Hello, Mr Li: The Christmas Trip

With only 10 rooms available, they all began to find a solution to this problem.

Li Muchen's parents (Jiang Dana and Li Fazhan) had a room, Hoy's parents had one room. Hoy already found himself a room so that was going to be his no matter what anyone said. The Luo parents had one room, Changyu and Jianjun had one. That was 5 rooms occupied already. 

Joreen and Reen had one, Muchen and Sara had one, Minde and his wife had one. There were two rooms left. 

"The nannies can return to the resort and have fun there. We'll look after our kids, right Sara?" Kim Eva suggested. 

The lazy part of Sara wanted to scream 'No' because she knew how troublesome her kids could be. Those kids needed to be watched every second because while you are yelling at them for running, they were patiently waiting for you to finish yelling so they'll go fly. 

"Yes, sure." She said with a smile which was very much forced. 

Her husband, who was busy eating the fruits their daughter was feeding him at the dining chuckled. He could see through his wife to know she wasn't okay with the idea but was pretending to.

"They should have fun and rest. They have been looking after the kids since the trip." Sara said. 

"Good then. We still have two rooms." Hoy's mother said. "But there are still three people: Heya, Reen's friend and—"

"Reen's friend will be staying in the resort. You don't have to worry about him." Changyu said as she threw some cashew nuts inside her mouth.

"Really? Why?" The first Madam Li asked. 

Changyu shrugged, "Maybe he prefers there to here?" 

"Did you threaten him?" Sara whispered to her mother while glaring at her. 

"Me? Why would I?" She asked, feigning ignorance. Sara didn't know whether she was being truthful or not but she decided to let it go. 

"Oh! And Heya already moved her things back to the resort. But she'll be coming here everyday. She just prefers there." Heya's mother informed them with a sigh. Why couldn't her daughter tag along just like the others? Muchen and Hoy were very introverted but they managed to flow with everyone else. She wished her daughter would open up someday.

"That still leaves us with two rooms." Hoy's mother announced. 

"The three kids can take one." Eva suggested and it was quickly approved. The only one who didn't like the idea was Li King. 

"Can I stay at the resort by myself, mommy?" He asked his mother quietly. 

"I'm sorry baby. But you cannot stay there alone." Sara said while patting his head. 

"Then can I stay with uncle Hoy instead?" 

"If he agrees, sure." She said before ruffling his hair.

"So we are left with one room." First Madam Li said. 

"Then my son's secretary can stay there." 

"You know he has a name, don't you?" Changyu asked while eyeing her. By now, her husband would have pinched her to make her keep quiet if he wasn't in the kitchen preparing dinner with Reen and Joreen helping out. 

Li Hoy's mother only snorted. She knew Changyu was spoiling for a fight because of what she said about Joreen the other day.

Meanwhile, Mr Ping who was inside Hoy's room giving him some reports heard them and smiled to himself dreamily.

"She always treats me well." 

Hoy fought the urge to roll his eyes. He knew this silly crush or admiration was going to end soon so there was no need slapping some sense into him.

An hour later, everyone came out for dinner. It was Christmas dinner and it was their family ritual to always eat together so Heya returned from the Resort but once again, no one saw Kyle and his absence didn't bother them.

Thankfully, the dining table was quite long and more chairs were brought to fit the whole family. But the chairs had to be put very close together so they would all fit the dining table.

Reen and Joreen helped their uncle serve the table with Changyu frowning because her husband had insisted on preparing Christmas dinner while Cixi kept smirking at her because obviously, she won!

Cixi's husband still wasn't talking to her and she returned the silent treatment because he had said she was a bad cook in front of everyone. 

Dinner was going surprsingly well. Joreen keeping her head down the entire time even when the topic moved to her birthday. She had simply said she didn't want anything grand and was already happy to have the whole family together.

"That's so sweet of you. You are finally going to turn 18. I remember how little you were when I first met you." Hoy's mother said with a smile. Her husband almost rolled his eyes because he knew she was being extra nice since Hoy had promised never to talk to her until she apologized to Joreen and her parents but instead of apologizing, she was taking this route— being sweet to the girl. 

