New Times, New Hell

Chapter 140 - Extra: Meeting the In-Laws (End)

The Yu parents weren’t the stubbornly traditional type, but Jintan Village was only a small place. Before the popularization of the Internet, it had been extremely isolated. To this day, in their world, they had only ever heard about matters of homosexuality. They hadn’t thought that their first personal encounter with it would be with their own biological son. This development was truly a bit exhilarating.

Father Yu instinctively yelled at Shang Que, “Don’t say that! Who’s your father-in-law?!”

Mother Yu was astonished too. She looked at Yu Zhengdu, then looked at Shang Que. “You guys……you guys shouldn’t randomly joke around about these things.”

“We aren’t joking.” Yu Zhengdu had predicted his parents’ various reactions way in advance. He had also thought of how to respond to them. When faced with their agitation now, he wasn’t panicked. Instead, he became even more composed. He said, “Dad, Mom, Xiao Shang and I are serious about being in a relationship. I hope you two can support us.”

“You guys, you guys…… This……” Father Yu was so shocked that he had to rest his head on his hand. “You’re both men. How can you be in a relationship?”

“Father-in-Law, gender isn’t a problem.” Shang Que gazed at Father Yu. “Affection is the most important.”

In his heart, Father Yu had originally really liked Shang Que. If this was anyone else, he probably would’ve immediately responded with cussing. However, when faced with Shang Que’s face, he forced those angry words down and said through clenched teeth, “How is gender not a problem? You two are both men. Don’t you want any children in the future?”

Shang Que: “We have a child.”

Father Yu: “What bullshit are you saying——”

Before he could finish his sentence, a soft little hand clutched onto his wrist. A little girl’s quiet voice that sounded like it was on the brink of crying could be heard: “Grandpa, don’t scold Dad.”

Father Yu turned his head, only to see that little Peppa was pitifully staring at him with her round eyes. Mother Yu’s heart softened first. She hurriedly smacked Father Yu. “Speak more quietly. Don’t scare the child.”

Peppa then turned to look at Mother Yu. “Grandma, you’re the best——”

“Oyo, don’t feel scared, Peppa. Grandma won’t scold anyone. Come to Grandma.” Mother Yu instantly switched sides. She held onto Peppa’s hand and started placating her.

Peppa burrowed her head into Mother Yu’s embrace. At the same time, she gave Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que a meaningful look out of her peripheral vision: Dads, I’ve done my best!

Yu Zhengdu secretly gave her a thumbs up too.

The Peppa Plan had succeeded.

The scene that had been on the brink of exploding instantly calmed down. Father Yu instinctively wanted to throw a fit, but it really wasn’t right to blow up in front of a cute and obedient child. His anger ended up stuck inside; there was no way for him to express it.

Upon seeing that his parents’ emotions were now under control, Yu Zhengdu finally carefully and slowly stated, “Dad, Mom, when two people are together, the most important thing is their affection for one another. Shang Que and I have experienced many things together. Our affection for each other is something that no one else can replace. When I’m with him, I feel very happy and blessed. Isn’t this the most important thing?”

Shang Que added on, “Aside from gender, I can meet all other requirements you guys have for Zhengdu’s significant other.”

There was no way to disregard the weight of Shang Que’s words. At this point, if the Yu parents wanted to continue making an argument about gender, they would truly appear quite unreasonable.

And, if they completely overlooked the matter of gender and looked at things from a different perspective, Shang Que was truly a flawless significant other for their son.

The Yu parents could understand this concept in their hearts, but couldn’t accept it emotionally. It was temporarily still a bit difficult for them to do so.

“Can’t you two&#k2026;&#k2026;just separate and find girlfriends?” Mother Yu continued to try, refusing to give up.

“No.” Shang Que was short and to the point. He could take a few step backs regarding other matters, but in this regard, he had an extremely unyielding attitude. There was no room for negotiation.

Yu Zhengdu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He looked at Mother Yu in exasperation. “Mom, Shang Que and I are gay. If you tell us to find girlfriends, wouldn’t we be harming those girls?”

“That’s true too,” Mother Yu mumbled. Though she still wished her son could be with a girl in her heart, if her son really was gay, she couldn’t abandon her morals and make her son scam another girl into marriage.

