Ice Cream and Popcorn would always be Iris Long and Jin Liwei’s first babies. They were integral parts of their family. The cats needed to be present today.

    However, Iris was worried that they might not feel comfortable with all the guests roaming around. In addition, this place wasn’t their own home.

    Popcorn would be fine. The cat was more dog-like than the children’s German Shepherd guard dogs. On the other hand, Ice Cream would probably freak out.

    Fortunately, Yi Mei agreed to Iris’ request. She took care of the cats, treating them like a grandmother who doted on her own grandkitties.

    "Let me check on Ice Cream and Popcorn first," Iris said. "You go downstairs."

    "Mama?"

    "Ma?"

    Before Little Mochi could throw a tantrum, Long Jinjing expertly distracted the baby while Jiang Ying Yue handled Little Matcha. The nannies also worked together to herd the rest of the children with the dogs.

    Iris arrived at another empty room. Yi Mei was rocking on a chair reading a book with a fat, grey cat sleeping on her lap.

    "Meow!!!"

    An orange cannon shot itself towards Iris. She caught the striped ginger cat.

    "Popcorn, you naughty boy," she said while sighing.

    She rubbed her cat son’s fluffy fur.

    "Meow~" Ice Cream woke up upon hearing the commotion.

    She slowly stretched on Yi Mei’s lap before jumping to the floor and jogging to Iris.

    "Hi, Ice Cream, my baby girl." Iris bent down to carry her first cat daughter.

    Oof.

    Not wanting to hurt Ice Cream’s feelings, Iris didn’t voice out her thoughts. It seemed that the staff in this house had been overfeeding this lazy, gluttonous cat. The vet would undoubtedly scold Dom again the next time he brought the cats for a checkup.

    "Can we chat?" he asked.

    Iris looked for her husband. Jin Liwei was chatting with the other guests. She also checked that the nannies were watching over her sons.

    "Okay, let’s go," she said. "Follow me."

    They didn’t walk too far.

    Iris grabbed two plates of pastries and handed one to Long Jian before sitting down on a corner sofa. Long Jian followed suit and sat beside her.

    They didn’t talk right away.

    Iris ate the delicate pastry first.

    "Well," Long Jian was the first one to break the silence. "Sorry for your loss."

    "Thanks." She sighed. "My grandmother-in-law was very good to me."

    Silence descended between them again.

    When Long Jian couldn’t take it anymore, he cleared his throat. "So...I wanted to chat with you because you’ve been gone from the company for so long. You may not be aware of what happened these past few weeks."

    Iris nodded despite being updated by her assistant at Long Industries and Ketchup who had long hijacked the company’s system. Even so, she still wanted to hear another perspective. Long Jian would suffice especially since he was being so proactive in informing her right now.

    "Long Hui appears to be turning over a new leaf," he said.

    Iris looked at him. "In what way?"

    "He’s now focusing on his own work rather than trying to sabotage me, you, and our other competitors in the company. His allies, however, are a different story. I heard that some have already been feeling dissatisfied with his current passive attitude. They might jump ship."

    She frowned. "My ship doesn’t want them."

    He snorted. "My ship doesn’t want them either. I don’t like traitors."

    Iris glanced at Long Jufang. In a way, the elder was also a traitor. He had been a staunch supporter of Long Hui before she began showing her abilities.

    But that wasn’t an issue for her. She had always kept the elder at arm’s length, using the carrot-and-stick approach to cooperate with him. Both of them knew from the very beginning that they were just using each other.