Charlie did not conceal it any longer at this point and said solemnly, “Lady Jenson, I was hunting down the members of Crazy Juarez in Mexico when I discovered that they were imprisoning so many innocent people there by chance. So, I asked my subordinates to take all of you out and send you back home.”The old lady was pleasantly surprised and excited as she said, “It seems that my guess was not wrong. You really are our benefactor!”With that said, she trembled as she attempted to grovel before Charlie, but Charlie stopped her and said seriously, “Lady Jenson, you don’t have to do this. Any normal person in Mexico that day wouldn’t have sat back idly without doing anything.”The old lady was teary-eyed as she sobbed and said, “Thank you for saving our lives, Benefactor! If it weren’t for you, the Jenson family’s lineage would have ended with us...”Having said that, she looked up at the portrait on the wall, but what she looked at was not the man in the middle, but the child who w
The old lady looked at the old man in the portrait and murmured, “Master Marcius’s name is Marcius Stark, and he’s a native of Coleham. He later began cultivating longevity and called himself Longevity Master. Master Marcius is the honorific name the Jenson family use to address him.”“Marcius Stark...” Charlie muttered. He had not heard of this name, but he was not very surprised either. The painting itself seemed to be very old, and the old lady’s family had been passed down for sixteen hundred years. It was not surprising that the person in this painting was someone from ancient times. The old lady then spoke up again, “Master Marcius was a scholar in high school, and he was an official in court, but later, he resigned from his position as an official because he got the opportunity to cultivate by chance. He then came here with his wife and son to concentrate on cultivation, but his wife and son passed away one after the other soon after arriving from an infection due to the wi
Charlie sighed. “Countless classics were lost in this kind of turmoil. Your ancestors knew what Phoenixica was, but very few people in the whole of Oskia and even in the world know what Phoenixica is now. Our current traditional culture and Oskian medication are all citing classics, but I don’t know how many classics have long been buried in the long history...”As Charlie spoke of this, he suddenly remembered something and asked in surprise, “By the way, Lady Jenson, you said that there were two bracelets?”“Yes!” The old lady said firmly, “The two bracelets are made out of Phoenixica and were originally a pair. They were the Jenson family’s heirloom. After Master Marcius rescued my ancestor, he recognized that the bracelet was made out of Phoenixica, so he asked my ancestor if he would be willing to give him one of the bracelets. He would then accept my ancestor as his disciple in return. My ancestor was helpless back then, so he naturally agreed without hesitation. Master Marcius
When the old lady heard Charlie mention the Rejuvenating Pill, she was horrified and asked, “Benefactor, you... you also know about the Rejuvenating Pill?!”Charlie nodded and said frankly, “I do.” There was a sentence that Charlie did not say aloud.That was the fact that he had also specially prepared a Rejuvenating Pill for Lady Jenson this time.Lady Jenson could not help but say with admiration, “You’re indeed a person with great supernatural powers just like Master Marcius!”Charlie only smiled faintly, but he was actually even more appalled. So far, although he had benefited a lot from the Apocalyptic Book, he still did not know who the author was.Now, when he learned that Marcius had already refined the Rejuvenating Pill more than a thousand years ago and had even given two of the Rejuvenating Pills to the ancestor of the Jenson family, he could not help but wonder, ‘Could it be that Marcius Stark was the author of the Apocalyptic Book? The antique jade pot vase that
Lady Jenson also nodded and sighed as she said, “It was recorded in the genealogy that when my ancestor was a hundred and thirteen years old, he was not deaf, not blind, and was still physically fit. Everyone thought that he would live to be a hundred and twenty years old, but when he was a hundred and thirteen years old, he was sitting in front of the charcoal fire to take a nap after dinner when he suddenly said excitedly that Master Marcius was here to pick him up. He then passed away with a smile on his face.”Charlie said, “It seems that your ancestor really had a deep relationship with Master Marcius.”“Yes.” The old lady said, “My ancestor left his instruction behind before he died. He said that the members of the Jenson family are not allowed to leave this place for generations, and we must always guard the tombs of Master Marcius’s wife and son because Master Marcius told my ancestor that he will definitely come back for him and share the luck with him if he found a way to l
“People with a different last name don’t know about him.” The old lady replied, “These things have always only been passed on to the Jenson family’s direct lineage.”Charlie nodded faintly and asked her, “The Jenson family’s direct lineage is hoping to wait until Master Marcius appears?”The old lady sighed and said indifferently, “In the past, my grandfather and father were still looking forward to Master Marcius’s appearance to start a new life since he promised to give my ancestor a chance at longevity...”Having said that, the old lady then sighed dejectedly as she said, “But I lost three sons in a row, and I only had Jeremy when I was forty-five years old. After finally raising him up to adulthood, I didn’t care about anything else except for him.”Charlie said, “If Master Marcius is still alive and willing to fulfill his promise, you can also leave this chance of longevity to your son, then.”The old lady smiled wryly, pointed to her temple, and said with distress, “My son w
