Chapter 56
Hearing this, Lin Zheng’s expression slowly became listless.
Ms. Sun nudged her husband with her elbow, who winced slightly in pain. She then stepped forward, and with her slender, long fingers, she patted Lin Zheng on the shoulder and ushered him inside. “Haha, your Uncle Gu is just joking. It’s enough that you came. You don’t have to bring gifts. Just treat this place like your own home and don’t be shy.”
Lin Zheng felt how warm Gu Lin’s mother’s welcome was. He recovered a little from the shock. He said, “Thank you, sis…” Being this close to Ms. Sun’s youthful face, the word “sister” almost slipped out. But then he remembered Gu Lin’s father and thought, I can’t. Calling one ‘uncle’ and the other ‘sister’ would make the age difference way too awkward. So he quickly changed it to “auntie.”
The Gu family’s genes were remarkably good. In fact, not only did Gu Lin’s mother look young and refined, but his father also looked exactly like the type of domineering CEO described in novels. He was young-looking, tall, and in great shape. And Gu Lin, a product of their union, perfectly blended their best traits and showcased them to the fullest.
Gu Lin’s mother led Lin Zheng to the sofa in the living room. In no time, the coffee table was covered with plates of fruit, fruit juice, and all kinds of snacks.
“Xiao Zheng, how old are you this year? What month were you born in?”
“What do you like to do in your spare time? Do you like to travel?”
“Do you prefer more classic things or more fashionable ones?”
Lin Zheng held his glass of juice and was bombarded by Gu Lin’s mother with a series of questions.
Lin Zheng felt a bit confused.
He didn’t mind answering these questions, but did Gu Lin’s mother treat all of his friends like this, questioning them so meticulously as if she were running a background check?
According to what he knew, Gu Lin wasn’t a mommy’s boy.
It shouldn’t be his mother who worried about this.
While he was thinking, Lin Zheng still answered all of Ms. Sun’s questions one by one.
He put down his glass of juice and answered seriously, “I’m twenty-five, and I was born in June.”
He was telling her his real age and real birth month.
“Twenty-five… That makes you several years older than Gu Lin. Do you live together? Does he ever bully you?” Ms. Sun asked with concern.
Lin Zheng couldn’t tell if Ms. Sun was on his side or Gu Lin’s. He shook his head and answered truthfully, “No, Gu Lin is actually a very good person.”
A smile appeared on Ms. Sun’s face after hearing this, and she said something with a meaningful tone, “Oh, is that so…”
Lin Zheng sensitively sensed that something was off. He started to wonder if Gu Lin’s mother had already seen through everything. His heart started to race.
It wasn’t his fault for thinking this. From the very beginning, Ms. Sun’s attitude towards him had been strange. She was overly courteous, treating him like an honored guest, and now she was grilling him about his personal life. This was… this was like a mother investigating a potential marriage partner for her son!
Thinking this, Lin Zheng tensed up.
He wasn’t mentally prepared for that.
And he didn’t know how to handle it either.
As Lin Zheng was lost in thought, a slightly cool hand gently massaged his face. For a moment, Lin Zheng was stunned, unable to comprehend what was happening. He came back to his senses to find Ms. Sun propping up her chin with one hand and gently massaging his face with the other. She looked at him with a loving expression and said, “You are so cute. Before Gu Lin was born, I prayed every day that I would have a child with a cute face. But our Gu Lin only looked cute until he was five. He started to grow crooked when he turned six, and from then on, he grew in the opposite direction of what I had hoped for.”
Ms. Sun sighed, “Sigh, having one is enough. Why did both the father and son have to look like that?”
Lin Zheng glanced at Gu Lin and his father, looking at their far-above-average faces, and was speechless for a moment.
Lin Zheng: “…”
Gu Lin’s mother probably didn’t know what it meant to have too much or too little.
She also probably didn’t know that while she was being so critical of her husband and son, there were countless people out there who would give anything just to have one of them.
Even so, Lin Zheng still said humbly, “I think I look pretty ordinary.”
The underlying meaning was that he couldn’t compare to Gu Lin. Hearing this, Ms. Sun laughed and said, “Ordinary? This face is exactly what I dreamed my son would look like.”
