Yang Qingqiu was completely confused by her daughter, but she still explained, “Lu is ‘road,’ Jin is ‘metal,’ and Yu is ‘fish’—that stinky dead fish ‘Yu.’ That young man… no wonder Aunt Hu praised him so much, he’s simply too shameless, too—”
The rest of the words, Lin Zijin didn’t even hear clearly.
Her mind had already crashed into a blank void.
How could this be?
The man she met at the state-run restaurant, the one she ate with and even got a marriage certificate with—was clearly Lu Jingyu!
She had clearly seen his name on his documents. It was definitely “Lu Jingyu.” She even thought at the time that it was such a nice name—obviously something given by an educated person.
And now she was being told her blind date was actually “Lu Jinyu”?
Absurd. Completely absurd.
The key was that Lu Jingyu himself hadn’t even corrected it. He even said he knew her family situation…
Could it be that he also got the wrong person, and his blind date just happened to share her surname?
Seeing her daughter’s pale face and teary expression, Yang Qingqiu quickly asked, “What’s wrong, girl?
Don’t scare Mom!
If this one doesn’t work out, I’ll find you another—someone even better.”
Lin Zijin felt cold all over, her voice trembling. “Mom… Mom, it’s not that… something big happened.”
Thinking her daughter was just angry about the failed match, Yang Qingqiu held her shoulder and patted her gently.
“It’s fine, Mom’s here.
I promise I’ll find you someone better later—way better than that rotten fish guy.
His character is bad—we don’t want him.”
Lin Zijin desperately shook her head. “No, Mom, it’s not that, it’s—”
She didn’t even know how to explain anymore.
Today’s situation was too absurd, too outrageous, too melodramatic… too full of coincidence.
She suddenly thought of the shoulder bag.
She quickly opened it and pulled out the freshly issued, still warm marriage certificate, handing it to her mother.
Yang Qingqiu was stunned. She looked at the marriage certificate her daughter handed over, confusion written all over her face. She was about to ask whose certificate it was and why it was in her hands—
when she saw the names written on it: Lu Jingyu and Lin Zijin.
Her eyes widened like copper bells, her mouth opening so wide it could fit an egg.
After a long moment, she finally came back to her senses and pointed at the names on the certificate.
“You? You and who?!”
Lin Zijin pointed at the certificate in her mother’s hand. “T-that… isn’t it written there?”
“I know what’s written there—Lu Jingyu! But who is he?!”
Lin Zijin lowered her head, fingers tightly intertwined as she rubbed them nervously.
In a small voice, she said, “He… he was the blind date Aunt Hu introduced to me. At least, that’s what I thought.
After you left, I went to the state-run restaurant…”
She then recounted everything that happened there, explaining how she had originally thought the person was wrong, but in the end, the man never showed up under the name “Lu Jinyu,” and instead somehow got entangled with Lin Xue and stood her up.
Hearing this, Yang Qingqiu felt like the sky was collapsing.
No wonder—no wonder her silly daughter hadn’t come back. So that’s what happened!
She suddenly grabbed her daughter’s shoulders.
“Girl! Tell me—this Lu whatever-you-call-him you met today… what kind of person is he?
What’s his family background?”
Her daughter was already a little “simple-minded” to begin with—if she had been tricked into a bad marriage…
She didn’t even dare to think further.
“I feel like he’s a decent person—polite, observant, and very generous.” On their very first meeting, he had given her a savings book with 1,000 yuan.
“His family… his family seems to have an older brother and a sister… the rest, I—I’m not too sure,” she said, lowering her head.
Yang Qingqiu only felt her vision go dark. She gritted her teeth.
“He didn’t tell you?”
Lin Zijing shook her head. “No—it’s just that… he might have said it, but I was thinking about something and…”
Yang Qingqiu was so angry she felt like she could spit blood. She had told her to go on a blind date and properly understand the other person, and yet she went off thinking about something else instead.
And now things had escalated to this point—they were even engaged! If she had known earlier, she wouldn’t have even given her household registration documents.
“You—you girl… are you trying to kill me? What if—what if he’s a bad person, or someone trying to trick you into marriage?”
Lin Zijing quickly defended him. “Mom, no, he’s definitely not that kind of person. He’s very handsome, and…”
Seeing that her daughter had only met him once and was already defending him, Yang Qingqiu slapped her own forehead in frustration. “What sins have I committed!”
Lin Zijing noticed her mother’s lack of trust and understood what she was thinking. She lowered her head again and rummaged through her bag. After finding the savings book, she finally sighed in relief.
She handed it to Yang Qingqiu. “Mom, take a look.”
At that moment, Yang Qingqiu was on the verge of losing her temper. “Look? Look at what? Seeing you makes me angry enough already—I could beat you!”
Lin Zijing bit her lip. “Mom, just take one look. After that, you won’t be angry anymore.”
Yang Qingqiu opened her eyes, glanced at it—and suddenly froze. Her eyes widened dramatically as she leaned in closer, staring at the savings book. Her voice changed pitch.
“One thousand? Where did you get—”
She quickly covered her mouth before finishing the sentence. There were walls with ears—if those annoying girls came back and heard this, what then?
She told Lin Ziyou to go close the door, then leaned close to Lin Zijing and whispered, “Where did this savings book come from?”
She had never seen so much money in her life.
In the past, they were country folk. Even with the whole family working all year, they barely made a few yuan. Later, after moving to the city, Lin Jiancheng didn’t trust her with money and kept control of it himself. She was only given money for groceries.
If there was any urgent need, she had to beg and argue to get it.
She had never even properly seen a large denomination bill before. Well—she had seen it, but never owned it.
Lin Zijing imitated her mother and leaned in to whisper, “It was from the person I registered my marriage with. He gave it to me.
Your daughter isn’t stupid—I wouldn’t be easily fooled. This is his guarantee for me.
I told him that once the betrothal gifts were prepared, I would give it back to him, but he said he didn’t want it and told me to use it as pocket money.”
As she said this, Lin Zijing looked rather proud.
She really felt like she had picked up a treasure. He was far better than that so-called “Lu” guy by a hundred times.
Yang Qingqiu became even more panicked after hearing this.
“Girl, are you sure you weren’t tricked?
Who gives that much money the first time they meet someone?
Could it be fake?
Modern scammers are extremely sophisticated.”
She turned the savings book over and over, inspecting it carefully, rubbing it repeatedly, but still couldn’t find anything wrong.
The more she checked, the more uneasy she became.
“Girl… what does he want from you?
There’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world!”
“Mom, be a little more confident. Your daughter has plenty of good qualities too. Maybe… he just likes me as a person.”