Chapter 46
Taking care of a pregnant woman is terrifying. Iris jumped around, and Derek lost half a month's salary. Two days later, when the two of them were summoned by Superintendent Leung Yat-fung, the head of the SDU, to bring their drones, he thought he would have to spend a year's salary to pay for the drone 009.
Zhuang Zhuoyuan only learned about this before leaving work. When Inspector Liang showed him the edited video that Iris had, he realized what his wife had been secretly doing behind his back. He immediately stood at attention and saluted: "Sorry, Sir!"
This matter wasn't a huge deal, but it wasn't insignificant either. Liang Rifeng gave Zhuang Zhuoyuan a few pointers, telling him to go back and further educate his family, and then said nothing more. Iris, on the other hand, was on tenterhooks all afternoon, and it took her a long time to mentally prepare herself before daring to apologize to Zhuang Zhuoyuan that evening. Her biggest worry now was whether her impulsive act would affect Zhuang Zhuoyuan's chance to meet Board.
"Sorry, honey, I didn't think that much about it at the time." Iris knelt on the bed, feeling quite depressed.
Zhuang Zhuoyuan moved closer and hugged her without uttering a single word of blame. Since Liang Sir had already met with Iris, he had probably said everything he needed to say, so there was no point in repeating himself: "It's okay, just be more careful next time. Or practice your technique and be more careful so that no one notices next time."
"Hey—" Iris pushed him, "You're laughing at me!"
Zhuang Zhuoyuan said sincerely, "I think you are very capable. You even managed to capture the moment when the bullet shattered the glass. It's a pity you didn't become a paparazzi."
"Get away! So you already saw it!" Iris scolded him, and after confirming that Zhuang Zhuoyuan really didn't take it to heart, she finally felt relieved and snuggled into his arms, taking out her phone to replay the clip: "Then come and admire my super handsome husband together!"
Zhuang Zhuoyuan knew she still had secrets. The whole thing about deleting the backups in front of Inspector Liang was a lie; she only deleted the controller and the two copies in the cloud. "You're so cunning!"
“Well, Inspector Leung isn’t that strict, is he?” Iris complained about his poking her cheek and turned to bite Zhuang Zhuoyuan’s finger, only to be teased in return. Zhuang Zhuoyuan scratched her chin and said, “You’re probably the first person to say that Inspector Leung isn’t strict.”
“He’s a cunning old fox,” Iris updated her assessment of Liang Rifeng. “He contacted me because he’s probably interested in the aircraft I used to film you. So when we met at noon, he borrowed it, saying he’d study it for a few days and then return it. Maybe you’ll need it for some mission later.”
"Then Daddy's tech company will open up a new business channel."
"This is an inevitable trend; it's just a matter of what Daddy chooses."
After killing Gan Guowen and capturing his men, Uncle Chao, who had gone missing while trying to persuade Yang Shaocong, was finally found in a trash can. With her husband hospitalized, Sister Pauline lost her competitive spirit and soon moved back to her own home. The family reconciled, and everyone was happy.
During this time, with Pauline's help, Iris and Jennie successfully purchased dragon and phoenix bracelets and a series of utensils needed for a traditional Chinese wedding. For their Hong Kong wedding ceremony, they planned to blend Chinese and Western traditions, so a traditional Chinese wedding dress was essential. Gloria and Elaine were already busy with the wedding dress, and for the traditional Chinese wedding gown, Jennie took Iris to Guan Nan Hua to choose a magnificent gown. Made entirely by hand over 18 months, the red fabric was covered in gold and silver thread embroidery, making Iris fall in love with this exquisite dress. This experience further solidified her determination to stay fit when taking measurements later. Whether it's a wedding in Hong Kong or England, she wants to be the most beautiful bride!
Zhuang Zhuoyuan didn't expect his wife to actually go to the gym. Although all of Iris's exercises were guided and confirmed by a coach to be suitable for pregnant women, he was still terrified watching from the side, fearing that something might happen to them again.
