Marianne had just arrived at the main entrance of Scarlet Pinnacle Manor. She never expected that Logan would have such a magnificent manor in this kind of place.Although many wealthy people’s mansions were also built on the mountains in Hong Kong, no one could own a whole mountain by himself. The villas on Steerlain Island were nothing compared to his exclusive villa.The car drove into the manor and stopped outside the grand entrance of the main building of the one-story compound.This place was like a hotel, designed with a wide porch to park three cars side by side. Logan and his wife held hands as they walked out of the main hall to welcome her. As soon as Marianne got out of the car, she saw the elderly couple smiling brightly as they walked out. She hurried forward to greet them and said respectfully, “Grandpa, Grandma, it’s been a long time, but you two are still in such good health!”Logan smiled and said, “Marianne, we haven’t seen each other for so many years and yo
Vera walked over from the main hall with a light gait.Marianne only had one thought in her mind when she saw Vera. ‘How can there be such a beautiful girl?’It was not that Marianne was making a big fuss.In fact, Marianne had seen countless young beauties because of her father’s flirtatious nature. Hong Kong as well as more than half of Asia’s entertainment circle had been her father’s hunting ground back then. Which one of the female celebrities who were caught in the scandals and media reports were not beauties?What’s more, Hong Kong has always been the fashion and financial center of Asia over the past few decades. Many handsome men and beautiful women from all over the world were gathered in that narrow and cramped corner of the city, so Marianne’s aesthetics had long been tired and even a little numb. But even so, she was still shocked when she saw Vera for the first time.Vera was the type of beauty that she had almost never seen before.It was no longer perfect to t
Vera nodded in agreement after hearing this but she did not agree with Marianne at all.She felt that Marianne’s remarks seemed normal at first glance. Hong Kong was indeed a first-tier international city and was naturally fast-paced. It was also packed with a lot of people with a small amount of land. Many people worked hard all their lives but could never even afford to purchase a small house that was thirty to forty square meters, so many young people from Hong Kong began to head to Oskia for development, especially the special zone adjacent to Hong Kong which attracted many young people from Hong Kong.However, Vera knew very well that Hong Kong was a place where paradise and hell co-existed.It was not unusual for a poor family of six to seven members to be crammed in a room that was only ten square meters, and there were even some people who lived in places where a bed could not even fit. However, there were also top tycoons who could build super luxury mansions that looked
As soon as Vera thought of this, she looked at Marianne again, and she suddenly smiled as she teased, “Marianne, I don’t think you’re here to look for a job after coming to Aurous Hill all the way from Hong Kong!”Marianne asked in surprise, “Why do you say that?”Vera laughed and said, “It feels more like you’ve come to pursue your sweetheart despite all odds.”Vera’s seemingly teasing words touched the depths of Marianne’s heart. She was instantly flustered and hurriedly tried to cover up as she said, “How... How could that be? I’ve never been to Aurous Hill, and I don’t have any acquaintances here, let alone a sweetheart.”Although Marianne was in a hurry to hide her true feelings, Vera had already captured the panic in her expression.It was this slight change that made Vera even more certain that her judgment was definitely correct. Coupled with Marianne’s identity, who else aside from Charlie could make a rich young lady such as Marianne put everything aside to come all th
Marianne hurriedly said, “No need, Lady Carrick. I think this kind of thing needs to be encountered slowly by oneself. If you can’t encounter it, it means that your fate is not here and there will always be someone for you if you wait a little longer.”When Lady Carrick noticed her firm attitude, she sighed faintly and nodded slightly. After lunch, Marianne rested in Scarlet Pinnacle Manor for a while before she was then accompanied by Madam Marilyn as she headed to Aurous University for the interview.Vera smiled brightly as she sent Marianne to the car. After the car had left Scarlet Pinnacle Manor, Vera’s innocent and pleasant smile instantly dissipated as she turned around, and it was replaced by her usual calm demeanor. Logan followed behind and said respectfully, “Miss, can I ask you a question?”Logan was puzzled because he could see that Vera was playing tricks on Marianne just now. He had some doubts and wondered why Vera was doing this.Vera knew what Logan wanted to
Vera was not surprised at all when Logan was full of doubts and reported the information to Vera.She simply smirked and said, “Charlie is obviously married, but he is still attracting women everywhere. He could make Marianne come all the way to Aurous Hill for him after just a trip to Hong Kong, so he will probably attract other women too if he goes to other places. If you dig out Charlie’s trajectory over the past few years, you will probably be able to find many women who are infatuated with him.”Logan smiled embarrassedly and sighed, “I can only say that this kid really has extraordinary charisma. However, I’m afraid that Marianne will not be able to achieve a positive result if she has fallen for a married man like him.”Vera smiled faintly, thought of something, and asked Logan, “Can you find out what identity Charlie used and why he went to Hong Kong to meet Shawn previously.”“This can be settled easily.” Logan nodded and said, “I’ll just call Shawn and ask him about it.”
Emmett explained, “The Schulz family and the Wade family have been fighting both openly and in secret for so many years. They even had very unpleasant relationships in the early years. The Schulz family even took the lead in forming the Anti-Wade Alliance in Eastcliff back then just to work against the Wade family. Later, when Curtis Wade and his wife passed away unexpectedly, the Wade family suffered serious repercussions, and the Schulz family then became the most powerful family in Oskia and has always dominated the Wade family. It can be said that the two families have a long-standing grudge, so I don’t understand why Charlie would be working for Ito-Schulz Ocean Shipping Group...”Vera shook her head and said, “Your thinking is wrong. It’s not about why Charlie is working for Ito-Schulz Ocean Shipping Group, but it’s about whether Ito-Schulz Ocean Shipping Group is working for Charlie.”Neither Logan nor Emmett could understand the significance of Charlie’s mastery of Reiki.Ho
“Charlie conquered the Schulz family and Ten Thousand Armies?!”Emmett was horrified when he heard this and said, “Miss, this... this is a little exaggerated, isn’t it? The Schulz family has greater strength compared to the Wade family, and Ten Thousand Armies’ strength cannot be measured in terms of money. They have tens of thousands of mercenaries, and it is said that they have already invested and built their own permanent base in the Middle East now. How could Charlie have conquered this kind of organization?!”Vera said faintly, “Charlie’s strength is far from what Ten Thousand Armies can compare to. Otherwise, there would have been no way for Charlie to survive when the Schulz family and Ten Thousand Armies attacked Mount Wintry together. Although we don’t know exactly what happened on Mount Wintry that day, we can see from the results that Charlie was not affected in any way, which is enough to prove that the Schulz family and Ten Thousand Armies failed completely on Mount Win
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