Mother Zhao's Worries

December 3, 20XX (Monday Morning)

Zhao Manor

Zhao Hui Ying looked at her encrypted private phone waiting for a certain man hiding somewhere in Europe to call her. She had been waiting for more than an hour now and was beginning to be annoyed. She tapped her fingers on the armrest of her chair.

When the phone finally rings, she answered immediately with snark, "You took your time."

"Wow!" the man on the other side of the phone call continued with a monotonous tone that reminded her so much of Mei Li's when she was angry, "You're still such a snob. Where's your husband? I want to talk to him."

"Pity for you," Mother Zhao sneered, "My husband is busy with work. You can only talk to me."

"Oh, joy." The man deadpanned.

"Whatever..." Mother Zhao's eyes twitch in annoyance. She and this man was never going to get along well. She drawled after a few seconds of awkwardness, "What is it do you want to talk? I'm waiting."

"... I don't know why you and Mu Lan were best friends. You're each other's opposites."

"That's why we were best friends, you dumb human." Mother Zhao immediately contradicted.

"I am offended! I am a Bonaparte!"

"Well, I am just the direct descendant of the Royal family with my children in line to the throne if monarchy still prevailed here." Her words sounded so arrogant, but it was the truth. Regarding bloodline, she was best.

Silence once again reigns In their conversation. It had always been like this. Even before Xue Mu Lan had died, Jerome Bonaparte and Xing Hui Ying of the past were still the same cat and mouse as today.

"How is Mei Li? I heard she stayed at your house?"

To annoy the man, Mother Zhao gushed at how smitten Yang was with Mei Li. In some of her tales, she exaggerated how Yang and Mei Li's relationship to taunt the man on the other line with a smirk of satisfaction. She could imagine the man's red face and blood boiling in anger. It must be such a priceless expression.

"You need to reel in your son! He can't touch my daughter!"

Mother Zhao laughed and mockingly said, "Well, he already did! And I'll help him woo her too! Mu Lan would have agreed with me!"

"Only because you had agreed to pair your children even before they were born!"

And so they spent about an hour arguing about their children's love life as if they had any control over it. Well, in Mother Zhao's case, she technically does so she'll have to do her best to push them together.

She waited for her husband to come home so she could complain about the stupid Bonaparte that had called only to irritate her. When the sound of a car parking was heard in their private garage, she hurried over to her husband's side.

Arriving, she was surprised to see her son getting out from his Maybach. She had thought that since Mei Li had left, he would return to his penthouse condo. He had never stayed long at the manor since it was further away from his company's buildings. She had always tried to make him stay longer but was always unsuccessful, so she had given up after a while and let him do whatever he likes. To see him return was a pleasant surprise to Mother Zhao.

"You looked surprised to see me, " Yang said, chuckling at his mother's awed face staring at his face as if he wasn't her son and was something she could not believe was real.

"I just thought you were going to return to your place." Her words were softly uttered as her hands caressed her son's cheeks on both sides. He had changed little by little with Mei Li, which made her more surprised as Yang had placed his hands on hers softly smiling at her. He was more affectionate now, and it made her heart soften with gratefulness.

"How was work?" She asked as she and her son went into the kitchen. He must have forgotten to eat lunch again. Where was Mei Li when you need her? Oh right, she was in her studio. She sighed with helplessness at the young woman's stubbornness and independence.

"It was the same. The merging of the companies is making me busier than before." Yang mumbled with a hint of complaint.

Mother Zhao was again surprised when Yang went to fetch himself water instead of the already opened wine on the table that she had prepared for her husband and her's dinner.

"You stopped drinking wine?" She asked after a while.

Yang gulped his water down his throat before he replied, "Promised Mei Li to limit my intake."

Mother Zhao felt that Mei Li had been solving all her worries one by one now. She was even more grateful to her best friend's daughter that she is treating as if her own.

Her son was whipped, but she agreed with beating him into place because if not he'd still be drinking wine for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Thank goodness for Mei Li.

Now, the problem is making Mei Li agree to marry Yang so they can work on giving her grandchildren.

Why was her husband so late? They needed to plot another scheme again.