IT was supposed to be the happiest day of her life but Li, the bride, attended her own wedding all alone – albeit for a couple of hours.
Her husband was missing as he was sitting outside the wedding venue because the result of his Covid-19 test was late and he was “banned” from entering.
Deng, the groom, could only watch the goings-on of his own wedding via live streaming.
Someone took a video of him watching the ceremony taking place at a hotel in Urumqi city of the northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
He was denied entry because he did not have a nucleic acid test taken within the stipulated 48 hours.
“I was only notified of the requirement when receiving my wife at her home in the morning. I rushed to the hospital for the test but the result was not immediately known,” he explained.
The test was required as a preventive measure after the province beefed up its control against Covid-19 following the fast-spreading Omicron variant across China.
Sounds of laughter can be heard in the background with his best man teasing him for missing out on the very important moment in his life.
Although he is seen laughing and smiling, Deng said he almost cried as he thanked his friends for cheering him up.
The clip went viral with netizens sending their congratulatory messages to the pair, and it has generated 200 million views.
Deng was not the only one who was barred from the hotel; 20 other guests faced the same thing.
The bride was lucky as her residential area conducted a mass test for the residents a day before.
“Before this, the hotel informed us that we only needed to show a negative test result taken within four days; we did not expect the policy to change overnight.
“When I knew my husband could not enter, I wanted to cancel the wedding but considering that our parents and the guests had arrived, we went ahead with it,” she told local media.
At the 2pm wedding last Tuesday, the bride walked down the aisle accompanied by her parents and parents-in-law.
The groom showed up for the wedding vows upon receiving his test result three hours later.
Deng, who was a Covid-19 volunteer, said he understood the importance of taking preventive measures against the highly contagious virus.
In Zhengzhou city of central Henan province, a construction worker found his long lost son via the PCR test mobile application.
“It has been eight years; I am too happy and I must celebrate it,” said Zhang Shan, who reunited with his son, known as Yang, last Tuesday.
Zhang said his son had run away from their home in Luohe city, some 160km away, after a heated argument over the latter’s addiction to online games.
“He ate and slept at cybercafes, neglected his work and asked us for money,” said the father.
Just before the Spring Festival in 2014, Yang, frustrated with the continuous nagging from his parents, threatened to leave home.
Zhang told him not to come back once he stepped out of the house.
What he did not expect was that Yang, then 25, took his words seriously and left home for good.
Since then, Zhang visited all the places that his son had worked at but could not find him.
He decided to find a job and stayed in Zhengzhou, where he believed his son could most probably be.
“He worked at a restaurant here before and is familiar with the city,” Zhang said, adding that he would visit every restaurant and cybercafe to find his son during his free time.
A relative discovered Yang’s PCR test result on a mobile application.
Yang’s test was done during a mass examination to filter out asymptomatic patients in Zhengzhou. Zhang immediately sought help from the police.
With an address in hand, the father went to his son’s apartment.
“I telephoned my wife and let her talk to our son. I am also pleased to see that he has changed for good and is doing two jobs now.
“He told me he was ashamed to come home,” said Zhang.
Zhang has some advice for parents – don’t let your children get addicted to online games and deal with them with care.
“Do not get mad with them and talk to them nicely. You do not want to end up suffering like my wife and I,” he said.
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