Sara smiled contendedly when Jianjun finally sat down beside her. Now, they were both sitting opposite Changyu, whose attention was on the food she was eating.
Jianjun pinched Sara"s left hand that was placed on her thigh which caused her to flinch in pain while his face remained straight like he did nothing.
Changyu"s gaze was solely on her food as she chewed gently. Not once did she raise her head to look at the both of them or the others who were looking at her with curious eyes. Even Lisa was busy taking pictures of her.
"What do you think?" Sara asked.
"It"s okay." Changyu said without raising her head.
"What? It"s okay?" Jianjun thought maybe he didn"t hear her correctly. Did she just give an "it"s okay" remark and that was it?
He sighed in annoyance but decided against saying something to her.
When Sara heard him sigh, she almost laughed out. She felt bad for her father whose ego was probably bruised right now.
"Thank you very much for the compliment Miss Song. I"ll go get busy now" He said before standing up.
Her chopsticks stopped mid air and she slowly lowered the Chicken she had just been about placing inside her mouth back to the bowl. "It"s Miss Changyu." She corrected unhappily and for the first time since he placed the food and drink in front of her, she raised her head to looked at him.
He stared right back without flinching, to the point where the ambiguous atmosphere became obvious to everyone present there.
A knock on the door drew their attention and when they all turned to look at who it was this time, they all saw Cixi standing there.
She was wearing a leopard print coat, leather pants and a white faux-fur ankle boot. Her hair was let loose and her face had just a little make-up.
When Jianjun saw her, he immediately looked at Changyu who was also looking at the door. And he noticed how tensed she was even if it wasn"t obvious to the others.
He knew it was going to be a bad idea if Cixi saw her there but there was nothing else he could do.
To the others, Changyu looked as composed as ever as she watched Sara open the door for Cixi to come in.
"Aunt! You"ve missed half the day already. Merry Christmas." Sara greeted her with a hug.
As Cixi hugged her back with a smile on her face, her eyes suddenly caught sight of the woman sitting down besides where her brother was standing.
"Miss w.a.n.g. It"s nice to see you. Merry Christmas" Miss Kang immediately moved to where Cixi was to greet her. She had been feeling down since everyone neglected her. She had taken the pain to come celebrate Christmas with them but look what she got...
The only one who always tried to s.h.i.+p her together with Jianjun was Cixi and so, she liked Cixi a lot.
The smile on Cixi"s face vanished as she looked at Changyu who was staring right back at her.
"What are you doing here?" Cixi asked in a gentle but cold tone.
"Mum. That is Miss Changyu. You remember her right?" Joreen asked her mother since they had all seen her faint in front of Mr Chu"s house the other day.
"Eating" Changyu replied to Cixi"s question with a calm voice.
Cixi looked at Jianjun with disappointment written all over her face. She couldn"t believe that her brother had actually allowed this woman come in here and not only that, he had even fed her.
"Aunt what are you doing? She"s a guest!" Sara tugged the hem of her dress to get her attention.
She had been able to deduce that her Aunt didn"t like Miss Changyu very much and it was going to be a big problem in her s.h.i.+pping plan.
Cixi ignored her and moved closer to Changyu. Now, Changyu ate quietly like she wasn"t there at all.
"Changyu... What do you think you are doing here?" She asked again with an annoyed expression.
Changyu carefully placed her chopsticks on the table before standing up. "Sorry. I was starving. If you"re free now, I"d like to speak with you" She said to her politely.
Cixi looked at her almost empty bowl and scoffed. Who did this woman think she was? Anyway, she wouldn"t blame her. She turned to look at Jianjun angrily. "Did you call her here?"
"Aunt stop it already. It was I who invited her over"
Everyone watched on with wide eyes as realisation dawned on them that they all knew each other.
Of course for Bilike and Joreen, they could have easily guessed it but Lisa and Miss Kang were totally stupefied.
"I only came to eat." Changyu explained. "And please.. I would like to talk to you. Can we go outside?" Changyu pleaded with her.
She really did not know how to face Cixi. And as much as she really wanted to apologize, she didn"t look forward to this moment. In fact, she had been a little scared when she saw Cixi through the gla.s.s door.
She knew she couldn"t avoid it now. She had to sincerely apologize on behalf of her parents.
"I don"t want to talk to you! Who do you think you are to come in here? Didn"t it all start with you coming to eat many years ago also? What are you going to do this time?" Cixi yelled angrily at her.
After getting the laptop last night, she couldn"t return back and had just slept in an hotel in the town. While returning home today, she had gotten stuck in one traffic or the other for hours.
Because she didn"t want to go inside the restaurant with the laptop bag, she went into their apartment first and freshened up so she could come spend the Christmas with her family but who would have thought that things would turn out this way for her?
"Cixi calm down."
Jianjun who had been quiet the entire time finally said something.
Changyu thought she saw Jianjun give her an apologetic look but she wasn"t sure that was it. Why would he give her an apologetic look?
Why did everybody hate her so much? She asked herself.
"I should calm down? Are you seriously asking me to calm down?" She asked her brother in disbelief. She had promised to hate her for the both of them. In fact, for the entire family.
She knew her brother might still foolishly be in love with this devil of a woman but seeing this unfold before her eyes, she was really perplexed.
She looked around to see Miss Kang, Joreen, Bilike and Lisa looking at the scene with profound interest.
"But I want to talk to you" Changyu managed to say to her.
Cixi glared at her before heading towards the door and without looking back, she left the restaurant with Sara running after her.
"Sorry about this. I"ll make the payments and leave quietly." Changyu apologized to Jianjun without looking at him.
As she walked past him to go meet Lisa, Jianjun took in a deep breath before he said to her "Do you... have a minute?"
After the words came out, he wished he could take it back immediately but now, there was nothing he could do about it. He had asked her already and it was left for her to give him an answer.
But the problem was... He didn"t know what he wanted to say to her. He had probably stopped her from leaving because she looked sad.
He inwardly scolded himself for falling for this woman"s tricks again.
This Christmas was really something else!