In a pretty garden behind Li Sun"s mansion, the Li family sat together around a large round table.
On the table, there were fruits of all kinds and different varieties of food as they celebrated Christmas in their own way.
Muchen smiled as he watched his family eating and laughing together like this. Never in his life would he have thought that they would live like this—Sitting together with Sun on Christmas day.
This was all thanks to his precious girlfriend. If it wasn"t for her, they wouldn"t have known they had been doing the wrong thing all these years by neglecting their grandmother.
For the first time aside from her birthday party, they saw Sun smile happily as she listened to what each of them were saying and contributing when necessary.
"Something special brewing between you and Zhu Lian?" Sun asked Heya who was sitting beside Muchen.
Heya was shocked by the question. She wondered where the question was suddenly coming from. Besides, she was in the presence of her entire family right now and could feel color rise to her cheeks as a result of it.
She looked awkwardly at everyone before shaking her head. She was not going to think about any guys for now. She had thought there was something special between herself and Cearo at first.
He was the first guy to show interest in her and she had believed he genuinely liked her.
But then... She remembered the conversation she had with Muchen this morning. He had asked her how her relations.h.i.+p with Jin Cearo was like and she had went on to tell him the truth about how things actually were between them.
After the day he had come to see her at their place, he traveled back to school a few days after.
They were only able to communicate once in a while and things dwindled between them.
But then, she was surprised when Muchn suddenly advised her that it would better if she stayed away from him.
"Why? What"s wrong?" She knew her brother didn"t just dictate things for people. He always had a reason for everything and she did believe there was a reason he had asked her to stay away from Cearo.
"I didn"t want to mention it... But there are some things you need to know about him. Aside from the fact that his parents are rumoured to be into illegal smuggling and dealings, after Liu Weiyoung sent that video of you and Cearo to a major media outlet, he had been the one in charge of the publicity—Sending pictures and all. Most of the netizen"s accounts trying to s.h.i.+p you both together were fake and were most likely created by him."
" What ? He...he really did that?" Heya asked in surprise. "Liu..Weiyoung?" She thought for a moment before she remembered who the person was. "That was Sara"s friend right?"
"Yes. I also received a photo of Cearo and Weiyoung together. That was before the Liu family went down the drain." He stopped talking and narrowed his eyes to watch her reaction. And was glad when he noticed she was only angry and not looking sad or hurt.
It only meant she really didn"t have any feelings for him and it was a good thing.
Heya"s eyes darkened while her hands fisted. "So he approached me on purpose?"
"That... I can"t say. And I can"t also say that I"m very sure they both met before the video was uploaded. Could be they formed an alliance after it. From the little information I was able to gather, it seemed like Liu Weiyoung got to know what Jin Cearo was up to and had threatened to tell in exchange for something. Could have been in exchange for information because according to grandmother, she had gotten the information from her that something was up with Sara and I. And I believe she must have known about it through Cearo"
Heya scoffed in disbelief.
"That b.a.s.t.a.r.d! I really did tell him you and Sara both liked each other and felt grandmother may oppose once she found out about it. He was a spy after all. Dirty b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" She said again in anger.
"Was that... The reason grandmother asked me to stay away from him?"
"I"m sure grandmother must have found out about it. That"s why she"s taking extra measures to not let the Jins get inside this family through you. Even though grandmother acts like..."that" sometimes, it"s all for a reason. It"s only too extreme sometimes"
"Was that why you never liked him also?" Heya asked again.
"I only had a hunch that his family wasn"t as clean as they appeared to be. It was the reason I tried to be careful"
After the conversation with him that morning, she decided to kick out everything about Jin Cearo. She had deleted his number and deleted her social media account since he was her only friend there. He had even called her this morning after a week without communication to ask why she deleted her account and also to inform her that he was in Country B for Christmas break and wanted them to hang out together but she had ended the call on him.
She was Li Heya! No one dared mess with her. She would have taught Cearo a lesson but Muchen had advised her against it and had told her grandmother Sun asked him to tell her to stay away from Jin Cearo"s mother no matter what.
She sighed deeply.
Thinking that she had been trying to lose weight on time so she would hang out with Cearo on her school"s reunion that was coming soon. What an idiot she was!
"Nothing is up with Zhu Lian and I" She said to them all.
"You both seemed really close last night. He is a good catch" Her mother chipped in with a smile.
"I"m not thinking about men right now. I wanted to tell you all that this coming year... I want to return back to school like my mates"
She announced.
Everyone was stunned when they heard her—Especially her parents who were there when she had threatened to take her life if they dared force her to go to school.
" Really ?" Her parents asked at the same time.
"Yes.. I want to study music and become a music professor. It"s my dream. I believe that"s my excitement."
They all looked at her proudly when she announced that. As much as Dana wanted to s.h.i.+p her with Zhu Lian, she was very much happy her daughter was having a nice dream now. But she also believed everything would be nicer if she hooked up with Zhu Lian.
"That"s a good one. It"s a good thing I"m still alive to hear such great news. And I must add, you"ve done a really good job with your weight loss journey. You look very much different from the time I newly arrived and I"m not just talking about your body alone. Everything about you seem refres.h.i.+ng" Sun complimented.
"Thank you Grandmother" Heya said with a smile before adding "And It"s all thanks to Sara. Big Bro... You should increase her salary"
Heya turned to look at Muchen who had been quiet the entire time.
Speaking of Sara, they all had something new to talk about.
"You seemed really close with her last night. You"ve known her for long?" Sun asked Li Fazhan the question they had all been curious about.
He laughed a bit before he began to narrate how they first met. He told them how she had mistaken him for an employee and asked how he would like his son"s girlfriend to be like.
He went on to tell them how she had asked him to say nice things about her and gotten angry when he offered to introduce her to his instead.
As he narrated everything, he tried his best to not mention anything about her Manners cla.s.ses she took because she said she was embarra.s.sed about it.
Before he even stopped talking, they were almost rolling in laughter except Dana who was frowning. "She...called me scary?" She asked her husband again to be sure she heard him correctly.
Muchen chuckled when he heard his father"s narration. Even Hoy who had been quiet the entire time could not help laughing.
"See what I told you... She is not a suitable bride. And she talks too much" Dana said with a frown.
"She seem like a fun person, if you don"t want her as your daughter-in-law, I"ll very much like her for Minde" Her brother-in-law, Li Han, said to her.
Minde who had been laughing almost blurted out "Are you crazy?" to his father. But he regained his senses quickly and stopped himself from saying so.
What? Him and Sara? G.o.d forbid!
"Sara is for me alone Uncle. Minde can search for his own bride somewhere else" Muchen spoke for the first time with a laugh.
"Oh well thank you..!" Minde said as he thought "Good riddance!"
"She is after your money can"t you see?" Dana refused to give up as she kept giving reasons why Sara was bad for her precious son.
"It would have been a good thing if she was really after my money. Then, I"ll have to double my efforts to make sure I never go bankrupt. But now that I don"t even know what she"s after... I have to be really careful so I wouldn"t fall out of her grace" He said with a teasing smile to his mother.
She scoffed in annoyance before lifting an apple on munching on it.
It suddenly reminded Sun of her encounter with Sara and how adamant she had been to remain with Muchen no matter how much she had threatened her.
"Enough already. Tell her to pay me a visit soon. And you better start thinking of the most suitable date to get married" Sun shut them all up with her speech before casually throwing a berry inside her mouth.