Jiang MingYuan frowned, turned, and got ready to leave.
"Where are you going?" asked Gu MingLi as she grabbed him by his arm.
"Going back to my office," said Jiang MingYuan. "I have a videoconference in a little bit."
"Is your company going to go belly up if you wait until tomorrow?!" Gu MingLi wasn't going to buck. "You are here already. You must at least have dinner here."
"Mom." Jiang MingYuan felt a bit of a headache coming on. "You know what I meant by that."
"Of course I know what you mean. You just don't want to see me happy!" Gu MingLi became upset all of a sudden. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she was talking.
"Your dad passed away early. It was me who raised you. My biggest wish is to see that you have a career, a family, a child or two. Even if you don't want to think about me; you should at least think about your dad. Don't you think he'll want you to have children of your own?" said Gu MingLi.
Jiang MingYuan took a deep breath and said in a controlled voice, "We will discuss this later."
"No later. Now." Gu MingLi pointed at the chair in front of them. "Have dinner with me."
The mother and son could never see eye to eye when it came to his marriage. Gu MingLi wanted him to find a gentle, virtuous wife from a family that could rival theirs. Jiang MingYuan hated these kinds of arrangements. Both of them were hard headed and had clashes more than one and each time ended unpleasantly.
But this time it was different.
There was an outsider there. Jiang MingYuan didn't want to make too big of a scene with his mother in front of an outsider. That was precisely what Gu MingLi had counted on, which was why she didn't tell him ahead of time.
Finally, Jiang MingYuan sat down at the dinner table.
The girl who was there was Chu Xun. She was the daughter of the Chu's in Province A. The Chu's were in the daily appliance business. They were no Jiang's but still a prestigious family of sortso.
Chu Xun was 25 years old and just returned from studying overseas. She has the perfect look that Gu MingLi liked – round face, big eyes, rich lips, thick earlobes. All and all, a very fortunate look; the kind that'd bring about prosperity to the family.
From Gu MingLi's perspective, Chu Xun's look, family background, and personality were all good enough for her son. She had liked her since the first time she had laid eyes on her. She started contacting her after finding out that she didn't have any messy romances in the past.
The Chu's were different from the Jiang's in that Jiang MingYuan's father was a workaholic who didn't care too much about romance. Once he had Jiang MingYuan as his heir, he felt that his responsibilities had been completed and poured all of his passion into building his business empire.
The Chu's housemaster was quite the opposite. He was a Third Generation Rich who had inherited the business from his previous generation. He was capable, but not so much that he was able to expand their businesses any further. He didn't have a lot of ambitions or aspirations. He spent most of his time and energy on women. At least 8 or 9 of his lovers had been exposed in the past, and he had over 10 illegitimate children. Imperial-level dramas unfold at his house on a daily basis.
Father Chu was a chauvinist and felt that the company must be succeeded by a son. Chu Xun's oldest illegitimate brother was just three months younger than her and had already joined the company. Regardless of how capable she was, she had no chance at succeeding the company. As such, why not marry into a family that was bigger and better than her own. That way it wouldn't matter which of her siblings ended up inheriting the company; they'd all have to bow down to her.
Jiang MingYuan had been up and rising in recent years, and Chu Xun had heard of him even from overseas. It was said that his style was experienced and brutal, and he has a good eye on investments. He has had some crazy days back in his days, but had for the most part, stayed away from any scandals as of late.
As long as he had changed, that's already better than her father. Chu Xun's pretty eyes stayed on Jiang MingYuan's eyes. She smiled slightly and raised the wine glass in her hand.
"Nice to meet you, Boss Jiang. I would like to make a toast," said Chu Xun. "Aunty told me that Boss Jiang likes fish. I hope you will enjoy my cooking."
Jiang MingYuan looked indifferent. He didn't toast with her but gave her a look and said, "We have chefs on staff and they can prepare whatever we want. Miss Chu is our guest. We shouldn't have our guests do the cooking. That'd make us look bad if words got out."
Chu Xun: "......"
Chu Xun hadn't expected her date of the night would be so abrupt and felt very awkward. Her hand was still holding the glass in midair and the smile on her face started to freeze.
"What are you talking about? Chu Xun only cooked because she knows that you like fish. It's not the same as the chefs making them." Gu MingLi tapped Jiang MingYuan and scolded him, "You need to apologize to her!"
"No, no, that's fine. I didn't think it through." Chu Xun quickly put down the wine glass and defended Jiang MingYuan, seemingly tender and understanding.
"Look at how nice Xiao Xun is." Gu MingLi played along with her. "Where are you going to find another girl as nice as her? You will regret it if you let her go."
As Gu MingLi was praising her, Chu Xun lowered her head appropriately and put on a shy look that could be seen from the side.
"No," said Jiang MingYuan as he stared at the table in front of him. He couldn't be bothered to put up with all the acting.
Gu MingLi was baffled, "No what?"
"No, I won't regret," said Jiang MingYuan. He paused for a bit and raised his wine glass to apologize to Chu Xun. "Sorry."
Having said that, he brought the wine glass to his mouth and downed the glass of wine.
The man's Adam's apple looked particularly appealing. Chu Xun, with a shy look, picked up the community chopsticks and was going to put some food into his bowl, but Jiang MingYuan, sitting across from her, had already stood up.
"I'm done eating. Excuse me," said Jiang MingYuan before he left in brisk steps.
"Aye! Aye! All you had was a glass of wine! You hadn't eaten anything yet!" Gu MingLi wanted to stop him but she was a little too slow. She could only watch as her son's back disappeared behind the door.
