Hello, Mr Li: The Christmas Trip

Hoy knew things was going to turn messy when Cixi received a call and her face looked pale instantly. The call had saved him from explaining his presence here but this was another bigger trouble. 

The look Cixi gave to Hoy while answering the call told him she knew about the news already.

"Are you okay?" Jaime asked. He was worried, and so was his daughters who were patiently waiting for their mother to tell them what was wrong immediately she got off the phone. 

"Uh... I... I will be back." Cixi said to her daughters before looking at her husband, using her eyes to tell him to follow her out.

She gave Hoy the same look too but when he was about to leave the room, Joreen's face fell. She was tired of this hide and seek game between them. By now, she would have probably been linking arms with him while they would return to their floor together or telling him about some exciting thing she saw online. But now, she had to act like she didn't care.

"You two wait here okay? We will be back." The three people disappeared which made the two younger girls even more curious and worried. 

"Something is wrong." Reen pointed out. 

"I can see that. What do you think that is? Any guess?" 

"Nothing."

"Then should we follow them?" Joreen suggested. 

"Of course not! Mum asked us to wait here. I'm sure they'll let us know what is going on when they get back." Reen said hopefully in her usual 'big sister' tone. 

"Do not be so worried. I'm sure whatever it is, is not going to affect our family or uncle Hoy in anyway." Reen assured her when Joreen began to bite her nails nervously. 

"This is going to affect the whole family negatively!" In another room, the second madam said in a frantic voice. She had expected there would be a scandal between her younger son and a woman but not this!

"Calm down. Panicking won't change anything." Her husband tried to make her calm down but the woman kept pacing around the room while complaining. 

It wasn't difficult for news like this to spread. Since it involved (or was going to involve) the entire family, they all received individual calls to inform them about the rumour cum scandal which was already circulating very fast. Each member were going inside the second madam's room (one after the other or with their partners) since it directly involved Li Hoy, and because Li Hoy's parents were the oldest among their group so they gathered in their room instead. 

"That's weird. Who would dare give out such information? Does it mean someone have been spying on Hoy and Joreen all this while?" Li Hoy's father, Li Han asked. 

"I must admit, whoever did that has a bunch of nerves." The first Madam, Li Muchen's mother said. 

"It's not like it's going to be difficult finding whoever did that. At least, we know a jobless idiot is in this ship, spying on our kids to ruin their reputations." Changyu, who was just entering inside spoke as she went towards the couch to sit. She crossed her arms and legs and looked at all of them. 

"Which agency was the first to publish?" She asked.

Just then, Mr Ping who they had sent for, knocked and entered inside the room, 

All eyes went to him, expecting an answer since they knew he obviously heard the question,

"Q and A news agency." He answered, feeling intimidated standing in the midst of everyone of them. None of the younger ones were present, Eva and Sara were there but their husbands weren't. Since they were all not currently in the country, it was a bit difficult getting things done swiftly. 

Heya wasn't the social type so it wasn't a surprise she wasn't here. They could bet she hadn't heard the news either and was probably sleeping already. 

"Q and A again? I bet it's that stupid rat. He doesn't seem to let go of any opportunity to write bad things about us." Li Fazhan said, at this rate, he was already fuming. 

"Because you all let them do it. I mean... it's not difficult to kick their CEO out." Changyu said with a shrug as if she wasn't saying something as serious as kicking out a CEO from his company.

"Why are you all looking at me like that?" She asked, uncrossing her legs and sitting up. "Do not tell me you have never considered owning a news agency? It's not like we do not have enough manpower to run it. Even Mr Ping here can do a good job as a CEO—"

Mr Ping's looked down, embarrassed to be put under the spotlight. 

"Alright... that's enough. We only want to take down the entire news from the internet. You are going too far." Her husband whispered to her before forcing out a smile to the others, "Please do not mind her, continue." 

His wife eyed him but went back to crossing her legs and resting her back on the couch.

"But... is something really going on between them?" The first Madam, Jiang Dana asked seriously. 

"Of course not! That's absurd. Hoy should have drew clear boundaries between them when he already knew she had grown into a woman. Now, people are talking bad about my son." 

"Aunt calm down. This isn't just about Hoy. You can see that Joreen's name is even trending more than his." Sara said reasonably.

"This is affecting my son's reputation!" 

"Your son's reputation? Did you read the news to see that the one who is receiving most of the harsh comments is Joreen? People are accusing her of sleeping with Hoy in exchange for roles! Do you know how she is going to feel when she sees such comments?" Cixi asked, looking very angry. She had just entered with Jaime but Hoy was nowhere to be found. He had excused himself earlier to go make some phone calls. 

"Why are you getting angry at me? It's your daughter who is always being clingy around him and also stubborn. If she hadn't gotten drunk, he wouldn't have carried her like that! Hoy was just being nice and now his reputation is being ruined because he was putting up with her childish attitude."

"Are you crazy?" Cixi asked, not trying to mince her words. The woman was at least 10 years older than her, but she wasn't going to let her insult her daughter like that. 

"How dare you talk about my daughter like that? You should warn your son who is always around trying to control everything she does. If anyone is being clingy then it's Hoy who is being clingy. You think he is so great and better than my daughter?" 

An heated argument ensued between both mothers. Naturally, they both thought their kids were better and blamed the other's child for causing this. The whole place became rowdy at once with everyone trying to control and stop the arguement.

A loud slap on the table, and silence followed as they all looked at the source.. 

"Is this really important right now?" Changyu asked. She was still seated even though her husband was already inbetween both women who looked like they were going to fight each other any second.

"If you people have enough time to argue, then go look for the bastard or wench who took those photos. At least we have CCTV on every floor. Or better still, just tell me who you want as the new CEO of Q and A." 

"Can you calm down with the CEO thing, mother." Sara said, trying hard not to roll her eyes. 

"I checked the CCTV footage of that night when miss Luo was drunk. I had met them in the hallway that night so I remembered the time and it made it easier for me to check. Unfortunately, whoever took those photos hid in a blind spot."

"How nice!" Eva said with a frustrated sigh. 

"Why did Joreen have go get drunk that night! Who allowed her drink in the first place?!"

"Excuse me? You should ask your son why he carried my daughter into his room when she was completely stoned. If he hadn't, people wouldn't be saying bad things about my daughter right now!" She had appreciated the fact that Hoy helped Joreen when she was drunk, but now that it seemed like his mother was trying to put all the blame on him, she wouldn't let it happen.

Another round of hot argument ensued between both mothers.

"Uhm.. Aunties... Uncles... Madams..." Mr Ping was confused as to how to address them. Plus the pandemonium wasn't making things easy for him because he would have just said what he wanted to say without thinking about how to get their attention right now. 

"Damn it! This young man here has exhausted his vocabulary because of you all." Changyu said at the top of her lungs, hitting the table loudly for the second time, to get everyone's attention. 

Mr Ping flinched. Was she... talking about him? He turned to look at her like she was his saviour and suddenly saw a very bright light surrounding and a halo in her head. It made her look like a very beautiful angel. He stared for a while before an angry male face appeared in front of him, blocking his view of her. 

"What are you doing?" Jianjun asked, his tone unpleasant.

Mr Ping returned to his senses and cleared his throat awkwardly when he realised he had been ogling another man's wife. Plus, she was old enough to be his mother, plus she was his boss's cousin's mother in-law. Plus, he was going to lose his life if he stared longer. How come he forgot who she really was?

"The news has been taken down." He announced in a tight voice.