Chapter 3038: In Her Eyes There Is Light

Before Ye Chen arrived, Xiao Changkun was still angry about Han Meiqing's impending marriage to He Yuanjiang, but after Ye Chen came, he now only worries that Han Meiqing will send him an invitation.

At the same time, Han Meiqing and He Yuanjiang are together discussing the guest list for the banquet.

Although their social circles differ, their attributes are basically the same, and almost all of their friends are in the United States, with only a few distantly related relatives in China.

As for Jin Ling locally, both have some colleagues; Han Meiqing does have some classmates, but they hardly keep in touch, so Xiao Changkun is the one they still see fairly often.

Thus, the two discussed whom to invite or not to invite.

Han Meiqing first suggested: "Let's go through them one by one, starting with our friends in the United States. My idea is to not notify any of them at all, after all, it's such a long journey—making the trip is not easy. To know the road is far yet still invite others seems somewhat unaware of social etiquette. What do you think?"

He Yuanjiang nodded and smiled: "I think the same as you. Although we keep in touch a lot and have deep feelings with our American friends, it's indeed inappropriate to notify them to come to the wedding. If they don't want to come, it makes us seem self-inflicted embarrassment; if they do want to come, we'd feel awkward on our end. So my thought is, after we get married, we'll find a time to return together to the United States—you have your social circle, I have mine, and we can visit each other, introducing ourselves to each other's friends. What do you think?"

Han Meiqing happily smiled: "I think the same as you. After the wedding is over, we'll take some time to return to the United States, revisit the old places, and also see old friends."

He Yuanjiang laughed: "That's great. Why don't we just go to the United States for our honeymoon? What do you think?"

Han Meiqing cheerfully replied: "I definitely have no problem. The main thing is you—can you get away from school?"

"No problem," He Yuanjiang said with a smile: "I'll say hello to the dean; taking ten days to half a month of wedding leave should be fine."

Speaking, He Yuanjiang added: "By the way, regarding colleagues, for the wedding, I had the idea to invite the dean and a few colleagues I get along with. But since we're both older, in China we emphasize personal relationships, and many colleagues are already married, so we shouldn't accept gifts—just invite everyone to come witness and have a lively meal together. What do you think?"

Han Meiqing nodded and smiled: "Not accepting gifts is good; accepting them would seem too vulgar."

He Yuanjiang asked her: "Then what about your senior university colleagues—should we invite them too?"

Han Meiqing thought for a moment, then said: "Yes, invite them. We'll still have to work together in the future, and it's awkward to avoid each other. If we don't notify them, they might resent us later."

He Yuanjiang nodded, hesitated for a moment, then asked: "Then... what about Old Xiao?"

"You mean Changkun?" Han Meiqing awkwardly smiled: "When he left the senior university today, he said he wanted to treat me to a meal. I said I had no time, and I casually mentioned our marriage. By rights, he should already know, and we should invite him."

He Yuanjiang asked in surprise: "Old Xiao wants to treat you to a meal? Did he say why?"

"No," Han Meiqing smiled: "I guess it's just old classmates getting together for a meal."

Actually, Han Meiqing is a smart woman.

From the moment Xiao Changkun invited her to eat near the school, she guessed his intention, so she politely declined while casually mentioning her upcoming marriage to He Yuanjiang, just to let Xiao Changkun give up on her—after all, she has completely moved on from those past feelings and is ready to re-enter marriage, naturally not wanting Xiao Changkun to harbor any illusions about her.

But she doesn't want He Yuanjiang to overthink, so she deliberately downplayed Xiao Changkun's possible true intention.

However, He Yuanjiang is also very smart—he knows Han Meiqing's past with Xiao Changkun, and he knows Han Meiqing's son Paul's Chinese name is Han Mukun. Although he believes Han Meiqing definitely won't have feelings for Xiao Changkun now, thinking about how she's missed Xiao Changkun for over thirty years, he still feels a bit jealous inside.

But smart people don't obsess over someone's past, especially when it has nothing to do with themselves.

So he didn't show any jealousy, just smiled and said: "Since you've already mentioned it to Old Xiao, not inviting him would be inappropriate."

