Chapter 2

"Hello grandma, yes, I'm fine. How are you doing?" Xinyi asked, wondering why the elderly woman was calling her so incessantly.

This usually happened when she wanted to demand something outrageous and Xinyi had no idea if she could fulfill her grandmother's wish if it equally turned out to be another request.

In the brightly illuminated office, the young lady's voice was smooth and soft as she put her work aside and leaned back into her seat, twirling on the swivel chair.

Her grandmother was a beautiful elderly lady who rarely interfered in the lives of her children or even grandchildren. She loved watching things happen from the sidelines because she wanted to see what they could all do on their own.

From a young age, she had married her husband though she didn't love him at first because he wasn't the person she'd been in-love with at the time. Madam Liu, whose family name was Lana Pao had gotten married to Jason Liu through an arranged marriage but after coming to know Jason, she'd eventually fallen in-love with him because he accepted all her tantrums and had been a very calm and reserved person.

At the time, Lana Pao had been the daughter of a very poor family who fell in love with her neighborhood best friend. Her parents were so poor that she couldn't even afford to go to college. She knew her mom had a big customer named madam Liu who usually purchased local herbs from her but Lana didn't think much of it and only lived in her own small world.

Then when her father fell sick and her mom asked the Liu family for help, Jason Liu had insisted that he wanted the pretty Lana Pao to marry him. He'd noticed her when he once dropped his mom at their store and had immediately fallen in-love with her beauty and charm.

Lana hadn't been told that it was Jason that wanted her as his wife. She only knew her father was sick and in order to help him get treatment and also start a big business that could keep them financially stable, the Liu family would marry her to their nerdy son.

She'd cried for days and even threatened to hurt herself if her parents stood their ground but her mother's decision was final so that was how Lana found herself in the Liu family as a young bride.

She had hated Jason Liu and never even cooked for him, spoke to him or let him touch- talkless of kissing her. The amusing thing in all this was that Jason never once complained or treated her badly for how she behaved towards him. He let her do whatever she wanted.

He even indulged her by doing her bid around the house.

Unknown to Lana, she was beginning to like the reserved Jason as compared to her own ex boyfriend Matthew who was a very jealous and possessive lover. Matthew even discouraged her from job hunting when she told him she wanted to save for college. He believed she would leave him in the trenches when she got the opportunity to further her education and meet more intelligent, interesting people.

Matthew believed Lana should get a small job that would provide her daily bread and whatever she needed as a supplement would be provided by him. The reverse was the case for Jason Liu, who told her he would support her in whatever she wanted to do, as long as she was happy.

Slowly, Lana found herself observing Jason as he did his thing and eventually, she looked forward to the things he would do whenever he returned from work and the small things he would say to her.

She began to anticipate their little routine where he would sometimes call her to help him pass his towel which he forgot to pick from the room before stepping into the bathroom and sometimes their fingers would even brush in the process.

Whenever this happened, she would blush and quickly tien around so he wouldn't see her face.

Jason had also noticed these changes and he was very happy his wife was warming up to him but he didn't show any signs of it because he didn't want her to catch on that she was slowly beginning to fall in love with him.

Slowly he began to do things for her, like getting her gifts whenever he was returning from work, complimenting her on her dressing or the style she put her hair in, taking her out on small dates and seeking her opinion in things related to his work even though he already knew what step to take.

When he discovered that she was book smart, he gave her a position in his workplace.

Slowly they began to go to work and come back home together.

They fell into a routine where they left for work together, did things at work together and came back home before she would cook for him and even sometimes pick the carrots from his plate because he didn't like eating so much carrots and unknown to Lana, she had fallen irrevocably in-love with her husband in this period.

Then one day, Jason Liu fell sick and left home to stay in one of his other residences, far away from his family home.

He didn't come home or show up at work for two whole days.

Lana who was so worried about her husband's sudden disappearance, called his friends that she hadn't seen him and later found out from his best friend that he preferred isolating himself whenever he was sick.

Lana had rushed to the location and when she found him, she accused him of hurting her feelings by not letting her know Jos whereabouts. Jason who'd just began to recover apologized and told her he didn't want her to fall sick while treating him and that only seemed to make her even angrier as she accused him of breaking her heart.

Then she'd decided then and there that she would leave him and go back to her family house.

Then she'd tried to storm off angrily, shouting at him that she no longer loved him but Jason had kissed her to shut her up, elated that he finally got her to confess her feelings towards him. He'd replied that he loved her too and told her he wanted them to live like husband and wife and not just colleagues.

Lana had immediately agreed, thankful that she no longer needed to constantly think of a reason to try and have a skin contact with her husband — which usually made her tingle all over— or discreetly steal glances at him. That afternoon, they'd consumated their marriage and ever since, lived as a couple very much in-love.

The Liu family had since then tried to devise various devious schemes behind Jason's back just to get him to divorce her but they never succeeded because he always took her back and supported her. This was typical in rich homes but Jason stood by his wife and always took her side, having observed her and known the kind of person she was.

He knew what his family was up to and always stood by his wife, letting them know that he would never let her go no matter what they said or did.

Lana had grown to finally be the Matron of the Liu family and since then she'd seen all sorts of devious schemes that family could devise against each other for the sake of money, lust and deep envy.

