"Let's go." Coming out of the cemetery, Nick sighed to Ryan, who had been waiting at the intersection.
Ryan nodded and silently followed by his side. Ryan knew quite a bit about Nick's personal life, but he managed to maintain a rare silence. As the person closest to and most trusted by Nick on the road, Ryan knew that sometimes silence was more valuable than empty comfort.
The holiday spirit in his hometown was incredibly strong; firecrackers had been echoing non-stop across the city since early morning. Although the city council had intended to issue a strict ban on fireworks over the past two years, it had never actually been enforced. Fortunately, Nick's new home was located on the edge of a famous nature reserve in the suburbs, so it was a little quieter.
Seeing Nick's heavy expression upon returning from visiting his mother's grave, Helen immediately said to her daughter: "Lily, go help your brother hang up the holiday banners outside."
"On it!" Lily ran over happily with the festive decorations. "Nick, over here!"
Looking at his younger sister's bright, smiling face, Nick managed a smile and took the decorations from her.
"How's this look?"
"A bit higher."
"How about now?"
"It's crooked, a little to the right."
"Is it good now?"
"A little bit lower—stop, right there!"
With the siblings working together, the holiday decorations were finally up. The two stood in the front yard with their hands on their hips, admiring the fruits of their labor. Meanwhile, Ryan was holding a broom, following behind Harold to help sweep the driveway and courtyard.
"Dad, let me take that," Nick said, stepping up to take the broom from his father's hand.
Harold nodded and sat down on a stone bench to the side. Nick watched as Ryan helped him clean up the stray leaves, while his younger sister, Lily, claimed to be helping but was actually just getting in the way.
"How many days are you staying this time?" Harold lit a cigarette and asked.
Nick glanced at him, keeping his hands moving. "I'll stay through Christmas, and then I have to head out on the morning of the twenty-sixth."
"Why don't you just leave right now, huh? You basically just got here!" Upon hearing this, Harold's face fell, and he immediately scolded him.
Nick didn't know what to say. After a long pause, he finally sighed. "Dad, I still have employees working holiday overtime shifts back at the company, so I need to get back early to check on things. Look, if you and Lily have some free time, you guys can come over and stay with me for a few days. I just bought a place in Tampa; it's huge, plenty of room for everyone to visit."
"Hmph!" Harold glared at him, clearly unsatisfied with the answer, stood up, and marched right back into the house. Seeing this, Nick smiled bitterly, shook his head, and continued sweeping.
Not long after they finished cleaning the yard, his uncle's family arrived. His uncle was incredibly traditional—or rather, completely stubborn—and obsessed with family hierarchy and old-school dynamics. In the past, Nick's family always had to be the ones to make the drive over to his place to pay formal holiday respects. The fact that his uncle's family had actually taken the initiative to make the drive out to their new house this time made his father, Harold, secretly feel a bit smug.
His uncle's name was Peter, and he was in his mid-fifties, currently working as a local county official in their hometown district. His aunt, Martha, was a former clerk at a state-run utility office who had been out of work ever since the company downsized years ago.
These two had previously looked down on Nick's immediate family, firmly believing his father was just a small-time local contractor who had only done well over the years by relying on Peter's influence as a local official. Because of that, the relationship between the two brothers had been strained for years, but no matter how cold things got, they still always forced themselves to get together every holiday season.
Originally, Nick and his family had planned to head over to their place later in the week, so they hadn't expected his uncle's family to show up on their doorstep so early.
Along with the old couple came his eldest cousin, Kevin, his wife, and their young son. This part of the family was unbelievably enthusiastic toward Nick. His aunt, Martha, kept pulling him aside to chat, asking a million questions about his life and business.
Nick was no fool; he naturally knew exactly why his uncle's family had taken the initiative to be so nice this year. But they were his elders after all, so he answered what he realistically could, and for the questions that were too invasive, he just laughed them off. For example, when his aunt bluntly asked exactly how much money his tech firm had made this quarter, Nick just smiled and changed the subject.
