Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu

Alix, whether as Yahui or the now Alix, always have had a very…quiet kind of a life, which included her meal times. She had grasped the general gist of the Liu family during her earlier visits but it was now that she understood the extent of their hyperactivity.

For example, the four main pillars of the chaos were Liu Hai, Jing and the twins. It was impossible for them to just keep their mouths shut and that was attributed to the fact each one of them liked food. Too much food that unlocked their inner demons of stealing from everybody's plates - which caused a chain reaction of a rebellion by the victims and occasional scolding from Nana.

So it was a constant exchange of lots of noises and sounds, yet there were personalities like Jinhai and Chunhua, who acted like their ears were stuffed with cotton. They didn't seem too bothered. Or that they were but by this stage of their life, they had achieved nirvana. Same couldn't be said about Jin, who was now fighting with Jian over a dumpling.

He is yet to gain his enlightenment, she thought.

Then the daughter-in-laws were in another zone altogether as they looked after the kids, who like their adult versions, would invest their energy in fighting for food and defending their opinions to the more important questions.

Question as to who plucked the star out of the sky for the princess?

It was a mystery and the kids had their own theories, which resulted into a heated debate, which in turn added to the list of all kinds of sounds reaching her ears. Amidst this, the mothers were trying everything they could to not get them too lost in their debate and actually eat the food.

Alix peeked at Nana next. Her warm gaze and smile felt to her like she was absorbing all the chaos with grace and joy. She wasn't bothered by the noise - on the contrary, it seemed as if she appreciated everybody's voices, arguments and laughter.

Though she had the company of the twins she raised, Alix thought she understood her reaction. Life was quiet without a family. Lonely too. The ones who had gone through it realized how poisonous that silence and loneliness felt. They wouldn't want that silence to ever return in their lives.

"Alix, Alix!" Liu Hai called out to her, breaking her chain of observations.

"Do you want this drumstick? It's delicious! I roasted it myself!"

"That's why you should add a tag of caution in there," Nian sneered.

"Don't sully my reputation!" A smack landed on his head.

Jin halted that incoming drumstick on his way and narrowed his eyes. "I have already put one on her plate. Take your drumstick back!"

Which was true as Alix stared at the mountain of the food on her plate and then Jin's plate which looked practically empty.

"Hey, don't you hog her to yourself!"

"You gave me a stomach ache the last time I ate your burnt charcoal!"

"H-Hmph! That was just a little bit charred and that's called flavor, you idiot! How unfortunate that you don't understand this despite such a wonderful chef being your mother!"

Alix's brow twitched.

Suddenly, Taio broke down into a loud wail.

Aang said, "I didn't make him cry! Look, he divided the bun into uneven halves on purpose! Now he wants the bigger one! Why should I give him the bigger one?"

Leina tiredly held her temple. "Just let him have it this time, please? You will get the bigger piece next time I promise."

Tears brimmed his eyes. "M-Mom always favors him! I hate you!"

"Aang!" Jian's sharp and cold voice resounded. "Apologize. Right now."

He jolted and his tears only intensified with his warning.

"Okay, okay," Nana quickly intervened. "Don't scold them-"

"No, Mom. That's not the way he can talk to his mother," his gaze darkened.

All of sudden Alix pushed her chair and dragged it towards the brothers. She took the plate from Taio's hands and placed it onto her lap.

She took the bigger piece of the bun and split it into a perfect half. Then she took the smaller piece and split it into even halves once again. She took one half of the bigger and smaller split buns and handed it to Aang and the other halves to Taio.

"If the division is disproportionate, then just halve it again. That also makes you practice how to make even halves."

Aang and Taio stared at their buns. Though the initial division was uneven, they still managed to get even splitting of that original uneven splitting.

Tears plopped down from Aang's eyes and he hugged her legs. "Pastry aunt…"

Alix glanced at Leina. She didn't want to sound as if she understood her children more than her but it was important to tell her what she felt.

"Lin was a quiet child. He would always hand over the bigger pieces to Cai. It took a long time for Cai to learn how to divide things equally. I hated that compromise Lin always had to make so I started to split the unevens to evens. I just think…the present should be fixed rather than giving the promise of a next time."

Yahui, next time we will go on that big ferris wheel I promise! Just wait for some more time and Mom will earn lots of money to take you there!

It was a promise Zhan Kai-Ming was never able to keep as Alix thought back to the distant and blurry past.

She looked down at Aang and tapped on his forehead. "Don't say you hate her again. She loves you a lot. Not everybody is that fortunate."

It was faint but Jin caught the painful tremble in her voice.

Though Alix was kinder to Leina and Aang, the same couldn't be said for Jian as she narrowed her eyes at him dangerously.

"W-What?" He didn't know why he swallowed a gulp.

"Though I agree Aang should respect his parents, I believe the respect should be earned, not assumed. It's not a crime to talk back to parents. How else is he supposed to express himself?"

He frowned. "Telling he hates her is going too far."

"He is only seven years old. The spectrum of his vocabulary and feelings is limited to love and hate, so not very nuanced."

"But-"

Her eyes squinted further. "Aang also felt Leina went too far by making him compromise just because he is the elder brother. Did you scold Leina for that? I think we are too quick to dismiss children's dissatisfaction but take their outbursts far too seriously. It's extremely skewed and unfair to them."