“Grandpa, Grandma, don’t worry.” Peppa opportunistically burrowed her head further into Mother Yu’s arms. “When you guys are old, I’ll have grown up too. I’ll take care of you guys.”

“Ey ey, Peppa is such a good girl! So filial!” Mother Yu’s thoughts were instantly distracted by Peppa. She sighed. “It’s not like we raised a child with the intent for the child to take care of us in old age. But you know……”

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about us.” Yu Zhengdu gazed at his parents and solemnly said, “We’re really doing great.”

Since things were already like this, the Yu parents didn’t know what else they could say either. It wasn’t right to scold them. Also, there was a child present too. Ultimately, Father Yu could only angrily say, “Fine, fine. We’ll stop here today.”

“Then I’ll go wash the dishes.” Yu Zhengdu took the initiative to stand up and finish the chores.

“I’ll do it,” Shang Que said.

“Let Zhengdu do it,” Mother Yu interrupted from off to the side. “Our Yu family tradition has always been for one person to cook and the other to wash the dishes. Xiao Shang just cooked, so let Zhengdu wash up.”

Father Yu glared at her from off to the side. “What are you saying? I haven’t admitted that he’s part of the Yu family yet.”

Mother Yu sighed. “Oh shut up, you. You just drank three bowls of his soup.”

The supposed shortening of the hand after receiving a gift from someone and softening of the mouth after eating someone else’s food. This was also another reason why Father Yu couldn’t blow up at Shang Que. Aside from the fact that he really did like Shang Que from the bottom of his heart, he also couldn’t bring himself to immediately cut off ties with the other after receiving so many gifts and benefits from him over this past year. He was incapable of doing such a thing…… He kept feeling like all this had been conspired in advance.

However, even though he was thinking this in his heart, he still felt inevitably embarrassed when Mother Yu said it out loud. Thus, Father Yu wanted to refute her. When he opened his mouth, though, he couldn’t control himself: he let out a long and loud burp.

The atmosphere instantly became quite awkward.

“Nevermind, nevermind. I’ll go wash the dishes then.” Yu Zhengdu conveniently changed the topic to allow his dad some time to recover.

Mother Yu glanced at Shang Que. “I’m going to take a walk to the park. Come with me, Xiao Shang?”

This meant that she was worried that leaving Shang Que at home would result in another argument with Father Yu later; it also meant that she wanted to have a private talk with Shang Que.

Shang Que snuck a peek at Yu Zhengdu. Upon noticing that Yu Zhengdu was nodding, he stood up. “Okay.”

After seeing this, Peppa’s eyes darted around in thought. She buried herself into Father Yu’s embrace. “Then I’ll stay home and accompany Grandpa.”

“Alright.” Father Yu instantly couldn’t be bothered with trying to stop Mother Yu and Shang Que anymore.

Shang Que and Mother Yu walked along the streets of Jintan Village in the direction of the park.

Mother Yu didn’t say anything too deliberately difficult during the walk. She only asked about Shang Que’s situation once more.

Shang Que lived in the mortal realm. He had an ID card and a corresponding identity. In the past, the Yu parents had learned bits and pieces about Shang Que from Yu Zhengdu. Now, though, they were just getting a more detailed understanding.

In all honesty, though, there actually wasn’t anything that needed to be understood in detail. If they looked at things solely through the perspective of their requirements for their child’s significant other, there was nothing negative to be said about Shang Que. At the end of the day, their only concern was gender.

“Ey, you young people these days……” Mother Yu ultimately couldn’t say anything else either. She could only lament in this manner.

“Rest at ease, Mother-in-Law,” Shang Que said. “I’ve studied the mortal realm’s standards for significant others. I’m considered part of the extremely high quality subset.”

Mother Yu felt very confused upon hearing this. “You even studied that stuff?”

“Un.” Shang Que nodded. He seriously answered, “I can’t lose.”

Mother Yu was bewildered.

During their conversation, the two of them had reached the little park in Jintan Village. It was post-dinner stroll time right now. The little park was bustling, especially the public square: there were already large numbers of middle-aged and elderly people gathered there. The aunties had already gotten in formation and started dancing.

Normally, Mother Yu would also be a member of the square dancing group. However, she wasn’t in the mood to dance today. She only walked along the little path that wrapped around the lake in the park with Shang Que.

