Chapter 561: – Before
Dad and that auntie were going to get married.
This news seemed to have spread fast among Lin Jin’s relatives. Not only had her mother and grandpa heard about it, but even the shop owners along the street of the school’s back gate planned to come. It seemed like her dad wanted to make the wedding really big. From what Lin Jin knew, there were at least thirty to forty friends and relatives invited.
Lin Jin didn’t even know how to address most of those relatives, some she had never even heard of, and they weren’t that close with her dad either. But one by one, they started popping up.
According to the wedding customs in Lin Jin’s hometown, any direct elder from her dad’s side would need to give a gift of at least five hundred yuan, while her dad’s side, as the host, would then need to distribute the gifts to everyone that attended.
Lin Jin had once been to a wedding where everyone got five hundred yuan, but the cost of her attending the wedding was zero.
Speaking of which, if the people in her homework wanted to, they could probably even attend weddings every day to earn enough for their living expenses.
Her dad planned to hold the wedding at Xia Tian’s restaurant, but Lin Jin didn’t even know what the situation was like with the restaurant. Xia Tian always brushed it off by saying that he didn’t need to worry.
But this time, when Xia Tian finally had some free time at night, Lin Jin directly asked him.
“Xia Tian, my dad’s planning to hold his wedding at your restaurant. What do you think?”
“Your dad’s getting married?” Only now did Xia Tian learn about this.
“Yeah, you’re only finding out now? They picked January 27 as the date and they want to hold the wedding in your restaurant. I want to support them and help ask for some discounts for something.” Lin Jin blinked and sat down next to Xia Tian. She asked in surprise “They didn’t tell you?”
“I just learned now.” Xia Tian shook his head “I think I do remember someone mentioning this to me, but I’ve been so busy lately that I forgot about it.”
“Oh. Anyway, they’re going to hold the wedding at the restaurant.” Lin Jin happily continued to say “I think it’s pretty good. The wedding will definitely be grand, and it can give your place a lot of exposure too.”
Xia Tian thought for a bit, then finally gave Lin Jin a somewhat confused look: “So, how much of a discount am I supposed to give them?”
Xia Tian, who had never been the boss of a business before, was a little confused. Let alone in this current situation where the restaurant hadn’t even opened yet and the costs hadn’t been figured out. They were even still discussing the pricing of the dishes with the chefs. How could he give someone a discount?
What if they lose money because they gave too much? What if Lin Jin’s dad was unhappy with the discount?
Lin Jin was also stumped about this matter. Luckily, Xia Tian at least knew that the dishes cost not just the ingredients, but also the rent, water, electricity, labor, and stuff. Meanwhile, all Lin Jin knew was how to eat.
The two of them silently sat there for a moment, and finally decided to wait until the pricing of the dishes were finalized before deciding on the wedding discount.
“Speaking of which, let’s go out tonight?” Xia Tian suddenly suggested.
Lin Jin was completely stunned. She raised her head to look at him, somewhat baffled: “What happened? Why do you suddenly want to go out?”
“I just feel like I’ve been way too busy lately and been neglecting you.” Xia Tian said with a bitter smile “It’s really a bit too busy. During the day, I’m always out, and at night, I’m either helping with the stream or also out doing stuff. During this time, I haven’t talked to you as much as I used to.”
“Exactly!” Lin Jin nodded and vented her displeasure “I know you’ve been really busy, so busy you can’t even rest, and are also really tired normally. But you can’t treat yourself as some treasure! Look at you, back when you were still working, you used to still smile all the time. I spent so much effort turning you from an iceberg man into a warm guy, but now it feels like you’ve reverted back.”
“Alright, it’s my fault, my fault.” Xia Tian stood up and then, like a gentleman, helped Lin JIn to her feet. “Then let’s go out for some steak? And then watch a movie? Then at the end, we can go dance on the arcade dance machine?”
“You’ve planned it all out, I’ll just follow you.”
Lin Jin looked indifferent as she nodded.
Following Lin Jin downstairs, she found that Xia Tian actually got into a Mercedes Benz car.
“???”
She dumbfoundedly climbed into the passenger's seat, and then doubtfully asked: “This car was borrowed, right? You’re not telling me you bought it, right?”
“Borrowed it from a friend.” Xia Tian smiled as he helped Lin Jin with her seatbelt, then started driving with a serious expression on his face.
Lin Jin was in a bit of a daze as she sat in the car.
If she remembered correctly, the first time she ever met Xia Tian was also in a car.
Back then, because of a task, she wore a miniskirt for the first time, and it seemed like she wasn’t wearing any underwear. She took the train all the way from her hometown to Xiamen, and then used an online rideshare app. That was how she met Xia Tian for the first time.
The first time she met Xia Tian, she was actually not wearing underwear, pfft.
Even though she felt super embarrassed back then, but now, she actually felt it was really funny.
The first time they met, Lin Jin barely interacted with Xia Tian at all and she had forgotten whatever they might have said. She only remembered that her appearance at the time wouldn’t have allowed her to keep living in the school dormitories, so she had randomly rented a place near the school’s back gate. Then, she ran into Xia Tian again when going up the stairs.
If the first time meeting was just a coincidence, then the second time, or finding out they lived in the same building, was considered fate, right?
Later, Braised Pork started causing trouble with Xia Tian’s white cat, and through their pets, the two gradually became more familiar with each other. Apparently, his white cat had given birth to a bunch of fat kittens for Braised Pork when Xia Tian had brought it back to his hometown.
Unfortunately, because that white cat had just given birth, Xia Tian didn’t bring the cat back to Xiamen again.
In a daze, Lin Jin recalled how she went from first meeting Xia Tian, to becoming friends, to streaming together, and then finally to Xia Tian running off to Guangdong to confess to her. It suddenly made her feel a bit sad.
Even though she was really pretty, even though the black cat had said she could get married and have children, and even though the black cat had said she was no different from a normal woman.
But no matter if it was herself or someone who knew her situation, they would all find it hard to regard her as a real woman.
But Xia Tian seemed to have done it.
It was also because of this that Lin Jin had agreed to Xia Tian’s pursuit. And then during their later interactions, truly fell in love with him.
Yes, when Lin Jin first agreed to Xia Tian’s confession, she didn’t actually feel much for him.
She just thought with her situation like this, having someone willing to accept her was already very good, what was there for her to be picky about?
So she agreed to Xia Tian, and set up ground rules.
“What are you thinking about?”
Xia Tian, who was currently driving, suddenly turned to face Lin Jin and asked: “I see you look like you’re thinking about something weird?”
“Eyes on the road. You’re driving.” Lin Jin glared at him very unhappily and hid how she had just been feeling.
“Alright, alright. We’ll be there soon.”