Chapter 29

Bringing Zhan Hantao along was definitely the right choice. Seeing Ding Huihui and him reconcile and return to their sweet and loving relationship, Iris was genuinely happy for them.

Sunlight pierced through the clouds, and the view from the mountaintop was perfect. Zhuang Zhuoyuan spread out a picnic blanket, took out a drink, and first offered it to his girlfriend: "The plum juice you've been craving, but it's gone cold."

Even if it were thrown at him, Iris could catch it steadily. But Zhuang Sheng just sat there with his arms outstretched, clearly expecting his girlfriend to come and rescue him. Iris understood his meaning, quickly took several photos, and then ran back to his side like a little bird, obediently accepting Zhuang Zhuoyuan's feeding: "The plum juice is just right. I haven't been drinking anything cold lately, but the strawberry juice is a bit too sour."

She only took a small bite, and the rest was naturally fed to Zhuang Zhuoyuan. The latter frowned, not only feeling that his girlfriend's words made sense, but also admiring her ability to swallow it after only a slight complaint: "Ah B, I've discovered that you have some skills."

Iris was momentarily confused, staring blankly at her boyfriend for a while before popping a glistening grape into her mouth, only to be overwhelmed by its sourness. She tilted her head and asked, "You mean my ability to pick fruit?"

The young lady always only looks at the appearance when choosing fruit. Zhuang Zhuoyuan flicked her nose and couldn't help but pinch it again, laughing with great pleasure: "I mean your unique taste, especially recently. I feel that your tolerance has increased a lot. I thought that after I fed you for so long, your mouth should have become more and more picky."

Iris made a face at him, then put on airs and acted all haughty: "You're getting more and more picky, aren't you? Like these days, the weather's getting hotter and hotter, and I don't have much of an appetite, so I always want to find something sour to whet my appetite."

“Oh, I see,” Zhuang Zhuoyuan said with a sudden realization, his tone quickly turning teasing. “I thought you’d changed your taste. It wasn’t until I saw you picking out fruit yesterday that I realized your taste is still the same as before.”

"You're so annoying!" Iris reached out to hit him, but he grabbed her hand tightly instead. Seeing Zhuang Zhuoyuan's smug smile, she became even more determined to get revenge. With a mix of spoiled and threatening manner, Iris raised her chin and said, "I haven't changed my taste, but if you bully me again, I'm going to temporarily change boyfriends."

"Who are you planning to switch to?" Zhuang Zhuoyuan asked calmly, poking his girlfriend's waist with his index finger. Iris, bottle and all, fell into his arms. She drank most of the plum juice without spilling, even with shaking. Zhuang Zhuoyuan, however, wasn't quite full of the amount she wanted. Iris's eyes darted around, and she was about to try the same trick again, but before she could even get her fingers to move, Zhuang Zhuoyuan had already taken them. Zhuang was quite the calculator at this moment: "Team A and Team B have plenty of handsome single guys. Ah Xing and Ah Guang are both good, and Ah Kang is also very nice. But we don't eat the grass near our burrows. To avoid making you feel awkward, I think we shouldn't choose from the SDU. How about we ask Inspector Yin to introduce you to a few in the Major Crimes Unit, or maybe my sister's?"

Iris really hated that he was pushing her away. Even though she knew it was a joke, she was still a little angry: "I see you've arranged everything so well for me, are you hoping I'll do the same and select a group for you like this?"

Zhuang Zhuoyuan shrugged, still bouncing back and forth on the edge of danger: "If you're so determined to win, I have no objection."

Iris bit his lip directly, her almond-shaped eyes wide open: "You dare!"

His lips were slowly and gently sucked. Zhuang Zhuoyuan held his girlfriend and comforted her. When Iris relaxed, he gently coaxed her by pressing his forehead against hers: "You little impulsive girl, I haven't finished yet. You can do whatever you want, just remember to always put yourself in the options, so that I can always choose you."

