Hello, Mr Li: The Christmas Trip

Hoy's mother was surprised since she didn't know the two girls were close. She was even more surprised when Zichu pointed at Aishu. 

"You?" She asked in disbelief. 

"Hey you! Is it her?" Cixi asked Xiehan. Since he had been directly communicating with her, she wanted to be sure. 

Aishu looked uncomfortable and so did Long Xi. When Xiehan locked gaze with Aishu, she panicked, "What is going on?" She asked in an innocent voice. 

"I asked you a question!" Cixi barked at Xiehan who flinched. Zichu didn't think there would ever be a day he would see his older brother this scared since he usually was always acting like an alpha who didn't fear anyone. 

"It's her." He said quietly while looking down. 

"What? Who are you and why are you pointing at me?" Aishu asked.

"So you are the little bitch?" Cixi asked as she approached her. The girl kept going backwards while looking scared but Cixi made sure to grab her by the collar and landed a hard slap on her face, surprising everyone except their own family. 

"We are causing a scene. Let's go somewhere private. Drag her." Changyu said nonchalantly to Cixi before she turned to look at the head of security. "We can use your office to deal with this." The man nodded and looked at the boys behind him, "Bring her with you." He instructed his subordinates, cocking his head towards Aishu.

"Oh... you don't have to worry too much about it. We have a better way of doing it in our family." Changyu smiled at him. The man wondered what she was saying until he heard a high pitched scream and turned to see Cixi grabbing Aishu by the hair while pulling Aishu with her. 

"Put away your phone cameras for peace sake." Sara said as she looked around at the crowd gathered there, when she approached with her husband. 

"Why didn't anyone mention this to me?" Hoy asked Mr Ping. If he hadn't met Reen, him and Joreen wouldn't have known what was happening.

"It's complicated. It all happened to fast." Mr Ping said apologetically. Hoy still didn't look pleased but he let it slide. He began to wonder what prompted Aishu to so something as stupid as this. 

"It wasn't me! I swear it wasn't me!" Aishu cried as she tried to push Cixi's hand away from her hair but the woman was quite strong and didn't let go. 

"It's her! She told me to do it!" Aishu pointed at Long Xi who was stealthily trying to run away from the scene until she was put in the spotlight and became a deer caught in the headlight. 

Everybody's eyes went to Long Xi. 

"Are you crazy? What have I got to do with any of this?" Long Xi said, looking livid. 

Cixi paused but she didn't let go of Aishu's hair just yet. Since they had all seen the two together just now and Aishu was claiming it was all Long Xi's idea, they didn't just want to blow it off. 

"It was her idea?" Hoy's mother asked Aishu. She looked really embarrassed and disappointed. She couldn't believe she had been thinking one of the two was going to end up becoming her daughter in law. 

"Please let go of my hair!" Aishu begged Cixi. 

"It wasn't all me."

"But this young man said you were a part of it!" Cixi barked at her. Since Joreen had been more affected, Cixi was naturally the most angry person. Jaime was also really pissed but he couldn't just go and start pulling her hair like his wife was doing. 

"She has to follow us too then! Let's go." Changyu said as she began to lead the way. They didn't want to start talking about their family issues in the public. 

Cixi didn't let go of Aishu's hair and dragged her along. When Long Xi looked like she wanted to escape again, she saw a smiling Reen in front of her before her hair was also grabbed and she gasped.

"Follow quietly if you don't want to lose your

hair." Reen said through gritted teeth. 

"Can I grab the remaining ends of her hair?" Queen asked excitedly as she hurried towards them but a firm hand grabbed her and pulled her back. 

"Stay calm and be quiet." Muchen said softly to his daughter. 

"But I want to pull someone's hair too!" She pouted. 

"We'll look for someone else for you later." He promised her making her grin. 

Sara rolled her eyes, "You are such a terrible father!" She snorted and began to follow the others while holding her son's hand. King also snorted at his sister before leaving with his mother.

"Do you want to pull your mother's hair instead?" Muchen suggested to his daughter. 

"I can hear you!" Sara turned to shoot him a death glare while he chuckled with his daughter. 

*****

The first day they boarded Serendipity, Aishu had been so excited to see the Li family were present because then, it meant Li Hoy was also going to be here. She had a big crush on him but he always seemed so unapproachable. She couldn't flirt overtly since she had a reputation to maintain, but she did her best to let him know she was into him but unfortunately, either she did a bad job or he was too dumb to notice. 

Sometime last year, they had bumped into each other in an occasion. She noticed how his focus was solely on Joreen even when he was talking with other people. At first she thought he was only being an overprotective elder but after noticing it on different occasions, she figured something was definitely up. 

Meeting here, she put all that behind her and wanted to get closer to him. First, she threw an hint to his mother when they met, asking if something special was happening between Joreen and him, seeing how the woman looked repulsed by the thought while passionately refuting it, she was glad to know the family were not in support of anything happening between the two.

But she still had a big problem, Hoy couldn't take his eyes away from Joreen! 

"So we're listening, spill it out before I pull every single hair out of that dumb head of yours and turn you bald!" Cixi said finally letting go of Bai Aishu's hair. Reen also let go of the other lady's hair and they waited for Aishu to speak. 

When she still looked skeptical and Cixi was almost going mad with rage, Changyu turned to Zichu. 

"Look dear, I understand you got caught up in this whole mess some way or the other. But remember we treated you like our family. So I believe you can talk to us right?" She asked calmly. Zichu gulped and nodded. How could he say no to her? Not just because she naturally commanded fear and respect, but because the family really had treated him well. 

"So when was the first time any of them approached you?" She asked. 

Zichu shook his head. "No one approached me directly." He confessed, looking away from everyone especially Reen in particular. I just happened to see her with my brother one time." He said, sparing his brother a glance.

"Tell us how you contributed to this whole thing." She said patiently. 

"It... was the first night on the ship. During the meet and greet ceremony." He said with his head down. He didn't know how to say this since he knew how disappointed they were all going to be especially Joreen. He raised his head to look at Joreen apologetically before he looked at Hoy who looked clearly pissed by the whole thing. 

"I heard from my brother that he (he looked at Hoy again) asked for a bottle of non-alcoholic wine to be sent to Miss Joreen's table. On this lady's instruction, my brother asked me to take it there and spill some on her." 

"What?" Reen was the first to react. She remembered clearly that it had been an accident since Joreen didn't know he was coming behind. So it had been a planned thing? 

Zichu looked down guiltily as he felt tears slide down his eyes. He remembered how Joreen had still been nice to him and even scolded Kyle for getting mad at him and calling him names.

"I swear I didn't want to do it. I am sorry." 

"But... why?" Joreen asked looking confused. It was the first time most of the others took note of her since they had been too angry to notice her presence. 

"She asked me to." It was Xiehan's turn to speak while pointing at Aishu. He wanted to at least be a good brother and remove his brother from the spotlight. 

"Why did you do that?" Hoy's mother asked in disappointment. "I trusted you." 

Aishu began to cry. "I am so sorry. He was always staring at her while ignoring me and I thought if she left for a few minutes, I would have enough time with him. I... only overheard him asking the waiter to send a drink to her table and my jealousy got the best of me. I am sorry." She said in between sobs. 

The atmosphere was very awkward and all eyes went to Hoy and Joreen who looked very tensed and nervous. Joreen was afraid the whole thing would blow up and everyone would know about her feelings for Hoy right now. 

The first person to break the ice was Li Minde who looked very pissed and irritated, "How does this whole thing concern that girl then?" He asked, eyeing Long Xi whose face was already as white as a sheet.