Then, she looked at Charlie who was standing next to her with a shocked and incredulous expression on her face.“This… I… I am not dreaming, am I, Charlie? Why is there a fruit and vegetable garden in our house?!”Charlie looked at her affectionately before he smiled and said, “My silly wife. Of course, you are not dreaming. Don’t you like picking fruits and vegetables? I got someone to look for the best fruit and vegetable plants in Aurous Hill. I will also take care of this vegetable plot for you in the future to ensure that it will bear abundant fruits and vegetables so that you can pick fruits and vegetables for four seasons in a year!”Claire was so touched that her eyes flushed red!She would never have dreamt that her husband would actually prepare such a big surprise for her!When she was young, she had always been hoping to grow some fruits and vegetables in her yard. She would have been extremely satisfied even if it was just a tomato or pepper plant.However, Lady Wils
This morning, Claire felt as though she was the happiest woman in the world.On the other hand, there was a woman who felt that she was the most unlucky woman in the world.This woman was Hannah, who was in the Silverwing Hospital.She was in the gynecology department waiting for her turn. There was a very long queue ahead of her before it was finally her turn.After entering the room, the doctor started with a routine checkup, but even the experienced doctor gaped in bewilderment when she saw the actual condition Hannah was in and asked, “What is going on? Why did you do this to yourself? Do you not care about your personal hygiene at all?”Although it was a female doctor who attended to her, Hannah’s face turned into an ugly shade of red from her remarks, and she wished she could just vanish from this room right now.She covered her face in embarrassment and said, “Doctor, to be honest, it is because of my man. He doesn’t care about cleanliness all that much…”The doctor compl
Hannah felt dizzy and disoriented when she saw the results!Not only did she get gonorrhea, but she also got syphilis?!The f*cking supervisor was a f*cking king of STDs!He literally caused her all this misery!Hannah’s legs turned to jelly, so she hurriedly leaned against the wall and sat on the ground. As she wiped her tears, she flipped to the third page of the report with shaky hands.The third report said: AIDS antibody HIV, the measured value is 0.11, followed by the reference value indicating ’t get AIDS. It would be the end of her world otherwise!She gulped in relief, finally finding a trace of comfort, and then slowly flipped to the last page of the results.Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG): 5324.2!She read the value over and over again, rolled her eyes upward, and almost fainted!Wasn’t… wasn’t this an indicator of positive pregnancy?!Then, she quickly looked
Hannah was stunned in devastation for a while. The moment she regained her composure, her first thought was to get rid of the baby as soon as possible. She turned to the doctor frantically and asked, “Doctor, when is the soonest appointment for the abortion surgery?”“If you want, I can arrange it for you next week, the earliest is next Monday.”Hannah was startled and panicked when she heard that she had to wait until Monday, and she asked anxiously, “Why do I have to wait until Monday? If it’s about money, I can pay double or ten times the price!”The situation was so serious right now, one day of delay meant a higher possibility that her pregnancy would be discovered. She couldn’t help but be in jitters.The doctor shook her head and stated, “It’s not about the money, but only clinic visits are available during the weekend, there are no scheduled operations. If you want to abort the baby, you have to wait until Monday.”“Alright… let’s do it on Monday, then.”Hannah’s expressi
Christopher said, “Mom asked you to go to the market, buy some meat on your way back, and cook lunch when you get home.”Hannah was a little agitated, but she replied calmly, “Okay, I’ll drop by the market and head home.”***Charlie and Claire were at their little orchard the entire morning, picking the vegetables.Claire was as happy as a lively and carefree 18-year-old girl. She picked the vegetables cheerfully, loosening the soil, and watering the plants seriously.Elaine was still waiting to take photos to upload onto her social media. She was on pins and needles when the couple hung out at the orchard for a very long time.When Charlie and Claire finally entered the house with a large basket of vegetables, she hurried downstairs, took out her phone, and started taking selfies and photos of the garden at every angle possible.After standing under the scorching sun and taking countless photos, she rushed back into her room and quickly applied the aloe vera gel on her exposed
Hearing that it was her grandmother who had stolen vegetables from their yard, Claire sighed helplessly and said, “Mom, if it’s grandma, just let her be. Let her pick whatever she wants, it’s just some vegetables.”Elaine blurted in disdain, “Oh no, you can’t say that. What did your grandma ever give us anyway? Did you forget how she treated us? Huh, after everything she’s done, she has the audacity to steal vegetables from our yard?! No, I can’t let her!”Claire shook her head forlornly. “Mom, don’t overthink this, okay? Grandma wants some for herself too since she sees how fresh and big our vegetables are, don’t be so stingy.”Elaine mumbled in annoyance, “You are a little traitor, hmph!” Then, she turned and headed up the stairs angrily and went back to her room.However, the more Elaine thought about it, the more she felt that they were on the losing side. They had such a wonderful vegetable garden full of top-quality vegetables, she did not even want to spare a single vegetabl
