Chapter Thirty-One: Sharing Stories
After being "forced" into a relationship with Chu Zhen, our way of getting along didn't change much.
Huang Yanyan said that's because you've always been in a romantic relationship, but you just didn't realize it.
Yes, Chu Zhen is right. I must have been blind to overlook so many of the couple's interaction patterns.
"Lin Dang, do you want to meet my parents?"
Before I knew it, the Mid-Autumn Festival was approaching. With only a three-day holiday, I had no plans to go home.
"Meeting the parents? Isn't that too fast?" All told, we've only been dating for a little over three months.
"Your parents have already met me, shouldn't you meet me too?"
"But I'm not ready!" Meeting the parents is something I'll have to face sooner or later. I'm pretty relaxed about it. A girl like me is very popular among the middle-aged and elderly people in my family. As long as they're not unreasonable, I believe they'll all like me. It's just that I can't go to the Mid-Autumn Festival empty-handed!
"I'm all ready, so you're agreeing, right?"
"Um!"
"Then come to my place first today, and we'll go back for a family reunion dinner tomorrow morning."
Chu Zhen had arranged everything. After we started dating, I often went to his place because of work. However, now the master bedroom was mine, and the study had become his bedroom.
Chu Zhen's home is in a villa area in the suburbs. I'm starting to wonder if Chu Zhen is a rich second generation.
"Zhen'er is back!" A kind old woman opened the door; this must be the grandmother Chu Zhen was talking about!
"Your girlfriend is here. What's her name?" Grandma asked, taking my hand as she saw me.
"Grandma, hello, my name is Lin Dang!" I replied with a smile.
"Oh, right, her name is Lin Dang. Zhen'er told me about her. Look at my memory, I'm really getting old and forgetful! Come on in!" Grandma was very welcoming and took my hand to lead me into the living room.
"Luxury house," was my first thought upon entering the house. The living room was comparable to my current rental apartment, decorated in a Chinese style with uniform mahogany furniture.
"Lin Dang is here!"
Am I seeing things? I opened my eyes wide and looked again. Yes, it's "Extinction Master"—no, it's Professor Huang.
"Mom~" Chu Zhen called out.
"Professor?" I called out, full of questions.
“At home, why call her ‘Professor’? Just call her ‘Auntie’,” Professor Huang said with a kind smile.
"Auntie," I called out nervously.
Is one of the scariest things in the world that is "your mentor is your future mother-in-law"?
Huang Yanyan said, "Are you really stupid? Wouldn't it be better if your supervisor was your mother-in-law? Why are you still worried about your thesis?"
I finally understood why Professor Huang's attitude towards me had changed so drastically. It turned out to be because of Chu Zhen. During the meal, Professor Huang speculated that Chu Zhen must have taken a liking to me when I submitted my thesis during my undergraduate years.
I can finally explain why I could easily take more than a month off due to my foot injury, and why the professor was able to give me the lesson plans for the courses I missed—because she is my "future mother-in-law."
"You shouldn't have brought me to meet your mother. How am I supposed to face her in class now?" I complained on the way back.
"Treat my mom the way she treats you. Don't worry, I'm not a mama's boy, I'm henpecked." Chu Zhen stated his position.
"By the way, where is your father?" Chu Zhen had never mentioned his father before, and he hadn't seen him today either.
“My parents are divorced, and he has his own family now,” Chu Zhen said calmly.
I'm so sorry!
"It doesn't matter."
Chu Zhen didn't continue, so I didn't ask any further. Although the divorce rate is high now, it was still quite low in the older generation. Perhaps there were some problems along the way!
During the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, Huang Yanyan's grandparents and maternal grandparents all came to visit. Although she argued with her parents, she still listened to the older generation and obediently went home to be a good granddaughter. I stayed at Chu Zhen's place for the past few days.
"Lin Dang, will your parents miss you if you don't go back?" We were admiring the moon on the deck chairs on the balcony.
"Probably, but I'm not sure."
"uncertain?"
"Yeah, you've met my parents before. I always felt that they wished they could find someone to entrust me to so that they could live a blissful life together and travel around all the time."
"Chu Zhen, you know what? My parents met through a blind date and got married very quickly. In today's terms, it would be considered a whirlwind marriage. But they are really loving. My dad said that my mom had a difficult childbirth and suffered a lot of bleeding when she gave birth to me, so I have to be good to her. Back then, the social environment was not good, and our family's financial situation was not good either. My mom didn't have a good life. So when life started to improve, my dad spoiled my mom and gave her whatever she wanted. Actually, I really envy them!"
"I also have two deck chairs in my yard. Maybe they're enjoying the moon right now, just like us!"
"Lin Dang, you are very lucky!" Chu Zhen took my hand.
“My grandfather passed away early, and my grandmother was heartbroken and her health wasn’t good either. My father supported the whole family. We were really poor back then. My maternal grandfather came from an intellectual family. My mother was once robbed on the street, and my father happened to witness it. After that, my mother resolutely decided to marry my father, even at the cost of falling out with her family. But my father was also very capable. During the wave of entrepreneurship, my father went to the south and made a fortune. However, with more money, his heart was no longer at home. Now he has another family in the south.” Chu Zhen said, holding my hand tighter and tighter.
“You told me my mom is a ‘shrew,’ but actually my mom has a very good personality. That period was the most difficult time for her, and she probably brought her emotions into her work. My parents officially divorced last year, so I decided to come back from Colombia to be with my mom.”
"I never believed in love. I once thought love was a shackle and a burden. Perhaps this is related to my parents' marriage. But the day I met you, I seemed to be looking forward to the arrival of love."
"You had that feeling the first day you saw me?"
"I can't quite describe how I felt that day. Actually, you seemed very impulsive and rude to me." Chu Zhen seemed to be recalling that day. "But when I saw that you were from the Journalism and Communication Department of the College of Education, I took another look at you. At that time, you were squinting and looking for a paper on the ground. You looked funny and cute."
"You're the ridiculous one. You know what? I thought you were trying to scam me and I just wanted to avoid you, but I kept running into you."
"That's fate. I really didn't expect to run into you again, especially since you were drunk that night and you actually sent me a video. I was both surprised and delighted. But you were drunk. At that moment, I felt that a girl like you really had no sense of self-protection at all."
...
On the night of the full moon, Chu Zhen and I talked about our families, how we met, got to know each other, and fell in love, until a blush appeared in the distance and the sun peeked out.
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