Such a Rude and Noisy Woman

Chapter 214 Family Gathering On Cruise Ship (Part I)

When Hiram showed up at the party, he would undoubtedly become the center of attention. So instead

of going inside directly and greeting everyone, he stood in front of the entrance and waited for Rachel.

Rachel was shocked by the number of people at the party when she arrived. Stunned, she stood

between Susan and Shirley, barely noticing when Hiram took her hand.

Hiram and Rachel walked into the hall hand in hand.

Since it was Rachel's first official introduction to the family, everyone turned their eyes to her. She was

the heroine tonight.

Because of the atmosphere, Rachel felt like a superstar as she walked down the red carpet.

There were at least a hundred people gathering here, all related to the Rong family one way or another.

The moment she entered, she heard the children's playful noises die down and saw the benevolent

smiles on the elders' faces fade, as everyone turned to look at her and Hiram. The younger generation

of men and women couldn't keep their eyes off them either.

Suddenly, they all broke out into applause out of nowhere, and it went on for a long time before

stopping.

"Wow, our Hiram finally brings his wife to meet us. See, Mom, I told you not to worry. He always does

everything at the right time. Now look, here they are," said Kun while applauding.

Kun Rong, the director of the Public Security Department, had played a huge role in helping rescue

Rachel from the kidnappers. Now, he was clapping his hands enthusiastically and talking to the gray-

haired woman next to him.

"Oh, hey, in spite of how poor the Ruan family is, their daughter looks very good. She has good

mannerisms, too," Kun's mother said approvingly with a big smile on her face.

In another part of the room, Hearst looked at Susan, who had just come over to him, and said," Sister,

why are you so late? I need your help. Please ask mom to stop. She keeps nagging at me about

marriage. I can't stand it anymore."

Susan stuck out her tongue at him. If Shirley hadn't insisted on coming with her, she would have

arrived at the party a long time ago.

In the middle of the room, Hiram, who was still holding Rachel's hand, started to introduce her to all the

relatives of the Rong family.

Rachel counted and found that a lot of the people present were men. Hiram had about five uncles who

all had sons, making the count 15. On top of that, most of those sons were married and had children.

Since it was meant to be a family gathering, everyone had brought all their family members here, so it

added up to more than one hundred people at the party.

Besides, the Rong family had been around for more than a hundred years, so their popularity had

swelled up as well.

Rachel, who was being swept around the room by Hiram to be introduced to all his relatives, was

starting to feel dizzy. There were so many of them that she couldn't remember them all in such a short

time. She thought that even if they met like this every year, it would take her a few more years before

she could distinguish all of them.

After the introductions were over, Rachel was brought by Susan to a table where all the young ladies

like them sat.

Sitting down, Rachel felt like she could finally relax and breathe a little. To keep up appearance today,

she had put on high heel shoes, which made her feel even more tired. She was taking a sip of water to

relax a little when she heard the girl sitting opposite her say," Shirley, aren't you close to Lydia? Do you

know why she doesn't come back this time?"

"Yeah, she used to come back just for this reunion. Why is she absent this year? Do you have any

idea, Shirley?" another girl asked.

All of them had been attending the family reunion since they were children, so it was very obvious to

them when one of them was absent. And with everything that had happened recently, they were really

curious about Lydia's absence.

Shirley seemed to know that people would definitely ask her about Lydia. The truth was that while Lydia

had a bad relationship with Rachel, her relationship with others was much better.

"Lydia is busy with her studies. And besides, she hasn't completely recovered from kidnapping incident

yet. That's why she doesn't come this year. But she told me to tell all of you that she misses you very

much."

Shirley glanced at Rachel as she spoke.

When she was done, the whole table was silent for a moment.

Everyone knew how the kidnapping at the theater had gone down. When Hiram had to choose one

person to save, he had chosen Lydia over Rachel. They'd all assumed that Rachel would be angry at

Lydia because of that.

What other reason did Lydia have to avoid the family reunion? She'd never missed it in the past years.

Rachel sneered in her heart. She'd been curious about why Shirley had come here with Susan. Now, it

turned out that it was for Lydia's sake.

She knew that since almost no one knew the details of what had happened that night, they would

assume that she was the reason Lydia hadn't shown up to the party. It would reflect badly on her.

