Byunghun saw Master Manoban's stormy expression when he came back, and he furrowed his brows in confusion. "Father, why were you in such a rush to get me back home? I finally managed to get in contact with one of the managers of the Yin family!"
"Why? Why?!" Master Manoban immediately threw the cup in his hand towards him. "Don't you know what you've done? You've ruined the future of the Manoban family! You useless child! Unfilial child!"
"Father, please don't be angry!" Byunghun didn't dare to dodge the projectile, only letting the old man take out his anger on him. "What happened?"
Byunghun motioned for the butler to show him the newspapers.
Byunghun glanced at the news before his eyes widened slightly in surprise. He had already known that Lisa was outstanding, but never this much!
"You go tell her that we've already sent Ah Jin abroad to never come back to our country ever again. If she's willing to come back, she'll be the only heir to our family!" Master Manoban said as she looked at Byunghun. "As long as she will come back, we'll comply with all of her conditions!"
Byunghun didn't dare to speak back against this choice of Master Manoban's, but he was still dissatisfied with this decision. He felt bad for letting a talented individual go, but to give the family to her? What is this child's play?
What could the girl even do if she came back to the family? She had never dealt with the matters of the enterprise before so she was definitely less experienced than he was...Was his father going senile?
In any case, would she even come back after acting out that time?
"Don't think that I don't know what you're thinking." Master Manoban knocked on the table in the living room sternly. "My intuition has never been wrong!"
Without any choice left, Byunghun could only try to contact Lisa, but he didn't know how to do that, and upon seeing his conundrum his assistant reminded, "Sir, Miss Lalisa might be at her school."
Byunghun nodded and let his chauffeur bring him to First City High, and while there were many students there, he found Lisa in the crowd that was together with two of her friends.
Seeing a young man in a suit walk over, Jimin blocked in front of Lisa warily.
Byunghun's assistant waved his hands harmlessly. "Miss Lalisa, Chairman Manoban is waiting for you."
Lisa looked at him, the smile on her face disappearing as she did. In all honesty, the people that she wanted to see the least now were those people from the Manoban family, and she thought that she had already made it abundantly clear. "I'll be done quick, wait for me okay?"
Seeing Lisa, Byunghun first praised her on her achievements, before telling her what he was here for, "Your grandfather said that you will be able to inherit the entire Manoban family if you come back."
After that, he kept an eye out for the girl's reaction. The Manoban family was counted as a family that was quite well off in N City, and would definitely be enough of a bargaining chip to cause almost anyone to drool at their mouths. Even he himself wasn't entrusted with the entire family by Master Manoban!
He had expected for Lisa to be taken aback by this news, but the girl's expression remained as cold and unaffected as always.
Did she not know how much that was worth?
"What I wanted was never the Manoban family." Lisa smiled. "Mr. Manoban, I thought I already made things clear with you last time, I hope this will never happen again."
She was smiling, but there wasn't even a hint of warmth behind her smile.
Looking at her leaving silhouette, Byunghun suddenly remembered the documents that she left them and felt a sudden pang of fear. If he really managed to anger her, would she give all of this evidence to the authorities? Thinking of this, he didn't dare to linger any further and told his chauffeur to bring him back.
While a talented individual was important, the Manoban family was more important than it.
He could only blame himself for not grasping the chance while he could, but deep inside he breathed a sigh of relief. Where could he place his dignity if Lisa agreed to inherit the Manoban family?
After he told Master Manoban what had happened, the latter sat there for a long while, before sighing in defeat.
He had truly given up this time, and he seemed to age right then and there, becoming a husk of his former self at that moment.
Lisa's mood was still terrible even after Byunghun left, so she refused Jimin's invitation. "I'm a little tired today, so I'll go have some rest, yeah? I'll visit you on another date."
"Are you okay?" Jimin's brows furrowed slightly as he saw through her facade, making an internal note to talk with his father about hindering the Manoban Family whenever they had the chance to.
"It's fine. I'm going now." Lisa waved at the two of them when she saw Taehyung's car, and as she left, Jimin looked over at Rosé with a serious expression.
"I've decided that I want to go to the management faculty of A University."
It wasn't a problem to get that course with his grades, but Rosé's eyebrows knit in response. "Didn't you say that you wanted to focus on sports yesterday?"
"This is the only way that I can succeed my father's position without any drawbacks, right?" Jimin's father had promised him that he would be the successor to the family, but he still had to do some things with his own two hands.
This was the first time that he even had the thought of wanting to become a suitable successor to the family.
Rosé was honing herself too, so who was he to be left behind?
