He could not help but think to himself, ‘It seems that I can’t throw this antique business away. Half of my happiness comes from this place… I can come here and have some fun every now and then if I’m not so busy with work from Don Albert in the future.’Zachary was happily making plans in his mind when a familiar and delighted voice that carried a hint of surprise sounded, “Oh, Zachary, when did you come back to set up a stall again?”Zachary looked and said with a respectful expression, “Oh, Mr. Jacob! I haven’t seen you in a while!”The person who had spoken up was none other than Charlie’s father-in-law, Jacob. Although Jacob was now the vice president of the Calligraphy and Painting Association, his love for antiques remained the same as it was before. Some time ago, he was not in a very good mood after he fell out of love, so he had not come here for quite some time.He regained his composure a little over the past two days, and it happened to be the weekend, so he came u
Jacob said seriously, “Zachary, I don’t mean to sound harsh, but you should love whatever job you take up. If you’re engaging in antique business, you must have professional ethics.”Zachary nodded and said, “Isn’t it because I just want to make some money first? It won’t be too late for me to improve my professional ethics after I make some money. After all, isn’t there a saying that one should buy the ticket after boarding the bus?”Jacob curled his lips in disdain, looked at Zachary’s stall, shook his head, and said, “Oh, you’re really going backward the more you work. I can see that every item in your stall is all fake.”“Yes, you’re right.” Zachary said diligently, “Mr. Jacob, you really have a keen eye for goods. Good things cannot escape your eyes, and the same goes for fakes.”Jacob smiled, picked up the Thunderstrike wood in the middle of the stall, looked at it carefully, and said, “But this Thunderstrike wood doesn’t seem to be fake. How much does it cost? I’ll take it a
Although the Taoist and Buddhist abbot had the same title, they had very different functions. The Buddhist abbot was one with the highest position and power in the temple and was in charge of the temple’s affairs, whereas the Taoist abbot’s main responsibility was to preach scriptures. The Taoist abbot was like the senior professor in the Taoist temple, but the person with the highest management power was the overseer. Mr. Chardon, who was wearing a Taoist robe, looked up at the gate of Cohmer Temple for a moment, then entered the gate. The entire Cohmer Temple was divided into three courtyards, namely the front, middle, and the back. Only the front yard was open to believers and pilgrims. There were several halls here, especially the Trinity Hall, which was dedicated to the Three Supreme Gods of Taoism.The middle and the back yard were the internal areas of Cohmer Temple where the abbot and disciples lived and studied Taoism.Whether it was Charlie, Mr. Chardon, the mysterious
Mr. Chardon followed the young Taoist priest to the reception hall in the middle yard of Cohmer Temple. This was the reception room in Cohmer Temple which was specially used to entertain abbots and overseers from other Taoist temples or pilgrims who had made great contributions to the Taoist temple. After asking Mr. Chardon to wait here, the young Taoist priest hurriedly ran to report this matter to his master. In Cohmer Temple, most of the people who stayed in the front yard for a long time were junior Taoist priests with relatively low qualifications, so they were tasked with maintaining order among tourists and believers in the yard while cleaning, maintaining temple statues, and sorting out tributes. Therefore, if the young Taoist priest wanted to report news to the overseer, the message had to be conveyed through layers, and the number of levels of transmission was more than the young Taoist priest had expected. Twenty minutes later, an old man in a Taoist robe who was sur
Over the years, he had returned to Oskia several times with different identities, but he had never returned to Cohmer Temple. This was because he did not want his disciples in Cohmer Temple to find out that he had discovered the way to longevity. In his opinion, he had gone through all kinds of hardships before he could finally enter the path to Taoism, so this secret must not be known to anyone who knew him, including those people at Cohmer Temple. He chose to come to Cohmer Temple today because he could not find any clues about Vera’s whereabouts after all this time. The British Lord had kept urging him to go to Aurous Hill. He could delay for three to five days but not three to five months. According to the British Lord’s temper, he would definitely give him an ultimatum in another two to three days at most, so Mr. Chardon had no choice but to find some helpers to help him uncover Vera’s whereabouts in Oskia.However, he had never built up his own power in the Qing Eliminat
Mr. Chardon nodded, sighed, and said, “I’m already a hundred and fifty-six years old this year.”“A hundred and fifty-six years old?” Samadius said with a longing look on his face, “You don’t even look like you’re fifty-six years old…”Mr. Chardon said calmly, “These are the gains after mastering Reiki. I have lived for three centuries; the nineteenth, twentieth, and the twenty-first. I will no longer have any regrets in this life if I can live to the twenty-second century.”Samadius was startled. He knelt down to the ground again and groveled before Mr. Chardon as he pleaded, “Master Coldie, please teach me the method to longevity! If you agree, I’m willing to follow you for the rest of this life and be at your disposal! I’ll abide by all your requests without any hesitation at all!”It had been more than seventy years since Samadius had entered the Taoist Sect, and at this moment, he was in the same state Mr. Chardon was when he first left Cohmer Temple. He had been practicing
