The friends chattered for a little longer before dispersing to do their own tasks for the day.
Long Jinjing headed to the nursery. Dom went to the home office. Jiang Ying Yue got ready for her shift later.
As for Iris, she dropped by the nursery with Long Jinjing to spend a few minutes with the children, cats and puppies before heading to her music room to continue working on her current composition projects, including her collaboration with her mentor, Enrique Valdez.
There was no hurry to return to her music career especially since she and Jin Liwei were determined to take advantage of this precious time watching their babies grow and bond together as a family. However, she still didn’t want to neglect her passion for music.
She continued to work on composing new music and fine-tuning old ones. She might use the ones she was fine-tuning in the future, but most of them would be given to the new LXC Studio artists to debut.
Any samples left behind would be shown to her producer, JJ. If he liked something, he would produce it for his own record label’s artists. Of course, Iris Long would always be credited as the original songwriter even if she didn’t involve herself in the actual recording and post-production process.
It was rather peaceful at Dragon Palace Home #10 but the same couldn’t be said in other places.
###
Mao Textiles had been in a constant barrage of attacks from almost all directions. It was subtle at first. The Mao family initially didn’t think too much about it. After all, which business didn’t experience challenges?
But when the issues started cropping up almost every day and snowballing into danger zone, the Maos could no longer keep still and take the beating without doing anything.
It was only after investigating did they discover that Lin Yehan was the mastermind in bullying their company. He caused almost all of their old and trusted suppliers to terminate their cooperation with Mao Textiles.
As a result, the company had no choice but to find other inferior and less trustworthy suppliers in a hurry. They couldn’t take advantage of the old client’s price benefit anymore. All of the raw materials they needed had become so much more expensive with the new suppliers.
Even though the company could still afford these new prices, it still hurt them. If the company’s higher-ups decreased their salaries and regular bonuses, then it was easy to circumvent these new expenses.
But how could the higher-ups allow this to happen?
There was no way that they would sacrifice their own benefits for the sake of the company. Mao Textiles didn’t want to disturb the status quo either.
The consequence of this was that all of the lower-ranked employees had to bear the burden instead. Low salaries were cut even further. Meagre bonuses became even more miserable. Worst of all, many were laid off.
These poor and pitiful employees attempted to complain but did Mao Textiles care about them?
Of course not!
The company and the Mao family ignored them. They were too busy covering up these problems in order to maintain their wealthy front especially during this period when they were preparing for their daughter’s marriage with the crown prince of the Long family.
In his farm villa, Lin Yehan just finished discussing the finishing details of the gala with the event planner. Then his phone rang and his assistant relayed what happened with Mao Textiles.
His usual gentle expression was nowhere to be seen. In its place was a deep frown of contempt.
”Contact those that Mao Textiles laid off,” he instructed his assistant. “We have some businesses related to the textile industry. Although it’s mostly in the supply stage, I’m sure that they won’t be too picky when they need urgent employment.”
The assistant obeyed.
After the call, Lin Yehan took a moment to calm his anger. He had already expected that this would happen when he started targeting Mao Textiles, but when it really happened, he couldn’t help but feel disgusted.
As a tycoon who worked in one of the most humble industries in society, namely agriculture, Lin Yehan despised businesses who had zero moral ethics the most.
Mao Textiles was a classic example of a company that only cared about fattening up the already fat pockets of its higher-ups while bleeding the rest of its workers dry and casting them aside like disposable slaves without any hesitation.
It would be difficult to completely destroy a long-established company like Mao Textiles with a lot of connections but it wasn’t impossible.
Lin Yehan fell into deep thought.
###
A couple of days before the gala (and Long Hui and Mao Qiuyue’s wedding), Wei Lan finally returned to the country after her long shopping spree across Asia. She only freshened up in her mansion before dragging Randy and René Alejandro to Dragon Palace to meet her new grandsons.
Finally, René Alejandro had an excuse to meet Jin Liwei, Sir Lu Jianghong and the others again. Deep inside, he was grumbling about Wei Lan’s tardiness in returning, but on the outside, he was all smiles.