Joreen smiled awkwardly, hoping the attention would move away from her but that wasn't happening. 

"There must be a lot of boys vying for your attention eh?" Muchen's father, Li Fazhan asked, making her almost choke on her meal. 

"Don't startle her with such questions. See what you caused. She's too innocent to care about things like that." Hoy's mother said, handing Joreen a glass of water. 

"There is nothing wrong with what he said. I got married at 18. She can as well get married if she sees someone she likes." Heya's mother said, taking her husband's side. 

Joreen has never been so uncomfortable in her life. Being the centre of attention especially with Li Hoy sitting across her wasn't something she looked forward to during their Christmas dinner. 

"Do you have someone you like, Joreen?" Hoy's father asked. 

Everyone was suddenly quiet as they waited for her to answer. Her wide eyes looked at everyone before she settled with looking at her plate,

"Yes." She confessed and could hear the surprised sounds of some of them. Maybe they hadn't expected her to answer honestly, but she would have been caught had she lied. 

"Oh really? Who is he? What family is he from?" Hoy's mother asked her excitedly. 

The question had made Joreen choke on the water she was drinking. 

The atmosphere turned awkward in an instant with everyone looking at everyone who knew what Hoy's mother obviously didn't know. 

Was this how it felt like to be treated like an adult? 

Joreen had asked her parents to stop interfering in things that concerned her except she asked for their help. She guessed that was why they were both quiet unless they would have said something by now. Reen wasn't saying anything either.

She looked at Changyu. She knew she could trust the woman to come up with something for her because she feared that if she opened her mouth, she was just going to blurt out, "I LIKE UNCLE HOY." It wasn't difficult for her to do something like that. 

Before she could read Changyu's gaze, Hoy stood up. 

"Thanks for the meal," He started to speak, "But I need to leave now to attend to something." He looked at Mr Ping beside him who was sticking a piece of fried meat inside his mouth, "You are coming with me." 

"Whhaa—?" Mr Ping asked with a mouth full of food and a frown but Hoy ignored him and looked at Joreen, "You are also coming with me Jo." 

"Eh?" Joreen looked up at him in surprise. What business did they have? Why was he just saying it now? And besides, it was already past 8 in the evening. 

Hoy gave her a piercing look that made her jump from her seat.

"Wear something warm and meet me outside in 5 minutes." He sounded so serious that those who didn't suspect a thing wouldn't think much of what was happening. 

Joreen wondered why they had to meet outside when they could just stay inside or at the balcony but she went to her room. It wasn't until she entered inside her room that she realised the distraction had helped her avoid the question. 

"What's amusing you?" Hoy's mother asked her oldest son, Minde who had a grin on his face while drinking his wine. Minde said nothing and continued sipping. 

She looked around in confusion and noticed half of the people seated looked like they were trying to suppress their smiles. 

She looked at them and at her plate of food. Was something wrong with the food? Even Changyu was smiling. 

~~~~

A grumbling Mr Ping followed Hoy inside his room and asked, "What's suddenly so important that you had to stop me from eating?" 

Hoy ignored him and changed into a coat. When he was done fixing his appearance, he went outside with Mr Ping following him. 

Joreen wasn't there when they arrived so he turned to look at Mr Ping. "You can get lost now." 

"Ah! I knew it!!! You only used me so it wouldn't seem suspicious that you're trying to stop Miss Luo from answering that question right?" Mr Ping asked while eyeing him suspiciously. "Were you shy because you thought she may call your name and everyone would turn their attention to you?" Mr Ping began to tease with a grin. "Well, I don't mind you using me. I guess I can skip a meal or two just to help my shy boss go on a date with the girl he lik—" He literally ran away from Hoy's reach when it seemed like he was going to get hit if he completed that sentence. 

"Enjoy your date. And make sure not to fall for the temptation to..." He puckered his lips to show his friend what he meant before he continued, "She isn't 18 yet." Mr Ping said and began to chuckle loudly as he ran away from the 'estate' to the sea side since there was a Christmas party being held there. He was just going to have fun for a while amd return whenever Hoy was going to return so no one would suspect a thing.