Chapter 10 - Spicy Ramen

In the other part of the manor, Lina woke up from her nap and looked at her phone.

'Looks like I fell asleep while planning what to do at dinner.'

*Grrr..*

Listening to her tummy grumble, she looked around to find some snacks to eat.

'I already told Butler Ping that I wouldn't come down before dinner and if I go down now I'll only be slapping my pretty face.'

Opening the mini fridge beside her bed , she looked at the recently restocked items in it.All of them were her favourites.

'Ahh.. Thank God they remembered to fill it up.'

Her mouth watered looking at the sour gummies, the flavored waters, the blueberry yogurts, and different varieties of chocolates placed in it.

'All of these are sweet, I want to eat something savoury now!'.

She moved to the other side of her bed and pulled the top drawer of her bedside table.

There were all types of chips and savoury snacks arranged neatly.

'Whoever arranged this surely has a serious case of OCD.'

Then pulling the next drawer, she found different sizes of instant Ramen boxes inside.

With a greedy smile, she picked up the biggest box of spicy ramen, then looking at the time she put it back and picked it's mini version.

'I only have 3 hours before dinner, I can't fill up on Ramen. Mrs. Ping will confiscate my snack paradise if she finds that I wasted her food.'

She moved to the coffee table and poured the hot water from the kettle into her ramen and went back to her bed, waiting for it to cook.

Out of curiosity, she opened to look at the last drawer and then drooled while looking at what was inside.

Being a huge popcorn lover, Lina was ecstatic to find the different flavours of popcorn packages. Salted, butter, butter lover's, Piri piri, and many more.

She picked up the 'Pudina' Flavored one. It was a special spicy mint flavor that she fell in love with on her trip to India once and later had them imported in large quantities that could last her a long time.

She was excited to find it here and thought of the only person here who knows about this obsession of hers.

'Looks like I've completely forgotten to inform him of my arrival.'

Then opened up her ramen and started slurping up the spicy noodles.

Only the loud noises of slurping was heard in the room.

Lina stopped stuffing her mouth full of Ramen when she heard her phone ringing.

'Who can it be? Mommy and daddy must be asleep and Big Bro always video calls me.'

Wondering who it might be, Lina looked at her phone's screen then smiled and ate another mouthful of noodles.

Picking up her phone, she spoke with her mouthful not caring about what the other person thought of her.

"I was just thinking about you! *slurp* Did you miss me?"

"Can you eat any louder?" The voice on the other side was deep and soothing.

"Looks like you found the gifts I left in your room. Liked it?" The voice inquired.

"Loved it!! Wait a minute! You bought them? With your money?" Lina choked on her noodles as she was surprised.

"Hey!! Stop making it sound like I'm some miser. I'm not so stingy!!" The voice shouted.

"Says the guy who made me pay the bill for his birthday party. Shame on you Big Brother Wade!" Lina said, remembering how she had to pay his bills all through her college life.

"It's just that I forgot my wallet at home." Wade Luo said sheepishly.

"Three years continuously?" She questioned.

"Okay. Enough about these small matters. Now tell me when are you going to come by the office? I thought that you'll need a day's rest so I did not disturb you in the morning." Wade Luo said, trying to sound magnanimous.

"Thank you, oh great god!" Lina played along.

" I was thinking of stopping by on my way to lunch then doing some shopping." She told her plans for the next day.

"Okay, come pick me up and we'll go together." Wade hurriedly said.

"No way! You have to stay and work. I know you are just using me as an excuse to skip on your meeting." Lina laughed.

"You are the reason I'm stuck in this position. If you feel even a little guilty about me. Come at 12 and pick me up!" Wade sounded aggrieved.

"Ok Ok. Don't have to make me feel guilty. I'll help you out this time. But only this time!" She repeated.

"Lazy ass." She mumbled.

"I heard that! And thanks to your little remark, you have to pay tomorrow's bill." He said with a hmph at the end.

"You were not going to pay anyway." She retorted.

