Chương 53: When to have children?

"The engagement can be next month, but there's no rush for a wedding. Wanwan is busy with work, and Linzhou is busy too. Let the kids get to know each other first. But speaking of which—" Su Wan's mother looked at Lin Zhou's father, then at Lin Zhou's mother.

"Where are you planning to hold the banquet? We have a lot of relatives here, so we'll need at least twenty tables."

"Twenty tables is no problem. We have thirty tables on our side. Let's find a large hotel so that relatives from both families can sit together. As for the bride price—" Just as Lin Zhou's father mentioned the word "bride price," Lin Zhou and Su Wan appeared at the elevator entrance on the third floor.

Lin Zhou's blue down jacket came out of the elevator lobby.

The first thing he saw was his mother standing by the glass railing, holding her phone, with a smile on her face that said, "My son has finally made something of himself."

His father stood beside him, hands behind his back, his expression a little gentler than usual.

Su Wan's mother stood opposite, wearing a camel coat and gold-rimmed glasses, her gaze fixed on the hand Su Wan was using to link arms with him.

Su Wan's hand was still in the crook of his arm.

She took the elevator up from the second basement level and didn't let go of her hand the whole way.

Standing at the elevator entrance on the third floor, facing the gazes of three parents, she didn't loosen her grip.

Her fingers gently rested on the inside of his forearm, and through the sleeve of his down jacket, he could feel that the temperature of her fingers hadn't changed.

He lowered his head and said in a voice only she could hear, "Is the tactical cover still in place?"

"Now we must continue," Su Wan said.

Her voice was flat.

The two walked towards the entrance of the Hunan restaurant.

When Lin Zhou's father saw Lin Zhou walking over, the father and son exchanged a glance.

Lin Zhou called out "Dad," then turned to Su Wan's mother, nodded, and called her "Auntie."

Su Wan nodded as well.

Lin Zhou's mother couldn't wait to come and greet him.

"Wanwan! Oh my, you're even prettier than in the photos!"

She looked Su Wan up and down, scrutinizing her from head to toe. Her gaze lingered for a long time on the hand Su Wan was holding onto Lin Zhou's arm. Then she turned to Lin Zhou's father and said...

"Look how well-matched they are."

Su Wan nodded slightly, her voice as steady as when she gave her statement at the police station.

"Hello, Auntie. Hello, Uncle."

She turned to her mother, "Mom. This is Lin Zhou."

Su Wan's mother nodded.

Her gaze shifted from Su Wan's face to Lin Zhou's face, pausing for a moment.

"Xiao Lin, Wanwan said you're very fast at picking locks."

"good."

Lin Zhou said.

After saying those two words, he realized his answer was too simple, so he added another sentence.

"It's been running for almost a month now, and there haven't been any problems."

Su Wan's mother nodded.

Lin Zhou's father suddenly spoke up, standing to the side with his hands behind his back.

"We were talking about the engagement just before you came up here."

He paused for about a second, then looked into Lin Zhou's eyes.

"If you two had come any later, I would have been talking about holding my grandson by now."

Su Wan released her hand from Lin Zhou's arm.

She didn't pull her fingers back abruptly, but slowly loosened them, then raised them to cover her face.

His hands covered his eyes and the bridge of his nose, leaving only his lips and chin exposed.

The way she covered her face was exactly the same as the way she slumped in a chair after getting drunk at the barbecue restaurant.

Lin Zhou stood to the side, looking at his father, and his lips twitched.

Read the full text of Chapter 53, "When Will You Have a Baby?", for free. Link: He took his tool bag off his shoulder and placed it on the chair next to him, then spoke.

"Dad. I've only known Su Wan for a few days. As for the engagement—" He paused for a moment, then said, "Can we eat first?"

"Yes, yes, let's eat first."

Lin Zhou's mother grabbed Lin Zhou's father's sleeve and pulled him into the private room.

"Stop talking. The child just arrived and you're already talking about engagement; you're scaring the girl."

The private room wasn't large, with a round table and six chairs. Bowls, chopsticks, and several plates of cold dishes were already set on the table.

A decorative painting of strings of chili peppers hung on the wall, and the air conditioner was set to a warm temperature.

Su Wan sat down next to Lin Zhou, moved his tool bag under the table, and then looked up to find her mother watching her across the table.

The mother and daughter engaged in a silent dialogue through their gazes.

"Lin Zhou," Su Wan's mother put down her teacup and began to ask questions.

"Wanwan told me you participated in some kind of competition? Lock picking? What's that competition all about? How much money can you earn?"

Lin Zhou sat up a little straighter in the chair.

"It's a vocational skills competition. One hundred people are randomly assigned a profession. After thirty days, whoever earns the most money with that profession wins. The first-place prize is ten million. I'm currently ranked eighth, and my cumulative income is—" He did the math in his head, "It's probably around two or three thousand, plus the consultant appointment letter and bonus from this morning, it's fifty thousand."

Su Wan's mother pushed up her glasses.

Lin Zhou's mother was also stunned—she didn't know that Lin Zhou had become a technical consultant for the municipal government, and she had never heard of the 50, 000 yuan bonus before.

The two mothers exchanged a glance, then simultaneously turned their gaze to Su Wan.

Su Wan picked up her teacup and took a sip. A small piece of undissolved tea leaf floated on the surface of the tea. She swallowed the tea before speaking.

"It's true. This morning he opened a safe in the city bureau's evidence room. It was imported from Germany and had an anti-tamper self-destruct device. The city bureau's experts tried to open it three times without success. He opened it in three minutes. The bureau chief immediately decided to appoint him as a special technical consultant."

She put down her teacup.

"I was there."

Su Wan's mother fell silent.

She pushed up her glasses and looked Lin Zhou up and down again.

In her mind, being a police officer is a very stable profession, while being a locksmith is a very unstable one.

But the city bureau's technical consultant job, which didn't require her to be in the office, had a uniform, and received bonuses, was beyond anything she had ever imagined about the term "locksmith."

She looked at Lin Zhou for a long time, then asked, "What do you like about Wanwan?"

The question was asked very softly, but everyone in the private room fell silent.

Lin Zhou's mother's chopsticks were suspended in mid-air, holding a piece of chopped chili fish head.

Lin Zhou's father held a teacup, his gaze sweeping over the rim. Su Wan's hand, holding the teacup, paused at her lips.

Lin Zhou lowered his hands from the table and placed them on his knees.

"She had the highest crime-solving rate in the entire team, and she was always at the forefront when dealing with human traffickers."

Su Wan's hand, holding the teacup, remained hovering near her lips.

She took a sip of tea, but didn't swallow it.

He looked up at Su Wan's mother.

"This is what I like."

The private room remained quiet for a long time.

Lin Zhou's mother finally put down her chopsticks and put the chopped chili fish head down. The fish meat fell onto the plate, and a small patch of red oil splattered on the table.

Su Wan's mother adjusted her glasses but didn't say anything. Su Wan placed the teacup on the table.

The bottom of the glass tapped on the table with a soft sound, the same force she used when she tapped her wine glass at the barbecue restaurant yesterday.

She turned her head to look at Lin Zhou, who was taking a sip of water from his teacup, his Adam's apple bobbing slightly.