Jeremiah’s words made Zacheus feel very unhappy deep inside his heart.In his opinion, Jeremiah was simply saying this because he was defending his grandson.The reason why Zacheus had looked for him was because he was hoping that Jeremiah would help him put in a good word in front of Charlie on his account to see if this matter could be reduced from a big problem to a small issue.However, he never would have dreamt that Jeremiah would tell him directly that he, Zacheus, would not be able to afford to offend his grandson?!Wasn’t he simply being a bully, then?!Jeremiah seemed to have guessed what Zacheus was thinking, and he said seriously, “Zacheus, I know that you must think that I’m simply protecting Charlie, but let me tell you the truth. Although Charlie is my grandson, you’d still be no match for Charlie. The entire Wade family and even I are not capable of interfering in this matter at all.”Zacheus naturally did not believe this. When he heard these words, he could not
He knew very well what kind of person Carmen was. If even Carmen had to suffer such hardship and grievance under Charlie’s hands, this was more than enough to prove that Charlie was not someone who would be easy to deal with. Moreover, he was probably a tough nut to crack!If even Carmen could not deal with him, it would certainly be very difficult for him too.When he heard Carmen crying over the other end of the line, he hurriedly said, “Carmen, why didn’t you tell me about all this earlier?”Carmen sighed and said helplessly, “What is the point of me telling you about it? Even I cannot afford to mess around with Charlie, so how can I possibly ask you to look for him and court your own death, then?”Zacheus said with some embarrassment, “You… No matter what it is, you’re still my woman. If you had said something, I'd definitely be willing to take all risks and go through thick and thin for you!”Carmen smiled and said, “I’m truly satisfied to know that you have this thought. How
Carmen naturally could not turn Zacheus’s request down after hearing his plea. So, she could only speak up, “Wait a moment. I’ll give Charlie a call and ask him about it.”Zacheus sighed slightly before he said dejectedly, “Alright, then. Thank you for the trouble, Carmen.”“No problem.” Carmen comforted him, “Zacheus, you don’t have to be so sad. In truth, I feel that Tom’s character is indeed a little too immature. So, it might not necessarily be a bad thing for him to put himself through the mill for three years. If you were to continue to allow him to continue hanging around in the entertainment industry like this, I’m afraid that it’d be even more difficult for him to achieve success in the future.”Zacheus said seriously, “Sigh. You’re right! I already asked him not to engage in this kind of hypocritical thing a long time ago, but that kid simply refused to listen to my advice. If he did not enter the entertainment industry, he naturally would not have gotten into such trouble
Carmen hurriedly said, “Don’t be in such a hurry. I’d like to trouble you with another matter. Tom’s father would like to talk to him on the phone. Do you think that it’d be convenient for you?”“Talk on the phone?” Charlie frowned before he glanced at Tom, who was kneeling on the ground in fear and trepidation, as he turned on the speaker directly and said, “How about this? Tell his father that he can talk to him over the phone, but he will only be able to talk to him for up to two minutes. Will that be fine?”“Yes.”Very soon, Zacheus, who had received Carmen’s reply, called Tom’s cell phone.After Charlie answered the call, he immediately turned on the speakerphone as he handed the cell phone over to Tom.Zacheus, who was on the other end of the line, asked tentatively, “Tom, are you there?”When Tom heard his father’s voice, he broke down emotionally as he cried and said, “Dad! Save me, Dad! There is a man here who wants to send me off to work as a crew member on a ship for t
As soon as Zacheus heard these words, he immediately felt extremely embarrassed over the other end of the line, and he had goosebumps all over his body.Immediately after that, Zacheus hurriedly denied, “Young Master Wade, you have misunderstood us. The relationship between your aunt and I is really just that of a relationship between an old classmate and friend. There is truly absolutely no inappropriate relationship between the both of us…”Carmen had not divorced her original spouse yet. So, Zacheus naturally did not dare to expose the true nature of his relationship with Carmen. Otherwise, if word about this matter were to get out to the public, both he and Carmen would not only be publicly disgraced, but the Wade family would definitely force Carmen to cut off all ties with him in order to maintain their own image and reputation. Even if Carmen truly loved him and insisted on getting married to him, the Wade family would never be able to agree to it because they would never be
When Tom heard this, his heart was suddenly flooded with good expectations as he suddenly thought to himself, ‘Could it be that they cannot find any suitable resources for fishing boats? In that case, I will not have to experience life on a fishing boat first then, right?’At this moment, Charlie was also curious as he asked Albert, “What do you mean?”Albert chuckled as he said, “I have a fishing company in Failrage Province, which is about two hundred kilometers away from Aurous Hill, that has always been managed by a few of my subordinates. I just called and asked them about it, and they happened to have two fishing boats that are preparing to set out for the South China Sea today. The fishing boats that I own under this company are all medium-sized fishing boats with a limited tonnage. So, it cannot go too far. It will generally be operating near the South China Sea and make a round trip. Each sea operation time is about a month or so, and they are currently loading the supplies
When Albert heard this, he was truly extremely grateful.In the early years, it had been relatively easy for Albert to make money. He could simply rely on his own special attributes and various connections before skirting the line legally or morally, and he would already be able to make a lot of money every year.However, over the past few years, Albert had gradually been trying to whitewash himself. He would not get involved in many things that used to be very profitable to him in the past anymore, and so, his income had plummeted greatly.However, since Albert had many subordinates and disciples under his command, the usual cost of feeding and employing these people did not decrease because of the decline in his income, but on the contrary, as the prices continued to rise and as the per capita income continued rising, their costs also kept rising.Therefore, although Albert had a glamorous appearance over the past few years, he had been in a state where he had been trying hard to
Charlie shook his head and said, “That’s different. Sophie’s sense of right and wrong is also very strong. There are several irrefutable reasons as to why I sent her father off to Syria. The first reason is that Sheldon was indeed the one who had organized the Anti-Wade Alliance, and he also had a grudge against my father. Secondly, Sheldon himself was the one who was worse than a beast when he aided and abetted the enemy, which indirectly caused both of his daughters to be placed in danger. Thirdly, as a father, Sheldon not only watched on unfeelingly and acted unconcerned and indifferently when his daughter met with a mishap, but he even continued groveling in front of his father, Cadfan Schulz, in order to flatter and please him. If I send someone like him to Syria, Sophie also knows that he deserves it.”As he spoke, Charlie then said, “However, if I were to send Jaime off to Syria now as well, Sophie would definitely not be able to accept it. Besides, I do not have any reasonable
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