Chapter 58: Why Should I Look Back? I Just Like…

Yao Wenjing wasn’t stupid. From Lin Zhi’s reaction and words, he roughly figured out what had happened. Although he hadn’t seen the marks on Lin Zhi’s neck with his own eyes, having never been in a relationship, his imagination was enough to make his face flush red with embarrassment.

Lin Qingye, half-joking and half-serious, finished criticizing his own son, then turned to be amused by his “godson’s” innocence, laughing, “Lin Zhi, this brat, doesn’t know any shame at all.”

Yao Wenjing laughed along, not knowing what to say in response.

“When did he get a girlfriend?” Lin Qingye lowered his voice and tried to gather information from Yao Wenjing. “Do you know?”

Yao Wenjing nodded but then shook his head. He knew the timing, but there was no girlfriend involved. He answered cautiously, “Just this semester.”

Lin Qingye nodded meaningfully, without saying anything reproachful. It wasn’t until Lin Zhi, after checking the marks on his neck and his ears flushed red, came out from the bathroom that Lin Qingye stopped playing chess, waved at Lin Zhi, and said, “Come here, let’s talk.”

Lin Zhi, feeling guilty, tried to avoid it by saying, “I’ll go change clothes in my room first.”

“What clothes do you need to change at this hour?” Lin Qingye cut off his escape, “You’ve already been seen. If you change, am I supposed to pretend I didn’t see anything?”

Without any excuse left, Lin Zhi had no choice but to sit down where he had been earlier. He tried to cover up his embarrassment by pulling up the collar of his sweater, while secretly trying to organize his words in his mind.

Lin Qingye glanced at his actions, then chuckled and said, “You’re both adults now. Some things I believe you don’t need to be taught about. If you like a girl and want to be with her, that’s fine. But since you’re only in your first year of college, there are things that need to be controlled. Don’t end up causing trouble for the girl and making her fail school.”

Both of the inexperienced younger ones felt awkward. Yao Wenjing knew the words weren’t directed at him, so he silently held a chess piece without responding.

Lin Zhi was dating a boyfriend and thought Lin Qingye’s words sounded distant and absurd. He muttered, “What? That’s impossible.”

“Impossible is best,” Lin Qingye thought for a moment before continuing, “The places that need to be covered should still be covered. Lucky for you, we only have three men in this house. If you had a sister, would you want her to see those marks on your neck? Wouldn’t you feel embarrassed if your friends saw it too?”

Lin Zhi: “…”

He didn’t know whether his sister would be embarrassed, but his “friends” certainly wouldn’t be. After all, the hickeys on his neck were from his “friends.”

After delivering the usual fatherly advice, Lin Qingye returned his attention to the chessboard. He moved a soldier across the river, suddenly finding it amusing. “You young people really are something, a big guy getting…”

Yao Wenjing was about to capture the soldier Lin Qingye had just moved when he suddenly heard Lin Qingye call out, “Wait a minute.” Yao Wenjing knew well that once a move was made, there was no taking it back in chess, but since the other person was his godfather, he was willing to give way. However, Lin Qingye’s interruption wasn’t about the game.

“Weren’t you only out this afternoon?” Lin Qingye asked, puzzled.

Although he had been spending his days recently doing leisure activities with Uncle Li downstairs, Lin Qingye had returned every evening to find his son either in pajamas or in slippers, looking completely disheveled, unlike today when he was all dressed up. He had never noticed any signs of a date with a girlfriend until now.

Lin Zhi didn’t know what Lin Qingye was thinking. He simply thought he was asking a casual question, so he answered truthfully, “Yes.”

Lin Qingye looked again at Lin Zhi’s neck, hidden by the sweater collar, and an absurd thought crossed his mind. When he saw Lin Zhi and Lu Liu in the park earlier, it seemed like Lin Zhi had been holding onto Lu Liu. He had thought he had just seen it wrong at the time, but the more he thought about it, the more strange it seemed.

Not long ago, Uncle Li and his wife had been sighing and looking worried. When Lin Zhi and Yao Wenjing were at school, Lin Qingye, feeling bored at home alone, often went downstairs to play chess with Uncle Li. Noticing their distress, he asked what was wrong, and they, being close neighbors for many years, confided in him.

It turned out that Uncle Li had two daughters. His eldest daughter had been married for many years and had a happy family with children, something they were both proud of. However, they were worried about their youngest daughter, who was in her late twenties, successful, but still single. Despite their many attempts to bring up the subject of marriage, their daughter always refused, citing work as an excuse not to meet the men her parents suggested.