Iris, fed up with her husband's constant overreaction, decided after a week to switch to a gentler prenatal yoga class. However, before telling him, she decided to first check out the gym Zhang Jiguang wanted to take over. She had only learned of Guangzai's ambition to own a gym after knowing him for some time. Iris had initially considered pairing Elaine with him as partners, but Elaine went to England shortly after, and she was busy with a host of other things, almost forgetting about it. Now, with Zhang Jiguang inviting them to visit the gym, she had some investment plans in mind.
With limited funds, the gym Zhang Jiguang chose wasn't large, but it had complete facilities and a good location. Most importantly, as Azu said, it wasn't too far from everyone's home, so they could come up and relax whenever they had time.
Afraid of further upsetting her husband's sensitive nerves, Iris obediently sat aside and watched them practice. Zhang Jiguang watched with delight as everyone showed their satisfaction with the training, his eyes shining; he seemed genuinely passionate about this line of work.
“Hey, Guang,” Iris called him over, “you just said that if you saved for another year, you could buy this gym, right? Actually, I wanted to ask you, are you interested in finding a partner, the kind who just pays the money and doesn’t do any work? Hmm, if you think it’s okay, I’d like to partner with you. You can be the boss, and you can handle all the gym’s affairs. You just need to show me the accounts periodically. And if you’re planning to find a bigger gym, that’s no problem either.”
"Are you serious?" Zhang Jiguang was stunned for a long time before he finally managed to say this. He never believed in free lunches, and when he was suddenly hit by one, his mind went blank, and he felt like he was seeing stars.
Zhuang Zhuoyuan was also hearing about Iris's plan for the first time. He stopped what he was doing and turned to Iris: "I've never heard you mention this before."
“I just finalized it myself,” Iris smiled. “I told you before that I wanted to invest in some businesses in Hong Kong. Actually, it doesn’t matter what I invest in, the most important thing is to find some trustworthy partners. After listening to Ah Guang talk about his years of preparation, I think he’s a very methodical person. So, Ah Guang, if you’re willing, let’s work together. You can buy this gym when you have time. You don’t need to rush to quit your job. We can find an agent to manage it first, and you can use this time to transition and gradually get used to it. It’s not too late to leave SDU when you can handle things on your own. Of course, you can take your time to consider it. You don’t need to rush to answer me. I’m always available.”
Iris's praise of Zhang Jiguang's business acumen was no mere flattery. A few days later, an internal SDU survey confirmed Iris's keen eye. After the survey, which resembled a market research project testing who could impersonate a wealthy heir, was graded, only Zhang Jiguang's answer, besides Yu Xueli who was himself from a wealthy family, came closest to the truth. In other words, he scored the highest. As for Zhuang Zhuoyuan, whom Inspector Liang had originally favored because his identity was less likely to be exposed, he unfortunately failed to be selected due to the significant score difference.
After the mission details were revealed, Zhuang Zhuoyuan discovered that the activity these wealthy second-generation individuals were protecting was none other than the "Wealthy Second-Generation Investment Study Group" that Iris had previously dismissed with disdain. The itinerary was originally kept secret, but the sheer size of the families of the ten young, wealthy heirs naturally attracted the attention of an international kidnapping gang. The police received intelligence that this criminal group planned to kidnap and extort these heirs in Hong Kong. Because the members of the Special Duties Unit (SDU) were trained to protect VIPs and their identities were kept strictly confidential, the higher-ups decided to deploy a joint operation between the SDU and the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau (OCTB) to carry out this protection mission.
Iris only knew that Zhuang Zhuoyuan was leaving for a few days, but she didn't know exactly what he was going to do. So when she saw her husband become a security guard through the elevator doors, she was completely shocked.
The heavily made-up girl rushed out and joined her equally heavily made-up sisters. Under the protection of a cynical man, they jointly attacked the two security guards who wanted to investigate their identities. The man in the lead was arrogant and domineering, which emboldened the girls beside him. Iris finally lost her temper, casually threw her handbag out, and stepped out of the elevator like a boss, showing no apology to the person who had been hit: "Sorry, my hand slipped."
