Reuben was gravely distraught now. Never did he expect that his grandfather would still curry favor with Charlie even if he had to offend Dylan during the process.Reuben was not a fool. He could see that the reason why his grandfather took Charlie so seriously was that he was a little addicted to the Rejuvenating Pill.In other words, instead of gripping the olive branch that Dylan and the Koch family had tossed at them, his grandfather would rather get on good terms with Charlie. This proved that the old man no longer cared about the future of the family nor the wealth they could generate, but rather how many more years he could live.Otherwise, he would never have given up the Koch family’s offer and chosen Charlie.This made Reuben extremely disappointed and upset.First of all, Lord Moore had given up the opportunity offered by the Koch family, and this meant that the Moore family had lost a good chance to rise above and beyond.Secondly, if Lord Moore was given another Re
At this moment, Lord Moore continued, “Jasmine has always been a very well-mannered girl, and she is very concerned about family matters, be it personal or business. I am truly grateful for that. In fact, some time ago, when I was gravely ill and all the doctors announced that my time had almost come, she introduced Master Wade to me. It was Master Wade who cured me and pulled me back from the light. He even gave me the precious Rejuvenating Pill, allowing me to rewind my timeline to 20 years younger.”Lord Moore paused for a while, bowed slightly to Charlie, and said, “Master Wade, I thank you for your help in curing me, and of course, I am grateful for my granddaughter and her endless efforts. Therefore, on the occasion of her birthday today, I would like to make an announcement. I have decided that from tomorrow, Jasmine will officially take over the position of the head of the Moore family. Also, I will officially retire from tomorrow!”Lord Moore’s voice echoed across the hall l
As soon as Lord Moore made this statement, those who opposed the idea of Jasmine inheriting the family business shut their mouth, acknowledging Lord Moore’s opinion.They understood one fact from it, and that was they and their children had no chance to inherit the family business anyway, so it might as well be someone who was more capable and eligible to take over the position of the head of the family. Lord Moore was right—the stronger the head of the family was, the more money she could make, and the more money they could get in return.Reuben was pretty average in all aspects, but there was a huge gap between him and Jasmine in terms of capability.Jasmine was relatively young, but she could take care of and manage the family business very well.The antique business was prosperous under her management, whilst the foreign trade was handled very impressively and superbly in her hands.In terms of business skills and talents, she surpassed all the descendants of her generation
As this thought lingered in Tyler’s mind, he ground his teeth scornfully, murderous intent flooding his thoughts.Lord Moore seemed to have noticed the dissatisfaction in his eldest son’s expression and tone, so he turned to Charlie and said respectfully, “Master Wade, I have a presumptuous request that I hope you can agree to.”Charlie smiled lightly and said, “Do tell, Lord Moore.”Lord Moore started, “I hope you can become the second heir to the patriarch of the Moore family in case anything happens to Jasmine in the future. If Jasmine does not leave any children, you will automatically become the head of the family. If you agree, I can promise you that 30% of the family’s net profit will be yours, and it will be valid forever. You have my word on that.”The reason for such a request was because Lord Moore was indeed worried that his eldest son and his family might harm Jasmine due to the arrangement, but he was reluctant to give up his decision because of this reason.He knew
Right now, Charlie regarded Jasmine as his close friend and was willing to protect her with all his might.As for Tyler and Reuben, their eyes were burning with a murderous flame.They had been eyeing the position of patriarch for many years, and they couldn’t accept the fact that Jasmine had been appointed for the position.Nevertheless, they were very clear that it was bound to be a fierce and ugly battle if they wanted to regain the position of the heir.Therefore, they had to plan their strategy wisely. If they decided to make a move, they had to ensure a guaranteed victory.At this birthday banquet, Jasmine was undoubtedly the happiest person in the hall.At this moment, from the bottom of Jasmine’s heart, her gratitude and love for Charlie reached its peak.How could a smart woman like her not know Charlie’s intention in giving her the Rejuvenating Pill?Who would benefit the most from the Rejuvenating Pill? Old people, of course. Very old people.She was only 26 years o
Charlie was about to agree to Paul’s invitation, but the gorgeous Jasmine suddenly appeared in front of them, and with her face blushing shyly, she said, “Paul, there’s no need to bother you. I will send Master Wade home.”Paul was a smart guy. He knew that deep down in Jasmine’s heart, she must truly adore Charlie very much.She, as the birthday girl, should not offer herself to send the guests off herself. Not tonight.After all, today was her birthday as well as the first day she had become the successor of the Moore family, but she had volunteered herself to send Charlie home after the banquet ended.Moreover, there were so many distinguished guests here today, but among these guests, she only wanted to send Charlie home. This was more than enough to see how much she valued and cherished Charlie.Paul cleared his throat and said with a coy smile, “Oh yes, I suddenly remembered that I have something to do and Master Wade’s house is out of my way, so, Miss Moore, I’ll have to tr
Harvey was thrilled to see Charlie and sprinted toward him excitedly. However, before he could greet Charlie, he suddenly realized that he was now Travis’s driver and this behavior was considered rude and unacceptable. So, he hurriedly wiped the excitement off his face and said respectfully, “Hello, Mr. Lane!”Travis patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile, “Harvey, drop the diplomacy. You are Master Wade’s buddy, which means you are my buddy too. Although I am ten odd years older than you, we can be good buddies as well!”Harvey nodded quickly, surprised and flattered.At this moment, Charlie came to him, smiled warmly, and asked, “Hey, Harv, how is everything? How are you? How is this new job?”Harvey replied very gratefully, “Charlie, my good buddy, I don’t know how to thank you! Without you, there is no me! You are my life savior!”Charlie’s warm smile persisted as he said, “Everyone will meet their life savior at a certain point in their life. You think I am your lif
Jasmine said softly at this moment, “Master Wade, let’s go too.”“Okay.”***Driving her red Bentley, Jasmine drove Charlie out of the Moore family mansion.Jasmine’s heart was thumping violently. She had never been as nervous in front of Charlie as she was now.As an awkward silence in the car ensued, Jasmine cleared her throat, desperate to find a topic to talk about, and said, “Master Wade, thank you so much today. I didn’t expect that you would give me the Rejuvenating Pill. It is such an expensive gift! I owe you a lot.”Charlie smiled gently and said, “Well, truth be told, the reason why I gave you the Rejuvenating Pill was for you to offer the favor to your grandfather at my expense. With the pill, Lord Moore can live to be at least 100 years old, no doubt about that, so he must want the pill that I gave you very badly. However, he is a very unprejudiced and self-righteous man, he won’t simply take the pill from you, so, a great return for the pill is expected.”Jasmine n
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