Ying Jie was getting ready for the dinner party and her first date with Aaron. She was wearing simple but pretty black silk dress, with a pair of Manolo Blahnik stilettos. Her hair was up in a tight bun, and she had painted her lips red with lipstick. She was wearing her mother’s old – also red – ruby earrings, and she looked stunning. Her father walked past her.
“Wow… Where are you going in that outfit?” he asked her, looking very shocked. “As far as I remember, you’re still grounded”
“Yeah, but didn’t Jennifer insist on us all going to Mr. Yan’s dinner party? I just thought that by all of us, it meant that I had to go too, as I’m still a part of this family, but I should’ve known that I was wrong; Jen has never seen me as family.” Ying Jie lied, and faked a sad look on her face.
“Just a minute, you stay right here” her father said, while walking towards the bedroom, leaving Ying Jie all alone in the corridor; not a very smart choice, considering that your daughter is all dressed up and right next to the door, Mr. Wu. “Jennifer?! Did you…”
While Harold was talking, Ying Jie hurried out of the door, and ran a few blocks in stilettos. In some way, sneaking out for Aaron felt romantic to her. Not that she usually cared about romance, but when it came to Aaron, it was different. She knew that her father wouldn’t approve of them, but she also knew that he had no choice but to approve them; they were destined for each other.

“Look, Harold, I would never go to Jack Yan’s dinner party, we never even speak anymore, okay? You… You haven’t told Ying Jie about… you know, have you?” Jennifer asked Harold, looking worried.
“No Jen, I haven’t; don’t worry… But I did tell her that I don’t want her to see Aaron, because I think he’s making a use of her, which he obviously is” Harold sighed. “Look, Jen, I don’t want my daughter to get hurt by some high society playboy with man-bangs, okay?” he then asked.
“Its okay, Harold, neither do I… She’s a very special girl, and she’s been trying so hard to change, but I honestly don’t think that Aaron’s the problem… I know this of personal experience, and no matter how long you try, you just can’t keep a bad girl down, and Harold, we both know that Ying Jie isn’t exactly born a goody two shoes…”
“Jen, I…”
“I’m not finished yet. Harold, I was her teacher, and you have no idea how much trouble she caused. She mocked people, she showed up in clothes agienst the dress code, she skipped classes, and she showed up drunk, she snuck alchohol into school, she never did her homework, and she talked back to teachers… I wish that you could just support her…” Jennifer looked at Harold with sincere eyes; they had discussed this topic many times before.
“Look, Jennifer, she has been a good girl for a year, and all of a sudden she sneaks out to a bar, returns being passed out because of alchohol with a guy who has a reputation for being… Quite a womanizer… She then sneaks out with him, gets caught, and grounded... And then she sneaks out again, claiming to be going to this high society dinner party with us.” Harold looked at Jennifer. “And you don’t think that all this has anything to do with Aaron Yan?”
“No, I think that it has something to do with Rainie Yang, whose death anniversary is tomorrow.” Jennifer then said. “But enough about that; let’s find her.”

