Each of the babies reacted differently to the visitors.
Little Mochi liked good-looking people. He was drawn to René Alejandro right from the start. Even so, he was still cautious at the stranger and didn’t smile too much. He just stared at René Alejandro and ignored Randy for the most part.
Little Matcha only gave them a cursory glance before returning to his toys. He was still a baby but he already inherited his father’s usual indifference to a tee.
Like Little Mochi, Little Misha seemed to be interested at the visitors. But unlike Little Mochi, Little Misha was more drawn to the flamboyant Randy than at René Alejandro. It was mostly because of the Zumba instructor’s bright, neon-coloured clothing. The baby’s interest in the visitors only lasted for a short while before he ignored them.
Last but not the least, Little Dima had a more extreme reaction than his eldest brother and cousins but actually quite normal for babies. He cried as soon as he saw the strangers. Long Jinjing was quick to pick him up and comfort her baby.
René Alejandro already had an idea about each of the babies’ personalities based on their reactions. Among them, he had the highest chance of becoming closer to the eldest, Little Mochi.
The baby also resembled Wei Lan. Maybe this was one of the reasons why René Alejandro felt confident about this particular baby. He needed to observe more. If Little Mochi also resembled his maternal grandmother’s personality and not just appearance, then René Alejandro was sure that he could make the baby like him.
First attempt.
”Hello, Haoyu,” he greeted in his gentlest and friendliest tone. “I’m Uncle René.”
Little Mochi stared at him.
So far so good.
The baby’s full attention was on him.
René Alejandro took a squeaky toy and squeezed it in front of the baby. “You want this toy, yes?”
Little Mochi reached for it. René Alejandro planned on teasing the baby a little and try playing with him so he moved the toy out of reach.
Unfortunately, he miscalculated Little Mochi’s seeming openness to him. He didn’t expect Little Mochi’s expression to crumple so suddenly. Then a loud wail filled the nursery.
René Alejandro panicked inside. He wasn’t used to dealing with babies this young. He tried salvaging the situation by directly handing the damn squeaky toy to the wailing baby but Little Mochi slapped it away in distress.
Iris swooped down and immediately started comforting her baby in her arms. Little Mochi cried on his mother’s chest and continued wailing in an aggrieved manner.
On the carpet, the indifferent Little Matcha was no longer indifferent. He finally made a scene. He threw the rattle that he had been playing at the strange man who made his brother cry. Then he also began wailing at the top of his lungs. Unlike his elder twin brother’s aggrieved cries, his wails were furious.
At the moment, three of the babies were crying at the same time.
Little Misha wasn’t crying at first but when Little Matcha started his angry wailing, he must have decided that it was fun to join the others so he wasn’t the only one left out.
And so the three crying babies became four crying babies.
René Alejandro was speechless.
Although the mothers didn’t seem to blame him, the nannies and even Randy did. They threw him accusing looks.
”Iris, Jinjing, I’m sorry,” he said while showing a guilty expression.
Long Jinjing didn’t say anything. Iris, however, didn’t mince her words.
”It’s stupid to tease babies these young especially when they’re not yet familiar with you,” she told René Alejandro to his face. “Be more careful next time.”
René Alejandro could only say, “I understand.”
Iris nodded. She instructed a nanny to play a calming tune that she specially composed for the babies.
The Lu twins were the first ones to stop crying and calm down as soon as the instrumental music began playing.
Then Little Matcha finally stopped his furious wails. He snuggled with his mother and twin brother.
On the other hand, Little Mochi continued being dramatic. He only decreased his cries to pitiful whimpers after his mother kissed him several times.
”What in the wooooooooooorld is going on?” Wei Lan finally appeared and entered the nursery.
The Jin twins looked at the new stranger with even more caution.
René Alejandro explained, “I have upset Iris and Jinjing by making their babies cry. It is my fault.”
Wei Lan waved a dismissive hand. “Oh, is that soooooooo? Don’t worry about it toooooooo much, dear René Alejandro. I’m suuuuuuure you didn’t mean it. You don’t mind it, right, Xiuuuuuuuulaaaaaaaan?”
She only addressed Iris and ignored Long Jinjing.
Iris didn’t bother answering Wei Lan. Instead, she wiped her sons’ remaining tears and continued comforting them.
Wei Lan didn’t mind being ignored either. After all, she was the type of person who could hold a full conversation by herself without any problem.
