There’re Always Paranoid Thoughts to Monopolize Me - Extra 19.2

Huo Jun moved closer. Taking advantage of the nearly empty corridor as it was close to class time, he leaned in and affectionately kissed the corner of Qin Ke’s mouth.

His long eyelashes swept down, casting a faint shadow on his pale skin. The man’s voice lowered along with them.

“I hate it when people covet you… Qin Qin.”

Although she was used to his closeness, she still couldn’t quite accept it in this setting. Qin Ke put her hand over his mouth and pushed him away.

“Can you not act like a child, Huo Jun…”

Before she could finish, he kissed her palm.

Qin Ke: “…”

Unable to bear it anymore, Qin Ke turned to return the key to the administrative office, with her “tail” still following behind.

“I’ve been away on a business trip for a week, and you don’t seem to miss me at all, Qin Qin.”

“…Huo Jun, you’re two years away from thirty, not two years away from three. Mind your tone.”

“Qin Qin, I sent you my flight information, but you didn’t come to pick me up.”

“…As you can see, because I happen to have work and classes to teach.”

“You even accepted flowers from that boy. Do you not want me anymore, Qin Qin?”

“…”

Qin Ke stopped walking and sighed.

“Stop tormenting me. Tell me, what are you really here for today?”

Huo Jun’s eyes flashed.

After a moment, he chuckled softly.

“You’ve just started your job, and I haven’t met your new colleagues yet. You don’t have any more classes after this, right? I’ll accompany you back to your office.”

Qin Ke instinctively wanted to refuse.

But just before the words left her mouth, she suddenly thought of something. After giving Huo Jun a deep look, Qin Ke nodded.

“Alright.”

****

“Teacher Xiao Qin, finished with class?”

At the door of the Faculty of Science’s teaching assistant office, a teaching assistant about to leave greeted Qin Ke. Just as she was about to pass by, she saw a tall, upright man following behind Qin Ke.

The man seemed to have heard her voice, lifted his eyelids, revealing sharp, pitch-black eyes and refined, three-dimensional features.

“This is…?”

The teaching assistant was stunned, instinctively looking towards Qin Ke.

The office was quiet at the moment, and hearing the commotion, many teachers looked up from their computer desks towards them.

Qin Ke’s voice wasn’t raised, nor deliberately lowered, still in her usual calm tone with a smile.

“This is my husband, surnamed Huo.”

“Hus-husband?!”

The teaching assistant in front was too surprised, momentarily unable to control her voice, and drew in a sharp breath. Her exclamation also drew surprised glances from others in the office who hadn’t noticed before.

“Teacher Xiao Qin is actually married?”

“We’ve never heard about this!”

“I’ve never seen anyone like a boyfriend dropping her off or picking her up from work. I thought she was single because she was too beautiful and had too many pursuers…”

“That’s her husband? He’s so handsome, like a male celebrity.”

“This couple, they really don’t leave any chance for others, haha…”

Meanwhile, the teaching assistant standing at the door regained her composure, “Oh, I’m sorry, Mr. Huo. I was just too surprised. I really didn’t expect Teacher Xiao Qin, looking so young and beautiful, to already be married.”

The teaching assistant then teased Qin Ke.

“Teacher Xiao Qin, you too. Having such a handsome husband, why didn’t you introduce him to us earlier? Why keep him hidden?”

“I was away on a business trip and didn’t have a chance to visit, which caused misunderstandings. It’s my fault,” Huo Jun suddenly interjected.

The teaching assistant was stunned for a moment, “Misunderstandings?”

Huo Jun’s lips curled into a smile.

“Yes. I have a few friends at A University. Just returned to the country today and received their call saying someone at the school had anonymously reported that my wife had an improper relationship with a student in her teaching assistant class.”

As soon as these words were spoken, the office suddenly fell into dead silence.

Everyone looked at each other.

“This… this can’t be, right?”

The teaching assistant standing at the door was a bit dazed, her smile frozen on her face.

“Is there some kind of misunderstanding somewhere?”

“It is a misunderstanding,” Huo Jun coldly sneered, his gaze sweeping around the office.

“That’s why I came straight to the school today without even going home—specifically to clear up this misunderstanding for the person who reported it.”

The office collectively fell silent.

At this point, even a fool could see that Huo Jun had not come with good intentions.

No one wanted to speak up and be the scapegoat. So no one said a word, only those who were close exchanged glances.

Seeing the dead silence in the office, Huo Jun didn’t mind and chuckled softly.

“Although it was an anonymous report, as you all understand, in this day and age, no information is truly a secret. At least for me, it’s not difficult to get the name of this reporter. But since it’s a misunderstanding, let’s leave it unspoken and move on—next weekend is the belated wedding ceremony for me and Qin Qin. We invite everyone to attend. Here are the invitations.”

After speaking, Huo Jun took a stack of invitations handed to him by someone outside the door and casually placed them on a nearby table.

“We look forward to your presence.”

With that, Huo Jun gave a slight bow, took Qin Ke’s hand, and turned to leave.

The people in the office slowly came back to their senses. Many had unpleasant expressions on their faces.

“What’s the deal, being so fierce.”