Han Meiqing nodded: "Not inviting him would indeed be inappropriate, but inviting him wouldn't be appropriate either—he's a married man, so the invitation would have to include his whole family. But just thinking about his wife Ma Lan makes my head hurt. To be honest, I really don't want to have anything to do with that woman again, so this is a real dilemma—I can't exactly tell Xiao Changkun to invite only him, can I? If word got to Ma Lan's ears, who knows what trouble it might cause."

After saying that, Han Meiqing looked at He Yuanjiang and asked: "What do you think?"

He Yuanjiang smiled and said: "I can't really make the decision for you on this, but what you said earlier is correct—if we were to invite him, we'd indeed have to invite his whole family, otherwise, given his wife's temperament, this would surely cause endless trouble."

Saying that, He Yuanjiang paused, then said seriously: "Meiqing, you should decide this yourself. Whatever you decide, I'll fully support you."

Han Meiqing nodded: "Okay, then let's leave Changkun's side pending for now. I'll send him a message later to ask his opinion. I suspect he also fears complications, so if he decides not to come, we won't send him an invitation."

He Yuanjiang asked: "What if he decides to come?"

Han Meiqing thought, then smiled: "I think the possibility is almost negligible—I still understand Changkun. He's afraid of Ma Lan, so in this situation, he probably doesn't want Ma Lan to find out. If I let him decide for himself, he's likely not to come."

Saying that, Han Meiqing added: "But for now, let's leave it like this. After I ask him, we'll continue. As for my old classmates from Jin Ling, I don't plan to invite them. We met once at a class reunion, and they were all too competitive and overly showy. I don't want too much involvement with them. On the other hand, the few teammates we had when we went to South Korea for exchange—those people have decent character and values. Back then, they said if we ever got married, we must invite them to drink the wedding wine. We should definitely keep our word, right?"

"Yes," He Yuanjiang nodded: "So the basic tone is set—aside from Ye Chen, we'll invite our respective colleagues and the South Korea exchange teammates. As for Old Xiao's side, you ask him what he thinks."

Saying that, He Yuanjiang added: "Let's keep talking about post-wedding plans. I'll share my idea first—feel free to interrupt me anytime if you have opinions."

Han Meiqing nodded, resting her chin on her hand, looking at him, smiling: "Go ahead, I'm listening."

Han Meiqing's eyes shone with light. He Yuanjiang felt a bit embarrassed under her gaze, turned his head, took a sip of ice water, then continued: "What I'm thinking is, after the wedding, our honeymoon will first go to the United States;"

After saying that, he looked toward Han Meiqing, waiting for her response.

Han Meiqing still rested her chin, smiling at him, and said: "I have no problem—you continue."

He Yuanjiang nodded, then said: "Our first stop will be New York, since transportation there is more convenient. Once in New York, we'll first visit your old colleagues and friends from when you started your business—coincidentally, I also have several old friends on Wall Street. After visiting your friends, we'll stop by to see my friends on Wall Street, then we'll rent a car and go to New Haven—New Haven is close to New York, so once we're there, we'll visit your old classmates from Yale. Finally, you'll accompany me to Stanford to see my old classmates. If we move quickly, we can wrap it up in six or seven days. The remaining holiday time, we'll go to a warm island to relax properly."

Han Meiqing curiously asked: "Why not go to Stanford first? Flying from Jin Ling to the U. S. West Coast is closer—we could go to Stanford first, then New York, and finally New Haven, which would save time, right?"

He Yuanjiang gazed at Han Meiqing with deep affection, smiling warmly: "When accompanying my wife back to the United States, the first stop must be where you once lived—it's like accompanying you back to your parents' home."

Han Meiqing knew He Yuanjiang's devotion to her—this devotion wasn't just shown in big things like marriage and love, but also in every tiny detail of daily life.

She felt moved in her heart, smiling as she said: "From now on, you are the head of the household—decision-making will be entrusted to you, and I'll listen to you in everything."

Saying that, she asked again: "You said the remaining holiday would be spent on a warm island—do you have any good ideas?"

He Yuanjiang said: "This time we're going to the United States first, so the vacation island should be chosen somewhere between the U. S. and China. I originally wanted to go to the Maldives, but flying from San Francisco to the Maldives is too far—at least over 24 hours. How about Palau? It's relatively closer to China, and overall it would save us a lot of time. What do you think?"

Han Meiqing laughed: "You said you're the head of the household—since you think Palau is suitable, then hurry up and book the tickets. I'll go pick out a few nice swimsuits tomorrow!"