Chapter Seventy-Three: Pre-Wedding Anxiety

Song Xi felt as though something had lodged in her throat.

She suddenly realized that the woman sitting before her—Suzu—was not the effortlessly graceful Princess of the Moon Palace, who charmed all with her poise and wit. She was just a poor girl, lost and drowning in a complicated, uncertain love, struggling with all her might to pursue true affection.

Yet the real problem lay elsewhere: there are some things for which effort alone is not enough.

This is the cruelest thing about unrequited love—if the other person simply has no romantic interest in you, the harder you try, the further you may end up driving them away.

Why does Suzu have to be so pitiful…

“I… I forgot to tell him not to add garlic to the food. I’ll go and let him know,” Song Xi suddenly blurted out, rising hurriedly and rushing toward the restaurant.

Chen Zi'ang was standing by the menu stand, browsing his phone and asking Weimen Gorō and his sister what they wanted to eat, so he could bring it over. Suddenly, he felt someone tugging at him from behind.

It was Song Xi.

“Senior,” she said, pulling him into a quiet corner of the restaurant and looking at him intently. “Although we don’t work together, Suzu calls you ‘senior,’ and you’re probably older than me, so I’ll call you that too… I’d like to ask, how do you see Suzu?”

“Uh.” Chen Zi'ang felt a little awkward.

It was a strange question to be asked by someone he’d only just met, and it was certainly private, but Song Xi’s expression was so earnest, filled with concern and anxiety—not for him, of course, but for Suzu.

She looked at him with the worried care of a little sister fretting over her elder sibling, and it stirred a faint compassion in him.

So Chen Zi'ang replied straightforwardly, “Suzu is wonderful—she’s beautiful, friendly, gentle, serious about her work, capable. As for her background, I don’t need to mention it. She’s a truly perfect young woman—by any standard.”

Song Xi nodded vigorously, feeling a weight lift from her heart. At least she didn’t have to worry that Suzu’s feelings would come to nothing.

“Unfortunately, I’m not,” Chen Zi'ang sighed.

Song Xi: ?

“I’m just a low-ranking public safety officer,” he continued. “My family isn’t well-off, and I have a younger sister to take care of… I didn’t even graduate from North Pole University, only from Imperial Jixian University.”

“Imperial Jixian University is still a prestigious school, and its rank among the top universities… Well, that’s not the point,” Song Xi said seriously. “I don’t think Suzu would care about that.”

“She might not care now,” Chen Zi'ang smiled wryly, “but what about years from now? When you all gather together again and see that your husbands are managers, executives, government officials, entrepreneurs—and then she remembers that I’m just a regular public safety officer. Do you really think that wouldn’t bother her?”

Song Xi was silent for a moment, then said, “I don’t want to lie about this. Honestly, I do think you two might not be the best match in terms of social status… but does that really matter? If it’s true love, it should be able to overcome those barriers.”

“How can you be sure it’s true love?” Chen Zi'ang asked.

Song Xi was momentarily at a loss for words. From her conversation with Suzu earlier, she could tell that Suzu’s feelings for this man were not a fleeting crush, but something deeper and more enduring… But she also knew that such “feelings” could never truly convince someone else.

Politics is the art of compromise, so she quickly changed tack and tried, “But at least you can’t say for certain that it isn’t true love, right?”

“That’s true.”

“In that case, why not give Suzu—and yourself—a chance?” Song Xi said earnestly. “True love always needs time to be tested and proven, doesn’t it?”

“That makes sense,” Chen Zi'ang said after a moment’s thought.

Yes! I finally convinced him! Song Xi was elated.

“So, that’s why things are as they are now,” Chen Zi'ang reminded her.

“Ah…” Song Xi forced a dry laugh. “It’s good, actually. Start as friends. If it works out, great; if not, you won’t hurt each other.”

So the senior didn’t dislike Suzu, nor was he stringing her along on purpose. He was just a little lacking in confidence, and possessed a kind of emotional purity; he longed for a love that would endure, unchanging with time, and would rather stay single than settle for anything less… So that was it.

How wonderful.

Suddenly, Song Xi thought of her own fiancé, Qin Song, and a vague, inexpressible melancholy and confusion welled up inside her.

The reason for her engagement was a long story: both the Song and Qin families were prominent houses, many of whose members entered politics, though generally divided into two camps—the civil service track and the legislator track.

In a democratic system, the more parties there are, the more frequent the elections, and the shorter the legislators’ terms, the more likely it is that a “shadow government” of senior civil servants wields real power. Conversely, where elections are fewer and politicians serve longer, it’s the elected legislators who guide policy, while the civil servants must attempt to influence them.

However, North Pole City had a very unique political history—at its peak, the legislator camp culminated in the position of Sector Governor, which had been essentially hereditary in the Shi family for generations.

The first governor, Shi Zhiqing, led the Imperial Fleet in subduing the interstellar pirates and instituted a harsh military administration on this planet—then, there was no talk of elections; everyone was simply classified as either Imperial, assimilated, or pirate remnants.

The Imperials ruled, the assimilated dug the mines, and the pirate remnants were simply executed. Everything was strictly ordered.

The second governor, Shi Jintang, eldest son of Shi Zhiqing, succeeded his father and did not follow the path of military rule. Instead, he devoted his life to transforming Takamagahara, from a cold, impoverished mining planet into a colonial sector with its own industries, population, national strength, and voice.

Amid doubt and opposition, Shi Jintang pushed through sweeping reforms—transitioning from military rule to elections, loosening media controls, signing trade pacts with the elves, joining the Federal Sector Trade Organization, and using foreign capital to support the rise of local mining conglomerates.

The city-wide prosperity, stability, and order that now defined North Pole City was built from nothing in his hands, earning the Shi family enormous, nearly unassailable prestige.

The third governor, Shi Boen, was less capable than his forebears, but always won re-election with ease—for that is the benefit of ancestral merit. Out of gratitude for his father’s deeds, people would vote for him even if he did nothing but sleep in his office.

Now the fourth governor, Shi Di, held sway. Though the Shi family’s prestige had waned somewhat, no real threat to their dominance had yet emerged.

Thus, in North Pole City, the main political struggle was not between ruling coalitions and opposition parties, nor between bureaucrats and lawmakers—it was everyone against the Shi family, though always in a tacit, unspoken rivalry.

With Shi Di firmly in control, the Shi family naturally wanted as many of their people as possible in power. Anyone who didn’t want to yield their position had to band together to resist.

Song Xi’s fiancé, Qin Song, was the son of Qin Senhe, a district councilor for Chiba Ward. In recent years, having championed animal rights legislation, Qin Senhe's popularity had soared, marking him as a rising star in politics.

Shi Di regarded him well, and the Qin family was preparing to invest resources to further his career. The Song family, seeing his inevitable ascent, decided to arrange a marriage alliance with the Qin family.

Her father, Song Mingyuan, after some investigation, confirmed that Qin Song was an outstanding young man and quietly asked Song Xi for her opinion.

She did not refuse. Having never been in love, she had no expectations for the matter. Realizing she was unlikely to remain unmarried all her life, she simply agreed.

They met a few times, found each other satisfactory enough, and so the engagement was set, followed by plans for marriage. Song Xi understood that her marriage would most likely follow the same path as the rest of her life—smoothly unfolding along the trajectory laid out by her elders, right up to the end.

But what is true love?

Sometimes, even knowing it’s unrealistic, I still long for the ability to love someone wholeheartedly, as Suzu does, and for the courage to say no to the world for the sake of that love.

Perhaps that’s why I have always admired Suzu…