"What an old-fashioned thing to say!" Iris pounded his chest, refusing to accept this answer. However, Zhuang Zhuoyuan's attitude was very firm, pressing his head down with a heavy kiss, and at the end, he didn't forget to sweep it away quickly, as if to quickly sweep away all the unpleasantness. After Iris broke free, she felt that this person with a satiated look on his face had a fluffy tail sticking up to the sky behind him, and the most annoying thing was that deliberately irritating comment at the end: "So sour!"

She just drank plum juice, how could he not feel sour?

As the two locked eyes, their gazes seemed to stretch out in long, sticky lines of sugar, Ding Huihui nestled beside Zhan Hantao, covering her mouth and laughing, "We're the ones who's feeling the sourness, aren't we?"

The one who responded was Zhuang Zhuoyuan, who had the upper hand at the moment. He put his arm around his girlfriend's shoulder again, and his raised head was somewhat similar to Iris's: "Haven't you gotten used to it after all this time?"

Zhan Hantao, unusually quick to respond to this topic, said, "I may never be able to do what you two do." He then looked at Ding Huihui, and the two smiled at each other. However, after looking away, a fleeting trace of melancholy flashed in the latter's eyes, so quickly that it was almost imperceptible, even to Ding Huihui herself.

Iris can be a little temperamental, but she's also very easy to coax. Zhuang Zhuoyuan discovered this and loved teasing her. The more he coaxed her, the more adept he became at it. A dish of steamed beef with pickled mustard greens and a dish of fish fillets with ginger sauce quickly made her obediently snuggle into his arms again.

When the mood struck them, the two would always take some photos to commemorate the occasion. As long as the sharing scope was set, suitable photos could be uploaded to social media with peace of mind. Seeing them fiddling with their phones, Ding Huihui noticed that Iris's original phone case, which was also hand-drawn by Richard Edison like hers, had been changed, and even the phone model seemed different: "Iris, you and Ayuan got new phones?"

“Ah, Daddy gave us a smartphone that the company is testing right now, and they’re currently collecting our user feedback.” Iris dared not mention the whereabouts of her old phone, afraid that the people behind her would bring up her near-fall off a cliff again, so she tried her best to steer the conversation toward the new phone: “Actually, most of the functions of this phone are similar to other phones, but the most special thing is that when two phones are linked and obtain each other’s permissions, they can lock the location of the phone signal at any time. In other words, Mr. Zhuang Zhuoyuan can know where I am by just pressing a few buttons.”

Zhan Hantao had heard about this technology before, but he never expected to see it actually used by Iris and Zhuang Zhuoyuan. Driven by curiosity and his cautious nature, Zhan Hantao conducted another search for Iris's father's company. However, before he could learn more, another wealthy family connected to the Flying Tigers members appeared on the cover of a weekly magazine.

That day, driving down from the mountaintop, the two couples went their separate ways. Zhuang Zhuoyuan and Iris were waiting at a traffic light when they happened to see Yu Xueli's older sister and her boyfriend on a date. Remembering that she hadn't introduced the Yu family to Zhuang Zhuoyuan yet, Iris immediately pointed them out to him: "That smartly dressed woman over there is Ali's older sister, Yu Xue'en (Jenny), and the one next to her is her boyfriend, Michael. I've met Yu Xue'en a few times at banquets, and we get along quite well. She's a very capable woman in business, but she's not very favored by her father. Their father is a typical patriarchal, feudalistic man who only wants Ali to inherit the family business and often ignores Yu Xue'en's contributions. And Uncle Yu doesn't like her boyfriend either; he always thinks Michael is here to cheat Yu Xue'en and their family out of money."

Yu Xueli rarely talked about his family in the team, and Zhuang Zhuoyuan was somewhat surprised by the complexity of their family relationships. Iris shrugged, treating it as commonplace: "Actually, families like ours and Elaine's are the minority. Most families in this circle, even if they don't mistreat girls on the surface, actually value male offspring more."

“Just like Hong Kong appears to be an international metropolis, most Hong Kong people are actually quite conservative in their thinking.” Zhuang Zhuoyuan drew inferences from this, and he also expected that Iris would definitely have other related questions to raise. However, she only said: “I don’t care whether you like boys or girls. Anyway, as long as it is my baby, if you dare to treat them unfairly or not give them the same enough love, I will kick you out of the house.”

