Dragon Palace Home #10.
"Welcome back, Mistress," the butler greeted Iris when she arrived home with Dom and her bodyguards.
"Thank you. Where are they? Have they all arrived?" she asked while handing him her coat.
"Yes, Mistress. The master arrived about ten minutes ago. He is with Sir Zihao and the three guests in the home office."
Iris thanked the butler again before she and Dom followed him to the home office where people were waiting for her. It was already late in the evening, past dinnertime, but her day wasn't finished yet. She and Dom hurried home after another busy workday because of the important appointment tonight.
After a few minutes, they arrived at the home office. The butler opened the door for her and Dom before announcing their arrival to the people inside.
A streak of orange shot towards Iris and jumped into her arms like a rocket. Popcorn meowed loudly like a needy child while rubbing his sleek body against Iris' chest and face. A slower, fat, grey cat huffed and puffed her way towards Iris, looking as if she was climbing Mount Everest instead of walking on a flat floor. But no matter how exhausting the ten-metre trek from her daddy's lap to her mommy's arms, Ice Cream persevered because of her filial love to her parents.
Iris chuckled helplessly while watching her eldest who was almost wheezing just to greet her. She was tempted to walk over and shorten the distance between them in order to relieve the grey cat's "suffering" but she forced herself to wait because Dom recently complained about the vet scolding him once again due to Ice Cream's weight during the cats' latest health appointment.
"Meow…" Ice Cream collapsed on Iris' feet after finally reaching her and didn't move.
Iris smiled and shook her head. Then she handed Popcorn to Dom before scooping up the exhausted grey cat into her arms. While she comforted the panting Ice Cream, Jin Liwei also reached them and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her into an embrace.
"I'm back," she replied, tilting her head up to receive his light kiss on the lips.
Dom also greeted Jin Liwei with an "ehehehe" at the end but refrained from his usual boisterous chatter after seeing the rest of the serious people in the office. He focused his attention on petting Popcorn instead.
Iris leaned against Jin Liwei but a threatening aura made her stiffen. She shifted her eyes and peeked behind Jin Liwei. That was when she saw a glacial Lu Zihao watching them with expressionless eyes, causing her to hug Ice Cream more tightly and eliciting a complaint from the fat, grey cat. To others, her big brother looked like he was wearing a slight devilish smile. But to her, it wasn't just devilish but an actual devil's smile. Only she was aware of how frightening her big brother was acting right now.
Jin Liwei noticed her reaction but didn't know that it was caused by his Fifth Brother. Instead, he thought that maybe she was just tired from working so hard almost everyday, so she was seeking comfort from the warm and furry Ice Cream. Thus, he comforted her by kissing her on the forehead.
"Don't worry. I already told everyone to make this quick so that you could rest earlier tonight," he told her.
"Okay." She smiled and they walked together to where the others were waiting.
Hong Shaoqiang (Iris' lawyer), Kang Huizhong (Jin Liwei's lawyer) and Qiao Yu (Iris' financial manager) all stood up and greeted her. Lu Zihao didn't speak, only acknowledging her with a nod while his slight devil's smile continued to hang on his lips. Iris sighed at his hidden, intimidating expression which only she could sense.
Jin Liwei gestured for everyone to sit. He and Iris sat together on one couch. Dom sat on the same couch beside Iris. Ice Cream curled on Iris' lap and began sleeping while Popcorn walked around and sniffed at the others, trying to get them to play with him.
Jin Liwei gave an eye signal to the lawyers.
Hong Shaoqiang cleared his throat and passed copies of a document to everyone. "Atty. Kang and I drafted a prenuptial agreement for CEO Jin Liwei and Miss Long Xiulan after taking into account your specific requests." He looked at Lu Zihao after saying the last part of his sentence. Then he addressed everyone again. "Please take a look at your copies. We'll go over the draft together, make changes if applicable, and verify everything before we finalize the agreement."
Both Iris and Jin Liwei looked unenthusiastic. When they announced their rush wedding to their friends, a prenuptial agreement wasn't in their plans. Jin Liwei didn't like it at all while Iris didn't mind whether they had a prenup or not.
However, Lu Zihao interfered and forced them to get a prenup. Jin Liwei ignored him at first but Iris eventually caved from her brother's pressure. It was a challenge for Iris to persuade Jin Liwei to agree to Lu Zihao's insistence on the two of them getting a prenup.
"We don't need a prenup because I'll never let you divorce me after we're married," he told her that time. "So it's useless to get one."
"I know but Big Brother will keep pestering us if we don't. He can be very persistent. Let's just get one and be done with it. Okay, darling? We could just forget about it once we're married," she said.
In the end, Jin Liwei relented and contacted their lawyers to arrange the prenup. Since both he and Iris didn't care about it, Lu Zihao took over in suggesting clauses for the agreement. The couple allowed him because if not for him, they would probably get a standard one suggested by their lawyers because they couldn't care less about it.
"Let's begin."
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