“Yeah… it’s not like we reported it.”

“I think he came specifically to ask for wedding gifts. How absurd, but not going would make us look guilty.”

“Hehe, that’s quite possible.”

“…”

As everyone was discussing, the teaching assistant standing by the door, who had already picked up and opened the first invitation, had a slight change in her expression.

After a moment, she hesitantly spoke up.

“Stop talking, all of you.”

“Huh? What’s wrong?” A male teaching assistant nearby smirked, “Are we wrong? I think it’s clearly just to mooch wedding gifts.”

“…”

The teaching assistant gave him a complex look and handed over an invitation. It was made of white frosted material with gold-trimmed edges.

Here’s the translated text in English, maintaining the style and formatting you requested:

“I just felt that Qin Ke’s husband seemed a bit familiar, and when I saw the wedding address on the invitation, I remembered…”

As they spoke, the invitation had already been passed around.

A few seconds later, someone exclaimed, “Holy shit, is it that person from the Huo family!?”

“…”

Holding that invitation, remembering what they had just said about the bride price, many people’s faces turned hot.

Meanwhile, outside the building.

Qin Ke said helplessly, “You came to the school today just to make people hate me, didn’t you?”

Huo Jun, “I only handed out invitations, didn’t say anything, and didn’t force them to go.”

Qin Ke glanced at him irritably.

“Who wouldn’t go to a Huo family invitation?”

“Then that’s their choice, you can’t blame me for that, Qin Qin.”

“But after today, I’ll be completely isolated at school – isn’t that what you wanted to see?”

Huo Jun smirked, “What else can we do? My Qin Qin, how could I let them treat you like some nobody newcomer who’s too excellent, and bully you as they please?”

Qin Ke’s eyes flashed.

“…Was it really one of them who reported it?”

Huo Jun hesitated for a moment. He could see Qin Ke’s disappointment and gently stroked her long hair.

“I never hurt the wrong person, nor do I wrongly accuse anyone.”

“I haven’t known them for long…”

“People have always been like this, Qin Qin, you actually know that too,” Huo Jun slowly took her hand, “This world never lacks small-minded people who love to harm others without benefiting themselves. They can’t see their own incompetence and only fixate on those who are more excellent than them – they even scheme to bring those excellent people down. Unfortunately, such people are often just lowly and twisted maggots in the dirt, so they don’t understand – even if a panda comes down, the position of national treasure still has nothing to do with them.”

“…”

Qin Ke, who had been feeling gloomy, couldn’t help but smile at Huo Jun’s last analogy.

She looked up at Huo Jun.

“Hearing you speak so righteously – do you really have no selfish motives at all?”

Huo Jun lowered his eyes and laughed softly.

“Of course I do. You’re right, I just want you to be that isolated person they all look up to, preferably with only me closest to you, so that only I can see all of you and have all of you.”

Huo Jun put his arms around the girl, lowered his head to kiss her lips, and whispered,

“- When it comes to you, I’ve always been crazy, you know that, Qin Qin.”

Qin Ke hesitated for a moment, but finally let her private desires overcome reason. She didn’t dodge, but instead met his kiss.

A soft laugh escaped from between their intimate lips.

“…Of course.”

“I’ve always known, Huo Jun.”

****

Before the official make-up wedding ceremony, just the changing and fitting of clothes tormented Qin Ke for an entire day.

In the end, Qin Ke was pushed to her limit, and when she saw Huo Jun, she almost couldn’t resist pouncing on him to bite. Fortunately, Yan An was there – as a pioneer who had once been tormented in the same way, Yan An calmed Qin Ke down and even personally taught her experiences like how to fall asleep during the makeup stage without angering the makeup artist.

After a few days of this torment, the wedding day finally arrived officially.

Too many invitations had been sent out this time, and the banquet hall of the Huo family’s main building couldn’t accommodate everyone, so they simply set up an outdoor venue on the several hundred square meter lawn in front of the building. Countless white, light pink, and light purple balloons were tied, decorating every visible place.

All the servants of the Huo family had also changed into white suits and cocktail dresses, coming and going among the guests they were leading into the venue…

At 9 o’clock sharp in the morning.

All guests were seated.

The specially invited conductor’s orchestra began playing the wedding music. Dressed in a wedding gown, Qin Ke, accompanied by Yan An, stepped onto the red carpet from under the tall flower arch intertwined with white gauze and ribbons, and walked into the venue.

Flower children wearing white suits stood on both sides of the long red carpet, scattering light-colored petals from their baskets towards the sky, welcoming the bride who walked between them.

There were so many guests and the red carpet was so long that by the time they walked from the last row of guests to a few meters before the stage, the conductor’s orchestra had already reached the climax of their long movement.

Huo Jun, originally in a neat suit standing next to Huo Jingyan who was presiding on the stage, finally couldn’t contain himself at this point.

He stepped down from the stage in a few strides and came to Qin Ke’s front.

“Heh, this is the first time I’ve seen such an impatient groom,” Yan An, supporting Qin Ke’s arm, lowered his voice and joked. Under the snow-white veil, Qin Ke’s cheeks turned slightly red, and she glanced at Huo Jun somewhat helplessly and embarrassedly.

