Leyna almost choked to suppress her laughter. She looked at Alex's earnest face, then stole a glance at Grace's calm, interested appearance, before she returned her attention to the plate in front of her, at least her visual attention.
Grace nodded, as if taking Alex's words not as a joke, but as something she would calmly consider:
"I will pass the message to Michael."
Alex smiled, unbothered, and continued, waving his fork for good measure:
"Then you've got your second son. Tut, tut, tut…"
Alex shook his head as he tutted, causing Leyna to be swept in by his expression of an elder whose expectations had been disappointed. Holding back a laugh, she asked before she could manage to restrain herself:
"What about Raphael-Sigmund?"
Though she immediately lowered her head, pretending to have been focused on her food all along as Grace's eyes fell on her, Alex looked at her with appreciation for her participation. He considerately nodded in acknowledgement, then returned his smiling eyes to his mother:
"Raphael, that guy, he didn't make the wrong choice by becoming a politician."
Pausing, he shook his head, and lowered his head to his plate. Bringing a forked piece of food to his mouth, he took it in as if he was not eating, but was instead devouring something beyond the simple vegetarian dish, looking almost unsettling with the deep smile at the corner of his lips.
"An omnivorous smiling tiger, capable of eating anything and everything, selling people with a smile while making them count the money for him. You would agree with me that Second has become the true personification of insidiousness wrapped in a package of elegance, wouldn't you?"
Leyna seemed to bury her head further in her almost empty plate. Grace took hold of the glass of juice before her, gripping it loosely before looking at her third son and lightly asking, her calm smile undiminished:
"So?"
Alex relaxed his back against his seat. He raised his glass for a drink, and exhaled:
"Sigh, Mom, even though I'm your son too, I have to say that none of your progeny is ordinary. So, to answer your question, I can only do this for you."
Looking at Alex's earnest and moving expression, the restrained smile at the corner of Grace's lips deepened as she took her glass to her lips and took a sip of the content inside. Putting the glass down, she looked at her youngest son with smiling amusement swirling deep under the calm of her lake-green eyes:
"A carnivore, an omnivore, then a herbivore. Should I thank you for helping me complete the triangle?"
Alex casually waved his hand:
"Of course not. That is what I should do as your son. I can't have you suffering from a bout of obsessive compulsive disorder. Thankfully, while those two unreliable sons of yours are away, you still have me to take care of you."
With that, Alex smiled, and shifted his focus to take care of the last bite on the plate before him. Leyna took the opportunity to insert a question amidst the quiet:
"Then, Alex, aren't you afraid of anyone later telling your brothers what you said about them? You even want the chairwoman to help you pass a message."
Alex raised an eyebrow, but made sure to chew first, a thoughtful expression on his face, then swallowed and, with a careless wave of his hand holding the fork, casually stated:
"Actually, I'm not afraid."
Leyna raised her eyebrows. With the way Alex had been speaking, one would think that even if he did not feel apprehensive about his brothers who were respectively carnivorous and omnivorous, he would at least try to be discreet, not as careless, or one could even say as ostentatious, as he was being now.
Taking in Leyna's slight mix of incredulity and curiosity, Alex grinned as he gestured around with his fork, and explained:
"I would not be surprised if there were any of those two's spies around right now. But what can they do to me even if they know my views? If I hide behind Mom, will they be able to touch me at all?"
Leyna opened her mouth, but even with the poise she had cultivated following the chairwoman of Arland Group, it took her a moment to work through her speechlessness, especially as the conviction on the face across seemed to have solidified it. In the end, all her feelings could only culminate in one word which she spat out at last, her face still a mask of incredulity that didn't seem about to fade away:
"Shameless!"
She found no other word to express herself. If he could not stand in front of his brothers and own his words, where did he get the guts to voice controversial opinions about them?
Looking at the young man, she seemed to be getting to know him anew, even though she should have known him well enough already, because it had not been for just a day or two since he had started calling her 'sis'.
Taking a deep breath to swallow her shock, Leyna glanced at the backing in question, which Alex was banking on. Seeing that, Alex didn't get embarrassed. He even felt amused, as he laughed:
"Shame is a useless thing, sis. If I can hold tight my own mother's leg and let her hold up the sky for me, why should I let myself suffer? I'm not like those two who don't know how to enjoy life or let themselves be pampered. Unlike them, I have been enlightened. Life is not so complicated, after all. Shades exist to be enjoyed, not ignored and wasted."
Alex was like a peacock showing off his feathers. Leyna's expression flickered, amusement battling against her speechlessness, leaving her lips pursed in abject frustration.
Finally, Grace shook her head and interjected with a small smile:
"Alright, Leyna, don't take what he is saying to heart. He just wants me to stop eating too much meat and watch my diet, because of my age. He is indeed doing it for my own good. I will let your aunt Lee make adjustments when I get home later."
The last sentence was said to her son. Raising her glass to her lips in an elegant gesture, chairwoman calmly continued:
"As for the rest, learning from him would not be bad. Some shackles can indeed be unnecessary obstacles in life, but remember to only learn a little."
She looked at her son with a restrained amusement in her lake-green eyes, then tilted her glass with its edge against her slightly parted light red lips.
Alex pouted. He could not help but roll his eyes, feeling wronged:
"Just a little, Mom? Every son should learn from me."