Hannah was mortified by the diagnosis, hence, she had wanted to please Lady Wilson and her husband by overcompensating them. She had obtained some extra money from selling the coffee machine, so, she used the money to buy some ribs and pork belly to cook a wholesome meal for her family.Lady Wilson frowned in dismay when she learned that Hannah had bought vegetables, and she chided her in dissatisfaction, “Oh my goodness, why did you waste money on vegetables?”Hannah asked in surprise, “Mom, we can’t just eat meat! We have to have a balanced meal for all the vitamins and nutrients our body needs.”Lady Wilson pulled her to the kitchen and pointed to the basket of vegetables she had just stolen and said, “See that? I stole all those fresh vegetables from Charlie’s yard. They have a large vegetable garden in their yard that we can simply pick by reaching into their fence. We don’t have to spend money on vegetables in the future.”Hannah suddenly remembered that she had seen Charlie’
After lunch, Zeke made arrangements to send a truckload of daffodils to Charlie’s house.The daffodils he sent were all high-quality grades that were very lush and green, and none of them were flowering as per Charlie’s request.Daffodils looked very similar to chives especially when they were not blooming. People in the city could not distinguish plants very clearly. Also, most people who ate chives had only seen chives sold in the market that were tied in a bundle, but they had never seen chives growing in the ground, so they were unable to differentiate chives and daffodils in plain sight and would often get confused by the similarities.Chive was a vegetable fancied by many people. It was an indispensable amazing ingredient when it came to stir-frying, soup, making pies, or dumplings. However, daffodils were not edible.Why? Because daffodils contained narcissus.Narcissus was a toxic alkaloid.When Elaine told Charlie that Lady Wilson liked to eat chives, he immediately
Pausing, Julien then said, "I mostly drink wine and the occasional whiskey.""How much are those, usually?" Raymond asked.Julien thought about it. "If it's table wine, 10,000 to 50,000 USD. For bigger occasions, it'd be something over a hundred thousand."Raymond nodded and pointed at the bottle of Oskian vodka he had bought. "Guess how much that is?"Julein shook his head. "I don't usually drink Oskian alcohol, so I'm not too sure…""Come on," Charlie chuckled. "We're not asking if you know—we're just asking you to take a guess.""Then…" Julien quickly said. "I'm guessing, three thousand?""Three thousand?" Raymond chuckled and shook his head. "That's way too flattering. It's around 7 USD.""Seven bucks?!" Julien exclaimed, and he blurted, "You usually drink something that cheap, Mr. Cole?""Well, not stateside," Raymond smiled. "But I liked it after I ordered one from a diner yesterday. It's cheap, and it has quality."Julien gulped as he stared at his own cup filled to th
Julien flinched and promptly threw his hands up. "No, no, no… please don't say that, Mr. Wade! That's not what I mean—as a son, it's only right that I hope my father lives long and prospers. Why wouldn't I want him to?"Charlie pointed out, "Then why'd you say that I've screwed you over repeatedly?""Oh. I, uh…" Julien wasn't sure how to respond to that, and he groaned unhappily, "I was not being mindful with words. I take that back…" Charlie nodded. "Then, I'll give you another chance.""Huh?" Julien was left confused, and he quickly asked, "Another chance… for what?"Charlie clapped him on the shoulder again, smiling, "We're old friends, aren't we? Why would I screw you over? Anyway, your turn."Julien was left utterly aggrieved as he read through Charlie's intention—that was precisely the definition of screwing him over!If his father knew he had come to Aurous Hill to hang out with these two, especially Biden Cole, he would definitely be removed as heir! And yet, Charlie
Having seen a sliver of the common folk's plight, Julien turned back to the journey at hand.Soon, his MPV arrived at Aurous Hill's Antique Street.As it was closing hours, the place appeared bleak, almost as though it had been completely abandoned. It was only during opening hours and the few hours before closing that the place became most alive anyway.Most of the time, the vendors and employees outnumbered the guests, and during closing hours, it would get very quiet. One wouldn't even find strays here as there weren't scraps around.Still, Julien had no idea what the hell the place was, even as he arrived outside Treasure Measure following the location Charlie had sent.Once he was sure he was at the right place, he called Charlie, immediately sounding respectful and flattering, "I'm here, Mr. Wade. If you don't mind opening the door…""Alright, just hang on," Charlie said and put down the phone while turning to Raymond, who was putting the food on a folding table, "Our frien
