Initially, Dylan thought that he would be the ultimate winner. He was absolutely certain that no one would be willing to buy this so-called Rejuvenating Pill for 150 million dollars, but he was terribly wrong. He didn’t expect Travis Lane to give him a slap to the face with his actions.He turned and glanced at Travis, astoundment and shock written all over his face as he asked, “Mr. Lane, what do you mean?”Travis knew that Dylan came from an impressive background, but the Rejuvenating Pill was too tempting for him to own even if he had to offend the Koch family by doing so.Who would miss this precious chance of getting younger by 20 years old?!Even the Gods could not stop Travis from bidding for the pill, let alone a mere Dylan Koch.He looked back at Dylan and said flatly, “I’m sorry, Mr. Koch. I’ve longed for Master Wade’s miraculous Rejuvenating Pill for a long time. Now that the precious chance is right in front of my eyes, I cannot let it slip from my hand. Please forgive
“270 million!”“280 million!”“290 million!”Graham immediately raised his hand again and shouted, “300 million!”The bidding was proceeding intensely. Someone would raise the price as soon as the other person finished his bidding.They increased the bidding price of 10 million at a time continuously in order to grab the Rejuvenating Pill.Soon, the whole scene had become very lively and chaotic. Even people with a net worth of only about 1 billion joined in the bandwagon and increased the bidding price because everyone knew that money was valuable, but longevity was even more expensive.Dylan felt that every time someone bid a price, it was a slap to his face.He had never been so embarrassed in his life.However, this was just the beginning.He was in a deep mess now, and he was wondering how he would walk out of here without embarrassing himself further.Did he really have to swallow the ruby necklace?At this moment, the bid was still ongoing, and it was very happening.
After Zeke bid 1.1 billion, Graham felt that he should raise the bar too, otherwise, he would lose this precious chance to obtain the Rejuvenating Pill. Thus, he gritted his teeth and said, “Since Mr. White has already bid 1.1 billion, I offer 1.2 billion.”Travis didn’t mind the competition though. He was richer than Graham and Zeke combined, hence, it didn’t make much difference to him even if it was 1.2 or 1.5 billion. He was determined to win the Rejuvenating Pill, so he said flatly, “If so, I’ll go straight to 2 billion.”The hall was rocked by the echoing sound of the audiences’ gawking.The auction price had increased from 1.2 billion to 2 billion! This was simply the most incredible and the most expensive auction anyone had ever seen.What was it like to have 2 billion dollars? If your monthly allowance was 10 million, you would have the same amount of allowance every month for 17 years.If you deposited 2 billion into the bank with an annual interest rate of 5%, your annu
Travis didn’t dare to take the Rejuvenating Pill and hurriedly said, “Master Wade, I haven’t paid the money yet, so I won’t dare to take the pill from you. I’ll call my company’s financial department and transfer the money to your account right away.”Charlie nodded with a smile. He then took out his card and passed it to Travis. “This is my card, please transfer the money into this account.”Dylan was taken aback when he glimpsed the card. That was the exclusive black card of Citibank, wasn’t it?!There were no more than five people in the country who owned that card.Moreover, Citibank provided very strong privacy protection for their exclusive black card members. Who was this Charlie and where had he come from? How could he have this card?!At this moment, Charlie suddenly looked at Dylan and said with a coy smile, “Mr. Koch, your necklace is worth 20 million dollars while my Rejuvenating Pill is worth 2 billion. You don’t need me to tell you whose item is more expensive, right
Dylan was extremely regretful right now. He shouldn’t have proposed such a stupid bet with Charlie to see who had the more expensive gift.Now, he actually had to do a performance where he would swallow a ruby necklace. He had to pay a double cost!Isaac was still staring at him, so he didn’t dare to bluff his way out of it. Hence, he ground his teeth and blurted, “Okay, I, Dylan Koch, am willing to admit defeat!”He looked at Jasmine and said in a rather remorseful tone, “Miss Jasmine, please lend me the ruby necklace.”Jasmine frowned in great dismay when she heard his request.‘What do you mean by lending it to you? Will you give it back to me after using it?’Feeling disgusted and irritated, she hurriedly handed the gift box to him and said in a very serious tone, “Mr. Koch, you can keep the present.”It was then that Dylan realized that he had misspoken. He had to swallow the ruby necklace, which meant the only way the necklace could come out of his body was by pooping it o
At this moment, Dylan’s first thought was to induce vomiting for him to spit out the necklace.Spitting it out was better than pooping it, right?Oscar hurriedly said, “Mr. Koch, I’ll take you to the washroom. This way please.”Dylan stood up immediately and followed Oscar.When he was in the washroom, he dug deep into his mouth desperately and kept vomiting, triggering a series of nausea and gag reflexes.There were a few times when he could feel the necklace reaching his throat, but he couldn’t vomit it out.He tried several times until his face flushed and even turned purple, but in the end, he was forced to give up as he felt an intense pain coming from his throat and esophagus, and soon, he had lost the strength to induce vomiting.He shuddered in disgust again when he imagined the fact that he had to poop the thing out of his anus in days to come. He even wondered if the necklace would get stuck in his intestines.Frightened, he immediately took out his phone and called h
