Chapter 16

Jian Ci tossed and turned the whole night. He then resolved to give Zhou Bai a call, wishing to put forth his opinions.

The next day, Jian Ci listed down a few reasons for changing the date on a piece of paper before calling Zhou Bai.

The phone rang for a while and right before it got cut off on its own, the call was picked up. A low voice from the other side emitted through the receiver, not sounding like the usual Zhou Bai, “Hello? What’s the matter?”

Jian Ci swallowed a gulp of saliva out of nervousness before speaking, “S-sorry for troubling and disturbing you Mister Zhou, I’m Jian Ci…”

“I know. I’m asking you if there’s anything wrong.”

“Oh oh, it’s like this. You mentioned yesterday that we’re going to collect our marriage certificate tomorrow, it’s the seventeenth right? I checked the almanac and found out that tomorrow might not be appropriate. Shall we change a date? How does the twentieth sound?”

“No.”

“Uh, Mister Zhou, listen to what I have to say, after all, we’re going to collect the marriage certificate right? The almanac stated that if we don’t choose a good date for marriage, it will badly affect the business.”

“I said no! Tomorrow is my only free day. I’ll get even busier with the upcoming project and have to go on an overseas business trip, where would I find the time!”

“… Oh,” Jian Ci realized that the bunch of Eight Characters1,10-heavenly stems and zodiac theories that he prepared were entirely useless. Regardless of how many other reasons he had, it could not be put up against a president’s “I can’t make it”.

“Is there anything else?”

“Nothing else…”

“Then I’m hanging up,” As he finished speaking, Zhou Bai suddenly remembered something, “I’ll be heading to your place tonight.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Wait at home,” Zhou Bai ended the call right after this sentence, and he did not explain why he was coming over either.

Listening to what he said, it seemed like Zhou Bai was going to do something to him. Jian Ci did not think too much about it and instead, he was entangled in the thought about their marriage that will happen on “the great ominous day”.

If his life only had one day left…

Then he must have a feast tonight, he thought.

Footnotes:

1The Eight Chinese Characters used to represent time, date, month, year of birth in terms of Sky Stem and Earth Branch; superstitious people use them to tell fortunes

2天干地支