Jin Liwei had a meeting at Jin Corporation and Grandpa Lu was out visiting Grandma Li up in her mountain villa so those two were absent when Wei Lan’s group arrived. René Alejandro was disappointed but there was nothing that he could do.
On a brighter note, he could try to develop a close relationship with the Jin and Lu twins instead. If the children became close to him and treated him as an uncle, then Jin Liwei and Sir Lu Jianhong would surely feel closer to him as well.
”Xiulan, honeeeeeeeey!” Wei Lan strutted after finally seeing her daughter after so long. “Mother is baaaaack!”
She air-kissed Iris on both cheeks before studying her daughter from head to toe and back up again. “Oh, goooooood! You’ve lost all thooooooose baby weight. Your figure is not as goooooooood as mine when I gave birth to you back then but not baaaaaaaaaaaad, honey. It’s just that…your boooooooobs have become toooooooo big! Big booooooooobs are easy to sag, you know?”
The ever straightforward Iris replied, “My boobs are fine. My husband is more than satisfied with them.”
Wei Lan laughed and looked…proud. “That’s right, honeeeeeeeey! It’s important to alwaaaaaaaays satisfy your husband’s neeeeeeeeds! You can always have a boob lift in the future, riiiiiiiiiiight? I’m sure dear Liwei won’t miiiiiiiiiind paying for the procedure when he’s the one who’s going to benefit with his wife’s perky boooooooobs.”
Iris rolled her eyes. “I can pay for my own procedures, thank you. And I might not need that kind of procedure in the future.”
Wei Lan also rolled her eyes. “Trust meeeeeeeee, honey! With those biiiiiiiiiiig boobs, you’ll definitely need a boob lift.”
While the mother and daughter were talking about boobs, the other people around them were pretending that everything was normal.
The butler and the other staff were all professionals. They were already long used to their young madam’s overly straightforward honesty. Their expressions didn’t change at all.
Randy was barely holding on to his laughter. He couldn’t wait to meet with Dom and gossip about it.
As for René Alejandro, he showed a rather awkward expression. It was all for show, of course. He honestly didn’t care about this kind of conversations at all. There was no way that someone like him would be embarrassed listening to something like this.
Iris was an attractive woman. That much he could admit. If not for the fact that he was focused on befriending Jin Liwei on the surface and entering the man’s close circles, René Alejandro might even attempt to seduce Iris. She was just his type—beautiful, sexy and appeared to know what she wanted.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t the type to mix his work with pleasure. He wouldn’t fuck anyone who was related to his missions in any way. He was different from the Matador who was now keeping their hostage, Rose Young, as a convenient mistress.
After the boob conversation finished (thank goodness), Iris sniffed and frowned.
”Mother, your perfume is too strong. I can’t have you meet the babies like this.”
Wei Lan complained but she still went to take a shower in the end.
In the meantime, Iris took René Alejandro and Randy to the nursery first.
”Thank you for the presents,” Iris said. “You didn’t have to.”
René Alejandro smiled. His two dimples on both cheeks made him appear very charming but Iris wasn’t affected at all.
”It’s just a little something for the babies,” he replied. “This is the first time that I’m meeting Mamá’s grandsons after all. In a way, they’re also my nephews. Of course, I have to get them something as their uncle. I also brought something for your sister’s twins as well. I hope she doesn’t mind.”
Iris mentally raised an eyebrow at the man’s reasoning, but on the outside, she only nodded before saying, “I don’t know if Big Sister Jinjing will mind your gifts for her babies or not. You have to personally give them to her to find out.”
”I understand.” He smiled again.
At last, René Alejandro met Jin Liwei’s sons and Sir Lu Jianhong’s grandsons when they arrived in the nursery.
Long Jinjing was inside with the nannies. She thanked René Alejandro for the presents but didn’t talk much.
René Alejandro didn’t mind. Long Jinjing wasn’t one of his targets anyway. She was actually dangerous because her husband, Lu Zihao, hated him. It was better to steer clear of the woman to avoid any unforeseen problems to his mission.