Of than that, the conflicts of the older generation belonged to them; his personal relationship with his cousin Kevin actually wasn't bad. It was just that Kevin was over thirty now and had long since turned into a tired, typical middle-aged guy. When talking with Nick, the conversation was mostly about boring family budgeting and local gossip, completely lacking the easy, fun way they used to hang out when they were younger.
Perhaps this was just real life; when your financial status changes, everyone's perspective shifts. Nick honestly couldn't stand the sudden, forced enthusiasm, feeling it would have been so much better if they could just talk normally like they used to.
"By the way, didn't my other cousin, Brian, come home this year?" Nick asked his aunt, Martha, who was currently chatting with his stepmother, Helen, on the sofa.
"Him? He said his military leave wasn't approved this holiday season, so he couldn't fly back. His wife is taking care of the baby alone back at the base, so she couldn't make the trip either," Martha said, her tone unusually sweet.
This second cousin of his had once been his absolute role model growing up. Brian had trained as an athlete for a few years, got into a military academy, and was currently stationed out with the military commands in the Pacific Northwest. Because of his deployment, they rarely saw each other; over the last several years, they had only crossed paths once or twice.
"Nick, do you have a girlfriend yet? Do you need your aunt to help set you up?" Martha asked, squeezing Nick's hand with immense enthusiasm. "I have a niece on my side of the family who just graduated from a top university and currently works a great job at a federal agency. She's beautiful, and she would be an absolute perfect match for a successful CEO like you."
"Uh, actually, Aunt Martha, I already have a girlfriend," Nick said with a forced, polite smile. Faced with this kind of pressure, even if he didn't have one, he would have lied and said he did. Not to mention he was already close with Vivian; even if he hadn't met her yet, he wouldn't have agreed to a blind date set up by his aunt.
"Really? How come I haven't heard your mom or dad mention it?" Martha looked over at Helen with a suspicious frown.
Seeing the trap, Helen quickly smiled and cut in. "This boy kept it a total secret from us; we only found out ourselves just the other day. Look, the girl even sent us a ton of high-end gifts this holiday. She sent Lily a gorgeous pearl necklace, a luxury skincare set for me, and a custom designer pen for Harold. With Nick's typical clueless nature, he never would have thought to pick out things like that for us."
Hearing this, Martha nodded slowly, looking at Nick with a knowing smile. "You sly kid, keeping a girlfriend hidden away like that. When are you going to bring her back home so your aunt can meet her?"
"Hehe, there will be plenty of time for that down the road," Nick said with a quick laugh. But inside, he couldn't help but groan. No wonder my dad and Helen looked at me so weirdly when I unpacked those gift boxes yesterday; it turns out they knew from the very start that I didn't have the taste to buy any of that.
"Nick, come over here and talk with your uncle for a minute." Peter, who was sitting across the room from his father, called out, rescuing him from his aunt's side of the couch. But the second Nick realized he had to deal with his uncle's lecture, he felt an entirely new wave of exhaustion wash over him.
If it were anyone else in business, it wouldn't be an issue, but dealing with family was a total minefield. Facing them, even if he was a billionaire tech founder, under his father's watchful gaze, Nick had to be incredibly careful, polite, and respectful. He was terrified that if he slipped up or sounded arrogant, he would offend his relatives and make his father furious.
The conversation with his uncle felt less like a casual family chat and more like a corporate employee reporting progress to a strict manager, which made Nick incredibly uncomfortable, though he couldn't let it show on his face.
His uncle's underlying message, stripped of all the small talk, really boiled down to one thing: now that Nick had made it big in the tech world, he shouldn't forget his roots and the community that raised him. Now that the county was looking to build a new agricultural processing plant and tech park in the district, Peter wanted to know if Nick had any intention of investing—maybe backing the local project with ten or twenty million dollars to help the town out.
The request left him completely speechless and incredibly helpless. It was true what they said: family politics and human relationships are always the absolute hardest things to handle.