***
Taehyung looked towards Lisa as he rested his arm on the car windowsill, but his gaze was duly ignored by Lisa, the girl opening the back door and getting onto the car without a word.
"Hey, could you not show so much disdain towards me?" Taehyung's cool facade cracked for a few moments as he held his hand to his forehead. "Why did you choose to sit behind there instead of here in the front?"
"It's wider and more comfortable here," Lisa replied.
"I'll get a car with only two seats the next time around, let's see if you can sit on the top of the car!" Taehyung revved up the car as he grumbled. "I'd be impressed if you did!"
Lisa took out her phone. "You can always try it, I'm not against it."
Knowing that he couldn't beat her in a quipping battle, Taehyung quickly changed the subject. "Spare me that silver tongue of yours, I'm going to take you to see your car that just got shipped here last night...Right, do you have a driver's license?"
"...No," Lisa replied, not even raising her head.
"Have you ever driven a car?" Taehyung looked at her through the rearview mirror in surprise.
"Does a tractor count?"
"..."
The car that Taehyung was going to give her was custom made abroad, and had just gotten through inspections. In order to celebrate her doing well on her exams, the keys were sent in first while the car came one day later.
The car was placed in a 4S shop, and Taehyung was going to bring her to get her car on that day.
"I wanted to ship it directly back to Yin Manor, but I thought of those soldiers that were keeping guard there so I gave up on the idea. Those people don't know how to hold back, and it'll be quite a shame to break this car on the first day it came in..." Taehyung brought Lisa to the car dealership quickly, and showed her a streamlined, pink Lamborghini.
It had a sleek design with stark dynamism and aggression, all sleek lines and cutting edge design, and it seemed quite impressive and even a tad bit ostentatious, especially with its two scissor doors.
Strangely enough, the pastel pink color didn't conflict with this design in the slightest, and even Lisa was quite satisfied with it.
Taehyung walked over to the car. "Did you bring your keys?"
The car keys had already been placed in the inventory by Lisa, and upon being asked, she stuck her hand into her bag and willed for the key to appear in her hand.
"Get in the car, I'll take you for a ride." Taehyung caught the keys that Lisa threw over, before getting on the car and waving at her. "You learn how to drive for two days, and I'll have someone get a driver's license for you."
Lisa only pursed her lips slightly as she looked over, not getting in the car.
"What's wrong?" Taehyung asked.
"Nothing, just give me a second." Her long eyelashes fluttered slightly and she turned her head to the side, her expression twitching slightly. Even Jihyun knew to color the walls of her room a pastel blue, why did he choose such a car?
Lisa back at the car again, her lips still pursed. "Let's recolor it."
"Ah, so it's the color that you don't like!" Taehyung chuckled. "Hey, I was the one that chose the model of this car, but Bro Jungkook was the one that chose this color. I already picked a white one, but he pointed and this one and said to pick it! So...Do you still want to recolor it?"
This color was picked by Jungkook? Lisa facepalmed as she thought of the man's sculpted features and ruthless cold demeanor...What was he thinking?
She knew that Taehyung wouldn't trick her about this, so she had even more of a headache.
"Get out the car, let me try it," Lisa said, gesturing for him to move.
"Are you sure you can do it?" Taehyung was quite worried still, and it showed on his expression when he stepped out of the car. "Would you need me to sit in the passenger's seat?"
Lisa accepted the keys from him and got on the driver's seat. "I've driven a tractor before, don't look down on me."
Taehyung only stood there with his arms crossed, and only breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that she wasn't doing anything wrong, as unfamiliar as her motions were.
As he looked at the girl that was driving the car, he was somewhat stunned for a bit as he realized why Jungkook chose this color for Lisa.
The color pink was a really picky color in regards to its user, and if the wrong people used it, it would seem gaudy and ostentatious, but Lisa already seemed like a dainty porcelain doll that looked right at home in all the pink, especially her lithe and pretty hands that were contrasted by the black steering wheel. At the moment, her lips were pursed slightly and her brows furrowed in concentration, and it gave her a different appeal than she usually did.
"Bro really does have taste." Taehyung didn't worry anymore upon seeing Lisa getting better and better at driving. "No wonder he chose this color...I wonder if he knew that it would have this sort of effect?"
"Do I drive this car away right now or leave it here?"
Taehyung had thought of letting her drive it away right there, but he gave up on the idea quickly. "I think there might be a bunch of useless men tripping over themselves and get into accidents with your car get to know you if you drove onto the road just like this..."
The more he thought about it, the more he thought that it was possible. "Just leave the car here and drive it away whenever you need it. I've already told the manager to have the employees remember your face so there shouldn't be a problem."