At this moment, the pilot of Dylan’s private jet was preparing to line up for takeoff at Aurous Airport.When he received Dylan’s call, he said, “Young Master, I am at the airport right now, ready to take-off.”Dylan blurted, “Hurry, inform the tower to postpone the take-off and then drive the plane back to the business jet hangar. Wait for me, I’ll return to Eastcliff tonight.”The pilot asked in surprise, “But you just came here this morning. Didn’t you say that you were going to stay for a few days? Why do you want to go back so suddenly?”Dylan said anxiously, “It’s none of your business. Wait for me at the airport hangar, I’ll go to the airport right now.”The pilot quickly said, “Okay, Young Master. I’ll request the tower to cancel my take-off now.”When Dylan finally emerged with a grumpy face, Oscar, who was waiting by the washroom door, greeted him graciously, “Mr. Koch, how do you feel?”“Not good!” Dylan snorted, “Tell your master I’m returning to Eastcliff now.”Osc
Lord Moore had perceived Dylan’s real intention of visiting Aurous Hill this time.Dylan must have been captivated by his granddaughter’s beauty and charm so much so that he wanted to draw the Moore family to the Koch family’s side and ultimately make them their lackeys. At the same time, he would seduce his granddaughter as his companion.If this had happened back then, he would not refuse his olive branch even though he had seen through all their plans, be it favorable or hostile. After all, such good opportunities did not happen very often. So many families in the South Region were eager to become the lackeys and underlings for the big families in Eastcliff, but these big families looked down upon them, and some even despised them.There were many reclusive rich families in Eastcliff that their fortune was beyond the imagination of the second-rate families in the South Region.The Wade family of Eastcliff was the best example in this case. No one from the Wade family had made
Charlie was driving Jacob to Thompson First when the latter received the text from Matilda.Seeing that they were reaching the front gates, Jacob promptly snapped at Charlie, "Charlie, stop the car now!"Charlie did so and asked in curiosity, "What's wrong?""Matilda just texted me," Jacob replied, showing the chat log between him and Matilda.Charlie was just glancing at it nonchalantly when he saw that Matilda's contact name was 'AAA July Florist'."Wait, why is that Aunt Matilda's contact name?" He exclaimed in surprise."I changed it."Jacob explained gingerly while reading through the text Matilda sent. "Her profile picture is an iris, so I changed her contact name to a florist since I'm mostly worried Elaine would peek into my phone.""Anyway, she's asking if I'm attending her wedding with Yolden. They would send us an invitation if I accept, extended to our whole family… what do you think I should say?"Charlie asked in return. "You're planning to skip it, aren't you? T
Then, Matilda suggested, "How about this—I'll ask him before deciding." "I'll pass on inviting the rest of my former classmates too. They're too vain and love comparing, so I'd rather not have anything to do with that. Also, there are our Korean friends who have it together, and they were telling us to invite them if we were going to get married. We have to keep our promise, right?""Yeah—then, it's basically decided. Aside from Charlie, we shall invite our colleagues and Korean friends while we wait for an answer from Jacob."Yolden nodded and said, "Now, I'll talk about the honeymoon—cut me short if you have a different opinion."Matilda nodded, resting her chin on her hands and smiling. "Shoot. I'm all ears."Feeling a little embarrassed by Matilda's glowing stare, Yolden took a sip of his ice water before continuing, "My idea is to head to the States for our honeymoon after the wedding…"He trailed off, staring at Matilda and waiting for a response.However, she was merely
"Oh, Jacob…?"Matilda chuckled awkwardly. "Just today, he offered to buy me dinner, but I said I didn't have the time, and I also told him about our wedding… So, we should invite him since he's aware of it.""Jacob offered to buy you dinner?" Yolden exclaimed in surprise. "Did he say why?""Nope," Matilda shrugged, smiling. "Probably just dinner between old classmates."However, she was actually smart enough to guess Jacob's intention even though Jacob was inviting her somewhere near campus. That was why she had also mentioned she was marrying Yolden while turning down Jacob, all so that he would give up on her.After she had managed to get over their past fling completely, she didn't want to give Jacob false hopes before she walked down the aisle.In the same regard, she didn't want to worry Yolden, and therefore, had deliberately discouraged Jacob.Be that as it may, Yolden was smart too.He knew about Matilda and Jacob's past and that her son, Paul's full name was Paul Jam
