795 Bright Summit’s Offer

Dragon Palace Home #10.

It was the weekend. The glam room was teeming with activity as Iris was busy preparing for a big formal event later tonight. She sat and listened to Dom briefing her on her role in the event while her makeup artist, hair stylist and nail technician were all working on her at the same time. 

She would be attending a distinguished, long-running TV awards ceremony with Jin Chonglin. The two of them had been chosen to be award presenters tonight for the best original theme song category. Their duet song "Shining Eyes", the opening theme song for the highly-popular TV drama adaptation of the webnovel, "Our Love, Our Destiny", also had a high chance of being nominated for the same award category next year.

Jin Liwei was reluctant to let her go tonight but eventually relented after she assured him many times that she could handle it. Although this awards ceremony was for celebrating the best TV shows in the past year, there would also be a lot of artists and well-known figures in the music industry attending tonight. This was an important event that she didn't want to miss. Her man wanted to escort her himself but his injuries hadn't fully healed yet.

Things were so much better now than ever in her relationship with Jin Liwei. They had grown closer and their connection became deeper after she confessed to him that she wasn't the real Long Xiulan. More often than not, she would burst into tears when he called her by her real name, Evelina. She would then blame her hormones whenever this happened.

It felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders and reduced the burden in her heart a great deal. She was still carrying some burden which was her past identity as a Vetrov but that was something she needed to discuss with her big brother first before telling Jin Liwei.

It wasn't her that he was avoiding but Jin Liwei. However, she knew that it wasn't avoidance due to anxiety. It was due to irritation. He was irritated at the entity inside him. She sensed that he must be having some problems dealing with the remnant of the real Lu Zihao. The remnant should be extremely sensitive to anything that had to do with Jin Liwei right now. 

She understood the struggles of living with a remnant, so she decided to let her brother alone for now and not continue bothering him through Ketchup. Their circumstances might be similar but they were not exactly the same. She might worsen his situation if she attempted to help him. Only he could resolve his issues with the remnant inside his body. He needed to face it by himself.

Once he calmed down and felt ready to return to Dragon Palace, they could sit down and talk about sharing the whole truth of their past identities with Jin Liwei. She trusted her man and knew that he would never betray them and throw them to the Vetrovs' enemies.

As for Jin Liwei, he was still grieving for the loss of his fifth brother, the real Lu Zihao. He also needed some time before he was ready to meet with her big brother who now owned Lu Zihao's body and identity. Nevertheless, he was handling his loss well given the circumstances and not allowing his grief to cloud his good sense. All she could do during this period was to comfort him and simply be there for him whenever he needed her. 

The two of them had also finished discussing her work schedule together a couple of days ago. They still ended up getting into a heated argument about it which caused her to once again lose control of her emotions. She raged at him while shedding annoying tears. It was only when he sweet-talked her by calling her Evelina that she calmed down enough to accede to his suggestions. 

Her current unstable emotions were becoming a big source of frustration to her. At the same time, it made her appreciate Jin Liwei's patience with her even more. 

He told her last night when she apologized to him about her increasingly short fuse, 'Don't worry about me, love. If you want to cry, go cry. If you feel angry, go rage. Dealing with your meltdowns is but a small price for me to pay when you're carrying my babies and will give birth to them in a few months.'

After he said that, she bawled like a baby in his arms, touched by his sweet words. When she was done crying, she wanted to make love with him but became pissed off again upon remembering that they couldn't have sex due to his injuries.

As for her work schedule, they both decided that she would withdraw from most of her work commitments, especially the minor ones, and only keep the major contracts and offers. Her guest appearances would also be reduced to the bare minimum until after her self-imposed maternity leave.

Her manager wasn't very happy with her sudden decision to reduce her workload. She hadn't told Tang Yiyi or anyone outside their household about her pregnancy yet. She and Jin Liwei were being careful because anything could happen during the first trimester. Tang Yiyi had been trying to persuade her to change her mind but to no avail.

"Boss, Big Sis Yiyi wants to talk to you," Dom said after answering a call from her manager in the middle of his exuberant chatter about tonight's awards ceremony.

Iris took the phone from him. "Hello, Elder Sister Yiyi?"

Tang Yiyi reminded her of the arrangements between her team and Jin Chonglin's once they arrived at the red carpet later tonight and also informed her about additional instructions from the event's organizers. After confirming everything, her manager still didn't hang up the call.

"Iris, I know that you plan on reducing your public appearances from now on, but I just received an amazing offer for you. The higher-ups at Bright Summit are planning to give you a solo concert next year. A big one, Iris."

Iris' sat up straighter. Her eyes widened and her heart started racing. She held the phone tighter. "My own solo concert?"

Dom and the others also stopped what they were doing and leaned forward to listen to the phone conversation.

"Yes, that's right! I know that you've been wanting this. This will be on a different scale from the fan concerts and the shared concerts you did with other artists. You'll finally have your very own major solo concert at a big venue, Iris. Your first one and it will be huge, I promise! JJ's record label will be onboard, of course. Once it's confirmed, we'll start preparations right away so that everything will be perfect for next year. What do you think? Do you want it?" Tang Yiyi's voice was very enticing.

"Of course, I want it," Iris replied, her voice filled with emotion. "Oh, Elder Sister Yiyi. I want it so much!"