”Are these my graaaaaaaaandsons?”
”Yes,” Iris nodded. “Be careful, Mother. Don’t be too aggressive or they’ll cry again.”
Wei Lan rolled her eyes. Then her attention was soon caught by Little Mochi. “Oooooooooooh my! This baby looks just like meeeeeeeee!”
She was delighted. Not caring about her image, she also plopped down on the carpet in front of her daughter and grandsons.
”Ooooooooooooh! The other one looooooooooks exactly like dear Liwei!”
Iris observed her sons’ reactions. They didn’t look like they were going to cry again but their wariness was in full force after what happened with René Alejandro.
Although she wasn’t close to Wei Lan (and neither was the original Long Xiulan), the woman was still her twin sons’ biological grandmother. She didn’t want to alienate her children from their biological relatives as much as possible but only if said relatives weren’t complete trash like Long Hui and most of the members of the Long clan.
Wei Lan had a lot of faults but she was mostly harmless. Iris and Jin Liwei had already decided to keep this grandmother for their babies as long as she didn’t make too much trouble.
Iris introduced Wei Lan to her sons. The Jin twins stuck closer to her while observing the strange woman with distrust.
To her credit, Wei Lan didn’t mind the babies’ less than ideal reaction to her. It was more likely that she didn’t notice at all. She was too absorbed in admiring her grandsons’ good looks.
One looked like her. She was already 100% certain that Little Mochi was going to be gorgeous just like her when he grew up. The other one looked like her handsome son-in-law. Little Matcha would surely become a heartthrob just like his father in the future.
She didn’t attempt to hold or even touch the babies either. Even when Iris offered, she rejected.
”I already forgot how to hold a baaaaaabyyyyy! The laaaaaaaast time I held a baby this small was when you were one. And I oooooooonly held you a few times at that. Hahahaha!”
Iris rolled her eyes. At the same time, she couldn’t help but pity the original Long Xiulan for having such an irresponsible mother.
Well, her own experience wasn’t any better than the original Long Xiulan either. Back in her past life as Evelina, her mother was many leagues worse than Wei Lan.
Madam Vetrova wasn’t an irresponsible mother per se—in Vetrov standards. As a matter of fact, she was too responsible. She presided over her children’s education and training with a robot’s precision and an anaconda’s viciousness.
But when placed in the rest of the word’s standards, Madam Vetrova would surely fail and be labelled as a dangerous and unfit mother.
Comparing the two, Wei Lan was actually the better mother than Madam Vetrova. At least Wei Lan never did anything to leave a heavy and irreversible trauma on her child.
Back to the present, Wei Lan couldn’t stop praising her grandsons’ good looks.
”I’ll wait for my handsome grandsons to groooooooow up a little before I hold them. What iiiiiiiiiif I drop them? I don’t want dear Liwei to scold meeeeeeeeee for accidentally hurting his sons.”
Iris mentally rolled her eyes. Wei Lan was afraid of angering her son-in-law but not her daughter? Iris was already used to the woman placing more importance on Jin Liwei than on her. She didn’t care about it that much anyway.
Randy excused himself to find Dom and gossip together.
René Alejandro eventually managed to insert himself in the conversation. Even though Iris reprimanded him to his face earlier, he appeared not to mind it. He acted more carefully and attempted several times to change the babies’ bad impression of him.
Wei Lan moved on from her own grandsons to the other babies in the crib.
”Wow, they really looooooook alike!” She studied the Lu twins more carefully. “How come they doooooooon’t resemble any of their parents at all?”
She had been ignoring Long Jinjing all this time but now she cast a suspicious look on her daughter’s half-sister.
Long Jinjing understood the look. She flushed from indignation.
Wasn’t this Wei Lan implying that her sons weren’t sired by husband?
”Mother, stop it,” Iris said. “Liwei told me that my twin nephews look like their father when Big Brother Zihao was a child. They grew up together so Liwei knows. Big Brother Zihao’s appearance apparently changed a lot after he hit puberty.”
”Oooooooh.” Wei Lan sniffed before admiring the Lu twins as if she didn’t doubt the babies’ paternity just now.
’Sorry,’ Iris mouthed to Long Jinjing.
’It’s fine,’ Long Jinjing mouthed back despite still feeling angry.
Little Misha was curious about Wei Lan while Little Dima once again started crying upon seeing a new stranger hovering over their crib.