Ms. Sun was telling the truth. No matter how she looked at it, Lin Zheng’s face was exactly her type. He had delicate eyes, a small, cute, upturned nose, and when he smiled, his eyes would naturally curve into a beautiful, cute arc.
Ms. Sun even thought that if she were to have another son, he should look exactly like Lin Zheng.
Lin Zheng, feeling a bit embarrassed by all the praise, touched the back of his head.
He was a little shy from being praised like this.
Ms. Sun’s tone was gentle, “Oh, you haven’t answered what you like to do yet.”
Lin Zheng thought for a moment and said, “I like a lot of things.” He said honestly, “I’m the type who tries whatever I’m interested in, so I know a little bit of everything, but I’m not an expert in any of them.”
“That’s great, too. At least it adds a lot of fun to your life.”
“That’s what I think, too.”
Life is short. Lin Zheng had always believed that if you like something, you should do it. As long as you don’t cross any moral lines, there’s no such thing as being inappropriate.
If you only live your life according to what others think, or if you’re always timid and afraid to try things you like, your life will lose a lot of its fun.
Lin Zheng realized that even though there were four people in the living room, the only ones who had been talking were him and Gu Lin’s mother. Gu Lin and his father were sitting there silently.
Lin Zheng glanced at the two of them.
Although he knew that the father and son had some past conflicts and didn’t get along well, compared to their side of the room, the atmosphere over on Gu Lin’s side was as cold as the Arctic Circle.
What was even funnier was that the two of them looked so much alike. If you didn’t know them, it would look like two mob bosses were sitting there, staring each other down silently.
Ms. Sun saw what Lin Zheng was thinking and also glanced at the two of them. Then, with a casual tone, she said to Lin Zheng, “They’ve always been like that. Just ignore them.”
Lin Zheng: “…”
Gu Lin’s mother was far more accepting of the situation than he was.
Ever since Lin Zheng walked in, apart from the initial greeting, Gu Lin’s father hadn’t said a single word. He was like an ice mountain.
But sitting there without talking felt a bit rude, especially since he was a guest in their house.
Thinking this, Lin Zheng, taking advantage of the moment Ms. Sun went to the kitchen, started a conversation with the man who was sitting with his arms crossed, a little farther away from him.
Noticing the watch on the man’s wrist, he said, “Uncle Gu, you’re wearing the new limited edition XR, aren’t you? I saw it once and thought it was perfect for a mature man. And I was right, it looks amazing on you!”
Gu Lin’s father glanced at Lin Zheng, then slowly said two words, “Thank you.”
Lin Zheng’s heart sank.
This uncle didn’t seem to like talking much.
Lin Zheng cheered himself up and tried again, “Uncle Gu, do you play golf often? I saw you in the news once, and your posture when you hit the ball was so cool!”
The suffocating silence lasted for a few seconds again, followed by another emotionless reply, “Thank you.”
Lin Zheng: “…”
This uncle was a hard rock that couldn’t be warmed.
Suddenly, Lin Zheng felt a surge of courage. He slapped the sofa, walked up to the man, and said loudly, “Do you want to drink with me?”
As soon as he said that, the two men sitting on the sofa, who had been completely expressionless, showed a look of disbelief on their faces.
Lin Zheng sighed inwardly. They were father and son, alright.
What was there to be so shocked about?
As soon as Lin Zheng finished speaking, Ms. Sun came out of the kitchen and naturally heard what he said.
The older man on the sofa turned his gaze to Ms. Sun.
“Do you want to drink?” Ms. Sun asked the two of them with a smile. “Then let’s have a little bit.”
Lin Zheng was about to say yes when he saw Gu Lin’s father had already prepared the cups and alcohol.
Lin Zheng: “??”
That was fast.
Lin Zheng felt that a lot of what was reported in the news wasn’t very accurate.
And this proved it.
The Gu father in the news was a mature, steady, and solemn person who cared about the bigger picture and was a genius at everything. But in reality…
Lin Zheng looked at the man who was trying to learn how to play the finger-guessing game with him, “No, Uncle, you’re not doing it right. You have to do this, not that.”
For example, he didn’t know how to play the finger-guessing game.
