Chapter 174 Getting Married

Ever since Zhou Yi's parents left Dortmund and returned to China, Zhou Yi and Cortana had been living together very naturally, without any dramatic events in between. They chose to live in Zhou Yi's newly bought apartment, since there weren't any paparazzi camped outside the windows twenty-four hours a day trying to take photos. They lived on the top floor of the apartment building, which further increased the difficulty for the paparazzi to get their shots.

However, they hadn't officially announced their relationship to the outside world yet, and the outside world still didn't know about their relationship—in this regard, Grosskreutz, that bigmouth, had really kept his promise and hadn't shared it with the news media as some big breaking story.

None of Zhou Yi's Dortmund teammates had let it slip either.

Zhou Yi took Cortana back to her parents' house, appearing before the Wagners as something other than just a friend.

Mark Wagner had known about it for a while. Zhou Yi didn't make a big announcement within the team after he and Cortana started dating, but Mark knew it was perfectly normal for Zhou Yi and his sister to get together, because they were the only two people in the world who belonged together.

But Mr. and Mrs. Wagner were a little surprised.

"This..." Mrs. Wagner, who was usually very talkative, stared blankly at Zhou Yi holding Cortana's hand in front of her, speechless.

At this time, old Wagner seemed a bit more composed. He asked, "When did you two start dating?"

Zhou Yi smiled and said, "Not long ago."

Mrs. Wagner sighed. She finally came back to her senses and said, "I never thought that one day Cortana would bring a man home to see us. I especially never thought that the man she brought back would be... you."

Zhou Yi scratched his head embarrassedly. Mrs. Wagner's words made it sound like he was a thief who had been lurking in her house, secretly undermining her family. It seemed as if from the moment he saw Cortana in this house, he had been plotting to win her over.

After expressing her surprise, Mrs. Wagner smiled and said, "Cortana has been a very opinionated girl since she was little. She always makes choices that surprise us, and this time is no exception."

Of course, they were surprised. Cortana had never hidden her prejudice against football players from her parents. Who would have thought that such a person would end up with a football player as her boyfriend?

Cortana was well aware of this. In fact, even now, she sometimes couldn't help but ask herself. Was she really with that kid? Had she really become the girlfriend of a professional player?

But after thinking about it, Cortana didn't think there was anything wrong with it. If they were together, then they were together.

Being with Zhou Yi was simple and comfortable, and Cortana felt that was enough.

During the meal, Zhou Yi told the Wagners something he had been hiding for a long time, which was that he and Cortana had actually been living together for several years.

Hearing this, the Wagners were first shocked, then they understood why Cortana and Zhou Yi had gotten together. After all, they had been living together for so long. Without this, Cortana's sudden change would have indeed surprised the Wagners, and they wouldn't have been able to figure it out.

But with the foundation of these years of living together, their eventual union seemed like a natural progression.

"I'm actually very happy that you two are together." Mrs. Wagner said happily at the dinner table. "I hope you can continue to move forward smoothly. I know that professional players will always have rumors and scandals, but I believe in you, Zhou Yi. You're not that kind of person. So, I'm very happy and relieved that you can be with Cortana."

He had interacted with Mrs. Wagner quite a bit before, but today, Zhou Yi was a little nervous—he was meeting his future mother-in-law!

Zhou Yi liked Cortana, so he didn't plan on dating her for a few years and then finding a new girlfriend. He was aiming for marriage.

Although he was a '90s kid, that didn't mean he wouldn't be conservative about certain things.

He was very conservative when it came to relationships.

Because he had such thoughts, Zhou Yi acted very reserved when facing Mrs. Wagner, not as relaxed as before.

All of this naturally fell into Cortana's eyes.

※※※

After dinner at her parents' house, Zhou Yi and Cortana drove back to their apartment.

In the car, Cortana asked, "Are you a little nervous?"

"Huh?"

"You were a little nervous in front of my mom. But you've never been like that before, and it's not like you're meeting my mom for the first time." Cortana had noticed that Zhou Yi was acting a little strange today.

