Chapter 5

Jamie suddenly walked in and looked at the table full of food for a moment before saying," Since dinner's been cooked, I'll leave for the night."

"How is that right?"Mrs. Woodchester exclaimed," Call everyone here! It's not every day Adrien's around."

Darius glanced at Mrs. Woodchester in disapproval," Mom, does this happen every time Adrien comes here? How can you let Adrien cook like this, he's our guest!"

"Oh shush now, you're always busy so you don't know, the boy insists!" Mrs. Woodchester explained," When I didn't allow him to go near the fridge the last time, he drove out and bought his own materials and cooked it at his place and brought it here!"

"It's fine senior. It's like... a tradition! Besides, I like cooking or wouldn't have become a chef," Adrien said.

A few minutes later, everyone was seated at the table while Lucas sat nearby, playing with his building blocks.

The table was filled with delicacies and brightly colored food all exquisitely arranged," I didn't want to make anything too weird at night so I just made everyone's favorites. Be careful, they're spicy," Adrien warned," I added a little extra spice since aunty and uncle like spicy foods."

A big plate of seasoned rice which was a nice glistening orange from all the spices was served along with a colorful chicken dish with many side dishes all around it. There was cold cucumber salad, roasted and fried potatoes wedges with herbs, pickled white and yellow radish, kimchi, sweet and sour pork, vegetable sauteed noodles, and a thick warm corn soup.

"Oh! My favorite, honey and sesame glazed chili chicken! I haven't tasted it in so long!" Mr. Woodchester said, putting heaps of it on his plate along with a sample of everything else.

"Uncle Zhang, the one in the smaller plate is for you since I know you can't handle spice," Adrien said as he served everyone a glass of his special drink. It was a mixture of lemon and other berries which formed a beautiful blue and purple swirl," Have some of my special lemonade, it's refreshing and good for digestion."

"Thank you, child," Uncle Zhang said smiling.

"Adrien," Darius called, patting the chair next to him," Sit down and eat as well."

Adrien nodded, trying not to look too excited, and sat down next to his senior brother and placed some dishes on his plate.

Adrien watched as Darius took a bite, his eyes widening in surprise," You've gotten better than last time Adrien," he said, praising him and scooping more things to try.

Adrien blushed and laughed awkwardly," Haha, thanks for the praise."

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Everyone chatted for a while before Adrien suddenly asked," So, where are you from Nanny Wei?"

"Oh, I'm from a small town near Ning city," she replied simply.

Adrien nodded," And you Jamie? Where have you been staying before?"

"I actually live in the capital, near here."

"What are you studying?"

"I'm a music student, majoring in vocal performance."

Adrien wowed, pretending to be surprised," That's really cool."

Adrien sighed internally, this was real, he can't deny it now, he's even studying the same thing just like in his dream.

"Is the young master a relative or..." Nanny Wei suddenly inquired looking at Adrien.

"Oh! No, no. I'm not a relative," Adrien explained," I live next door, we've been neighbors since I was a baby."

"Oh! You live in the blue-roofed mansion next door?" Jamie asked surprised," Your family must be really wealthy."

Adrien didn't deny it," Yeah, we're pretty well off. Our families are also business partners."

Jamie nodded putting on a thoughtful expression," Is your family in the food industry? You must have learned your cooking from them."

"What?" Adrien asked taking a sip of the lemonade," No, you misunderstood, they're in the shipping and transport industry."

"Oh..." Jamie said frowning.

"Don't you know," Mr. Woodchester chipped in," Adrien is quite a well-known omega in the circle. He's the first omegas to do so well outside the family business and one of the only ones at that."

Adrien blushed, why were the Woodchester's always praising him to the heavens and back? It was embarrassing!

" You make it sound like a bigger deal than it is," Adrien said modestly," I wasn't interested in the idea of working at the company all the time, and I just really like food so... it seemed like the only option."

"Dear, you're an inspiration to so many omegas out there! My friends are always talking about and praising you. They're so envious that I know you!" Mrs. Woodchester exclaimed," I've even got so many people asking me to hook you up to their sons and daughters... speaking of which..."

Mrs. Woodchester looked at Adrien teasingly.

Adrien couldn't handle it anymore, his face flushed red and he hid his face behind the lemonade glass," Aunty...!"

"I-I'm still young!"

"I know," Mrs.Woodchester said," Which is why I didn't take it seriously, but, your senior on the other hand..." she said shifting her focus to Darius," Is another story, he's going to be 30 next year!"

"Mom, my 29th birthday hasn't even passed..." Darius said in defeat.

"You're 28 and there's still no girlfriend or boyfriend!"

"..."

Adrien peaked at Darius who was quiet," Senior brother is popular, isn't he? He's probably just busy right now..." He said trying to support him. He didn't want his senior brother to be taken away from him.

It was something he realize on this long, arduous day, he couldn't handle the idea of Darius being with someone else, he should at least confess, but not right now, there were more pressing matters. He still didn't know how to separate the nanny from Lucas currently.

"How much longer is he going to stay busy?" Mrs. Woodchester said unhappily, " You recently went on a blind date with the daughter of my friend, Diana right? She's a nice young lady, around 26, and works in the education sector, what did you think about her?"

