Iris wasn't ruffled at all by Wei Lan's opinion of her dress tonight. The important thing to her was that she personally liked it.
"The embroidered flower appliqué are big enough to conceal my growing belly," she whispered.
"You've gotten fatter," Wei Lan said.
Iris stopped herself from rolling her eyes. She was pregnant. It would be worrying if she didn't gain weight. In fact, she and Jin Liwei had grown quite worried that her baby bump seemed to be growing too slowly compared to other normal pregnant women carrying twins.
Fortunately, her doctor assured them that their twins were growing fine. It was only because of Iris' natural slender physique and tight abdominal muscles that were slow to grow more meat. As long as the babies were receiving enough nutrition, then they shouldn't stress too much about the outward size of her baby bump.
It was a good thing that Iris' overall temper had settled. She wasn't allowing Wei Lan's nonsense to provoke her.
As soon as Jin Liwei and Iris Long appeared in the ballroom, the other guests' eyes lit up and began crowding around them. Before Iris could feel uncomfortable, Yu Mo stepped forward and joined Jin Liwei in a protective stance beside her in order to ward off other people who were trying to get too close for comfort.
René Alejandro looked reluctant to leave their group to personally greet the rest of the arriving guests but he had to do it as the celebrant. Wei Lan and Randy followed him back to the main entrance.
"Are you okay, Xiao Xiu?" Yu Mo asked.
Iris nodded. To be honest, the surrounding scents bothered her but Jin Liwei's scent on her wrap was enough to ease her discomfort. For now, at least.
"We'll leave anytime you want," Jin Liwei assured her.
The party soon started. René Alejandro and Wei Lan each gave speeches thanking everyone for coming.
Although René Alejandro was supposed to be the start of the night as the birthday boy, everyone's eyes couldn't stop straying away from the Jin husband and wife.
The couple was gorgeous people on their own. Together, their combined attractiveness was out of this world. It seemed like they were magnifying each other's appearances and charisma.
Even those among the other guests who deep inside looked down on Iris Long for not being good enough a match for Jin Liwei couldn't help but admit that she was one of the most stunning women that they had ever seen in their lives. She was even more beautiful in person than she was on screen.
Iris, Jin Liwei and Yu Mo stayed in their own little group most of the time. They didn't need to initiate conversations with the other guests because people would come to them instead.
While having a shallow conversation with a couple of young misses from other wealthy families, Iris was observing René Alejandro from afar.
"Iris, are you close to René?" asked a young miss.
"We're alright," she replied in a rather bland tone.
The young misses didn't seem to notice it, though. The two girls were gushing over the handsome Spaniard.
"He's so hot! Those deep, smoky eyes can't compare to the local guys. Every time his eyes meet mine, I feel like I'm going to melt!"
"I like his dimples the most! Gosh, I want to poke my finger on them! Those dimples should be criminal!"
Iris maintained a pleasant expression, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the young misses. Indeed, René Alejandro was a handsome man. His charm was undeniable.
However, compared to her older brother's past life appearance, René Alejandro had nothing on Nikolai Vetrov. And in addition, deep in her heart, her husband Jin Liwei was the most handsome man in the world in her heart.
The rose-coloured filter of love would always make Iris view Jin Liwei in a biased way, magnifying all of his good points and minimizing, even sometimes completely erasing, most of his bad points. Even the rare skin blemish that he would get now and then became pleasing in her eyes.
More than the Spaniard's outward appearance, Iris noted René Alejandro's behaviour while interacting with other people. He was acting like a true prince charming. More interesting was that he didn't mind making fun of himself in order for the others to relate to him even as a foreigner who had obviously different values than the locals.
The party had just started but he was already catching many people's hearts, especially the ladies.
Music began playing from the live classic instrumental band. The guests started pairing up and dancing together.
Iris and Jin Liwei joined them. While on the dance floor, Jin Liwei couldn't help but notice his wife trying to stop herself from wincing. He tried stopping their dance but she pulled him to continue.
"Don't make a scene," she told him. "I'm fine, darling."
"Then what's wrong?"
She gave him a sheepish smile. "Nothing too major. The off notes and little harmony mistakes from the band are just bothering me to no end. I guess they didn't have enough time to practice together. If they were my band, I would never send them to play anywhere until they iron out their performance."
He chuckled and tried to listen to the music, but unlike his wife, he didn't have enough technical ability to discern the little mistakes that she was talking about. Nevertheless, he believed her. If she said that there were mistakes, then there must be even though he couldn't catch them himself. She was the musical expert between the two of them after all. She definitely knew what she was talking about.
After one song, the husband and wife left the dance floor to find a corner to rest. In the end, Iris couldn't stop herself. When the musicians were taking a short break, she approached them.
A few moments later, she replaced the pianist and began playing with the rest of the other classical musicians. This was the first time that she was playing with them but she insisted on following their set playlist.
Of course, everyone noticed her actions.. They all stopped what they were doing to watch her.
