The next day, Jin Liwei gave himself a day off. Both he and Lu Zihao were on edge about Iris' emotional state after waking up.
Contrary to their expectations, Iris woke up quite calm. Too calm, in fact, that she was making the two men extremely nervous.
She noticed that her husband and older brother were acting extra cautious around her but chose not to comment.
It was only after the doctor performed another check-up on her and the twins and concluded that the mother and babies were all okay that Jin Liwei's tenseness eased a little.
Afterwards, she called the two men over for a chat.
Inside the master suite's living area, she observed them while nibbling on a homemade biscuit.
"Where the Smoking Devil?" she asked.
Lu Zihao put his hand inside his pants' pocket and fished out the bejewelled smoking pipe.
Iris raised an eyebrow. "You bring it with you just like that?"
"It's mine." Lu Zihao shrugged.
"I paid a million for it so shouldn't it be mine now?"
Lu Zihao grunted before fishing out his phone from his pocket next. A few seconds later, Iris received a mobile notification informing her of a 1 million RMB transfer from him.
She sighed and didn't bother arguing with her brother. Fine. Since he wanted it and even paid her, then he could have it. The Smoking Devil originally belonged to him anyway.
Jin Liwei pulled her to him. "Are you really okay?"
No matter how many times he had witnessed his wife fainting, he would never stop worrying about her. He had really been frightened last night when she lost consciousness in his arms.
Iris kissed his cheek. "I'm really fine—physically. Emotionally, I admit that I'm unnerved but I think I can manage. You're here with me, so I know that I'll be okay."
"En." He pecked her lips.
Lu Zihao snorted and refused to watch the annoying public displays of affection between his sister and her husband. He would never admit even to himself that their intimate actions were causing him to miss his fiancée.
He wondered how Long Jinjing was doing at work. She had been very understanding when he left their bed at her place last night to rush to Dragon Palace after hearing that something serious had happened to Iris. In fact, she also wanted to come with him but he told her to stay home after learning that his sister fainted because of the Smoking Devil.
Long Jinjing now knew about his criminal background as the leader of Shadow Winds and even accepted everything in order to stay with him. However, that didn't mean that Lu Zihao was prepared to reveal his past life as Nikolai Vetrov to her.
Lu Zihao, a small-time crime boss, was a completely different story than Nikolai Vetrov, the crown prince of the top criminal organization in the international underworld.
The gap between the two identities was like the difference between the ground and the sky.
His thoughts and the Jin couple's PDA were interrupted by Ketchup informing them that René Alejandro was calling.
The two men's expressions turned ugly. Before Iris could make a decision, Jin Liwei had already refused the call.
In the end, René Alejandro could only leave a voice mail expressing his sincerest apologies for Emilio Miguel's rudeness last night. He also inquired about Iris' health especially after hearing that she fainted.
Jin Liwei didn't have any serious animosity towards René Alejandro. Although he was suspicious of the Spaniard's too-squeaky-clean background on paper and intentions in trying to be close to them, he had decided to adapt a cautious yet still polite attitude towards him. [Read official chapters on W e b n o v e l (dot) com. Please stop supporting piracy. Also follow author on Instagram: @arriacross]
But after what happened last night, his impression of René Alejandro worsened because of Emilio Miguel. He didn't give a damn if almost everyone at the party last night thought that the man looked like a beautiful angel. For Jin Liwei, Emilio Miguel was an asshole.
Not only did the man look inappropriately at his wife during their first meeting but he also brought something that originally belonged to the Vetrovs for the auction, causing his wife to collapse.
The first reason was unacceptable while the second reason was extremely suspicious and even dangerous.
Although a part of Jin Liwei approved of René Alejandro's initiative to apologize today, he still felt furious about what happened to his wife at the Spaniard's birthday party. If only his wife had listened to him and opted not to personally attend. Maybe this wouldn't have happened.
But on second thought, he had to admit that it might be fate. What were the odds that his wife, a real Vetrov descendant in her past life, would encounter an authentic Vetrov heirloom in an auction for her own charitable foundation?
Prior to this, his wife often avoided confronting her past life as a Vetrov as much as possible. Now that a real, tangible item from her past life had popped up right in front of her, maybe he could help her to face her deep trauma and hopefully heal her once and for all.
Since René Alejandro had a connection in what happened last night, Jin Liwei hadn't closed all doors to the Spaniard yet. For the sake of knowing more information and possibly finding a helpful connection to the Vetrovs, he was willing to speak again to René Alejandro, but only after his anger had eased.
As for René Alejandro's friend, Emilio Miguel…Jin Liwei could only feel hostility and vigilance. He didn't want to have anything to do with the asshole, to be honest.
Lu Zihao's thoughts were similar to Jin Liwei's but more extreme.
He was completely hostile against René Alejandro but it was more akin to something like instinctive competitiveness rather than pure hatred.
To Emilio Miguel, he hadn't personally met the man yet but he already loathed him for possessing something that originally belonged to him in the past life as Nikolai Vetrov. He wanted to know more about the motherfucker.
If Emilio Miguel really had something to do with the massacre of the Vetrovs, he would bet his cursed life and fight to the death before dragging the motherfucker to hell with him.