When this started with Zhan and me, I had already been in love with him for six long years. Now, six years later, it is still the same. Then as now, on our third wedding anniversary, I love Zhan more than anything.

I still find it incredible how a single moment had been enough for me to fall madly in love with Zhan. Once I saw his smile and I was irretrievably lost to him.

Since our honeymoon, we have spent each of our wedding days in Alaska. The summers there are just beautiful. And because we love that piece of land where we always are and definitely want to continue to go there at least once a year, we bought the property, along with the cabin and the lake.

And so that our cabin is not only used once a year, we rent it out to vacationers and even earn some money that way. It's not much money, because we have someone locally who takes care of the cabin and the property in our absence. But it's not about money for us anyway.

A lot has happened in the last three years, too. Suri recently became a mother for the second time after she and her husband moved back to Beijing with their daughter. Since they both missed home a lot, her husband has transferred to the company in Beijing. They are now living with Suri's parents, who are lovingly taking care of the two children so that Suri can go to work as well.

My brother and Cheng moved to Taiwan after my brother was offered the position of director at a branch office. The two of them bought a small house there. So while my brother is a director in a big company, Cheng works as a child educator in a kindergarten.

The two of them are planning to adopt a child in the next two years. My parents are very excited about this, even though they won't have much of their future grandchild, since my brother and Cheng don't plan to move back to Beijing and stay in Taiwan.

It didn't last between Emma and her Japanese boyfriend. However, she found another man. A Thai man she moved in with last year. They don't want to get married yet, even if his family would like to, as they have taken Emma very much to their hearts.

But who knows, maybe they will get married soon. After all, Emma is 7 weeks pregnant, as she found out a few days ago. And she also said quite clearly that she does not want a child out of wedlock. So we can expect to fly to Thailand for her wedding soon.

Seungyoun and Wooseok went to South Korea a year ago. They got married in secret. Supposedly, they didn't want to make a big deal out of it. At least that's what Seungyoun told me when I asked him why we weren't invited.

In the meantime, I also know why Suri and Seungyoun fought at that time. Apparently Suri had helped to bring Seungyoun and Wooseok together. She was angry because Seungyoun never thanked her properly and he said that good friends help each other without reciprocation.

It was then Wooseok who mediated between the two and made it clear to Seungyoun that he was in the wrong and should have thanked her long ago. That would not be a reciprocation, but decency and proves gratitude. Seungyoun then thanked Suri and the two talked it out. However, Suri is mad at him again because she was not invited to their wedding either.

Zhan and I have become quite successful and well known as photographers. We even had to get a bigger photo studio. Now we have a photo studio with several rooms and distributed on 2 floors. In addition, we have hired two photographers for the daily business. It's crazy how that could happen in such a short time.

We also bought a big house. But not alone. My parents sold their house and gave the money from the house sale to us. They now live together with my grandparents on the first floor of the house and Zhan and I live upstairs.

My grandparents who are fortunately still alive are happy that they now live with the family and have support and help in everyday life from my mother. My father is still working but will retire in two years at the latest.

My grandfather is still waiting for us to do anything illegal together with him. Since we have all been living together, he seems healthier than ever. We were thinking about taking him to laser tag next month. It's not illegal, but he doesn't know that.

Zhan and I have also finally, half a year after our wedding, found a common hobby. Singing! First it was just karaoke with friends in special rooms. Then karaoke in a bar. Well, and the manager of the bar was so enthusiastic about Zhan and me that he asked us to perform at his bar from time to time.

We get paid almost 1,600 yuan per person per night, for one performance. That's about twice a month.

Zhan is still in front of the camera as a model from time to time. He even gets quite a few requests. But he only accepts requests when I can be the photographer and we don't have to leave Beijing. Because he wants to have dinner with me, and our family, every night. That's why my parents and grandparents are really excited about him, because for him, family comes first.

Oh the fan fiction that Suri and I wrote, Suri finished just before Zhan and I got married. She had worked for several weeks to turn the fan fiction into a novel, rewriting or replacing some of it with true stories. Then when she had it all finished, she had this book printed for all of us as a reminder of how it all came to be.

She even got a request from a publisher to allow them to publish the book. But Suri and I were against it. Because she would have had to rewrite the book again into a normal man falls in love with woman story and she didn't want that. She said, "This is the story of my best friend and my big brother and it should stay that way!" I agreed with her.

