"In short, I still feel that if we want our marriage to be happy for a lifetime, your father must accept me. So, the five hundred billion gift money your dad just mentioned, I have to come up with it," Jiang Ye said to her seriously.
"Earning so much money is tiring," Cen Yemeng frowned, cupping Jiang Ye's face with her hands. "I don't want you to be so tired. We can elope. The universe is so vast, as long as we run far enough, my father won't be able to find us."
"I'll take you to elope when it's absolutely necessary, but if I have the ability, let's still gather the dowry money," Jiang Ye smiled. "Five hundred billion for such a beautiful wife is quite worth it."
"Actually, this money won't go to my father in the end," Cen Yemeng blinked. "It will probably be returned to you at the wedding, perhaps with a little extra, as a wedding gift for us. My two older sisters were like this; their dowry money was returned during the banquet."
"I can see that your father is a good father," Jiang Ye nodded.
"How should I put it? Of course, he loves us very much, but he didn't fulfill much of his fatherly duties, except for giving us enough money. He's too busy, and he lives with anxiety and insecurity, always taking medication to sleep. He's asking you to pay so much money, it's actually his anxiety, his fear that I'll marry a man who can't protect me."
"Anxiety?" Jiang Ye chewed on the word, truly perplexed. "He's so wealthy, and money can solve any problem, so why is he anxious?"
"Money can only make ghosts push the millstone, but it can't make the millstone push ghosts. But sometimes, it's precisely the millstone that needs to push ghosts. My father has seen too many such situations, which has made him anxious and insecure," Cen Yemeng narrowed her eyes. "Psychologically speaking, childhood profoundly influences a person's entire life. My father's anxiety actually originated from my grandfather's death, and his subsequent life experiences have continuously amplified this anxiety."
Jiang Ye suddenly remembered that Cen Yemeng was a bookstore owner, and the knowledge she gained from books occasionally surfaced.
"I want to hear about it," Jiang Ye held her delicate little hand, gently stroking the back of her hand, her skin as fair and tender as a baby's.
"My grandfather was a pauper before the war began. He borrowed money to buy a third-rate chemical factory and manufactured insect repellent ointment. It's said that the ingredients of that ointment were similar to detergent, and its effectiveness was very poor. In normal times, no one would buy it. But it happened to coincide with the First Milian War. Several planets on the front lines had tropical rainforests stretching for thousands of miles, and the mosquitoes and insects in the rainforests were as dense as fog. Thus, my grandfather's insect repellent ointment sold like hotcakes."
"The First Milian War ended. Humanity claimed victory, and the Milian claimed victory. In reality, neither side won. They each occupied some of the other's star systems, and both sides suffered heavy casualties. They were too exhausted to continue fighting."
"However, after the war, there were decades of peace and economic prosperity, and countless new cities sprang up. My grandfather put all the insect repellent ointment back into storage and switched to selling kitchen cleaning agents, which surprisingly sold very well."
"Eighty years ago, human soldiers' corpses covered in insect repellent ointment were piled high in the rainforests. Seventy years ago, every household's kitchen had cleaning agents with the same trademark as the insect repellent. And so, my grandfather became a rich man."
"But one day, military personnel came to his door and arrested him. The insect repellent ointment he sold during the war had no insect-repelling effect, so he was to be executed. However, the Cen family's industries were too vast to collapse easily, as it would affect the local economy. Therefore, the military supported my father to continue operating the industries, but instead of selling deceptive cleaning agents, they secretly manufactured biochemical weapons for the military."
"So, you understand now. My grandfather built a commercial empire, but he was executed just like that. Wealth and glory are like a dream that can be awakened at any moment. This is the root of my father's anxiety. Various subsidiaries under my father's name provide thousands of different weapons to the military. Some of these weapons are extremely cruel, and some are used to suppress civilians. My father worries that my grandfather's fate might one day befall him."
"Therefore, he sent most of his children to live far away on their own. I am one of them, living as an unremarkable ordinary person on a nexus planet, and then I met you," Cen Yemeng smiled. "This is fate."
"I see. But you are no unremarkable ordinary person. Wherever you go, you attract everyone's attention. You are too beautiful," Jiang Ye held her in his arms. "Do you also feel anxious?"
"Sometimes I do, but when I sleep with you, I forget my anxiety and sleep soundly," Cen Yemeng kissed his neck. "You give me a sense of security. I like you holding me, Jiang Ye. Will you hold me forever?"
"I couldn't ask for more," Jiang Ye said solemnly. "Cen Yemeng, I am willing to hold you every day until the last day of my life."