Chapter 1226: Jokes are half meant

After their arrival, the Bennet brothers and Zoren had one day to rest before returning to work. However, given everything that had happened, they decided it was best to resume their usual routines immediately. Who knew? Another day of rest, and life might throw them lemons again. They didn’t want to risk it.

"Goodness." Penny puckered her lips as she shook her head, sinking into her chair. "Grace really has a scary sense of humor at times. Aunty? Oh, my goodness. I just got goosebumps!"

As a child, Penny had tried matching Haines with all sorts of women. At first, she attempted to set him up with her homeroom teacher, Miss Sandford. But not only did Haines ruin that by threatening her teacher, he didn’t even try to entertain the idea. When Penny had to live with him, she tried again—this time, bolder and more obvious.

Haines ruined all of those, too.

But still... Grace and her uncle? Never in her wildest imagination had she thought of that.

Penny narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "She wasn’t being serious, was she?" She recalled the playful yet sophisticated look on Grace’s face earlier. "Damn it! I think she was serious!"

"Is this a good thing? But Uncle Haines is twice her age!" she gasped. "I didn’t get into any incidents today, but now she’s making me think too much."

Knock, knock.

Penny’s thoughts halted at the sound of a knock. Snapping her eyes up, she watched the door open.

"Hey there!" Yugi peeked his head in before stepping inside, holding a handful of papers. "Special delivery for you!"

"And these are...?"

"Some papers you might want to shred. My hands hurt too much to do it myself," he quipped, stopping in front of her desk as he dropped the papers. "I’m kidding. These papers sum up the happenings of your five-day absence."

"Well, thanks!"

"Anyway, why did you look like you’d seen a ghost when you walked in earlier?"

"Not a ghost — just the terrifying thought that Grace might become my aunt!" Penny raised her brows briefly as she pulled the documents closer.

"Grace? As your aunt?" Yugi tilted his head. "Now, I’m intrigued."

"Don’t ask. She made a really bad joke, and when lawyers joke, you know what they say — jokes are half-meant — applies to them especially." Penny shook her head, skimming through the pages. "Well, I guess leaving for five days wasn’t so bad. Everything looks good."

"Did you think this company would crumble just because you weren’t here?" Yugi arched a brow. "Don’t forget — I’m here. And Uncle Wild, too."

Penny shrugged and gazed up at him. "Speaking of Uncle Wild, I haven’t seen him since I got back."

"It’s his day off."

"I know, but usually, on his day off, he still comes here just to watch his shows. You know him—he loves bragging about how he can show up and do nothing but watch his dramas."

"Didn’t you know?" Yugi furrowed his brows. "Uncle Wild has a girlfriend. They’ve been spending a lot of time together."

"Huh?" Penny scrunched up her nose. "Since when?"

"Since you arranged all those ridiculous dates for him, your uncle, and your brothers."

Penny slammed her hands on the desk as she shot up. "Say what?!"

"Well, I thought you knew, but that’s the tea." Yugi shrugged. "Either you were aware and didn’t care back then, or this is news to you. Either way, it works better for us."

"And why is that?"

"Because... hehe. He’s been in a great mood since then. People even started giving him things to do on his days off. Like you said, he loves showing off, and no one was happy about that."

"Oh... my god..."

Yugi studied her reaction, his brows knitting together. "Why? What’s the matter? Isn’t this a good thing? You set up those dates yourself—shouldn’t you be happy?"

"It’s not that I’m unhappy, but both of my uncles might just end up spending Valentine’s early."

"Both of your..."

"I told you—Grace made a joke." Penny blinked at him. "The other uncle is Uncle Haines."

"Oh." Yugi’s mouth formed a perfect ’O’ as he rocked his head in understanding. "Isn’t that great? Finally, Uncle Haines will have someone by his side! And not just anyone—a healthy, beautiful, exceptionally smart young lady in her early thirties. Good for him!"

"..." Penny pouted, contemplating it. "Well... that’s true."

"Even so, Grace might be interested, but the problem is never the woman—you know that."

"I don’t want him to hurt her."

"Penny, you do understand that I’m joking, right?"

"But I’m not."

"Oh, God. You."

"Never mind that." Penny shook her head before her brain overheated. "Anyway, how did you know we looked wrecked when we got back?"

Yugi smirked. "CCTVs. I took a peek. Don’t take it the wrong way — your arrival was delayed, and with all the recent plane crash news, I got a little concerned."

"Oh, God..." Penny exhaled. "I knew it."

"Hehe. Anyway, the final plan for the cyber hacking competition is in there." Yugi pointed at the documents he had handed her. "Check it over and let me know if there’s anything you want to add or remove."

With that, he turned on his heel and strolled toward the door. Flashing her a parting smile, he waved before stepping out and closing the door behind him.

Penny clicked her tongue and sank back into her seat. Raising her brows, she flipped through the documents and then pulled out another folder. Picking up a sample poster for an upcoming Prime Group event, she leaned back and read it.

It was a poster for their first hacking competition.

This was one of the projects that had kept her busy before the trip—a competition to promote their company and recruit new members for their cybersecurity team. It was a joint venture between Prime Group and Pierson Corporation.

"Heh." Penny smiled in satisfaction. "This brings back a lot of memories."

Lifting her gaze toward the door, she shook her head. "Back then, Yugi and I joined these kinds of competitions just for fun. But now, we’re hosting one ourselves. I hope we find some promising candidates."