Dragon Palace Home #10.
As the competition and disunity started simmering beneath the surface among the members of the Long family, Spring Festival finally arrived. Wanting to impress their mistress, the household staff went all out in decorating the entire mansion. There was red and gold colours everywhere.
On the day of the Lunar New Year's Eve, Yi Mei, the cook and the older staff from the penthouse all came to the mansion to celebrate with their Young Miss. The younger staff from both the mansion and the penthouse returned to their hometowns to celebrate the holidays with their own families. The older staff stayed and prepared for the celebration.
As this was an important occasion, both the Jin, the Long and the Lu families all had their own respective reunion banquets. All relatives from the branch families would come over to celebrate with the main families.
Since Iris and Jin Liwei hadn't publicly announced their relationship yet, they decided not to attend together. It wasn't the right time yet.
Jin Liwei had to attend the Jins' New Year banquet because he was the head of the family. It was part of his duty to attend important family occasions like these.
On the other hand, Iris had no interest whatsoever in attending the Long family's reunion banquet. Except for Long Tengfei, Long Hui, Yang Jiahui and Meimei, she had no attachments to anyone from the Long family. She didn't consider them as family at all. Even the original Iris already stopped attending such occasions before because all she received from the relatives were constant mocking and criticisms.
When Iris and Jin Liwei informed Grandma Li and Huang Yuyan that Iris wouldn't be coming to the New Year's Eve banquet, they were disappointed but they understood the couple's current situation. Although they adored Iris and couldn't wait for her to marry Jin Liwei, it didn't mean that the other Jin relatives would accept her immediately as their next madam.
Similarly, Long Tengfei was very disappointed when Iris informed her that she wouldn't be attending the family's banquet. He thought that perhaps she would be willing to attend this year because she had been so agreeable in repairing their father-daughter relationship. But it turned out that her willingness didn't extend to the other members of the family.
"Liwei and I will visit you some other time," Iris compromised and then quickly added, "We'll bring Little Jun."
The Lunar New Year's Eve celebrations began all throughout the nation and in other countries celebrating this important occasion.
Jin Liwei was unhappy and his heart heavy. He almost didn't want to attend the Jin family's banquet because he didn't want to leave his baby girl. However, she persuaded him to go.
"I'll come back as soon as I can," he promised her.
"Okay. Take care, darling. Come back to me safely," she told him before standing on her tippy-toes to give him a hard and hot kiss on the mouth.
He groaned and lifted her up, and then deepened the kiss. They reluctantly ended the kiss. "On second thought, how about I don't go and just stay here with you?"
Iris giggled and hugged him. "No, you should go. I don't want any of your relatives complaining that their family head has become irresponsible. Next Lunar New Year, we'll surely celebrate together with everyone else in your family."
His eyes widened and then a joyful expression broke out of his face. "I'm looking forward to that. I can't wait."
She hugged him and inhaled his masculine scent that she liked so much. "Mmn. Have fun tonight."
"It's not going to be fun because you won't be with me."
He sulked for a bit hearing her words before she made him feel better by giving him another mind-blowing kiss. Afterwards, he really needed to go. He left the mansion in a not so pleasant mood. He just left but he already couldn't wait to come back home to her.
Later, Lu Zihao was on his way to mansion. It turned out that he came from the Lu family's own New Year's Eve banquet. Just like Iris to the Longs, he had no close attachments to the other members of the Lu family except for Grandpa Lu. Bored out of his mind, he slipped away and drove directly to Dragon Palace Homes. Of course, his phone started ringing just a few minutes after he disappeared.
"Hello? Hello?! Haohao my boy, where in the bloody hell are you right now? Tell me! I want to know!" Grandpa Lu's voice boomed when he answered the phone on speaker while driving.
He decided to answer the call because if he just ignored it, the old man might send his army of subordinates to follow him and drag him back to the banquet.
"How dare you leave our family gathering at New Year?! Come back here right now or I'll have you dragged back here!"
See?
Lu Zihao forced the annoyance out of his voice and explained to the old man, "I'm heading to Third Brother's place. Xiulan is alone there right now because Third Brother has to attend the Jin family's banquet. And she's not attending the Longs' banquet. So I'm accompanying her to celebrate the New Year. Are you telling me to leave her alone instead?"
"What?! My girl Xiulan is left alone on such an important occasion?! Poor girl! Why didn't any of you tell me?! I want to know! Pick her up quickly and bring her here! If she doesn't want to celebrate with the Jins or the Longs, she's more than welcome to celebrate Lunar New Year with us, the Lus!"
"No, it's fine. She doesn't know anyone else in our family. She'll just feel uncomfortable and out of place."
When he finally arrived at the mansion, he was surprised by the festive atmosphere. Some of the male staff already started lighting up firecrackers outside while the others were busy preparing the dinner table.
He found Iris at the living area watching the Spring Festival Gala on TV. She was petting Ice Cream on her lap. The grey cat wasn't as fat as before, but still nowhere as slim as her brother. Popcorn already recovered from his neutering procedure and was now playing with Little Jun and Dom (a.k.a. Slave #1). Jiang Ying Yue watched over them, making sure that her son and the cat wouldn't hurt themselves.
Iris' face lit up when she saw Lu Zihao. "You came."
"Of course. I promised you."
She smiled.
Popcorn immediately ran over to him and leaped into his arms. He stroked the needy cat as he walked over and sat beside his sister. He looked at the TV show. "They didn't invite you to perform?"
"No," she said, shrugging. "I heard that they initially planned on inviting me but then the matter about…about Fan Luo happened." Her expression darkened. She took a few deep breaths before continuing, "They sent the invitations to perform around that time. Everything happened and I disappeared, so they ended up not inviting me. Oh well. I don't really care. I'd rather spend these holidays resting and spending time with family than working."
"Heh… I see. Then this gala must be boring to watch because you're not performing."
She giggled. "Jin Chonglin will be performing later tonight."
As they watched the different performances at the gala on TV, Iris kept on receiving messages from Jin Liwei, asking him what she was doing, if she was alright, etc.
She also received a message from Wei Lan, greeting her Happy New Year. This time, Wei Lan seemed to be in Brazil. Iris only sent a quick reply, greeting the older woman back, before putting Wei Lan out of her mind.
Next was a phone call from Meimei.
"Oh, Xiulan! Your relatives are so horrible, especially the elders! I had to excuse myself from the dining table because if I stay and listen more to them, I would've exploded! They're trash talking you nonstop, saying that you're unfilial and disrespectful for not attending the banquet. Blah blah blah! They're also all being so mean to Big Brother Hui. They'll temporarily shut up whenever they see Uncle Tengfei but when he's not near, they'll start trash talking again. I can't believe them! How can they do such negative things during New Year? Aren't they inviting bad luck? You did the right thing by not attending such an unpleasant party. Hmph! If it weren't because I don't want to leave my aunt alone, I would've headed there right now. I'd rather celebrate the Lunar New Year with you and my twin Dom and the others, instead of with this pack of hyenas!"