"...Diana? Diana Hawthorne?" Adrien asked unhappily.

"Yes dear, why have you heard of her?" Mr. Woodchester asked.

Adrien paused," I don't think it's good to consider her..."

"Why not?" Darius asked perturbed," You're not usually one to rush to say anything about someone."

"...Well," Adrien hesitated, Diana was the fiancé in the book so he knew some things about her, even then, with his connections, he knew many things about the lady,"... She worked at Crawford University before, right? "

Mrs. Woodchester nodded," Yes, recently she quit due to personal reasons."

"Uhm, don't take my words 100%, but there's a lot of bad wind about her..." Adrien started," My friend works in the University, he said she didn't actually quit but was fired... for misconduct."

Mr. Woodchester frowned," What exactly did she do?"

"You might want to do your own personal background check, but I heard it was because she tampered with some research and took the credit of her students... there was also a case of her being preferential to some students who were from better families, but one of her students recorded evidence and filed a report against her."

The table became quiet, Adrien continued," Since the Hawthorne family is behind her, it hasn't been publicized. The University also didn't want to have a negative impact on its image so everything was cleaned up."

Darius suddenly grunted," What great friends you have mom."

Mrs. Woodchester's face became unsightly," Th-The nerve! How dare they! And my son went on a blind date with the woman as well!"

"Are you sure it's accurate?" Nanny Wei suddenly butted in looking a little distressed," maybe it's slander?"

"Yes," Jamie nodded, before saying softly" It may be some malicious comments,"' he turned to Adrien," Is your friend reliable?"

Adrien frowned," Yes, he is. He is the associate dean of the life science department at the University."

"But, it doesn't hurt to make sure," Adrien continued," Just have someone do a background check."

"No need," Darius replied draining his glass," I already did, Adrien's right, she did do all those things."

"What?" Mr. Woodchester said displeased," Why didn't you tell us?"

"The report only came in this afternoon."

The table became quiet again.

"Alright, I think everyone had enough gossip for today. Jamie, Nanny Wei, can you clear the table?" Mrs. Woodchester asked, trying to disperse the atmosphere," I think everyone needs to rest. Nanny Wei, put Lucas to sleep and Jamie, you can stay tonight since it's so late."

Jamie nodded and stood up.

Adrien also stood up to follow, but was stopped by Mrs. Woodchester," Sweetie, don't even think about doing the dishes."

Adrien smiled good-naturedly and looked across the room to see Lucas still sitting in the same spot.

"Lucas," he said walking over to him before sitting down next to him," aren't you tired?"

Lucas looked at him calmly, he had built a little house out of the building blocks.

"Wow, it's a house," Adrien said and patted his head," Lucas is so smart!"

Lucas stared at him blankly before holding his head confused. He peeked at Adrien through his hair before crawling over and sitting on Adrien's lap," Uncle Adrien."

Adrien was surprised," You said my name correctly!" he looked over at Darius," Lucas said my name correctly!"

Darius smiled at him and Adrien couldn't help but give Lucas a light hug," Uncle Adrien is so happy!" he said to Lucas," Lucas is my favorite nephew!"

Adrien played with Lucas a little bit before Jamie walked out of the kitchen, followed by Nanny Wei.

"Lucas, it's time to go to sleep," the omega said and picked Lucas up.

Adrien frowned, he still wanted to hold Lucas, and he couldn't help disliking Jamie. So what if it was a dream? Everything was going according to it, how could he like someone who hit on his senior brother?

Lucas's face also wrinkled unhappily, he kept quiet when he was handed over to Nanny Wei.

Adrien frowned standing up, should he follow them? He walked towards the nanny. Lucas watched as he walked forward and his face started to look very aggrieved.

Suddenly Lucas started crying," Un-uncle Adrien!"

Lucas flailed his arms around, trying to get into Adrien's arms.

"Oh no," Adrien said taking him into his arms," What happened Lucas?"

Adrien patted his back and tried to calm him down.

Darius also rushed over frowning," Lucas, what's wrong?"

He looked at Adrien," Lucas hasn't cried in a long time, I wonder what made him upset."

"He just doesn't want to go to bed," Nanny Wei tried to explain.

Adrien squinted his eyes, he's pretty sure that wasn't the reason, Lucas was just afraid of being abused today as well! Adrien finally started to get back into reality. This was real, he knew it was, he couldn't let Lucas near that woman.

"Do you want to have a sleepover with Uncle?" Adrien asked.

Lucas quieted down and nodded.

"That's not good Young master Adrien," Jamie suddenly butted in," You're already tired today, leave Lucas to me... come on Lucas let's go with Nanny Wei"

Jamie walked forward and held his hands out to Lucas but Lucas looked away angrily and tears started falling. Lucas desperately clutched Adrien's neck.

Adrien frowned," It's alright, I can look after a kid, besides, I babysat him since he was born," he comforted Lucas," Okay sweetie, it'll be alright, you can stay with Uncle Lucas today."

He looked over at Darius for permission to which Darius nodded, patting his head," Sorry, you've done nothing but work since you've got here."

Adrien rolled his eyes," It's nothing senior, don't worry about it."