A rental car pulled into the gated driveway that concealed a quaint little villa. Li Yun got out of the car first as he and inspected his surrounding. He was a bit curious to see how the third Song couple lived. Unlike the other two elderly Song couples, or Rouxi “stepuncles,” very few people had seen Rouxi’s stepparents in public. They lived in a modest house, probably 130 sq. meter, but located in a quiet and secured part of Imperial City's first ring.

Li Yun rang the doorbell. A woman with salt and pepper hair opened the door, and gave them a curt nod. She looked stern and harsh like a teacher, quite different from how Li Yun had imagined.

"Aunty?" Li Yun asked.

She looked a bit hesitant to respond, but nodded. She was rarely ever on the news, but Rouxi had described her as an unassuming and pleasant woman. It was truly the case. She looked rather like a normal mid-age woman.

"Hi? You must be Little Yun, come on in, we made dinner for you," she said.

"Ke An!" Rouxi jumped on Song Ke An and hugged her.

Song Ke An remained calm, and nudged Rouxi away. She looked annoyed when Rouxi wouldn't let go, and dragged the both of them to the dining room table. It seemed like she was experienced with handling a clingy Rouxi.

Li Yun looked around the house. There weren't any maids or workers in the house, which was a bit odd for someone of their status. It looked like Song Ke An was the one that did all the cleaning and cooking in the house. As they walked through the short corridor, Li Yun saw several antique paintings and artifacts lining the walls. In the front of the dining room was a rather large bronze gong.

As all of them sat down around the round dark rosewood table, they were still missing Song Gaode, Rouxi’s stepdad. After ten minutes of waiting, Song Ke An looked a bit irked and took a mallet hidden under the table and swung it hard on the gong.

A loud bang reverberated throughout the house. Suddenly, a plump man came running to the room, breathing heavily and with sweat beading both sides of his face.

"Ah! Ke An! You should have warned me earlier!" The man cried out. He quickly approached Li Yun and gave him a bear hug. Li Yun was pretty strong himself, but couldn't help but feel pain in his chest. "Ah, you must be Meimei's boyfriend!"

"Uncle, it's nice to meet you," Li Yun greeted.

"Ha! Ha! Don't act like a stranger, I'm not that much older than you, you can call me Brother Gao!"

"Uh, Brother Gao?" Li Yun slipped the words out of his tongue, and he quickly realized the strange family dynamics.

Li Yun took out a bag and gave Song Gaode and Ke An their gifts. Song Gaode loved his gift and immediately opened it up, while Ke An politely thanked him for the hairpin.

As they chatted, Li Yun learned that they were both quantum physicists, usually abbreviated as Song GD and Song KA in published papers. Given their inherited wealth, they didn't need to do anything, but Song Taiji had high expectations of all his children and groomed them to exceed and excel in everything they did. However, Song Taiji never expected his third son to fall in love with quantum physics, and dropped out of his business degree.

"You know, father always thought I was wasting my talent, but I say, screw you old man!" Song Gao said as he almost finished drinking the gourd.

Rouxi laughed and clanked her portion of wine glass with the gourd.

"Well, you know rumors are going to fly," Song Gaode stated. "You know what those people are like. Father hates any negative rumors about the family."

Rouxi suddenly checked her phone, and saw some people randomly chatting about her already. She wasn't friends with these people, but she still had to add them on because of business relations.

"It's like these people don't understand the concept of dating," Rouxi said as she continued reading the comments.

Li Yun shrugged. Rumors didn't affect him that much. Rouxi suddenly stopped scrolling, but Li Yun had already caught some of the messages.

"That s*** at it again? Another boytoy?"

"She's like her mother? Isn't she?"

"At least she can pick out a looker."

Rouxi could shrug off rumors, she was used to it, but she wasn't sure how Li Yun would react. She never mentioned her mother to him, but he probably knew by now that her mother was a hostess. He didn't have to dig up her past to learn. There were some rumors that he would have come across that were difficult to ignore. Li Yun took her hand and placed it in between his.

"So Little Yun, how far did you get with Meimei?" Song Gao asked, suddenly breaking up the mood.

"Yun! Don't you dare reply!" Rouxi warned Li Yun and then turned to Song Gao. "None of your business!"

Song Gao seemed to get the gist of everything, "Oh ho, it looks like you really plan to marry. You know father has a rule that any marriage requires a name change."

It was a family tradition that any marriage to the Song family required the bride or groom to change their last names. The only exception was if the family was wealthier than the Song, but there were very few that qualified.

"We are just dating," Rouxi reminded them after getting over the initial embarrassment.

Li Yun turned to look at her and gauge her reaction. They never discussed marriage before, so there was never a discussion about name changes. Rouxi appeared more casual about their relationship than he was.

After dinner with the Song, they returned to their accommodations by the hospital. Li Yun was still thinking about his potential marriage to Rouxi. He wanted to wait until after she graduated, so he never thought so far ahead about the consequences of marrying her after she told him about her family background.

While in bed, Li Yun shifted from side to side thinking about what Song Gao had said. In truth, he had never thought about changing his name. It was partially humiliating on a man's part, but women did it all the time in other countries. Most male families would never consider it because the decision also carried on to their children.

"What sort of man changes their name for a woman?"

"Is that even a man? Did his family sell him?"

"What a *****! I would never do that, it's like castrating oneself."

Those were the sort of things people would say in the streets. Even in modern society, people like that exist.

Rouxi might not care, but names were a family matter. Although most women in China kept their maiden name, their children often took the name of their fathers. Would their sons or daughters retain the Li or Song family name? Unions between the elites and commoners were difficult and complex because of this reasoning.

"I have thought about it," Li Yun suddenly said as Rouxi was about to doze off. "We will make our own last name? Lisong or Songli? What do you think?"

Rouxi’s eyes fluttered open and smiled, "Why are you making up random names? I never said I'll marry you."

"If you don't marry me, what are you going to do Ms. Song?" Li Yun pulled her closer by his side.

She didn't reply but instead kissed him on his cheek.