Uncle Li and his wife had long stopped pressing her on the matter, but they had noticed something odd. Their youngest daughter’s close friendship with her “best friend” seemed a bit unusual.

Many years ago, the best friend had come to their house and had always brought gifts for the couple during holidays. When the youngest daughter came home, she often brought her best friend along. One day, while the two were in the kitchen preparing dinner, Li’s wife had seen them through the door, and their behavior seemed… different from ordinary friends.

Uncle Li and his wife had lived most of their lives. Although their thinking didn’t quite keep up with modern young men and women, they weren’t completely clueless. However, seeing such a situation happen to their own daughter was still difficult for them to accept.

Lin Qingye, as an outsider, hadn’t interfered or commented on other people’s family matters. He hadn’t asked Uncle Li and his wife about their thoughts up until now. But perhaps because he had heard similar stories, he couldn’t help but suspect his own son.

Lin Zhi had gone out this afternoon to meet Lu Liu. It had only been a few hours, and he’d even had dinner before coming back. How could he possibly have had time to get involved with someone else?

Lin Zhi, feeling guilty under his father’s gaze, nervously asked, “What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Can’t I look at my son?” Lin Qingye retorted, then suddenly changed his tone, “What’s the relationship between you and that Lu Liu?”

The sudden shift caught Lin Zhi off guard. He never expected Lin Qingye would jump so quickly to bring up Lu Liu. The name itself was so sensitive for him that it felt like a climax, and he couldn’t follow his father’s line of thinking. He was stunned for a moment and blurted out an “Ah?”

Yao Wenjing, even less skilled at hiding his emotions than Lin Zhi, was both a partner in crime and someone who had been covering for Lin Zhi. He awkwardly dropped a chess piece in his hand, which shattered a knight’s leg as it fell.

Seeing both of them react like they had been exposed, Lin Qingye felt his suspicions solidifying. He decided to go easier on them and asked, “Wenjing, you tell me, is there something wrong with this brat, Lin Zhi?”

Yao Wenjing looked nervously between Lin Qingye and Lin Zhi, hesitating for a moment. He chose to stand by Lin Zhi, but before he could explain, Lin Zhi spoke up first, his tone annoyed: “What do you mean, something’s wrong with me?”

“Nothing’s wrong?” Lin Qingye turned and pointed at Lin Zhi’s neck. “If nothing’s wrong, then explain to me how this came about?”

Lin Zhi clenched his teeth. He didn’t want to make up a nonexistent girlfriend, but since the conversation had already taken this turn, he decided to admit the truth about his relationship with Lu Liu. “My boyfriend gave this to me.”

Lin Qingye was stunned by his son’s bold attitude, his eyes widening in disbelief. His voice shook as he asked, “You… you still have the nerve to show your face?”

“What’s wrong with that?” Lin Zhi shot back, irritated. “We’re adults now. If we like someone and want to date them, it’s fine. You were the one who just said that not long ago.”

Lin Qingye was left speechless by his own words, seething in frustration. “You’re twisting my meaning.”

“I don’t care about your meaning,” Lin Zhi replied seriously. “I understand it this way, and no matter what you meant, it doesn’t change the fact that I like men and have a boyfriend.”

Lin Qingye, unable to control his temper, blurted out, “I think you never had a mother to teach you properly. This house is too dominated by men, which led you down the wrong path, and you refuse to turn back!”

“Why should I turn back? I just like this path,” Lin Zhi couldn’t hold back his retort. “Sexual orientation is natural, whether or not I had a mother to guide me, I’d still be like this. Besides, could I have chosen whether or not I had a mother? Isn’t it you and her who caused me to grow up without one?”

Lin Qingye was left speechless, turning his head away in pain.

Yao Wenjing, with his mouth half-open, didn’t know how to intervene. Seeing things escalating, he quickly tried to calm Lin Qingye down. He also tugged at Lin Zhi’s sleeve, signaling him to say less.

Lin Zhi pouted, realizing that his words had indeed been a bit too harsh. But the topic had been raised by Lin Qingye, and he didn’t want to compromise on the fact that Lin Qingye had called his relationship with Lu Liu a “wrong path.” So, to smooth things over, he picked up the biggest tangerine from the fruit bowl and handed it to Lin Qingye as a peace offering.