425. Unexpected Developments【39/99】
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The Next Day: Lin Nan left Chen Yao’s house all by herself.
Chen Yao must’ve had a rough sleep at his rental apartment. He clearly went to bed at ten last night, but here it was, already nine in the morning, and he showed no signs of waking up.
She figured it was good for him to catch up on some sleep.
They had arranged to meet at a little restaurant in the county town.
It was really close to Chen Yao’s place; just step outside, take a left, walk a couple of paces, and bam! There it was.
This restaurant seemed to be under some kind of curse; it changed owners and names almost every year. Not a single boss could survive a full year! But given its prime location in the county center, it attracted a fair number of customers with all the nearby apartment blocks. Logically speaking, they should have a steady stream of patrons.
With her hands empty, Lin Nan arrived at the restaurant entrance and spotted her mother waiting for her right at the door.
Today, her mother had made an effort to doll herself up. She had a stylish bag, her skin looked exceptionally radiant, and her hair was all neat and tidy. Overall, she appeared a decade younger.
“Mom!” Lin Nan called out, quickening her pace toward her mother.
Her mother looked up, stunned for a moment, then broke into a warm smile, “How’s everything at school?”
She instinctively linked arms with Lin Nan, giving off a hint of her lovely fragrance, and it seemed like she had even put on some makeup. Her whole demeanor looked much more vibrant.
“Nan Nan, you’ve gotten even prettier! I almost didn’t recognize you.”
“Not really!”
Her mother gently pinched Lin Nan’s little face. In fact, Lin Nan’s change wasn’t that drastic; it had merely been two months since they last met, and back then, she wasn’t as feminine as she was now.
Perhaps it was that her mind had started aligning more with her feminine side, leading her to truly believe she was a woman, giving her mood and aura a fresh twist.
While her mother held her arm, Lin Nan was curiously scanning the area, trying to spot her mother’s boyfriend, but he was nowhere in sight.
“So, Mom, where’s that boyfriend of yours?”
Despite being over forty, her mother remained somewhat old-fashioned when it came to relationships. The moment the topic came up, her cheeks flushed: “He’s waiting for us in a private room.”
“Is it Uncle Liu, the one who took us to the beach?”
Her mother nodded: “Yes, the same Uncle Liu.”
The mother-daughter duo walked into the restaurant side by side, and Lin Nan’s curiosity bubbled over.
“Did you start dating before the divorce?”
Her mother shook her head, her cheeks still pleasantly tinted: “I never did anything wrong before the divorce.”
“Then how did you two get together?”
“Who confessed first?”
“Does Uncle have kids?”
“Where do you guys live if you’re married? Does Uncle have a place?”
“Uh, how old is Uncle, anyway? He looks like he’s in his fifties. What does he do for a living?”
Lin Nan’s questions came at her mother in rapid succession, leaving her a bit overwhelmed: “He has a daughter who just graduated from college. She earns over a hundred thousand a year. As for him, he’s in the renovation business.”
“Wow!” Lin Nan felt a twinge of envy, tempted to hang on for dear life.
Even though renovation didn’t seem like the most glamorous job—usually a mess—rumor had it skilled workers could easily rake in several hundred bucks an hour.
“How do you feel about Uncle?” her mother asked, a bit sheepishly, as her smile started to stiffen under Lin Nan’s inquisitive barrage.
“Seems nice enough.”
Lin Nan had a great impression of Uncle Liu, especially after that generous red envelope he handed her at the beach, which made him look surprisingly dashing.
Finally reaching the private room after taking the elevator, they found Uncle Liu sitting there in a suit, looking all serious at the back, next to a tall girl with long black hair.
As soon as Uncle Liu saw Lin Nan, he jumped up, all enthusiastic yet clearly nervous.
“Lin Nan, what do you want to eat? Order anything you like, Uncle will treat!”
He’d even tagged along during Lin Nan’s medical examination, so he had a good grasp of her situation.
Having met him a few times already, Lin Nan didn’t feel awkward around him, unlike how he was practically sweating bullets, clearly apprehensive about how Lin Nan would react to his relationship with her mom.
It felt a bit like a young person introducing their partner to their parents—except this was a middle-aged man introducing his girlfriend to her child…
“Everything’s good, right?” Lin Nan replied vaguely, not really sure how to order. She then turned to eye the girl in the room.
Must be Uncle’s daughter, right?
Her curiosity piqued as she sized up the girl, eventually getting distracted by her sizable… assets.
Wow!
Not sure if it was just how she was dressed or what, but Lin Nan felt like all adult women in the world were just… more striking than her!
The girl gave Lin Nan a nod but quickly went back to her phone, seeming utterly uninterested.
Uncle Liu looked awkward, not understanding Lin Nan’s attitude at all, casting a worried glance at her mother, who merely smiled in response.
Relieved, he gestured for them to sit down and hastily called over the waiter to place their orders.
“Uh, Lin Nan, about your mom and me…” Uncle Liu’s smile was a little stiff.
Lin Nan looked up at his face, pursing her lips with genuine curiosity: “Do you have a place?”
Not that she thought one needed to have a house and a car to get married, but considering her mother had no stable place to stay and was either crashing at the factory dorms or with her grandfather, they’d need at least a rented apartment if they were to tie the knot.
“I have a house and a car,” Uncle Liu quickly responded.
“Then I don’t have any objections.”
Hearing Lin Nan speak, both her mother and Uncle Liu let out a sigh of relief.
After all those times Lin Nan had seen her mom with Uncle Liu, she noticed her mom always wore a smile.
Feigning indifference while fiddling with her phone, Lin Nan still cast surreptitious glances at her mother, realizing that her mom indeed had an expression of pure happiness, mixed with a touch of youthful shyness.
If her mother had never dated before marrying her father, maybe this was, technically, her first love?
Not bad, huh.
Though she had no idea how things would pan out in the future, at least her mom was happy now.
“I have objections!”
Suddenly, the girl sitting next to Uncle Liu spoke up.
The previously cheerful atmosphere turned icy in an instant as everyone turned to the girl. Uncle Liu looked particularly flustered, clearly taken aback by his own daughter’s unexpected interruption.
Her mother’s smile vanished, and she stared at the girl, looking somewhat aggrieved: “Aren’t I treating you nicely lately?”
“I don’t want a stepmother living with me,” the girl said coldly, her voice firm.
Uncle Liu, panicking, countered, “You’re usually working in another city, and she’s not really a stepmother…”
But before he could finish, his daughter cut in again: “I’m not going to stay away forever, am I? Besides, if you two end up divorcing, doesn’t that mean half the money in the house will be split again?”
“Dad, can’t you use your brain for once? Didn’t my mom screw you over enough last time? You finally got your life together, and now you’ve forgotten everything?”