Before Charlie had arrived, Jacob was still furious that Matilda would soon marry Yolden.After Charlie came, however, he was instead worried that Matilda would send him a wedding invitation.Meanwhile, Matilda and Yolden were discussing their list of guests.They had different social circles, but most of their friends were Stateside, and they only had some distant relatives in this country.Still, they had colleagues in Aurous Hill. Matilda had classmates too, but she was out of touch with them aside from Jacob, whom she often met.Still, as they discussed who should be invited, Matilda first suggested, "Let's go through everyone. First, our Stateside friends… I don't think we should tell them at all since it's a long journey, and inviting them would seem tactless. What do you think?"Yolden nodded, smiling, "I was just thinking the same thing. We're close with our Stateside friends and always keep in touch, but inviting them to our wedding might be a stretch. We'd just hit a wa
With that being said, once Matilda was thrown in the mix, Elaine would suddenly become an African honey badger, with every bit of black air force energy that was implied.As such, if Jacob had managed to be brave and take that one step back then, Charlie would have tried to help, stopping Elaine from harassing Jacob or Matilda.However, the reality was that Jacob had to bungle the chance when Matilda offered it to him.That was why the best option was for Jacob to understand that he couldn't get together with Matilda now so that he would feel much better.And since he had always been a coward, Charlie's slight intimidation cleared his head considerably.He then sighed, "Well, that's just life—you don't always get what you want, and you should never try to claim what you couldn't. I couldn't bring myself to choose Matilda over thirty years ago, so not being together now only makes sense.""Now, I can only pray that Elaine never finds out… or at least that things don't get out of h
Then, Jacob quickly pressed, "Dear boy, maybe you could stay a few days instead of taking more jobs. At least you could be there to stop my wife if she snaps.""Sure," Charlie chuckled, cheerfully agreeing to it. "Don't worry—Claire's returning in a couple of days too, and you'll be fine with us around. You're cheating in your mind, anyway…"Pausing, he then added a reminder, "But if she's really furious, just bear with her beatings and clawings. Live and let live, as they say."That left Jacob sulking, however. "What the hell! If I knew this would happen, I should have just taken her to court and divorced her openly! That way, I'd definitely make things work with Matilda. Yolden wouldn't even stand a chance!"Charlie had to keep a straight face. "Now, you're not quite right there—don't you know what would happen to your wife if you took this to court?"Jacob snorted coolly. "Elaine would just snap at me, hit me, and make sure I don't get a cent in the divorce. That's no big deal—
"Fuck!" When Jacob heard what Charlie said, he was horrified. He nervously asked, "Matilda isn't going to come to our house to deliver the invitation, is she? If Elaine finds out that I've been hiding Matilda's return from her all this time, I'll be so dead!" Charlie, having long seen through Jacob, knew he would never escape the shadow and claws of Elaine. He shook his head and said, "Whether they'll invite you, I have no way of knowing. If you're worried, you can tell Matilda that you don't want to be invited to her wedding and that you don't want to go." Jacob sighed. "That's just a temporary solution. Even if she doesn't know now, she'll probably find out sooner or later. A lot of our mutual friends already know about Matilda's return. You went to the gathering too. But those friends are not really in contact with Elaine, so she hasn't found out yet." Charlie smiled and said, "Matilda's return to the country was at a pretty sensitive time. If I'm not mistaken, she came b
Jacob then realized that Charlie was also driving a Rolls-Royce, and it was a more expensive Phantom. Surprised, he asked, "Charlie, where did you get this car?" Marilyn had prepared the car for Charlie when he left Scarlet Pinnacle Manor. He had driven it to Thompson First, so he had decided to use it today. Charlie replied, "A client lent it to me. You sounded urgent, so I drove it over." Then, he added, "You're something else. You're crying like a baby yet you're still in the mood to ask about the car. What's going on? Your friend said you'd cried twice already?" "That bloody Simon!" Hearing this, Jacob became furious and cursed, "He still doesn't have the slightest clue! He's such a damned fool! The more I try to avoid him, the more he keeps blabbering on and on. Argh, he's so stupid!" Charlie asked, "What exactly is bothering you?" Jacob's face instantly turned dejected, and with a long sigh, he choked up and said, "Charlie— Matilda— She's getting married—" "Gettin
Things were a little different and unique in the United States, though. Westerners tended to approach marriage with greater caution. Many couples stayed together for years, had several children, and yet remained as boyfriend and girlfriend. Being together, having children, and raising them jointly didn't necessarily mean they would get married. In fact, it was not uncommon for some to walk down the aisle only after having multiple kids. Because of this environment, elderly couples in the West often limited their relationships to dating, and at most, cohabitation. Very few progressed to the stage of marriage. However, Yolden, like a young man in the throes of passionate love, had invited her on a trip, secretly prepared a proposal ceremony by the seaside, and gotten down on one knee with a ring to propose. These actions deeply moved Matilda and, at the same time, gave her an unprecedented sense of security. Now, Yolden had moved their wedding up a big step and set the date just on