When Tang Yazhu said those words, she knew she was finished. She could never recover the face that she just personally threw out the window.
However, something unexpected happened…
After hearing what Tang Yazhu just said, everyone began to laugh! Even Long Fu was laughing!
The only person who did not laugh was Long Ning, who was currently instead frowning and allowing his face to turn more grim as his family continued to laugh with a cherry face.
"Sis, you don't have to worry about that! That's the only thing in the world that my parents can never do! Whether they like you or not, they have to accept you either way!" Long Jiayi told her while wiping the nonexistent tears away from his eyes.
"My dear, who told you that I don't like you? Goodness, youngsters these days really… only always knowing how to misunderstand their elders," Chang Changying also pitched in.
"Uh… Sorry about that Mada-uh, I mean, Mom!" Tang Yazhu scratched the back of her head in embarrassment. "I just thought that you guys wouldn't like me because I'm just an ordinary chef. Not only that, I'm also an orphan. I bring no benefits to you guys after marrying your son."
Tang Yazhu did not expect to see this reaction from them. She thought that they would definitely skin her alive by just living with Long Ning - in the same house!
"Well, we were definitely worried about that at first. However, the most important thing is to just meet you first and see how you are. Besides, as parents, the only thing we want for our children is for them to be happy. Please, from now on, just call me Father," Long Fu said happily.
Seeing the happy expression on the face of her father-in-law, Tang Yazhu did not know how to react. She thought that this man only knew how to put on a grim face and did not know how to smile? Or was she too paranoid about everything due to her past experiences and just started to think about their reactions ahead of time without even considering the fact that their personalities would be different from the norm?
"Thank you, F-Father… I'll be a good and caring wife for your son," Tang Yazhu tried to call out the new address that she was allowed to use from now on, even though she was not very familiar with the word.
"Sis, let me tell you something. A long time ago, when Mom and Dad introduced a lady to be Big Bro's wife, he got so angry that he made the company of that lady's family go bankrupt in just one day!" Long Jiayi exposed his parents in a laughing tone.
"You brat! Shut up already! It's because we know our mistakes that we don't meddle with your brother's affairs anymore!" Long Fu shouted and shot a deadly gaze at his idiot son.
Hearing that story, Tang Yazhu turned to look at her husband.
When Tang Yazhu saw Long Ning, she agreed internally, 'Well, looking from his attitude, he certainly would do that.'
However, when Long Ning responded to her looking at him, he only showed her a blank expression that said, 'Did something like that happen? I don't remember.'
"Anyways, my dear son, when's the date of the wedding? You have to tell me, so we can prepare," Chang Changying asked joyously.
"We still haven't decided on the date, yet. In fact, we haven't started planning, so we still need to plan," Long Ning answered and placed a slice of dessert onto the plate of his wife.
"You haven't planned yet? Why? She's been living with you for a few weeks now already," Qi Biya questioned while giving soup to Long Rong.
"She was hospitalized a few weeks ago and was still injured. I wanted her to just focus on recuperation, so I didn't talk to her about our wedding," Long Ning said, his words frightening the rest of the family.
"Oh my god! What happened?! How did she get injured?!" Qi Biya exclaimed with a shocked face.
"You've only just healed. Brother, you could've just arranged this meeting at a later time. We'd understand no matter what!" Long Fang lectured him.
"Xiao Ning! Why did you just tell us now that she was hospitalized?! We could've visited her and taken care of her as well!" Long Fu scolded his son with an unhappy face that was even grimmer than the usual grim face.
"My dear child, how are you faring now? Are you feeling well now?" Chang Changying asked with a face full of warmth and care.
Seeing these people that had no blood connection caring about her, Tang Yazhu felt a strange emotion running deep into the depths of her heart. This was the first time she ever experienced this type of emotion, the feeling of being deeply touched.
Well, even if Tang Yazhu was feeling touched though, she could not very well tell his family that their son kind of bumped into her with his car.
"Mother, Father, please don't worry. I'm doing okay now. Besides, it was only a small accident. Nothing big enough to cause you guys to worry even after weeks have passed," Tang Yazhu smiled and told them in an assuring tone.
"Thank goodness… Xiao Ning, before allowing her to leave the house, you need to give her some personal bodyguards to keep her safe. What if some of our enemies found out that she's going to be your wife? I don't want anything bad to happen to my daughter-in-law," Chang Changying ordered her son, feeling fearful that something may happen in the future.
"Mom, Big Bro wouldn't let her be in any danger. Calm down, okay?" Long Jiayi tried to calm down his mother.
At the same time, Long Jiayi knew what his mother was thinking about.
"Listen to Mom. It's better to be safe than sorry. Back then, they almost managed to kidnap my nephew and threaten my elder sister-in-law. Let's not have something like that or similar to that happen again," Long Fang reminded and instantly, they all remembered what had happened four years ago.
That event was a gigantic disaster that happened in the Long family which no public knew. Thank goodness nothing horrible happened to Long Rong, but there was a big trauma left behind on Qi Biya that she still needed therapy on.
"You guys, come on! This is supposed to be a happy occasion! Stop thinking about those bad things!" Long Jiayi suddenly voiced out and tried to make the atmosphere lively again.
