Rich People Problems (Crazy Rich Asians #3)(72)

Eddie laughed mockingly. "A lovely home? Oh my God, Mum, your flat is a disgrace!"

"I think ninety-five percent of the population of Hong Kong would beg to differ. And don't forget, we even bought you your first flat when you graduated from university to help you get started-"

"Ha! Leo Ming was given a hundred-million-dollar tech company when he graduated."

"And where has that gotten him, Eddie? I don't see that Leo has accomplished much in his life except expand his number of ex-wives. We gave you the support to become successful on your own terms. I can't believe you fail to see all the advantages your father and I tried to give you. How did we manage to raise you to be so ungrateful? I don't hear Cecilia or Alistair complaining about their lives or their surname."



       
         
       
        

"They're both underachieving losers! Cecilia is so obsessed with her horses, you should have named her Catherine the Great! And Alistair and his film-production bullshit-who in Hong Kong has ever seen any of those strange art-house movies that his director friend makes? Fallen Angels? It should have been called 'Fallen Asleep'! I'm the only one of your children who has ever accomplished a damn thing! Do you really want to know what having the surname Cheng has done for me? It meant that I didn't get to go to Robbie Ko-Tung's birthday party at Ocean Park when we were in Primary Two. It meant that I didn't get picked for the debate team at Diocesan. It meant that I didn't get asked to be a groomsman at Andrew Ladoorie's wedding. It meant that I knew I would never get a cushy no-show job at one of the Hong Kong banks and had to spend half my life licking the balls of everyone at Liechtenburg Group in order to claw my way to the top!"

"I never realized you felt this way." Alix shook her head sadly.

"That's because you never bothered to get to know your own children! You've never really had time to care about our needs!"

Alix got up from her chair, finally losing her patience. "I'm not going to sit here in the hot sun and listen to you whine about being a neglected child, when you jet around the world and hardly ever make time for your own kids!"

"Well, that's fitting, isn't it? Dad spent most of my childhood flying to medical conferences in Sweden or Swaziland while you were always off buying up properties in Vancouver. You've never listened to me! You've never once asked me what I truly wanted! YOU'VE NEVER EVEN GIVEN ME A BUTT MASSAGE!" Eddie wailed, as he collapsed onto one of the balcony chairs, his body suddenly wracked with sobs.

Alix stared at her son, thinking that he must have temporarily gone mad.

Eddie wiped away his tears and glared at his mother. "If you truly care about your children, if you truly love us as you say you do, you will say NOTHING to Ah Ma about Nicky. Don't you see what a perfect opportunity this is for us? We need to make sure he never gets to see her, and we need to keep reinforcing to Auntie Felicity that Astrid is still not welcome here! We can tell Uncle Philip that Ah Ma is too weak to see anyone. I will plant myself outside Ah Ma's bedroom at all times-nobody is going to get in or out without my approval!"

"This is insane, Eddie. You can't restrict other family members from seeing Ah Ma like this."

"This is not insane!" Eddie screamed. "YOU'RE insane if you allow us to lose this opportunity. This could be our only chance to get Tyersall Park. Yes-OUR. You see, I'm always thinking of what's best for our family! I'm not doing this just for me, but for Alistair and Cecilia and all your precious grandchildren. If we are the new owners of Tyersall Park, no one can ever say that the Chengs aren't as great as the Youngs or the Shangs. Please don't ruin everything for us now!" 





CHAPTER TEN


TYERSALL PARK, SINGAPORE

"Which bottle?" Jiayi asked in Cantonese as she stood on the third-highest step of the wooden rolling ladder.

"Um … look for any bottle from before 1950," Ah Ling instructed.

The maid squinted her eyes at the ancient yellowing labels affixed to the front of the large glass canisters, looking at the dates. She remembered going to a fancy herbal shop in Shenzhen when she was a teenager and seeing one precious golden tin of yen woh in a locked glass cabinet in the pride of place behind the cash register. Her mother had explained that the container was full of edible bird's nest-one of the most expensive delicacies in China. Now she was looking at an entire shelving unit lined with them. "I can't believe that all these bottles are filled with yen woh. It must be worth a fortune!"