I pull the car around to the front gate. Lin is there waiting for me. So is Yang Song. I allow myself the luxury of a groan.

To Lin: We have a chaperone on this trip?

I get out so I can get the passenger door for her. It’s date night, after all, even if we have to deal with a third wheel. Lin gives me a shrug as I come over and a look that tells me I’ll hear about it later. Yang Song ignores me and gets her own door to the back seat on the driver’s side. Something about the whole situation seems vaguely familiar, but I can’t remember how. Lin gives me a quick kiss before she gets in, which is unusual for her out in public like this. Something about that seems familiar too, though.

Lin starts tapping her fingers against her thighs as I pull the car out onto the dusty road.

From Lin: Apologies. She caught me as I was preparing to leave and insisted on accompanying us. Sometimes it just isn’t worth the argument to dissuade her.

To Lin: Fine, but how are you doing that? The dev team hasn’t had time to build a keyboard into the interface yet.

She smiles slyly.

From Lin: A girl has to keep a few secrets.

To Lin: I guess we need to put in some better protections against hacking the interface, huh?

She nods almost imperceptibly and taps on her lap some more.

From Lin: By the time I’m done with this, I’ll know every back door and vulnerability. And I may even tell your developers all of them if you ask nicely.

I smile and nod. Lin looks cute and a little embarrassed by the whole Yang Song situation, so I don’t push back. I really don’t mind that much that Lin’s bodyguard/caretaker/almost mother/whatever is coming along. Maybe this will be the time she finally realizes that Lin and I are a good fit for each other.

To Lin: Can we talk dirty in front of her and see what she does?

Her fingers dance across her lap again. Part of me is jealous of how easy adapting to the new interface has been for her, but then I think of how much slower it is for her to type. For me, typing is essentially the speed of thought.

From Lin: She’s fluent in six types of martial arts and is sitting right behind you. You could try, but I can’t promise that she won’t kill you before you know what’s happening.

I laugh. I know I shouldn’t, but feeling threatened by Yang Song just doesn’t register for me. I could immobilize her with a thought. Or fling her out of the moving car. Or kill her in any of a dozen ways without lifting a finger.

WARNING! LOG TEXT INDICATES MURDEROUS INTENT! THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU KILL ANYONE!

Not that I would. Lin wouldn’t like me doing any of those things.

“So, Yang Song,” I say conversationally, breaking the silence. “My grandparents say you’re a serious player at Mahjong.”

“I learned from my grandfather,” she says. “He was very good.”

Her voice is much colder than I was hoping for. I guess I shouldn’t have expected warmth. Lin keeps saying that she’ll eventually see how great I am, but I’m not holding my breath on that.

“I learned from my grandfather, too,” I tell her, sharing a memory from my index that popped up when I started thinking of the game. “I never played enough to get very good though. My mom and I would just play with my grandparents once in a while.”

“Yes. He owns a set of tiles in the Vietnamese style. I had to show him how the game is played properly.”

I’m not sure how to respond to that. The car is silent for a while.

“Still,” she finally says, her voice softening a little. “It was good of them to invite me to play with them. Your grandparents are good people. Work hard, always honest, take care of the children.”

“I’ve always thought so.”

“Noah takes after his grandfather, don’t you think?” Lin asks. Now I’m starting to wonder if bringing Yang Song along might have been Lin’s idea. Force us to bond on a road trip like in a movie.

The car is silent for another long stretch, as we turn from the long private road that leads to the campus and approach the freeway entrance.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I suppose he does,” she finally agrees. “But he is still not good enough for you.”

Wow. I figured something like this was coming, but that was a little more direct than I thought this was going to be. Part of me wants to protest, but most of me knows that she’s right.

“You’re wrong,” Lin says, turning in her seat to face Yang Song. I love her for standing up for me, whether I deserve it or not. I also appreciate that she’s willing to have this fight in English, in front of me. “Noah is the best man I know. He’s strong, he’s brave, he’s smart, and he’s kind. He saved my life.”

“He did not,” Yang Song says forcefully. “His sister, Louis, she is the good one. She saved your life.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Lin says in a tone that matches. “Not from the cancer. From my father.”

“Your father was a hero,” Yang Song says, her voice turning to razors. “You didn’t know him like I did. He did so many good things for China. For the men and women he commanded. He took care of you. It was not easy for him. Single father all those years.”

