Chapter 440: Chapter 36: The Worthy Son-in-Law Comes to Visit
The New Year was approaching!
As the holiday neared, most shops near home had already closed, and the cultivators from the school teams were gradually returning home.
The girls from the Zhenhai Team, having their own residences in Jinling Prefecture, weren’t in a rush to go back immediately. However, Yan Yu and Lin Ning flew towards Minyue direction on their swords early in the morning of February 1st.
Speaking of meeting parents, Yan Yu had met parents in his previous life, but the situation with Chen’s father and mother was very special, and his experience clearly couldn’t be applied to others’ parents; so to say he wasn’t nervous at all would be an exaggeration.
A bit worried, he feared that Lin’s father might start with “pouring wine for the son-in-law,” which would indeed be quite overwhelming.
“Captain.” Lin Ning suddenly asked via transmission, “Aren’t you nervous?”
...
“Why should I be nervous?” Yan Yu asked her back.
“It’s just, it’s just…” Lin Ning struggled to find the words, “Isn’t it nerve-wracking to meet unfamiliar elders? Aren’t you nervous, Captain?”
Observing her expression, Yan Yu guessed what she was thinking and said with a laugh:
“Hmm, I am a bit nervous. But I’ll use deep breathing to relieve stress, so it’s okay.”
“Deep breathing?”
“Breathe in slowly and then exhale quickly. Repeat this and gradually you’ll feel less nervous.”
“Oh.” Lin Ning said.
After a while, Yan Yu glanced over quietly and saw that Lin had already started doing deep breathing, methodically inhaling and exhaling.
The place they were heading to, Lin Ning had already explained to Yan Yu in advance: her grandfather and ancestors had been fishermen in a coastal village within Qingyuan Prefecture. Later, her father partnered with others to start a fishing company, and the family then moved to the urban area of Qingyuan Prefecture, hence every New Year they would return to the ancestral home to reunite with relatives.
Lin Ning’s father was the third oldest at home, with two older brothers, a younger brother, and two younger sisters. Lin Ning’s mother had an older brother, an older sister, and a younger sister. Then all these uncles, aunts, and cousins were married with their own children, many more than one (Lin Ning herself had a brother and a sister), which reflects how large the family gathering would be; no wonder Lin Ning was nervous.
When the two arrived at the coastal village by sword, as soon as they landed, a few neighboring kids ran over, clapping and laughing:
“Sword Immortal sister is back! Sword Immortal sister is back!”
“Who told you to call me that!” Lin Ning glared and said, “Call me Sister Ning!”
“Sister Ning!” The kids surrounded her, “Sister Ning, can we play with your sword now?”
Hearing this, Yan Yu was speechless; kids these days are really precocious, even daring to ask to handle Flying Swords.
“No, no.” Lin Ning glared, “The Flying Sword is very sharp! Remember, you can’t play with it!”
She rapidly lectured the kids, dismissing their initial excitement and curiosity, and then waved them away.
“Impressive.” Yan Yu commented, “No wonder you were a class president who could persuade students in high school, you really have a way with words.”
“If you bring that up again, I’ll kick you to death.” Lin Ning glared and said.
The Lin family ancestral home was an old house built on a nearby hill. Climbing up the gentle slope, they saw a middle-aged woman washing vegetables at the door.
She turned around, saw Lin Ning and Yan Yu, and immediately launched into a lengthy greeting in dialect.
Lin Ning also showed a helpless expression like “Oh, why like this,” and blabbered back in the same dialect.
Yan Yu: ………
Oh no, a language barrier, this trip might be tricky!
After Lin Ning finished speaking with the middle-aged woman, she turned to Yan Yu and introduced:
“This is my auntie.”
“Hello Auntie,” Yan Yu politely said.
“What auntie!” Lin Ning immediately got upset and kicked him, “Call her Aunt!”
“Hey, Ningning, you can’t do that!” Lin’s aunt hurriedly intervened, scolding her, “You can’t kick your boyfriend, you know!”
“He’s not my boyfriend!” Lin Ning stomped her foot in frustration, “He’s our team’s captain!”
Ignoring her protest, Lin’s aunt continued to smile at Yan Yu and said:
“I’m her aunt, her dad’s sister. Just call me Aunt.”
“Okay, Auntie.” Yan Yu smiled.
“I’m going to call your dad over.” The aunt placed the vegetables in the stainless steel basin and turned to enter the old house.
Yan Yu watched her retreating figure, his expression gradually becoming serious.
Good news, not the ideal son-in-law.
Bad news, seems to have become Lin’s boyfriend.
