The system is very abstract, fortunately I am also.

Chapter 510 Isn't it just the shell of a durian that you eat?

So the warlord was... Zhang Zuolin?
The Fengtian warlord, the king of the Northeast, the tiger of Fengtian, the world's first player of the Iron Collapse... If you call him a great general, Song Xin can't deny it.

Remember to be careful of the connection between the train car and the platform.

Song Xin: "Then the young marshal is—"

Lin Li and Chen Yuying: "Zhang Xueliang".

Song Xin maintained an awkward but polite smile.

He then realized something, blinked, and turned to look at his daughter beside him who had answered his question without hesitation. At this moment, her eyes still held a playful smile, and he was overwhelmed with mixed feelings.

Lin Li still suffered from being too cultured. If Wu Min, who was already unfamiliar with the Zhang father and son, were here, Lin Li would have had to ruin the joke by explaining it.

Wu Min, win!

After a moment, Song Xin shook her head with a mix of amusement and helplessness: "Yingying has always said that Lin Li is very interesting, and today I finally got to see it for myself."

Faced with such praise, Lin Li simply smiled shyly at the rearview mirror.

Song Xin was ultimately an unconventional elder.

If Yan Shuyang, Shu Sun, or even Wu Min were sitting in front of him, Lin Li would have replied without any modesty, "That's right, after all, I am Lettsie."

Ladies and gentlemen, as for anyone asking what Lottie means...

Remember, SITERALE is a synonym for fun.

Well, Lotto is definitely a synonym for fun, bro!

However, it is absolutely inappropriate to say such things to an elder you are meeting for the first time, especially your girlfriend's parents, at least not now.

You have to say the right thing in the right place, but what if I love you but can't say it out loud? I can always send you a message.

"laugh--"

Chen Yuying's sudden laughter caught Song Xin's attention. After confirming that the road ahead was safe, she glanced at her daughter out of the corner of her eye and found that she was looking at her phone with an uncontrollable smile on her lips.

But after laughing, strangely, she couldn't help but feel annoyed, as if she had lost something she didn't want to lose while laughing, and she chose to tap her head.

"Yingying, what are you laughing at?"

"It's nothing~" Chen Yuying subconsciously hid her phone in her bosom, her voice filled with undisguised excitement.

Some couldn't help but glance back, and when Song Xin saw that Lin Li was also holding a phone, she narrowed her eyes with a hint of suspicion:
"You two aren't secretly talking about bad things about Mom right now, are you?"

"certainly not."

"As expected, you two were secretly chatting on your phones just now. Isolating your elders like that doesn't do you any favors," Song Xin said with a faint smile that said, "Well, I figured it out."

"It's really not a good thing for my mom to set traps and try to get information out of me when she talks to me!"

Upon hearing this, Chen Yuying was taken aback at first, and then responded with a slightly coquettish tone of dissatisfaction.

"It's okay, Mom isn't Dad. Her score will definitely be high for Yingying, so a slight deduction is no problem."

"Then I'll lose some points too."

“Lin Li is one with you. If you deduct points, his points will be deducted too. Do you really want to deduct them?” Song Xin seemed to have anticipated Chen Yuying’s “imitative” response and immediately asked with a smile.

“…No.” Chen Yuying paused for a moment, her cheeks puffing out slightly.

"So what did you two talk about on the phone that made you so happy? Telling me might turn my already good impression into an even better one," Song Xin said with a smile, pressing her advantage.

Chen Yuying didn't think so.

After saying it out loud... will it really leave a better impression?

Where is Lin Li? What is Lin Li doing?

Deciding to seek help, Chen Yuying turned her head and looked at "Letsey" Bensi in the back row.

Oh, miracles are happening and they're still playing dumb!

Noticing the gaze, Lin Li smiled and stepped in to smooth things over: "Auntie, we were actually talking about a very interesting piece of gossip that I just learned."

"There's nothing I can't say. It's about a classmate of mine. To protect his privacy, I'll use the pseudonym 'Tomorrow Chen,' or you could call him Fan Rou for now. He..."

As we all know, when internal conflicts are difficult to handle, an extremely effective method is to incite external conflicts and shift the focus of the conflict!

Ultimate Technique: Eight Trigrams Transfer Technique!
Tianming, your sacrifice was worthwhile!

Song Xin found it quite interesting and didn't delve into it further.

Because if it's gossip in this direction, it's normal to only chat privately on a mobile phone.

Successfully fooled them!

……

The car had exited the highway and officially entered the territory of Pingjiang City, steadily approaching Pingjiang University.

We chatted the whole way, and the atmosphere was fairly harmonious.

Lin Li was originally a talkative person, and he also knew Song Xin's purpose, which was to understand him better so that she could feel more at ease. After sacrificing Chen Tianming, Lin Li called out to the Temple of Gods, but the only one who responded to him was his childhood self.

If a response is given, then a sacrifice is made.

So for most of the remaining time, Lin Li talked about his past, and occasionally Song Xin would "reciprocate" by smiling and saying a few words about things that happened to Chen Yuying in the past.

