Hello, Mr Li: The Christmas Trip

"Why is he calling?" Cixi asked Reen who just got off the phone. They had all heard her call the person on the other line, 'uncle Hoy.' 

"Isn't it obvious? I'm sure he wanted to know the room Jo was staying. Hehehe." Reen giggled. 

"Tch! Is he being jealous because I get to stay in the VIP floor while he's still stuck there?" Joreen rolled her eyes. 

"Are you sure you are my daughter?" Cixi asked when Jaime facepalmed.

"What do you mean?" Joreen asked in confusion when she noticed the look the three of them were giving her. 

"Because you are so dumb!" Reen chipped in. 

"Hey! Don't call her dumb." Jaime scolded Reen before turning to look at Joreen. "Look, It's probably working. I told you it's going to work." He said proudly. "I'm sure he wants to check who you are sleeping with tonight. Your aunt Changyu did a good job putting ideas inside his head." 

"Really?" Joreen asked, a small smile creeping up her face. 

"Really. So you better go to your room now." 

"Go to our room? Of course not! He should meet us here." Reen said adamantly before sitting on the bed while Joreen nodded in agreement. 

"I am beginning to regret giving you two this room. It's so nice." Joreen said with a sigh. 

"Hey! Do not even think about taking it back. We won't give it back!" Jaime declared.

"This is unfair. I mean, we paid a lot for this trip right? Why didn't they give us these rooms? It's so beautiful!" Joreen said as she continued to look around.

"Everyone on this trip paid the same amount. So how many people are going to stay in the VIP floor? Also, where are the owners, investors, and partners going to be staying?" Cixi explained. 

"But I heard one VIP room was offered to our family right?" Reen asked curiously. 

"Yea. But we rejected it." Cixi answered. "It's going to be troublesome since we all cannot stay inside the room together." 

Joreen nodded, "That makes sens—" 

"Hey! What are you doing?" Jaime asked when Joreen jumped on the bed and spread her arms and legs like an eagle. 

"You are so eager to throw us out, aren't you? What are you planning to do?" She narrowed her eyes, looking at Jaime before she looked at her mother who hit her arm,

"Ah..." Joreen rubbed her hand. "That hurts! What are you? A gangster?" She eyed her mother who tried to hit ber again but this time, she was quick to roll away from her reach and she rolled towards Jaime's side. 

"Come on, you girls should excuse us. We have something important to discuss." Jaime said, looking serious. 

"I want to stay some more." Joreen whined. 

"Really?" Jaime asked. 

"Hmm." She nodded. 

"Since you do not want to leave... we should have fun." He wiggled his eyebrows while smiling mischievously. 

"Do not come near... hahaha!"

Jaime began to tickle her sides. Joreen kept laughing as she tried to push him away. 

"Stop it. You... are going to... make... me pee on this bed... and you... won't be able to do whatever... you are planning... to do on it tonight." She said in between her fits of laughter. 

Jaime didn't stop. Instead he asked, "Why are you so sensitive tonight?" 

The two women just watched from the side. "I cannot believe they still behave like kids." Cixi said in a quiet voice. 

"Why are you so grumpy. Are we interrupting something?" Reen asked with a cheeky grin that made Cixi throw a pillow at her. 

"Do not touch me there! Do not touch me there!!" Joreen's laughs grew louder when he began to tickle her underarm. 

"Take... your... hands... off me.. I am really going to peeeee....."

A loud bang came on the door, startling the life out of all of them. 

Jaime stopped his attack and looked at the door. The bang came again, startling them for the second time. 

"Who... is there..?" Jaime asked. His voice was ragged from the play.

The door was banged even louder this time. It was as if the person's plan was to break down the door. 

"Don't go!" Joreen said at the top of her lungs even though she was still finding it difficult to breathe. 

"Maybe... they are... Pirates?" She asked with wide eyes. Her assumption brought fear to the other people's minds.

The person at the other end was clearly impatient because he banged the door again. 

Reen was already on the telephone calling the security while Cixi had moved to the large windows to check below. She checked properly but saw nothing strange happening. 

"Calm down. I will just go check who it is. Do not be—" This time, the banging was louder than the first so he went towards the door. 

"NO!" Joreen screamed but Jaime was already looking through the peephole to see who it was. 

The person was really tall because he could only see the chest, but he wasn't dressed like a pirate. 

"Who is it?" 

"Open the damn door!" The person outside barked. 

