Chapter 65
In Richard's eyes, Diana's participation in the TV show and the trending hashtags about her were as trivial as children's play. No news really mattered in the Information Explosion Era.
It never crossed his mind that Josh would come right back home due to such a trivial matter when he had not secured 100% success in the cooperation. In his eyes, Josh was not a hot-headed person who couldn't set priorities properly.
Therefore, he didn't understand Josh's actions.
However, the older Josh grew, the more reluctant he was to explain to his father.
In fact, Diana didn't think Josh was a reckless person, either. But this time it seemed that it was for her small trouble that Josh rushed back overnight.
Although the public opinion on the Internet had changed in favor of her when he came back, didn't he still heal her broken heart and gift her with an island where she could see the aurora?
When Diana was distracted for a while, the conversation in the study had changed the subject to something irrelevant to Josh. She held her breath and walked away gently.
On the way back to the room, Diana was a little absent-minded. She sat in front of the desk and stared into the space for a while, then she opened the leaking window halfway to enjoy the snow.
In the middle of winter, the snow was as dense and heavy as goose feathers, and through the nine-foot-long twisted corridor blew the brisk wind. She rested her cheeks in her hands and seemingly pondered on something. Her thoughts seemed to wander far, far away.
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"...Walls Company's asset reorganization will not be completed until after the Lunar New Year at the earliest. It is difficult to say whether it can be listed on the stock exchange again in the first half of the year. After the reorganization and share reform, it may be not as close to Molter Company as it is now. And there are still several cooperated companies which have intentions to inject capital, aren't there?"
"That makes sense. However, though Molter Company is not close to Walls Company, there is no chance that they could be close to us. If they can intercept and get the investment themselves this time, then basically they are unlikely to cooperate with us. Even if they have the intention, they are more likely to ask for a prohibitive price." Another person retorted.
The headquarter of South Bay Development Company was located on the eleventh floor of the Swift Building.
The capital injection in the charge of Vincent, the Chinese-French, was intercepted by Molter Company Capital, where Toby Hunter worked. It caused a great shortage of the budget scheduled for the development of new energy business after Walls Company's reorganization as well as the construction of the roundabout overpass of the South Bay Phase II. For several days, officers of all the related projects had gathered here to discuss the next move.
There was surely a plan B for the construction of the roundabout overpass in the South Bay Phase II. However, compared with plan A, which can be implemented if they could get the investment, other plans were not the optimal choice.
Moreover, investments involved the profits that the interested parties could get respectively. The negotiation these days were mainly about the distribution of the interests if other optional plans were adopted.
In fact, the development prospects of South Bay were more promising and its potential return was much higher than that of
Walls Company's new energy projects. However, the latter had a more advantageous investment cycle and short-term rate of return.
Some people proposed to negotiate and cooperate with Molter Capital, but the representatives of the Hunter family and the Swift family attending the meeting seemed to disagree with this suggestion.
--They were all familiar with the person in charge of the China Region of Molter Company Capital. The situation was exactly what Toby wanted. So why bother to seek the probability of cooperation?
At the end of the meeting, Josh checked the time and planned to go back to Lux Hotel Group to sign a couple of documents that were to be issued before the Lunar New Year.
But Sam suddenly called him from half a step behind him, "Mr. Hunter, there is a phone call for you."
Josh stopped walking and turned his head back slightly.
Sam stepped forward and handed the phone to Josh, then returned to where he stood just now almost imperceptibly. He gave a little cough before saying: "It's ...Toby Hunter from Molter Company."
Josh Hunter looked down at the caller ID and pressed the button.
On the other end of the phone, Toby cut to the chase: "The Lunar New Year is approaching. I've prepared some gifts for our grandparents, parents, and Diana. I will send them to Luxury Bridge in two days. I hope you don't mind."
Josh didn't answer.
"Well, you may not in the mood to mind now. I'm really sorry for your failure to cooperate with Vincent."
Toby's voice was clear and warm, and some words said in his euphonious voice would leave people confused and made it hard for people to tell whether it was sarcasm or real regret.
"Don't bother to deliver to Luxury Bridge. Please send the gifts
directly to Hill Garden and give them all to Mom." Josh spoke in a casual tone as if he was talking about tomorrow's weather, and then added mockingly, "Thank you very much, Mr.George."
Sam's survival instinct had kicked in recently. He sat in the front passenger seat and remember to renew the dos and don'ts: Toby should be called Toby George instead of Toby Hunter in the future. Yes, Mr. Hunter always addresses Toby as Toby George.