"My baby knows me so well!. Enough about that, how's everything at home? Did you meet them?" Wade inquired.

"Yea. I did. I'm still trying to understand what they are planning. How's everyone there? How's Uncle Ace doing?"

She felt bad thinking about Uncle Ace.

"He's super pissed even though he knows it's not Uncle Pat's fault and big brother couldn't tolerate it anymore and went on a month long vacation. He'll be back after two weeks." Wade explained.

"He's just using this as an excuse to party. Let's have a quiet family dinner after he's back." Lina suggested.

Hearing some knocks coming from the other side, she knew that her brother Wade must be busy and after saying their goodbyes she ended the call.

She then opened her laptop to continue binge watching the show that she was watching downstairs but was so rudely interrupted.

______________________________

In the kitchen, Mrs. Ping ordered everyone around to finish preparing the food before the master came home.

"As if the master will even come home, it's been days since he came home." mumbled a young servant who was not at home when Patrick brought Lina home.

Glaring at the man who just spoke, Butler Ping admonished him.

"Learn to control that tongue of yours if you want to continue working for the Yangs."

Then turned to place the fresh cut flowers on the dinner table.

Soon it was dinner time and Lucille and Mandy walked into the Main Hall and sat on the couch waiting for Patrick's return.

Sometimes they met him and sometimes they spent days without seeing his face.

Lucille had secretly tried to investigate where Patrick spent his days but to no avail.

After their third cup of tea, they heard footsteps and hurriedly stood up to welcome Patrick. But did not see him entering.

Turning back, they saw that the girl from before was walking down the stairs dressed in black yoga pants and a gray oversized sweatshirt that reached her thighs.

The outfit completely covered her body but with one look, people could make out her perfect body structure just by looking at her toned long legs.

The male servants who had not seen Lina earlier stood with their mouths agape looking at her descending the stairs.

Then turned around when they felt a chill down their spines and found Mrs. Ping giving them a death glare.

Successfully scaring them away, Mrs. Ping pulled the chair for Lina who had already reached the dining table when everyone was in a daze.

As she was about to take her seat, she saw someone rushing to where she stood. She immediately took a big step backwards while pulling Mrs. Ping along with her.

*Thud*

'I think even her brain is filled with silicone.'

Looking at the woman fallen on the ground with her face kissing the floor. Lina shook her head.

Lucille Rong ran to pick her daughter up and saw that her nose was swelling up because of the impact of her fall but nothing seemed to be broken. Seeing this, she let out a sigh.

Then turning to Lina with her eyes now red, she spoke with a croaking voice.

"How could you let her fall like that? I know you hate us but you can't just harm us on a whim!" She sounded angry after looking at her daughter's face again.

"Huh?? I let her fall? She rushed up to me? If it wasn't for my cat like reflects, it would've been me and Mrs. Rong on the floor." Lina said with a calm voice.

All the servants who were siding with Lucille thought that what Lina said was reasonable.

"Yeah, Ms. Mandy is the one who ran up to this new miss." Said the guy who was admonished earlier. Then remembering Butler Ping's words, he put his head down.

Mandy who had gotten up with the help of her mother and a few servants was now fuming with anger.

"I ran up to her because she was going to sit at the Head of the table. That's my father's place. How dare she sit there?" Mandy yelled.

"It doesn't matter if my father brought you home. I don't care who you are to him but I can't bear to see your face anymore. I'm going to kick you out of this house myself!" After shouting with a loud voice, Mandy moved towards Lina with a vicious glint in her eyes.

Mrs. Ping and Butler Ping quickly moved to place Lina behind them and stood in front of her looking like Mama and Papa bears protecting their cub.

Lina was so moved by this gesture and she tried to stand in front to face Mandy again.

"What's going on here!?"

Just as she was about to speak, Lina heard a loud and booming voice which made everyone look at the person who was standing at the front door.

Her furrowed brows eased and she smiled at the person entering the dining hall in long strides.