How could Zhuang Zhuoyuan dare to go against their little princess's wishes? Besides, their child—even if Iris hadn't reminded him, he wouldn't have been willing to do such a foolish thing.

The two initially didn't take this minor incident to heart, but two days later, when Yu Shitang was hospitalized due to health reasons, Edward's visitation order was assigned to Iris and Zhuang Zhuoyuan. Every move their father made was always carefully considered, and seeing that his capable assistant Topaz had flown to Hong Kong immediately upon hearing the news, Iris knew this visit couldn't be taken lightly. Therefore, she made ample preparations, hoping to help the company further strengthen the relationship between the two parties.

However, their timing was poor. Michael had just been driven away, and Yu Shitang was still furious, having no energy left for pleasantries. Therefore, after a few polite exchanges, Topaz and Iris took their leave. Iris was somewhat worried, but Topaz, who knew more, seemed relaxed. He led the young lady through the underpass, avoiding the stalking paparazzi, before explaining the company's plan: "It's just a small business deal we'd like to collaborate on. Ed's point is that if it works out, it'll be a bonus for you; if not, it won't affect anything. Our visit today is enough to show them our sincerity; Yu Shitang will naturally consider the rest."

“Hmm.” Iris responded softly, nodding thoughtfully, seemingly considering the pros and cons. Topaz glanced at her through the rearview mirror, smiled slightly, and drove away. Once they were some distance from the hospital, he added, “However, if he wants to hand over the entire family business to his son, then we need to reconsider how to proceed with our cooperation. Taking over their Yu Group is not out of the question.”

“Topaz,” Iris had to remind him of that last sentence. She knew his style well; once his father agreed, he would definitely do what he wanted. But Yu Xueli was Zhuang Zhuoyuan’s teammate, and she didn’t want this to cause any rift between them. “Don’t complicate things, okay? A-Yuan and I don’t need too much fanfare, nor do we want too much embellishment. If necessary, I can talk to Daddy again.”

“All right.” Topaz shrugged, his expression momentarily suggesting he regretted giving up a great opportunity. However, there were too many things in the world for him to enjoy, and he quickly put the Yu family out of his mind. “Actually, I’m here for another important task. Ed commissioned someone to paint a picture to put in your new house in Hong Kong. The style is somewhat similar to the cartoon in the side hall of our English manor. However, this time the painting is three times larger, and Ah Yuan, his sister, and Ella’s boyfriend have all been added.”

Ella's boyfriend? Iris recalled her sister's doodles on her sketches and the tattoo that had suddenly appeared on her wrist. She remembered that those drawings had been destroyed before her sister disappeared...

"Daddy—"

“Nope,” Topaz seemed to have guessed what she wanted to ask and gave a direct negative answer, “We didn’t find your sister, nor did we find her boyfriend, but last month when Ed was looking for paintings to give to you in the basement, he accidentally found a sketch of that boy among Ella’s old paintings. It was hidden between the canvas and the drawing board, and Ella probably forgot about it herself, which is why she didn’t burn it.”

“It’s also possible that she can’t bear to part with it,” Iris muttered softly.

"What?" Topaz asked, whether feigning ignorance or genuinely not having heard him.

Iris simply changed the subject: "I just really want to see her boyfriend in person. For Ella to go to so much trouble, he must have something special about him."

Topaz tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, not shying away from the topic: "You can take a look at the painting later. As for what he really looks like, why don't you just imagine him as Yuan? After all, don't you twins have telepathy? Ella's taste might be similar to yours."

In this respect, he wouldn't be like that. Iris touched the tattoo on her wrist, recalling Ella's "YOLO" tattoo in the same spot—You Only Live Once—that person wouldn't be like A-Yuan. A-Yuan was steady, reliable, and full of fun, while the person who could barely be called her future brother-in-law was probably a quirky and mischievous "annoying guy," who could probably play the whole world for him.