“Even on this occasion, you…”

“It’s our wedding, who cares about those etiquettes and customs,” Huo Jun’s eyes couldn’t hide the overflowing smile.

He reached out and carefully took Qin Ke’s hand from Yan An, then held it tightly in his palm.

Yan An said quietly, “Hey, groom, grip lightly – if you make our bride’s hand swell, you’ll be the one crying later when the ring doesn’t fit.”

“Sister Yan An…”

In front of so many guests, Qin Ke’s face had already thinned to the extreme, and she really couldn’t bear Yan An’s teasing. She couldn’t help but softly plead.

“Alright,” Yan An laughed, “For the sake of our Keke, I’ll spare this ill-mannered groom — you two newlyweds, come up to the stage.”

“…”

Huo Jun bowed, gently lifting the long, trailing hem of Qin Ke’s wedding dress. The two walked up to the stage one after the other on the red carpet.

The host, Huo Jingyan, had already briefly mentioned Huo Jun’s “going down to snatch the person” behavior. As the two came up to the stage, he moved on to the step of the priest reading the wedding vows.

“Mr. Huo Zhonglou, are you willing to accept Miss Qin Ke as your wife? To love her, be faithful to her, whether in poverty, sickness, or disability, until death do you part. Are you willing?”

“I am willing.”

Huo Jun said each word clearly, then leaned forward slightly to Qin Ke’s ear —

“Whether as Huo Jun or Huo Zhonglou, I am willing.”

“…”

Qin Ke silently gripped his hand tightly.

The priest’s smile stiffened slightly — this was the first time he had seen a couple dare to whisper and nibble ears in the middle of the wedding vows being read by the priest — after Huo Jun stepped back, he hurriedly turned to Qin Ke.

“Miss Qin Ke, are you willing to accept Mr. Huo Zhonglou as your husband? To love him, be faithful to him, whether in poverty, sickness, or disability, until death do you part. Are you willing?”

Qin Ke nodded.

“I am willing.”

“…”

Finally, nothing else went wrong, and the priest heaved a long sigh of relief in his heart.

“Please exchange rings, bride and groom.”

Under the grand wedding march that played again, two children dressed in pure white angel costumes came forward from below the stage, each holding a ring box.

The two boxes opened, and the matching wedding rings shimmered slightly in the sunlight.

Qin Ke picked up the men’s ring and put it on Huo Jun. Past events flashed before her eyes like smoke. Her fingertips trembled slightly as she slowly pushed the ring to the middle of his ring finger.

“Nervous?”

A low, hoarse laugh sounded in her ear.

“…” Qin Ke was slightly annoyed inside, but struggled to keep her face composed. “We’re an old married couple, what’s there to… be nervous about.”

“Then you’re really amazing.” Huo Jun took the women’s ring, and took the opportunity to lean to her ear, almost kissing her earlobe, his voice hoarse with laughter.

“I’m about to die of nervousness, Qin Qin.”

“…!”

Qin Ke’s cheeks, which were already flushed, were further provoked by these words, and the rosy color almost spread to her delicate white neck.

Just as Qin Ke was about to say something, Huo Jun suddenly stepped back half a body’s length.

He pulled his right foot back, bent his knee, and knelt on one knee in front of Qin Ke.

Qin Ke was stunned.

Even the host, Huo Jingyan, standing beside them, didn’t react for a moment. After two seconds, he suddenly came to his senses, picked up the microphone, and said with a smile while looking at the two. “Is our groom too nervous and forgot that he’s already been through the proposal stage? The bride has already recited the wedding vows, you can now embrace her and rightfully put the wedding ring on her finger.”

Huo Jun lowered his eyes and chuckled softly.

“No, I just have something to say to my bride.”

He picked up the ring and held it between their gazes, one above and one below.

“This is the wedding I owe you, but it has the most unique meaning for me.”

“You know me best, Qin Qin. You know all my flaws, you know my ugliest and most vicious side. Long ago, when I looked at you, it was like looking at the purest, cleanest light from the dirtiest corner of the mud. At that time, I never thought there would be a day like this — that I could stand in front of you, that I could hold you in my arms, that I could kiss you, that I could have you.”

“It was you who walked into my world, you who made all impossibilities possible, while I have never changed and will never change. I’m still that madman who would make three promises to you but forget to keep them, that madman who would do anything for you, that obsessive, hateful, fierce and terrifying madman.”

“Such a madman, are you willing to be with him?”

This rather “unique” self-analysis stunned all the guests at the wedding.

The bride on the stage, however, seemed to be the least surprised.

She smiled, her eyes curved down like beautiful crescents. She extended her hand in front of the ring, but tilted her head slightly and asked.

“Mr. Madman, have you ever given me a choice?”

“…”

Huo Jun smiled.

“From the moment I chose to step into your world — no.”

He raised his hand and put the ring on his girl’s finger.

And as he stood up, the girl leaned forward and hugged him.

“Whether I had a choice or not, my answer has never changed.”

Qin Ke said softly, listening to their heartbeats slowly overlapping —

“I am willing.”