Ji Jing’s bedroom was quickly rearranged by the butler according to Zhou Yu’s wishes. Of course, Ji Jing also had the butler prepare a foldable mattress that could be easily stored away, along with another brand-new set of bedding, all neatly tucked into a corner of the wardrobe.
As for this, Lu Cheng knew absolutely nothing. He was still immersed in the joy of the fact that his father and mother were finally going to share a room again and obtain their marriage certificate once more.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, the day agreed upon by Ji Jing, Zhou Yu, and Lu Cheng arrived.
To avoid the awkward situation of Lu Cheng barging into the bedroom early in the morning and discovering that they had slept separately, Ji Jing and Zhou Yu got up before dawn, while the sky was still dark, and went downstairs to wait in the living room.
A little after seven in the morning, Lu Cheng came out of his room. Just as he was about to dash upstairs to wake his parents, he discovered that they were already seated on the sofa in the living room.
Lu Cheng immediately became excited.
It seemed that his parents were just as eager about getting their marriage certificate today!
“Dad, Mom, you’re up so early!” Lu Cheng said excitedly.
“We only just woke up and came downstairs to wait for you,” Zhou Yu replied with a smile.
However, Lu Cheng did not believe for a second that his parents had just woken up. Their clothes were already perfectly neat and in order. They had obviously been waiting in the living room for quite some time.
Still, he did not expose the lie. Instead, he exchanged a knowing smile with his father.
The smile left Ji Jing somewhat puzzled. He raised an eyebrow, completely unsure what that look of anticipation and amusement in the child’s eyes was supposed to mean.
After breakfast, Ji Jing went to the garage and drove out a black sedan.
The Civil Affairs Bureau was not particularly close to Ji Jing’s villa, but driving there was fairly quick. It took less than half an hour to arrive.
Since Zhou Yu and the others had come rather early, there were only a few couples at the Civil Affairs Bureau applying for marriage certificates.
Before long, it was Ji Jing and Zhou Yu’s turn.
Lu Cheng had already declared that he intended to be involved in the entire process.
Since Zhou Yu and Ji Jing were both entering their first marriage and were not remarrying after a divorce, Ji Jing had already made arrangements with the Civil Affairs Bureau staff several days in advance to avoid anything they said accidentally exposing the truth.
As for the marriage registration process and all the required documents, Ji Jing had already prepared everything in advance. They were simply there to complete the formalities, so he and Zhou Yu obtained their marriage certificate without any issues.
Lu Cheng was extremely excited when he got hold of his parents’ marriage certificates. He could barely contain the smile on his face. Holding the two certificates together, he planted a kiss on them before hugging them to his chest, utterly reluctant to let them go.
Ji Jing and Zhou Yu exchanged a smile.
Seeing how happy Lu Cheng was, Zhou Yu felt that this decision had truly been worthwhile.
After receiving their marriage certificate, Zhou Yu and Ji Jing had originally planned to head home, but Lu Cheng suddenly seemed to think of something else.
Excitedly, he said, “I want to be on the same household registration booklet as Dad and Mom! I want to change my surname to Ji!”
Lu Cheng had previously heard from his grandmother that once a husband and wife got married, they could have their own separate household registration booklet. Since his parents were married now, he naturally assumed that moving onto the same household registration was the obvious next step.
As for changing his surname, it was because he had seen that the name on his father’s household registration booklet was Ji Jing. He thought his father had changed his name, so he wanted to change his surname to Ji as well and be just like him.
Zhou Yu had known things would never end so simply with Lu Cheng around.
Sure enough, the child had come up with yet another unexpected idea.
Still, now that the marriage certificate had already been obtained, transferring the household registration was not a particularly troublesome matter. Zhou Yu did not dwell on it for long before agreeing to Lu Cheng’s suggestion.
As for Ji Jing, there was even less chance he would object.
At that moment, all he wanted to do was praise his son.
His Cheng’er was indeed clever. He had even thought of bringing up the household registration transfer.
“But if Cheng’er changes his surname to Ji, then ‘Ji Cheng’ sounds exactly like the word for inheritance. It doesn’t sound very nice. How about changing it to ‘Ji Ancheng’ or ‘Ji Cheng’an’ instead?” Zhou Yu suggested.
Zhou Yu remembered that in the original novel, Lu Cheng had never once mentioned changing his name. She had no idea what had prompted it this time. Still, she had no objections. Perhaps changing his name would only take him further away from the original plot.
“Actually, Ji Cheng doesn’t sound too bad,” Ji Jing said after considering it for a moment.
Zhou Yu felt that the most important thing was Lu Cheng’s own opinion.
“What do you think, Cheng’er?”
Lu Cheng thought about it for a moment before replying, “None of them sound that great. Forget it, I won’t change my name for now. I’ll wait until I think of a better one in the future. Let’s go transfer the household registration first!”
“That works too.” Zhou Yu nodded and did not say anything further.
After leaving the Civil Affairs Bureau, Ji Jing drove Zhou Yu and Lu Cheng to the Public Security Bureau to transfer their household registrations.
Since they now had a marriage certificate, it was very easy for Ji Jing to establish a new household registration. Zhou Yu’s registration was promptly transferred into the newly created household booklet.
As for Lu Cheng’s registration, Ji Haoyuan had already transferred it under Ji Jing’s name when he returned to the capital ahead of schedule some time ago. Therefore, moving it directly into the household registration booklet with Ji Jing listed as the head of household encountered no obstacles at all.
After all, in the 1980s, most household registrations were still handwritten and not connected to any centralized system. No one would go out of their way to verify such things.
Once the household registration transfer was completed, Lu Cheng was finally completely satisfied.
Delighted, he kissed both his father and mother’s cheeks and felt that he was the happiest person in the world.
