You went on a blind date and presented an A-level wanted criminal as a meeting gift?

The dishes were served one after another.

Lin Chen ordered the chef's customized set menu, but he planned to make the main course himself.

When he was halfway through the appetizer, he put down his napkin and stood up.

The eyes of all four women followed at the same time.

A grand piano sits in the corner of the restaurant.

The black body of the guitar gleamed with a warm luster under the soft light, and the lid had already been opened.

Lin Chen walked over, sat down, without any unnecessary formality.

He flexed his fingers and then pressed the key.

Wedding in a Dream.

When the first chord sounded, the air in the entire restaurant seemed to change texture.

This piece is very famous.

The melody is simple, and almost everyone who has learned piano has played it.

But the version that Lin Chen played was different from anything anyone else had ever heard.

He did not strictly follow the original score.

While retaining the main melody, he added a large number of improvised harmonic variations, giving this originally romantic and gentle piece an extra layer of weight and deep emotion after years of accumulation.

The feeling wasn't like a young person playing the piano; it was more like someone who had weathered half a lifetime of storms using the music to recall their most precious memories.

Shen Manyun's eyes were the first to redden.

She remembered the impoverished wedding she had held thirty years ago.

There was no diamond ring, no wedding dress, and even the wine at the wedding banquet was bought with money borrowed by Lin Zhiyuan.

She married into the Lin family wearing a bright red cotton-padded jacket, and from then on, she followed this hot-tempered and stubborn man through thick and thin for thirty years.

Lin Zhiyuan's nose also felt sore, but he tried his best to keep a straight face and pretended to look at the lake view outside the window.

Su Qingge listened quietly, her hands on her knees, her fingertips unconsciously tapping lightly in sync with the melody.

She looked at Lin Chen's back in front of the piano, a back that was gentler than ever before.

Ye Qingcheng leaned back in her chair, her wine glass tilted slightly.

Her expression remained indifferent, but the light in her eyes betrayed her.

She wasn't listening to the music; she was watching the person playing the piano.

Jiang Tingxue's fingers unconsciously twisted a corner of the napkin.

Her eyes were much softer than usual, and her lips were slightly pursed, as if she was holding back something.

Su Ke'er couldn't help herself.

Her tears fell "plop" into the soup bowl in front of her, but she smiled and wiped them away with the back of her hand, continuing to stare intently at Lin Chen.

When the piece ended, Lin Chen stood up from the piano bench.

He didn't wait for the applause.

He walked toward the restaurant's open kitchen.

"The next dish is one I prepared especially for today."

He rolled up his sleeves, revealing his muscular forearms.

The ingredients he had prepared in advance were already laid out on the kitchen counter: French imported gelatin sheets, organic milk, Japanese Uji matcha powder, raspberries, passion fruit, and a small piece of Madagascar vanilla pod priced at four figures.

He started to take action.

His hand speed was so fast that no one present could see the complete process of each step.

In his hands, ingredients are broken down, recombined, and blended as if by magic.

While the gelatin sheets soften in water, the milk and vanilla pods have already been steeped and extracted over low heat.

Matcha powder was whipped into fine foam with warm water measured precisely to the gram, and raspberries were processed into translucent jelly-like sheets.

The whole process took less than fifteen minutes.

When he came out carrying a tray with six desserts on it.

Each serving is in a transparent glass with four layers: the bottom layer is dark green matcha mousse, the second layer is milky white vanilla panna cotta, the third layer is golden passion fruit jelly, and the top layer is a flower handmade from raspberry slices.

The colors progress from dark to light, layer by layer, with each layer having a clear and crisp boundary, without any mixing of colors.

On the petal of the topmost raspberry flower, a drop of dew made of syrup still clung, refracting a tiny arc of light under the lamp.

Lin Chen placed the dessert in the center of the table.

"May your life be peaceful and serene. Wishing my parents a happy pearl wedding anniversary."

Shen Manyun really couldn't hold back this time. She picked up a napkin, covered her eyes, and cried so hard that her shoulders were shaking.

After holding it in for a long time, Lin Zhiyuan took a big gulp of tea and mumbled out a sentence.

"It's alright... my skills haven't gotten worse."

Then he turned his face away.

The four women picked up their dessert spoons almost simultaneously.

Ye Qingcheng scooped up a small spoonful and put it in her mouth.

Her eyelashes trembled. The slight bitterness of matcha, the richness of vanilla, and the sweet and sour taste of passion fruit bloomed in her mouth one after another, blending together seamlessly.

She put down her spoon and leaned her head on Lin Chen's shoulder.

The movement was very light, as if unintentional, but she did not move away.

Seeing this, Su Qingge tapped the spoon in her hand against the side of the cup.

She lowered her head and continued eating her dessert, but her free hand quietly reached out from under the tablecloth and grasped Lin Chen's hand, which was resting on his knee.

Lin Chen's fingers twitched slightly, and he squeezed back.

Then it loosened.

Jiang Tingxue eats desserts very slowly.

She would pause after each bite, as if analyzing the proportions of each layer of the recipe.

But her eyes never left Lin Chen.

Su Ke'er finished her portion in a few bites, licked her lips, and looked like she wanted more.

Then she tilted her head and looked at Ye Qingcheng leaning on Lin Chen's shoulder, then at Su Qingge's hand hidden under the table, her eyes darting around twice.

She picked up the dessert that Su Qingge hadn't finished eating and brought it to her mouth.

"Sister Su, you're eating too slowly, let me finish it for you!"

"you--"

Su Qingge's attention was interrupted, so she quickly let go of Lin Chen's hand and went to grab her dessert cup.

Su Ke'er chuckled and returned the cup.

This commotion eased the subtle tension on the table considerably.

Shen Manyun wiped away her tears, looked at the scene before her, and her heart swayed back and forth for a long time before finally coming to a conclusion.

All four are good.

I don't want to let any of them go.

But she dared not say it aloud.

Lin Zhiyuan kept his head down and ate his dessert the whole time, without saying a word.

Although he was a rough man, he wasn't blind.

He could see clearly what the four girls were thinking.

His son, among four equally outstanding women, did not lose his composure, showed no favoritism, and did not embarrass any of them.

With that kind of skill, he couldn't even handle two, let alone four, when he was young.

He took another sip of tea and glanced at the lake outside the window.

Finally, a genuine smile appeared on his lips.