When Mr. Chardon heard Samadius’s eager expression of sincerity, he nodded and smiled with satisfaction. Everything was developing according to the direction he had planned.As far as Mr. Chardon was concerned, he had never been a good person. Aside from working hard without complaint in front of the British Lord, he had never even reached the most basic courtesy of ‘keeping his word’ when it came to others. In fact, he thought about using Cohmer Temple’s connections and resources to find Vera’s whereabouts when he first arrived in Eastcliff, but after careful consideration, he felt that it would not be worth it to expose his true identity just to take advantage of Cohmer Temple. Not to mention whether Cohmer Temple would be able to help him find clues about Vera, but if news about a Taoist priest who was born in the 19th century and had practiced Taoism in Cohmer Temple for decades was still alive, it would inevitably bring him unnecessary trouble once word about this matter spre
After saying that, Samadius asked again, “Master Coldie, do you have any general clues about this girl? For example, where she might be?”Mr. Chardon shook his head and said, “I don’t know where she is, but I personally speculate that she is most likely in Oskia. Therefore, it would be best if you could gather a group of your disciples and let them travel all over the country to search for her!”Samadius nodded and said, “No problem, I’ll make all the arrangements now!”Mr. Chardon nodded slightly and said, “Okay, I’ll leave this matter to you, then. Remember to inform me as soon as possible as soon as you discover any clues.”“Yes, Master Coldie!” Samadius quickly agreed. He then asked Mr. Chardon, “By the way, Master Coldie, the people waiting outside are all my juniors. If you can teach me the method for longevity in the future, can you share the method with them as well? They are all loyal disciples of Cohmer Temple, and they have devoted themselves to Cohmer Temple for so many
When Jacob came to his senses, he was already in tears. The student presumed he was unwell and asked, "Mr. Wilson, do you want me to call your wife to pick you up?" Elaine's sarcastic face immediately popped up in his mind, and he trembled with fear. He quickly wiped away his tears and stammered, "D-don't bother... I... I just got something in my eyes..." The student obviously didn't believe him and asked worriedly, "Why don't you call your wife? Or I'll call a cab for you." "No, no." Jacob waved his hand and said, "I'll call my son-in-law to pick me up. He has just returned to Aurous Hill, so it shouldn't be a problem." After that, he quickly took out his phone and called Charlie. Just a few minutes ago, Charlie had left the cafe and was about to walk Yolden to his car. When he saw Yolden walking straight toward a domestic new energy vehicle, he asked curiously, "I don't think you were driving this model before, were you?" "I just bought it," Yolden replied with a smil
If Matilda still had feelings for Jacob, his nostalgic strategy would definitely have a strong impact. However, Matilda had already decided to move on, so Jacob's suggestion did not stir any emotions in her at all. With an apologetic smile, she said, "Sorry, Jacob, Yolden is downstairs waiting for me. We have something to discuss. How about another day? We can have dinner together, and I'll treat you." Jacob didn't expect the nostalgia strategy to fall flat. His original plan was to use nostalgia to get Matilda to go with him to eat near the school, then take the opportunity to revisit old places and subtly reignite their past memories. After all, revisiting old places was the best way to rekindle old feelings, no exceptions. It was like drinking the pasta water after cooking the pasta. However, he never imagined that Matilda's expression wouldn't change in the slightest. There was no shyness, no hesitation, no nervousness, and certainly no fluttering heart. She simply and
Matilda had been listening attentively before, but now, she was lowering her head, fiddling with her phone, and her expression even carried a hint of shyness and happiness, like that of a young girl. Jacob felt a pang of jealousy. While doing the presentation, he couldn't help but resentfully think to himself, "What has Matilda been chatting about with that Yolden guy? She's so happy..." At that moment, Matilda had just received a message from Yolden. In the message, Yolden informed her of the outcome of his conversation with Charlie and expressed his desire to have the wedding as soon as possible. Seeing how eager her beloved was to marry her, Matilda naturally felt very touched. At that moment, she had completely fallen into Yolden's love. For this man, who had a similar background, education, values, and even lifestyle to her own, she could find no fault with him. She felt that he was perfectly tailor-made for her by heaven itself, almost as if everything about him perfectly m
Charlie's worries were not unfounded. He had long known that Jacob had not completely given up on Matilda despite her relationship with Yolden. After returning from the cultural exchange in Korea, Jacob had been more dejected than ever before—something he hadn't even displayed when his family had gone bankrupt. If there was still a chance to salvage the relationship when one's beloved was merely dating someone else, their marriage was tantamount to a death sentence. Furthermore, considering the high intellectual backgrounds of Matilda and Yolden as well as their age and life experience, their decision to marry at this stage of life undoubtedly signaled their intention to build a long-term future together. This left Jacob with absolutely no chance at all. At this moment, Jacob was blissfully unaware of the devastating news and was busy conducting a calligraphy and painting workshop at Senior University. The so-called workshop was essentially a few slides showcasing classic
After that, Charlie asked with a bit of curiosity, "When did you and Matilda decide to get married?" Yolden smiled sheepishly and explained, "Remember when the city organized our cultural exchange trip to South Korea? I confessed to Matilda during that trip, and she accepted. After spending some time together, we both felt we were a great match. Considering our age, we didn't want to delay such an important decision any longer, so we decided to take the next step and build a family together." He continued, "Last month, we went to Lambonear for a few days. I bought a ring and proposed to her by the seaside, and she said yes. We also sought the opinion of our respective children—Autumn and Paul—and they were both very supportive. Both kids are exceptional and independent, so they urged us to have the wedding as soon as possible. I wanted to wait until you returned so I could check your schedule. For our wedding, we'd like to ask you to be our officiant." "What? Me as the officiant?