This was why she never involved herself in whatever issue related to family drama. According to her, she loved her peace of mind and she also didn't want it to look like she was picking sides. Even her sons petty argument never got to her because she would just have them get punished by their father who was eager to do his wife's every bid like the doting husband he was.

That was the case until her granddaughter, Xinyi came into the picture.

Liu Xinyi was Lana Liu's favorite granddaughter and she always loved it when Xinyi was brought to her as a child. Xinyi also was the daughter of her last son and unlike the other siblings, Xinyi was the only child of her father so Lana pampered her for that reason as well.

To Lana, Xinyi acted like a very tough child but she was actually the most softhearted person Lana had ever met. She protected to the Tee and also understood the deep meaning of family loyalty.

Back to the present, Liu Xinyi was still waiting for her grandmother's response, already understanding how her grandma loved coming up with several excuses just to get her to do things.

Most of the time, those things she reminded her of were definitely for Xinyi's good but Matron Liu could be a handful sometimes.

"Aiya, this child. You never call me except I call first. Do you know how long I've been trying to reach you? Why haven't you been picking my calls?" Grandma Liu asked. The two people she still worried about in her life were her husband and Xinyi.

"Oh granny, I'm so sorry about that. You know how busy I get at work." Xinyi made sure her tone sounded whiny so her grandmother wouldn't be too hard on her.

"You're telling me your father left all the work to you? Has he forgotten you're his only child and you only deserve to be pampered and loved? Aren't you just the acting-" she could sense her grandmother had begun to raise her voice, which wasn't good for the elderly lady's health.

"Grandma, please calm down. Did you receive the soothing herbs I sent to you yesterday?"

"Hmph! I did. Don't cover our discussion up. You know you're my favorite grandchild out of all the others. You should be trying your best to please this old woman." Her grandmother harrumphed.

Xinyi sighed, picking her customized pen and biting the bottom. There were only a few of that kind of pen in the world and she'd bought them all from their various locations because they were the last collections belonging to an old friend and she couldn't allow it fall into the hands of someone who wouldn't treasure it like it was worth.

The pen was unique.

The ink was made from a special coloring substance and the details in its production had been properly outlined to show how heartfelt the pieces were. The maker of the pen had gone missing a while back, and no one knew if it was because he wanted to conceal his identity as the 'Unique Pen Maker' who wouldn't sell his work to just anyone or he really wanted to erase all forms of his existence from the world.

As Xinyi shook off her thoughts from the 'Unique Pen Maker', she focused on her grandmother who was laying out a list of her offences and threatening Xinyi with her health if she didn't do her bidding.

"Grandma, please what do you want? Don't threaten me with your health anymore, grandma. It's not healthy."

"What else do you want me to do? I've tried everything but it doesn't seem to be working. You're in that cold and intimidating office, working your youth away while you should be enjoying your life. Your beauty is wasting away in that office."

Xinyi shook her head. She had listened to these words several times already that she was now tired of them.

Her grandmother always talked about how she needed to eat better, live some more, go out, hang out with friends and what not.

"For starters, I usually dine at the best restaurants in City A. About me taking care of myself, I have my skincare routine which I follow to the tee. About my going out, I go to karaoke with FeiFei or buy out a club and hangout with Jin." FeiFei was her cousin while Jin was her bodyguard.

Grandma Liu sighed on the other line, making Xinyi wince because she knew a series of complaints would follow.

"I never knew the day would come when my granddaughter would become a shell of her own self all in the name of family duties. Aiya. You even have to buy out a club just for you to have fun in it. That's not the healthy lifestyle I always wished for my lovely granddaughter who was so bubbly as a child. What do I do? Where exactly did I fail?" She heard her grandma sniffing and Xinyi instantly panicked. She could stand anything but not the sound of her grandmother's crying.

Whether her grandmother was faking it or not, the act still always managed to pull at her heartstrings. Her grandmother was only being a protective grandmother who wanted the best for her.

"What do you want grandma?" She finally conceded.

"Forget it. You won't be able to do it anyway." Grandma sniffed loudly. "Among all my grandchildren, you are the one I worry about the most. You drown yourself in work and barely have time for yourself. How long do you want to keep being like this? You're already in your late twenties yet you live like someone in their fifties and wear old clothes instead of something sexy! You also don't permit men to talk to you. I wonder if you'll find someone or all my efforts will be put to waste. I've failed, I've failed." Grandma Liu sobbed.

Xinyi's brows drew in askance as she worried her lower lip. "Grandma..."

"Shush. I know, I love you too much and now you think I'm only nagging. It's fine. I won't bother myself with you anymore. But if this makes me fall sick, know you're the cause of it all." Grandma continued in a sad tone, her sniffs getting louder by the second.

The sound tore at Liu Xinyi's heartstrings and she pressed her lips together in resignation.

'Anyway, whatever grandma wants for me can never be that bad', Xinyi thought to herself.

"Tell me what you want me to do, grandma."

"But what if you can't do it?" She asked with another sniff and Xinyi didn't even want to imagine the pained look that would be on her grandmother's face at the moment.

"I will, I'll try."

"Promise?"

"I promise, grandma. Now please stop crying and tell me what you want me to do." She said quickly, knowing she probably wouldn't like what her grandmother would say but she would still listen anyway.

"Okay, my sweetheart. I want you to go on a date with my friend's grandson."