“Dad, I’ve invited someone whom I want you to meet today.” Aaron told his father, looking serious. Aaron had always fought for his father’s affection, and as he knew that his father really liked Hebe, this wasn’t going to be easy for him.
“Oh, really? Another one of your victims, or a friend?” his father asked, while tying his tie in a half Windsor knot.
“Actually, she’s my girlfriend…” Aaron sighed. “Well, I mean, we just started going out, but she really means a lot to me already, and I think that you’ll like her…” Aaron sighed again. If he had been Ying Jie, he would really have needed to either smoke, or empty a cup of coffee, but he wasn’t. “Her name is Wu Ying Jie…”
“Well, you know who I like? Hebe Tian, whom you went out with for two years. Why the sudden urge to find a new girl?” his father said, now adjusting the tie.
“Look, dad, Hebe and I are broken up… For good. We have nothing in common anymore, and I honestly wished that you would support my decision and let me date whoever I want to.” Aaron said. “But I’m gonna bring her, and you’re gonna treat her nicely.”
“And what if I don’t?”
“Then I’ll move out, have a lot of public scandals and dump out of school; I can have a nice life without becoming a lawyer and taking over your firm.” Aaron said, and looked challenging at Jack Yan. Someone suddenly had pushed the door bell, and before Aaron knew it, he was at the door, opening the door for Ying Jie.
“You look lovely” he said with a big smile on his face. She smiled back at him.
“Thanks, I know…” she smirked. “Sorry, I have no idea why I said that.” She then added, and smirked even more. Aaron led her towards his father, with his hand around her waist. She was half an hour early, which seemed a little desperate, but in a cute way.
“So much for being fashionably late” Aaron joked. “Come I have someone I want you to meet” he added.
“Well, who could already be here, aside from us, and your father, who probably find it terribly awkward to meet someone like me, after that you dated someone as fabulous as Hebe, and besides; I’m not really the type of girl that every father in law would, let’s say… Adore. My in laws has NEVER liked me, or even wanted to give me a chance… And your father invited my stepmother, which means that they know each other, and he probably knows lots of terrible stuff about me…” Ying Jie looked at Aaron with sad eyes. Aaron’s soft, gentle brown eyes suddenly become harsher.
“What’s Jennifer’s surname? Has she been married before?” he asked.
“Her surname is Yin, and she’s been married three times already… She has my stepbrother, and some other child whom she doesn’t see… I don’t know the last thing officially; I just overheard her and my father discusses it once… Why?” Ying Jie asked.
“No reason…” Aaron quickly answered, and dragged her towards a tall, gaunt man, who was sickly pale. He had small, but scary eyes, and his thin, pale lips were dry and chapped. He almost looked like a dead body, and Ying Jie could swear that she could see his veins through his thin skin… “Grandfather, this is my new girlfriend, Wu Ying Jie.” Aaron said, in a gentle tone. “Ying Jie, this is my grandfather.” He hurried and told Ying Jie.
“Ying Jie, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I must compliment you for your taste, grandson; you always manage to get the good ones.” His grandfather smiled a friendly smile.
“I’m delighted to meet you, Mr. Yan” Ying Jie, who didn’t know Aaron’s grandfather’s real name, said.
“Don’t be so formal; you can call me Henry. You know, my son once married a girl who looked a lot like you. I liked her a lot, but then they got divorced. Aaron hasn’t seen his mother since. Rumors have it that she ran off and married another guy.” Henry said with sadness in his voice. He was after all, only a poor, old man, but it still disturbed her to hear such an old man, use the word ‘guy’.
“I’m so sorry to hear…”
“Speaking of my honored father… Have you seen him anywhere? I really want him to meet Ying Jie before he takes some model to a hotel room, claiming that he can get her a business deal, take pictures of her without any clothes on, and throws her number into the dumpster again… That happened quite a few times, really” Aaron yawned.
“Yeah, but he’s sober now…” Henry yawned two. “And rehab really helped him a lot. Oh well, no matter if he’s clean and sober or not, he’s in the kitchen, discussing something with the chefs. I think you should wait introducing him to Miss Wu, until the other guests come.”

“Harold, do you really think that your daughter is stupid enough to actually go to that dinner party, when she mentioned it?” Jennifer asked desperately. As much as she loved Harold and his family, she didn’t want to see Jack Yan, no matter what.
“Yes, I do; it’s obvious. Aaron Yan is the son of Jack Yan, right? She’s about to meet Aaron’s evil father, who cannot accept that everything doesn’t belong to him” Harold sighed; he was very disappointed.
“I… I did belong to him back then, Harold; you were actually the one snatching me away, not the other way around… But ironically enough, Eliza was pregnant, so we couldn’t be together” Jennifer rolled her eyes with that memory; she could almost still feel the hurt.
“I… Let’s not talk about the past. I’ll take a train and search through all the bars were she used to come, and you can go to Jack’s dinner party and see if she’s there. If she is, act calm and get her home as soon as possible, and if she isn’t, tell Jack that you wanted to see how his son is doing. Deal?” Harold asked and sighed; he knew that the plan wasn’t perfect, but she also knew that he wasn’t exactly welcome in Jack Yan’s house.

