Wedding Leave

For most women, a wedding is the most important ceremony of their lives.

They got their marriage certificate, and the wedding is next month. Ou Ye took her wedding leave, chose her wedding dress and Shen Qi's suit, and the two took wedding photos.

Shen Qi didn't have any wedding leave to take, and not knowing who to ask for leave from, he contacted the president of Yanda University: "Principal Lu, I'm getting married. The banquet is on the 5th of next month. I'll be working until October 31st, and then I'll ask for leave. I'll try to return to work before December 1st."

"Congratulations! May you grow old together and have a baby soon!" Principal Lu congratulated them with a cupped hand. He said, "Both of you are employees of our school. As the principal, I must be present at your wedding banquet. The 5th, right? Where is it? I will definitely be there."

The invitations hadn't even been sent out yet, and Principal Lu showed up uninvited.

After all, he was the president of a university directly under the central government, and Shen Qi couldn't refuse if Principal Lu wanted to attend the wedding.

So Shen Qi formally invited Principal Lu to a banquet on November 5th. He told Old Ou about this and asked him to see how to arrange Principal Lu's seating.

Old Ou is quite experienced. He said that seating should be arranged according to rank, and since the president of Yenching University is of a high rank, he should sit at one of the tables at the front.

"If we've invited Principal Lu, we can't forget to invite the Party Secretary and the Chairman of the Trade Union of Yanda University. Dean Wang School of Mathematics definitely needs to be invited, and Lao Lu also needs to be invited. If Lao Lu comes, it wouldn't be appropriate not to invite Lao Sun. Dean Ning of the School of Physics, he's been borrowing our equipment for a long time, so we have to invite him too. Between the president and the deans, there are also the Vice Principal. I get along quite well with Vice Principal Qin, so we have to invite Lao Qin... Getting married is really troublesome." Shen Qi was overwhelmed. His social connections weren't complicated, just the people on the scientific research front, but he knew a lot of people, and he had to arrange several tables for the leaders at the dean level and above at Yanda University.

"Tell me the names and positions of all the guests you've invited, and I'll take care of the rest." Fortunately, Old Ou was capable, experienced in society, and familiar with the capital's layout.

The guests from Yenching University have clarified things, as have the bigwigs from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The list of guests from the Chinese Academy of Sciences was finalized, and Shen Qi sent invitations to Professor Cui and Chairman Zhu, the two Nobel laureates.

It's impossible to gather a whole table of Nobel laureates. Even in the United States, Shen Qi estimates that he could only invite a maximum of seven or eight Nobel laureates.

Shen Qi wasn't exaggerating. If he were to host a banquet in the United States, a table full of Fields Medal winners would definitely be there, and they would all give Shen Qi face.

However, when holding the banquet in China, Shen Qi only sent an invitation to one recipient of the Fields Medal, an international friend, the Italy mathematician Faltings.

Faltings just won the Fields Medal this August. He is quite familiar with Shen Qi and is also young, not yet 40 years old. Flying from Italy to China shouldn't be a problem for him.

Faltings readily agreed, saying he would definitely come to China to attend Shen Qi's wedding. He had never been to China before and wanted to see the beautiful scenery of the East.

Two days later, Princeton mathematics professor and Fields Medal winner Lyndon Strauss called Shen Qi: "Qi, you invited Alessio to your wedding, why didn't you invite me? I'm Euler's mentor!"

"Flying all the way from America, won't it be too tiring?" Shen Qi asked.

It seems Faltings is a big mouth; he must have leaked the news of Shen Qi's marriage to Lyndon Strauss.

Lyndon Strauss is also young, in his forties, so a long-haul international flight should be fine for him. He said on the phone, "Of course it won't be tiring. It's perfect for a family vacation. It's settled then. Best wishes to you and Ou."

Not long after, Shen Qi's master's and doctoral advisor at Princeton Muller, called, "Qi, you invited Alessio and Elon to your wedding, but not me, who is your advisor!"

"I swear, I was just about to email you!" Shen Qi invited his mentor Muller, to the wedding.

"Dad, the situation has changed. We've added a few international friends. They'll sit at one table. Let's arrange it like that." Shen Qi promptly relayed the information to Old Ou, the chief coordinator of the wedding preparations.

In the following days, Shen Qi was extremely busy, receiving calls daily from international friends wishing him happiness and inquiring about where the wedding would be held.

After ending the call with Edward Witten, Shen Qi turned off his phone.

I can't answer any more calls; if this continues, something bad will happen.

