Mr. Impresso

Mia pushed the door hard which made her trip over on a pair of man's feet and her loosely tied hair poured over her face, covering it from the view of the man. She felt so stupid that she felt like slapping herself over and over at her sudden reaction but that will only draw more attention and the guy would think that she was crazy.

Her head was spinning and her head was aching badly and her gaze became slightly blurry. She winced but tried not to react too much. She was already in a dilemma. Should she look up, apologize or just stay there unmoving? She was so deep in thought that she forgot that she was in pain.

She could feel the gaze of the man piercing through her soul like tiny needles but she didn't dare look up, she did know one thing for sure, this was one of the Qin brothers.

She could feel the gaze sharpening on her every single second that passed by and to make it worst, she wasn't on good terms with either of them.

As for Xavier, she scolded him when he saved Ivy instead of thanking him, and the fact that she remembered that he tolerated all her childish tantrums made her face turn crazy red in embarrassment. She wasn't prepared to apologize for her silly behavior that day... at least not now.

But still, being Xander, it won't be any better, she was exchanging all sorts of words with him, some of which she couldn't remember clearly but it wasn't something to be proud of one bit, and the fact that he might be the one looking down on her right now worried her. It would just wash down her ego before him, making her feel like she lost to him with all that facade she put on, now she's on the floor just because of a common door. Could it get any worse?

Before she could come out from her hazy thoughts, the man bent down to meet her height on the floor. She subconsciously propped herself up with her elbows and reluctantly looked up, she was met with a pair of scrutinizing grey eyes. They both looked shocked and called out simultaneously.

"Tristan?!"

"Mia?!"

Mia was still shocked, but as for Tristan, his shocked look had long turned into a smirk.

"What are you doing here?" she suddenly stood up, she was at least a little bit relieved that it wasn't either of the Qin brothers but the fact that this guy was here still bothered her.

"I should be asking you that question, babe," he stood up along with her and buried his hands inside his pocket with a laid-back smile. "Now I'm starting to wonder if you're actually chasing me to the point that you deliberately fell on my feet just to get my attention. Well... good news for you, you succeeded."

Mia opened her mouth to say something but before any word could come out, a voice rang out from the hallway that led to the sitting room and the figure soon approached them

"Yo man! what's taking you so long, mom's so overjoyed, she keeps feeding SIL like a pig!"

Mia's eyes widened. That was Xander's voice. She squinted her eyes to take a better view of his face. Her head was spinning slightly due to the force with which she fell. It was indeed a heavy fall.

She quickly smoothened her scattered her to the back with her fingers and looked instantly at his face, it was indeed Xander. It was him... again. So annoying. She rolled her eyes.

She didn't know who was more annoying between these two; Xander or Tristan. But one thing was for sure... she hated their guts. She was confused, she couldn't fathom the relationship between them. They can't possibly be brothers, if they were it would've been revealed a long time ago and there's no logical reason for hiding it. Besides, they must be around the same age but she couldn't remember the Qins having a twin in their family.

And wait... did he just pretend that he didn't see her?! Like hellooo! How rude! she fumed like a fiery dragon.

No one dared ignored her presence, for some reason she preferred the annoying Xander to the ignoring Xander. It was so annoying. She's a public figure for crying out loud. Hmph! Anyways...

She flipped her hair arrogantly and looked straight at him with her arms folded, at least her vision was a bit clearer.

"Where's Ivy?" she didn't even bother about the relationship between these two anymore. She just wanted to make sure that her friend was okay.

"Oh hi, there, it's you. What's that your name again?... arghh I've forgotten," Xander smacked his head and looked up at the ceiling as if in contemplation. He just had to pour more fuel into the fire. This guy was making her furious. Is she that irrelevant to him that he doesn't even remember her name anymore?

"Enough with the pleasantries, Mr. Impresso. Where's my friend?!" she shot sharp daggers through her eyes at him. If he could play, she could play better, tsk.

'Mr. Impresso?! Is that even a word and what's that supposed to mean? Does this lady always think that I want to impress her? Now I'm starting to think if Lisa's IQ score is higher than hers,' he rolled his eyes.

Without a word, he led Mia to the large dining room, with Tristan tailing behind them, the room was filled with the delicious, salivating aroma emanating from the food and Lin Baozhai's joyous laughter along with some other people.

Lin Baozhai looked so happy and excited for some unknown reason, on the other side of the table, there was a man and woman that looked around her age, Ava was there too, with a man around Xavier's age, he looked well built and so cheerful.

He had a striking resemblance with Tristan, they both had that deep grey domineering eyes, but he had dyed his hair silver, which gave him that mysterious, hot look that complimented his somewhat cheerful personality.

Beside Lin Baozhai, there sat Ivy whose mouth was full, she looked somewhat tired from chewing but Lin Baozhai kept feeding her.

Xavier was sitting at the other end of the table and kept his usual poker face, looking straight at his mum who kept dumping food on Ivy's plate and feeding her like there was no tomorrow. Meanwhile, Ivy tried to maintain a warm smile on her face although there was no room in her mouth anymore. This was indeed a rare sight to see.

Even though Ivy was tired, she still enjoyed the motherly affection given to her by Lin Baozhai.

"Okay thank you, that's enough I don't think I'll be able to eat again for days," Ivy placed a hand over her mouth to avoid the food from pouring out and her other hand on her stomach, catching it. She was already exhausted.

"No, no, no don't tell me that. You're too lean you can barely handle any workload, just take a look," she rose Ivy's slender arm and curled her index finger and thumb around her wrist.

Mia: Barely what?!

Xander: You said whattt now?!

Ava: cough cough

Tristan: Is this some kind of joke or what?

A tiny streak of slight shock flashed through Xavier's eyes but no one noticed it.

The rest of them kept trying to bite hard on their lips from bursting out in laughter. Even though this was their first time meeting Ivy, they could feel the powerful aura emanating from this lady, but here was Lin Baozhai thinking that she was a delicate doll.

It has been a long time since Ivy felt this way, she enjoyed the feeling of being nagged this way with so much affection, not just from anyone, but a mother figure.

Ivy caught sight of Mia, standing in between Xander and Tristan, who swept her gaze across everyone's faces then her eyes met with Ivy's.