Charlie said without hesitation, "Sure. When is it convenient for you? Send me the address, and I'll go meet you." Charlie had always respected Yolden not only because he was a nice and talented man but also because he and his mother went way back and went to the same school. Yolden said hastily, "I've just come from Senior University. It's the weekend, and I don't have classes today. Why don't you send me the address and I'll meet you?" Charlie gave it some thought. It was a little past 3 p.m., so Yolden had likely already had lunch, and there were still a few hours until dinner. Inviting him to The Heaven Springs didn't seem ideal for a discussion. Considering that he had lived in the United States for many years and probably had a habit of having coffee in the afternoon, Charlie said, "How about this? There's a Starbucks not far south of the university. Let's meet there for a cup of coffee." "Perfect!" Yolden said with a smile. "I was just thinking you could give me an addre
On the way back to The Heaven Springs, Julien was in a much better mood than when he had arrived. Initially, he was filled with anxiety, unsure of what Charlie had planned. But now, everything had become clear. The troublesome matter of Salem and Edmund was no longer his concern. All he had to do was wait for the video from the ship to be released and then head back home. Charlie noticed his improved mood and smiled as he asked, "Julien, you've resolved the most critical matter right after landing in Aurous Hill. You must be feeling pretty happy, right?" Julien chuckled and said, "To be honest, before coming here, I was worried that I'd end up going back empty-handed and being secretly mocked by others. But now, it's different. Once your video is released, no one can blame me for not doing my job. If anything, they can only blame their family for missing their chance. After all, so much time has passed, and it's their fault Salem and Edmund were moved to the Middle East." As he
"Good." With a light nod, Charlie turned to Jiro and spoke up, "Jiro, I'll give you a chance to prove yourself." "Okay, Mr. Wade!" Jiro beamed excitedly. "Please tell me what to do! I promise I will do my best to serve you." Charlie smiled and said, "Once the ship is ready, you'll board it together with them. Your only task is to keep a close watch on them the entire time. Don't let them pull any tricks. If you succeed, you'll be a free man here. You'll get a basic monthly salary and can ask for anything you like within reason—so long as it's not contraband, it will be yours." Hearing this, Jiro was so thrilled that he trembled all over. His current treatment was already decent, but he was still only a semi-free man. He didn't dare casually set foot on the ground outside. If he could become a truly free man, he would be able to enjoy the sunlight outdoors freely. More importantly, from then on, he would have a salary. Although he couldn't personally go out shopping, having a sa
Julien had uncovered Charlie's true identity quite some time ago and investigated Charlie's background. He was well aware that Charlie had become the head of the Wade family and that the Acker family fully supported him. Although the outside world believed that Ten Thousand Armies had subdued the Wade family, Julien had witnessed Charlie's methods firsthand. Even the top two figures of the Rothschild family had been toyed with by Charlie, so how could Ten Thousand Armies possibly make him surrender? Thus, Julien deduced that Ten Thousand Armies was undoubtedly Charlie's covert tool. Considering the combined strength of the Wade family, the Acker family, and Charlie's personally cultivated forces, it was evident that Charlie even had the power to contend with the entire Rothschild family. Moreover, with the life-extending pill in his possession and the life of the Rothschild family head in his hands, Charlie's chances of prevailing in a confrontation against the Rothschilds were e