Shu Ziming's anger, which was about to erupt, vanished the moment he turned around and saw who it was. Painful memories from the past flooded his mind, and he subconsciously called out, "Sister E." Then, coming to his senses, he didn't gain much momentum and said, "Sister S."
“Long time no see, Jacob.” Her red lips parted slightly, but her tone was flat. Iris’s eyes flickered, and she exchanged a glance with Zhuang Zhuoyuan while smilingly glancing at the group of young models. Of course, she wouldn’t acknowledge him, but how could she let people make things difficult for him? No matter how scoundrel Jacob was, when he ran into her and Ella, he still had to obediently call her “sister.”
Shu Ziming was intimidated by Iris's demeanor. Years ago, when he was trying to pursue her in England, her sister, with a smile like that, would find every opportunity to prank him. The worst time, she almost burned down his room. Neither sister was easy to deal with, and he didn't want to provoke them again. He bent down to pick up Iris's handbag, trying to make the gesture as gentlemanly as possible: "Long time no see, Sister S, here's your bag."
"Thank you." Iris's voice was as melodious as ever. She had come to this hotel today specifically for the banquet, and after dressing up carefully, she looked even more radiant than before. Shu Ziming couldn't help but feel a little distracted: "Sister S, what brings you here?"
"I was just passing by and saw you, so I came over to say hello." A smile remained on her face, every movement carefully planned to mesmerize Jacob. Zhuang Zhuoyuan, watching from the side, couldn't help but feel a little jealous. However, he knew Iris must have another purpose, so he simply waited patiently, quietly watching her performance. Iris's next words were: "I didn't expect it to be so noisy here."
Shu Ziming's face showed impatience again, and he pointed at Zhuang Zhuoyuan and Qiu Junxuan without any politeness, saying, "It's all their fault for being so nosy, insisting on checking my identity!"
“It’s just a party, why is the security here so tight?” Iris paused for a while after saying that, her gaze intentionally sweeping over Zhuang Zhuoyuan. Just as Shu Ziming was about to agree with her, she changed the subject and called to the bodyguard next to her: “Derek, go and learn from him.”
Shu Ziming was taken aback.
Iris raised an eyebrow at Zhuang Zhuoyuan again: "By the way, if it's inconvenient to search people, do you need to find a female staff member to help?"
“No need,” Zhuang Zhuoyuan replied tacitly, “We’ve already found a female colleague.”
“Then sit down for a while, Jacob. Give my bodyguard a chance to learn, and we’ll have time to chat. You know, I hate this noisy environment in here.” Iris got goosebumps from the affected, pretentious tone. But her performative instincts kicked in, so she decided to go all out and had someone wipe the chairs at the entrance before finally settling down.
Shu Ziming didn't really want to sit with her, especially with such a fun-filled private party right in front of him. He knew Iris wouldn't get close to him and didn't like the flirting he used, so he was incredibly uncomfortable. Fortunately, Shu Zili had come with him this time, and while Iris was focused on the medical check-up, Shu Ziming secretly texted his sister.
Perhaps engrossed in dancing intimately with other men, Shu Zili didn't emerge immediately. After all the models he'd invited reluctantly completed their checks, Shu Ziming couldn't contain himself any longer and abruptly stood up, ready to return to the party. He had already devised a reason: a one-for-one exchange, so as not to offend Iris again.
Fortunately, just as he took his first step, Shu Zili appeared. Her burgundy short hair shimmered under the lights, making her look radiant. Especially after finding Iris, her eyes lit up, and she rushed over like a joyful little butterfly.
"Iris, what are you doing in Hong Kong! You've been gone for almost a year! I miss you so much!"
"Glad to see you, Larine." The mischievous little devil was there too, and Iris felt even more sorry for Zhuang Zhuoyuan and his group responsible for their safety. She really wanted to make a bet: if no one got their pants pulled down tonight, she'd lose.
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