The overall atmosphere was light and pleasant but there was an unmistakable tenseness between the ex-spouses, Long Tengfei and Wei Lan. Fortunately, they decisively joined separate groups and ignored each other. Both knew their limits especially with a powerful son-in-law who doted on their daughter in excess.
Their daughter's personality had improved after waking up from her one-year coma, but she still displayed a bad temper now and then. Her poison tongue could be very ruthless even to her own parents. If they upset her in any way, Jin Liwei wouldn't hesitate to kick them out of his home even if they were his in-laws.
For the sake of keeping the peace with their daughter and son-in-law, and of course, preserving their dignity as the married couple's elders in front of the other guests, they chose to bear each other's presences despite their mutual hatred.
The official hosts of the Christmas gathering, Iris and Jin Liwei, were satisfied that the ex-spouses were behaving. They didn't want anyone destroying the festive holiday air. This was a celebration, not an unregulated forum where they could trashtalk each other.
Right now, they were separated into four small groups.
In the first group, Iris and Jin Liwei were chatting with Wei Lan and René Alejandro. Dom and Randy sat with them but the two were having their own conversation, squealing and giggling like close sisters.
The second group consisted of Long Tengfei, Yang Jiahui and the married members of the Chua family—Reina and Domingo, and Marjorie and Paul. Cai Guang and Linda Chua were also in this group but were chatting on their own.
The third group was running all round. Clover was playing with the three children and one cat. She was keeping an eye on them with Little Jun's nanny.
As for the fourth group, Meimei was taking a much-needed nap with the lazy Ice Cream at a far corner hidden behind a display shelf. Even the children's loud voices didn't rouse the two.
Back to the first group, Wei Lan started sharing her own experiences being pregnant. Both Iris and Jin Liwei revealed enlightened expressions after Wei Lan listed all the "sufferings" she went through during her pregnancy. It seemed that Iris' body inherited almost all of the pregnancy symptoms she was experiencing from Wei Lan, except for the fainting spells.
"I hated everyone's smell, even my oooooooown smell. Of cooooooouuuuurse, I hated your faaaaaaaather's smell the mooooooost. He was the stinkiiiiiiiieeeeeeest! Ugh!" Wei Lan shot a glare at her ex-husband in the other group for a few seconds before continuing to complain about her past pregnancy experiences. "I vomited all the tiiiiiiiiime. I couldn't keep any food doooooooown. Everything was soooooooooo disgusting! Everyone was soooooooo annoying! I was very cloooooooooose to murdering a few people because they keeeeeeeeept on angering me to death!"
Iris was silent. This was perhaps the first time that she was able to relate to Wei Lan. Almost everything the other woman was saying reminded her of her own experiences at the beginning of her pregnancy. Like mother, like daughter (original Iris' body).
Things had improved a lot now thanks to Theresa Blipsburg's customized health plan, but the pregnancy symptoms hadn't completely gone away yet. Although she hadn't come close to murdering anyone who annoyed her, she sometimes wished that she could beat them up.
Her temper during her pregnancy was no joke. All the good sense she had in her would fly out of the window and she would turn into a hostile monster that even she herself didn't recognize. She was lucky that her husband was always patient with her during her bad mood swings even when he was the target of her temper.
Another thing that she was thankful for was that she loved her husband's scent, unlike Wei Lan who thought that Long Tengfei was the stinkiest during her pregnancy. Iris was relieved. If she hated Jin Liwei's scent during her pregnancy, both of them would suffer for certain.
She felt her husband rubbing her hand and glanced at him. Jin Liwei didn't say anything but she knew that he was relieved just like her. She patted him back and indicated to him with her eyes to chat with René Alejandro. His response was a gentle squeeze on her hand before turning to the Spaniard to chat with him.
Wei Lan noticed Jin Liwei taking the initiative to talk to René Alejandro. She nodded in approval.
Then she leaned closer to Iris and spoke in a conspiratorial whisper while maintaining enough distance so as not to disgust her daughter with her perfume's smell.
"Xiulan, listen to your mother because this is veeeeeery, veeeeeeeeeery, veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery important. After you give birth, you neeeeeeeeeeed to get back to your sexy figure as sooooooooooon as you can. Have your stretch marks lasered off, your boobs lifted, your tummy tucked, and mooooooooost importantly—are you listeniiiiiiiing? This is the moooooooooost important. Here it goes. Have your vajayjay tightened! Do you understaaaaaaaaand?"
Iris blinked a few times, her head tilting to one side.
Wei Lan didn't wait for her reply before explaining, "I knoooooow that dear Liwei loves you veeeeeeeery much, but at the end of the daaaaaaaay, he's still a maaaaaaaan. All men crave seeeeeeeeeeex. Your Liwei is the saaaaaaaame. No, don't argue with meeeeeee and say that he's differeeeeeeent. Trust your mooooooother. I knooooooow what I'm talkiiiiiiing about!
"After giving birth, you're goooooooooing to be left with an ugly, fat figure and loose, torn vajayjay if you don't take caaaaaaaare of yourself and work haaaaaaaard in regaining your old sexy figuuuuuuuure. If you can't satisfy your man anymoooooooore, he'll surely go and find a mistress behind your baaaaaaaaack!"
Iris scowled. Her bad temper was swift and began assailing her like a tornado but she held on and didn't allow it to overwhelm her. She trusted her husband. He would never cheat on her, just as she would never cheat on him.
Although Iris didn't 100% agree with Wei Lan, the woman still had a point behind her extreme claims.
Iris agreed that she shouldn't neglect herself after giving birth. She should take better care of herself and maintain a healthy figure.. Her trust that Jin Liwei wouldn't cheat on her was firm, but she shouldn't allow some shameless homewrecking bimbos to have any ideas that she couldn't satisfy her own husband anymore.
