Dragon Palace Home #10.
"You're here?" Iris exclaimed in pleasant surprise when she saw who entered the master bedroom after her husband opened the door.
"Xiulan!" AJ Zheneres was the first one to reach her. The small but bubbly woman leaned over and gave Iris a careful hug. "I was so worried when I heard that you're in bed rest. But I became so happy when I heard that you're pregnant! Congratulations, sweetie."
Iris smiled at her friend. "Thank you, AJ."
Her other friends from Cross Academy followed behind AJ. The sinfully beautiful Ashandra Knightson gave Iris a hug next, followed by the pretty and shy Florence O'Sevan and the scholarly Theresa Blipsburg.
"Liam, you're not taking care of Xiulan enough," AJ Zheneres complained. "How come she became even skinnier after becoming pregnant? This is the time that you should be focused on nourishing her!"
Jin Liwei re-entered the room while helping the household staff to carry packages inside the large bedroom. He sighed and appeared helpless at AJ's criticism.
"I know," he replied. "It's my fault for not taking care of my wife properly. We've been trying very hard to nourish her but she still keeps on losing weight. The doctors we consulted can't figure out the real reason for her weight loss aside from her not so ideal health ever since waking up from her one-year coma. I'm so worried about her."
"It's not my husband's fault," Iris tried defending Jin Liwei but AJ wasn't having any of it.
The genius economist didn't look too pleased when looking at Jin Liwei. Fortunately, she stopped criticizing him and focused on reconnecting with Iris instead.
Theresa Blipsburg held Iris' hand. "If it's okay with you, I'd like to examine you, Xiulan. Although my specialties are in biomedical and chemical engineering, one of my mentors at the academy also trained me as a medical doctor. I don't have a doctor's licence though because I'm not that interested in this field compared to my specialties. But if you trust me, I'll do my best to help you and your baby become healthier."
Before Iris could respond, Jin Liwei immediately agreed. "Theresa, please take a look at my wife."
Theresa nodded at him but still looked at her friend for the final confirmation.
Iris smiled at her and nodded. "I trust in your skills, Theresa."
"Great. I'm glad."
"What do you need?" Jin Liwei asked. "Just let me know and I'll provide everything."
Theresa replied, "Xiulan's medical records. I heard from Amanpio that her doctor lives here with you? I would also like to personally talk to her doctor to get a better understanding of Xiulan's current condition in addition to the data in her medical records. And...I'll need to return to my lab at the academy afterwards to create custom-made supplements for Xiulan. Liam, if I could borrow your private jet, it would make everything so much easier for me."
"No problem. I'll assign one of my private jets to you."
AJ whistled. "One of your private jets? That's a billionaire for you. He's so rich that he buys private jets like buying candies. Tsk tsk."
Ashandra Knightson gave her friend a knowing look before playfully rolling her mesmerizing eyes. "Don't talk as if you're not rich yourself, AJ. The academy is doing everything in their power to keep you with them even after you officially graduate because of your golden touch when it comes to earning money."
"I know, right?" Florence O'Sevan chimed in, sighing. "I swear that AJ is somewhat of a psychic when it comes to choosing the most profitable ventures. If only I have her intuition, then I wouldn't be so dependent on the academy's funds to finance my inventions. Don't get me wrong. The academy is very generous when it comes to allocating funds and resources to us students but I wish that I can become more financially independent."
"Alright, let's stop talking about me." AJ became a little embarrassed that the topic shifted to her.
"Liam, where did you go?!" a male voice yelled from outside the room, interrupting their conversation. "There are still many packages to carry here!"
Jin Liwei sighed and moved to go help again. The household staff who were already carrying the packages tried to stop him by saying to leave all the moving to them but the annoying man outside kept on shouting for him.
Moments later, Jin Liwei returned to the bedroom with Amanpio Kileksky. Unlike the fit Jin Liwei, the inventor was sweating and gasping as he pushed a large trolley filled with packages.
Amanpio glared at AJ and the others. "You heartless women! You were only able to come here because of me and yet you leave me without even helping to carry all this stuff?"
The ladies rolled their eyes at him.
Amanpio sulked but his eyes lit up immediately upon seeing Iris sitting on the bed. "Xiulan~ I missed you so much! Did you miss me, too? Of course, you did! I just know it! Haha."
Jin Liwei handed the package he was carrying to a houseboy and blocked the flirty inventor's view of his wife. He looked like a lion defending his lioness and their territory from a stray lion in a rut.
AJ and the others laughed seeing how the males were behaving. Even Iris couldn't help but chuckle.
"What's all that?" she asked, pointing at the packages. "And I didn't know that you were coming at all. Liwei—I mean Liam only mentioned to me yesterday that we'll be having guests but I had no idea that they would be all of you. If I knew, I would have asked the butler to make better preparations to welcome you."
Ashandra patted her arm. "Don't worry about it, Xiulan. We're fine. Liam is hosting us very well. His private jet picked us up from the academy. Florence was in India where she's currently working on one of her sustainability projects so we picked her up there first before continuing to fly here. We actually arrived here last night but it was already too late. Past midnight, I think. Liam told us that you were already asleep, so we decided not to disturb you. We were also exhausted from the long journey so we headed straight to our assigned guest bedrooms to sleep."