the guests were surrounded by a sea of flowers.
After the three piano pieces were finished, the host came on stage, and Xu Xiangyi was also invited to the stage.
… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com
Jian Hang’s eyes were red; she didn’t want Qin Moling to see.
Qin Moling turned his head at that moment, “What’s wrong?”
Jian Hang changed the subject, “Can you recreate a scene from when you and Jiang Shenghe were children in school?”
“…That probably won’t work. Don’t be fooled by a ten-minute experience; it’s all money being wasted.”
… …
On stage, Jiang Shenghe knelt on one knee. He was so nervous that he forgot that there was a proposal involved in the ceremony.
Luo Qi grabbed his hand and mouthed, “Get up, you don’t need to kneel.”
Jiang Shenghe ignored her words and continued to look up at her. He thought he wouldn’t be nervous, but now his mind was blank. “I prepared a proposal speech and memorized it several times, but I’ve forgotten it all now.”
The audience erupted in laughter.
He had written his marriage proposal vows on a piece of paper but they were left with Jiang Sixun. He had even taken them out and looked at them several times on the way to pick up the bride.
Jiang Shenghe just said what came to mind, “For so many years, I’ve always been thinking, did I make you angry in our past life? That’s why you’re so far away from me, and you haven’t been willing to forgive me for seven years.
“Luo Qi, in this life, I will never make you unhappy again.”
Luo Qi’s tears streamed down her face, sliding down her cheeks.
Seventh Year of My Secret Love for You translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com
T/N: To be fair, I think this is one of the most heartfelt wedding extras I’ve read.
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