Hannah donned an apologetic expression and said, “Elaine, actually, I’m here to apologize to you…”She cleared her throat and continued, “Yes, I’ve always looked down on you in the past. Not only was I rude to you, but I also often badmouthed you in front of Mother. I know my mistakes now and I have deeply repented on it. So, I’m here to offer you my sincere apology.”Then, her face flushed as she bit her lips and bowed deeply to Elaine.Elaine was taken aback. She thought the lunatic was here to pick a fight with her, but unexpectedly, she had apologized and bowed to her!She had prepared herself for the verbal attacks, but she didn’t know what to do now that her enemy was being so humble instead of drawing a sword.When Hannah saw that Elaine had kept quiet, she put up her best dramatic disguise and knelt on the floor, crying and begging. “Oh, my dear Elaine, are you still angry at me? I’m very sorry! Over the past years, I had not figured out the truth. We are both sisters-in-l
A flash of light sparked through Elaine’s eyes!She had been worried that she wouldn’t be able to find an easy mark after Summer left the country, so she was thankful that Hannah had found one for her!Besides, she assumed that the easy mark was richer than Summer because she could only win several thousand from Summer, but this lady lost ten times the money in a day!She loved playing mahjong with people who had deep pockets but poor skills. She could make a mini fortune from the game!If she joined forces with Hannah and agreed on some secret codes, they could win for sure!With this thought in mind, she was overjoyed and excited!Money meant everything to her to the point she would definitely replace her parents with money!She was on the edge of her seat when she heard Hannah’s proposal!Seeing the excitement in Elaine’s eyes, Hannah hurriedly said in a low voice, “Let’s rehearse our little secret codes first. While we are at the table, we’ll look at each other’s gestures.
Jacob stared at the man standing in front of him for a while before he laughed and said in surprise, “Oh my God, is that you, Eric? Eric Shaw? Wow, we haven’t seen each other for about 30 years! Look at you, so smart and handsome! You must be doing very well, huh!”Eric shook his head. “Nah, I’m nothing compared to you, Jacob. You are, what the youngsters nowadays say, the rich kid on the block…”The Wilson family had been a noble family name back in the days.At that moment, Lord Wilson had been in his prime, earning his first pot of gold when he plunged into the business arena for the first time, subsequently earning himself an honored reputation too. Hence, Jacob was living a good life thanks to his father. His pocket money alone might be more than half of his classmates combined.Because of this, he had attracted the attention of Elaine from another class.Jacob chuckled bashfully at his friend’s remark, but before he could say anything, another middle-aged man and a young man
Charlie couldn’t help quenching his curiosity and asked, “Dad, who is this Matilda that everyone is talking about?”Jacob rolled his eyes and shushed him, “Shush! You don’t have to rub it in!”Charlie shrugged indifferently and kept quiet.Meanwhile, as more and more people surrounded them, Aaron spruced himself up proudly and introduced the young man standing next to him. “Guys, I would like all of you to meet my son-in-law, Jake Dunn. He owns a startup company in the internet service industry, and the company will soon be listed on the Growth Enterprise Market.”“Wow!” Eric exclaimed in shock. “How much will the company’s market be worth after listing? I bet it must be hundreds of millions, right?”“Hundreds of millions?” Aaron curled his lips pompously and blurted, “It starts with a billion, to say the least! Think about it, do you know how difficult it is for a company to be listed?! Without a certain foundation and stability, how could a company pass so many rounds of reviews
“High salary?” Aaron curled his lips into a smirk. “How high do you want? Is four to five thousand enough to hire you as a chef?”Jake wanted to please his father-in-law, so he said, “Dad, since he is your old friend’s son-in-law, I must give him some additional benefit. Okay then, I’ll give you ten thousand per month!”Charlie chuckled in amusement and said, “Pardon me, but I don’t want money.”Aaron frowned, confused. “You don’t want money, then what do you want?”“Whoever hires me has to marry his daughter to me. Let’s take my father-in-law as an example. He wanted to hire me to do household chores, so he married his darling daughter to me. So, Aaron, if you want to hire me, you must marry your daughter to me too!”Aaron’s face flushed in fury as he shouted, “You are so ungrateful! I’m being kind enough to offer you a job and this is how you repay me?!”The enraged Jake glared at Charlie and said, “Hey, buddy, my father-in-law has only one daughter, and she is my wife! Be care
In order to turn the tables, Jake recalled a name that Aaron had mocked Jacob with, Matilda. So, he pretended to be curious and asked, “Dad, what’s the issue with this Matilda that you talked about earlier? You guys seem to be very close to her, I’m rather curious…”Aaron threw a sideway glance at Jacob and said with a grin, “Matilda Hall was the most beautiful girl in our batch, and a lot of boys fell in love with her. In fact, if her admirers queued up, it would circle the university twice.”Then, Aaron deliberately raised his voice and laughed, “Eventually, Matilda must have been hypnotized or something, because she chose Jacob! Since he was in love with the most beautiful and popular girl in school, he had to avoid walking into people for fear that he would be ambushed and beaten.”“What happened later?”Again, Aaron looked at Jacob in amusement and giggled. “Then, Matilda dumped him and flew to the United States. She hasn’t come back since.”Then, he turned to Jacob and asked
