Lord Moore nodded before he said, “Yes, the wealthy and powerful families believe in Feng Shui and the eight characters. This is the essence of our ancestry. As for the dregs in Southeast Asia, I really do not have any respect for them whatsoever.”Donald said, “From this point of view, it seems as though we really cannot find any clues leading to this matter at all. In this case, it is not easy for us to find the culprit behind this incident!”After that, Donald clasped his fists together before he said, “Uncle Moore, Sean and I will be staying in Aurous Hill for a few more days. We want to stay here to investigate and look for any relevant clues about my son’s sudden illness. Uncle Moore, if it is not inconvenient for you, can we stay at your house for a few days?”At this time, Lord Moore smiled before he said, “The Moore family has always had a good friendship with the Webb family. Why are you being so polite with me over this small matter? Since you are already here, I will nat
”Absolutely not?!”Donald would never have expected Lord Moore to turn down his request just like that.It seemed as though Lord Moore did not even think about it before turning down his request.Why?Why?!The Webb family was wealthier and more powerful than the Moore family. His son was even the eldest grandson of the Webb family. To put it bluntly, he was the most outstanding young man in the whole South Region.There were so many girls from many different big and powerful families who were waiting to get involved with Sean, even trying to take the initiative to get closer to him!They were giving the Moore family face simply by saying that they had taken an interest in Jasmine!After all, the Moore family would be using the Webb family to climb up in status!Lord Moore had ten thousand reasons to agree to the marriage proposal, but he should not have any reasons to turn it down!Yet, it seemed as though Lord Moore had turned down the marriage proposal without any hesitati
In these wealthy and powerful families, the girls would often get engaged when they were twenty years old.Moreover, most of them would get married as soon as they graduated from college at the age of twenty-two or twenty-three years old.Therefore, Donald was hoping for Lord Moore to mention this matter directly to Jasmine. He was also hoping that Lord Moore would directly ask Jasmine to accept the marriage proposal.Most of the girls in these wealthy and powerful families were all aware of these family arrangements for marriage. As long as the elders in the family made the arrangements, the younger generation would naturally obey them.Lord Moore did not expect Donald to continue persisting even though he had already declined the marriage proposal directly.Therefore, he could only chuckle and wave his hand as he said, “To be honest, Jasmine is still very young, and I do not wish for her to be married yet. After all, her elder brother is not even married yet.”At this time, Don
Donald was a little annoyed by this unexpected response.He thought that Lord Moore would agree to his marriage proposal without hesitation and immediately accept his son as their family’s son-in-law.However, Lord Moored had rejected his proposal over and over again!Humiliation and confusion filled Donald’s mind.Sean was equally frustrated and said, “Lord Moore, why don’t you want Jasmine to marry me? Our Webb family is the number one family in the South Region. Even in this country, how many could dare say that they are better than me, Sean Webb?”Lord Moore smiled gently at him and said, “Of course, Young Master Webb is a very excellent gentleman, but you can’t force feelings to grow out of nowhere. You can take a horse to the water, but you cannot make him drink.”For Lord Moore, it was hard for him to be too harsh against the father and son who did not have a clear conscience of the matter, so, he could only beat around the bush and try to talk sense into them.Sean snort
Lord Moore nodded lightly as Donald and Sean exchanged glances.Sean could see what his father was trying to say through his eyes—he was encouraging him to approach Jasmine personally about the marriage proposal.After a while, Jasmine came into the house. She was a little surprised to see Donald and Sean at her house, however, she quickly composed herself and greeted them politely.Donald smiled and said, “Hi, Jasmine. Your grandfather and I were just talking about you.”Jasmine asked in astonishment, “Talking about me? May I know what’s the agenda?”Sean looked at Jasmine intensely and said, “Jasmine, we’ve known each other since we were kids, so we can be regarded as half childhood sweethearts, right? Besides, our families have been friends for decades, so we wish to cement old ties by marriage. Hence, I asked my father to come and offer a marriage proposal to your grandfather, and he said to respect your decision. May I know if you would give me a chance?”Jasmine stuttered a
“Who is he?!”Sean was annoyed and frustrated. “Dad, no matter who he is, among the young people in the South Region, no one is better than me! He’s just a loser! Even the dragon in the sky has to hold still around me!”Then, his face sank as he said, “Don’t you think the old man is too much? It’s an honor that I want Jasmine to marry me! Who do they think they are to look down on me!”Donald said flatly, “Sean, don’t forget that we are staying with the Moore family. Walls have ears. How will you explain yourself if they hear what you’ve said? There will be no turning back.”Sean closed his mouth in shock.Donald sighed, slightly disappointed. “Boy, you are always like this. Too impatient. Next time, you must be calm and steady.”“I’m sorry, dad. I didn’t think straight.”“Lord Moore has always been shrewd and cautious throughout his life, otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to establish such a huge and diversified family business. I don’t think he will make such a ridiculous
“Class reunion?” Elaine said disdainfully, “You guys are already a bunch of dying old folks, why would you want to have a class reunion? Haven’t you heard, a class reunion is just an excuse for old lovers to go on dates!”“Oh my God, shut up!” Jacob blurted, “There will only be guys at the reunion, we didn’t invite any of our female classmates.”“Really?” Elaine frowned in disbelief.“Yes, honest! You should know best how our class was. There were only a handful of female students in our class, and all of them live overseas right now. So, there will only be us male students at the reunion.”“No, I don’t believe you! You can’t go!” Elaine shouted. “You must be going to see that old lover of yours! Do you think I don’t know!”Charlie was stunned. Did his father-in-law have some romantic love story in the past?“What old lover? It’s just a bunch of male friends!”Elaine snorted disdainfully. She turned her pouty face to the other side and ignored Jacob.Jacob anxiously tried again
Jacob was intimidated by Elaine’s loud growl, but he spruced himself up and said, “A straight foot has no fear of a crooked shoe!”Elaine glared at him and uttered, “Ah, I don’t want to talk to you anymore. Okay, I’m going out to play mahjong.”She then stood up and stretched out her hand at Jacob saying, “Give me your car key!”“What? Why would you need a car for your mahjong game? I want to use it later!”Elaine rolled her eyes and said contemptuously, “Why? Do you want to show off to your friends? No way! Give me the car key, quick!”Jacob sighed dejectedly and passed her the car key as he said, “Drive carefully, don’t scratch it.”“Argh, shut up! If you provoke me again, I’ll drive your car down the drain!”Jacob was extremely agitated, but Elaine felt as though she had gotten her revenge. She put on her jacket, a triumphant smile on her face, and walked out the door.After Elaine left, Jacob sighed again and said, “Charlie, go with me to the reunion later. Some of my frien
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