Shen Qi didn't want to take his honeymoon anymore; he went to the office every day, and going to work was much easier than getting married.

However, since the marriage certificate has been obtained and the invitations have been sent out, the banquet has to be held whether or not.

Going to work is so comfortable. Shen Qi reads a journal, does a few calculations, and a pleasant and relaxing day passes by just like that.

I really don't want to leave work, but Shen Qi can't stay away from home; November 5th is his big day in a few days.

Back home, Shen Qi was in a real bind.

His father, Old Shen, got into a fight with Old Ou; the two fathers, both former soldiers, were having a drinking contest.

Shen Qi's parents have arrived in the capital and are living in Shen Qi's 150-square-meter apartment on the fifth floor, Ou Ye's parents live in the apartment upstairs.

"Old Ou, you're higher than me in the army, so you'd better drink this one!" Old Shen was also a tough guy, with a rather wild aura.

"Alright, I'm just a small-time commander, I'll drink this!" Old Ou was a straightforward man, and without saying another word, he downed a full glass.

"May I ask what kind of leader Old Shen is?" There's no limit to how awesome you can get, and Old Ou only dared to ask the even more awesome Old Shen what kind of leader he was after finishing his drink.

"I am the chief of staff," Old Shen said calmly, stating his unit designation.

Old Ou was immediately shocked. "Are you kidding me? The regimental chief of staff is a deputy regimental level officer, and I'm a full regimental commander!"

"So what if I'm bluffing? All's fair in war. You drink this cup, you drink it!" Old Shen is really something else. A father who could raise Shen Qi is no ordinary father.

"Old Shen, someone like you, I could take on five of you when I was young." Old Ou rolled up his sleeves, looking embarrassed and annoyed.

Old Shen, without batting an eye, repeatedly asked, "Five? You have the nerve to say five? How did you become a regimental commander? You must have used connections, right?"

These two in-laws were bragging the moment they met. Shen Qi couldn't stand it anymore and shouted, "You two fathers, shut up!"

Actually, Old Ou wasn't bragging much. When he was young, even if he couldn't take on five soldiers, he could still take on two or three ordinary civilians.

It was Old Shen was bragging; he had promised Shen Qi a used tank, but he hasn't delivered on that promise yet.

Old Shen loves to brag whenever he drinks, and the key is that he brags incredibly convincingly. Shen Qi can't do anything about his own father.

As soon as Shen Qi lost his temper, the two fathers immediately quieted down.

"Hehe, the academician's son is angry. I was just joking with Old Ou." Old Shen immediately put his arm around Old Ou and punished himself with a drink. "Old Ou, brother, in-law, we're both soldiers, we get along well. In a few days it will be Shen Qi and Ou Ye's wedding day. Today's drink is the last one. Before the 5th, we won't drink a drop and will work together to make this happy occasion a success."

Old Ou sighed speechlessly. There's always someone who can subdue another. The only one who can subdue Old Ou is Old Shen.

But you know what? When both fathers were lucid, they were both very capable.

With Old Shen's assistance, Shen Qi and Ou Ye's wedding preparations are progressing smoothly.

On November 5th, the weather was perfect—sunny and neither too hot nor too cold.

Early in the morning, Shen Qi put on his wedding suit, took his best man, and went to pick up his bride.

The best man is Yu Lei, a young and handsome man with a PhD from Princeton University and Associate Professor at Tsinghua University. He is quite suitable to be Shen Qi's best man.

The bride Ou Ye, was upstairs. This apartment on the sixth floor was her Affordable Housing, and today it was being used as her parents' home.

Shen Qi went up from the fifth floor to the sixth floor; the procedures still had to be followed.

Knock knock!

Shen Qi knocked on the door. "Wife, open the door, it's me!"

A girl's voice came from inside the door; it was the bridesmaid. "No red envelopes, no door open!"

Yu Lei followed the procedure and took out a red envelope to slip through the crack in the door.

Bridesmaid: "One isn't enough, there are so many people in the room!"

Yu Lei then slipped in over twenty more red envelopes.

Bridesmaid: "It's still not enough! The bride said she won't open the door!"

Yu Lei looked at Shen Qi helplessly. He had never been married and didn't know what to do next.

Shen Qi pulled out a key. "I can open it myself, I have a room key."

The bridesmaid remained silent for a long time; she might have fainted.

Shen Qi opened the door himself and entered the room.

The interior was decorated in Yangyang, with double happiness characters pasted everywhere.

All of Ou Ye's relatives came, and everyone warmly welcomed the groom.