After the convoy came in, the bodyguards got out of the car first and opened the door for Charlie, Shawn, and Jenna, who was in the other car.The maids greeted Shawn and Jenna with a “Sir, Madam” in unison, but Shawn then pointed directly at Charlie and said to everyone, “Come, greet Mr. Wade!”So, the crowd hurriedly bowed to Charlie and greeted him again.Shawn then continued saying to the crowd, “Mr. Wade will be staying at our house for the next few days. You have to serve Mr. Wade well and not let him feel any dissatisfaction. Do you understand me?” The crowd naturally agreed in succession, and they did not dare to be negligent. After that, Shawn said to Charlie, “Mr. Wade, I already got the maids to clean up the guest room before you came. You will stay here with me as long as you’re in Hong Kong. You don’t have to be courteous with me!”Charlie was also very happy to oblige and so, he smiled and said, “I’ll accept willingly if that’s the case!”“Okay!” Shawn patted Cha
As Charlie looked at Marianne for the first time, he felt that this girl was much more beautiful compared to how she looked in her photos.What Charlie saw on the documents were all the girl’s ID photos. Marianne was wearing glasses in her ID photos, and she was not smiling. She looked a little more delicate and beautiful, but she was far from being stunning.At this moment, however, Marianne, who was in front of him, was slender and tall with fair and rosy skin. Her facial features without makeup had the charm of a classical Oskian beauty. She had a long ponytail, and it seemed as though she was an angel that had fallen into this neighborhood and was the top version of the girl-next-door.Marianne’s dressing was very simple. She was wearing an ordinary dress with a simple pair of black sandals coupled with an unbranded shoulder bag. Such casual dressing actually brought out her extraordinary temperament to an even greater height. Charlie really did not expect that a fat man like
The person whom Marianne hated the most in her life was Jenna.For as long as she could remember, her mother had always been in tears every day at home. Her father rarely came home, and at that time, her mother had told her that her father was hooking up with a vixen outside. So, that was the reason why he did not care about them.The vixen that her mother spoke of was Jenna, whom Shawn had been hiding in this mansion on Steerlain Island. At that time, Marianne’s mother was still pregnant with her sister, and it was precisely because she had been pregnant with her sister that she had ignored her regular medical checkups and failed to detect and intervene in the initial stage of cancer in time. After being pregnant for ten months, her mother then breastfed her sister for half a year after she had given birth. During that time, her mother had been unwilling to take a single pill even if she had a cold in order to ensure that her breast milk was healthy. Thus, her condition had bee
Both Shawn and Jenna’s expressions changed the moment Charlie mentioned roast goose.As a local resident of Hong Kong, Shawn used to love eating roast goose.However, ever since he had learned that Janus, who was a talented businessman, had been selling roast goose for twenty years in Oskiatown in the United States, he had begun to hate roast goose to the core.This was because he would think of Janus whenever he thought of roast goose.As long as he thought of Janus, he would think of how Jenna had eloped with Janus and how everyone in Hong Kong knew about this matter. Moreover, what made him feel even more depressed was the fact that a woman like Jenna, who was so pampered and spoiled, would actually willingly follow Janus to sell roast goose in Oskiatown for several years. This made him feel even deeper pain in his heart. However, for anyone who had been wounded, no matter how strong they appeared on the surface, they would always be vulnerable in their hearts or have a part
When Shawn heard Charlie’s words, he really felt like slapping himself on the spot, and he could not help but curse to himself, ‘Wow! I’m really asking for it! Why did I have to ask him for the name of the restaurant?!’Jenna had an even more embarrassed expression, and she was also panicking a little at this time.It was already bad enough that Charlie was mentioning roast goose, but he just had to mention Campbell Roast directly! Wasn’t this a direct slap in the face for both Shawn and herself?!When Marianne, who was sitting opposite Charlie, saw the stunned expressions on Shawn and Jenna’s faces, she suddenly could not hold back her laughter, and she laughed out loud.Shawn turned around to glare at Marianne immediately and asked angrily, “What’s so funny?!”Marianne shrugged and said, “It wasn’t funny at first, but both of your reactions are simply too hilarious. Mr. Wade simply wanted to eat roast goose, so why are you both reacting so strongly to it?”Shawn said angrily, “
Charlie’s sudden laughter caused both Shawn and Jenna to look shocked and angry at the same time.Only then did they understand that the reason why Charlie kept mentioning roast goose was not because he missed the taste of roast goose as he had said, but it was because he was deliberately teasing them the whole time!However, Marianne was not surprised at all. Instead, she was amused by Charlie’s sudden change, and the both of them laughed heartily as they faced each other. The expression on Shawn’s face also became uglier with their laughter. A moment later, he slammed the table violently, looked at Charlie, and shouted angrily, “Mr. Wade! I’ve been treating you with courtesy, and I’ve regarded you as our distinguished guest from the moment we met, but why are you deliberately humiliating me?!”Charlie was not nervous at all, and he laughed lightly as he said, “Humiliate you? What do you mean by that, Mr. Long? You cannot possibly stop me from laughing even though this is your
