Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu-Chapter 1229: Taken a back seat

"I am Han Shui," she coughed.

Wait a minute, how should I introduce myself...?

Can I say we are just friends? Ugh, but that is not technically right...

"We are seeing each other," Lin solved her conundrum.

Yeah, that’s a good answer, she thought.

She smiled, albeit awkwardly. Until this morning, her only thought process was to help dissolve the tension between Lin and his parents and pitch in when needed. It now occurred to her that they were also her future boyfriend’s parents and this was officially their first meeting in another way.

"Oh! I thought so...!" Hou Luli was overjoyed. "When I saw you two together at the park, I had an inkling...I am so happy!"

Her misty eyes lit up.

"I was always so worried about them both. We don’t know if they had someone special in their life like that, but yeah...I am so happy to meet you."

Hou Luli felt a load off her chest. She knew she didn’t have much time to live, yet she was clueless about their future, especially Lin’s. Having spent six years in prison, it worried her to death if there would be a woman who would be willing to see him beyond his prison past.

"Did you hear that, Fa?" She eagerly walked to his side, eyes beaming. "They are seeing each other, which means that she could be our future daughter-in-law."

"..We are not that far yet," Lin quickly clarified before Shui felt any undue pressure.

"You may not be there yet, but you will be. I can sense it," she beamed again. "You two look so good with each other. Where did you meet? How long have you two been seeing each other?"

She suddenly realized that she was asking too many questions back to back and paused for breath.

"I am sorry. I completely forgot. You two should first sit down. I just kept babbling..."

"It’s okay."

"Oh, I should make something for you!"

"No."

"No."

Both father and son unanimously rejected that idea. Hou Fa glanced at Lin once and cleared his throat.

"You are too weak to cook-"

"What do you mean?" She glared. "I am just fine! It’s Lin we are talking about. He is back home after so long and you are saying I don’t prepare a meal for him either? That’s not going to happen!"

Hou Luli wasn’t ready to budge so he had no choice but to allow her to go to the kitchen.

"Wait, I will come and help too," Shui offered, worried that Hou Luli would push herself too hard to cook the perfect meal for her son who had returned after a long time.

"Oh, no, no, please sit."

"No, please let me help you," she smiled. "I would also personally like to see your recipes!"

Hoh Luli smiled, abashed. "I mean they are not that fancy...B-But if you really like to join, then I won’t stop you."

"Thank you!"

She looked at Fa. "You will be here with Lin?"

There was a long silence.

"Yeah sure...And take it easy with the cooking."

—

At first, there was an awkward silence between Shui and Hou Luli. Hou Luli was merrily beating the eggs while Shui took care of the vegetables.

"That-"

"I-"

Both spoke at once and stiffened.

"Yes, go ahead Mrs. Hui," Shui offered with a cheery smile.

Hou Luli looked at her with a complicated expression. Her pace had slowed down a bit.

"I was wondering how Lin and Cai have been doing..."

Shui blinked once. "They are doing great. They opened their own cafe and it’s almost been a year now. It’s doing great and has become very popular with the customers. They are the crushes of many high schoolers~"

Her eyes widened. "Really?"

"Haha yes! You should see their cafe. It’s all filled with high schoolers and college girls. They sometimes ask Lin and Cai to click pictures with them and they always oblige. You could even say that the cafe grew famous because of them."

"Oh."

Shui nodded hard. An idea clicked her and she quickly took out her phone. Scrolling through her image gallery, she showed her a bunch of pictures - all where Lin and Cai posed with their fans.

Hou Luli stared at those pictures, breathing shakily.

Shui grinned. "Hehe. They both are super popular now. Some girls like Lin’s silent and reserved nature. He also can be blunt at times but it has actually attracted him more fans than ever," she shook her head. "And then of course Cai. He is the cheery and bright sunshine. An extrovert who can lift everyone’s moods with his charm. Together, the brothers are a deadly combo."

"I see..." a chuckle involuntarily escaped her lips.

The pictures kept scrolling by and the more they did, the more she realized just how much she had been missing of what was happening in their sons’ lives. Tears pooled in her eyes, and she trembled.

"M-Mrs. Hou...!" She held her back and said, "I am sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you."

"No. It’s not your fault," she wiped her eyes. The earlier cheeriness was now diminishing into a somber mood again.

She smiled with a faint helplessness arching her lips. "I believe you know our family situation."

Shui slightly pursed her lips. "A little bit."

Her expression dimmed. "It’s too late to regret now that we haven’t been such good parents to them. We didn’t raise them like other parents, a happy home and atmosphere. Fa and I used to have constant fights, so our marriage was a mess, especially when we both had such demanding jobs. Things settled down a bit when Lin was born and then Cai. They held down our disagreements for sometime. But when Lin’s social challenges got more pronounced over time we just...gave up on him because we had so much on our plate back then."

She laughed self-deprecatingly. "In a way, though we didn’t admit it, we were thankful that Yahui had come into our lives. It was like she took care of Lin and Cai, which we were supposed to do. She was present for them at a time when we had willingly and selfishly taken a back seat for their upbringing."