She sent a message to Jin Muchen.
Jin Muchen replied with a voice message, "That's the one, just ring the doorbell. Jin Lin is at home, I'll be back later."
Su Qiqi replied with a confirmation message, then rang the doorbell.
After a while, the imposing front door was opened. A very cute little boy peeked out with a pair of indifferent eyes staring at Su Qiqi.
The expressions of the father and son were so alike.
"Hello, are you Jin Lin?" Su Qiqi bent over slightly and greeted with a smile.
Jin Lin knitted his brows, sized up Su Qiqi, and then said coldly, "He's not home, you can go."
"Jin Lin, I am your dad's..."
Bang!
The door was ruthlessly closed.
Su Qiqi was completely stupefied.
What just happened?
Just then, her phone rang. It was a WeChat call from Jin Muchen.
"Hello, Mr. Jin."
"Miss Su, I forgot to tell you, Jin Lin is a cautious boy, so he might not let you in. So, I'll call him on his phone, and you can give it to him. I want to talk to him."
Su Qiqi grumbled to herself: You could have mentioned that earlier; I have been snubbed.
However, she still said, "Then you should wait a moment, Mr. Jin."
After she finished speaking, she rang the doorbell again.
The big door was opened once again. This time, Su Qiqi did not say anything, but handed over her phone directly to Jin Lin.
Jin Lin frowned, took the phone and put it to his ear. After a while, he returned the phone to Su Qiqi and opened the door.
"You can come in."
"Thank you." Su Qiqi expressed gratitude by nodding, and then walked in dragging her luggage.
Once inside, she was stunned by the luxurious interior.
All the décor and furniture looked very expensive.
However, when she saw the unfinished hamburger and Coke on the dining table, she felt a little distressed and looked at Jin Lin, who was watching her.
"Did you have this for dinner?"
Jin Lin didn't answer. Instead, he walked over, picked up the half-eaten hamburger and took a bite, saying, "It's quick and convenient."
Upon seeing this, Su Qiqi quickly put down her luggage, went over to him, and grabbed the hamburger from his hands, saying, "Children are growing bodies; how can you eat such things?"
Jin Lin was stupefied for a moment, then looked up at Su Qiqi with displeasure and said, "I would advise you not to meddle in my affairs."
Su Qiqi was astounded by this comment.
Such a despot at such a young age?
"I am just concerned about your health."
"I have always been like this."
Having heard this, Su Qiqi understood why Jin Muchen said he was going for blind dates for the sake of his child.
"Now that I am here, things won't be the same. Is there any food in the fridge? I'll go and cook something for you."
With that, Su Qiqi found the direction of the kitchen, then went over and opened the refrigerator.
She discovered nothing but some milk and Coke inside.
How did Jin Muchen manage to raise his child so far like this?
"In that case, you wait a little. I will order some food from my phone, and have it delivered."
Jin Lin sat on a chair, watching Su Qiqi curiously with his eyes.
"How did you manage to do it?"
"Hmm?" Su Qiqi, who was placing an order on her phone, was caught off guard by the question.
Jin Lin asked again, "How did you manage to get my dad to marry you?"
"I…" Su Qiqi didn't know how to answer. She couldn't say they got married out of necessity, could she?
After all, she had to play the role of a stepmother in the future; it would be inappropriate to say that.
"You're not an actress he hired, are you?"
"No, no!" Su Qiqi hurriedly took out fresh marriage certificates from her bag and gave them to Jin Lin.
"Here is the marriage certificate. You can check. Your dad and I are really married, and I will be your stepmother afterward. But you can rest assured, I will treat you like my biological son."
Jin Lin didn't look at the marriage certificate—the text wouldn't mean much to him anyway.
"I don't accept."
He left the line coldly behind him and went directly to the second floor.
Su Qiqi was dumbstruck.
Just then, the front door opened; Jin Muchen had come back.
"Miss Su, are you okay?" Jin Muchen saw Su Qiqi in a daze, so he asked.
Su Qiqi snapped back into reality and smiled, "I am fine."
Jin Muchen looked at the hamburger on the dining table, and since he could not see Jin Lin anywhere, he had a rough idea about Su Qiqi's interaction with Jin Lin.
"Don't worry about it, Jin Lin is just like that."
"Ah, no, no. I think Jin Lin is quite characterful." Su Qiqi lightly smiles.
At that, Jin Muchen didn't say any more but picked up Su Qiqi's luggage and said, "Come on, let me show you the room."
"Okay."
Jin Muchen pulled Su Qiqi's luggage to a room on the first floor - they, father and son, were sleeping upstairs.
"This is going to be your room from today."
Su Qiqi looked at the spacious room that had everything one could ask for, including a dressing room and a private bathroom.
Looking at the luxurious fit-outs, Su Qiqi couldn't help but ask, "Mr. Jin, this house…"
Jin Muchen knew what Su Qiqi wanted to ask, so he replied, "This house was bought a few years ago. My grandfather used the demolition compensation from our ancestral home for the down payment, and the prices weren't very high at that time. In addition, I have some connections because of my work."
A few years ago, house prices in Dragon City were still low, and they even dropped during an epidemic and only rose recently.
When she heard that, Su Qiqi believed it.
"The monthly mortgage payments must not be small, right?" No matter how low the price, it's still a detached villa after all.
At this, Jin Muchen looked at Su Qiqi solemnly. Could it be that this woman worries she might have to bear the mortgage?
"Hmm, it's over five thousand a month."
Hearing that, Su Qiqi took a sharp, cold breath.
"That's quite high; you must be under a lot of pressure."
"Yes, plus Jin Lin's tuition fees and all, I have to spend at least ten to twenty thousand a month. I want to give the best education to the child; that's why I go out early and return late every day. Therefore, I wanted to find someone to take care of the child." Once Jin Muchen said those words, he intentionally stared at Su Qiqi's face, wanting to see what her reaction would be.
Su Qiqi nodded and said, "It is right to focus on the child's education."
After a while, she added, "Not to worry, from now on if we could be a little more frugal, our life would get a lot better."
A trace of surprise flashed in Jin Muchen's eyes.
"Alright, Miss Su, you can unpack first."
Just then, a knock came on the door, and Jin Muchen wrinkled his brow.
No one has ever taken the initiative to come looking, let alone at this time.
The only plausible rationale for this must be due to the woman in front of him.
Su Qiqi's eyes lit up. As she cantered to open the door she said, "It must be the vegetables I ordered. Quite a speedy service."
Veggies?
Jin Muchen followed her outside and saw Su Qiqi holding a large bag of stuff and then closing the door.
"What are these?"
As she walked over to the fridge, Su Qiqi started to carefully arrange the veggies and said, "I saw Jin Lin eating those hamburgers - they're very unhealthy. So, I placed an order online. I'll cook a few dishes in a while. You haven't eaten, have you?"
Something flickered inside Jin Muchen.
Especially watching Su Qiqi's careful profile, his heart rate inexplicably quickened.
To avoid his unusual behaviour being discovered, he said, "Then you get busy, I'll go find Jin Lin."
"Okay, I'll call you when the meals are ready." Su Qiqi replied, not looking back.
Jin Muchen turned around and went upstairs. Just as he was about to enter Jin Lin's room, he glanced at the bustling figure in the kitchen downstairs and found the corner of his mouth involuntarily curving upwards.
"Damn it! Today is only our first meeting – why am I feeling like this?"