Charlie smiled faintly and said, “When we parted, I promised you that I will personally come and visit you after returning to Oskia and that I will let you and your son have a worry-free life. I came to fulfill my promise this time, so I got someone to buy a small villa and storefront in Sentermill, and you can move there with your son.”The old lady hurriedly said, “Benefactor, I cannot accept that. You saved our lives, and we can’t even repay you, so how can we still take your properties?”Charlie waved his hand and said seriously, “Lady Jenson, this sum of money is of no significance to me at all. Besides, the bracelet that you gave me is of great use to me. How can I feel at ease to let you and your son continue living here?” With that said, Charlie added, “More than a thousand years have passed, and Master Marcius has never appeared here. It is also impossible for him to appear in the future. In that case, you don’t have to wait any longer just because of your ancestor’s last
Lady Jenson did not know that the pill that Charlie had taken out was the Rejuvenating Pill that the ancestor of the Jenson family had told his descendants about.To the Jenson family in the past thousand years, the Rejuvenating Pill was just a legend that only existed in the memories of their ancestors. It was impossible for them to have the opportunity to see this thing in their lifetime.Therefore, Lady Jenson did not think that this pill would be the famous Rejuvenating Pill.However, even though she really thought that this was just some kind of pill refined by Charlie himself, she still said without hesitation, “Benefactor, you have been so kind to us, so how can I...”Charlie knew that she was going to repeat the same thing, so he said casually, “It doesn’t matter. It’s just a pill that I refined randomly. It’s similar to how you entertain your guests with the bacon you made yourself. You don’t have to be so polite with me.”When Lady Jenson heard this, she was also worried
The lawyer then finished, "To be honest, cases of regretting a donation and seeking a lawsuit to get the money back? Law firms usually won't even get one per year, and that makes it especially newsworthy for the press."Also, court records are always public. That means anyone can access the verdict, and there's no hiding anything. So, if you want the lawsuit, you'd better be prepared."Jacob was already left in despair.All he wanted was to get his money back, but he didn't think that it would end up as public knowledge.And Mr. Bay had just told him over the phone that he would try to quell the scandal's pressure and try his best to protect Jacob's place as vice president.If Jacob's name was suddenly mentioned in a lawsuit attempting to reclaim an 'accidental' donation, even Mr. Bay couldn't save him at that point.Hence, after thinking long and hard about it, Jacob realized that he was not getting his 300 thousand back.The thought crushed him, and he burst into tears, "What
At this hour, most of the employees at Talbot Associates had already left.However, there were several lawyers who had just finished a meeting regarding a certain case, and they were just leaving when Jacob arrived.Seeing that they were packing up their bags and ready to leave, he asked, "Excuse me, are you still able to take cases?"The leader smiled, "Yes, but it's a little late now. Why don't you come again tomorrow morning?"Jacob shook his head impatiently. "This is very urgent—please help me and hear me out, then see if it will work. 300 thousand banks on this, so I'll give you twenty percent whether or not I get it back!"300 thousand was really neither here nor there.However, if it were an easy civil case, that twenty percent commission would still mean sixty thousand.The lawyer thought about it. "Fine. Tell us what your problem is, and we will assess the situation first. If it's easy, we can give you a general strategy right now. But if it proves difficult, we'll hav
The cabbie nodded. "Well, Talbot Associates, it is! They're said to be number two."-While Jacob was heading off to consult a law firm, Charlie was calling Julien Rothschild over the phone.The manchild had just had room service and was lounging on the couch, fiddling with his phone.After visiting the kennels with Charlie, he had been idling his days away at the hotel, waiting for Salem and his son to post that video of them being out at sea.Once that was done, Julien would return to the States, once more the heir apparent of the Rothschilds. Still, it was boring to simply lounge around in the hotel, and he would really like to strengthen his ties with Charlie.However, he was also afraid of being too forward as Charlie could be intimidating, and he could upset him—just like a fan eager to get close to their idol but was still worried about their idol getting disgusted with them.As such, he never expected Charlie to call him, and he immediately answered eagerly, "Good even
Pausing, Mr. Bay continued, "If they're not that upset with the idea, I'll bang my gavel and make the call so that you can at least stay as a vice president."If they keep refusing, I just have to promote Mr. Zonda to become a vice president while you take over his position of head-of-department as insurance. What do you think?"Jacob certainly wouldn't protest the idea of insurance, especially when he thought he would be forced to leave the Calligraphy and Painting Association altogether earlier. He quickly exclaimed gratefully, "Thank you so much, Mr. Bay!"Mr. Bay chuckled, clearly relieved as well. "Come on, Jacob—you don't have to be so formal. I'm like a brother to you! Don't you think that's what I should be doing?"Jacob laughed earnestly for once. "Well, brother, I'm honestly relieved…" He trailed off but soon pressed on, "But I have to ask, won't the other members have things to say even if you manage to persuade the other vice presidents? What if they remain unhappy?
