Chapter 297: Chapter 199: Strategy to Win Over the Father-in-Law!

Hu Tingting: Where’s Momo? Still not awake yet? Looks like she slept with Old Shen last night, otherwise she’d never be this quiet at this hour.

Zhu Xinyue: Hahaha, sounds like things got pretty wild last night! But Brother Shen looks super healthy—just hope Momo can keep up.

Fang Di: If Momo really landed Brother Shen, that’s honestly worth celebrating! After all these years, Momo finally got some new life experience.

…

After reading their group chat, Xia Mo finally realized there was something off about the wine.

But honestly, the wine ended up being kind of helpful for her—otherwise she probably wouldn’t have had the guts.

Otherwise, things between them wouldn’t have made any real progress.

Someone as smart as Xia Mo had definitely thought seriously about how her relationship with Shen Qiushan should develop, and her conclusion was: she couldn’t do things by the book.

Their relationship was special; it’s really hard to go step-by-step like regular couples, especially with so much resistance and judgment from others.

So Xia Mo had thought about it before: if she wanted their relationship to really change, she had to go for the quick fix—make it a done deal first, then focus on tackling other obstacles afterward.

So, the wine was just a catalyst, giving Xia Mo a perfect excuse!

Smart as she was, Xia Mo knew Shen Qiushan wasn’t the same kid as before. All those “little elves” outside were just waiting to get close to him—striking first was the obvious move.

Good men have to be fought for!

You can’t just sit around and wait!

When it matters, you can’t hesitate—and Xia Mo definitely understood that.

Meanwhile…

Classroom 309 in the teaching building.

Shen Qiushan was in his Electromagnetic Fields and Wireless Technology class, with Professor Zhao Ruihai as the teacher.

After class, just as Shen Qiushan was about to leave, Professor Zhao called him over.

“Xiaoshen, there’s something I wanted to get your opinion on.”

Zhao Ruihai said politely.

“Professor Zhao, go ahead.”

Shen Qiushan replied courteously.

“I’m putting together a team for the National College Electromagnetic Fields and Laser Technology Competition!”

“According to the rules, every team needs at least five people, and at least one freshman. For the freshman slot, I think only you can handle it—are you interested in joining?”

Zhao Ruihai didn’t beat around the bush—he said it straight.

“Of course I’m interested.”

“Joining in would be a great learning experience!”

Shen Qiushan agreed right away. From his previous solo-vs-team Go match, he’d figured out that joining competitions was a great way to boost his Scholar Index.

This competition Professor Zhao mentioned should also help with that—and Shen Qiushan happened to have the complete technology and blueprints for a laser weapon.

Plus, he was the real owner of the E Yuanhang Laboratory; for this contest, those two resources he had would definitely come in handy.

So of course he had to say yes!

For him, this was basically a huge deal.

“Great!”

“I’ll add you to the team’s group chat after this.”

Once Shen Qiushan agreed, Zhao Ruihai nodded right away.

The National College Electromagnetic Fields and Laser Technology Competition is a pretty prestigious event—every university treats it seriously.

And each university isn’t limited to just one team—as long as a project is appealing and passes the first review, you can form a team and join.

This year, Sanjiang University itself had three teams entering. Zhao Ruihai’s team was generally the underdog, since his proposal seemed too advanced, almost like he was dreaming.

Still, since they’d cleared the first round, Sanjiang University would back Zhao Ruihai’s team anyway. Even if they don’t win, having three teams in the finals is already impressive.

That’s already super cool!

And Zhao Ruihai was really unorthodox when it came to picking people.

He’d brought in not just Shen Qiushan, but also a bunch of “monsters” from different year groups!

Zhao Ruihai then chatted briefly with Shen Qiushan about the contest, before leaving the teaching building.

Shen Qiushan headed to the Red Rose Bar, grabbed his car outside, and drove straight downtown.

At lunchtime, Shen Qiushan parked in front of the city government building.

He carried a box of tea, humming a tune as he knocked on Lin Moxuan’s office door.

He’d made up his mind this morning—he had to win over his future father-in-law!

If not, then he’d just “repeat history” and really run off with Xia Mo.

When he was younger, Shen Qiushan couldn’t understand Lin Moxuan’s attitude. He figured the guy just looked down on him—a feudal-minded “old monster,” a high-and-mighty official!

But now he saw things totally differently; he was a dad himself now, with a daughter.

If his beloved Yanran ran off with some “Xiao Huamao,” Shen Qiushan would probably want to kill that guy!

No way his baby girl could be handed over to some punk.

As for how Lin Moxuan once “looked down” on him—

Thinking about it now, really, it was just human nature.

Marriage is all about “family background matching”—that’s been passed down for thousands of years.

When he was young, Shen Qiushan thought all that “background matching” was just bias against regular kids like him from ordinary families!

But you know what they say: thirty years on the east bank, thirty years on the west—don’t look down on the poor young!

Still, that scenario usually only happens in novels and fiction.

In reality, most kids of poor parents aren’t suddenly going to get rich either!

There are people who change their fate with crazy hard work, but they’re rare.

Most normal folks just end up repeating their parents’ ordinary lives.

Which means, when choosing a partner, matching backgrounds is actually pretty important.

That way, after marriage, the quality of life won’t shift too much, the families are on the same level, and there are no huge gaps in communication or understanding.

So, looking at it from this angle, Lin Moxuan refusing to let his daughter date Shen Qiushan was perfectly reasonable.

As a young man, Shen Qiushan used to hold a grudge, always trying to prove himself, but he just kept failing.

If he hadn’t gotten some “special help” later, Shen Qiushan probably never would have made his comeback. So really, Lin Moxuan’s judgment wasn’t wrong at all.

So these days, Shen Qiushan had let go of all his “resentment” toward his father-in-law. Now he just wanted to get on good terms with him and let him accept the fact that he and Xia Mo were together.

“Qiushan, what brings you here?”

Lin Moxuan was about to head to the cafeteria for lunch, and seeing Shen Qiushan, he couldn’t help being surprised.

“I’ve got a meeting with someone from the culture bureau—since I was already here, of course I had to drop by and see Dad first.”

Shen Qiushan answered with a grin, and put the tea he brought on Lin Moxuan’s desk.

The tea was just a little something—his real “gift” was the Little Blue Bottle.

Shen Qiushan pulled five little blue bottles from his pocket and placed them next to the tea.

Little Blue Bottle: if you know, you know—not only does it give men their mojo back, but it’s also great for overall health and recovery.

Lin Moxuan had felt way better physically lately, and he never used other supplements, so he figured it had to be thanks to the Little Blue Bottle!

So he was pretty much addicted to the stuff!

Only problem: Shen Qiushan never brought much each time, and Lin Moxuan was too embarrassed to ask for more directly.

He’d just run out of them recently, and had been thinking about inviting Shen Qiushan over for dinner, to see if the kid would get the hint and restock.

But before he could even send an invite, Shen Qiushan smartly showed up on his own.

“Was it Yu Qifeng who called you?”

Lin Moxuan casually put the Little Blue Bottles in his drawer and the tea on the bookshelf behind.

“Yup yup, Director Yu.”

Shen Qiushan nodded—Yu Qifeng was head of the culture bureau, and ever since Shen Qiushan won the Nebula Award, Sanjiang City’s culture bureau kept inviting him to all sorts of activities.

But Shen Qiushan turned down most of them.

This time, to have a good excuse to schmooze, Shen Qiushan reached out to the culture bureau himself and finally lined up the interview he’d promised but never actually done before.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep