As he thought about the future collaboration between both sides in the future, Charlie did not hide the truth from Sophie. He walked out of the house and went into the courtyard as he replied with a voice message: “That’s right. Your elder brother came to Emgrand Group today. He made it seem as though he wanted to meet with Doris on the surface, but in fact, he actually wanted to pry and look into my identity.”Sophie sent another voice message to follow up: “Then, is the reason why he is suddenly in this state also because of you?”Charlie admitted it frankly: “That’s right. He asked people to investigate and look into my wife’s car license plate. This behavior makes me feel very dissatisfied. That is not all, but he even wanted to find out about my true identity. Since he personally wanted to make things difficult for himself, I could only fulfill his request, then.”Sophie hurriedly pleaded as she said: “Benefactor, my elder brother has very little social experience, and sometime
The top wealthy families of modern society were, in fact, no different as compared to the imperial nobles in feudal society.The internal operating mechanism within each family was exactly the same as that of the royal family in a feudal dynasty.Within this kind of special environment, what determined status was not age or seniority, but title and power.Before the crown prince was elected, the sons of the emperor were all basically of equal rights in principle. There was only a slight difference due to the difference between the young and the old.However, even the eldest son would only be the other princes’ elder brother, but he would still be from the same generation as the other princes. Therefore, it was impossible for the other princes to kneel and grovel before him when they saw him.However, as soon as someone became the crown prince and inherited the throne, all the princes would have to show him respect as his subject and obey all of his orders completely regardless of
...Just as Sophie was being enlightened by Charlie’s well-thought-out intentions, Quinn had just finished her last dress rehearsal.Quinn, who was on stage, had already sung all the songs that she would be singing in the concert tomorrow night three times repeatedly. However, the good thing was that she would not need to sing too hard because the main purpose of the rehearsal was to confirm all the procedures and details of the performance, especially so for the lighting, sound, choreography, as well as the live accompaniment of the band and backup dancers.After all the processes had been determined without any flaws or mistakes, Quinn was already extremely confident about the concert tomorrow.Dorothy walked up onto the stage and handed a bottle of water to Quinn as she exclaimed, “Quinn, the stage visual and auditory effects this time is really great! It has not only surpassed all of your previous concerts, but in my memory, I don’t even remember ever seeing any concerts with s
Quinn did not know that the main reason why Charlie was punishing Jaime was actually because Jaime wanted to investigate Claire’s BMW.In her opinion, the reason why Charlie was punishing Jaime was because her beloved Brother Charlie must still be attaching great importance to her deep down in his heart. Therefore, Charlie must be protecting her as though she was his private property, and that was the reason why Charlie was naturally very unwilling to meddle in this matter.Quinn was originally a very independent young woman, and she had always been very scornful and full of ridicule for the chauvinistic male saying that stated that women were a man’s private property.However, ever since Quinn had been reunited with Charlie, that view of hers had suddenly dissipated.Her biggest wish now was to be able to stay by Charlie’s side so that she could be kept, cared for, and dominated by him, as though she was his precious private property. Therefore, even though deep down, she felt
When Charlie heard this, he could not help but feel a little moved in the depths of his heart.He was not moved because of Elaine’s attitude. After all, Elaine had always been the kind of person who was easily swayed, and she would do anything for anyone who could give her money.What really touched Charlie was Claire’s sincerity. It would certainly be much more tiring and tedious to celebrate his birthday at home as compared to going out to a restaurant to eat some ready-made food. The fact that his wife had this thought and intention proved that she truly placed utmost importance on his birthday.Moreover, over the past few years when he was not welcomed at home because he was not successful and did not have any future prospects at all, Claire would still remember his birthday. She would always secretly buy him a cake and bring him out to an affordable restaurant so that the both of them could enjoy a quiet meal together.Thinking back on these matters, Charlie was filled with
When Charlie saw that his wife, Claire, had not returned to the room yet even after he had come out of the shower, he put on his pajamas before he went to the living room again.The family of three were chatting happily in the living room.Jacob and Elaine, who were a pair of old enemies who had been arguing about getting separated, were surprisingly not dissing each other as they usually did at this time. When Charlie came down, he asked curiously, “Claire, Dad, Mom, why aren’t you guys going back to your rooms to rest?”Claire hurriedly stood up and ran over to grab hold of Charlie’s arm as she smiled and said, “Dad and Mom said that they want to stay up together with you. Your 27th birthday is less than two hours away. Everyone is waiting to say happy birthday to you first!”Charlie smiled knowingly and said, “Thank you, Wife. Thank you, Dad and Mom.”Elaine immediately said in a flattering manner, “Oh! My good son-in-law, why are you still being so polite to me? You’re treat
Elaine asked curiously, “Oh! That Calligraphy and Painting Association of yours will be paying you a salary now?”Jacob had an arrogant look on his face as he said, “It is not just paying me a salary, but it’s even a pretty substantial amount!”As he spoke, Jacob said again, “Look, I am the executive vice-president. So, from this month onward, my monthly base salary will be twelve thousand dollars. It is the second-highest salary that is being paid in the entire Calligraphy and Painting Association after the president, Mr. Bay!”After that, Jacob then said, “This is only the base salary that will be given to us by Aurous Hill city. In fact, there are many private enterprises that want to take up the business of cultural development. So, they have donated a lot of funds and docked a lot of resources to the Calligraphy and Painting Association. The Calligraphy and Painting Association has recently undertaken quite a lot of calligraphy and painting activities. So, the days in the Calli
The whole family had originally been happily waiting for the arrival of midnight. However, Jacob truly would not have expected that he would lose all of his future income to Elaine just because he could not hold back his own mood and had started showing off. As he was feeling extremely bitter and resentful in his heart, he began to reflect on why he would always be at a disadvantage in front of Elaine.He realized that Elaine seemed to have this ability. Although she was seemingly simple-minded and would always be relying on her shamelessness and violent energy, in actual fact, Elaine would always be able to find the most accurate point in him and hold onto him tightly all at once.As he thought back on his married life of more than twenty years, Jacob felt a sense of desperation. This was because he had never won in front of Elaine before over the past two decades. He would always be targeted and dealt with by Elaine for most of his life, and there was no room for any resistance a
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