Rich People Problems-Kwan 2017 (WWT)

“Whose birthday is it now?” Jiayi asked.
“Nobody’s. But Mrs. Young’s brother Alfred Shang is coming over for Friday-night
dinner. And we know how much he likes yen woh.”
“So he gets to have it whenever he wants?”
“Of course! This used to be his house too, you know.”
“Life is so unfair…” Jiayi muttered as she strained to open the lid of the bottle of dried
longans.
There was a knock on the door, and Vikram, the head of security, poked his head in and
smiled at Ah Ling. “There you are! Ah Tock said you were down in the larder, but he didn’t
say which one. I searched two other larders before finding you!”
“I only ever come to the dried-goods larder, because only I have the key. The other
larders I never bother with. What do you need?”
Vikram eyed the young maid scooping out the dried longans into a bowl and said to the
housekeeper, “May I have a few minutes of your time after you’re done with this?”
Ah Ling looked over at Jiayi. “Take everything up to Ah Ching now. And maybe if you
are very nice to her, she will let you have a little taste of the yen woh on Friday.”
As soon as the maid had left the room, Ah Ling asked in a slightly weary tone, “What is
the problem today?”
“Well, I’ve been going through something in my mind for the last couple of days,”
Vikram began. “You know how Joey’s been out on leave since his mother’s surgery? Well,
I took over his patrol schedule myself, and the other day while I was on the roof, I
overheard something rather interesting coming from Mrs. Young’s balcony.”
Ah Ling’s ears perked up. “What was so interesting?”
“It was Eddie Cheng talking to his mother. From what I could gather, it sounds like
Mrs. Young never said she didn’t want to see Nicky. I think Eddie made it all up.”
Ah Ling cracked a smile. “I suspected this all along. Su Yi has never banned anyone
from the house before, and surely not Nicky of all people.”
“I felt it was wrong too, but what could I say? Clearly Eddie has an agenda of his own,
and he’s the one who has instigated this ban on Nicky. And Victoria has fallen for his
ploy.”
“What did Alix have to say? I’m surprised she’s going along with it—mother and son are
usually at loggerheads.”
“She didn’t say much. He was so busy screaming at her, the poor woman could hardly
get a word in. Apparently Eddie has held a grudge against his mother for a very long time
because she won’t massage his buttocks.”
“Whaaaat?” Ah Ling made a face.
Vikram couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. “Yes, I know, strange family. What can you
expect—they’re Hong Kongers. Anyway, Alix tried to reason with Eddie, but he’s
determined to make sure Nicky doesn’t get to see Mrs. Young at all. He’s gotten it into his
fat head that he alone will inherit Tyersall Park—that’s why he’s been planting himself