Chapter 85 - A Noisy Christmas

As much as Joreen was happy to leave the resort they spent the night in, she also wanted to remain there. Christmas had always been spent with the entire members of the family staying together so being separated while on the ship and also separated when they got to the island was kind of new to her and also to the others. 

The found out they had only spent the night there because the organizers wanted them to rest after a 'stressful' trip. The trip wasn't stressful actually. It was fun. But since they were being considerate, they could only appreciate all their efforts and follow their lead. 

Even though they were going to be given special beach houses, they were informed they could always return to the resort. Their rooms here was still going to be reserved for them so just incase they needed to relax, or the couples among them wanted to have a special time together but couldn't do so because of the others, they could always return there.

Also, they were advised to return to the beach later tonight because it was Christmas and there was going to be something like a Christmas party/get together. They were not mandated to. If they wanted to spend the Christmas together with their family, they could remain in their cots.

"I'm kind of enjoying this trip more." Reen said as she followed the trail behind the resort with the others. It took about 10 minutes of walking between trimmed bushes before they arrived in a clear environment with a lot of modern wooden houses with floor to ceiling windows and balconies. But the curtains were down so they couldn't see inside. 

The whole place was brightened by streetlights and there were also CCTVs and some security personnel patrolling the area. 

"Wow! Who would have thought they had these here?" Joreen said in amazement. "I've always wanted to live in a beach house after we shot a movie in one."

"Now, your wish just came true." Reen said, patting her head.

The many houses around the area made the place look like an estate. After passing through the large gate which was left open for them, it wasn't long before the man leading them stopped in front of their house. 

Joreen could not wait to get inside and hide inside her room. Being in the same space with Hoy wasn't helping her. She couldn't count the number of times she had almost tripped and there was one time when he caught her in his arms before she could fall. Seeing his face so close to hers had made her panic and hurried her footsteps to meet Reen at the front. While hurrying away, she heard someone laughing but she couldn't tell who it was. She definitely knew it wasn't Hoy.

Things became even more uncomfortable when she noticed Kyle giving her an unpleasant look.

Please why is Kyle still with them again?! 

"This is where you will be staying. We sincerely apologize because this is the biggest house and it has a maximum of 10 rooms..." The man explained and waited for them to blow up at him just like the last family of five who were given a house with 5 rooms but they complained saying they needed more rooms to fit in their luggages while bragging about the number of rooms they have in their mansion back in the country. 

"We are sincerely sorry for whatever inconvenience this is going to cause." 

He repeated when he saw a frown on the first madam Li's face. 

"So where are the others going to stay?" She asked him in a bitter tone. 

"You shouldn't blame him. You want them to build houses with twenty rooms? Come on. It's not their fault we are a big family. We'll manage somehow. Besides, that's why we still have the resort right? Some of us can always sleep there. No big deal." Changyu said with a shrug.

Her husband had been ready to pinch her, thinking she wanted to say something bad as usual but he didn't pull through with it when he realised his wife was saying something that made sense. 

The man was a bit surprised because he had actually expected Changyu to be the one to blow up and not the other way round. He had heard a lot of rumours about her personality and those rumours weren't good. Were those rumours true or just a lie to tarnish her image? Because she seemed like a good person. 

"Thank you for bringing us here. We'll handle the rest." The second madam Li said to the man before accepting the bunch of keys from him. 

He bowed and disappeared quickly before they would call for him again. 

When they all got inside, they nodded appreciatively at what they saw. 

The organizers of this trip had actually spent quite a lot on everything. Even though they had paid quite exorbitant amounts for the trip, they believed the entire income the organizers got/would get from the trip wasn't up to a quarter of their expenditure. 

There was a large living room, a dining and several doors. The whole place was painted in white and every furniture inside except the sofas were all wooden and creatively carved. There was a beautiful crystal chandelier in the centre of the living room and also at the dining.

"There is a very large kitchen here!" Queen called, holding open the door by the side of the dining. 

They weren't surprised that was the only thing getting her attention. They all knew how much she loved to cook with her grandparents. And one things chefs loved, was a really beautiful and spacious kitchen. 

"I want some home cooked meal for Christmas." Cixi said while winking at her older brother. 

Changyu stood between Cixi and her husband with a frown on her face, "If you want some home cooked meal then go use the kitchen and cook some food. Why are you looking at him?" 

"Because he is the only professional chef we have here if we are excluding you from the list." Cixi said reasonably. 

"He is here to enjoy Christmas. Not cook for you! No one is making my husband cook." 

"Why are you being stingy with him? He was my brother before he became your husband." 

Everyone watched the two women banter. It wasn't unusual.

"And so? Do you have a child with him? Do you take care of him? Do you live with him? Do you have sex with hi—" 

Jianjun, who had been trying to get his wife's attention to stop her from fighting, choked on his own saliva. 

Everywhere was suddenly very quiet. Different eyes stared at each other.

Muchen's hand was already covering his little son's ears while Minde's son was trying to push his father's hands away from covering his ears. 

Queen was busy admiring the kitchen so she wasn't present. 

"Can you stop it mum? You two are embarrassing us." Sara whispered to Changyu and face palmed. 

"Your aunt started it!" Changyu said defensively. 

"You shouldn't always fight. Are you a gangster?" 

"You should be asking your aunt!" 

"I only brought a suggestion. It's not like Sara's father doesn't enjoy cooking. The kids also loves his meal. So why—"

"It's okay. I'll cook for you." Jaime said, trying to stop his wife from arguing further.

"I don't like yours—" Cixi said before she could stop herself. 

Once again, silence filled the room. 

She turned to see her husband looking at her in horror. 

"You... don't like my meals?" He sounded hurt. Cixi was about to apologize when he added, 

"I even cook better than you." 

"Wait what? You cook better than me?" Cixi scoffed. "You think you are a better cook than me?" She kept asking in disbelief.

"Everyone knows that. Just because I haven't mentioned it doesn't mean—"

Cixi didn't wait for him to continue before she turned to look at her daughters.

"Who is a better cook between us?" She asked. Her tone sounded like she wanted them to say it was her whether they liked it or not. 

Joreen and Reen looked at each other, communicating with their eyes. When they noticed everyone was staring at them, Joreen spoke first.

"I... will just go... count... the moon." Joreen said awkwardly before quickly disappearing into the kitchen while Reen followed next.

"Hahahaha!" Changyu laughed to her heart's content. No one had ever seen her laugh so much like this. She even went to sit on the couch and continued laughing. 

"I see why you wanted my husband to cook for you. You both must have been eating bad foods all these years. Poor you." She said and laughed again. 

"It's not funny!" Cixi glared at her before stomping her feet as she walked away into one of the rooms, banging the door as she went in. Jaime quickly followed and when he entered inside, they could all hear the two arguing, talking about how they were a much better cook than the other one. 

"I think... I'll keep staying at the resort." Heya said before she turned around to find where they had left her luggage. 

"This is going to be... one noisy Christmas." Mr Ping whispered to Hoy who was already walking away to go find a room of his own before they thought about pairing him with Mr Ping again.

Soon everyone was out of the living room except for Changyu and Kyle. 

He stood there awkwardly and tried to force a smile when Changyu looked at him with a smile. 

"So it's just us two." Changyu said. 

He didn't like that. He didn't like that at all! 

She sat up and crossed her legs and also her arms in front of her. Without letting the smile leave her face, she began to speak again, 

"You know you aren't going to be spending Christmas in here with us right?"

"P...p...ardon?" He stammered. 

"What I am saying is... go get your stuffs and move back to the resort. You'll have a lot more fun there."