Housewarming Party (2)

"Don't you think she's going too far?" Chàng Bo smirked.

Qi Zhou gulped.

Mao Lu glanced up at her,

"I'm already aware of Miss Qi Zhou, did you think I didn't see or sense her?" Mao Lu replied casually.

"I was curious about why a Practitioner was getting close to Frank. I wanted to believe that it was for natural romantic reasons, but I guess the true reason was to get close to me. Messing with the fragile heart of my friend, Qi Zhou you have gone too far. "

Qi Zhou sweated slightly at his words, she thought she'd been very careful when she'd done spells on Frank.

And since Mao Lu was a newly initiated Gatekeeper, she had hoped he'd be too preoccupied to notice her.

Even though Qi Zhou didn't know anything about the Gatekeepers powers, practices, or secrets. She was aware that most Gatekeepers had an omnipotent all-seeing eye, that allowed them to sense anything in their realm. She wasn't sure about the specifics, but she'd assumed that as a new Gatekeeper, Mao Lu would need more than a few weeks to adjust to his powers.

And since he hadn't come to her or shut down her schemes in the past few weeks, she'd assumed that she was right, and he hadn't noticed. Yet now she was thoroughly proven wrong.

"I-" Qi Zhou wanted to plea for mercy but was quickly cut off.

"I don't want to hear your reasons or excuses just yet, let's wait until after the Housewarming party, then we can have a little chat."

Qi Zhou slowly nodded at Mao Lu, fear seeping deeply into her.

She'd only met one Gatekeeper before, and he'd been a terrible, vile creature that didn't care for the inhabitants of his Realm.

Among practitioners there was generally a deep fear and suspicion towards The Gatekeepers.

Many practitioners desired a Gatekeepers power, and were awed by their abilities, but the most common feeling towards them was fear.

Although Mao Lu appeared normal, and he may have been mortal in the past, that didn't mean anything now. To Qi Zhou at least, Mao Lu was an unpredictable entity which demanded respect.

Now that she dares cross the line and mess with him, he may end up killing her, punishing her in some unimaginable way, or even evicting her out of the Realm. Qi Zhou didn't know which it would be, but she felt her heart pounding in worry.

She'd thought a new Gatekeeper would be easier than the others, and simpler to win over. She dared to continue messing with Frank because she really needed to become Mao Lu's servant. For her future, for her family, for her Master

she needed to become a Gatekeepers servant.

"Is this the end of the road, will I be kicked out here and now.

No, I can't go down like this. I hope he doesn't punish me; I hope he doesn't kill me. I hope he just lets me off." She silently prayed.

"Umm, what's going on, I mean what are you guys talking about?" Frank asked a bit helplessly.

Watching Mao Lu, Chàng Bo and Qi Zhou speak this foreign language and have their own little conversation that excluded the rest of them, was growing tedious.

And Frank didn't like the tense atmosphere that was coming from them, especially when he saw how frightened and upset Qi Zhou looked all of a sudden.

Mao Lu was his sworn brother, and he trusted and knew Mao Lu enough to know he'd never intentionally do or say anything malicious, yet here they were. Whatever Mao Lu said had brought Qi Zhou to the brink of tears and Frank wasn't happy.

Mao Lu looked away from Qi Zhou and smiled brightly at his friends, he hated lying to them, but what other option did he have at the moment.

"Chàng Bo and Qi Zhou are… are siblings. Chàng Bo is her stepbrother. I didn't know Qi Zhou was in China and I was super surprised. That was all."

"HUH??!!!!" Everyone exclaimed.

Mao Lu turned to Qi Zhou, "I was asking her why she hadn't contacted Chàng Bo since he is also in China."

Qi Zhou saw the meaningful "Go-along-with-the-lie" look on Mao Lu's face, and said "Ah yes…You know how my parents are divorced Frank. Well Chàng Bo is my stepbrother. The son of my Dad's new wife. And the truth is I recognised him immediately but we're not really on good terms, so I didn't want to mention it. And I didn't realise the Mao Lu you were all talking about was the same Mao Lu I knew. I didn't think I'd meet my brother here either. I just feel really awkward now. Haha" she laughed nervously.

Chàng Bo nodded, playing along with the story.

Everyone looked at Mao Lu, Qi Zhou and Chàng Bo. They were confused but Mao Lu wasn't usually the type to lie, or at least they didn't expect Mao Lu to lie to them.

Also, it would make sense that Chàng Bo and Qi Zhou knew each other, since they seemed rather familiar or more like hostile with each other since the moment they met.

And when Chàng Bo had opened the door he spoke his language. It was obvious that he knew Chinese, why would he open the door and answer in a foreign language if he was in China, unless he recognised someone on the other side of the door that spoke his language. It made sense.

"We're not really close and we don't have a good relationship, so I'd be grateful if you guys don't ask about it." Qi Zhou looked directly at Frank with puppy-dog-watery eyes as she pouted "I didn't mean to hide it from you Frank, I just… You know I don't like talking about my family."

Frank looked at Qi Zhou's tearful face and his heart trembled a bit, any doubts he had about her words vanished altogether as he replied, "Un. You don't have to apologise."

"I'm also sorry" Mao Lu said with a sincere and serious face, "I didn't realise you were hiding your relationship. I shouldn't have revealed it like that."

Qi Zhou stared at Mao Lu's honest face, Who would think that this man was such a skilful liar?

"It's fine Mao Lu, you didn't know."

Mao Lu still looked apologetic but internally he was sighing in relief. His friends appeared to believe his lie.

"Wow, look at Mr. Filled-with-principles. I didn't think you had it in you to lie like that." Gates said, its voice filled with surprise and wonder.

