Chapter 64 - "Gu" as in Gu Shao and "Xi" as in Zhenxi (cherish). (3)
After taking the form from the cop sister and looking at the field that said "Name", Lin Xi paused a little, bit her lower lip, said nothing but turned to look at Gu Shao. There were inquiry and a hint of anticipation in her eyes.
Under Lin Xi's nervous and anticipating look, Gu Shao said, "Yes, we will change it."
"We will be changing the surname to 'Gu'," said Gu Shao.
Lin Xi smiled when she heard that. She couldn't even hold back her happiness.
"Okay!"
"Thanks, Dad." Having said that, Lin Xi picked up the pen on the table and quickly started to fill out the form. She scribbled very fast as though she worried that Gu Shao might regret at any given moment.
She wrote down "Gu Xi" in the name field and was particularly attentive with each and every stroke.
"I'm done!" Lin Xi handed the form over to the little cop sister.
At that very moment, Gu Shao took the form from her, picked up the pen, and added the heart character (忄) next to "Xi".
Gu Xi. (T/N: Pronunciation of the two characters were identical.)
"Gu" as in "Gu Shao".
But "Xi" was no longer "Xi as in milkshake" but "Xi as in cherish."
Lin Xi's eyes widened and she looked over at Gu Shao in disbelief. She saw that Gu Shao had already turned the form over to the cop who was responsible for the registration.
Over on the other side, the cop, seemingly infected by the pleasantly surprised look from Lin Xi, smiled and said "Alright, so 'Gu Xi' then?"
"Mmm mmm," said Lin Xi, er, Gu Xi, with a nod.
"Okay, please confirm this for me." The little cop sister printed out a receipt for Gu Shao and Gu Xi.
On it was all of Lin Xi's personal information from the past.
It included all the names that she had used before. There were two names in that field.
One was "Lin Xi", and the other one was "Zhang Laidi". That must have been the name that Zhang Youfu had picked for her when they transferred her household register over. (T/N: Laidi = "Come, little brother".)
One could tell just from the name alone how desperately the family wanted to have another son.
Gu Xi frowned.
Reflexively, she tried to scratch at it with her fingernail. Pouting, she turned to look at Gu Shao.
"I don't want this one......"
Not only did the name had a bad connotation, it was represented a bad memory of hers.
The thought that this "past used name" would follow her for the rest of her life: When she applied to college, "past used name: Zhang Laidi" would be listed; when she underwent qualification review, "past used name: Zhang Laidi"; when she went to get her passport, "past name used: Zhang Laidi" would be under her personal information – that upset Gu Xi a lot.
This was the very first time that Gu Xi had definitively expressed "I don't like it" in front of Gu Shao. Capturing Gu Xi's pleading look, Gu Shao, too, looked over at the name "Zhang Laidi" and frowned.
He turned to the household register cop and said, "Her household register had been transferred over to a family in the village without the knowledge of neither one of us. This was the name that was added at the time. I had included this situation in the information that I had provided."
After listening to Gu Shao's explanation, the household register cop looked upset and frowned as well. Transferring out someone's household register without their knowledge could also be classified as kidnapping in some respect!
She couldn't believe something like this was still happening from time to time in this day and age!
"If that's the case, this does not make sense and it should not be listed as a 'past used name'. I will remove it right away," said the household register cop and immediately deleted the name.
Seeing the name "Zhang Laide" disappearing completely from her personal record, Gu Xi let out a sigh of relief.
What she didn't know was that Gu Shao had, later on, pulled some other strings and had "Lin Xi" removed from her record completely as well.