novelAn Option
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9 An Option
Hou Yi, in realising that there were little options open to him given the late time of day, said to Anna "I need to think", and turned slightly away from Anna Jones.
Anna stared at Hou Yi, and then remembered the papers that she had gotten from the Australian Embassy on their arrival. As Lu Jinhu, in fact had Australian Citizenship, they were unlikely to have been able to marry here. However, it did explain why when they arrived at the Embassy, he acted as he had gotten a telephone call and absented himself from the room while the official was completing the paperwork she needed. She pulled out the paperwork to have a look at it, and realised where the space for the husband's name, address, and date of birth were left blank, but his nationality was filled in. Anna then recalled the Embassy official saying with the letter he was providing the official at the Civil Administration Bureau could fill in his name on the forms at the time of their marriage. She checked the form and realised that all her information was correct, save and except for her Australian address (her postal address however was correct). She flipped over to the letter attached to the paperwork. It stated that her fiancée had been briefly met by the official, but due to business commitment he was unable to stay for the formalities to be completed but failed to mention his name. It also stated that he was a respected businessperson, and the embassy official was quite willing, given they trusted him to complete the paperwork in his absence and asked that the Civil Administration Bureau officials complete the form due to the trust the Embassy official had in him. Anna laughed to herself about the comment about the Embassy official trusting Lu Jinhu and saying he was a respected businessperson. After re-reading the paperwork and the letter to confirm what she believed she had read, Anna was sure, it completely failed to mention Lu Jinhu.
While Anna was doing this, Hou Yi, simply watched her and wondered what she was doing, while trying to think about how he could solve the problem that he now is confronted with, in less than two hours so a marriage can occur before the Civil Administration Bureau closes for the day.
Anna, interrupted Hou Yi's thoughts, by quietly stating "Actually, I think I could help you."She then looked at Hou Yi who appeared stunned.
"How could you help. You would have had have paperwork with Lu Jinhu's name on it, and that will not help me. I'll have to try making some calls and see if there is someone, I know that will help prevent an absolute disaster."Hou Yi tone made Anna realise that he was frustrated and barely keeping himself together, as much as she was doing the same.
"Before you do anything, have a look at this paperwork. I think you will find something quite different" Anna responded quietly while handing the documents she just read to Hou Yi.
Hou Yi shook his head "It will not help if I look at the paperwork. I'm sorry I have to make some calls, but I will help you to the extent that I can."
Hou Yi stood back up and was ready to take a step, when Anna grabbed his arm "Please. Please take a look and then tell me I cannot help you. Simply by listening to what happened to me you have helped me, and now I would like to try and help you."
Hou Yi, looked down at the hand that had grabbed into his hand, and decided 2 minutes to look at documents he knew were useless to him would ultimately make no difference, and then sat back down. He took the documents from Anna as he sat back down, beside her and said "Alright. I have nothing to lose in spending a couple of minutes looking at them at this stage."
Hou Yi started to focus on the documents to quickly read them. As he got through the documents, including the letter he was certain that he did not see Lu Jinhu's name or any name of a husband-to-be mentioned. He did not think that could be correct, as he was aware from friends and staff who married foreigners, the paperwork from their embassy required the spouse's name and details. He realised that the two minutes he thought might need to be longer and started to re-read the documents to see what was actually in them.
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