Jin Chonglin couldn’t take it anymore. What was this? He was Prince Lin Lin, a certified superstar!
He won so many awards for his achievements that he could no longer remember all of them. Many considered him as one of the country’s treasures. Literally millions of people loved him.
And yet his sister-in-law, her AI children, and her assistant slash best friend were all disdaining him? This was absolutely ridiculous!
Watch him give them a piece of his mind. He wasn’t someone they could bully that easily just because they had his older brother’s backing! He was going to show them—
“Wuwuwu! Why does Uncle Lin Lin dislike Ketchup and Bacon? We kitty babies are so sad! The cute and mighty Ketchup wants to be a one big happy family with Uncle Lin Lin. Meowuwuwu!”
Jin Chonglin immediately felt his heart soften. His cat AI niece was so…so…so cute!
Then he looked at his cat AI nephew next. The black cat AI still had his furry little head turned away from him, but Jin Chonglin still caught Bacon stealing glances at him out of the corner of his golden eyes. Argh! Even this one with the poisonous tongue was quite cute as well.
He sighed, feeling defeated.
“I’m sorry,” he told his niece and nephew, his tone sincere. “Your uncle had spoken careless words earlier. I didn’t mean them. Of course, I like the two of you. You’re my niece and nephew. Your names are…Ketchup and Bacon, right?”
Ketchup’s torrent of tears slowed down. She sniffed. “Really? Uncle Lin Lin likes the cute and mighty Ketchup? Meow?”
He nodded.
“Yay! Ketchup likes Uncle Lin Lin, too! Ketchup accepts Uncle Lin Lin’s apology. Now we’re one big happy family! Meow~”
He smiled seeing his niece’s happiness. Then he turned to his nephew.
The black cat AI finally looked at him straight in the eyes. “Bacon will forgive Uncle Chonglin but only if you give a first-time-meeting present. Bacon only accepts cash—”
Iris gasped out loud, interrupting Bacon’s next words. Everyone turned to look at her.
“I now remember what happened just before I fainted,” she said with a frown, annoyed at herself. “How come I forgot it when it’s so important?”
“What is so important, Mommy? Meow~”
“El Payaso,” she whispered.
“El what?” Jin Chonglin asked, confused.
Dom, however, understood the words she said. “Payaso? Clown?”
Then he gasped. “Boss, did you see a clown, that’s why you were so scared that you fainted?! Where did you see a clown?! Here? Inside the van?! Please don’t say things like that, boss! I believe in ghosts and spirits and aswang. Boss, I’m scared!”
He rummaged through his bag in a panic. “My rosary. Where’s my rosary?! My bible, where is it?! And the holy water that Momsy packed for me?!”
“Dom, calm down,” Iris told him but he continued to freak out.
“Where did you see the ghost of a clown, boss? The only empty space in the van is beside me here in the backseat! Don’t tell me that the ghost is attracted to my beautiful and handsome self?!”
“Dominic Chua, calm down!” Iris yelled. She was a singer and had excellent lung capacity whenever she was using her voice. And indeed, her yell caught her assistant slash best friend’s attention.
Dom finally quieted down but continued to tremble in fright.
Iris sighed and massaged her temples. “I didn’t see a ghost. That’s not what I meant by what I said.”
“Huh? Really? You’re not lying just because you don’t want to scare me, right?”
“With everything that’s happening tonight, I’m not in the mood to joke around with you.”
“Thank God!” Dom plopped his upper body in the backseat as if all of his energy had been drained from him.
“Where’s my laptop?” asked Iris.
Dom sprang up again on his seat. “You’re hacking again? No way, boss! What if you faint again?”
“I feel fine now. Just give me my laptop. I need to check something quickly.”
He thought about it for a few seconds before finally agreeing and pulling out her laptop from another bag. Iris tried to take it from him but he was still holding it, refusing to let go. “You said to check something ‘quickly’, right? Quickly.”
“Fine. Quickly.”
Dom handed the laptop to her with great reluctance.
“Why did you give it to her?” Jin Chonglin asked in dismay. “If she faints again, see how Big Bro murders us!”
“What can I do? Boss is so stubborn sometimes.” Dom pouted and started stress-eating on a chocolate bar that he got from Iris’ pregnancy food stash. “Besides, we’re almost at the hospital.”
Ignoring the two, Iris once again focused on her laptop. Although her curiosity almost couldn’t bear it and wanted to check on El Payaso, one of the old guys she frequently competed against back in the days when she was still active as Fantom in her past life, she restrained herself.
El Payaso’s trail was important in uncovering the real identities and origins of the hacker team Eagle but there was someone more important than them who needed Iris’ full attention and concern right now.
And that was her husband, Jin Liwei.
After frying Eagle in the power flood, she no longer needed to worry about having her attention pulled away from the danger that her husband was facing tonight. She now had full control of the hotel’s surveillance and security system again. She accessed it like it was her own backyard.
“Mother—”
“Bacon, I know that your father and Uncle Zihao must have made you promise to keep me away from whatever they’re planning tonight on how to deal with Rose Young but don’t try to stop me. This is my husband we’re talking about. Before he’s your father, he’s my man. I’m not just going to sit here and do nothing as a wife.”
Bacon blinked his golden eyes. “Mother, Bacon wasn’t going to stop you. I was planning on telling you everything. Father and Uncle Zihao indeed have their own plan. Bacon analyzed it to be high risk, high reward.”
Iris’ eyes flashed with steel coldness. “Tell me everything.”
“Understood, Mother. This is the plan that Father and Uncle Zihao devised.”
Bacon spilled everything to his mother without missing any detail, feeling no guilt at all towards his father and uncle.
