Chapter 142: Skilled Work

  From the moment the sun rose, Ju An began to look forward to the evening's arrival. After taking a nap at noon and waking up, it was already 4 o'clock in the afternoon. When getting out of bed, he tried on several clothes in front of the mirror. For the first date, he wanted to dress himself up neatly. Who knew that after trying on several outfits, none were quite satisfactory? He had originally planned to wear a suit, but thought it was too formal. In the end, he chose jeans and high-top boots, a burgundy checked shirt, with a sleeveless sweater underneath, and a dark blue windbreaker jacket. He put Teddy and the others into the space and drove out of the ranch in his car, heading towards Diana's home.

  He parked his car in front of Diana's house, and as soon as he got out, Ju An saw Melina, Diana's mother, who had met last time, feeding chickens beside the chicken coop.

  "Hey, An! You're here so early!" Melina said with a smile. Melina looked more like a white person on the outside, with big brown eyes and snow-white skin, only her black hair hinted at her Chinese father's heritage. An had been in this place for a long time and had seen many mixed-blood children who seemed to inherit more from their mothers, such as those whose mothers were black, and they mostly showed African facial features. Melina was the same, although her father was Chinese, but she could only see a hint of Chinese blood from her black hair. Of course, Obama was an exception, his mother was white, but he was very dark-skinned, no wonder he could become president, unlike ordinary mixed-blood children. However, recently, there were rumors circulating about Obama's mother's racy photos taken when she was young, which made people uncomfortable, this president's job is really not easy.

  "Come and pick up Diana a bit earlier, let's go have dinner first and then watch a movie."

  Marina said with a smile to Ju An, "Oh! Oh! Young man, you don't need to report your dating schedule to me, just tell Diana."

  After hearing this, Ju An rubbed his nose and smiled foolishly. Melina looked at Ju An's expression and laughed even more happily: "Hurry up and go in, I'll make you a cup of coffee. Diana won't be down for a while."

  Just as An settled into the house and sat down on the couch, a tall, stern-looking white-haired old man came downstairs from upstairs. An hastily stood up thinking that this must be Diana's German father, and sure enough, he heard Marina smiling and saying to the old man: "Marcus, this is An, here to pick up Diana".

  The old man took a glance at Ju An, then gestured for him to sit down and sat down on the sofa himself. He crossed his hands, resting his elbows on his knees, and looked at Ju An, saying: "Young fellow, I heard from Diana that you're running a ranch. What kind of cattle or sheep do you raise?"

  "Yeah, I have some cows on my ranch and a few sheep, geese, and other poultry." Is this the beginning of an interrogation? Jū ān had thought that only Chinese parents would ask such questions, but foreigners were supposed to be friendly and warm like they showed on TV when meeting their daughter's boyfriend. Who knew it would turn out like this when it was his turn?

  While he was thinking, Melina had already poured two cups of coffee and a plate of small pastries, carrying them over on a tray. She put one cup in front of Ju An and handed the other to Marcos. Ju An quickly got up and took the coffee with both hands, saying "thank you" in a deep voice. After putting the pastries on the table, Melina also sat down on the sofa next to them, smiling and watching Ju An and Marcos chat, making Ju An even more nervous.

  "Can you hunt? What kind of gun do you like to use for hunting, can you fish?"

  "Nowadays, I use the Remington 700 rifle for hunting, and usually use the Colt Python revolver. Fishing is not very complicated, just simple, a little bit."

  Just as Ju An had finished answering, a large dog came in from outside the door, ran to Marcos' side and wagged its tail. Marcos affectionately stroked the dog's head and asked Ju An again: "What kind of cowherding dogs do you raise on your ranch?"

  "The dogs I raise on my ranch are all quite large. Personally, I'm not too fond of small dogs," said Ju Anju quietly.

  "Mark nodded and said: 'Dogs should be bigger, dogs that can be killed by cats are not considered dogs at all.'"

  Before Marcos' words had even faded away, Diana's voice rang out: "Dad, why are you always asking people questions?"

  Marcos looked at Diana who was going downstairs and a smile finally appeared on his face: "Nothing, I just chatted with this little guy, we got along well."

  "Yes, I had a great conversation with Mr. Marcos."

