“Serena, you’re here?” Mrs. Hoodie was happy that she could finally meet Serena again. Then the expression on her face changed when she saw Daren. Yes, Mrs. Hoodie didn’t like Daren very much. “Why did you bring that useless guy?”
“Come on, Grandma. He is my husband, how could I not invite Daren to be with me on your birthday? Especially since we have prepared a gift for you, and Daren chose the gift himself.”
Mrs. Hoodie was silent, she looked at a sweet crystal ball in the box. Then Mrs. Hoodie smiled faintly.
“Is it true that Daren bought this?”
“That’s right, Grandma. I chose it, Serena gave me responsibility for it. Serena said Grandma suffers from insomnia, and this item is very helpful in getting a good night’s sleep. I hope that with this object next to grandma, then grandma can sleep soundly.”
“Thank you, maybe you can’t afford an expensive gift, but you have given me the most useful gift of all. Thank you very much again, Daren.”
Daren was beyond happy to hear this. He smiled broadly then his gaze fell on Serena.
“Daren, can you come out for a moment? There are several things I want to say to Grandma and they are confidential.”
“Grandma, happy birthday!”
And sure enough. Before Serena had time to say anything, Miles had arrived, carrying his antique ceramics.
“Look grandma, I have bought you antique ceramics, and these ceramics are worth a hundred million dollars!”
“Only a fool would believe that cheap ceramics were worth a hundred million dollars.” Daren muttered, loud enough to make Miles immediately glare at him.
“Okay, thank you very much, Miles. Can you guys go first? I want to have a private conversation with Serena.”
Daren and Miles finally came out. Both of them were still looking at each other with hostile eyes, as if they were reluctant to get along with each other at all.
Meanwhile inside, Serena took a deep breath. Finally, Miles wasn’t here and that made Serena’s heart immensely relieved.
“Tell me what you want to convey, Serena? It seems like you’re about to say something quite… important?” asked Mrs. Hoodie to her only granddaughter.
“Grandma, I want to discuss the antique ceramics from Miles, and I want to know whether it is true that the antique ceramics are fake or genuine. I know that Grandma knows best about this matter.”
“What about the ceramics?” Mrs. Hoodie asked her granddaughter.
Serena was silent for a moment, then she glanced at the antique ceramics which were on her right side. “Can Grandma see and examine the antique ceramics? Maybe it’s not the antique ceramics that Miles said.”
“Why do you ask like that, Serena? Do you feel that you don’t trust your cousin?”
“No, I’m just curious. Where did Miles get the antique ceramics? Who is his acquaintance?” Serena asked.
Her grandmother smiled again, then she nodded her head. She got up from her seat and examined Miles’ ceramics.
“The smell of paint from this ceramic is quite strong, it seems like this ceramic has strange paint. Like … a dangerous paint.” Mrs. Hoodie spoke. “It looks like this antique ceramic is fake. You realize that, right? That’s why you asked me about these ceramics?” she continued.
Serena became excited when she heard that. How could she not, of course this was a really exciting thing. Serena can prove that Daren’s words were true, and for some reason Serena was happy with that. She didn’t know how Daren found out about all this. But Daren being able to prove Miles’ lies was a very proud thing.
“Actually, the one who realised about this problem is Daren, Grandma. He was the first to tell me that the ceramics were fake and worth less than a hundred dollars, but Miles continued to be stubborn and said that the antique ceramics were worth a hundred million dollars. I don’t know whether Miles was lied to, or whether it was Miles who lied to his father. But at least Daren has spoken several times and confirmed that the ceramics were fake, and said that the paint on the ceramics could give Grandma a serious lung infection.”
“Then get rid of the fake ceramics and keep them away from me! I don’t want to get sick just because of that cheap thing!”
“Okay, Grandma. I will do it right away.”
“And…” Mrs. Hoodie trailed off, she looked at Serena with a serious expression on her face. “Is it true that Daren was the one who found out about all this?”
Serena nodded firmly then answered. “Yes, Grandma.”
