Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu

Technically, it was Nana she wanted to have breakfast with, not everyone. She had liked Nana's company last night. She had liked talking to her. So she wished she could share her meals with her.

But she had a strong feeling she wouldn't get her personal time to have breakfast with her everyday. Even if she did, a certain doting husband was bound to follow his wife without whom he couldn't breathe for a second.

Alix wasn't sure if she was ready for Jinhai's company.

She thought about the day in the hospital in the elevator where he had warned that stubborn young man.

May…be…?

Or maybe not.

"Scratch that plan. Bring the breakfast in the room only."

"Wait, wait!" Jin held her wrist and pulled her back. "You should definitely come down!"

"No. I am having second thoughts."

"I will drive away all those second, third or fourth thoughts!"

His sparkling eyes were too blinding to look at.

"No it's-"

"Alix wants to have breakfast with us?"

Two more heads popped out with eagerness, who were none other than Leina and Xing Bi.

Leina clapped her hands with delight. "Finally, we'll have everyone! It'll be so fun!"

Xing Bi nodded.

At first, she had held her reservations about her like everybody else. Xing Bi was always very close and protective of Ai and Zhan Yahui had done nothing but hurt her - both personally and professionally.

But at the same time, she also now understood and appreciated Alix's efforts to protect Ai this time rather than hurting her. Ailun was even a certified fan of hers, including her daughter Yina. Aang and Taio too. She could very well see the future where her younger son, Baihu, now more than a year old, would soon follow his sister's footsteps and join Alix's fanclub.

Alix stiffened. "No I am not-"

Leina hung her arm around hers with eyes that sparkled with the same intensity as Jin's. "Let's go!"

Alix threw a strong gaze at Jin that desperately hinted at him to stop his sister-in-law but he was just as a gone case as her. He didn't want this golden chance to slip by and let Alix be cooped up in the room again, not knowing when her heart would open up like this again.

Her face could only blacken as she was pulled away. "You are demoted!"

"..."

Xing Bi blinked at him, puzzled. "Demoted?"

He scratched the top of his head. "And here my status was just upgraded from a piece of shit."

She gasped. "How can you be a piece of shit in your wife's eyes? You need to work hard, Jin."

He glanced at her. "For now, I hope everybody else works hard to win her over. I want her to come to the breakfast table tomorrow too. And the day after. And so on."

—

The chopsticks fell from Liu Hai's hands. Tears pooled in his eyes and he trembled.

"It's…It's…It's my youngest granddaughter-in-law!!!!"

He announced it in such a booming voice that Jian had almost slipped off his chair.

"Was that an earthquake?" He glared at him.

Liu Hai ignored him and ran towards Alix at lightning speed. The sparkle in his eyes was such that Alix wondered if even an eye surgery would be able to bring her vision back.

"You came to join your favorite Grandpa for breakfast!" He shone.

Alix felt her knees go jelly. Everybody's presence at the dining table was enough to make her attempt an escape. She would have even done so had Leina not been tightly holding onto her.

He was violently pushed away by his own son as Jing grabbed her hands, sniffling. "My dear protege missed me so much that she finally couldn't hold back her passionate feelings!"

Actually, it's Mrs. Liu, she thought to herself.

"Hey! Don't talk in such a misleading manner! And how dare you push me away! And third of all, she came down because of me!"

Actually, it's Mrs. Liu, she thought to herself again.

"Pastry aunt!!!"

Ailun and the kids immediately surrounded her with beaming eyes.

Why does everybody have sparkling eyes here? Is this a genetic problem?

"Pastry aunt will have breakfast with us!"

Nian cried. "Yina dear, your father is also here to have breakfast with you…"

Yina ignored him and happily clung onto Alix's leg. "Pastry aunt miss me?"

Nian's heart was shattered into a million pieces. Jian chuckled. "Here. Take a consolation piece of chicken."

"Go away!"

"Okay, that's enough."

Nana, who stepped out from the kitchen following the ruckus, scolded everybody to go back to their places.

"Let her take a seat first. Don't crowd around her."

Nana hopped to her side and gently guided her to the table to let her sit beside Ai, who carried her own and Jun's part of the sparkles in her eyes too.

"Sit, sit. I'm so sorry Jun isn't here. He left early for some important meetings," Ai said.

"...Mhm."

Alix mainly focused her attention on Nana's warm hands that held hers. Their almost similar pasts made her see her in a different light. A light that she wanted to grasp onto.

"Now tell me. What do you want to eat, dear? I will make anything for you!"

Jian raised his arm with all his might. "Crepes!"

Nana's eyes narrowed. "Are you Alix?"

"I-I thought it was a common question…"

Jinhai was thoroughly dissatisfied. "You are a chef yourself. Make the crepes yourselves. Don't bother your mother."

Not like Alix was going to ask Nana to prepare anything separately for her in the first place but listening to Jinhai retracted that non-existent question.

Jinhai realized the possible misunderstanding and said, "This rule is only for the men in the family."

Liu Hai nodded earnestly. "The bias is very blatant but we don't care because daughters are the coolest! Right, my dear wife?"

"I don't see you doting on me though, considering how much food you stuff in your stomach," Liu Chunhua grimaced.

"T-That's preposterous! My love goes deeper and farther than the moon for you! No, beyond the galaxy!"

Jing and the twins threw him a disdainful look. "Grandpa, you make me nauseous when you act romantic like that."

He sneered. "That's why your sense of romance is non-existent because you didn't learn anything from me!"

Jing snorted. "Clearly, I'm the most romantic in this family. Right, Yukito!" He beamed at his husband.

He smiled. "Yeah."

"I love my husband the most!" And he went ahead and kissed him quite openly.

Ai, Leina and Xing Bi covered their blushing faces.

"The children are here!" Chunhua scolded.

"They are used to it," he pouted. "Just like how their parents had gotten used to it~"

The twins and Jin reminisced about the needlessly romantic days. Jun and Nuo would have joined them too had they been present.

Alix listened to everything and held only one question in her mind.

Is the breakfast time always so chaotic?

As if reading her question, Nana smiled and whispered. "It's also lunch and dinner time, dear. You will get used to it."

"..."