There were times when making a person despair to some extent could be a people-strategy.For example, when your distant acquaintance asked for a ten grand loan but you could only lend him one, you couldn't tell him directly that. It would make them think you were being insincere.The better option would be to tell them how you were worse off than they were and had a debt yourself, or that some other friend had borrowed money for three years and never repaid it.And when that mere acquaintance was in despair, you could tell them that if it was really important, you could lend them one thousand with a credit card loan.That way, while the mere acquaintance wouldn't exactly be awash with gratitude, they at least wouldn't complain about your lack of sincerity.That was exactly what Mr. Bay was doing.He had no intention of offending Jacob, but he also couldn't directly tell him to give up on claiming the position as president of the Calligraphy and Painting Association. Otherwise, Ja
Jacob felt absolutely horrible just then, and he certainly did not expect Don Albert to give him the cold shoulder.If he had known, he would have just stayed content with the 200 thousand he had made and enjoyed his trip to Dubai! If he had, the Calligraphy and Painting Association wouldn't have found out about the bronze sculpture plot, and Don Albert would still be on friendly terms with him.Absolutely regretting everything, Jacob got in the backseat of the cab, tears of grief almost welling up and out of his eyes.Then, noticing that the cabbie was quietly watching him from the rearview mirror, he turned his face aside, whipped out his phone, and called Mr. Bay.As soon as Mr. Bay answered, he asked, "How did things go over there? Have you sorted out Zachary Evans yet?"He was waiting for Jacob to ask Don Albert for help so that the latter would pressure Zachary into posting a statement retracting his previous claims.However, Jacob knew full well that there was no hope for
Ramond replied, "I'm not planning on getting my name out there—I was just thinking I could start slow from one shop, but now, I'm suddenly so popular everyone's consulting me for appraisals, so I guess that's the short end of this."Either way, I'm planning to let things cool off by opening the shop late and closing early. That way, I'd receive fewer customers, and the hype will die down in a month."Once it does, I'll lead a slow life, which is perfect in Aurous Hill since it's how things are here. I'm not aiming to get rich or expand my business, and it's a comfortable life, so I plan to retire here."Charlie nodded. "The Rothschilds are relatively manageable, but I'm not sure if the Qing Eliminating Society is still looking for you and the Four-Sided Treasure Tower. You'll be completely free once they are wiped out.""And I'm sure with your abilities, Mr. Wade, that day will soon arrive." Raymond smiled and soon remembered. "By the way, you probably haven't had dinner yet, right
Charlie was never one who covered up misdeeds, and what Jacob had done reflected his corrupted character and clear refusal to feel remorse.As such, Charlie naturally refused to offer any help, completely giving up and allowing Jacob to keep going off on his own tangent, tearing himself apart in the process.Still, Raymond did put a good word in for Jacob. "Actually, one can understand Mr. Wilson's motives from a certain point of view. I was the one who set him up so that he broke that vase, and had him beaten up so that we didn't arouse suspicion. He has every reason to bear a grudge."Charlie sighed, nodding. "There's no issue with holding a grudge or getting revenge—in fact, I have no problem with him trying to salvage some pride. However, what he did was unseemly, and he doesn't know when to stop."He didn't lose anything before Zachary exposed everything. Even if he had missed a killer deal, he bought it off someone's hand in the first place and made two hundred grand in clean
With those words, Jacob didn't wait any further as he turned and left Antique Street, intent on seeking legal counsel.Raymond watched him leave before returning to Treasure Measure.He wasn't going to leave, but he had said so because he didn't want to waste much time with Jacob.Still, to avoid any trouble, he turned the sign outside to 'closed' before locking the door from the inside.That was when a man suddenly arrived, asking through the glass door, "Can I still take a look inside, sir?"Raymond was ready to refuse without even turning around when he realized that it was Charlie.He turned around and saw him standing outside just as expected.Smiling, he hurried over to open the door for him. "It's been a while, Mr. Wade!"Charlie was aware that Raymond was sticking to his identity of 'Raymond Cole' who had not been in touch since Raymond had been fired from Vintage Deluxe.Charlie chuckled in turn. "It has indeed. And you're a business owner yourself now, too.""It's j