“I’ll tell you later,” Jin Liwei said.
Iris tilted her head to the side, waiting for him to explain but when he didn’t, she had no choice but to swallow her curiosity for now. He would tell her when he was ready. She was sure of that.
The friends hung out for the entire afternoon and even ate dinner together. Afterwards, they bid each other goodbye and left one by one. Only Lu Zihao and Long Jinjing stayed back.
Iris became excited. “Are you sleeping over again?”
“No,” Lu Zihao said. “Your man wants to talk to both of us again.”
“Oh.” She looked at Jin Liwei with reignited curiosity.
Lu Zihao turned to Long Jinjing. “Stay with Dominic and the others for now. I need to talk to them. I’ll be back later and we’ll return to your place.”
“Okay.” Long Jinjing joined Dom, Clover and Jiang Ying Yue.
Later in their suite’s living room, Iris sipped hot ginger tea while she observed Jin Liwei and her big brother. Both men appeared relaxed on the outside but she could feel the nervous energy emanating from them. At the same time, she could also sense Jin Liwei’s excitement which was the total opposite of her big brother’s…displeasure. Yes, her brother appeared to be displeased. She wondered what the two men were planning to talk about with her.
But first things first. She needed to satisfy her curiosity about something that she kept on forgetting. Turning to Lu Zihao, she finally asked him, “Big Brother, I heard Big Sister Jinjing calling you Nikolai.”
He stiffened for only a fraction of a second but she still caught his reaction. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“Did you tell her to call you by your real name?”
Lu Zihao crossed his arm and stared outside the window. All of them were basically sitting in the same spots as they did last weekend. [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]
“Yes.”
Iris and Jin Liwei’s eyes widened and they looked at each other.
“Why?” she asked.
Finally, Lu Zihao looked at them. “What do you mean why? You told your man your real name. Why can’t I tell my real name to my woman?”
“I told Liwei my real name because I love him. Do you love Big Sister Jinjing?”
Lu Zihao’s back straightened and he frowned. “No, I don’t love her.”
She tilted her head to the side. “Really?”
“I…” His frown deepened as if he encountered a difficult problem that he couldn’t solve. Then he sighed. “You know I can’t love her. My world is too dangerous for me to have that kind of deep attachment for an innocent woman. What I have with her…it’s only temporary. I’ll let her go once we’ve satisfied each other. She’ll be safer away from me.”
She also frowned and opened her mouth, about to argue, but Jin Liwei placed a firm hand on her thigh to stop her. He shook his head at her.
“But—”
“Let the two of them figure out their relationship, love. They’re both a.d.u.l.ts and—”
“No!” Iris couldn’t accept it. She pushed away Jin Liwei’s hand and stood up before facing her brother. Her slightly flushed face indicated that she was worked up after hearing what her brother said about his relationship with Long Jinjing.
“If that’s how you feel, then you shouldn’t have taken her as your girlfriend in the first place. You should’ve left it as a one-night stand, maybe a two or even a three-night stand but nothing longer than that. Definitely not a relationship like what the two of you have right now! Big Brother, aside from Liwei, I’ll always side with you. You should know that. But Big Sister Jinjing is my friend and…I’ve grown to accept this body’s blood connection to her as Xiulan’s half-sister. I care about her. That’s why I can’t just sit back and listen to you spout such contradictory—”
“Which part of the things I said is contradictory?” Lu Zihao demanded.
“You say that what you have with Big Sister Jinjing is temporary and yet you told her to call you by your real name. Have you forgotten the power and danger your real name holds? Only a few people know Evelina but almost everyone in the underworld knows Nikolai.”
Lu Zihao’s jaw and entire body tensed. A heavy aura burst out of him but Iris was too worked up to react. It was Jin Liwei who stood in front of her and glared at Lu Zihao. Lu Zihao caught himself and took a few deep breaths as he withdrew the aura he unconsciously released.
Iris, however, wasn’t done yet. She left Jin Liwei’s back to confront her brother face to face again. Jin Liwei tried to calm her down but to no avail.
“Then you say that you don’t love her. Fine! If that’s what you say, then I’ll try to believe it. But you care about her. Don’t deny it!”
Lu Zihao closed his mouth when she said that. Indeed, he was about to deny it on instinct. But now that she pointed it out, he realized that she was right. He cared about Long Jinjing.
“Yes, I care about Long Jinjing,” he finally admitted out loud. “She’s my girlfriend, for f.u.c.k’s sake! Of course, I care about her! Do you think I’ll waste my f.u.c.k.i.n.g time being in a relationship with a woman I don’t care about?!”
This time, it was Jin Liwei who spoke. Since his wife couldn’t be stopped, then he might as well join her. “Then take responsibility for your decision, Nikolai. Telling Long Jinjing your real name and taking her as your girlfriend while you still have Shadow Winds is the same thing as pulling her half a step into your world whether you want to admit it or not.”
Iris hugged Jin Liwei’s arm and nodded at what he was saying.
“And don’t take us for blind people,” Jin Liwei continued. “We know that the two personal bodyguards you assigned to protect and take care of her are some of the best in Shadow Winds, not to mention the hidden ones you instructed to watch over her in secret.”