“Father, this is the girl I’ve told you about; Wu Ying Jie.” Aaron told his father. Ying Jie blushed by thinking of Aaron talking about her to his father, but she was also very curious to know what he had said.
“Hello Miss Wu, my name is Jack. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Aaron’s father said, in a cold tone that told her that he was lying.
“Oh, you can call me Ying Jie if you want to; my family isn’t exactly considered very formal… Well, at least not about family name… Anyways, the pleasure is mine, Mr. Jack; I’ve been very excited to meet you” Ying Jie smiled her cutest smile, and Aaron was surprised to see that she had dimples; he hadn’t noticed them before, and he found them extremely cute.
“Well, I would prefer to call you Miss Wu anyways; your family may not be very formal, but mine is. I can smell smoke, do you smoke, Miss Wu?” Aaron’s father asked Ying Jie in an extremely rude tone. Though she usually would’ve lied about it, she got a sudden urge to fight back.
“Yes, as a matter of fact I do. I drink too, occasionally, and fill myself with coffee. Oh, and I’ve written poems until recently, where I got my first writer’s block.” Ying Jie looked at Jack Yan with something in her eyes that Aaron had never seen before. He couldn’t exactly locate what it was. Hatred? Disrespect? Shame? Or something completely different?
“It’s pretty unusual for a girl whose mother died of lung cancer to smoke, and for a girl raised to be a real lady to drink and write poetry.” Jack noticed.
“Well, I like to stand out, and besides, I’m quite more of a real lady these days than in my past, though I will never become a real lady in my entire life; why bother? No one cares about manners these days. Everything is about money, clothes, grades in school, and even more money. You see, being born with a silver spoon is a package deal, and my goal in life is to get rid of almost all parts of it. I don’t care more about manners than I care about how Ashley Tisdale’s pajamas look, and I’d rather be happy than be rich.” Ying Jie said, looking at Jack’s cold eyes… But apart from cold, his eyes also looked very drunk. “You must be very disappointed in your son for finding such a simple girl as me, right? But on the other hand, if you knew who I was before I stepped foot in here, then you must also know that my father is marrying Jennifer Wang , and for an oh-so respectable person as you, being seen with Jennifer Yin’s stepdaughter is a big scandal.” Ying Jie said in a sarcastic tone.
“Oh, I do know about the fact that your father is marrying my ex wife; I just wish that we could put that behind us, and be adults.” Aaron’s father said, and dragged Ying Jie away from Aaron to have a private word with her. “We both know that you’re no Hebe Tian, but you seem quite… Acceptable. You just have to learn to control your horrible temper. I don’t comprehend why my son chose you over her, but I don’t control his decisions, and therefore we have to at least pretend to like each other in public. Get it?”
“Of course I do, Mr. Jack, but life would be SO boring without a good fight now and then, right?” Ying Jie croaked in an amused way.

“Mrs. Yan? I haven’t seen you in ages!” an old doorman of the Yan family smiled.
“Oh Phil, you know as well as I that my title isn’t ‘Mrs. Yan’ but ‘Mrs. Yin’ in these days… Oh, and that it soon will be ‘Mrs. Wu’ as if I had kept my original last name all along” Jennifer smiled chuffed. “How’s Mr. Yan doing? Has he married some hussy yet, or does he still prefer to take them to hotel rooms while being high on drugs?” she then asked the baffled doorman.
“Well, Mr. Yan went to rehab, Mrs. Yin…” Phil almost whispered.
“I know, but that doesn’t make him clean now, does it? Anyways, can you please tell me if a girl named Wu Ying Jie, Gui Gui or Even Wu has announced her arrival yet?” Jennifer asked.
“Well, I’m not allowed to tell uninvited…”
“Oh, but I am invited. Here’s my invitation” Jennifer said, and showed it to Phil. Phil looked at it for a while, and then looked at Jennifer again.
“Why would Mr. Yan invite you? He’s still furious, you know…”
“Probably to humiliate me, but that doesn’t matter; my stepdaughter might be in there, and as she’s grounded, my fiancé asked me to check up on that. Can you tell if she is now?” Jennifer sighed impatiently.
“Originally I’m not allowed to tell anyone who did or did not arrive, but as it’s you I’ll make an exception. Miss Wu truly did arrive, but Young Mr. Yan said that she wasn’t allowed to leave before this dinner party is over. I would go in if I was you.” Phil smiled.

