On this horizontally rectangular pink marriage certificate, a red star, flanked by two fluttering five-starred flags, is printed at the top. The periphery of the paper is embellished with a border of printed lace. Beneath the star emblem are the three big red characters of "marriage certificate," ensconced in a circle formed by the border, alongside the black inked traditional characters of horizontal inscription.
The border, intricate in design, bright in colour, and comprising of elements like peace doves, mandarin ducks playing in the water, peony flowers, and pomegranates with red peels and open mouths, lends an air of nuptial felicity to the otherwise simple paper.
The details on the certificate are intriguing. The first names, "Lu Jiang, male, Feng Qingxue, female" are parallel to each other, followed by their ages, the parallel "twenty-nine, nineteen," with a suffix meaning "years old." Afterwards, the inscription "The two parties voluntarily marry, and upon review, comply with the marital provisions of the People’s Republic of China’s Marriage Law. This certificate is hereby issued" can be seen, with the issuing authority and the date of the marriage registration, along with a huge red seal, displayed at the bottom right corner.
Feng Qingxue read the contents softly, her eyes unconsciously radiating strands of joy as she carefully placed the two marriage certificates in her canvas hip bag. "I’ll keep them, and lock them in a box when we get home."
"Good. We’ll leave them for our grandson, and tell him, these are marriage certificates from many years ago!"
Lu Jiang’s jesting words were met with a light scoff from Feng Qingxue.
After walking for a while, Feng Qingxue suddenly realized they weren’t heading towards home. "Ajiang, where are we going?"
"Let’s go to the department store and look around." In the past six months, Lu Jiang had saved a considerable amount of money and coupons. Aside from what he gave Feng Qingxue during the convalescence period, he hadn’t spent the rest. Before he left, he received many coupons and various military supplies from Ye Brigade Commander, Zhao Yong, Zheng Xuefeng, etc. as wedding gifts, the wedding only used part of it.
Feng Qingxue pressed his hand to stop the car, "I’ve checked before, our home has everything we need, there’s no point in buying more to stockpile, we don’t have room for it. As long as they are not expired, we can use the coupons later. Besides, sometimes giving coupons is more acceptable to people than giving gifts."
Although money cannot buy things without coupons, since coupons are more precious than money, they are still not money. Some people with strong self-esteem prefer to accept your coupons before buying things with their own money.
"Are you sure we don’t need anything?" Lu Jiang asked.
"Alright then, let’s go home!"
While driving on the deserted road outside the city, Lu Jiang suddenly remembered a conversation he had with his father a long time ago. He turned to his wife and said, "You should know that before the incident, our family stashed away a lot of stuff. I mentioned to my dad before that after you join the family, I will hand them over to you for safekeeping. It’s too late today, and tomorrow I’m afraid we won’t have free time. I will take you to the hiding place the day after tomorrow."
Feng Qingxue was stunned for a moment, then she laughed, a completely satisfying laughter.
For her, the amount of property stashed away didn’t really matter. What really mattered was the attitude of Lu Jiang and his father towards her.
"I was wondering, how much stuff did you guys hide, anyway? If you think about it, my father has already given me a lot of precious things. Today’s box contained an entire set of jewelry made of pure gold inlaid with kingfisher feathers." However, her favourite item was still the calligraphy copybook from Sanxitang.
Lu Jiang thought for a while, and responded: "If you want to know the exact amount, I’ll have to take you there to see it. I can’t give a clear answer right now. Moreover, a portion of the hidden property is what my elder brother and sister-in-law left for Tianjun and Tianzhi. Not long after their marriage, they took out the treasures that were easy to store and asked my father to hide them."