"Don't mind my rudeness, but I noticed your interaction with Mrs Liu, and you two seemed pretty close. Do you share a special relationship with her?" the girl that first spoke to Chen Lihua asked curiously.

"She is my mother-in-law," Chen Lihua replied with a smile as she looked towards the direction her mother-in-law disappeared towards before looking back at the ladies, not taking offence with her question.

​​

"Wow! So you are married?" one of the ladies asked in surprise.

"Yes, I am," Chen Lihua replied happily. She seemed to be very happy with her marriage.

"Your ring is beautiful," one of the girls said with a little excitement in her voice. She had noticed the beautiful Graff Pink Diamond Ring majestically sitting on Chen Lihua's ring finger.

"Thank you," Chen Lihua replied.

"Can we take a close look at it," the third Lady asked excitedly.

Chen Lihua glanced at her before looking at the crowd. Some of them were beginning to pay attention to them.

The three ladies followed her sight till it came to rest on the crowd. Seeing that they had caught the attention of some of them, they understood Chen Lihua. So they didn't insist on having a closer look at the ring again, in order not to put her in an awkward situation.

"Your ring looks quite expensive. It must have cost a little fortune to buy it," the first Lady said.

"Did you say quite expensive? That ring is very expensive and rare. The pink diamond is very rare, so even if you had the money, you might not be able to get it," the second Lady said.

"Wow!" the two other ladies exclaimed. They were shocked to learn about the details of the ring that was majestically sitting on Chen Lihua's finger.

"If Madam Liu is your mother-in-law, which of her sons did you get married to?" the third Lady asked.

"Longwei," Chen Lihua answered as her lips turned up in a beautiful smile that bloomed like the flowers.

"Wow! That's wonderful," the second Lady said.

"I can't believe that our heartthrob has been taken," the third Lady said with a little disappointment in her voice.

The first Lady gently nudged her arm as she gently reprimanded her. "Well, your heartthrob is someone's husband now, so could you please have a little dignity?"

The third Lady seem to come back to her senses when she met Chen Lihua's smiling face.

"OMG! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to say that," she quickly apologized to Chen Lihua. Because she was carried away by her imaginative thoughts, she forgot that Liu Longwei was Chen Lihua's husband and that she was sitting close to her.

"No offence taken," Chen Lihua replied with a smile.

She wasn't angry at all.

'Longwei, it looks like you have so many ladies after you,' she said to herself.

"You seemed to know my mother-in-law?" Chen Lihua turned the question to the first Lady. The one that asked her if she had a special relationship with Madam Liu.

"That's right. I've seen her at so many functions and parties, and have also heard a lot about her and her best friend, Lady Chen from my mother," the first Lady replied.

Chen Lihua just nodded her head in a smile.

"Hold on, did you just say Lady Chen?" the second Lady asked in surprise as a thought suddenly popped up in her head.

"Yeah, I did. Why are you getting so riled up for?" the first Lady asked in confusion.

The second Lady didn't reply. Instead, she glanced at Chen Lihua and then back at the two other ladies who followed her sight in confusion.

Then as if the three had come to a tacit understanding, they stared at Chen Lihua in shock.

Chen Lihua understood that look, so she smiled and decided to satiate their expectant look, "Lady Chen is my mother."

"Wow!" the three girls chorused and began to throw questions at Chen Lihua.

They even talked about their careers and their families, and that was how Chen Lihua got to know that the three girls don't stay in City B.

The four of them chatted for a bit before they stood up to leave after exchanging their contact information when Madam Liu arrived.

"It looks like you were quite busy when I was away?" Madam Liu commented while putting the tray in her hands on the table.

"Yes, mother. I met those three ladies, and we talked. And it turns out that they know you and my mother," Chen Lihua smile as she replied, before going further to recount the ladies' facial expressions, and how they reacted when she confirmed that Lady Chen was her mother.

Madam Liu smiled and said while passing a glass of champagne and a plate of dessert to her, "You talked for a long time. Have something to drink to quench your thirst, and eat something to replenish the lost energy."

"Thank you, mother," Chen Lihua smiled as she collected the champagne glass to have a taste of its content.

As for Old Lady Liu, she was having fun with her friends.

When her granddaughter-in-law and daughter-in-law left earlier, her friends continued asking about Chen Lihua. They were already fond of her.

Old Lady Liu answered their questions with a happy smile etched on her face. She only told them what they should know. The rest, she swallowed them.

"Is your granddaughter-in-law, Dr Chen that works at Standard Union Hospital (SUH)?" one of the old ladies asked with keen interest.

"Yes, she is a cardio-thoracic surgeon there," Old Lady Liu confirmed with a proud smile on her face.

"If that is so, then she must be the one that saved Old Long's life," the Old Lady replied with a joyful expression on her face.

"She saved your husband's life, how?" one of the old ladies asked curiously.

I am sure by now you must have known that the Old Lady asking about Chen Lihua is Old Lady Long.

Chen Lihua brought up a new medical technique that helped save his life. Chairman Long was the patient that had a sudden cardiac arrest while taking a walk in the park.

After Chief Surgeon Song introduced Chen Lihua to him as his saviour, he went back home after he was discharged and spread the news to his family.

Old Lady Long went ahead to give them the details of what transpired.

"Old Liu, you are quite lucky to have a wonderful girl like your granddaughter-in-law. My husband wanted to introduce one of our grandson's to her, but it turned out that she was already married to your grandson, Longwei."

This new subject alone, caused the Old ladies to become excited as they pestered Old Lady Long for more details.

Old Lady Liu, on the other hand, smiled from ear to ear as she listened to their conversation.