“Well, I’m glad that you and my father get along… You see, I was very worried about that” Aaron smiled at Ying Jie.
“Aaron, there’s something I need to know.” Ying Jie said, looking at him with serious eyes. “something important, that I really need the answer of.”
“What is it? Asked me whatever you want…”
“Your father said that Jennifer was his ex wife, and I really need to know whether or not you remember her…” Ying Jie sighed.
“I don’t… But I don’t believe that Jennifer is his ex wife either; my father has only been married once, and that was to my mother; it was the only way he could get her. Generally he’s against marriages, as divorce always lead to many scandals, but it was the only way he could get her… But they couldn’t agree on how to raise me. My father was – believe it or not – extremely soft, while my mother meant that I wouldn’t ever learn anything if they didn’t scold me sometimes.” Aaron said, dreamingly. “But I do believe that my father and Jennifer had… relations in the past; Jennifer is a beautiful woman and my father worship beauty a lot.”
“Well, that still doesn’t explain the ‘ex wife thing” Ying Jie sighed.

“Jennifer? I thought you wouldn’t come. What… What brings you here?” Jack asked Jennifer with serious eyes.
“My stepdaughter, in the claws of ou… Of your son. I think that you and he disowned me quite a long time ago? Well, anyways… Wu Ying Jie is the daughter of my fiancé, and she’s grounded, and tricked him so she could come here.” Jennifer said, avoiding Jack’s eyes.
“Oh, I almost forgot how simple and easy to trick your upcoming husband is” Jack yawned. Jennifer felt anger run through her body; who was Jack to insult Harold?
“Well, unlike you Harold likes to see the best in people. If he didn’t, you and he had never been friends, and you know it. You also knew how much he loved me, and yet you married me out of lust.” Jennifer felt disgusted by the fact that she had ever even loved Jack. Not that she didn’t anymore, but still.
“So, Wu Ying Jie is your stepdaughter? How will she react when she finds out that her and her beloved boyfriend will be… stepsiblings?” Jack asked.
“Well, as I’ve adopted Aaron to you and your ex girlfriend, so I have no relation to him anymore, and as Aaron and Ying Jie aren’t related by blood, there’s nothing wrong with them seeing each other. I would be happy if they married one day.” Jennifer said with honestly and pride in her voice.
“What irony it would be, to have your own son walking around respecting you as his mother in law, and even calling you ‘mother’. I would love to see that little show, but I don’t really like your stepdaughter. She – like most people – doesn’t seem to like me a lot either, but there are some sides in her that could change that.” Jack laughed in a way that made Jennifer despise him even more.
“Well, I don’t care about your evil plans to change my stepdaughter; she’s a good girl”
“She indeed is, but not too good for my son apparently… I overhead them talking earlier, and Ying Jie admitted that she was no Hebe Tian, but…”
“How was rehab, Jack? Oh well, I don’t care; I’ll just find Ying Jie now.”

***
Heey guys (:
Back on the updating-train.
Sorry, but the last few days have been extremely messy, with constant on-off arguments with my father…
Not that it’s any better right now, but still Ô.o
To those of you who read my collaboration with Blitz, we updated three chapters today *miracle*
So, thanks for all the sweet, sweet comments (;
I love gone with the wind!
The book; I haven’t watched the movie yet
Lol, that was random xD
Anyways, please (x1000.000) comment on my long chapter (:

Xoxo
Gril4Life