Vera was silent momentarily, then spoke up and said, “Let me draw up a divination for you then. My level of divination is still much better than that of Oskian medication.” After saying that, she took nine copper coins from her pocket without waiting for the old man’s response. She then placed the nine copper coins on the coffee table before her. As before, she divided the copper coins into three rows and grabbed the first three coins in a diagonal manner before she threw them on the table. Immediately afterward, she looked at the hexagram of the copper coins, then frowned and said, “The hexagram shows that your life expectancy is coming to an end, and you only have half a year left at most.” “Half a year?” The old man’s expression froze and was rooted to the spot as if a spell had been cast on him. However, he quickly returned to his sense and smiled wryly. “Although it’s a little shorter than I expected, it’s fine. Half a year is enough time for me to settle my affairs an
“Aurous Hill?” The old man asked in surprise. “You mean that my birth gate is in Aurous Hill?” “Yes.” Vera nodded slightly and said, “It seems you should go to Aurous Hill with me!” The old man hurriedly asked, “Miss, may… may I go with you?” “Of course.” Vera nodded and said, “Since your birth gate is in the south and is related to me, Aurous Hill is the most likely place. Let’s go there together. You'll be able to live to a hundred years old if we can find your birth gate.” The old man was extremely excited and said reverently, “Thank you for your kindness, Miss!” After that, he trembled and was about to kneel. Vera quickly got up to stop him and said seriously, “You don’t need to kneel to me. Although this birth gate is related to me, it’s by no means something I can bring to you, so you still have to go to Aurous Hill to find your own chance encounter. What I can do for you is perhaps to wish you good luck in your search.” The old man nodded hastily and sobbed, “Thank
“Oh heavens!” Logan exclaimed. “Miss, why are you at Emmett’s place?” Vera said, “I have some personal matter, and I came here to ask for his help.” After saying that, she got straight to the point and said, “I plan to go to Aurous Hill and may need to live in Aurous Hill for a while, so I would like to ask if you have a house in Aurous Hill that I can settle down in temporarily.” Logan immediately replied without hesitation, “Yes, of course! I have a hilltop mansion on Scarlet Pinnacle in Aurous Hill inside the forest park that’s not open to the public! It's a private mansion specially approved by Aurous Hill when I returned there with my wife to invest in construction. I also built a special road leading to the mansion, and this forest park is located in the urban area of Aurous Hill, so it’s convenient to go anywhere. You can stay there if you are going to Aurous Hill! I also have a few cars and a helicopter, and they are all taken care of.” Vera said, “Great. Please help me
Vera’s style of action was very fast-paced without any sloppiness. After hanging up the phone with Logan, she immediately told Emmett, “Mr. Sandsor, I need you to help me arrange a plane. I'll go to Malaysia now.” Emmett hurriedly asked, “Miss, why don’t I go with you?” Vera waved her hand and said seriously, “There's no need for that. You have a special status, so things will be easily exposed in the future if you leave a record of the two of us leaving the country together. I’ll go there myself using the identity I entered the country with, and I'll return with a new identity. I'll head to Aurous Hill directly when I come back. You should meet me in Aurous Hill when the time comes.” When Emmett heard this, he nodded and said, “Understood. I’ll wait for your news in Eastcliff. I'll meet you after you arrive in Aurous Hill.” “Okay!” Vera asked him, “When will the plane be able to fly at the earliest?” Emmett hurriedly replied, “There's a Gulfstream G700 business jet on sta
When the call connected, Elaine smacked her lips playfully as she chirped, “Oh, my dear son-in-law, why are you calling me at this time?” Charlie said with a smile, “Mom, how is your recovery?” Elaine smiled and said, “It’s good, very good! I’m having shark’s fin, abalone, cordyceps, and sea cucumber every day, and I have better nutrition than soccer players! The doctors here are also very skillful, so my leg is recovering quite well.” Charlie said, “That’s good. Claire graduated from her class today, and we plan to check out and go to New York in the morning tomorrow. We will return to Aurous Hill together after we pick you up.” “Return to Aurous Hill?” Elaine’s tone instantly sounded depressed, and she said, “My dear son-in-law, it’ll be boring once I return to Aurous Hill. My leg in this state will be inconvenient, and I'll have to trouble you and Claire in our daily lives. I think it’d be better for you and Claire to go back first. I'll stay here for a few more days to recu
Kathleen and Claire chatted for a long time in the executive lounge. During this period, Kathleen modified her story slightly, which made everything seem incomparably natural and smooth to Claire. According to Kathleen, she and her grandfather went to Aurous Hill at the beginning because her father’s physical condition was deteriorating. Someone introduced the genius doctor, Anthony Simmons, to her grandfather, so they flew to Aurous Hill immediately. After arriving in Aurous Hill, Kathleen used the alias, Kylie Jane, to keep a low profile. She had already chosen this identity when she entered Oskia, so this also made Claire realize that Kathleen did not come up with a fake name just to deceive her. Kathleen then told Claire that she and her grandfather found Anthony to treat her grandfather after arriving in Aurous Hill, and he really managed to cure her grandfather’s illness. But at that time, her eldest uncle took advantage of her grandfather’s absence in the United Stat
Charlie laughed and said modestly, “In fact, it’s mainly because she was born with such a foundation. You should know that Miss Fox is a member of the Fox family, and she was born into such a wealthy family, so she was destined to have a fate that’s one in hundreds of millions. Besides, she also has the support of her grandfather, so basically everything has already been set up for her, and the only thing left was her Feng Shui.” Claire said very seriously, “That’s already very powerful! I used to think that someone would come and ask you for an explanation one day if you always go out to read Feng Shui for others, but it seems that you really have great ability, Honey! It’s no wonder why people call you Master Wade! It’s because you’re a real master!” With a smile, Charlie rubbed his nose and said, “Honey, I’ll get a big head if you praise me too much.” Claire smiled. “Master Wade, you can be proud confidently!” … After a few hours, a Gulfstream aircraft landed at an airport
The next day, Charlie and Claire packed their luggage, checked out of the hotel, and left Providence, where they had been living for more than a month.The two drove directly to the airport in New York. Just as they were checking the car out at the airport, Charlie received a call from Elaine.Elaine asked him over the phone, “My dear son-in-law, I’m already at the airport. Where are you?”Charlie asked her, “Mom, are you in the VIP building?”“Yes.” Elaine said, “The director of the hospital, Director Camior, sent me here personally.”“Okay.” Charlie responded and said, “Wait for us in the lobby of the VIP building. We’ll be right there.” After hanging up the phone, Charlie also completed the procedures for returning the car and then turned around as he said to Claire, who was waiting, “Let’s go to the VIP building directly. Mom has already arrived.”Claire did not know that her mother had broken her leg again this time and could not help but tease, “My mother is really amazin
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