Afterlife Department

In contrast with the positive atmosphere between Yi Bing and Huo Ling, the Huo household was covered in gloom as they ate their breakfast.

After Huo Dakuan finished his meal, a servant handed him a table napkin. He took it and wiped his lips before he spoke. His gaze fell on Huo Meiying, who was quietly and slowly eating before he turned to Gerard Jackson who arrived last night.

"Where do you plan to bury xiao Ling?" he asked, breaking the deafening silence and suffocating atmosphere in the dining room. However, the people who are still eating find it more suffocating because of the pressure Huo Dakuan is releasing, suppressing them so they can't raise their head from their plate.

Huo Meiying and Gerard Jackson, who ignored the frowns and hostile gazes the Huo family members were throwing at him, heard Huo Dakuan's question and their hand holding the chopsticks, and spoon and fork, respectively, froze.

Huo Dakuan is one faction, Huo Meiying is the royal family's faction, and Gerard Jackson is another, as Huo Ling's biological father.

It was Gerard Jackson who first reacted, and he answered Huo Dakuan's question with a sneer. He glanced at the other Huo family members dining with them for the breakfast.. He thought that they are shameless to eat with them. He, who has rarely interacted with the Huo family despite being married with Huo Meiying, didn't know that eating a meal altogether is a family tradition of the Huo family.

When he married Huo Meiying, it was for the royal family's power. The Huo family's power is just an icing on the cake. This made the Huo family more hostile to him. Their main hostility towards him is fearing he'd get a piece of the cake, being a part of the Huo family after his marriage with Huo Meiying, thus making their share less than it already is.

"What do you suggest?" he asked.

"I want xiao Ling to be buried in the family's grave." Huo Dakuan answered.

Gerard Jackson rudely snickered, but Huo Dakuan turned a blind eye to it since he knows that, despite the fact he's being a racist, foreigners have always been impolite to the Chinese. "He is of a royal blood. He will be buried in the royal family's grave." He said.

Huo Dakuan's face darkened. He is aware that Gerard Jackson favors the royal family more than them, and Huo Ling being buried in the royal family's grave is a prestige, which will increase Gerard Jackson's fame. "Xiao Ling is a Huo. He belongs to the Huo!" he said as he coldly looked at Gerard Jackson. "You've never cared about xiao Ling. You're more estranged to him than the strangers he met in this land." He told him, which made Gerard Jackson's face stiffened in humiliation when he saw the mocking smile of the Huo family members. "Also, xiao Ling is more comfortable here than in any of his birth land." He added. He is referring to the America, where Gerard Jackson lives, and England, where the royal family is.

It is humiliating since Huo Ling, who has fifty percent of his blood from his father, an American, grew up in the land where only twenty-five percent of his blood came from – China. It is more so with the royal family, but since everyone knows the royalties value one's blood, in which Huo Ling only has also twenty-five percent of his blood is of royal blood, they didn't rub the fact of Huo Ling's preferred land to stay on the royal family's face.

In fact, Huo Ling has both the right to live in America, much less in England, but why did he fell in China? As well as his mother, who is the only sibling – the sole sister, of the late king of England?

Huo Meiying, a silent woman, listened to Huo Dakuan and Gerard Jackson quarrelling until their food has gone cold before she spoke. "Xiao Ling will have his final rest in this land." She said. Her voice is quiet, but it isn't weak at all! It has a momentum after being spoken amidst the heat of her father and her husband's quarrel.

Both turned and looked at her in shock. "Mei-er/Mary?!" both exclaimed.

Huo Meiying calmly raised her gaze. Like her father earlier, she glanced at Huo Dakuan before she looked at Gerard Jackson who was gaping at her. "Xiao Ling will have his final rest in this land. I don't want to repeat what I've said, and that's final." He told them before she rose from her seat. She ignored the servant who handed her a table napkin. She just wiped her lips with the sleeve of her qipao, which made them dumbfounded.

