"What?" Zhang Youbin looked at Su Wan, who had changed into an elegant black dress at some point, and asked, "Candlelight dinner?"
"Yes!" She didn't know whether Su Wan's face was actually red, or whether it looked a little red under the candlelight. She pulled Zhang Youbin to sit down at the dining table, took the last plate of dishes from Zhang Youbin's hands, placed it, and
He picked up the opened red wine and poured half a glass for himself and Zhang Youbin.
Before Zhang Youbin understood what Su Wan was playing, Su Wan had already handed the wine glass to his hand, raised the glass and said to herself: "Here, let's have a drink first."
Zhang Youbin shook his head with a smile, put down the wine glass, looked at Su Wan who was white and rosy, and said: "Whenever you drink, there must be a reason for drinking, such as celebrating something, remembering something, being upset about something, or being happy.
Wait, wait, what is this glass of wine for?”
Su Wan tilted her head and thought for a long time, then said with a smile: "Because I am happy!"
"Oh?" Zhang Youbin nodded and said with a smile: "Since it's because you are happy, let's do it." After saying that, he picked up the wine glass, touched it lightly with the wine glass in Su Wan's hand, raised his head and took a sip.
.
Su Wan also took a sip and put down the glass. She smiled and asked Zhang Youbin: "Don't you want to know why I am happy?"
Zhang Youbin said casually: "What else could it be because of your recent sense of accomplishment in helping others?"
"That's not true!" Su Wan denied dissatisfiedly.
Zhang Youbin asked in surprise: "Isn't it true?"
Su Wan frowned and said to Zhang Youbin dissatisfied: "Yes! Okay?!" Then she muttered in a low voice full of grievance: "This only accounts for a very small part."
"What about the other part?" Zhang Youbin asked with a smile.
"I won't tell you!" Su Wan glared at Zhang Youbin. Then she said: "Actually, I recently discovered that you are actually quite a good person."
"Really? Hehe." Zhang Youbin giggled twice and said, "It's not that good, at least it's not that bad."
"Actually, they are much more interesting than the people I usually come into contact with." Su Wan muttered: "None of the people I came in contact with before coming out were good."
"What?" Zhang Youbin asked curiously: "Is this your first time leaving home?"
Su Wan nodded and said: "The family is usually very strict with girls. Before a certain age or opportunity, the family strictly prohibits us from contacting outsiders."
"Halo." Zhang Youbin said in surprise: "What era are we in now? How come the big families in the United States are more feudal than the families in ancient China?"
"It's not feudalism." Su Wan hesitated for a while, then whispered, "It's because of the family's motto."
"how?"
"There is a very important motto in the family, that is, the marriage of direct members of the family must obey the family's arrangements. The initial requirement was that marriage must be between cousins to prevent the dilution or outflow of wealth. Gradually, it was relaxed to allow marriage with other people.
Large families intermarry, but no matter how they escape, they can't escape the confines of the family."
"They think a certain family is valuable, so they will find ways to get men from the family to marry women from the other family, or to marry women from their own family into the other family." Su Wan said, her mood became very low: "In short, this is
In a word. Every family member must put the interests of the family as the paramount prerequisite, and anything that harms the interests of the family is absolutely prohibited."
"I'm dizzy." Zhang Youbin curled his lips and said, "Is there such a thing? Your family is obsessed with money?"
Su Wan explained: "There is no other way. The family has developed into many branches. Although they are all relatives, each family has its own leader. Things that go against the interests of the family were expressly prohibited before them.
. Otherwise, if you do it, he will do it too. If you let your children marry freely, he also wants his children to fall in love freely. This will bring huge losses to the family. Therefore, all along,
Each family has been supervising each other before, and nothing that harms the interests of the family will happen. For example, the top management will never use outsiders, and the marriage of children will never violate the ancestral precepts, etc."
Zhang Youbin asked curiously: "What about you? You are not young now. Has your family found a future husband for you?"
Su Wan shook her head gently and said: "Not yet. Dad said that I am the "princess" in this generation of the family. My future husband must be determined through careful screening by all the family leaders."
"Your family is so perverted. Is it a Chinese family?"
"No." Su Wan explained: "The family has a history of thousands of years. At first, they were of pure British descent. However, during several wars, due to lax management, intermarriage was particularly serious. Now, almost all the people of different bloodlines are here.