"Xiao Ning, just register your marriage with her first. We can have the wedding later on. Also, it's better if we add her name to our ancestral hall after you guys get your certificates," Long Fu said.
Tang Yazhu was going to be his daughter-in-law and Long Fu did not want her to go through the same pain that his first daughter-in-law went through.
"Dear, it's not that we don't want to introduce you to the world. It's just that we want to make sure that nothing will harm you first. Even if someone says otherwise, you are already a part of the centerpiece in this family," Chang Changying assured her in case she was thinking otherwise.
"Mother, it's alright, I understand. The only thing I wish for is to be by his side, nothing more," Tang Yazhu smilingly replied to her.
Time passed by and the lunch meeting with his family finally ended. Also having some small talks and bidding their goodbyes, night overcame the day and Tang Yazhu was now sitting with Long Ning in the living room.
"What's wrong? Why so gloomy?" Tang Yazhu asked.
After his parents and siblings all left, Long Ning suddenly turned gloomy - Tang Yazhu was completely clueless as to why he was so grim.
"Are you okay with it? That I can't announce to the world that you're my wife?" Long Ning asked her, feeling increasingly depressed.
Hearing him ask her this, Tang Yazhu found this emotion he showed in front of her to be really cute.
"I'm fine with it. I don't care about the world and I've never cared for the world. With you being by my side, that is already more than enough for me. With you being by my side, I have nothing more that I could wish for," Tang Yazhu answered and leaned her head onto his shoulder, allowing him to embrace her into his arms.
"Actually, I do have a wish," Tang Yazhu suddenly cut herself off as she remembered her wishes before leaving for her Class Z mission and looked at Long Ning with sparkling eyes.
"I want to have two dogs!" Tang Yazhu pleaded, seriously and actually wanting those two dogs.
"Why do you want to have dogs?" Long Ning asked her with a curious expression on his face.
"Because I want to take care of something as though they're my babies!" Tang Yazhu immediately answered while Long Ning frowned when he heard her reasoning.
"If you want babies, how about we just make real babies instead? Nevermind the dogs, let's just go to my room now," Long Ning tried to entice her and really did pick her up to make "real babies."
Princess-carrying her and walking towards his room, he kissed her forehead. Then, he moved down her face, kissing her temples, her nose, her cheeks, and then finally… her lips.
This kiss would account for their first kiss. On casual days, they would only kiss on the forehead and cheek when he left for work.
Long Ning never understood why lovers were addicted to kissing each other, but after kissing her lips, he now understood why. Her lips were soft, juicy, and appetizing.
Kissing once was not enough for him and he wished to continue kissing her until their life ended as their hair greyed. However, when he saw her red face, he stopped kissing her.
At this point in time, they were already up the stairs - still a far distance from his room, making him mad at how this mansion was too huge.
Given some time to breathe though, Tang Yazhu used this chance to say, "Hey! Hey! Wait! Just listen to me first, okay!?"
Her face was still red and hot from his words in the living room earlier. However, her cheeks were even redder now after experiencing the attack of kisses from him, leaving her breathless.
"What?" Long Ning gave her a chance to speak, respecting her as his wife.
"Give me more time, okay? We've only met for a month and I never thought we'd progress for this long, or even this far. I'll be frank with you, I like you very much. I also like being by your side very much," Tang Yazhu confessed, still blushing deeply as the red tint on her face never receded much.
"For me, no matter how long I've known you, be it a day, a month, or a year, it doesn't matter much to me. Because for me, I know that my feelings for you are real. But, give me some more time until I can completely be with you, okay? I also want to build a family with you, but not right now. Because right now, I'm still not ready," Tang Yazhu continued on with her words, slowly calming down the reddening cheeks.
"Also, I have something I need to do first. Once I'm done with that, I can finally be at ease and start a family with you," Tang Yazhu decided to be brief and secretive about her real reasoning.
Tang Yazhu could not tell the entire truth to Long Ning.
Even if he liked her, not a single person on earth would easily believe a person that was saying, 'Hey! I'm back from the dead because I managed to possess a body!'
Something like that would cause a big blow to the world; Long Ning may even think that his future wife was crazy.
Hearing her long line of reasoning though, Long Ning put Tang Yazhu down to hold onto her hand and touch her face.
"Okay. No matter how long, I'll wait. Just… don't make me wait for too long," Long Ning responded and Tang Yazhu gave a slight laugh at the end of his words.
She knew that Long Ning wanted to start his own family, too. However, he was just never able to find the right person in the past years. Now, he was already thirty years old while Tang Yazhu was five years younger than him.
"Of course, I won't let you wait for long! So, can I get my dogs now?" Tang Yazhu replied, not forgetting to mention about her wanting dogs.
Seeing Tang Yazhu talk about dogs again though, Long Ning could only sigh at her request.
"Yes, you can get your dogs. However, about the thing you need to do, if you need help with it, you have to ask me, understand?" Long Ning answered before strictly advising and did not allow her to separate their hands until she nodded a few times.
"Then, about the dogs, how about tomorrow? I'll deliver your lunch for you and when you're done working, we go look at the dogs together. Since it's me who wants them, I have to be there to look at them also," Tang Yazhu justified as she gave her suggestion in an excited tone, leaving him to have only one choice which was to comply with her request.