She doesn't act as a royal princess, nor a refined woman at all! Although her crude action didn't seem look ugly because of her beautiful face, but it is nonetheless disgraceful! How dare she act like a common woman?!

"There she goes again…" one of the Huo family members whispered to his wife, who nodded in agreement.

Gerard Jackson's face became dark while Huo Dakuan stiffened on his seat as they continued to listen to the Huo family muttering their complaints with Huo Meiying who has already left.

"She shows a grim face every day…" the second brother murmured.

"Yeah. She also hangs out with Madam Lei instead of her sisters-in-law!" one of Huo Meiying's half-brothers said. She is the only daughter of Huo Dakuan, and the rest of his children with his second wife are all male.

"Can't she give us any face?!" the wife of one of Huo Dakuan's sons.

Suddenly, a woman with an ugly expression on her face spoke. "She's mentally impaired – " she said.

"Enough!" Huo Dakuan yelled. Everyone immediately shut their mouth and lowered their head to face their plate.

Gerard Jackson's face is as dark as the bottom of the pot. Who wouldn't be mad if someone told your wife is mentally impaired? Not because he cared about his wife was badmouthed thus he was angry, but because he cared about his face (reputation). Being associated with someone who is mentally impaired… he clenched his jaw and coldly looked at Huo Dakuan whose expression is as livid as him.

"I've lost my appetite." Gerard Jackson said and threw his table napkin on the table before he rose from his seat and left, rage brewing in his heart.

Huo Dakuan couldn't care more about his disappointing sons. He didn't speak to them and left them with a cold face.

Huo Dakuan's sons felt ashamed, not because they badmouthed their sister, but because they lost their father's face in front of the outsider – Gerard Jackson. Meanwhile, their wives' face turned green after being scolded in front of the outsider – Gerard Jackson.

"That bitc… what?!" the wife of the first son said when her husband tried to cover her mouth to refrain her from speaking.

Meanwhile, the youngest son, who doesn't have a wife despite already thirty-one, just silently finished his food that is as cold as what his heart is now after listening to his elder brothers and their wives, who are outwardly beautiful but ugly inside like rotting apples.

The servants saw him eating the cold food and wanted to stop him but who would dare speak when they were not given an order to speak? Who would dare stop him when they were not given an order to move?

Thus, Huo Jinghua, the youngest brother, finished his food that gone tasteless while he listened to his brothers' and their wives' conversation.

"Always fretting about everything…" his eldest brother's wife complained.

His third elder brother's wife almost spat, but remembered she's now the wife of a rich young master. "I really thought it was just a rumor… who knew she's really got a problem with her brain?" she asked.

"Haven't you heard? The royal family sent her to a country." Her husband, the third son, said. "On the surface, they said she went on a vacation. However, an insider in the royal palace said she's gone to see a doctor." He explained.

The second brother sneered. "She's lucky she was born in the royal family." he said.

His wife's eyes turned green in envy. She wanted to speak, but she's acting a white lotus, so she just smiled. However, in her heart, she's complaining. Why didn't I try hooking up a foreigner? They might be related to the royal family! She thought. And also, handsome! She added and glanced at her husband's ordinary face.

Greed is one of the greatest sins, since it makes people know no satisfaction, placing their wants over their needs.

Suddenly, the eldest son's wife who's known for her ill temper, spoke, which is currently a sensitive topic. "Who knows what's going on inside her mind? Maybe she caused her son's death with her own hands?" she said as she evilly grinned.

Who knows where but suddenly, dozens of black-clothes men appeared out of thin air and surrounded the woman. The eldest son's face paled, including his brothers and their wives, except the youngest son – Huo Jinghua, who was taking his time sipping his water.

"Take her away, including them." Huo Dakuan, who went back unnoticed, spoke while his eyes glared at his good sons as he pointed their wives, his hand shaking in suppressed anger.