The lawyer then finished, "To be honest, cases of regretting a donation and seeking a lawsuit to get the money back? Law firms usually won't even get one per year, and that makes it especially newsworthy for the press."Also, court records are always public. That means anyone can access the verdict, and there's no hiding anything. So, if you want the lawsuit, you'd better be prepared."Jacob was already left in despair.All he wanted was to get his money back, but he didn't think that it would end up as public knowledge.And Mr. Bay had just told him over the phone that he would try to quell the scandal's pressure and try his best to protect Jacob's place as vice president.If Jacob's name was suddenly mentioned in a lawsuit attempting to reclaim an 'accidental' donation, even Mr. Bay couldn't save him at that point.Hence, after thinking long and hard about it, Jacob realized that he was not getting his 300 thousand back.The thought crushed him, and he burst into tears, "What
At this hour, most of the employees at Talbot Associates had already left.However, there were several lawyers who had just finished a meeting regarding a certain case, and they were just leaving when Jacob arrived.Seeing that they were packing up their bags and ready to leave, he asked, "Excuse me, are you still able to take cases?"The leader smiled, "Yes, but it's a little late now. Why don't you come again tomorrow morning?"Jacob shook his head impatiently. "This is very urgent—please help me and hear me out, then see if it will work. 300 thousand banks on this, so I'll give you twenty percent whether or not I get it back!"300 thousand was really neither here nor there.However, if it were an easy civil case, that twenty percent commission would still mean sixty thousand.The lawyer thought about it. "Fine. Tell us what your problem is, and we will assess the situation first. If it's easy, we can give you a general strategy right now. But if it proves difficult, we'll hav
The cabbie nodded. "Well, Talbot Associates, it is! They're said to be number two."-While Jacob was heading off to consult a law firm, Charlie was calling Julien Rothschild over the phone.The manchild had just had room service and was lounging on the couch, fiddling with his phone.After visiting the kennels with Charlie, he had been idling his days away at the hotel, waiting for Salem and his son to post that video of them being out at sea.Once that was done, Julien would return to the States, once more the heir apparent of the Rothschilds. Still, it was boring to simply lounge around in the hotel, and he would really like to strengthen his ties with Charlie.However, he was also afraid of being too forward as Charlie could be intimidating, and he could upset him—just like a fan eager to get close to their idol but was still worried about their idol getting disgusted with them.As such, he never expected Charlie to call him, and he immediately answered eagerly, "Good even
Pausing, Mr. Bay continued, "If they're not that upset with the idea, I'll bang my gavel and make the call so that you can at least stay as a vice president."If they keep refusing, I just have to promote Mr. Zonda to become a vice president while you take over his position of head-of-department as insurance. What do you think?"Jacob certainly wouldn't protest the idea of insurance, especially when he thought he would be forced to leave the Calligraphy and Painting Association altogether earlier. He quickly exclaimed gratefully, "Thank you so much, Mr. Bay!"Mr. Bay chuckled, clearly relieved as well. "Come on, Jacob—you don't have to be so formal. I'm like a brother to you! Don't you think that's what I should be doing?"Jacob laughed earnestly for once. "Well, brother, I'm honestly relieved…" He trailed off but soon pressed on, "But I have to ask, won't the other members have things to say even if you manage to persuade the other vice presidents? What if they remain unhappy?
There were times when making a person despair to some extent could be a people-strategy.For example, when your distant acquaintance asked for a ten grand loan but you could only lend him one, you couldn't tell him directly that. It would make them think you were being insincere.The better option would be to tell them how you were worse off than they were and had a debt yourself, or that some other friend had borrowed money for three years and never repaid it.And when that mere acquaintance was in despair, you could tell them that if it was really important, you could lend them one thousand with a credit card loan.That way, while the mere acquaintance wouldn't exactly be awash with gratitude, they at least wouldn't complain about your lack of sincerity.That was exactly what Mr. Bay was doing.He had no intention of offending Jacob, but he also couldn't directly tell him to give up on claiming the position as president of the Calligraphy and Painting Association. Otherwise, Ja
Jacob felt absolutely horrible just then, and he certainly did not expect Don Albert to give him the cold shoulder.If he had known, he would have just stayed content with the 200 thousand he had made and enjoyed his trip to Dubai! If he had, the Calligraphy and Painting Association wouldn't have found out about the bronze sculpture plot, and Don Albert would still be on friendly terms with him.Absolutely regretting everything, Jacob got in the backseat of the cab, tears of grief almost welling up and out of his eyes.Then, noticing that the cabbie was quietly watching him from the rearview mirror, he turned his face aside, whipped out his phone, and called Mr. Bay.As soon as Mr. Bay answered, he asked, "How did things go over there? Have you sorted out Zachary Evans yet?"He was waiting for Jacob to ask Don Albert for help so that the latter would pressure Zachary into posting a statement retracting his previous claims.However, Jacob knew full well that there was no hope for