Hello, Mr Li: The Christmas Trip

"One of our stars for today! Happy Birthday lady Jo. You look stunning." Uncle Minde said with a smile. 

Lady Jo. She liked the sound of that. She hoped they would stop calling her 'Baby Jo' now since it was quite embarrassing. 

She was wearing a white plain gown with red heel. The gown was made with a suit material with the upper part, bodyfitted. It had a long sleeve with a high neck but it was short and had a full flare from the waist up to a half of her thighs. The dress was a gift from uncle Muchen early this morning. He had also gifted Reen a very beautiful blue gown which was a lot longer than hers.

Since today was a very important day, she worse the ankle bracelet Hoy had gotten for her and her most expensive dangling earring. Reen had helped her with her make up and had also tied her braids into a big bun. Since a lot of people had told her how much they liked the brown contact lens on her last time, she wore it again. 

She had been really impressed when she saw her reflection. There was no way Li Hoy wouldn't fall for a beauty Queen like her right?

So one word for her would be STUNNING. 

"Do not flatter me uncle. You look even more handsome." Joreen returned the compliment. Minde wore a suit with expensive looking wrist watch and shoe. He wasn't wearing a bow tie instead, he left the first three buttons of his shirt undone, showing off his really expensive gold necklace. 

"So how does it feel turning 18?" He asked with a smile. 

"Hmm... I don't know. It feels normal." She shrugged. 

"It won't be when you are holding a glass of wine in your hand without anyone judging." He winked at her, making her laugh. 

"I have been looking forward to it." 

"I know, I know. I've heard about all your tantrums because you weren't allowed to drink. You are free to do so now. In fact, I even bought one really expensive wine to pop on your behalf today. You are welcome." He said proudly. 

"Aww.. you are so sweet uncle. I'm looking forward to having a taste of it." 

"And I can't wait to be the first person to spoil you with wine. Make sure not to drink any here. Tonight, I'll pour you your first wine." He said excitedly which made her giggle. Had he forgotten she had drunk wine before and that was how she got drunk at the ship?

When she was done with Minde, she moved on to other members of the family. She saw Hoy's mother still talking to Long Xi and wanted to walk away but the woman saw her and quickly called her. 

Joreen kept a smile on her face as she turned around to look at them. 

"This is Luo Joreen." Hoy's mother introduced her to the two women.

From the brief introduction, Joreen guessed the woman had already told them about her. 

"Oh my! She is even prettier than I imagined." Long Xi's mother said. The woman had a genuine smile on her face but Long Xi's smile looked forced and it made Joreen a little confused. This was the first time she was meeting the girl so why did she look a little hostile? Or maybe she was just imagining things?

Joreen didn't want Long Xi to bother her so she turned to look at her mother while smiling, "Madam Long. I am flattered." 

"You should be." Long Xi chipped in from the side. "My mother rarely gives compliment to others." 

"And I always receive compliment from others. It isn't something unusual." Joreen retorted with a smile still on her face. 

"Ehm... Jo.." Hoy's mother cleared her throat to clear the tension before touching Joreen's shoulder. 

"Long Xi here, is probably going to be your uncle Hoy's you know..." She winked at her. "You two can get along and you can be nice enough to give her some tips about what your uncle likes." 

Joreen looked at her innocently, "What if uncle isn't interested in her?" 

The smile on Hoy's mother's face wavered. She hadn't expected Joreen to say that outrightly. 

"We are close." Long Xi chipped in. 

"Doesn't mean he is interested in you." Joreen continued to speak with an innocent facial expression. 

The smugness on Long Xi's face had disappeared. This was what Joreen liked. She liked it when they showed their real color to her, just like what Aishu did the other day. She hated it when they pretended to be nice just because they wanted him. 

He belonged to her and that was it! 

"Please, excuse me." Hoy's mother forced out an awkward smile before pulling Joreen with her through the back door into the house. 

"What was that about? You were rude to them!"

"I wasn't rude auntie. I didn't want to agree to that when I know uncle Hoy doesn't like her." 