"Un...cle Hoy?!" Joreen and Reen asked at the same time. 

Jaime quickly opened the door. He hadn't completely opened it when the man grabbed him by the collar with one hand and was ready to land a punch on him while saying, "You son of a —" Hoy's eyes widened and his fist hung in the air when he saw the familiar face. 

"Un..cle... Jai-me?" He said in surprise before looking behind him to see three pair of eyes staring at him in shock. His actions just now had shocked them to stupor. Also, he looked nothing like his organized self. His hair was messy and his eyes looked dark. 

He quickly let go of the surprised Jaime's shirt and looked around awkwardly. His face was burning bright from embarrassment. 

"Care to explain what that was just now?" Cixi stood up from the bed to ask. 

Hoy still looked a bit confused. What was happening? Why was he seeing all of them inside the room? Then what was those sounds he heard outside the door? 

He tried to recall everything again and how he jumped into the wrong conclusion.

After his call with Reen, he still didn't know how to go about the whole thing. 

Since he was already standing at the beginning of the hallway, the first room he saw was VIP ROOM 100. 

Reen had said Joreen was in 110. He didn't know why she told him that, it wasn't as if he had asked for it but since she told him, he couldn't just leave like that. 

He only succeeded in taking a step when his phone rang. Like a thief who was going to be caught during his first operation, he panicked and took out his phone, placing it on silent mode before he checked the caller. It was Mr Ping. He cussed silently and was about to hang up but he remembered Mr Ping wasn't just his friend but also his secretary. Maybe he had something important to tell him, so he took his call. 

"Where are you?" Mr Ping asked, not remembering to be formal. 

"None of your business!" Hoy spat out in irritation. What if Joreen heard his ringtone and came out to find him outside? Then she would think he had come here to look for her. 

"I'll forward you a link now. You should check the news." 

Hoy checked it immediately Mr Ping sent it to him. He wouldn't have been bothered had the news been all about him, but it also concerned Joreen. 

There was a picture of him carrying Joreen the other night when she was drunk, there was another picture where he was holding her hand and leading her since the ship. It was taken that morning when Joreen had been spying on his date then he had led her inside since she was cold. 

There was also the picture of him carrying her inside his room when she was drunk. 

The article was speculating whether they had a more serious relationship than the guardian-ward relationship. Whoever had taken those pictures must have been keeping an eye on them because they wrote everything in details, even explained how a girl who wasn't yet of legal age was allowed to drink until she was drunk. Naturally, the management of the ship was blamed alongside her family. 

As expected, people began to talk bad about him. Talking about how he was taking advantage of a young, innocent girl who had been placed under his care. There were some who were also badmouthing Joreen, talking about how she got movie roles because she was sleeping with the boss. 

He ran his hand through his hair repeatedly until it was messy. 

He began to head towards room 110. His expression was cold. He only hoped she hadn't seen the news yet. 

He dialled Mr Ping's number number as he strolled down there. Immediately Mr Ping answered, he instructed,

"Find out who sent those pictures. And make sure those things are all taken down within the next twenty minutes." 

Mr Ping knew it was almost impossible but he told him he would do it. 

Hoy was just about to knock on the door when he heard Joreen's voice, "Stop it. You... are going to... make... me pee on this bed... and you... won't be able to do whatever... you are planning... to do on it tonight." She was laughing and talking at the same time.

He froze on the spot. Someone else spoke. It sounded like a man but his voice was lower than Joreen's so Hoy only heard him say something about her being sensitive. 

The voice sounded masculine and mature but he couldn't quite get it properly because it sounded distant and low.

"Do not touch me there! Do not touch me there!!"

Joreen's voice was loud and high pitched so he clearly heard her voice. She was even laughing as she spoke. 

"She is not...." Hoy's eyes widened as realization dawned on him. 

"Take... your... hands... off me.. I am really going to peeeee....."

He finally lost it and began to bang on the door. He had a strong urge to throw up but he kept it in. He didn't even want to imagine what was going on inside. 

When he heard Joreen say, "Don't go!" and "No!" to the man inside, he almost lost it. He swore he was going to kill that bastard who dared lay his hands on her, then he was going to teach her a lesson. 

He continued to bang on the door with an intention of breaking it down since it seemed like the pervert didn't want to open the door. 

When the door finally opened, he did the first thing his instincts led him to do.

Standing here now with all eyes looking at him and waiting for him to give an explanation, he froze.