Release that Man

Modern society had surpassed the era of free love and had entered the era of fast food love. For modern parents, they wouldn’t have to worry about their children’s romance and relationship. After all, times were different, if one intervened too much in their relationship, it would only make them awkward and uncomfortable. Furthermore, modern relationships were called fast food romances because the relationships began and ended very fast. Oftentimes, by the time the parents heard about their child’s new boyfriend or girlfriend, the relationship would have ended already…

For example, a man and a woman going to the movies and then having dinner, if this had happened twenty years ago, one could be certain that they were a couple. But nowadays, the options were endless; they could be just friends, colleagues, or a girl and her gay best friend… In any case, it could no longer be confirmed that the pair was having JQ ¹ based simply on the fact that they were out together… unless of course, they were together at the motel…

Lastly, even if they were a confirmed couple, one’s child might not end up walking the aisle with their first love. They had to ‘test drive’ several options first before making the final purchase. Therefore, modern and open-minded parents had stopped following the relationships of the younger generation. They mostly thought, You do whatever you want as long as you bring him or her home for us to see before the proposal.

This was because, while love is a business between the individuals, marriage involves the union of two families…

Therefore, to spread the knowledge and cultivate mutual understanding, no one could really fault Ou Qianru for sneaking the information to Uncle Luo’s family.

Haven’t you met each other’s parents already‽

Hasn’t the future mother-in-law taken her future son-in-law clothes shopping‽

You two have done everything since you shared the night together, right‽

…Therefore, wouldn’t it be fair to assume that the relationship is stable and you two are heading into marriage? If not, our poor Ye Shuang has given herself away for nothing!

Since a wedding was on the horizon, of course, the news had to be spread throughout the family. They couldn’t find out there was a new addition to the family on the night of the wedding dinner now, could they?

Ye Shuang didn’t even have the chance to struggle. She looked on with tears in her eyes as Ou Qianru gathered the relatives from her mother side of the family—Old Madam Luo and Uncle Luo happened to be free, and they had already decided to come down to San Lin City that weekend to personally meet this new future grandson-in-law and future nephew-in-law respectively.

After Mother Ye confirmed the itinerary of her mother and brother’s weekend trip, she had to accept the cruel truth that there was no escaping this.

“Have you come up with an explanation yet?”

She looked at Ye Shuang with concern in her eyes and said, “We’re a close-knit family, so this will have to come out sooner or later. However, it is still too soon to tell them the truth; there are too many mouths and too many ears, so I believe the best solution for now is for you to move out.”

The issue of the Luo family aside, they had to think about their neighbors. The handsome male Ye Shuang had been walking in and out of the Ye family’s home with startling frequency, and that combined with the incident when her dumb daughter came home while wearing the clothes of her male form…

Mother Ye had already heard some unsavory rumors when she was shopping at the morning market, but she hadn’t said anything lest it affected the family morale. However, this couldn’t be allowed to continue. For one, it might expose Ye Shuang’s secret, and even if it didn’t, the fact that an unfamiliar male kept coming in and out of the Ye family might lead to some sinister speculations…

“Mom, you’ve finally decided to toss me out‽” Ye Shuang uttered with tears in her eyes. To be fair, Ye Shuang had thought about all those things that worried Mother Ye. It was hard to keep a secret around nosy neighbors, therefore even if Mother Ye didn’t bring it up, Ye Shuang knew that moving out was only a matter of time, or else Ye Shuang wouldn’t have accepted Fang Mo’s offer so urgently… she needed to gather some money for the rent… a six-digit lump sum should be enough for her to be unemployed for several years, right‽

Then again, knowing it and experiencing it are two different things. When this really happened, she still couldn’t help but feel a little devastated.

Mother Ye reached out to swipe Ye Shuang on the back of her head. “What nonsense! If you have the mind to come up with such crazy thoughts, you might as well use that energy to come up with an explanation for your grandmother and uncle!”

“…”

Well, she wasn’t wrong…

The pair of mother and daughter came up with many proposals but were vetoed one after another. Before they decided on a solution, Ou Qianru’s work in San Lin City came to an end; she bade the Ye family farewell as she moved on to another city.

Then came Friday, the day of transformation, the handsome Mr. Ye showed himself again. He called Fang Mo early that morning to confirm the details of the advertisement video shoot and contract.

When they met up to sign the contract that afternoon, Fang Mo jokingly brought up the fact that the content of the video had slightly changed. Instead of focusing on Ye Shuang’s new single life in a new house, now it would be a video on the new life of a married couple with Ye Shuang and the female actress…

After confirming the payment wouldn’t be halved by the addition of a new actor, Ye Shuang shrugged it off and signed the contract. Then, in the middle of their conversation, Fang Mo kept trying to uncover details about her life, her preferences, so on and so forth. Since Ye Shuang was ultimately a woman, she didn’t realize how weird it was for a man to be so interested in her—well his —life. After all, she wasn’t so ugly in her woman form that no man had hit on her before…

Ye Shuang eventually stood up to leave after they had chatted for the whole afternoon. After she took a few steps, she turned around to say, “By the way, my… my girlfriend wishes to resign.”

Fang Mo, who was signing the document with a pen in hand, shivered before he raised his head to say, “Girlfriend… you mean the female Ye Shuang who works in my company‽”

Ye Shuang nodded.

Fang Mo put down his pen. With both hands on his chin, he studied Ye Shuang, “But why? Give me a reason.”

Ye Shuang came prepared, so she answered readily with a shy smile. “Because we’re planning to get married.”

“!!!”

“We plan to have a child as soon as possible!” To prevent the conversation from dragging on, Ye Shuang continued the excuse. “After that, she wishes to stay at home to look after the kid… In other words, she wishes to focus on family life, and for that, she has to resign from work.”

Fang Mo stared wide-eyed at this man who had laid out his life’s plan for the next ten years. Fang Mo didn’t see any way he could persuade him away from his decision, so he said, “…Erm, it’s great that you have such concrete plan for your future… I’ll have the treasurer calculate her salary then, tell her to come to the company to claim it next week.”