"Shirley, I know you keep in touch with Lydia. Can you please pass my message to her that she doesn't

have to blame herself for the incident? I understand that she didn't tell the kidnappers about me on

purpose. I almost lost my life because of her mistake, but... Let bygones be bygones. I hope she won't

beat herself up about it anymore,"

Rachel said to Shirley with a sincere smile on her face. To any third person, it would seem like she had

really forgiven Lydia for the terrible things that she had done to her.

After all, if Lydia could pretend to be sorry, why couldn't she?

She didn't want to talk about the kidnapping incident to anyone, but if Lydia wanted to make use of it to

get sympathy from her family members, then she was more than happy to help her do it.

Shirley opened her mouth to reply, then controlled herself. She didn't want to lose her composure or

reveal too much in front of the family members.

Rachel's words had made all the young ladies curious. They looked at each other and wondered if

there was anything more to the kidnapping incident that they didn't know about.

"Rachel, what happened at the theater? Is there anything that we don't know about?" Susan asked

curiously.

Rachel shook her head with an easy smile on her face and said," Susan, it's all in the past, I'd rather

not talk about it now. I want to let go of those unhappy memories."

Susan nodded her head understandingly and held Rachel's arm to comfort her. "Rachel, I understand

how bitter you would have been feeling about that incident. Even I can't stand thinking about it. Lydia

should be appreciating you. If you hadn't been there to replace her, then..."

But before Susan could finish, Shirley, unable to stand it anymore, interrupted. "Susan, how can you

speak for other person instead of our sister? She's of noble birth, like every member of the Rong family.

Rachel just did what a sister-in-law should do. There's nothing to appreciate."

"How can you say such..." Susan trailed off, shocked at how Shirley could say such things.

"Shirley, I think you're right. I'm just an outsider who married into the Rong family. Besides, Hiram and I

haven't even had a wedding, so I'm not really a family member yet. Even if something had happened to

me when I was kidnapped, the Rong family would be suffering no loss. However, Lydia is different. She

is a member of the Rong family and a person of noble birth. She shouldn't be put in any danger,"

Rachel said with her eyes casting downwards.

Her words immediately gained the sympathy of all the women sitting around them.

Among them, there were many ladies who had married into the Rong family, and they felt angry on

behalf of Rachel.

"Shirley, how can you speak like that? So what if we're daughters-in-law of the Rong family? Do you

mean we're all just outsiders?" one of the women suddenly said, standing up and glaring at Shirley.

Rachel remembered that she was Kun's wife.

"Yeah, Shirley, that's nonsense. We have all given birth to children of the Rong family. Are you saying

we don't deserve any respect for that?" another daughter-in-law of the Rong family said.

Hearing that, Shirley anxiously tried to explain. "Sisters, please don't be mad. I'm not talking about you.

You've all contributed a lot to the Rong family. I was just talking about that particular issue. I wasn't

trying to offend any of you."

Her words angered Rachel, who fixed a light but cold smile onto her face.

"So, Shirley, I'm the only one you're talking about, right?" Rachel asked.

Shirley was stunned by Rachel's cold voice. She bit her lips and swallowed the words that were

threatening to spill out of her mouth. Instead, she looked around the table, as if gathering support, and

said with a fake smile," Look at the other daughters-in-law, they all have one or two children already.

But look at you! You've been living with Hiram for so long. Why don't you have children yet?"

"Shirley, you'd better stop right there. She's lived with Hiram for barely half a year. It's not a big deal if

they haven't had kids yet," Kun's wife said sharply.

"Are you kidding me? How about you and your husband? If I remember correctly, you conceived during

your honeymoon. Having children can be the easiest thing in the world. But it seems it can also be the

hardest," Shirley said with a smug smile on her face.

Rachel laughed coldly and said," Shirley, I used to think that you were too young to be concerning

yourself about certain matters, but it seems I was wrong. Since when did Hiram and I need you to plan

our future?" Then, dropping her sarcasm, she said," If you don't feel comfortable staying here, or if you

ever make me feel uncomfortable again, the yacht outside will be waiting to send you back at any

time!"

Rachel stood up and walked towards Hiram, leaving a dumbstruck Shirley in her wake.

Even as she walked away, Rachel's pace was relaxed and she looked calm, as if nothing had

happened at the table just moments ago.

All the women sitting at the table watched Rachel as she joined Hiram, who was in conversation with

someone. She was smiling calmly and didn't seem affected by the episode at all. Her demeanor was

that of a hostess's. All text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.