Not even halfway around the lake, lots of friends started incessantly greeting Mother Yu. During this time, Shang Que familiarly smiled perfunctorily at these people like he normally did for work. In a rare bout of patience, he didn’t appear even the slightest bit agitated. He really gave Mother Yu a lot of respect.

Shang Que’s exceptional appearance and aura instantly garnered lots of attention. Quite a few people turned the topic of conversation onto Shang Que, both subtly and obviously. There were also some who already knew Shang Que’s identity. These people complimented him even more.

Without mentioning anything else, which middle-aged or elderly individual in this day and age didn’t want to get a ticket to Sagittarius Band’s concert?

And right now, Sagittarius Band’s boss was taking a stroll with Mother Yu like he was a member of her family. This entire trip, Mother Yu’s vanity had been greatly satisfied.

“Let’s sit and rest for a bit,” Mother Yu found a bench no one was sitting at and said to Shang Que.

They had been walking for quite some time. This, in addition to the continuous small talk with friends, was truly quite tiring.

“You can sit. I need to take care of a few things,” Shang Que answered. After ensuring that Mother Yu had sat down, he walked off to the side and started replying to Yu Zhengdu’s messages.

Yu Zhengdu:【Taken care of your Mother-in-Law yet?】

Shang Que:【Don’t know. Mother-in-Law didn’t explicitly say.】

Yu Zhengdu:【As long as she hasn’t explicitly expressed disapproval, we’ve technically already mostly succeeded】

Shang Que:【I should just tell them that you’ve been acknowledged by Luofeng Mountain. No one will be able to be in opposition. Isn’t that much simpler?】

Yu Zhengdu:【Then do you want them to treat you like you’re the Ghost King, or treat you like you’re their son-in-law?】

Shang Que: 【……Okay】

On the other side, Mother Yu had just sat down for a short while. Quickly, a few aunties who she normally danced with gathered around to talk. Their gazes kept drifting in Shang Que’s direction. “Auntie Yu, I heard this is the CEO of Zhengdu’s company?”

Mother Yu thought they were here to gossip again, so didn’t think too much of it. She nodded in confirmation.

“So young. He isn’t married yet, right?” An auntie asked.

The sharpness that Mother Yu had because she was also a middle-aged woman caused her to immediately be on guard. “Why?”

“To introduce a girlfriend to him.” The aunties started chattering, “My eldest brother’s daughter hasn’t gotten married yet, you know? She’s great. It seems to me that she’s also a good match with Zhengdu’s boss.”

“I know a girl too. She’s pretty and has a good education……”

“Stop stop stop,” Mother Yu immediately interrupted. “He has a significant other already. Their relationship is quite stable. Don’t waste your time.”

“Then your Zhengdu……”

“He has a significant other too,” Mother Yu proudly announced.

After Shang Que finished messaging Yu Zhengdu, he came back in search of Mother Yu. Only to see that Mother Yu was looking at him with a solemn expression on her face. “Xiao Shang ah, I’ve carefully thought about it. If you and Zhengdu really have a good relationship and decide to be together, I’ll definitely support you guys.”

“The most important thing is, you absolutely mustn’t have second thoughts.”

Shang Que didn’t know what had happened in this short period of time that had caused Mother Yu to instantly make up her mind. He only replied, “I won’t. Thank you, Mother-in-Law.”

Mother Yu was terrified that if they continued to stay outside, her son-in-law would become the target of who knows how many more people. She gave up on her walk and hurriedly led Shang Que home.

As soon as she got home, Mother Yu yanked Father Yu into their bedroom without another word. “Lao Yu, I have something to tell you.”

“I have something to tell you too,” Father Yu spoke up first. He gravely gazed at her and said, “I’ve thought about it and decided not to be against Zhengdu and Xiao Shang anymore. It’s nothing terrible if they decide to be together.”

Mother Yu had originally prepared a whole spiel to convince Father Yu. She hadn’t thought that the tables would turn so quickly and was rendered temporarily speechless. She could only make a noise of confusion before asking, “What did you say?”

Father Yu thought that she didn’t agree. He instantly tugged her close and whispered, “If we don’t let the two of them be together, then we’ll never be able to see Peppa again in the future.”

“The matter of a son-in-law is trivial. The matter of a granddaughter is critical.” Father Yu’s tone was very meaningful.

Mother Yu: “……”