Bringing Girlfriend to Meet Parents

The moment her own work was brought up, Tian Nina instantly grew excited. "After what happened this time, I finally realized how bad my original version was. I decided to use this fraud case as the basis and rewrote it. The draft is in my bag. Help me take a look."

Lin Qiye took Tian Nina's cultural-creative draft and read as he said, "There's kind of a lot here. Go buy two bowls of rice noodles to go. We'll eat in the office while we go through it."

"Okay, beef topping, right? Wait here for me." Tian Nina happily headed toward the rice noodle shop nearby.

Taking advantage of the gap while his trainee girlfriend was gone, Lin Qiye put on his Bluetooth earphones.

"Scan the article in my hand and activate literary evaluation mode."

[Scan complete. This work is adapted from real events. It is a mystery literary creation. Main creators: Tian Nina, Lin Qiye, and the Southwest University of Industry students who participated in the entire incident.]

[The author attempts to present the suspense and tension of the process, using a large amount of descriptive vocabulary and sentence breaks in hopes of creating atmosphere.]

[However, the overall course of the case lacks detailed description, making it difficult for readers to feel immersed.]

"Can you revise it?"

[I can revise it, but literary creation is different from business reports. Every author's writing contains their own unique emotions and writing style, and I do not currently possess this kind of emotional deconstruction capability. The revised text would merely apply writing structures mechanically and would be very rigid.]

[If the administrator truly needs this function added, I can only reduce the Computing Power invested in the financial field and instead research literary creation.]

"Then forget it. Making money comes first."

[I need to remind the administrator in advance that my Storage Space is already insufficient. As tasks increase, Computing Power shortages frequently occur. It is recommended that equipment be added as soon as possible.]

"We'll handle buying equipment right after National Day."

[Please resolve this issue as soon as possible, administrator. Otherwise, Internet cafe Users will choose to leave because of frequent lag.]

True enough, Phoenix Dance Nine Heavens Internet Cafe claimed to have high-end setups and even offered a buy-one-get-one-free top-up deal, but it was getting laggier and laggier!

Whenever collective lag occurred, the staff would add an extra free hour for those furious customers.

Heaven knew whether Phoenix Dance Nine Heavens Internet Cafe could keep going if this continued.

Half an hour later, after slurping down her rice noodles, Tian Nina asked, "Finished reading?"

"Mm. I've got a few small comments. Want to hear them?" Lin Qiye put down the draft, picked up his bowl, and took a big gulp of soup.

"Of course." Tian Nina sat up straight.

"Actually, your literary foundation isn't bad, and you have a strong command of vocabulary. But you focus too much on decorative wording and descriptions of atmosphere and setting. At first, it feels interesting, but once there's too much, it causes reader fatigue. By the time someone finishes it, it's the same as not having read it at all—they won't remember anything."

Tian Nina's chest rose and fell. She was clearly very angry, and her tone grew heavier too.

"Then tell me, how should I change it?"

The words she spat out one by one carried thick killing intent.

Lin Qiye, completely unaware, replied, "Of course you should revise the whole thing. Remove those irrelevant modifiers and atmospheric scenes, streamline the sentences as much as possible, then focus on describing the development of the incident itself. Let readers unconsciously become immersed through the progression of events."

"Fine. Then you revise one for me. If you don't do a good job, Auntie and Uncle won't be seeing you this afternoon."

Tian Nina, like a little tigress, pretended to be angry and pounced over fiercely, only for Lin Qiye to stretch out an arm and block her.

Amid their horseplay, she fell into his arms.

Both of them instantly stiffened, yet seemed to be savoring that unusual feeling.

Then they quickly separated.

Tian Nina's face was very red, and she was very shy. Leaning against the wall, she had no idea what to say.

Lin Qiye also felt something strange in his heart. This feeling that made his heartbeat quicken and his blood surge was something he had never experienced before.

Perhaps this was love—love without any interests mixed in, pure love that belonged only to Youngsters.

And awkwardness, too. The two kept their distance, locked in a stalemate.

Lin Qiye forced himself to speak. "Mm, let's continue. Actually, you could change it into a documentary-style narration. You're the narrator, the filmer, and the participant. The people in the story would be shown through your perspective, and the effect would be very good. Also, for those videos you shot, I can help you edit them into a short film to go with the article. Maybe it'll work really well."

