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“Sorry!” Vera calls out, lowering the volume. She shoves the phone back at Qiang Wen, who listens with mounting trepidation at Vera’s narration.
Stop digging!he wants to shout.Please, please stop.
But the video continues playing, showing Vera cooking while the voice-over talks about Xander and how they desperately need to know what really happened to him.
“And I am getting a lot of the DMs,” Vera says proudly. “You know what are the DMs? They stand for ‘directly messaging.’ ”
“Just ‘direct message,’ ” TJ mutters.
“People are doing the DM to me and giving me so much info.”
“Most of them are irrelevant,” TJ adds.
Vera’s glare slices into TJ, and he shrinks back. “TJ, nobody like a no-sayer. No-sayers say nothing, that is why they called no-sayer.”
TJ chews his dumpling sheepishly. “Sorry. I’m just…I don’t know, it’s kind of macabre to me to make content off a poor kid who died.”
“Well, she’s not just making content, Dad,” Robin says. “She’s trying to find out what really happened to him.”
“Nothing happened to him!” Qiang Wen snaps.
They all look at him. Even little Emma. Qiang Wen wishes he could crawl into the kitchen and hide from all of them.
“Sorry,” Qiang Wen says. “This is a tough subject for me.”
Vera’s face scrunches with sympathy. “Of course, Qiang Wen. He was grandson. I am sorry. I should be more sensitive to you. You don’t worry about it, my friend, I will not stop until I am under the bottom of this.”
What can he say to that? It’s not like he can say,No, I don’t want to know what happened to my grandson because I don’t want you to find out the truth.He merely nods and says, “Thank you.”
“Now, one of the DMs say, ‘Vera, you are so fabulous, you have to come to this party on Friday. A lot of people that Xander party with going there, actually he been to this house before, I see on his photo.’ ”
Every pair of chopsticks, except Emma’s, stops in midair. Everyone, except Emma, stares at Vera. After a moment, Emma, noticing the sudden silence, looks around at the table, then at Vera.
“Vera,” TJ says in a wary voice, “are you saying you got an invitation to an influencer party?”
“What is influencer party? You mean influenza party? I hope not. At my age, if I get influenza it will be very bad. You know, I got a touch of pneumonia last year because—”
“Not influenza, influencer,” TJ says. “A party full of the who’s who of social media.”
“Oh!” Vera regards the question for a bit. “It sound like that kind of party, yes. Why?”
“Oh my god, can I go?” Robin says.
“No,” TJ says immediately.
“What is big deal?” Vera says. “I get invite to party all the time.”
They all continue staring at her until she adds, “You know, my weekly dinner with Tilly and all that. They are party.”
“Yes, we play games,” Emma adds.
“There you go,” Vera says. “Very fun party. Everybody have fun.”
“This is going to be a little bit different,” TJ says. “Listen, Vera, I don’t think you should go. I don’t think it’s safe.”
“What nonsense,” Vera says. “I am life of party, everybody say so. Back in the day, my friends and I go take a trip to Macau—oooh, the trouble we get up to. You know, we even get ban from nightclub in Macau!”
Robin’s eyes widen. “Banned from a nightclub? Oh my god, Grandma, how did that happen? Tell me everything, and do not spare the details.”