Chapter 69: Delicious
Finally, Iris and Jin Liwei walked out of the bedroom holding hands. They headed into the kitchen where all the noise was coming from.
People in colourful workout attires were chatting and laughing around the big granite kitchen island. They were eating an assortments of cereal, oatmeal, toasted bread and fruits. Someone was making protein shakes with a blender, pouring them into tumblers and distributing them to everyone.
Dom, chewing on a banana, was the first one to notice the two of them. "Boss! Sir boss! You're here. Good morning! Ehehehe." His eyes immediately sparkled when he saw their held hands.
Everyone turned to their direction and greeted them. "Good morning, Young Miss (Sir)!"
"Good morning, everyone." Iris smiled at them.
Jin Liwei nodded, his cold face showing no expression.
"Young Miss, Mr. Jin, please sit down and eat something before the workout," Yi Mei called out to them, quickly recovering from her dismay upon seeing the lusty brat holding her Young Miss's hand.
They took a seat beside each other. A blushing maid who avoided meeting their eyes quietly handed them two tumblers of protein shakes. She was the unfortunate one who caught them kissing inside the walk-in closet last night. The poor girl had big, dark bags under her eyes because she couldn't sleep after seeing her Young Miss doing that kind of shy shy things with a big, handsome but scary man. She was terrified that the Young Miss would fire her because she saw them.
Iris had no idea that her maid was worrying herself almost to death about what she witnessed them doing last night. She only saw the maid's embarrassed expression. Her eyes twitched and fought against the blush creeping up her own face.
She turned to Jin Liwei instead and asked, "What would you like to eat?"
"Hmm…oatmeal. Maybe some toast as well."
"Okay." She looked at the cook. "You heard him. And just a bowl of cereal for me, please."
The cook smiled. "Coming right up, Young Miss."
Everyone ate and chatted at the same time. The atmosphere was very casual and pleasant. It was the first time Jin Liwei experienced something like this where the master, or in this case, the mistress of the household and the servants were interacting so comfortably with each other almost on equal terms.
"What's all this? What's happening?" he asked Iris.
She licked her lips after drinking her protein shake. "We have Zumba class every Sunday morning."
"Zumba?"
"Yes. Originally, I wanted a regular workout regimen to condition and strengthen myself, especially after my physio and rehab. However, for the life of me, I can't bring myself to slave away hours using those boring gym machines. I also find working out by myself boring, although I'm alright with doing yoga alone. Dom recommended exercising in a class setting, so I hired instructors to come here and forced everyone to workout with me. Unfortunately, these people can only keep up during Zumba. You should've seen them when they tried the other classes for the first time. They looked like zombies. So it's usually only Dom and me doing the other classes after they gave up."
"Hai, Young Miss. How can you expect old people like us to keep up with you young people?" the cook interjected as she pointed at herself and Yi Mei.
"Don't point at me. Who are you calling old, ah? You're the old one!" Yi Mei scowled at the cook.
Everyone laughed.
"Other classes? What else do you do?" Jin Liwei asked Iris again.
"Sunday is Zumba day. Mondays and Tuesdays, Dom and I do Systema for self-defence. Wednesdays, hip-hop. Thursdays, Latin dance. I like dancing because I don't feel like I'm exercising. Fridays, yoga. Saturdays, I do whatever I want. Hmm…but now that I'm getting busier, the current scheduling might change. I might even have to cut some classes. We'll see."
"Systema? The Russian martial arts?"
"Oh, you know it?"
"Yeah. A friend of mine practices it. Who's your instructor? There's not a lot of people who practice Systema in the country compared to other martial arts."
"Yu Mo."
A surprised expression showed in his eyes. "He's my friend."
"Really? What a coincidence."
"Yeah." Then his eyes turned cold. He would make a call to Yu Mo later and warn the man not to get too close to his baby girl. "Tell me if he ever tries to hit on you. Even if he's my friend, I'll break his legs."
"No. Yu Mo is a professional. He won't hit on me."
"He better not," he muttered. Or else.
"And if he ever does, I'll just fire him."
"Then I'll break his legs."
She chuckled.
His eyes darkened hearing her lovely laughter. Before he could even think, he swooped down and kissed her hard in front of everyone.
Dom, of course, squealed like a fan girl, milk and cereal spluttering out of his mouth due to his overexcitement. The others froze and quickly shifted their eyes away, looking at other directions, and pretending that they didn't see anything.
Yi Mei squeezed a banana so hard that it…ouch.
"Mmm…delicious." Jin Liwei licked Iris' lips before straightening up, and then smiled at her smugly.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
ArriaCross
ArriaCross Thank you for carrying us to Top 4! What the fudge?! You're all so amazing! Even when you're all accusing me of turning all of you into perverts, you're still throwing power stones for my novel. THANK YOU!
Starting tomorrow, I'll be trying a personal challenge for you & increase the release sched from 7ch to 10ch/wk. So double ch on MWF! Pray that I'll be able to sustain this pace. If I can't, I'll temporarily return to the usual 1ch/day till I can increase the pace again. We'll see.
Chapter 70: Girlfriend
Iris' face burned in embarrassment, especially in front of her own employees. She forced herself to calm down. She would not lose control in front of her own people.
Besides, it was only a kiss, she reasoned to herself. Yes, it was only a kiss. No need to feel embarrassed. She nodded.
Jin Liwei looked in amusement at his baby girl's myriad facial reactions before returning to her cool and calm expression.
"What are your plans for today? Anything else you need to do after this Zumba class?" he asked her.
