Chapter 327 - Dinner With Everyone

It had been two weeks since Alcina was placed beside Ryuu to take care of his health.His health was not improving, rather deteriorating with each passing day. Ryuu might appear healthy to normal eyes but she knew better. It wasn't only Ryuu and Alcina whose lives had flipped in the course of two weeks but almost everyone was facing the toughness of the time. 

Esma had stopped answering Long Jie's calls since that day. It appeared that Ada's words had affected her more than she was letting everyone know. Sam was devastated after the rejection from Alcina. He had been found drunk thrice by Zhenyi in a week. 

Long Jie and Zhenyi were too busy these days handling their work along with investigating the girl who had appeared out of nowhere. Sometimes, they wouldn't even get time to spend with each other. Still, their relationship was doing better than before. They had developed a special kind of understanding between them. 

When everyone was facing the toughness of time, there was someone else who felt as if spring had returned to her life. That someone was no one else but Fan Bingbing who was currently in a relationship with Zhang Han, the young and emerging star of the country. 

"Where is my wife?"questioned Long Jie as soon as he entered the threshold of the house. It was like he had formed a habit that whenever he would come back, this was the first question he would ask. 

"Mrs. Long is strolling in the garden," the servant politely answered. "She has instructed everyone to not disturb her unless it's an emergency." 

Long Jie nodded. Handing his office bag to the servant, he headed to his wife's side. 

Zhenyi smiled as soon as she saw Long Jie walking towards her. She had a phone attached to her ear and it looked like she was on an important call. 

"Bà, you shouldn't have talked to her like that in the first place," Zhenyi said with a frown as soon as she heard her father complaining and moaning about Alcina's terrible attitude. 

"I get it. You don't trust her. But it doesn't mean you can stop her from meeting her daughter,"Zhenyi replied as she heard Xin Yichen telling her how Alcina and Ryuu had kept his granddaughter away from him first. He was afraid that they would take her away from him again and would never let him meet her. He could be childish sometimes.

Long Jie stood behind her and buried his head in the nape of her neck. Did he care what servants think about his overly affectionate behaviour with his wife? Absolutely, no! 

"Yeah. I will see you soon. Bye, Bà." Zhenyi sighed as soon as she hung up the call. 

"Alcina and Bà are equally childish and stubborn," Zhenyi told her husband. "Can you believe she threatened Bà? Not that I blame her when Bà is no less stubborn." 

Long Jie agreed. "She can be a pain in the ass sometimes. But she is a good girl. Cares a lot about everyone." 

Zhenyi turned to face him."Aren't you both getting a little too close?" 

Zhenyi had to begrudgingly admit that Long Jie and Alcina were on the way to becoming best buddies. She would tease and pester him like how a younger cousin is supposed to be. And oddly enough, he didn't find her repulsive or annoying. Instead, she was like a breath of fresh air in the stinking of schemes of Long Mansion. 

Long Jie chucked and pulled her cheeks. "You look lovely when you are jealous." She harrumphed and turned her face to avoid looking at him. Ignoring her tantrum, he kissed her temple and asked,"Why are you not ready yet?" 

Zhenyi facepalmed when she realized that she had forgotten about the dinner event that she had arranged for tonight. 

"Oh, I don't want to be late for my own event," Zhenyi said while dragging him to their bedroom. "And you better not seduce me!" 

"When have I ever seduced you, baby?"

"See, that's what you are doing now." 

____

When Zhenyi and Long Jie reached the restaurant, they found Long Yuan sitting inside the private room reserved by them. He was so excited to come here that he had arrived half an hour early. Hihi, kidding. He was just worried that his devilish sister in law was planning something lethal.The couple had invited everyone who was close to them for dinner. But only fools would believe their words! 

Xin Zhenyi feeding them food for free? In your dreams. 

The second one to arrive was Sam who clenched his hands to control himself from pouncing on the Long brothers.He hugged Zhenyi, shook hands with Long Jie, and nodded at Long Yuan to show formality. 

"I knew you would certainly come," Zhenyi grinned looking at her sulking best friend. She was trying to lighten his dark mood. 

"Why won't I come?" Sam asked her in return. "I'm getting free food for tonight. Since I'm currently broke, I have more reasons to be there." 

"Very funny, Sam!" 

Soon after Sam, Long Wei and his wife Meilin came. Since the couple had shifted to another house after Long Wei took the reins of his newly owned company, they hadn't seen each other for more than a week.Meilin poured her spilling affection on everyone in the room, even on the stranger Sam who had taken a sisterly liking to this woman. Not all Longs were bad! 

"Who else is coming?" Long Wei asked a while later. 

"I'm not sure about the other three ---"

Before Zhenyi could complete her sentence, the door to the room opened and in entered a very alluring Esma dressed in all black again. 

"Welcome, Esma." Zhenyi welcomed her with a smile. If it was another day Esma might have caused a ruckus but since she had not been herself for a long time now, she returned Zhenyi's greeting with a smile, shocking Long Jie to a certain degree. He knew something was wrong with her. For instance, kohl in her eyes was missing today.