With the Hua family asking questions and Hua Lin Yu happily recounting everything that happened in the past few years that his family hadn't been able to be part of, the day was soon over and the next morning arrived. With it, the Hua family once again welcomed Xin Lan.
Originally, he had been thinking about staying away for longer but then again, he also wanted to leave Hua Lin Yu and his family with a good impression so there wouldn't be too much backlash when he brought up the wedding.
As soon as the servant announced that he had arrived, Hua Lin Yu leaped from where he had been sitting next to his big brother and eating breakfast over to the door toward Xin Lan as if he didn't want to miss a single second with him.
Xin Lan couldn't help but smile. Even though this whole situation had come about because of that irresponsible fallen god, there was something about a beauty throwing himself into your arms that made the situation almost worth it.
He hugged him back and leaned down, kissing his cheek. "Don't tell me you missed me this much?"
Hua Lin Yu looked up, his eyes curving into little crescents. "I missed you a lot!"
Xin Lan chuckled and then led him back inside, greeting the members of the Hua family.
The expressions of Hua Ning Shun and Hua Ming Jun were quite subtle while Hua Lin Rong was looking at him aggrieved. Only the women showed a faint smile, obviously happy that their son — or grandson respectively — was happy no matter with whom it was.
Xin Lan pretended not to see any of that but he did take note of it inwardly, slowly formulating a plan. Looking at how things were, it would be easiest if he started with Hua Lin Yu's mother, maybe asking her for advice on how to go about this since he had noticed that his father and grandfather weren't quite on board with that. Then, the two women might team up to convince their husbands, making it easier for him when he actually started discussing his wedding to Hua Lin Yu with them.
As for his brother … Well, he wasn't quite sure if that person could be convinced but even if he couldn't, that didn't necessarily mean that the wedding wouldn't happen. No, it was better to focus on the others and just leave what might happen with Hua Lin Rong to fate.
Maybe they wouldn't be a problem at all and he would come around in the future after interacting a little more with him. Right now, that guy was probably just salty that his younger brother liked him more. Sooner or later, he was bound to get past this kind of childish notion, wasn't he?
Seeing that the men didn't intend to do anything but greet him, Helian Nuan finally spoke up. "Mister Xin, why don't you have a seat? We were just eating."
Xin Lan glanced at the seats that were all taken and gave a slight smile. "I would love to." When he said so, he brushed through Hua Lin Yu's hair, making him give a happy smile and sidle up even closer to him.
The matriarch smiled as well seeing that and then waved at the servants to add another seat. Much to the dismay of both Hua Lin Rong and the two Huo brothers, the seat was added right next to that of Hua Lin Yu, meaning that one of them wouldn't be able to sit next to him anymore.
Xin Lan tried hard to hold back a more meaningful smile and then led Hua Lin Yu over to his seat, sitting down next to Huo Cheng. He wasn't stupid enough to antagonize Hua Lin Rong. Since he would marry somebody of his family it was better to offend these two senior martial brothers.
Sitting down, he looked at Helian Nuan and inclined his head. "Thank you very much for the offer. I really hope I'm not making trouble for you."
Hua Lin Yu's grandmother smiled back at him, feeling that this person wasn't too bad. They could really get a worse son-in-law for their Hua family. "Ah, don't worry about it, Mister Xin. Xiao Yu seems to really like you and you've helped us a lot in the past from what I've heard from my husband. Naturally, you will always be more than welcome at our house."
Xin Lan gave a hum and then kept quiet for a moment before finally speaking up again. "Just Xin Lan is alright, by the way. The dragon race doesn't have family names." It really was grating to his ears to be addressed like this even though he had experienced this several times in the human realm. Anyway, he didn't quite want to get used to this. If he had to spend some more time here because of Hua Lin Yu, then it was best to get at least his family used to this.
This time, he didn't get a reaction from just Helian Nuan. What she acknowledged the fact, Hua Ning Shun couldn't help but question a little further.
"I never knew that was the case. Is it the same for all of the dragon race, no matter the generation or the place one comes from?"
Xin Lan nodded. "Yes, it is the same for everyone. It was back when …" He trailed off, wondering how to explain to the humans what kind of time he was talking about. They didn��t know about Tian's curse. It was something they would usually only find out if they became an ascended deity and even then, they needed to have close relations to somebody of the immortal races to find out. After all, that wasn't usually the type of subject that would easily come up.