Zhou Yi understood why Cortana was asking this, so he shook his head and said, "No, this is the first time I'm meeting Mrs. Wagner in a completely new role, so of course, I'll have different feelings."

"As my boyfriend? There's nothing different about that."

"How can it not be different? I'll be calling your mother 'Mom' in the future!" Zhou Yi said loudly.

Cortana was stunned for about a second or two before she realized what Zhou Yi meant. She teased, "We just got together, and you're already thinking about getting married?"

"Of course." Zhou Yi answered confidently and decisively. "In China, a great man once said: 'Any relationship that doesn't aim for marriage is just playing around!' I'm not playing around. Of course, I want to marry you."

Cortana opened her mouth wide. What Chinese great man would say such a boring thing...

Then she chuckled, "Is this your proposal, Zhou Yi?"

"Uh..." Zhou Yi scratched his head. "I guess not. Shouldn't a proposal be a little more formal?"

"Marriage..." Cortana leaned back in her seat and murmured. For a long time, she had never thought that she would walk down the aisle with a man, hand in hand. She couldn't even imagine what she would become if she got married. Would she lose her independent personality and become dependent on her husband? If she had to maintain her independence, would it affect her marriage?

But unexpectedly, tonight, Zhou Yi had suddenly brought up the topic of marriage.

She shook her head. "I'm afraid I can't agree, Zhou Yi."

"What?" Zhou Yi was very surprised.

"I'm afraid I can't agree to marry you, Zhou Yi." Cortana repeated clearly.

"Why?" Zhou Yi almost lost his grip on the steering wheel. He asked, "Don't you like me?"

"Of course, I like you, little handsome guy." Cortana noticed the change in Zhou Yi's emotions and smiled—Zhou Yi still cared about her a lot, which made Cortana very happy.

"Then why don't you want to marry me?"

"The problem isn't with you, the problem is with me, Zhou Yi. I'm a little... afraid of marriage," Cortana explained.

It wasn't uncommon for people to be afraid of marriage. There were quite a few of them. Zhou Yi just didn't expect to meet one.

Faced with this result, Zhou Yi didn't know what to say. He fell silent.

Seeing Zhou Yi fall silent, Cortana couldn't help but feel a little guilty, so she comforted him, "I'm sorry, Zhou Yi. Marriage has always been very distant to me. Maybe I'm not ready yet. We just got together, and I don't want to make a decision so quickly. So, let's continue to be together as lovers. Maybe in a few years, I'll be ready?"

Hearing Cortana's consolation, Zhou Yi knew that Cortana still cared about him a lot, which made him feel better. So, he smiled and comforted Cortana in return, "It's okay. I was just a little too eager."

※※※

As a football star, his performance on the field was, of course, the focus of attention, but his private life off the field was also a concern for everyone.

Zhou Yi's love life had always been a topic of discussion. At the recent European Best Player award ceremony, the female host gossiped and asked Zhou Yi if he had a girlfriend, which showed how much attention everyone paid to this issue.

At the time, Zhou Yi had skillfully avoided the question with a clever answer, but he couldn't keep making excuses to avoid it.

Otherwise, everyone would soon start to guess if Zhou Yi was gay...

Zhou Yi and Cortana's relationship had been confirmed. Next was the question of whether or not to make it public.

After all, some people didn't like reporters and the media and didn't want to live in the spotlight all the time.

There were quite a few professional players whose wives were not well-known to the outside world. People only knew that he was married, but they didn't know what his wife looked like or who she was.

But on this issue, Zhou Yi and Cortana were in agreement, which was that there was no need to deliberately hide it.

Their being together wasn't something shameful, so there was no need to hide it. They could just announce it openly and generously.

Generally speaking, when players had a new relationship, it would always be revealed to the outside world through clues in certain events.

For example, some players would publicly attend various events with their new girlfriend, which would be noticed by the media and the public. Or some low-key players would be photographed by the media while shopping with their new girlfriend. In this internet age, some players would choose to make their relationship public online.

But Zhou Yi didn't announce his relationship with Cortana in this way. The method he chose was very special. Before this, probably very few professional players had done it this way—he drove Cortana, openly and honestly, into Dortmund's Brackel training base.