At the mansion, Caishen had returned earlier in the day because his grandmother did not want him away from the house for long periods of time.
Ever since his accident she worried, hovered, spied on him and treated him as if he was a toddler.
If it was not urgent or necessary, he often worked from home a few days in the week just to reassure her.
He was sitting in the living room with a cup of lemon tea, reading a business magazine as he occasionally glanced up at the news channel on the television.
His older brother was eating potato chips loudly, rummaging through the package as if the chips were playing hide and seek with his fingers.
It was a distraction to him who wanted some peace and quiet.
"Do you have to be so loud?" Caishen asked him.
Zhang Bo licked his fingers and answered with a deliberate smile, "It's my cheat day, I intend to enjoy my cheating. If you hate it, go sit somewhere else."
Caishen glared at his brother and looked back at his magazine. He could not go anywhere else because Zhang Bo would simply follow and annoy him.
Then, he suddenly looked at the silver watch on his wrist and his phone afterwards.
"Are you expecting a call from someone?" Zhang Bo asked him. "You have been looking at your watch and phone every ten minutes."
"Are you here to monitor me?" Caishen asked him.
"No, I am here to see if you are waiting for your wife. Sister-in-law is yet to return after all. By the way, I saw the old betrothal agreement, nice touch." He added a thumbs up and nodded in approval.
"Sister-in-law is possessive of you while you are protective of her. Little brother, will you sell me the rights to your love story?"
"Are you lacking scripts or are you just bored?" Caishen asked him. "You can always return and run the company."
Zhang Bo folded his arms around his body and eyed Caishen with a suspicious gaze. "Don't even think about it. I am a free spirit, don't you dare try to restrict me to an office."
Caishen sneered and rolled his eyes. "How do you act as a CEO in dramas but when it comes to doing the actual job you whine."
Zhang Bo rummaged through the bag of chips loudly, just as he had been doing all along.
"Acting, I act." He said and he threw a handful of chips in his mouth.
Caishen rubbed his eyes and sighed. How was it that he was more of an older brother than his actual real brother.
"The young madam is home." The butler came and announced.
Caishen put down the magazine and wheeled himself out to the hallway. He found Alix walking with a bird cage and a cat in her hands.
She stopped walking and she looked at him. He was just the same, as he stopped his wheel chair and looked at her.
"I will take the suitcase up." One of the maids said.
"Young madam, you can give me the birds, I will put them in the old madam's glass house." The butler held his hands out.
"Young madam, I will take the cat, we can prepare a room for it." Another maid also reached her hands out.
She looked at them and shook her head. "I will put the birds in my room and the cat is a gift for your young master.., uhm, my husband."
She held the small kitten and handed it to Zhang Caishen with expectant eyes.
Caishen frowned at the tiny weak thing that meowed weakly and then the woman who was giving it to him.
He had received many gifts in his life but never a live animal.
"I knew I smelled vermin, you, Alix, you are now bringing street animals into our house." Zhang An shouted from the top of the stairs loudly.
Alix looked up and shouted back, "Good evening young miss. It's polite for one to greet another person when they have not seen each other for a full a day. At least my animals are more well manned than you are."
Zhang Bo chuckled and Zhang An stomped her foot.
Alix bit her lower lip and wondered if she had gone too far. Zhang An was like a spoiled kid after all, one who needed a lesson in manners more than anything.
"Let's talk upstairs." Caishen told her.
"Won't you take the cat?" She asked him.
"Let's go up first." He told her. Then he told the butler, "Send our dinner to my room."
Alix sighed and followed him, thinking that she was probably in trouble for shouting at his sister.
She followed him into the elevator which had probably been installed right around the time he had been injured.
They went into his bedroom and Alix resumed the same position she had been in the previous night, head facing down, legs crossed and worry in her eyes.
If the cat was not in her hands, they would be folded too.
"You can relax, I am not not going to take your head off." He told her.
She could master up courage to shout and trade words with his sister but she always trembled in his presence.
"I....thank you for the car and the announcement." She said.
She uncrossed her legs and looked at him.
"Why didn't take one to work this morning?" He asked.
"I don't know how to drive." She answered.
"We have drivers." He told her.
She tapped her foot down slowly and squeezed the cat.
It meowed weakly and she loosened her hold on it.
Where is the woman who said that she wanted this marriage to work? She asked herself.
It would not work if she acted like a coward that was afraid of him. A man like him, he did not need a meek wife.
She took a deep breath and then swallowed the little saliva in her throat.
"I will take one starting from tomorrow. I apologize for causing you concern." She replied louder and more like herself around her friends.
Caishen frowned as he wondered what was with the sudden change. She looked like another personality within her had taken over.
"Do you not like the cat?" She asked him.
He held out his hands and she gave it to him. Their hands briefly brushed as she handed it to him.
As if she had been burned, Alix pulled her hand back and hid it behind her back.
Caishen scoffed and rubbed the fur of the black cat. Did she dislike being touched by him or was she just shy?
They both kept quiet for a while, mulling and thinking about what to say next. The air around them was suddenly awkward and kind of uncomfortable.
"Your ex boyfriend, why did he visit you today?" He asked suddenly.