"Who told you he doesn't like her? Didn't I tell you his father mentioned he had seen Xi acting casually with your uncle and even called him by his name? And even if you felt that way, you would have at least pretended to agree instead of embarrassing her like th—" 

"Jo did nothing wrong." Hoy appeared behind Joreen, his gaze fixed on his mother. 

Joreen turned to look at him. He was dressed in an official tux, complete with a bowtie. 

"Hoy—"

"I'm not interested in knowing either of them mother. Aishu nor Xi. So I'll appreciate it if you stopped butting in and leading them on on my behalf."

"What has gotten into you?" His mother asked in a broken voice. 

"That girl is perfect! She is everything you should want." 

"I don't want to have this conversation with you anymore mother. And I'm serious, you really should stop before I start getting angry." 

He turned his gaze to Joreen for the first time and stretched out his hand to her. 

"Let's go." He said.

Joreen looked at his mother's painful reaction before relunctantly taking his hand. 

After they left, she noticed her husband had been standing there. 

"I told you he wasn't going to like it." He reminded her with a shake of his head.

******

The families greeted each other warmly. Even if a bulk of them hadn't been invited to their little outdoor party, they couldn't send them away. 

Heya was a lot surprised to see Zhu Liang and his family arrive. 

"Apologies, but we couldn't just skip them." Her mother said, appearing beside her. 

Heya understood that perfectly. The Zhu family was a big name just like theirs. It was unfortunate things turned out that way for her and Liang, but the family just couldn't shut the Zhus out completely, especially when they were all in the same location. 

"You should have at least told me first!" She whisper–yelled at her mother.

"I didn't think Liang was going to come. He has been doing a fine job withdrawing himself from every occasion for the past few years." 

Heya sighed. She was still looking at Liang when he looked at her direction. She expected him to turn away or act coldly, but surprsingly, he smiled at her and when he noticed her mother beside her, he bowed before he returned his attention to his family. 

Heya could not help but smile. But the smile disappeared when her mother turned to give her a suspicious look. "What was that about?"

"What was what about?" She asked, feigning ignorance. 

"He just smiled at you like you two are friends. Is... something going on between you two?" 

"NO!" Heya denied with a high pitched voice. 

"Nothing is going on between us. Can't he just smile at me? It's not like we are quarreling." 

Her mother was obviously not convinced but she pretended to be. 

"I don't want you getting into trouble since you know... you are close to the Yan family— speak of the devil!" Heya's mother exclaimed when she saw them arrive. As usual, Madam Yan looked really excited. 

Heya became uncomfortable immediately she saw them arrive and she began to have an ominous feeling even though she didn't know why. 

~~

"Happy wedding anniversary. May you two continue to live in love and happiness." Madam Yan wished Muchen and Sara. 

Muchen could not hide the fact that he was displeased to see this family, so he was quiet while his wife, Sara spoke, "Thank you. You can go ahead and enjoy yourselves." Sara said with a smile. 

She looked at each of them and noticed Suyin was looking elsewhere. When she followed her gaze, she noticed she was staring at Zhu Liang.

"Have fun you two." Madam Yan said with a giggle before moving away with her family. 

"I dislike that woman!" Muchen said immediately they left. 

"I know. But should we be worried about the fact that Yan Suyin and Zhu Liang are both here?"

Sara asked as she scanned around for Li Heya. She saw Li Heya standing alone now and she was also staring at Zhu Liang. 

"Let's hope everything turn out well." Muchen said hopefully. 

~~~

"If only Li Muchen wasn't married.." Madam Yan said with regret as they moved towards Sara's parents. 

"He would have been a perfect match for Suyin." Her husband agreed. 

"Do not say it loudly before the kids hear you and get angry. You know how annoying they can be, not realizing we are doing this for them." 

Her husband snorted. "Why don't I see Li Hoy around?" He asked rhetorically. 

"We're sure he'll come out anyway. Let's go say hello to the Wang couple first."