“You think I don’t know that? I know. But you don’t know what went on when you weren’t around,” Lin says, anger rising in her voice. “He did things to me. Not just the times you saw. All the time.”

“He was teaching you to be good. To act right.”

“No!” Lin cries out. “You would go home, and he would drink. If I did anything wrong, he would take his bamboo rod out of the closet, and he would beat me. Sometimes even if I didn’t do anything wrong. He would take that damn stick and he would beat me. Then he’d stumble to bed and pass out. If I was lucky. On the nights I wasn’t lucky…”

She trails off. The silence is the car gets crushingly heavy and lasts for twelve minutes and forty-nine seconds.

“Did you know my favorite times were the last few years with him?” Lin finally continues. “It was when the chemo treatments made me so weak that he was afraid to touch me. He was afraid it would kill me. That was the only time I ever felt safe!”

Yang Song sits silently, her face in the rear view a stoic mask. I want to reach out to hold Lin’s hand, to comfort her, but something tells me to wait. They need to hash this out without my involvement.

“You know I loved my father,” Lin says after a long pause. “but I hated him too. He hurt me more than I can ever express. He would have killed me one day if Noah and his family hadn’t come into my life.”

Yang Song sits silently as the mile markers go by.

To Lin: You doing all right?

Lin’s fingers tap on her lap.

From Lin: Yes. I need this.

I love it when my instincts don’t suck.

To Lin: OK. I trust you. I love you. Let me know if you want me to kill her for you.

From Lin: Not funny, but I appreciate it.

Finally Yang Song speaks.

“I knew. I didn’t want to know. But I knew.”

“Good,” Lin says.

The car is silent for a long time again. The sun goes down and we’re halfway to our destination.

“Does he make you happy?” Yang Song finally asks. “This boy of yours?”

“You know he does,” Lin says fiercely.

“Noah,” she says, meeting my eyes in the mirror. “Will you take care of her? Will you give her everything she deserves? She should be very rich, and you did not seem to have very much to give her.”

I laugh.

“Yang Song, when you can do what we can do, money doesn’t really matter that much. Mostly it just lets us do more world-saving projects. But yes. The Institute has recently solved its financial issues on a permanent ongoing basis. She’ll always be obscenely wealthy with me for as long as that term means anything.”

“Good,” she says, crossing her arms. “Then you will marry her.”

Wait, what?

Lin’s reaction is even more surprised than mine if her pulse and pupil dilation are any indicator.

“Yang Song!” she shouts. “You can’t say that!”

I pull the car over as fast as I can without losing control of it.

“You know what?” I say, turning to look at Lin. “She’s right. Evan’s right.”

I feel around for anything made of precious metal that I can scavenge easily. That necklace Lin’s wearing. The index entry for it triggers. The jade pendant isn’t worth much, but the gold is very good quality.

“I’m stealing your necklace,” I tell her, reaching behind her neck and unclasping it.

I need a stone. I could print one, but that takes forever and artificial diamonds are never as interesting as real ones. Yang Song’s got a good one in her pendant.

“Yang Yang Song, does your necklace have any sentimental value?”

Her eyes in the rear view look confused for a moment, then she smiles.

“No, I bought it in Las Vegas. You can have it if you pay me back.”

“Thanks.”

I reach over with my bots and break the diamond from its setting, catching it before it falls. From the density and light refraction, it’s good quality. I should be able to make something decent out of it. It’ll at least work for now, and I can always swap it out later if Lin has issues with it. I discharge the batteries of a few thousand bots to heat a portion of Lin’s necklace enough to form a smooth ring. I extend some prongs to mount the diamond. I let it rotate in the air between Lin and I. It looks pretty good for my first time forging jewelry. I suck the heat back out, charging the bot batteries back up. I let the ring drop into my waiting hand.

“Lin,” I tell her, “you are the only woman that will ever understand me. I don’t want anyone else. I just want you. Now. Forever. Always. How about it?”

Song looks on approvingly as I hold out the ring to Lin. Both of them smile as Lin takes the band and slips it onto her finger. It fits perfectly, of course.

“I suppose you’ll do,” she says, examining the way the ring looks on her hand. Whether she’s talking to me or the ring, I’m not sure. It doesn’t matter. Either way, it’s a yes.

Mom, I’m engaged now. I hope you're happy for me. I’m as happy as I’ve ever been.