The crowd gathered to walk into the school together. Someone asked Eric, “Hey, what did you talk about just now? It seemed to be an intense conversation.”Eric laughed and said, “We were talking about Matilda Hall. By the way, will she come today?”Someone laughed. “Jacob didn’t even ask this question, don’t be too nosy.”“Well, I ask on behalf of him! Matilda was his first love, I wonder if he still remembers her after all these years.”Aaron interjected with a sneer, “I bet he can’t forget Matilda for the rest of his life, given his dire and catastrophic life now.”“Huh? What happened?” Someone asked curiously.“I’ll tell you more in detail once we get to our classroom.”Jacob huffed irritably, “Oh, can you just shut up for a second?”Aaron chuckled and said, “But I want to talk about it, can you control my mouth?”As they walked into the classroom, the group of men looked around them, and the nostalgic memories of their good times in university flooded their minds. Some of
When Elaine’s name echoed across the room, Charlie was so shocked that his jaw dropped. He never expected that Elaine and Jacob were collegemates!He didn’t even expect that she had the reputation of the college’s number one vixen!Honestly speaking, Elaine didn’t seem like someone who had gone to a university before.Honestly, she didn’t even seem like a person who had finished junior high! Given her inferior temperament and character, it was incredible for her to be admitted into the university.Charlie was not the only one surprised at this moment.All of Jacob’s classmates were equally dumbfounded and shocked!No one thought that Jacob would end up with Elaine!Although Elaine was not in the same class as them, her reputation preceded her back in the days!She was the symbol of arrogance and stubbornness back then, very vicious too. Stealing other people’s things was normal for her. When she was caught, instead of admitting her mistakes, she would fight with the person wh
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
Jacob zipped toward Raymond, his attitude immediately subservient, "I'm sure you've seen what Zachary Evans posted on his Twitter page, and to be honest, it's so terrible that my position in the Calligraphy and Painting Association has been affected too. I mean, you've made a lot of money, right?"Hell, even if you donated ten million, you'd still have another ten million and 970 thousand in net profits. So, all I'd like to ask is for you to post something to disclaim Zachary's post.Jacob's words left Raymond in thought.For Jacob, just being suspected of fraud would definitely be terrible. In fact, his position in the Calligraphy and Painting Association would definitely be threatened—if not dismissed altogether—if he wasn't cleared of suspicion.Since Jacob was Charlie Wade's father-in-law, Raymond had reason not to drive Jacob over the brink.But that also begged another question—it must be under Charlie's intention for Zachary to post his confession, and that meant Charlie in
Raymond couldn't help chuckling just as Jacob finished—he had honestly never heard of anyone who demanded a refund after donating to charity, but he was certainly seeing one now.Still, the receptionist was clearly experienced and slowly explained, "Sir, it's a legal clause of the country that all donations for philanthropy purposes can not be refunded under most circumstances—""It truly was a mistake," Jacob quickly said, cutting the receptionist off. "I was going to donate thirty thousand but pressed an extra zero by mistake. Please discuss this with your management—you just have to refund 27 thousand, see?""Sorry, sir," the receptionist apologized. "But it's a strict rule that we ourselves do not get to access the funds that have been donated into our accounts. Every donation will be screened extensively, and if you consider that there was a major oversight on your part, you may seek legal counsel to appeal for a refund. If the courts back your appeal, our organization will the
Nonetheless, Jacob darted into Treasure Measure and plucked off his mask, asking nervously, "Excuse me, Mr. Cole? It's me… Jacob Wilson…"Raymond looked up, pausing for a moment before acting as if he was actually curious, "Mr. Wilson! What brings you here? Don't tell me—you want that bronze sculpture back too?""No, no, no…" Jacob quickly shook his head. "I would never… I returned all the way from Dubai to apologize!""Apologize?" Raymond smiled faintly, and he did not play dumb this time as he asked bluntly, "Did you come back because of Zachary Evan's post?"Knowing he couldn't deny it any longer, Jacob nodded, "Yeah…"Raymond nodded and said calmly, "That's unnecessary. I was the one who benefited in the end."Jacob wasn't quite keeping up—thinking that Raymond was just trying to be nice by telling him he didn't have to apologize, he quickly pulled out his phone.Tapping on it and bringing up his transaction records, he handed it to Raymond reverently, "Mr. Cole, I understan
The cabbie chuckled. "You're a local yet you're heading to Antique Street right away as soon as you land instead of going home? And you're still saying you're not trying to pick up a killer bargain deal?"Come on, man—it's not just you, I want that too. We cabbies work ourselves to death only for ten thousand per month at best while our friend over there made twenty million in one night. I could keep driving cabs for the rest of my life and still not make that much money."Jacob knew that the cabbie must be talking about Raymond and became even more miserable then, grumbling unhappily, "I'm going to Antique Street for business—I'm not trying to pick up some missed bargain.""No? Then you didn't hear what happened yesterday?"The cabbie was immediately curious, and without waiting for Jacob's answer, he exclaimed happily, "Look, man—it was so ridiculous not even Hollywood would put it in their script. There were these fools who were trying to sell an antique trader a replica, but th