Charlie hoped that he would be able to reach the peak and have an awe-inspiring view from a very high place in the future. However, he would prefer to be able to climb up entirely based on his own ability rather than relying on others to achieve his success.The meal went on very smoothly and naturally under this kind of family atmosphere.After the meal, Charlie used his Reiki to dissipate all the alcohol from his body, and after confirming that he would not have anything to do with drunk driving, he drove Quinn to the performance venue first before driving Yule and Rachel back to Shangri-La. The couple had a lot of things to do. So, they would be taking a short break at the hotel in the afternoon before they would have to fly back to Eastcliff overnight after watching Quinn’s concert at the venue at night.After Charlie heard of their plan, he spoke up and said, “Uncle Golding, Aunt Golding, why don’t the both of you just rest at Shangri-La for the night instead of being so ha
After sending Yule and Rachel to Shangri-La and entrusting them over to Isaac so that he could host them, Charlie then drove back to his Thompson First villa.At this time, it was only around two in the afternoon. Charlie had thought that his wife, Claire, would not be done until about three or four o’clock in the afternoon. So, he figured that he would go home first before going to pick her up when she was almost done.However, unexpectedly, when Charlie arrived at home, his wife, Claire, his father-in-law, Jacob, and his mother-in-law, Elaine, were all already busy in the kitchen.When Charlie saw that Claire was actually at home, he asked in surprise, “Wife, when did you come home? Why didn’t you tell me so that I could go and pick you up?”Claire smiled and said, “I sped up my progress a little. I arrived home at two o’clock in the afternoon. I came back earlier because I wanted to prepare a birthday dinner for you today.”Elaine was holding a huge king crab with both of her h
Charlie nodded. “Yes.”The other party then handed him a square box with a side length of about fifty centimeters and said, “This is the cake that Miss Wilson has ordered. Please sign for it.”Charlie took the cake, and just as he was about to sign on the slip, the other party reminded him, “You should open it and take a look first. I will bring it back to the cake shop directly if there is a problem. Otherwise, if you sign for it and then complain about it when you find a problem with it later, at that time, delivery men like us will also have to take the responsibility for it.”Charlie did not think too much, and he untied the red ribbon on the cake box. After opening the top cover of the box carefully, a beautiful double-layer cake came into his view.This cake did not look as luxurious and exquisite as Quinn’s custom-made five-layer cake, and there were also no vivid and lifelike fondant dolls on the top of the cake. It was only a moderate-looking cake, but there was a line of
When Harold heard Lady Wilson’s words, he suddenly became very excited as he said excitedly, “Grandma, if it’s indeed like what you’ve said, that would really be great! I’ve always felt that Charlie, that b*stard, would certainly meet with a terrible ending sooner or later! So, it seems as though this is the sign before his terrible ending, then!”Lady Wilson had a slightly smug look on her face. “Their family had been doing so well for more than a year now all because of Charlie’s deceitfulness! In the past, those qigong masters and metaphysics masters have also been collecting and taking a lot of money from the rich and wealthy people, but none of them have ever met with a good ending! I think that Charlie is about to be done for!”Harold was so excited that his body twitched slightly, and he said excitedly, “If Charlie is about to meet with a terrible ending, I think that their whole family would also be done for! Perhaps Zeke White might even show up in a few days to come and tak
“Mhm.” Lady Wilson nodded and said, “I can also see what you’re talking about. However, Wendy has always been very unwilling to reveal the noble man’s identity. So, I can only feel very anxious because of this matter.”As she spoke, Lady Wilson said again, “By the way, Christopher, you should talk to Wendy alone later. Ask her how far she has progressed with that noble man. If their relationship is still unclear, you should ask her to speed things up a little. It would be best if she could make it a done deal as soon as possible.”Christopher said awkwardly, “Mom, how could I possibly talk to Wendy about such things? It makes it seem as though I’m so anxious to sell my daughter off.”Lady Wilson blurted out, “It is only most appropriate for you to ask her this question. Wendy has always had some opinions about me because of the matter relating to Kenneth Wilson prior to this. So, she will definitely not open up her heart to speak to me if I were to go and ask her about this.”Harol
As Lady Wilson sighed emotionally, Christopher and Harold, the father and son duo, lowered their heads in shame. When Lady Wilson saw the both of them being such wimps, she felt a pang of contempt in her heart. So, she stood up immediately and said, “The both of you can continue lying in bed. I’ll go and take a look around Charlie’s house!”Harold asked, “Grandma, what are you going to Charlie’s house for?”Lady Wilson snorted coldly. “Pfft! What else am I going to do there? Of course I’m going there to mock them!”Christopher was a little concerned as he said, “Mom, at the end of the day, the matter related to Charlie going down is all just your speculation. It has not even been confirmed yet. If you go and cause them trouble now, and if Charlie is not going down yet and he decides to deal with us, wouldn’t that be a totally unexpected calamity, then?”Lady Wilson said disdainfully, “I have always had a sharp sense, and when have I ever been wrong? I already told you long ago th
Very soon, Lady Wilson arrived at Charlie’s door in a very aggressive and overbearing manner before she pressed the doorbell directly.Inside the villa, Charlie had just returned to the living room after putting the cake into the refrigerator. Claire and her parents were still getting busy in the kitchen.At this time, Charlie heard the doorbell, and so, he got up and went to the front door.He glanced at the monitor, and he realized that the person standing outside in the courtyard was, surprisingly, Lady Wilson. So, he asked coldly, “Is anything the matter?”When Lady Wilson heard Charlie’s voice, she snorted coldly and said, “Let me in. I want to see Jacob!” Charlie casually replied, “Sorry, but you’re not welcomed here. Hurry up and leave. Otherwise, I’ll look for the property security!”“You!” Lady Wilson scolded angrily, “This is my son’s house! So, am I not welcomed here just because you say that I’m not welcomed here? I will have to go inside today, then!”Charlie laugh
Charlie truly did not expect that the reason why Lady Wilson would come to show off and be cocky in front of him was because of Wendy.Lady Wilson certainly did not know that the reason why Wendy could actually make the great leap from being a hostess who was bullied by everyone to becoming the general manager of Mallow Stenhouse Etiquette Corporation was entirely because Charlie was giving Wendy an opportunity because he pitied her. When he heard this, Charlie looked at Lady Wilson as though he was staring at a stupid old monkey, and he said playfully, “Lady Wilson, your biggest failure in this life is your short-sightedness. If you could take a deeper look at problems, the Wilson family would not have fallen and ended up in this state today.”Immediately after that, Charlie then said seriously, “If you want to continue staying at Thompson First, you’d better remember to leave my family alone and mind your own business. However, if you cannot even do that, perhaps you may not even
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