Finally, Iris and Jin Liwei walked out of the bedroom holding hands. They headed into the kitchen where all the noise was coming from.
People in colourful workout attires were chatting and laughing around the big granite kitchen island. They were eating an assortments of cereal, oatmeal, toasted bread and fruits. Someone was making protein shakes with a blender, pouring them into tumblers and distributing them to everyone.
Dom, chewing on a banana, was the first one to notice the two of them. "Boss! Sir boss! You're here. Good morning! Ehehehe." His eyes immediately sparkled when he saw their held hands.
Everyone turned to their direction and greeted them. "Good morning, Young Miss (Sir)!"
"Good morning, everyone." Iris smiled at them.
Jin Liwei nodded, his cold face showing no expression.
"Young Miss, Mr. Jin, please sit down and eat something before the workout," Yi Mei called out to them, quickly recovering from her dismay upon seeing the lusty brat holding her Young Miss's hand.
They took a seat beside each other. A blushing maid who avoided meeting their eyes quietly handed them two tumblers of protein shakes. She was the unfortunate one who caught them kissing inside the walk-in closet last night. The poor girl had big, dark bags under her eyes because she couldn't sleep after seeing her Young Miss doing that kind of shy shy things with a big, handsome but scary man. She was terrified that the Young Miss would fire her because she saw them.
Iris had no idea that her maid was worrying herself almost to death about what she witnessed them doing last night. She only saw the maid's embarrassed expression. Her eyes twitched and fought against the blush creeping up her own face.
She turned to Jin Liwei instead and asked, "What would you like to eat?"
"Hmm…oatmeal. Maybe some toast as well."
"Okay." She looked at the cook. "You heard him. And just a bowl of cereal for me, please."
The cook smiled. "Coming right up, Young Miss."
Everyone ate and chatted at the same time. The atmosphere was very casual and pleasant. It was the first time Jin Liwei experienced something like this where the master, or in this case, the mistress of the household and the servants were interacting so comfortably with each other almost on equal terms.
"What's all this? What's happening?" he asked Iris.
She licked her lips after drinking her protein shake. "We have Zumba class every Sunday morning."
"Zumba?"
"Yes. Originally, I wanted a regular workout regimen to condition and strengthen myself, especially after my physio and rehab. However, for the life of me, I can't bring myself to slave away hours using those boring gym machines. I also find working out by myself boring, although I'm alright with doing yoga alone. Dom recommended exercising in a class setting, so I hired instructors to come here and forced everyone to workout with me. Unfortunately, these people can only keep up during Zumba. You should've seen them when they tried the other classes for the first time. They looked like zombies. So it's usually only Dom and me doing the other classes after they gave up."
"Hai, Young Miss. How can you expect old people like us to keep up with you young people?" the cook interjected as she pointed at herself and Yi Mei.
"Don't point at me. Who are you calling old, ah? You're the old one!" Yi Mei scowled at the cook.
Everyone laughed.
"Other classes? What else do you do?" Jin Liwei asked Iris again.
"Sunday is Zumba day. Mondays and Tuesdays, Dom and I do Systema for self-defence. Wednesdays, hip-hop. Thursdays, Latin dance. I like dancing because I don't feel like I'm exercising. Fridays, yoga. Saturdays, I do whatever I want. Hmm…but now that I'm getting busier, the current scheduling might change. I might even have to cut some classes. We'll see."
"Systema? The Russian martial arts?"
"Oh, you know it?"
"Yeah. A friend of mine practices it. Who's your instructor? There's not a lot of people who practice Systema in the country compared to other martial arts."
"Yu Mo."
A surprised expression showed in his eyes. "He's my friend."
"Really? What a coincidence."
"Yeah." Then his eyes turned cold. He would make a call to Yu Mo later and warn the man not to get too close to his baby girl. "Tell me if he ever tries to hit on you. Even if he's my friend, I'll break his legs."
"No. Yu Mo is a professional. He won't hit on me."
"He better not," he muttered. Or else.
"And if he ever does, I'll just fire him."
"Then I'll break his legs."
She chuckled.
His eyes darkened hearing her lovely laughter. Before he could even think, he swooped down and kissed her hard in front of everyone.
Dom, of course, squealed like a fan girl, milk and cereal spluttering out of his mouth due to his overexcitement. The others froze and quickly shifted their eyes away, looking at other directions, and pretending that they didn't see anything.
Yi Mei squeezed a banana so hard that it…ouch.
"Mmm…delicious." Jin Liwei licked Iris' lips before straightening up, and then smiled at her smugly.