  Marina said with a smile beside him: "Marcus, you said you guys got along well. If An sits for a while longer, I think the young man will be sweating."

  "That year, when I went to your home, your father-in-law was the one who was majestic. I was far inferior to him, and I really had a good chat with that young man. I liked him very much." Marcos looked at Juran's awkward expression before finally breaking into a smile on his face.

  As she came down the stairs wearing long black boots, black stockings, a deep brown velvet skirt, a white shirt with a small brown jacket over it, her soft and smooth long hair tied back neatly with a bright ribbon, and a faint makeup on her face, Ji An's heart skipped a beat uncontrollably. He didn't even hear the conversation between Marcos and Melina behind him, and after a slight pause, he immediately sat up straight again, ready to continue listening to the two elders' inquiry.

  "Diana went downstairs and said to Marcos and Melina: 'Dad, Mom, we're leaving now. We'll go watch a movie tonight and might come back late.'"

  Ju An heard Diana's words and immediately stood up with Marcos and Merina to bid farewell, then walked towards the door. She opened the door and waited for Diana, who took a short jacket from the coat rack, slung it over her arm and walked out of the house. Just as Ju An was about to close the door, Marcos and Merina also followed them out.

  Helping Diana open the car door, waiting for Diana to get into the passenger seat and close the door, Ju An walked over to the other side, opened the door, got in, started the car, rolled down the window, waved at the two people, just about to turn around, Marcos' voice came over: "Kid! Get Diana back before 11 o'clock".

  Juwon's hand slipped off the steering wheel for a moment, then he stuck his head out and said to Marcos, "Alright, Mr. Marcos." He then turned the car around and drove out of Diana's ranch. As soon as they left the ranch, Juwon let out a sigh of relief.

  Diana looked at Ju An's expression and smiled, asking: "My dad didn't scare you, did he?"

  "I'm actually a bit scared, just now when I was chatting with your father, my palms were all sweaty, and they still are" she said, stretching out her hand for Diana to see.

  "Diana burst out laughing and said, 'You know, Western dads are best at what? Hunting, running a farm, and scaring off their daughters' boyfriends.'"

  "Then my performance just now can be considered pretty good, right?"

  Diana glanced at Ju An and said, "Just barely passing, my father likes to do ranch work with young men, thinking that this is a man's job, so he just asked you simply earlier, and now he still thinks that my two sisters married two hippies."

  "Then what does your brother-in-law do?"

  Diana replied: "Illustrator, drawing illustrations for some magazines and another is advertising designer. My father thinks it's not a man's job, sissy."

  "Hmph, it seems I've really gotten a good deal." He said with a smile, feeling pleased as he drove away.

  Diana looked at Ju An, who was smiling all over her face: "My mom told us that when my dad first met my grandfather, my grandfather asked a lot of questions. At first, he was serious, but later on, my dad just hung his head and sweated profusely. When they left my grandfather's house, he told my mom that in the future, if he had a daughter, he would let other boys taste the same bitter experience." After finishing speaking, she covered her mouth and burst out laughing.

  "Ha! That's nothing. When we have a daughter, I'll scare off her boyfriends too!" Before he could finish, Diana gave him a withering look.

  They chatted with Diana while driving, and before they knew it, they arrived in town. It seemed like time flew by, and the 30-minute drive was over in no time. They stopped in front of a restaurant, which looked like any other in this small town - not fancy like those in New York City, but a simple Western-style eatery serving basic steaks and lamb chops. The two ordered two steaks and a bottle of red wine, chatting softly while they ate.

  After a simple dinner, the two of them went to the town's cinema. An Yi took a look and found that there were several movies being shown. An Yi then asked Diana: "Which one do you want to watch?"

  Diana glanced at the posters of several movies and said, "Let's go see 'Real Steel'. This is the latest one, I haven't seen it yet. The others, 'Puss in Boots' and 'The Smurfs', are not that great, I've already seen them."

  Jū ān nodded and went to buy two tickets. Then, inside the cinema, he bought two buckets of popcorn and two drinks. He led Diana into the movie theater, found a seat, and sat down. Jū ān looked around and saw that most people were couples. Since there weren't many people in the screening room, everyone was seated sparsely. The entire theater had over 200 seats, but it was quite empty.