A few weeks ago, Zhan and I even went back to the beach where it all started between us. We even rented the same house. After 6 years now, it's nothing like it was back then. It has been completely renovated and it looks much more inviting. The two rooms downstairs, now resemble the room in the attic.

There is also a modern kitchen there now, an inviting living room and even the terrace has been redone. It now has a barbecue area and even a stone oven. In addition, the Private Beach area is now also clearly visible, thanks to the wooden fence and the clear signs indicating that this is a private beach.

Zhan and I just stayed there for the weekend and took my parents and grandparents with us. And, we had even been to the village. Nothing had changed there. It looked exactly the same as it did 6 years ago.

We went to the small supermarket, bought some groceries and, just like our first visit, we were again watched closely. But they had still been friendly.

We also went to the café from that time and ordered something to eat there. My grandfather scolded like a madman because the waitress put his roll in his soup. And the waitress, a different one from back then, said, "Listen old man, I did that so you could eat the bun in the first place."

And then someone shouted from behind us, "Listen young lady, what do you allow yourself to do? How dare you call your guest an old man? And who said he is not capable of eating a roll?"

I immediately recognized the voice. I turned around and grinned. My old arch-enemy, oh how I missed her and her "I'll kill you" stare.

I immediately chatted with her while my grandfather waited for his new soup and a new roll. My archenemy had long wanted to leave this place and move in with her son. But apparently her son changed his mind again and so she stayed.

She marveled at the fact that Zhan and I were still together and even married. "Most young people often don't even last a year in a relationship." She said.

"Well, we're not like most young people. We're Zhan and Yibo." Replied Zhan with a smile.

This conversation brought back memories of how I used to imagine that the villagers would come to us at night with torches and pitchforks and then kill us slowly and torturously with Satanic rituals. I had to laugh really heartily because of this memory.

My arch-enemy then also wanted to know, like some others, if we were also planning to have children.

I shook my head and said, "Not at the moment. We are happy as it is and have a lot to do with our work. I don't know what it will look like in a few years, but right now it's out of the question. We are enjoying our lives to the fullest right now. And if we really do decide to have a child someday, we want to be ready for that so we don't have any regrets later."

Zhan added, "If we eventually wanted to have a child, we would probably look sooner for a surrogate. But we still have plenty of time, and like my husband said, right now we're not thinking about wanting to become parents."

And my grandmother said, "They should experience as much as they can together before even considering such a big responsibility. In the past, that had been perfectly normal. People got married young and soon after they had their first child. People had to go to work, raise their children and take care of their parents. There was no time for travel or hobbies. And when the children were old enough, they had their own children and as grandparents you helped them. I wish for Yibo and Zhan that they experience a lot together and travel a lot before they even think about having their own children. I want them to enjoy their lives freely and to the fullest." And that's exactly what we're doing.

I don't know what the future holds for Zhan and me, I just let myself be surprised. Otherwise, it won't make any fun.

Back then, I spent many years wondering and making many different plans, how can I make him fall in love for me? And after all these years and all these many plans, I received a lesson for life. Namely, that nothing can be planned 100%.

While I kept asking myself how I could make Zhan fall in love with me while I was making plans with Suri, fate had other plans. Because Zhan fell in love with me in the meantime without me having to do anything.

And even 6 years ago, when Zhan and I were on this beach, Zhan loved me so much that he was willing to give up his life in the States and come back here to Beijing for this. And since the first day of our relationship, on that beach vacation, we had never spent a single night apart. Well, except for the night before our wedding. But that's something else.

I haven't made any plans since then. I take each day as it comes and have no fear. Because one thing I am sure of, is that no matter what happens, Zhan and I will stay together. I am firmly convinced that we belong to each other and there can and will be no one else for us.

So I bravely jump into my adventure with Zhan, knowing that no matter what happens, we will always stay together. Side by side and never apart.

End

A/N: Dear ones, we have reached the end. I want to thank all the readers who read, voted and commented on this book until the end. After my little over 3 month break, this is my 3 book I have restarted and finished in less than a month. There were a few differences from the book I had planned, but I like it as it is and I hope you do too. Many thanks to you, because without you, the writing would only half as much fun.🥰