Chen Yuying was also very busy, and she would glare at Lin Li from time to time with dissatisfaction—"Why is this different from the version you told me when I was a child?" "Why didn't you tell me this?" She would also glare at her mother from time to time with dissatisfaction—"Why do you have to tell me this?" "How come I didn't know about this?"

Then, if Song Xin asks a question that is difficult to answer or might make someone feel shy, she will stop her with a "Mom" in an upbeat tone.

"In short, the scammer rambled on and on to me, and I got a little impatient in the end, so I just said, 'Fine, I won the lottery today. Just tell me how much you want to scam me out of, and I'll transfer it to you directly. It has to be within 200 million.'"

To my surprise, after a moment of stunned silence, the other person asked me, "Really, bro?"
It made me laugh, and I replied with a laugh, "You're so easy to fool, yet you still have the nerve to be a liar."

The call continued for another twenty seconds, but neither of us spoke during that time. He eventually hung up, still without saying a word.

"Heh—" Song Xin couldn't help but chuckle. "Lin Li, your mother says you're a headache, but I think you're quite interesting."

“Min…it’s normal for my mom to say that,” Lin Li waved his hand. “The closer the relationship, the less likely they are to give an objective evaluation. It’s normal for a mother to have a biased view of her son.”

"Shouldn't these kinds of filters usually be positive? I just think my Yingying is the best in the world," Song Xin asked with a smile.

Lin Li: "Yes, my mom is already trying to beautify me."

Song Xin: "Oo?"

"Actually, I'm not just 'very,' I'm actually 'extremely' a headache for her. Auntie, you're just finding it amusing from an outsider's perspective. If you were involved, you'd most likely honestly say, 'Kid, this isn't funny.'"

Lin Li had long since lost his initial subconscious unease and said with a smile.

"I see," Song Xin nodded noncommittally, then exchanged a meaningful glance with Lin Li through the rearview mirror.

“But it seems like I, your aunt, also have a chance to get involved. After all, who knows, if you call me ‘aunt’ again someday, I’ll be very unhappy about it. What do you think, Lin Li?”

“I understand the implication,” Lin Li nodded seriously, then looked sincerely into Song Xin’s eyes: “Sister.”

Lin Li paused, then spoke with even greater sincerity: "Actually, I've wanted to call you that for a long time. You look so young."

Song Xin: "?"

"Come on," Song Xin said, finding the feigned seriousness of the compliment amusing, and quickly changed the subject:

"Lin Li, what I'm asking you is, when you're dating Yingying, have you thought about the future and beyond?"

"Mom—" Chen Yuying's dissatisfied voice and gaze came over at the same time.

“I have thought about it,” Lin Li said, gently supporting his right elbow with his left hand, his fingers unconsciously stroking the hair beside his ear. His voice softened a bit. “It just feels too far off to talk about these things now, and too… embarrassing. So I want to make the most of today and tomorrow.”

Song Xin nodded, offering no comment on the answer, but instead asked more directly, "Lin Li, do you like Yingying?"

"Yes, of course I do."

Hesitating for even a second is disrespectful to the class monitor.

“Sometimes giving a too-straightforward answer isn’t a good thing. It can make people think you just said it casually and that you’re not being sincere,” Song Xin ignored her daughter’s protesting gaze and continued to press, “You wouldn’t have actually told a lot of people this, would you?”

To Song Xin and Chen Yuying's surprise, Lin Li did not hesitate, but nodded with a smile on his face and answered, "Yes."

"Hmm?" Song Xin raised an eyebrow, feeling that Lin Li must still have something to say.

"I've told many people that I really like Yuying."

Halfway through his sentence, Lin Li turned his head to look at the scenery rushing past the car window, and even unconsciously lowered the volume of his voice.

A brief silence fell over the car.

They were already close to Pingjiang Academy when Song Xin's soft laughter broke the brief silence in the car.

As she turned to look for a parking space, she glanced at her daughter in the passenger seat.

Her movements were exactly the same as Lin Li's; she made no attempt to meet his gaze, turning her head to the side, looking out the window, and remaining silent. Only her flushed cheeks and the fingers that kept tapping lightly on the car door betrayed the girl's fluttering heart.

Tsk tsk.

"We're here. Parking isn't allowed at the entrance, so let's walk a bit." After finding a parking space, Song Xin said.

"Goodbye, Mom!" Chen Yuying pulled down the mechanical handle, but the car door lock was still not unlocked.

Seeing her daughter, who seemed eager to get out of the car, Song Xin turned to Lin Li, who was equally anxious to "escape," and asked with a smile:

"Lin Li, Auntie has one last question: just how much do you like Yingying?"

"Mom—we clearly agreed the day before yesterday that you wouldn't ask these questions," Chen Yuying said with a hint of dissatisfaction, "but you've been bringing them up all along."

They kept asking more and more questions, which was getting increasingly unreasonable.

"How should I describe it?" Lin Li stopped moving the car towards the school side door and spoke softly.