Lin Ning, still furious, dragged Yan Yu along and chattered:
“My dad must have blabbed to the relatives again, I can’t stand it! Captain, don’t get the wrong idea, I’m going to give him a telling-off later.”
“Why is your dad so concerned about your being single?” Yan Yu asked a question he had always wanted to ask in his past life.
“That’s just the way my family is,” Lin Ning sighed, “Before the college entrance exams, they strictly forbade dating, and as soon as exams were over, they couldn’t wait to make you find someone. If you don’t have someone by twenty-five or twenty-six, your parents start matchmaking; if you’re still single at twenty-seven or twenty-eight, you become an ‘old maid’; relatives talk behind your back, wondering if nobody wants you, and my parents feel so embarrassed they can’t even sleep well at night.”
“That’s quite scientific,” Yan Yu remarked. “The optimal age for a woman to give birth is also around this time. After thirty, one becomes a high-risk mother.”
“Don’t use childbearing to determine a woman’s value!” Lin Ning said indignantly. “I don’t want to be stuck at home with a kid at such a young age!”
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“Don’t worry, you don’t have anyone interested in you yet, so worrying about staying home with kids is really premature.” Yan Yu comforted her.
“Don’t you dare say nobody wants me!” Lin Ning kicked him, not pleased at all.
Lin’s father came out from the house just in time to see Yan Yu and his eyes lit up.
It’s the Flying General of Longcheng on TV!
Then seeing his daughter actually kicking the Flying General, he was shocked to his core and immediately grabbed a pole from behind the door, charging over to discipline his daughter while scolding.
Lin Ning, startled by the sight of the pole, quickly dodged, leaving Yan Yu behind.
As Lin’s father chased his daughter, he said to Yan Yu:
“Don’t be afraid! I can’t control how she bullies you outside, but in our house, the men make the decisions! Ah, if she dares to touch you, Lin Bei will teach her a lesson on your behalf!”
Yan Yu: ……
Didn’t know what to say, feeling very complicated. He wanted to clarify the situation a bit, but he was more eager to see the embarrassed look on Lin’s face, which was quite entertaining.
Indeed, Lin Ning’s face turned red with anger and frustration as she dodged the pole using the Cloud Dividing Eight Trigrams Step, shouting in a dialect Yan Yu couldn’t understand. The sounds “male ice friend” repeated several times; she seemed to still be explaining their relationship.
After a while, as Lin’s father failed to catch her and was panting heavily, he realized that his daughter’s current cultivator strength meant she was no longer the little girl who would cry and admit her wrongs when he picked up a pole. He had to stand there, leaning on the pole, and continue berating his daughter for her lack of manners and upbringing.
After much babbling, Lin Ning finally had a realization and, with an angry look, said to Yan Yu:
“Damn! It’s the rumors Qiao Ming spread!”
“Qiao Ming?” Yan Yu asked.
“The one who came to school last time to confess to me, remember?” Lin Ning said, arms crossed and still fuming, “Later, you helped me fend him off. Do you recall that?”
With that, Yan Yu finally remembered.
There had indeed been a boy, apparently Lin Ning’s childhood friend from the same village, who had purposefully gone to the school gate to confess his feelings to her, even disrupting her daily training.
At that time, not able to stand it, he had claimed that “relationships in the army need to be reported,” and whether the other party understood or not, he had ultimately given up on pursuing Lin Ning.
“When he went to confess to me, he was egged on by his brother,” Lin Ning continued to explain to Yan Yu. “Later when he returned, his brother asked him if the confession was successful. He actually said I already had a boyfriend?! Are you kidding me! Now even my relatives at home know about it! I need to confront him later!”
Yan Yu suddenly understood: it seemed that Qiao Ming, after his unsuccessful confession and not wanting to admit that Lin Ning didn’t fancy him, claimed that she already had a boyfriend in Jinling. This rumour must have reached Lin’s father, who likely misunderstood something, thinking that the person who had helped Lin Ning fend off Qiao Ming—that is, himself—was the secret boyfriend she was dating.
Lin Ning kept on complaining, unaware that in her father’s ears, there was another meaning:
This so-called captain, not only had he helped her block the neighbor Qiao’s son’s confession but had also agreed to come over for a meal during the New Year. Even if he wasn’t her boyfriend, he must have some feelings for her, right? Isn’t it easy to talk like that? Why else would he not go home for New Year?
Since there’s mutual interest, then it’s easy to handle. Even if it’s not the case right now, with a bit of effort, it will be eventually.
But being well aware of her own daughter’s stubborn temperament, Lin Ning would probably never make the first move.
He, as a father, needed to give her a push!