Therefore, he did not dare to continue arguing with Charlie on this issue.After all, he still intended to catch Ito-Schulz Ocean Shipping Group, which was a big fish to him. So, it would be best for him not to turn against Charlie. He would have to pretend that he did not know about this matter as long as Charlie did not make it clear that he was laughing at him for being cuckolded.So, he quickly changed his expression and laughed as he said, “So, that’s the case, Mr. Wade. It seems as though I’ve misunderstood you. I’ll drink a cup of wine as punishment, then!”Having said that, he picked up the wine glass and drank the wine in the glass in one go.Charlie nodded with a smile on his face as he said, “I really did not expect that a mere roast goose would make Mr. Long so unhappy. If that’s the case, we don’t need to eat roast goose tonight.” Shawn did not expect that Charlie would still be mentioning roast goose at this time. So, he could only force a smile and say, “Okay, then
Shawn was finally relieved and relaxed when he saw that Charlie seemed to have a crush on his daughter.The fish had already opened its mouth, and the rest would depend on when he bit the hook.After having a satisfying meal, Shawn said, “Mr. Wade, I still have something to do at the company in the afternoon, so I will not be accompanying you. Let Marianne accompany you to have a good time going around Hong Kong.”Charlie nodded and said casually, “Mr. Long, feel free to go ahead and get busy if you have something to do. It’s good enough for me to have Miss Long accompany me.” Shawn nodded in satisfaction and instructed his daughter, “Marianne, be sure to be a good host and entertain Mr. Wade on my behalf.” Marianne was also unambiguous as she asked directly, “When will you arrange for the donation of the fifty million Hong Kong dollars that you promised me?” Shawn casually replied, “I will ask the finance department to transfer the money to your foundation’s bank account with
Pausing, Charlie then said, "I'll call Steve to drop by later too. I'm sure folks in Aurous Hill won't know him, but your potential troublemaker might.""I-Is that really fine?" Yolden blurted."What's not fine about it?" Charlie chuckled. "He has been treated like a tool ever since he came to Aurous Hill, and now that he has a chance to strut about, he wouldn't ask for more."Yolden appeared slightly relieved at that, and Charlie asked, "By the way, where's Paul, Matilda, and Autumn?""Getting their makeup done," Yolden replied. "Paul's my best man while Autumn's the maid of honor.""Good," Charlie nodded with a grin. "Don't worry—the wedding's going to be a success."As they spoke, Matilda stepped out of the dressing room in a stark-white wedding dress, flanked by Autumn and Paul.Seeing Charlie, Autumn nodded politely, "Good morning, Mr. Wade."As Charlie nodded in turn, Paul started, "G-Good morning… Mr. Wade…"Seeing that he was nervous and tentative, Charlie knew that he
As Yolden and Matilda were remarrying after living abroad for years, the wedding ceremony was much simpler, skipping Oskian customs and having a simple wedding reception for their guests at the hotel hall.There weren't that many guests either—aside from their children and close friends, only a handful of Yolden's colleagues at Aurous Hill University were invited.As the celebrant, Charlie didn't have much to do and was mainly the emcee.He brought along his jacket as he headed out to Shangri-La, not wearing it immediately so that Claire wouldn't guess that he was attending Matilda's wedding.Arriving at the Hanging Gardens before the guests were supposed to arrive, he found Yolden working with the staff to finalize the preparations.Seeing Charlie, Yolden approached him and said, "Thanks for coming this early, Charlie."Noticing that he was a little tired, Charlie asked in concern, "Had a bad night?"Yolden nodded, sighing, "Paul's uncle caused a huge mess. Both Matilda and I a
Tarlon nodded. "How do you suggest we find them?"Fleur scowled. "There's no rush. There are things which I'm still confused about, so just keep a close eye on the Ackers and the Wades for the time being. Report to me right away if anything important comes up—don't afford our enemies any opportunities to exploit.""Yes, milady!" -The next day, more news outlets were covering the joint project between the Ackers and the Wades as word continued to spread.However, neither family revealed too many details, be it the name of the company, who was the CEO, or the scale of their business.While the public was dying with curiosity, nothing else was known.Still, Aurous Hill's officials were especially interested, with the town hall visiting the Ackers the next day and showing utmost sincerity by leasing a whopping 2-million-square-meter land along the southern highway. Still, the condition was for the Ackers to come true on their promise to propel the city's economy to 15 billion US d