“Then tell Daren to meet me now, I want to talk to him face to face.”
“Okay, Grandma.”
Serena left, then she saw Daren who was waiting for her in the living room.
“How is it, Serena?”
“You were told to come in.”
“What? I?” Daren asked, almost in disbelief. Daren even pointed at himself in disbelief.
“Is there another Daren here besides you, huh?”
Daren smiled then he nodded his head perfectly. Serena was right.
“Okay, I’ll be there.”
Serena nodded then she glanced at Miles who was passing in front of her. Serena immediately looked away from Miles.
Meanwhile, Daren knocked on the door of Mrs. Hoodie’s room, then he smiled stiffly.
“Grandma, did you call me?”
“Yes, I did. I wanted to talk to you about a few things. Sit down .…”
Daren then sat in a chair not far from Mrs. Hoodie.
“How do you know that the antique ceramics given to you by Miles are fake and the paint is very dangerous to me, Daren?”
Daren was silent for a moment, he started to think that maybe Serena was the one who said all this so that her grandmother knew.
“I saw and smelled it, Grandma. I have been in a paint factory. And I can distinguish the smell of expensive paint, the smell of paint from ancient times, and the smell of rotten paint with a high risk for health. Even from a distance, it can be clearly smelled that the paint is paint with quite high chemical content.”
“Then how can you tell if it’s fake antique ceramics?”
“The shape, material, and motif are different. The original ceramic had nine black dots on each flower petal, while Miles’ ceramic only had six black dots. At first glance, they look the same, but believe me, the ceramics are fake, Grandma."Mrs. Hoodie became silent again. Apparently she was again surprised by what Daren found out. Now he was curious, who was Daren’s real figure? How could Daren know about a problem like this? If Daren knew how many black dots there were, didn’t that mean Daren had seen real ceramics?“Have you ever gone to see the ceramics in person?”“No, I just often look on the internet.” Daren argued quite cleverly. If it was like that, surely Mrs. Hoodie would never be suspicious of him, right? “Can’t you study anywhere, Grandma? I have quite a lot of insight from the internet and from books in the library. A free knowledge which has enormous benefits.”“Then, what if I give you a challenge? Maybe this challenge will make you feel happy.”“Challenge?”“Yes.”D
This morning, Daren was at a restaurant. He is wanted to go in to meet Jackob as promised last night. But, when Daren was about to enter, the security guards immediately blocked him, and of course this shocked Daren beyond belief.“Who are you? What are you here for? Do you have money to pay for food here?” The question was directly addressed to Daren. Of course Daren was shocked beyond words. Until finally he realized that if they weren’t wrong, it was his clothes that were wrong. Daren was wearing shabby clothes, clothes whose colors were even faded and looked very shabby. The security guard must have thought that Daren was a beggar.“I had an appointment with Mr. Materna, and he booked table number eighteen.” Daren answered calmly.The two security guards whispered to each other, then both smiled again and looked at Daren still with mocking looks.“Do you mean Mr. Martena who is the right-hand man of the Wiles family?” asked the security officer.Daren was quite happy to hear that,
Daren nodded then smiled faintly at Jackob. “You are Dad’s only employee I can trust and rely on, Jack. And I hope that whatever Dad’s attitude towards me, you will always protect him. He is old and frail even though he acts great at times.”“Very well, Young Master Wiles. I will always obey all your orders.”“Good!”After talking with Jackob, Daren even went straight home. He also brought several luxurious menus from the restaurant.When he got home, Daren put all the food menus on the dining table. Serena, who had just opened the bedroom door, glanced at what Daren had brought.“What are you carrying? Where were you from?”“I just came from the Wiles family company to do a demo.”“Demo?” Serena said with a mocking smile. “I’m sure, even all the files you brought were thrown away by them without them looking at those files first.”Daren smiled sweetly, then he invited Serena to enjoy the food he had brought earlier.“Where do you get expensive food like this?”“You don’t need to wond
