Chapter 414 - Look A Little Like You
"Yes, Madam. I am indeed Jin Liwei of Jin Corporation," Jin Liwei confirmed in a calm tone. "And I"m going to marry your daughter."
Iris tightened her arm around his waist while focusing all of her attention on observing Wei Lan"s reaction.
Wei Lan blanked out for a few moments, as she stared at Jin Liwei and Iris together. Her brain couldn"t seem to immediately process the idea that her daughter was engaged to the most powerful man in the country"s business world of his generation. Although younger, Jin Liweiwas certainly wealthier, more powerful and influential than her ex-husband, Long Tengfei.
But this was Wei Lan. Her opportunistic nature allowed her to recover her senses fairly quickly. After the initial shock and disbelief, pride and elation immediately filled her.
Her daughter was really her child! She already knew that her daughter would be able to marry well because Iris inherited her beauty. However, even Wei Lan never expected that her daughter would marry the most eligible bachelor in the country. Her daughter had done extremely well—even better than Wei Lan herself—in choosing the best husband.
A glint of avarice flashed in Wei Lan"s eyes.
Then a peculiar thing happened.
Realizing the direction of her thoughts, Wei Lan visibly paused and even faintly shook her head, as if forcing the avarice out of her.
Afterwards, Wei Lan expressed her excitement at learning that the two were engaged. She congratulated them and gushed about such a perfect match. Everything that came out of her mouth were all very nice and warm words. Although her voice was still annoying, she didn"t seem like she was faking her well wishes to the couple. If she was acting, then she was an excellent actress—better than Iris, at least.
Iris, who had been closely observing Wei Lan, saw all the changes in her expression. She caught the earlier glint of avarice in the woman"s eyes before it either disappeared or was covered up. Iris felt extremely curious and confused at this new Wei Lan.
However, Iris remained vigilant. Perhaps Wei Lan was just presenting a good impression to Jin Liwei because they were meeting for the first time. Iris was expecting that Wei Lan would revert to her usual self and start requesting some mother-in-law perks from Jin Liwei, like borrowing his yacht or private plane, for example.
Inside Iris, there was a mixture of different emotions.
There was a longing for Wei Lan to become the mother figure that she craved, especially this nice Wei Lan. At the same time, there was also apprehension that this good change wouldn"t last, that Wei Lan would continue being the opportunistic woman that she was, even to her own daughter.
And finally, there was indifference. It was an almost dismissive att.i.tude towards the woman whom Iris didn"t really have much of a relations.h.i.+p with, except for the occasional communication whenever Wei Lan had the whim to contact her daughter.
Even to the original Iris, Wei Lan wasn"t much of a mother. Now that the current Iris was a different soul, the blood connection didn"t really apply to them anymore. The current Iris was just being respectful to the previous" Iris" parent-child connection with Wei Lan, just like how she handled her relations.h.i.+p with Long Tengfei after waking up in this new body.
All of these different emotions were a result of the remnant fusing with her. The fusion had greatly slowed down lately but it had already reached around 90% completion. Despite this, 90% was already enough to completely change Iris" overall personality.
She had become a bit more emotional and empathetic and also much better at reading other people. Her range of emotions definitely widened, but she attributed this as the effect of falling in love with Jin Liwei and having the freedom to experience new things. Even now, she had no idea that the remnant was permanently changing her from deep inside.
But because the remnant opted for a fusion instead of an aggressive takeover, she still retained her original calm and logical personality as Evelina. It was just not as extreme as before. At least, she didn"t act like a cold robot anymore.
These two conflicting personalities were balancing each other out. They were melding into one personality, instead of remaining as two separate ones. However, there was still the remaining 10% that hadn"t fused yet.
Back to the present,Iris requested for Wei Lan not to divulge the truth to anyone else.
"Mother, we"re keeping our relations.h.i.+p a secret for now. We want to be the ones to announce it to the public."
"Don"t worry, honey. Mother understands. My mouth is zipped," Wei Lan promised.
Despite this, Iris was already antic.i.p.ating that a leak would somehow occur because Wei Lan was a known gossip. She was already mentally making other contingency plans if Wei Lan couldn"t keep her mouth zipped like she promised. Iris wanted the official announcement to be special, but if others discovered the truth before that, then she would just announce it earlier than she planned.
After the future in-laws met, Iris introduced the rest of the group next.
Wei Lan already knew Dom, so she was nice and warm in meeting his sister, Clover. Then Iris introduced Jiang Ying Yue and Little Jun next, describing the mother and son as her friend and G.o.dson.
"Little Jun, come here. This is Grandmother Wei Lan. She"s my mother," Iris explained to the toddler, as she carried him again.
Little Jun looked confused by her explanation. He hugged Iris" neck tightly while staring at the unfamiliar woman.
"Oh! Grandmother! ME, a grandmother?!" Wei Lan clutched her chest in horror. "Tell the child to call me Auntie. No, better yet tell him to call me Big Sister."
"Don"t be ridiculous, Mother. What Auntie? What Big Sister? Little Jun is my G.o.dson, so of course you"re his grandmother. He also calls Liwei"s mother as Grandma, so it"s only natural that he should call you Grandmother as well," Iris told her in a no-nonsense tone.
Jin Liwei took the toddler from Iris, telling him, "This is your Grandma Wei Lan. She"s your Mama"s mama."
"Amma Weiyan?" Little Jun asked.
"En. Grandma Wei Lan," Jin Liwei replied with a nod. Then he looked at Wei Lan and asked, "Madam, would you like to hold him?"
"Oh goooooodness, no!" She looked horrified. "The last time I held a child was two decades ago when Xiulan was still a baaaaabyyyy. I"ve already forgotten how. What if I drop him?"
n.o.body insisted on letting her carry Little Jun. What if she really dropped him?
"But he"s sooooo cute~" Wei Lan gently poked Little Jun"s cheek with a manicured finger. Fortunately, she wasn"t wearing any long nails.
The poke made Little Jun giggle. It seemed that his innate charm worked even on Wei Lan because the woman was soon cooing at the toddler.
"Honeeeey, why does this child look a little like you?" Wei Lan asked. "Don"t tell me that he"s reeeeaaally your child with dear Liwei? Oh, my goooooodness! If that"s the case, then wouldn"t that make me a real GRANDMOTHER?!"
"No, Mother. Little Jun is not my child. But it"s true that he resembles me a little because we are blood-related. He"s actually Elder Brother Hui"s son with Ying Yue, so that makes him my biological nephew," Iris explained to her.
"What?"
Wei Lan instantly turned cold and stopped interacting with Little Jun.
Seeing the abrupt change in her expression, Iris" eyes also turned cold. She stepped in front of Jin Liwei carrying Little Jun in a protective manner. Jiang Ying Yue and the others also went into protective mode. Even the two cats joined in.
Popcorn looked alert, while Ice Cream was openly hostile. The big grey cat hissed loudly at Wei Lan and even bared her trimmed claws in a threatening manner.
"Mother, both Little Jun and Ying Yue are members of my family with Liwei. This household is their home, and everyone here knows to treat them with respect like how they treat Liwei and me," Iris told Wei Lan in a cold voice.
The rest of her words—
"They have more right to be here than you."
—weren"t said out loud, but Wei Lan understood Iris" indirect warning.
Wei Lan pursed her lips at everyone"s protectiveness.
As for Iris and the others, they waited with bated breath for Wei Lan"s next actions. Would she start creating trouble?
Iris" eyes turned even colder at the thought. If Wei Lan dared to do that, she would immediately kick her out.