Song Xin glanced at her daughter, who had suddenly fallen silent—her bright eyes were sparkling with anticipation.

However, she was also curious about Lin Li's answer.

"I wonder if you've ever experienced this, Auntie. When I was little and bored, I would put my hand under the quilt in the closet and touch the cool air. Instantly, I could feel the boundary between myself and the outside world. At that moment, I could feel my own existence becoming more real."

Lin Li's voice was very soft, as if he were describing a dream: "Well, that's probably what it feels like to like this."

Sorry, this might sound a bit like stream of consciousness, but I think this is the only way to describe what it means to like someone.

"Very"? "Special"? "Willing to do anything for her"? These words all crossed my mind, but I felt they weren't quite right, or rather, not enough.

"..."

As Lin Li finished speaking, a subtle silence fell over the car.

It was as if invisible ripples were spreading in the air, gently enveloping a certain passionate yet youthful emotion.

"..."

The girl, her cheeks flushed, quickly lowered her eyelashes, trying to hide the shyness and excitement surging in her eyes.

But her long eyelashes, trembling slightly, like the wings of a startled butterfly, betrayed her extremely unsettled state of mind.

She subconsciously bit her lower lip, her slender fingers unconsciously twisting the doorknob until the tips of her fingers turned slightly white.

At this moment, the girl wished she could hide herself away, but the slightly upturned corners of her mouth honestly revealed a hint of sweet panic in her heart.

Sitting in the driver's seat, Song Xin took in the sights of the young men and women.

Her gaze swept over Lin Li and her daughter once more, finally settling into a barely audible, slightly amused sigh.

"Oh, that's great."

Song Xin didn't say anything more, but simply reached out and, with a soft click, unlocked all the car doors.

"Bye mom!"

Chen Yuying pushed open the car door almost immediately and darted out of the car like a nimble fish.

She stood outside the car door, head slightly bowed, pretending to straighten her clothes, which didn't actually need straightening, but she didn't dare to look at the people inside the car.

Lin Li followed closely behind and got out of the car. He was very calm, not so much because he was shy, but because he was a little embarrassed to say such a thing. He then bowed slightly to Song Xin inside the car window and politely said goodbye: "Goodbye, Auntie."

Song Xin lowered the driver's side window, casually resting her arm on the windowsill, watching the two young people with a relaxed air. The smile on her lips deepened: "Yeah, you two do well on your exams."

"understood."

"Uh-huh."

"Then let's go in."

"Go on in quickly, be careful on the way." Song Xin nodded with a smile, her voice gentle.

Chen Yuying gently tugged at Lin Li's sleeve, signaling him to hurry up.

Lin Li nodded to Song Xin again, then walked side by side with Chen Yuying toward the school gate.

The early spring sunshine gilded their figures with a faint golden edge, and a gentle breeze caressed the girl's hair and the boy's clothes. The distance between them, neither too close nor too far, created an intimate atmosphere that no one else could intrude upon.

Song Xin watched them until their figures disappeared into the crowd at the school gate before slowly turning her gaze away.

It's nice, really; her husband, Zhongping, he's just too worried...

Wait.

Comparisons inevitably lead to hurt feelings.

Song Xin frowned and took out her phone.

……

Gym.

Since being subtly criticized for his physique by his daughter, Chen Zhongping has rediscovered his passion for fitness. After finishing a set of exercises, he subconsciously picks up his phone to check for any messages or calls.

I didn't expect my wife to message me.

Song Xin: I'll go buy a durian later.

Chen Zhongping: You want to eat durian? Okay, I'll go buy some later. Did you take Yingying to Pingjiang? Are you coming home for lunch?

Song Xin: It's not for eating.

Chen Zhongping: Was it a gift?

Song Xin: No, I'll kneel down for you because of the durian peel.

Chen Zhongping: ?

Chen Zhongping: Wait, what? Wife? What did I do that I have to kneel on durians? I haven't done anything wrong lately, have I?

Chen Zhongping: Because I asked you to take Yingying there? But I didn't intend to trouble you at all; I wanted to take her myself! I'm being wronged!!

Song Xin: Fine, I'll give you a chance.

Song Xin: Zhongping, how much do you like me?

Chen Zhongping, who was drenched in sweat, was taken aback.

We're an old married couple, why are you still doing this? Then a smile appeared on his lips. It wasn't because he had done anything wrong. It turned out that she was just being affectionate with him.

Xin Xin is still so cute!

Chen Zhongping: I like you very much!

Chen Zhongping: I like you so much!!

Chen Zhongping: I love you so much, I'd do anything for you!!!

Little brat, you like the triple combo, you're totally smitten with me now, aren't you?

Song Xin: ……

"Song Xin: I'd like to buy the durian with the hardest and thickest rind, thank you."

Chen Zhongping: ???

Chen Zhongping: Why, wife?!

Song Xin: Fine, I'll give you one last chance, considering we've been married for almost twenty years.

Chen Zhongping: You speak!

Song Xin: To describe how much you like me, in a stream-of-consciousness style.