Long Tengfei and his wife were tense as Iris finally started interacting with Yang Jiahui. They knew how Iris hated her father's third wife and how she repeatedly rejected Yang Jiahui's attempts to have a cordial relationship with her.
Iris caught Yang Jiahui's almost unnoticeable change in expression. She tilted her head to side, wondering what could be the reason. She didn't think that she said anything hurtful to the older woman just now. Since she had no idea, she decided to ask directly.
"Did I say something to make you unhappy, Madam?"
Yang Jiahui's smile stiffened and quickly shook her head. "No, no. I'm very happy that you're here with us today, Xiulan. Please don't think that I'm unhappy with you."
Iris continued to observe Yang Jiahui's expression, making the older woman almost squirm. Long Tengfei and his wife were beginning to feel nervous, fearing that Iris might start raging again like before. Unknown to them, Iris was just pondering whether she made a mistake interpreting Yang Jiahui's earlier change in expression.
The young woman beside Yang Jiahui couldn't take the strained atmosphere any longer. She stepped forward and blurted out, "My aunt is just upset that you're calling her 'Madam'. She wants you to call her 'Aunt Jiahui'."
"Xiao Mei!" Yang Jiahui pulled the young woman back. Then she looked nervously at Iris. "Don't listen to my niece. You can call me however you want, Xiulan."
"Auntie, was what I said wrong? I heard you tell Uncle Tengfei before that you're hoping for Xiulan to treat you like family and call you 'Aunt'. I know what I heard."
"You!" Yang Jiahui's face was red. She almost couldn't look at Iris anymore.
"Hmm…Is that all?" Iris' calm voice interrupted them. "Why didn't you say so? Aunt Jiahui, you just had to ask me. There's no need to feel so shy."
Both Yang Jiahui and Long Tengfei looked stupefied.
The young woman also looked surprised at first but then beamed.
"W-what did you just call me?" Yang Jiahui stammered.
"Hm?" Iris was confused. Why were they reacting so weirdly over such a simple matter? "Aunt Jiahui?"
Tears escaped from Yang Jiahui's eyes, but she quickly wiped them and smiled widely at Iris.
Iris became even more confused. Why was she crying? She turned to the young woman, silently asking her.
The young woman giggled. "Don't worry. Auntie is just happy that you finally called her 'Aunt'."
"Oh, okay." Iris turned to Yang Jiahui again and handed the other present to her. "This is for you, Aunt Jiahui."
"Oh. You didn't have to bring me anything, Xiulan." Yang Jiahui's attempt of rejecting the present was weak. It was obvious that she was excited and emotional.
Iris didn't reply, firmly pushing the present to the older woman.
Yang Jiahui sniffed. Her eyes were still watery but her smile lit up her face, making her pretty in a special way that couldn't be explained by mere outer appearance alone. "Thank you, Xiulan. Do you mind if I open it now?"
"No. Go head, Aunt."
Yang Jiahui's hands trembled a little as she carefully tore the wrapping paper. A beautiful carved box was revealed. She opened it and the faint smell of dried tea leaves wafted in her nose. There was a handwritten note from a tea farmer indicating that the box contained Da Hong Pao tea [1].
Iris was able to get her hands on the tea through her connection with Lin Yehan.
The young woman beside her peered at the box. "Uwah! It's Da Hong Pao! Auntie, I want some too! Oh, I know! Let's use that for tea today."
Yang Jiahui hugged the box closer to her body and moved it away from her niece, like a kid hiding her favourite toy from a playmate. She closed the box and murmured, "Next time, next time." Then she turned to Iris. "Thank you very much, Xiulan. I love it."
Iris nodded.
Yang Jiahui beamed.
"Stingy," the young woman pouted seeing her aunt's actions.
Iris turned to her, curious as to who this young woman was. She tried searching from the original Iris' memories but to no avail.
"Xiulan, this girl here is my niece," Yang Jiahui introduced.
"Hello. My name is Yang Mei. My father and Auntie are siblings. I'm an orphan, that's why Auntie and Uncle Tengfei took me in about…hmm…more than a year ago, I guess."
"Nice to meet you, Yang Mei. I'm Long Xiulan. And I'm sorry for your loss."
"Please call me Meimei. And thank you. I miss my parents but I believe that they're in a much better place now. Uncle Tengfei has been really good to me. He and Auntie treat me like their own daughter, so I'm very thankful."
Long Tengfei cleared his throat. Yang Jiahui looked anxious again. They worried that Yang Mei's words would make Iris feel resentful that her father was treating another child like a daughter when their own relationship was not close.
"I see. That's good to hear." Iris' voice was calm. "My apologies. I didn't know about you before this, so I didn't bring anything for you."
"That's okay," Yang Mei said, waving away the apology. Then she stared at Iris. "You know, I heard that you're a b*tchy, spoiled brat but you're actually pretty nice. I also heard that you were very rude to Auntie before so I was already ready to hate you, but I'm actually liking you right now. Were those fake news or were you really b*tchy before?"
"Xiao Mei! What are you saying?!" Yang Jiahui was horrified. "Xiulan, please excuse this girl's bad manners. Ignore what she says."
"Indeed, I was rude to her before." Iris looked at Yang Jiahui. "Aunt Jiahui, I'm sorry for all the hurtful words I said to you before. I hope that you'll forgive me."
Yang Jiahui froze, completely caught unawares at Iris' sudden apology. Then huge drops of tears dropped from her eyes, quickly turning into a steady stream of tears. "Oh, oh. Xiulan…" she sobbed. "Yes, o-of course. Thank you…"
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Footnotes:
[1] A heavily oxidized, dark oolong tea and is currently considered the most expensive tea in the world, dubbed as the "tea worth more than gold".
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