Jin Liwei was patient and didn’t rush his baby girl as she slowly made her way to him. It was only a few steps but it felt like a long time before she finally reached him. He pulled her in his arms before she could react.
Iris stiffened at first but she quickly melted in his tight embrace, especially after smelling his comforting scent. Her arms wrapped around his waist while she rubbed her face against his chest.
He kissed the top of her head and tightened his arms around her. “Don’t listen to your brother. I don’t hate any of you.”
She looked up at him. “Really?”
“En.”
The corners of her mouth curved up. “But you sounded angry just now.”
He sighed and told her, “It wasn’t directed at you.”
“It was directed at me, obviously,” Lu Zihao’s voice interrupted the couple’s moment.
They both turned to look at him. There was a slight mocking expression on his face but the couple could sense his guardedness. Despite his taunting words, he was still being careful in keeping his heavy aura contained so as not to affect the two of them.
“I don’t want to fight with you,” Jin Liwei said through his tightened jaw. He gave the other man a hard side-long glance. “Don’t disturb me. I haven’t finished reading the rest of the report yet.”
Lu Zihao shrugged before walking to the mini-fridge and opening it. “No alcohol?”
“We don’t drink alcohol in our suite,” Iris explained.
He clicked his tongue before taking a bottle of orange juice, opening it, and then draining the entire bottle in five big gulps. Then he threw the bottle to the trash can at the opposite corner. His aim was accurate and the bottle fell into the trash can in a smooth arc despite the distance. [This novel is a contracted work with W e b n o v e l . c o m (remove spaces). If you’re not reading this chapter on W e b n o v e l, it has been stolen. It’s very discouraging to see thieves profitting from my hard work. Please support the original author, ArriaCross. Thank you! Also follow me on Instagram @arriacross]
“Hurry up and finish reading that damn report,” he told Jin Liwei without looking at him. “I want to return to my room soon and fuck my girlfriend before she falls asleep.”
“Big brother!” Iris made a face at him.
“What? Long Jinjing is my girlfriend and we are fucking. A lot. We’re all adults here. There’s no need to censor things, especially since you yourself are pregnant. And we all know how a woman becomes pregnant.”
She glared at him. “My children are listening!”
“Oh. Fuck.”
Jin Liwei sighed before talking to a random corner. “Ketchup, Bacon, don’t ever copy your uncle’s way of speaking. If I ever hear you say those bad words, you already know what I’ll do to you.”
“Eeek! Ketchup doesn’t want to be grounded ever again, Daddy! It’s so sad and boring! Meowuwuwu! Nooooo! Uncle Haohao is the biggest meanie forever and ever, bringing trouble to us kitty babies! Hmph! Ketchup and Bacon need compensation from Uncle Haohao for emotional distress. Meow!”
“Uncle Zihao, speaking like that is not classy. And Bacon wants high salary as my compensation for emotional distress.”
Lu Zihao’s expression turned black. “You two little—”
“Alright, that’s enough,” Iris quickly intervened before her big brother lost his temper on her AI children.
She sensed that her brother wasn’t as calm as his usual self. Taunting them was his way of dealing with his nerves which he refused to openly express through his emotions. She didn’t want her AI children to be the trigger for him to finally erupt.
Although Ketchup and Bacon were AI beings, their emotion processing centres were highly advanced and had a huge effect on how they would develop in the future. She couldn’t risk them being the targets of her big brother’s anger especially during a stressful situation like this. Her brother could be very frightening. Ketchup and Bacon’s development might become stunted if they were traumatized by their uncle.
She quickly said a few system commands in order to make both Ketchup and Bacon more stable. Then she sighed in relief afterwards when the two finally stopped complaining about their uncle and asking him for compensation for emotional distress. The two must have learned it from their Uncle Dom yet again.
Her friend and assistant was another person who had a huge influence on her AI children’s development besides her and Jin Liwei. It was a good thing that Dom didn’t have a foul mouth like her big brother or even Chen Fei, but Dom did have a rather…er, “creative” way of saying things which her AI children liked to copy, especially Ketchup.
She glanced at her brother and saw that he looked calmer now that Ketchup and Bacon stopped nagging him. He grabbed another juice bottle, apple this time, and returned to his earlier spot by the window.
“We’re wasting time,” he said.
“Fine,” Jin Liwei replied. “I’ll continue reading the report.”
Iris began to feel nervous again but Jin Liwei gave her a gentle squeeze before pulling her to sit beside him on the couch. She originally didn’t plan on sitting next to him while he was reading the report because it would only increase her anxiety. However, it was obvious that he wanted her by his side. And to be honest, she also wanted to be close to him as much as possible. His scent was currently her wonder drug.
Thus, she steeled herself and decided to stay beside him. She already prepared herself anyway for whatever reaction he might have once she handed him the report about the Vetrovs.
Jin Liwei finished reading the summary about Nikolai. His expression was unreadable but Iris sensed the turmoil of negative emotions radiating from him.
She glanced at her big brother who also had an unreadable expression. She felt helpless that it might not be possible for the two men to get along again after showing Jin Liwei the report.
Despite already trimming the summary about her brother to the bare minimum, it was still quite shocking to a civilian like Jin Liwei who lived outside the criminal underworld. Besides, she didn’t want to lie and create a false report just to make her brother look good. It was against her own personal ethics.
“Evelina Armanovna Vetrova,” Jin Liwei murmured, interrupting her thoughts. “What a beautiful name.”