Tian Nina pushed away those strange emotions and brought her thoughts back to her creation.

"You mean write a documentary script?"

"I wouldn't call it a script. Maybe the video would only be ten minutes long, using narration and flashbacks to tell the whole incident in a compact but complete way."

"Then the narrator inside would use first person and tell it from her unique perspective. Let me think... it does seem better that way."

Their conversation continued. In the office, a pseudo-documentary mystery literary short-film novel went from sprout to fruition.

This conversation lasted until the afternoon. Tian Nina already had a complete idea and draft. As long as she continued polishing it, she could produce the written version, followed by the video production Lin Qiye had promised.

Just then, Lin Qiye's phone rang.

As soon as he answered, Mom Lin's voice came through. "Where are you? We've gotten off the train."

Bad news. He had actually forgotten about this.

Lin Qiye quickly replied, "Mom, wait at the train station. I'll be right over."

"You child, you actually forgot. Hurry up. Also, bring your girlfriend along. Let your dad and me have a look."

"Okay, I'll contact you in a bit."

After hanging up, the two of them hurriedly rushed out of the Internet cafe office and hailed a taxi directly on Fallen Street.

Amid the clamor of the train station, Dad Lin and Mom Lin stood waiting in the station square.

At least forty minutes passed, and just as the two of them were about to get angry, a phone rang.

Mom Lin answered the call. "Son, where are you? Your dad and I have been standing here until our feet are numb."

"Look to your left. I'm here."

Mom Lin looked left and saw her son, Lin Qiye, waving from a distance. Beside him stood a little blond girl.

"His dad, this is bad. Our son found himself a delinquent girl who dyes her hair. What are we going to do?!" Mom Lin was genuinely panicking. In this day and age, girls with dyed yellow hair were all trouble, and she and Dad Lin had kept shop on the street for years. They had seen plenty.

Dad Lin took a careful look and said hesitantly, "I don't think it's dyed. Her skin's so fair. She looks Chinese, but also like a foreigner."

"Really?" Mom Lin looked again, then broke into a smile. "She's actually quite pretty."

As they spoke, Lin Qiye brought Tian Nina over and took the initiative to introduce them.

"These are my parents."

"Hello, Auntie. Hello, Uncle," Tian Nina greeted them very obediently and gently.

"This is Tian Nina. Her father is Chinese and her mother is Hungarian. She's a junior in our school's Chinese Department."

Dad Lin smiled kindly and nodded. "Oh, a classmate."

Mom Lin walked over, looking entirely like she was assessing a daughter-in-law, and started chatting familiarly with Tian Nina.

"Xiao Tian, how old are you?"

"Twenty-one. Auntie, you're so young. You look like you're about my age."

Mom Lin grinned so widely she could barely close her mouth. "That mouth of yours is like it's been dipped in honey. You've sweetened me right up. Let me tell you a secret for taking care of your skin. Use aloe juice..."

"Really? Then I'll definitely have to try it."

Seeing his temporary girlfriend subdue his mother in a single encounter, Lin Qiye was a little speechless. Was this still the famously fast-talking mother of Huamu Market?

He looked at Dad Lin.

"Dad, what do you think of the girlfriend I brought? You don't mind that she's mixed, do you?"

Dad Lin smiled. "Mixed? Whether she's mixed or not isn't important. The most important thing is whether the two of you are happy together."

Lin Qiye froze, not expecting his father to be so open-minded. In his previous life, when he brought girlfriends home, his parents had found fault with every one of them. None of them had received as high an evaluation as Tian Nina.

Perhaps this was the special intuition of parents. Those girlfriends of his whom they hadn't looked favorably upon had indeed ended unhappily later on.

Lin Qiye could not help sighing with a double meaning, "Yeah, we're very happy together. She's let me experience a lot of things I never experienced before."

Dad Lin put on the air of an experienced person and began teaching him. "That's what love is. Back when I was chasing your mom, I thought about her every day. How far have you two gotten now?"

So direct. Lin Qiye actually had no idea how to answer.

"Uh... we've only held hands so far."

"That won't do. You have to work harder. A girl that pretty must have a lot of people pursuing her. Don't let someone else cut in."

Listening to his father's words, Lin Qiye was so embarrassed he nearly dug a hole in the ground with his toes.

This was the generation gap of age. Once upon a time, his future self had used this same tone with his nephew too.

And now, he felt like elders were so annoying!