Lisa nodded in response. She needed some time to accept this car, after all, the color was too...
After the two of them had lunch, they went on their separate ways.
***
The Antique Street of N City was always a hot spot for crowds of all ages alike, whether it was old people that had an eye for antiques or youngsters that wanted to buy treasure that always became the target of scams from the stall owners.
Lisa was attracted by the hustle and bustle as soon as she got there.
Before she could step into the street, a system notification rang out.
[Daily Good Deed Mission activated: Treasure Appraisal.]
[Mission completion reward: 20 points!]
As she followed the arrow on the system interface, she saw an old man with white hair seemingly having a hard time deciding on an antique shop, while the owner of the shop seemed to be promoting his wares, "This is a Ru Ware used in the imperial court back in the Song Dynasty. Look at its beautiful emerald hue and the wonderful craftsmanship! As one of the Five Great Kilns, it's already a great catch to buy it with just a mere ten million!"
Tang Wenbo looked at the green plate in his hands with a perplexed expression on his face. Ten million wasn't that much for him, but if it were true that it was Ru Ware from the Song Dynasty, this plate would be worth at least fifty million!
But then again, the risk was still quite high...
Should he buy it?
"This plate looks quite delicate." A young woman's voice rang out as if it were a clear spring in the hot summer's day.
Tang Wenbo saw her and his eyes brightened, not looking down on her in the slightest merely based on her age. "Do you have any advice for me, young lady?"
The old man had a head of snow-white hair and a pair of energetic eyes, and he was wearing a white kung fu suit. His demeanor was down to earth and gentle, and it was hard not to like him.
Lisa smiled and replied, "Not advice, just my own opinion. Ru Wares were monopolized by the imperial court back in the day, and they didn't skimp at all on the cost so they used agate in the glaze, giving it a sky blue, egg blue, or pale blue shade. This plate in particular does have the traits of having a thick and round texture, and it has a lightly impressed floral...Or insect-wing like design, too."
Seeing that she truly knew what she was talking about, Tang Wenbo placed the plate on the table, not caring at all about the unspoken rule of antique lovers not interrupting each other's appraisals. "Give it a look yourself, little lady."
Lisa took the plate along with a magnifying glass and looked over it carefully, before placing it down on the table again.
"How is it?" Tang Wenbo asked, not knowing what she thought of it.
"Slight traces of copper were used in the firing of the Ru Ware, so you can see slight traces of lavender or red when light is shone upon it, and the body of the Ru Ware has a slightly yellowish-gray tone, or in other words, the color of incense ash. The ones made in Zhanggong Alley of Ruzhou, in particular, have this grayish-white color that is slightly paler than the other kilns, so it's a deciding factor too in knowing whether or not it was from Northern Song," Lisa spoke slowly.
"I checked on all of it, and these traits are all there!" Tang Wenbo looked at the plate with a hopeful expression.
Lisa shook her head. "That's not all, according to historical archives, the Ru Wares of that period had slight defects due to the overly high temperature of firing, and they only managed to deal with this problem by adding a specific type of plant, and it's also where its distinctive pattern comes from...The pattern on this plate, however, seems to have been created by adding a chemical instead, which is why the edges of the plate are a grayish-white, and the reason why it doesn't have any changes in color when exposed to light. Looking closely, the bubbles of the glaze are coarse and much less delicate than a real Ru Ware..."
Hearing this, the owner's expression froze on his face.
Tang Wenbo took the plate and exposed it to the sunlight, and it was clear that what Lisa said was true.
Ru Ware always had the reputation of being as beautiful as the emerald waves of a lake when the sun shines after the rain, and it was reputed for a treasure that money can't buy, and as such, it was truly precious and exceedingly rare.
"It's too much wishful thinking for me to think that I could find Ru Ware here." Tang Wenbo sighed, but he didn't dwell on it any further and looked back towards Lisa. "You have quite the trained eye for someone so young, you're even better than it than us old bones!"
"It's only because I have done some research on Ru Ware, in particular, I can't compare to everyone else." Lisa quickly shook her hand in response to his praise. "I don't know much about other types of antiques."
Even though she had seen books on antique appraisal before, but she had never seen the real thing, so she would have missed a lot of details if it weren't for the system. Appraisal required more than just theory, but actual practice and experience too.
Tang Wenbo laughed brightly, his impression of the humble girl in front of him increasing another notch.
[Mission accomplished! You have been rewarded with 20 points!]
[Ding! The system has detected that Tang Wenbo's affection towards you is 28, do you want to add him to your friends' list?]