16 16. The Qin Mansion...

It was almost 13:00 when they reached their ancestral home, the Qin Mansion.

The mansion atop the mountain road was deep inside a patch of forest.

It took them 20 minutes to reach the entrance from the front gate. The only route to the mansion minus the hidden routes for an emergency was surrounded by trees and nature.

The Qin mansion though old was renovated many a time, it was a Mediterranean Spanish styled Mansion which had a slight vintage touch to it, which was to the liking of the previous Matriarch.

A huge lawn was in front of it, encircled by paved walkways both for easy exit of cars and jogging around the lawn. A small pool was also in place in the lawn, where the old couple used to sunbathe. The whole mansion was surrounded by trees in the back, which also included a greenhouse, where the old man has been growing vegetables and some flowers since he left the office.

Qin ZiXuan entered from the left side of the road and parked in front of the entrance, which had a roof supported by two huge pillars, nobody liked to be hit by direct sunrays upon getting out of their car in a sunny day, now do they?

A dozen maids came out to greet them led by the head butler of the family.

Xiao Cheng was a man in his late 40s. He was chosen to serve the direct heir of the patriarch but one incident led to other and in the end, he took over the personal affairs of the family as the head butler.

If Secretary Feng was the right-hand man of the patriarch, then this man would be his left-hand, both were loyal to him and only him and by default to his immediate family.

He went to open the back door when he noticed Qin Meilin and Qin ZiXuan alight from the front doors.

He gave them a smile full of adoration and greeted, "It's been a while Young Miss, Young Master."

"En.... It seems you are doing well, Uncle Xiao", they greeted back.

Both of them liked to call him 'Uncle' as he was like a father figure to them, in contrast to Feng Jiajie, who had forced them to call him so, even though he was more of an elder brother rather than an 'Uncle'.

She passed him the sweets she had in her hands and said, "Uncle, I bought some gifts for everyone. Please help me pass them, they are in the car."

"Young Miss you-...haaah", he shook his head.

'Their Young Miss has always been like this' he thought and affirmed, "I will."

"xiao Mei. xiao Xuan.", a deep voice resounded from the entrance.

Both of them looked there and saw their grandfather, standing there with his secretary beside him.

It seems between the time they were talking with Uncle Xiao, he was notified of their arrival and came to receive them himself.

The old man with slight grays was donned in a white Changsan and was standing at the entrance like an emperor. Even though he has left the military for years now, the air around him has only intensified. His eyes were still sharp, something that he got from his years in military and cut-throat business world but now they also held an emotion of love for the children in front of him, though it was not visible in his face.

"Grandpa." They greeted him and went to give the old man a big hug, this has become a family ritual of some sort for them.

The old man was a little angry when he saw that his grandchildren didn't come and greet him 'first' but after the hug, he almost let it go, 'almost'.

"It seems you still remember this old man", he tried to act a bit sarcastic but the elation in his eyes gave him away.

"Grandpa, it was our bad. You know the phase the company is going through, I know it's not an excuse but I hope you forgive us this time", it was Qin ZiXuan who said this.

He knew all too well that the way Meilin was, she would probably give a curt reply like, 'Company matters. The people you left were below my acceptance level' or something along those lines and even though he knew it was a fact, still there was no need start a discussion here, outside their house; he sighed in his heart.

"If you know it is not an excus-" before the old man could retort back, like always, Uncle Xiao came to break the ice.

"Master, why don't we go inside. It's already quite late, please continue the discussion after lunch."

There was silence for a second but in the next moment, they all gave their approval.

Just as they were starting to enter the house, Meilin cleared her throat from behind them.

"Before we go inside let me clear something for all." Everyone present felt the drop in temperature and shivered a little.

'Ara ara, she lost it, didn't she? Master, why do you like to do this to yourself ba' they all thought at the same time.

Creating a scene in front of the house, it was definitely not something she liked ba.

The nerves of everyone present, tensed. They could feel their non-existent cold sweat drenching their forehead, even the old man was flustered.

She first dismissed the maids and head butler, who reluctantly left to prepare for their lunch, well, he left after giving a look that said 'Don't be too angry' to which she gave a slight smile in response; even though he didn't know what it meant, he still felt reassured by it.

"Grandpa, you know the company matters and you also know that you threw all your responsibilities to XuanXuan while still being 'the chairman' ", she enunciated the last words deeply, " I have repeated this thing many times already, but you are really are not acting your age and you know that", she strongly reprimanded to which the old man visibly gulped as the voice was not her usual one, it was laced with a bit of anger and irritation.

'Linlin really didn't like the way they were acting...' the silent Qin ZiXuan mused himself.

The old man averted his gaze from her because he knew what she meant, all too well.

Then again, how couldn't he not know? He was already guilty because of it. It all started last year, even though he was keeping a strong front for all, after his wife went on rebellion, he was visibly shaken and used his age as a reason to push everything onto the young man. He was not angry at Meilin who, since she came back, has always reminded him of this, one, she didn't like the fact that her XuanXuan was suffering and second, deep down he knew that this made his guilt lessen and she was doing this for him, at least there was someone who told him outright that he was being a coward.

When Meilin saw the guilt pass through his eyes, she visibly softened as she rubbed her glabella and sighed.

"Anyway, since XuanXuan has already apologised this makes us even. Please don't act this way anymore," she said in a light voice.

Seeing that his granddaughter didn't reprimand him too much, he was a bit relieved when he heard her continue, "Anyway, I hope you don't continue this charade anymore."

After she had finished what she had wanted to say, she turned back and looked inside the car and started speaking, "Would you like to come out now?"

The old man and his secretary furrowed their brows, they didn't quite get what she was doing when they heard the back door opening and a lady coming out from there.

When they took a closer look, even the always stoic secretary was visibly shaken, as he gaped at the lady.

The old man didn't know what to say or feel at that time, he just blanked out.

He was only able to call out her name, the name he had wanted to call for the last whole year-

"Jing'er"