“Okay, if it’s like that. That’s very good, Grandma. I’m really reluctant to show my name to everyone, with Grandma’s name I actually feel helped.”“Grandma, are you crazy? How could you—”“Tonight, gather all members of the Hoodie family and announce all this to them. Agree or not, they must obey my decision and everyone must obey what I have decided.”“This is crazy!” Miles immediately slammed one of the ceramics beside him and then he just left the Hoodie family residence.“Thank you, Grandma. I will prove to you that I am capable, and I promise to make you proud to have a leader like me.”Daren insisted on becoming the leader of the Hoodie family company because he wanted to fight directly with Erdward. Daren was very curious about how Erdward would see him become a leader in another company, and prove to his family that he was capable. Even though he was in the position of a family company which it still needed an injection of funds from his family company in any case.*****“Of
“Sorry, don’t you think you have said something wrong, Miss?” Daren asked to clarify everything.The woman smiled quite sweetly, then shook her head perfectly.“I’m Cassandra. Actually I’m not a secretary at this company, sir. I was ordered by Mr Materna to accompany you, on the grounds that as one of the conditions of the Wiles family company there must be a representative working here. Because Mr. Materna couldn’t help you here, so he asked me to replace him.”Daren immediately looked away, then he took a deep breath after making sure that everything was fine.“I didn’t expect Jack to be this cute, thank you very much for coming and once again, call me Mr. Hoodie. You know about that, don’t you?”“Yes sir. Sorry if I accidentally called you Mr. Wiles, because I heard you introduce yourself as Daren Wiles to the security guard outside.”“Because I’m sure that if they don’t know me. It’s different if you call me like that, my identity will easily be revealed, do you understand?”“Yes
“Just look, Grandma. I hope you are not surprised by the results I showed you. And this is a fact which in reality is like that.”Mrs. Hoodie read the contents of the file, then she glanced at Miles who was still pretending to act stupid.“Is all this true, Miles?” Mrs. Hoodie asked then.Miles, who suddenly heard the question, was of course confused. He didn’t know how to answer the question.“What do you mean, Grandma? What is it about? I don’t understand at all, Grandma.”“From this data, it shows that several percent of profits from the company, even though it is really very small, go into a personal account. And when it was investigated, that account belongs to you in another country. If you collect all the money you transferred to your personal account, in fact it is far more than the cost of producing a product in our company.”Miles was shocked beyond words, he didn’t understand at all how all this could happen? Then he glanced at Daren. He didn’t know what was happening but
“Now can we talk, Daren?”Daren stopped in his tracks just as he saw his wife sitting on the living room sofa with her arms crossed. His wife looked at Daren fiercely as if Daren had made a fatal mistake."What is the problem?" Daren finally asked. Sitting in front of his wife then he untied several ties around his neck.“Now explain to me what happened, after a while this job of yours is the most terrible thing there is. You come and examine a vase that is not important, its origin. Then you were entrusted with researching a problem in the company, and another thing was that you were suddenly entrusted with being the leader of the company owned by my family. Hey, what are you doing? What charade are you trying to put on that makes everything so insignificant like this? You know that a company has a lot of employees, if your intention is just to play around then stop, because a company and being in control of a company is not a toy at all, you know!" shouted Serena, who was really ang
“Please, ma'am. We've arrived at your new house."Serena was still silent, she still couldn't digest anything properly. Serena knows very well that this district is the downtown district where only high-ranking officials, artists and rich businessmen can afford to buy a house in this district, so how could Serena's grandmother buy a house here and how much bonus did Serena's grandmother give Daren? ? Even Daren still sent fifty million dollars in savings, this was truly extraordinary, and Serena was speechless. How much salary did Serena's grandmother offer Daren, so that Daren had a lot of money, especially how could Serena's grandmother be able to give Daren such a high salary when in reality Daren wasn't even clear about his skills in managing the company. And of course this is something that doesn't make any sense at all, it's so unreasonable that Serena can't say anything."Sorry Mister. Aren't you wrong? I mean this is a house that is too luxurious and expensive and I'm not sure