Fleur had repeatedly mentioned the conspiracy theory of Ashley using a body double over the last twenty years.Tarlon had investigated from many different angles, but everything from the gender, age, dental records, to body figure pointed to the fact that the deceased was Ashley Acker.And yet, Fleur had never bought it, insisting that Curtis was prepared for them just because Curtis' son had gone missing soon after.There was no way Curtis would save his son but not his wife, and the disfigured corpse only added fuel to Fleur's suspicion.Thus, over the last twenty years, Fleur had kept a close eye on the Ackers, arranging for two 'scholars' to be embedded amongst their ranks as sleeper agents. She went that far all to determine if Ashley was dead or had faked her death.However, the scholars had since been killed in action, and they had no spies within the Ackers left.As for Tarlon, he still doubted Fleur's theory even now, but he remained respectful as he spoke, "Milady, I mu
Meanwhile, on the edge of the South Pole, Tarlon Griffin rushed outside of Fleur Griffin's room, knocking the door gingerly as he announced, "I have news, my lady!"Fleur didn't respond, but the thick wooden door between them slowly opened as if pushed by an invisible force.Tarlon entered to find Fleur seated on the floor with her legs crossed at the ankles. Her eyes remained closed as she molded her Reiki, asking, "What is it?"Tarlon quickly answered, "News from Oskia. The Ackers are partnering with the Wades on a joint venture into electric-powered vehicles."Fleur slowly opened her eyes, asking quietly, "And you're telling me because?"Tarlon quickly explained, "It just came out of the blue, so I thought I should report it to you right away."Fleur sighed. "After I tried and failed to wipe out the Ackers so many times, they wouldn't dare set foot stateside. If anything, they must have decided to seek asylum in Oskia by offering a substantial investment, and it's a base whe
Silent for a while, Matilda then asked Yolden, "Do you think I can do it?""Yes!" Yolden nodded without hesitation. "You definitely won't have any problems!"Matilda sighed, shaking her head. "We traveled far abroad to study while we were young, but we didn't return to Oskia to help the country's development. It's been thirty years since, and now that we have returned to the country at the same time, I definitely wouldn't turn down such an opportunity to help."Pausing, she then said, "That said, major corporations make it a point to not hire family members. Forget spouses—employees aren't allowed to date, and one of the two will be asked to resign if necessary."Don't you think it's inappropriate since we are legally married, having gotten our certificate and all? And if we set these precedents, we would have trouble asking other employees to follow that policy. You are going to be a CEO, so you need a very clear answer on this issue."Yolden shrugged. "In the first place, that p
Yolden nodded slightly. "He does.""My gosh…" Matilda murmured. "That's too much… Ashley's son? A member of the Acker family and the Wades?!"Pausing, she then asked in confusion, "Wait, if Charlie has so much power and influence, why would he permanently reside in Aurous Hill… No, why would he be content as Jacob Wilson's son-in-law? Does Jacob know who he really is?""Definitely not," Yolden shook his head. "There were some compelling circumstances, and his identity is a sensitive one. That's why I'm asking you to tell no one except Paul—and even then, you should only tell him if he can keep the secret."Matilda was sharp enough to pick up on the reasoning, too. "Charlie's hiding because of his parents' accident, isn't he?""Yes," Yolden sighed. "He has his plans, but I didn't pry since I can only do that much, let alone help him on that.""Got it," Matilda nodded repeatedly. "Don't worry. My lips are sealed… And you just said you're resigning? Are you going to help with this e
"That would be Ashley Layna Acker," Matilda replied without hesitation. "She was our age, as well as a major investor in Silicon Valley, while we were only starting to get our first clients. It's no exaggeration to say that she's the shining example in many case studies when it comes to business."Pausing, she then continued, "And she used to be your classmate, right? I remember you mentioning that in our conversations before.""Yes," Yolden sighed emotionally. "She was a classmate and the star of our generation."Matilda nodded but soon shook her head, "Wait, weren't we talking about Charlie's car company? What does that have to do with Ashley Acker?" "Here's where I let you in on a secret," Yolden said. "But first, you have to promise me that you won't tell anyone except Paul."Matilda nodded without hesitation. "Don't worry—if it's a secret, I won't tell Paul either."Yolden scratched his head. "Actually, Paul should know. We are going to marry soon, and he's my stepson, lega
In fact, the legal department of major enterprises covered many responsibilities, the chief of which concerned intellectual property, which was why veterans were needed to lead.Additionally, Charlie trusted Matilda's accomplishments in the legal field, especially since she had worked in the United States for years.With Curtis Autos' intended expansion worldwide, that meant the legal department should also know the laws of countries abroad, ready to file or respond to lawsuits at any time. After all, competitors may use the law to impede their growth, along with the government applying unfair policies to impede their development and impact on local businesses.Moreover, Charlie considered Paul young and therefore lacking in experience, not to mention that it was not likely he would abandon his family's law firm. As such, the ideal solution was to poach Matilda for now.As for Matilda, she was still in the dark and had no idea what she was in for, asking Charlie in confusion, "Lega