Chapter 118: The breakfast guest.

Thin sunlight filled the room, and Liwu reluctantly opened her eyes. She had been expecting to wake up somewhere beyond midday, but it was just 7:00 AM and sleep was evading her. Reluctantly, she forced herself to wakefulness, yawning very loudly, in a way Elder Zhang would disapprove, if he saw her.

She could not help noticing that her husband was already awake and gone. His side of the bed had been cold for more than an hour. Sometimes, he woke up early to work out and other times, to work.

Again, she yawned. Her head felt like a block of concrete, too heavy to lift. None the less, she got out of bed, resurrecting her bad luck. The first misfortune of the day was bumping her thigh into the corner of the couch.

[+80 points: A painful couch bump.]

“Now I am awake.” Liwu muttered.

Slowly, she made her way to the bathroom, brushed her teeth and took a bath. After wrangling with two broken hair brushes, she walked downstairs. For a weekend, the house was very quiet.

“Where is everyone?” she asked guard who was walking to the kitchen with a cup.

He stopped and replied, “In the main manor. You are expected to join everyone for breakfast over there. Grand aunt has something important to announce.”

“Thank you.” she answered slowly. As she made her way to main manor, Liwu wondered if there was some new drama happening in the family. These gatherings at the main house were one too many within a short time span. She braced herself for whatever she would find. Fingers crossed, she would be called in to take charge of a new case if it was something annoying.

She was the last to arrive. Warm morning sunlight spilled across that table with gliding bowls of porridge, steaming dumplings, cold noodles, buttered bread, pancakes, eggs and steaming pots of tea.

At the table, members of the family were gathered, much more cheerful than usual. Shen Lianhua, sat near the window, rocking her infant gently as she nursed him. Her movements were calm, practiced and unashamed. The baby’s soft sighs blended with the clatter of spoons and the hum of conversation.

Seeing the baby reminded Liwu of the fact that she had a sister-in-law with an infant, five months at least. But, she had never seen the baby since she arrived in the Shen family. Had they been hiding it from her?

She laughed silently. It wouldn’t be the first time someone kept their baby away from her because they were afraid she would pass on her bad luck to the child. In fact, even the other little children of relatives in this family kept a distance.

But, she didn’t care. Working for love and acceptance was not her style anymore.

Next to the head of the table, where Yuening was sitting, Majesty was perched on the chair to the right. The cat was invested in narrating the story on how it was a part of the team that arrested the arsonist.

“Don’t believe everything you see on television, I took him down personally,” Majesty declared, licking a paw for emphasis. “Liwu was standing there with a baton like it was a water hose or something. She is all talk sometimes because she wants every criminal to be taken in alive. My girl doesn’t understand that some people are too sick to be saved.”

Shen Kaiwen leaned forward, eyes wide. “What happened next?”

Majesty puffed his chest. “I cut a beam with my claws and it knocked a drone into the biggest pile of flames. The drone released a gas that put out the fire. Liwu rushed in and the arsonist was caught. I did not count on Liwu’s hair being burned.”

Laughter rippled around the table. Liwu thought back to the warehouse and she could swear that Majesty had not been there.

“I guess we owe you a big thanks for saving the city.” Madam Xu said.

Majesty bowed his head, whiskers twitching with pride. “Sadly, it is my duty so I can’t accept your gratitude. But, you can always appeal to Mayor Weijun and ask him to increase the city budget allocated to the bureau.”

Weijun snorted.

Liwu sat down and started eating. The mood was light, the air filled with warmth. Weifeng shared pictures of the places he had been to. No soup or tea was spilled and it seemed like all was good in the universe.

Then, butler Chen ruined it all. “Miss Manman is here for Mr. Weifeng.”

All head turned.

Just as the butler had said, it was Manman. The same woman that had been thrown out only weeks ago. Despite being told not to return to the manor, she was back again.

Weijun froze, mid-sip of tea. He had been expecting Manman to show up to the manor, but not this soon. Her timing was nothing short of catastrophic because they were in the middle of breakfast. The table had all sorts of soups and teas. The new chandelier his mother had installed was shimmering temptingly.

The tea set on the table was precious and it cost six figures. All in all, there were too many things that would be destroyed if his wife lost her temper.

Immediately, he whispered into her ears, “It was not me, I swear. I did not invite her here. I made you a promise that I would keep my distance and I have kept it.”

Madam Xu was trembling so hard that everyone could almost hear her teeth chattering.

Shen Deng slapped the table ad if his hand had lost control, “tea, tea pots–tea, tea pots.” He kept repeating the words over and over.

Clever maids moved swiftly, taking everything that was considered deadly away from the table. They moved with speed, bumping into each other.

Shen Lianhua hugged her baby tightly, wondering why of all days, she had chosen this one to bring her baby over. If she had known, she would have left her son with his paternal grandmother.

While everyone else was worried about what Liwu would do, she turned her eyes back to the table and caught the hand of the maid that was attempting to take away her milk tea.

Unexpectedly, the maid let out a loud scream, as if Liwu had burned her skin.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep