As a married man, let me offer a different perspective, although I chose option 2. Based on my current understanding, even if I traveled back in time, marriage wouldn't necessarily be a necessity. I've read Sun Ge's article and agree with it overall. Even when I was reading *The Three-Body Problem*, I felt that Liu Cixin might have been depicting a love-child relationship and parenting model hundreds of years in the future, where marriage would inevitably disintegrate over the next century, becoming a choice for only a minority. My wife agrees with this view. But reality isn't a parallel universe. The experience of having children while married is inherently different from having children out of wedlock, or rather, the experience of being married is inherently different from being unmarried. In Australia, cohabitation for more than 12 months is called Defacto, which translates to common-law marriage. Legally and in terms of rights, it's roughly 90% similar to a marriage. I don't know much about foreigners, but for those of us raised in Chinese culture, having or not having that certificate has a significant psychological impact. You two might have a huge fight and grow to dislike each other; if you were just boyfriend and girlfriend or in a Defacto relationship, you might break up easily. But once you're married, breaking up isn't so easy anymore. There are many factors involved: feelings, responsibility, family ties, property, parents and relatives… In short, you won't be able to break up as "casually" as before the marriage certificate. And this issue might subside in a few days, and it might even become a positive force in your relationship – each argument is actually a chance for both of you to adjust and deepen your understanding of each other. So, to sum it up in one sentence – marriage objectively gives two people a greater "tolerance for adjustment," perhaps helping you get through the most painful adjustment period of "two hedgehogs sticking together." To make an imperfect analogy – it's like being a student with final exams; you'll feel pressure and be forced to study more. In other words, not getting married and having children is only suitable for a few couples with high cognitive abilities, a high level of intimacy, and strong financial resources. Only in this situation will the impact of that marriage certificate become very low. Just as if final exams were removed from nine-year compulsory education, how many children would truly have the self-motivation to learn actively, rather than being forced to study hard because of parents, teachers, and exams?