"Aunty..." Chu Xun didn't think that was how the first meeting would end. Worried, she called out to Gu MingLi.
"Don't worry. He was just annoyed at me. It's not you." Gu MingLi was very friendly toward the girl whom she had picked out to be her daughter-in-law. She put some food into Chu Xun's bowl and said, "It must be tiring to make this meal. Here, eat."
The assistant and the chauffeur who came with Jiang MingYuan haven't eaten yet. After the mother and son duo had gone inside the house, the servants of the Jiang's had them come to join them for dinner.
The food was also made by the chef and was quite tasty; unfortunately, they barely had a few bites before someone came to inform them that Boss Jiang was leaving.
The assistant and the chauffeur exchanged a look. They figured that the mother and son duo had another fight again.
In recent years, the relationship between the two had worsened visibly. Gu MingLi wanted to control her son and Jiang MingYuan, who was already established, refused to be influenced.
Between the tugging back and forth, the net that was weaved by "affection" was already full of cracks.
"Boss, where are we going?" asked the chauffeur after he had closed the door behind him.
"Let's go back to my place," said Jiang MingYuan while propping up his head with one hand.
The car drove out of the mansion and the unpleasantness from earlier lessened immediately. Jiang MingYuan rolled down the window to take a breath and asked his assistant, "Did I interrupt your dinner?"
"No, no." The assistant denied immediately. "I was just saying to Old Liu that we wanted to get and have the beef soup noodle by the office. Now that you are heading over there, we won't have to make a special trip."
Jiang MingYuan smiled and touched the corner of his lip slightly.
The assistant reached his hand up dubiously and knocked off a small piece of vegetables that was stuck on himself. He probably didn't wipe his mouth completely when they were rushing out earlier.
Caught red-handed, especially in such an embarrassment, even the elite assistant felt embarrassed all of a sudden. He touched his chin and tried to find something to lighten up the mood.
"You and Old Liu go get some dinner after dropping me off. Expense it," said Jiang MingYuan to his assistant as he looked out the window.
"Thank you, Boss. Lucky us!"
For the sake of convenience, the apartment that Jiang MingYuan stayed over at a lot was right next to his office, just 5 minutes' walk. He turned down the assistant's office to get him some dinner. With one hand in his pocket, he swiped his card with the other hand and walked inside the elevator.
This apartment building was also one of many of the Jiang's projects. It was made particularly for the high-income group of professionals.
The apartment was located in the busiest area. The area was not too densely populated with good effort in afforestation. The area was quite massive with each apartment at least 100 m2 in size. All them being two-bedrooms or even one-bedroom designs. It was guaranteed that the residences here would not feel cramped.
As the owner, Jiang MingYuan occupied the top three floors of the apartment building. One floor as his office, another his gym, and the top-most floor was his living quarters.
City C was situated near a lake. Standing in front of the window, he could see all the lights from the other side of the lake.
Jiang MingYuan let out a deep, long sigh and took off his suit. He pulled off his tie, tossed it aside, and unbuttoned the top three buttons on his shirt. His muscle, honey-colored chest was now exposed.
Removing his formal outfit and changing into appropriate workout attire, Jiang MingYuan stepped onto his treadmill, set the speed, and started working out.
Jogging was just the warm up. He had other routines that followed. He spent over an hour in his home gym and was drenched in sweat before he was finally able to get rid of that irritable feeling.
After he had finished exercising and bathed, Jiang MingYuan, in his loose bathrobe, went downstairs to do more work.
Jiang MingYuan was merely 18 years old when his father passed away. Even though he received his fair share of stocks and became the biggest shareholder, none of the "experienced personnel" at the company had any respect for him. They very much looked like they wanted to make him the boss only on paper.
Jiang MingYuan didn't have other siblings, and it was just him and his mother at home. Gu MingLi was born in a prestigious family but knew nothing about business. All she did all day long was to chat with other wealthy ladies about clothes and jewelries, tea and flowers.
Jiang MingYuan had nobody to rely on other than himself. He had to fight the hostility coming at him from all directions while learning as much as he could like a mad man. He shore up his ability and hope that he would be able to get back what was rightfully his one day.
It took him 8 years to make that happen, between when he was 18 till when he was 26. He finally lived up to his father's expectation.
Perhaps because someone had mentioned it, Jiang MingYuan thought about his father. He was a serious man who was difficult to get close to. Yet he would find time in his very busy schedule to go to his parent-teacher conference like a regular parent.
There was a picture on his desk. It was a picture of his family of three. He was just 6 years old in the picture, and his parents looked exceptionally young. Jiang MingYuan picked up the picture frame and touched the face of his mother on the left.
He stared at it for a while. Finally, with his lips slightly lifted out, he let out a sigh.
Whatever. She was his only family after all. He'd try to be nicer to her...
Having made that decision, Jiang MingYuan was going to return to his work. He put down the picture frame and suddenly stopped when he saw his own face in the picture.
His assistant seemed to have mentioned that he saw a kid that looked a lot like him?
Perhaps because his mother was trying so hard to urge him to get married, he wasn't able to completely toss aside this seemingly utterly baseless and ridiculous speech.
Now that he thought about it, there was no reason to let the mystery dragged on for longer than necessary. The picture that the assistant had sent over was still there. Jiang MingYuan clicked open the picture that was obviously taken secretly and compared it with himself in the photo.
It might be difficult for one to picture one's own look in one's mind, but it didn't matter when it came to pictures. Jiang MingYuan compared the two boys in the pictures and the more he looked at them, the more shocked he was.
The assistant wasn't kidding. The two of them looked awfully alike!
What was going on?!