When faced with Hannah’s deception, Elaine did not fall for her tricks this time. She simply said in a self-conscious manner, “I don’t understand shares. The risk is too high, and it requires a lot of capital. I still think that it’s easier to sell goods on a live broadcast. I can start from scratch, and I can just do it on my cell phone. I will be able to make a lot of money if I’m successful, but I won’t lose much if I fail.”As Hannah drove, she tried to dispel Elaine’s thoughts and said, “You have to have a selling point first if you want to engage in live broadcasts and sell goods. Tell me, what can attract people to watch old women like us?” Elaine casually muttered, “If it doesn’t work, I’ll just sell my misery online. I’ll say that my husband has lung cancer, and I will ask everyone for help.”Hannah felt a little offended and hastily said, “How can you do that?! Charlie could be regarded as a person with a certain influence now. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if Charlie’s cli
However, Hannah was different. The return rate in her live broadcast room was surprisingly low, and even if the broken garbage bags would leak when half-filled, almost no one would return them.Hannah herself was also very shrewd. She knew very well that although she could earn more and earn higher commissions if she brought in bird’s nests and skin care products that cost thousands of dollars per customer, once the consumer found something bad about it, they absolutely would not have this ‘only showing love’ mentality. They would certainly choose to return the goods immediately. Therefore, she had her own business sense. The first one was that the maximum price of the goods per unit for her live broadcast would only be ninety-nine dollars. It must never exceed one hundred dollars so that she could minimize the return rate. This was because she knew that the love of consumers also had an upper limit!If they spent 19.90 dollars to buy a bunch of garbage bags, 29.90 dollars to b
When Charlie saw that Elaine still got into Hannah’s car, he sighed helplessly. It was difficult to change a person’s nature. He did not think any further about it, used the Cullinan to jumpstart the BMW, then drove the BMW out.After going out, Charlie called Claudia and asked her to wait for him at the new home that Isaac had prepared for her and Mrs. Lewis. At the same time, he also called Isaac to ask him to contact his connections at Aurous University to go over and complete Claudia’s admission application today. Isaac had been working in Aurous Hill for many years, and he was also the spokesperson for the Wade family, so his local connections could be said to be pervasive. Getting admission into Aurous University was naturally not a problem. This time, he had already established a connection for Claudia in advance, so upon Claudia’s arrival in Aurous Hill, she only needed to go to the university with the necessary documents to get things started. Charlie followed the address
Claudia laughed and said, “We have at least the two of us already, so it’ll also be a brave step for us.”Stephanie snorted and said, “I don’t want to form a girl group with you! Mrs. Lewis and I still have to work hard to take good care of Charlie’s orphanage!”Charlie also said to Claudia at this time, “Claudia, let’s go now if you don’t have anything else to do. The dean of the university and the person in charge of recruiting overseas undergraduates have already arrived. We should go and meet them to complete the process.”“Okay!” Claudia hurriedly nodded and turned to Stephanie as she said, “Stephanie, I’ll get going first, then!”Stephanie smiled and said, “Mrs. Lewis and I will celebrate with you at noon after you get the admission notice!”Charlie raised his brows and said, “Count me in. Tell Mrs. Lewis that I’ll have to trouble her to cook more special dishes at noon today.”Stephanie said excitedly, “Really? I’ll go to the supermarket to find Mrs. Lewis and buy more del
Charlie had grown up in an orphanage, so he understood Claudia’s feelings at this moment very well. Back then, when he was completely ignorant of everything that Stephen had arranged for him, he had been really sad and desperate as he curled up in a corner of the dormitory of Aurous Hill Welfare Institute alone and cried until dawn. Today, Claudia was going through almost the exact same process as he had back then. This was also why Charlie was paying special attention to Claudia. He hoped to be able to use his attitude and actions to help her untie the knots in her heart so that she could face her future life with openness and optimism. Therefore, Charlie told Claudia about his own experience in the orphanage, hoping that she could find resonance with him.When Charlie described his mental state back then to Claudia in detail, she really felt a strong sense of empathy toward him. At this moment, she suddenly realized that Charlie might be the one who truly understood her best i
Isaac was already waiting inside by the time Charlie drove the car to the front of Aurous University’s Academic Affairs Building.When Isaac saw Charlie parking his car, he quickly stepped forward and helped him open the car door as he said respectfully, “Young Master, I’ve already made all the arrangements with the school. Claudia only needs to fill out an application form and submit all her documents before she can choose her major directly.”Charlie nodded and then remembered the banner he had seen outside and asked him, “Have you heard of Logan Carrick? This person sounds familiar.”“Logan Carrick...” Isaac hurriedly said, “Mr. Carrick is the richest man in Northvale. Some years ago, he deliberately split up all his family’s industries, so his rankings also dropped, but the Carrick family’s strength is still very strong in Northvale.”After saying that, Isaac asked, “Did you see them hanging up a banner at the entrance? They were taking it down when I arrived. I asked about it
Isaac smiled slightly and said, “Mr. Laverick, I’ll have to trouble you with this matter this time.”Mr. Laverick responded with a smile, “Mr. Cameron, you’re welcome. It’s just a trivial matter. Besides, recruiting international students is also an enrollment task that we attach great importance to recently, so you’re also helping me complete my performance evaluation, Mr. Cameron.”Isaac laughed, introduced Claudia to him, and said, “Mr. Laverick, this is Claudia, the distant relative I mentioned. She was born and raised in Canada, and she also studied in Canada. The person next to her is also my distant relative. He’s Claudia’s cousin.”Mr. Laverick nodded at Charlie and then smiled as he spoke to Claudia, “Hello, Claudia. I’m Malachi Laverick, and I’m the Director of Admissions at Aurous University. Welcome to Aurous University.”Claudia said very politely, “Hello, Mr. Laverick. I hope that you will take good care of me if I’m lucky enough to be able to study at Aurous Universi
Claudia had already lost interest in material things and money at a young age when her peers were just beginning to appreciate and realize the importance of it.The tragic death of her family members caused her to take these things lightly. She did not expect to be rich, nor did she pursue a good life or a high social status in this life. She only hoped to live well without regrets so that the spirits of her family members in heaven could also feel relieved.Therefore, after looking at so many majors, she had no interest in any other majors and was only interested in the archaeology major. This was not only because she wanted to know more about Oskia, but it was also because she wanted to avoid dealing with too many people as much as she could. She would face all kinds of historical sites and artifacts every day in archaeology, and the major was very unpopular, so she would not have many classmates, which was more in line with her selection criteria.So, Claudia made up her mind
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