She tilted her head to the side. "No. I was supposed to have work scheduled for today, but my manager moved it tomorrow instead."
"Good."
"How about you? Do you have plans for today?"
"Yeah. I'm taking my girlfriend out on a date."
Girlfriend?
Her vision turned red and her hands closed into tight fists. With flashing eyes, she hissed at him. "What did you say?"
"Hm?" Confused at her sudden fury, he asked warily, "What's wrong?"
She totally lost her usual composure. She was so angry that she found it hard to breathe. Never in her two lives had she lost her temper like this.
She grabbed his collar and bared her teeth at him. "You say I'm your lover and you did all those things to me! And now you're saying you have a girlfriend?! You bastard! What do you take me for?! Your f*ck buddy?!"
Dom gasped, eyes and mouth wide open in shock. Yi Mei clutched at her chest and almost stumbled back but caught herself. The cook supported her. The two older women shot murderous looks at Jin Liwei. The others backed away, staying as quiet as possible, not even daring to breathe too much.
Jin Liwei was taken aback, aghast at her words. "You…what are you saying?!"
"Get out! I don't want to see you ever again!"
Iris roughly pushed her chair back and jumped off angrily, intending to leave, but he caught her and wrapped his arms around her.
"Baby girl, calm down. Let me explain, okay?" He tightened his arms.
"Explain what?! Let go, you bastard! Don't touch me!"
Her emotions were all over the place. She felt so furious that tears threatened to fall from her eyes. These negative emotions frightened her. What was happening to her?
"Listen to me, baby. You're misunderstanding me."
"What misunderstanding?! Go back to your girlfriend! You're not welcome here anymore!"
Jin Liwei couldn't hold it in anymore. He laughed loudly.
"Why are you laughing?!" She became even more enraged. She wanted to claw his face off.
"Sorry, baby." He struggled, trying to stop laughing. "I just find it so funny that you're being jealous of yourself."
She stopped. "What?"
"When I said girlfriend, of course I was referring to you. Who else?"
"Wait…what? I'm your girlfriend?"
He let her go when she finally stopped struggling. She turned around to look at him with a confused expression.
"Yes," he replied, amused.
"Oh."
He chuckled.
"Phew! Thank you, Lord!" Dom exclaimed, patting his chest with a relieved expression. His heart almost stopped, oh how scary! Then his eyes sparkled brightly. So much drama. His boss and sir boss' love story was even better than those romance TV series he often watched.
The others looked relieved as well, except for Yi Mei. The housekeeper had a complicated expression on her face. She looked like she wanted to bash Jin Liwei on the head for taking advantage of her Young Miss.
"Wait." Iris frowned. "When did I become your girlfriend? I didn't know that I'm your girlfriend."
"Baby girl, you just said it yourself. We're lovers and we already did all those things together. If you're not my girlfriend, then what are you?"
"But you didn't ask me. Don't just decide by yourself! How would I know if you don't tell me?"
"I thought that it's already understood between us without words."
"Well, Jin Liwei. I'm sorry to tell you but I'm not psychic. I can't read minds. You have to tell me this kind of things. And tell me, when did you decide that I'm your girlfriend? Last night?"
He scowled at her. "The first time I came here. We kissed that day, didn't we? I don't go around kissing people just like that. I kissed you, so you're my girlfriend. I touched you, so you're my girlfriend. I sleep with you, so you're my girlfriend." He wanted to add "you're my future wife" but managed to stop himself. He didn't want her running for the hills.
"…"
That long ago? The damn man already decided that they were boyfriend and girlfriend back then? She didn't even like him that time. In fact, what she felt for him then almost bordered on hatred, especially with her bad impression of him from their first meeting at the hotel lobby. But he thought that they were lovers?
What the…this man…wasn't he a little too much?
She took several deep breaths to calm herself. "Liwei, you should've asked me first if I'm willing to be your girlfriend. Just deciding for yourself is a total disregard and disrespect to my own choice."
"I understand." He took her face in his hands and looked deeply and seriously at her eyes. "Long Xiulan, are you willing to be my girlfriend?"
"Ayiiiiiii!!!!" Dom and even two of the young maids squealed.
Her heart raced inside her chest, threatening to jump out. They already did things together. And she was starting to like him. Excitement pulsed within her.
"Yes." She took another deep breath. "Yes, Jin Liwei. I'm willing to be your girlfriend."
"Are you willing to take me, Jin Liwei, as your boyfriend?"
She smiled. "Yes. I, Long Xiulan, willingly take you, Jin Liwei, as my boyfriend."
He kissed her hard, roughly smashing his open mouth against her sweet lips.
She closed her eyes and moaned, wrapping her arms around his waist.
They were both gasping when their mouths separated. They were too preoccupied with each other that they had forgotten there were other people in the kitchen with them.
Dom and the two maids were making a ruckus, cheering and squealing at the romantic scene playing in front of them.
"Baby girl, you're not allowed to take your words back."
It was official. Even his baby girl wouldn't be able to deny their relationship now. And like hell he would allow her to deny it.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
ArriaCross
ArriaCross
Start of my personal challenge to increase the release schedule from 7ch to 10ch/wk. So double chapters today!
Next double chapters will be on Wednesday & Friday. I'll do my best to maintain this pace. Please pray for me.
Let's do this! Oryaaaa!!!
...
Big THANK YOU to Aqualotus95 & Airi for your generous support on ko-fi. Makes me more motivated to write.
If you're interested, support my work at:
ko-fi.com/arriacross
Thank you!
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