"What are you two talking about... 'optimal solution'?"

The Kitten Girl shuffled out from the inner room, yawning and dragging mismatched slippers.

"Huh???"

Through tear-blurred eyes from her yawn, Lin Jin spotted a figure fleeing in panic.

Rubbing her eyes, the Kitten Girl blinked in confusion. "Mom, why isn’t Qin Yi staying for breakfast, meow?"

"He has meals cooked by his grandma. He can’t eat here every day, can he?"

Lin’s mother glanced at her yawning daughter, a surreal feeling bubbling up inside her.

*What on earth is this situation?*

*Like raising a pig for seventeen years only to have it turn into a crisp, fresh cabbage overnight?*

*And before I could even warm that cabbage in my hands—another pig came snatching it away?*

Lin’s mother felt these past days were like a rollercoaster ride that had violently derailed.

"Whoa, Mom, what did you say to him? Qin Yi looked so flustered, meow!" Lin Jin tried to sneak a piece of scrambled egg from the plate while her mother wasn’t looking.

*Crack!* A sharp slap echoed.

"Wash your hands! Using your fingers? Have you even brushed your teeth yet? Go now!"

"Waaah, it stings! I must not be your real daughter..." Lin Jin whimpered, pulling back her hand and blowing on the red mark left by her mother’s slap.

Qin Yi sprinted all the way home. Sitting on the rattan chair, his heart still hammered against his ribs like a frantic drumbeat.

No matter his life experience, he was still a seventeen-year-old high schooler at heart. That hard-earned "dating permit" had stirred waves in his usually calm world.

Next step: coming clean with Grandma.

At breakfast, with both grandparents present, Qin Yi concisely explained Lin Jin’s situation and his own plans.

Grandma Fang Qijun and Grandpa Tian Deming fell silent.

This was truly unbelievable.

"Turned into a girl? Turned into a girl? Turned into—" Grandpa Tian suddenly slapped his thigh. "Hey! This is perfect!" His voice boomed with vigor. "Perfect! I, your grandpa, approve this marriage!"

But Grandma Fang said nothing. Her gaze, deep and probing, locked onto her visibly anxious grandson.

She sensed something off about this match.

Qin Yi and Lin Jin had always been close, yes—but never shown romantic feelings. Why was her grandson now so determined to marry her?

*Love striking this fast? Like a sudden storm?*

*This is absurd.*

"Xiao Yi," Grandma Fang said quietly, "tell me your reasons."

Qin Yi straightened his posture. The real test had begun.

Fang Qijun had kept Tian Deming—a former county disciplinary commission director—spotlessly clean throughout his tenure. Her sharp mind and emotional intelligence were legendary.

Back in the early 2000s, a small county’s disciplinary commission held immense power. Temptations swarmed like moths to a flame. That Tian Deming remained uncorrupted owed much to his engineering-background straightforwardness—but even more to his wise wife, Fang Qijun, standing firmly beside him.