There are people, not only Chinese, but also Jewish, American, French and even black people. In short, each branch of the family has different blood composition. Like our Chinese family, it has become heavier after changes over the years.
, my grandmother is Chinese, so my father is one-half Chinese, and my mother is Chinese, so by my time, I am three-quarters Chinese."
Zhang Youbin scratched his head and sighed: "It's really complicated. To put it this way, your family must be extremely big. I'm afraid this is somewhat different from the foundation you mentioned before, right?"
Su Wan nodded and said, "I concealed something from you before, I'm sorry."
Zhang Youbin said hurriedly: "Don't apologize to me. You didn't do anything wrong. There are many things that you really shouldn't tell outsiders casually."
Then, Zhang Youbin thought of a serious problem. After hesitation, he asked: "Then the two of us are "living together". Your family won't know about it, right?"
Su Wan pursed her lips, nodded after a while, and said helplessly: "They already knew it. At first, I thought the person spying on me was a spider, so I hurriedly moved to your place. But then John quietly told me,
The people watching me are members of my family."
"People from your family?" Zhang Youbin asked in shock: "Why do people from your family want to spy on you?"
"Because," Su Wan didn't know what to say for a moment, and whispered after a while: "They must be worried about my relationship with you. I was chosen as the 'princess' of this generation of the family, and the constraints imposed on me
Much more than others. If I go against the wishes of the family, then our branch will no longer have the right to inherit the family."
"So serious?!" Zhang Youbin's eyes widened and he asked helplessly: "What about now? Are they angry that you moved in with me?"
"Yes!" Su Wan nodded and said: "They are still thinking about the overall situation. Besides, I have asked John to explain the reasons to them on my behalf, so they did not come forward to find me."
Zhang Youbin slowly shook his head, sighed and said: "I always thought you were an extremely strong woman, but I didn't expect that you are also a bird in a cage, and you have to obey others' orders in everything."
"That's right!" Su Wan sighed very lowly and said: "Maybe one day they will catch me in another cage. And then put a male bird in, and I will also be able to
Then it became fixed."
"You don't have to fight, right?" Zhang Youbin asked without confidence. If it were him, he might find a way to fight. Or when it really happened to him, he wouldn't be able to get rid of this incomparable constraint. After all, this
The Zhong family is extremely capable. Once they fight, even if they face the entire family alone, they will not be able to do so even if they have the will.
"Come, drink!" Su Wan raised her glass and said to Zhang Youbin.
"Oh, okay." Zhang Youbin also picked up the wine glass.
Su Wan was very depressed. She originally thought that a candlelight dinner was very romantic, but the atmosphere was brought to such a low point. This was really contrary to her original intention. Su Wan had never had a real candlelight dinner with a man in her life.
This is the first time. Although the Chinese food and Western red wine seem a bit nondescript, it is indeed the first candlelight dinner between Su Wan and a man.
Candlelight dinner has a very special meaning in the West. If it is a family of three, or between male friends or female friends, there is almost no other reason for a candlelight dinner except a power outage. These four words have become synonymous with couples, and
It has been closely linked to the word romance. As long as they are girls, they have no resistance to romance. A little romance can even move them and make them happy for a long time. However, Su Wan today just wants to find the legend.
The romance in the book, the romance brought by this kind of candlelight dinner, cannot be replaced by Zhang Youbin's caring scarf, or a walk by the river on a snowy night, or a crappy song, but the candlelight dinner, which originally had a good atmosphere, turned out to be
Destroyed by oneself.
Su Wan began to regret what she said was wrong. Why did she talk to Zhang Youbin about these depressing topics? In this way, no matter how romantic it is, it will become unromantic at all!
So after that, Su Wan basically never mentioned the previous topic. Instead, she frequently clinked glasses with Zhang Youbin and talked about some light topics from time to time to ease the embarrassment between the two.
"When I first went to your home, I was particularly envious that you had such open-minded parents as Grandpa Tang and Grandma Tang. They didn't even know my family background, but they were so enthusiastic towards me." Su Wan thought about the Tang Ze couple.
He said with envy for his love for her.
Zhang Youbin smiled slightly and said: "Yes, they are just like my grandparents. They have no requirements for my relationship. As long as I like it, they have no objections and basically have no sectarian opinions."