He had a handsome, wealthy father and a beautiful mother.
It was the kind of good fortune others could only envy.
By the time the three of them returned to the villa, it was already past noon.
Ji Haoyuan was presumably at the company, while Madam Chu was waiting in the villa’s living room for Ji Jing, Zhou Yu, and Lu Cheng to return.
“Yu’er, Cheng’er, you’re finally back.”
The moment Madam Chu saw them return, she let out a sigh of relief and continued, “Why did you come back so late? Were there too many people getting marriage certificates at the Civil Affairs Bureau today?”
“There weren’t many people. After getting the certificate, we went to transfer our household registration as well, so it took quite a bit more time,” Ji Jing explained.
Madam Chu was delighted to hear that.
She had not expected her grandson to be so capable. He had actually managed to persuade Zhou Yu to transfer her household registration.
That was truly wonderful news.
At this moment, Zhou Yu had no idea what Madam Chu was thinking.
Naturally, she did not feel that anything was wrong, nor did she feel as though she had been tricked into anything. All she could think about was that the matter Lu Cheng had been persistently pestering her about was finally settled. Things should quiet down for a while now.
After all, there was less than a month left before school started.
Once classes began, Zhou Yu planned to go to the school immediately and search for any traces of her parents.
Of course, whether her parents even existed in this world, and whether she would be able to recognize them in their younger years, remained complete unknowns.
Even so, the matter weighed heavily on her mind and filled her with constant worry.
Seeing Zhou Yu’s indifferent expression, both Madam Chu and Ji Jing assumed that she was somewhat unhappy about getting married. They immediately became a little nervous.
After all, although Ji Jing and Zhou Yu had obtained their marriage certificate, there was still a prenuptial agreement between them.
“Mom, aren’t you happy about getting married?” Lu Cheng was never one to bottle things up. Noticing that something seemed off about his mother’s expression, he immediately asked.
Zhou Yu was momentarily stunned by the question before snapping back to her senses.
“No, not at all. I’m just a little sleepy. Isn’t it already time for an afternoon nap?”
She casually came up with an excuse.
Lu Cheng did not doubt her. After all, it really was about time for a nap.
“Yu’er, I’ve already asked Auntie Liu in the kitchen to prepare lunch. Eat first before you go rest,” Madam Chu said with a smile as she stepped forward.
“Thank you,” Zhou Yu replied.
She then followed Madam Chu and the others into the dining room.
When Lu Cheng was not around, Zhou Yu always addressed Ji Jing’s mother as “Madam Chu” and Ji Jing’s father as “Mr. Ji.” However, whenever Lu Cheng was present, she generally avoided addressing them altogether in order to prevent any slip-ups.
As for Zhou Yu’s form of address, Chu Xueyao naturally understood the distance it implied.
But she also knew that Zhou Yu had not yet fully accepted them, so she never brought up the issue.
It was already mid-August.
In about half a month, both Zhou Yu and Lu Cheng would be starting school.
Ji Haoyuan had already arranged for Lu Cheng to attend an primary school near the villa.
Zhou Yu’s university, however, was much farther away.
She thought that since the school was so distant, she might as well live on campus.
That way, Ji Jing would no longer have to sleep on a mattress on the floor every day.
Although Ji Jing was somewhat reluctant to agree with Zhou Yu’s plan, he had no grounds to refuse.
After all, one of the three conditions Zhou Yu had set from the very beginning was that no one was allowed to interfere with her decisions.
And this time, even Lu Cheng was powerless to do anything about it.
He could hardly stop his mother from going to university.
Although Lu Cheng could sometimes be unreasonable, he understood that his mother placed tremendous importance on attending this medical university.
Because of that, he would not throw a tantrum over something like this.
When Madam Chu heard about Zhou Yu’s decision, she did not object either. Instead, she offered a compromise.
“We could buy a villa near the medical university. That way, Ji Jing could often bring Cheng’er to visit Yu’er. And if Yu’er doesn’t feel like staying in the dormitory, she could live in the villa by herself instead.”
Everyone, including Zhou Yu, agreed wholeheartedly with Madam Chu’s suggestion.
It truly was a good idea.
The main reason Zhou Yu had proposed living on campus in the first place was because she did not want to share a room with Ji Jing. But if there was a house near the university, living alone would be much more convenient for her.
As for Ji Jing and Lu Cheng, at most they would probably come by on weekends.
That would not interfere with her life very much.
During the last few days before school started, Zhou Yu rarely took Lu Cheng out shopping with her.
Because university freshmen had military training before classes officially began, Zhou Yu’s start date was a full week earlier than Lu Cheng’s primary school enrollment.
Moreover, after looking up information through the system, Zhou Yu learned that military training in the 1980s was far more rigorous than the military training students experienced in later years.
As a result, she made a special trip to prepare some items that might come in handy during training.
It was always better to be prepared.
Naturally, Zhou Yu did not forget to buy Lu Cheng plenty of stationery supplies, along with a very nice new schoolbag.
However, Lu Cheng felt that the new schoolbag was not nearly as good as the one Zhou Yu had made for him by hand.
When they came to the capital, they had not brought Lu Cheng’s old schoolbag with them.
That was because Zhou Yu considered it a complete failure.
It had been made when she had virtually no sewing experience whatsoever. In her eyes, it was practically a piece of black history, so there was no way she wanted to bring it along.
To her surprise, Lu Cheng actually liked that schoolbag.
She had no idea what kind of taste this child had.
All Zhou Yu could do was complain about Lu Cheng’s aesthetic sense in her heart while trying to convince him that the newly purchased schoolbag looked much better.
Meanwhile, Ji Jing took Lu Cheng’s words to heart.
He began thinking of a way to bring that schoolbag to the capital.
When the time came, it could be a pleasant surprise for Cheng’er.