"Although lying to my friends goes against my principles, if my lies protect them then it is necessary. I don't want to drag them into this surreal world, and I don't want to lose their trust. In the end this lie was the necessary solution." Mao Lu replied calmly.

"Yes, it was a good solution, but how did you come up with that?" Gates was still rather shocked. There were so many different sides to Mao Lu that it had yet to learn about.

"I was listening in on their conversations. I was aware of Qi Zhou and Frank dating.

Frank's parents are divorced and on one of their dates I heard her telling Frank that her parents were also divorced. After considering all their interactions so far since Chàng Bo met the group, I decided that pretending they knew each other already and were step siblings with a bad relationship would be a good lie. It was the best I could come up with in that limited time." Mao Lu explained.

"It was a very well thought lie considering the time you had, I think you might have a talent for its Mao Lu" Gates giggled.

"A talent? I saw a similar situation on TV and just copied it. And most of my life I was lying about being gay and pretending I was straight, and making up all kinds of stories. It's not a talent, I'm just okay at it. And who would want lying as their talent?"

Gates couldn't help but roll its eyes. Thinking to itself, "Someone can easily tell a lie, but it takes an extremely skilful person to make it so believable. You acted that out perfectly, if that isn't a talent, I don't know what is."

"How do you all know each other?" Zhao Detong asked, he was the first to snap out from the shock of the surprising turn of events.

"When I was working my part time job as a rickshaw driver two years ago, I met Qi Zhou when she was visiting China. When she forgot her purse on the rickshaw, I found the address of the hotel she was temporarily staying at. When I was returning her purse to the hotel room, I ran into Chàng Bo."

"You mean you've known this gorgeous man for two years and I'm only meeting him now!! " Tanaka yelled exasperatedly.

"I wouldn't call it knowing, we only met then, and he wasn't in China long. He didn't speak much Chinese then either...anyways after I returned Qi Zhou's purse, we became good enough friends and ended up becoming pen pals. Although I admit I was so busy recently that I hadn't written to her in nearly a year. I didn't realise she was even in China now. And to think she's dating Frank, what a coincidence."

To reinforce Mao Lu's fictional backstory and meeting, Qi Zhou and Chàng Bo constantly nodded in agreement.

"Qi Zhou encouraged me to learn that Nepalese language she spoke, and you guys know I'm a fast learner. So, I learnt it rather easily.”

“So, when I met Chàng Bo coincidentally again due to work, being the only person who could communicate with him, and due to knowing him somewhat from before, we ended up in this type of arrangement."

Mao Lu felt a bit bad as he effortlessly lied to his friends, and cooked up this story but this was much better than the alternative. It wasn't like he could tell them "Chàng Bo is a practitioner from another Realm, Qi Zhou is a Witch and oh by the way I'm also a Gatekeeper and we met due to all this crazy stuff!"

Yeah, for some reason Mao Lu didn't envision explaining that to his friends going down well. First case scenario they'd think he had mental problems, worst case scenario they'd send him to a hospital for treatment.

And regardless Mao Lu didn't want them involved, so this was all for the better.

"I see, but Mao Lu, I'm curious. What exactly is your new job, we all realised we have no idea." Zhao Detong said, he honestly believed every word Mao Lu said to him, as far as he was concerned, Mao Lu had no reason to lie.

"Ah that, well you know about the inheritance I got."

All his friends nodded at him.

"Well I ended up also inheriting a large share of a company, and I'm currently an executive for that company. I'm not exactly comfortable in the role, but I wasn't in the position to deny inheriting the shares. I wanted to tell you guys about it when I felt more comfortable in the role, and was better at my job. But since you're asking, I might as well tell you that I'm now an executive of B&B law firm."

Tanaka gasped, "Is that why you were googling them that day in the staff room?" Tanaka remembered peeking over Mao Lu's shoulder when he was on break and seeing that law firm in the search engine.

Mao Lu nodded, "I received my inheritance from them and on the same day they offered me a job." This wasn't exactly a lie.

"B&B law firm?" Fang Kai asked, "Is that something big?"

Fei Bing Bing just looked at him as if he were stupid, but then it occurred to her that he obviously wouldn't know.

"For people that deal a lot in international trade like my family's business, B&B law firm is common knowledge.

They're the biggest Magic Circle law firm in China. A magic circle law firm is one that values the phrase 'Bigger is better'. Bigger deals, bigger money, and bigger staff. They are dominated by corporations and business, and filled with extremely wealthy business clients.

It offers the best office facilities; they have several overseas locations. They top the list in revenue and partner profits. And they are filled with international clients."

Fei Bing Bing gave a concerned look to Mao Lu, "No wonder you've been so busy, such a major firm must be very hard to work for.

I've seen horror story posts about the long hours and stressful experiences trying to keep wealthy clients happy all over the Internet.

And especially you being a high school graduate, it must have been very pressuring to work in that professional snobby atmosphere." Bing Bing said worriedly.

"Yeah it has been hard adjusting but I'm getting used to it. And I'm thinking of continuing my studies soon so that I can be better fit for the role. And the people aren't too harsh, actually I'm enjoying the work and it has been a very humbling experience so far." Mao Lu replied with a warm smile.

"To think you refused to work for me because you thought the position would be higher than your worth, and you thought you'd be ostracised for not having a degree. And now look at you being an executive. You're such a hypocrite Lu!" Zhao Detong exclaimed as he put Mao Lu into a warm headlock.

"I know I'm a bit of a hypocrite okay" Mao Lu laughed, "but isn't that just human nature."

"Hahaha, I guess you're right" Detong laughed, "I'm just so happy for you Mao Lu. Well done."

"Yeah, well done Mao Lu!!!" They began cheering.