Gu Lin’s father, who had already had too much to drink, said, “Isn’t it just this? I got it.”
Lin Zheng looked at the man’s incorrect hand gesture and carefully corrected him, finger by finger, “No, it’s not like that. It’s like this.”
Lin Zheng himself was a bit drunk, with a noticeable flush on his face. As he was trying to correct him, he let out a hiccup from the alcohol.
Next to them, Gu Lin’s mother watched the two of them, propping up her chin with one hand. Gu Lin had already gone out and come back once.
When a person gets drunk, they become bolder.
From the very beginning, Lin Zheng had felt as if a heavy mountain was pressing on his chest just from looking at Gu Lin’s father, and it had taken the courage of a demon king to even start a conversation with him. But now, he was not only playing the finger-guessing game with him but also telling him jokes, making him laugh, and even giving him a head and shoulder massage when he got a headache from drinking too much.
The two of them, in their drunken state, completely forgot about the “a little bit” that Ms. Sun had mentioned earlier. One bottle after another was opened, and they started their night in the late afternoon.
The initial distance between them was completely gone.
Gu Lin looked at Lin Zheng’s flushed face and knew that he couldn’t drink anymore. In fact, Lin Zheng had a good tolerance for alcohol, but his father also had a very good tolerance. If two heavy drinkers continued drinking together, they would both get into trouble.
Drinking too much is bad for your health.
Gu Lin sat on the sofa, leaned forward slightly, and held Lin Zheng’s hand, which was reaching for the bottle again. He said in a gentle tone, “Stop drinking. That’s enough.”
Lin Zheng, who was squatting on the floor, tried to grab the bottle again, but he couldn’t. It was being held down firmly by Gu Lin.
Lin Zheng, his brain already fuzzy from the alcohol, slapped the table and said to Gu Lin in a less-than-polite tone, “What are you doing? Don’t interfere with me and my uncle’s conversation.”
They had already talked about everything, from life to work.
When he couldn’t grab the bottle on the table, Lin Zheng simply picked up a new one, filled both of their glasses, and continued to complain, “Uncle, you don’t know this, but Gu Lin actually looks down on my work ability. He won’t even let me go back to work.”
Gu Lin’s father patted Lin Zheng’s shoulder, “That boy has no taste. If he doesn’t want you, come work for me. My company’s benefits are definitely better than his.”
Lin Zheng was so moved that he almost cried. He excitedly hugged the elder in front of him, “Uncle!”
Gu Lin: “…”
Gu Lin started to get a headache.
Next to them, Ms. Sun glanced at her son, then at the boy who was calling her husband “uncle” so affectionately, and the corners of her lips slowly curled up.
They had originally agreed to have a simple dinner with Gu Lin’s family as his friend. But the dinner never happened. Lin Zheng drank so much that he was already full, and he had even become drinking buddies with the man’s father, the two of them even planning to play golf together on the weekend.
The original plan of leaving after dinner was also put on hold.
At Ms. Sun’s strong request, the two of them decided to stay for the night.
After drinking and taking a hangover remedy, Lin Zheng was a little more sober, but not completely. His head was still a bit fuzzy.
Gu Lin’s father and mother were no longer in the living room, leaving only him and Gu Lin.
Lin Zheng propped up his chin with both hands, a smile on his face, and just stared at Gu Lin.
Gu Lin saw Lin Zheng’s unnaturally red cheeks and remembered that his cold hadn’t completely healed, and he had drunk so much alcohol. Gu Lin suddenly regretted letting Lin Zheng drink with his father in the first place.
But thankfully, Lin Zheng hadn’t taken any medicine before drinking. Otherwise, it would have been a much bigger problem.
Even so, it was still a big problem.
Gu Lin sighed inwardly, lowering his gaze.
“Gu Lin, you’re so handsome~”
Hearing this, Gu Lin’s eyes paused for a moment before he slowly looked up at the person in front of him.
Lin Zheng’s eyes traced Gu Lin’s handsome face, his straight nose, his sharp jawline, and his naturally slightly pursed pale lips.
Suddenly, he leaned forward, kissed Gu Lin’s cheek, and said with a smile, “And you’re so easy to kiss~”
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