A long silence followed Josh's words over the other side of the phone. It was unknown whether it was "send to Hill Garden" that evoked Toby's memory or the name "Toby George" that hurt him.
Josh didn't care too much and only added: "I first thought that you wouldn't use a woman to reach your goal. I overestimated you before."
His voice got colder and his pitch went slightly higher as he continued, which revealed his complete contempt and indifference. Before Toby could respond, he hung up the phone.
Those who were fighting in the business field would not consider anything an accident. The moment the abrupt change on Vincent's side happened, Josh had already found out that it was Toby who meddled in the affair.
It seemed that Diana's being edited maliciously resulted from the cooperation of Sarah Reed and the show's staff who picked a good day and looked for trouble.
But when Diana and Toby met earlier, she inadvertently mentioned some of the things that happened when she participated in the show, which included that she felt occasionally slighted by the show's staff during the shooting and the row between her and Sarah.
Being observant, Toby followed the things she casually mentioned for further investigation. Before the show was broadcast, he used some means to fan the flames. In the end, it looked like it was the show's staff and Sarah to be blamed. He washed his hands of the incident.
In fact, Toby intended to get Diana into a fight with Josh again at the beginning. Like Richard, he never thought that Josh would return home in advance because of the incident. But he also had no reason not to take the advantage of the mistake Josh had made by himself.
He never thought about going back to the Hunter family, nor did he want to get anything from them, but a cold-blooded place like the Hunter family did not deserve peace even for a moment, never.
.
The hatred started from the year when there was a bitter rivalry between Josh and him; It started from the year when Richard sent him away without offering any explanation; It started from the time when Richard refused to help him after knowing that he wasn't his son.
The deeper had been his love for the Hunter family before, the deeper was his hate for it later.
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Josh didn't care whether Toby's gifts were finally delivered to Hill Park or Luxury Bridge as long as that Diana didn't receive them.
Before Lunar New Year's Eve, Josh and Diana returned to Moonshadow Mansion from the suburban villa.
However, Josh was still busy every day. Several times, Diana wanted to ask him about the investment that was disrupted by Toby, but it turned out that either he was suddenly interrupted by a call, or she got cold feet and changed the topic.
Because no matter what perspective she asked him from, it would all end up with one question: why did you do that?
It was obvious that he could wrap up the deal first before he came back... If Josh was impulsive because he was worried about her, she would feel a little guilty. If he wasn't and had other arrangements instead, she wouldn't be pleased with the truth. She was struggling inside and kept beating around the bush. In the end, she didn't summon up the courage to ask.
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During the Lunar New Year, many young people who studied or worked abroad would make time to return to the P Country. P City was more lively than usual, and one gathering was held after another.
The 29th day of the twelfth lunar month happened to be Mona's birthday. Diana and Betty both brought gifts to her birthday party.
Mona was a little girl who was keen on idolizing stars. Ten years ago, she once lied to skip a class and asked the driver to take her to meet a K-Pop male idol at the airport. In recent years, she had been
obsessive about stars at home and abroad from multiple fields. She had once been a fan of pianists, painters, and athletes. If it weren't for physical restrictions, she would've been able to follow stars in ancient times.
This explained the mixed styles of her birthday party where a rock singer came to play a song, then a pianist performed a piece of famous classic work. There was also a male idol group dancing, and athletes performing freestyle football, producing a lively and diversified party.
Seeing that Diana Swift was absent-minded, Betty asked while eating a small cake: "What's up?"
Diana held her cheeks, sighed, and said listlessly: "Nothing."
Betty guessed randomly: "Are you pregnant? Come on!"
"What nonsense are you talking about..." Diana glanced at her as if she thought Betty was delusional.
Betty still felt she had a good guess, and explained to Diana by taking her cousin's wife as an example, who had been pregnant recently and lost her appetite and felt fatigued.
Diana put an end to this guessing game and changed the topic: "Wait, let's not talk about this. Let me ask you something. Have you ever prepared any gifts for Haley, for example, when you have done something unknowingly to hurt him, or when he is overworked? What will you give him to comfort him..."
"What can I do to hurt Haley? Oh, you have done something that hurt Josh, haven't you? Did you cheat? With your childhood sweetheart?" Betty snorted with her widened eyes, even unaware that the cake was all over her mouth.
Diana closed her eyes, then took a tissue to cover Betty's face. She waved her hand as if to say, "We are not on the same page. Keep your mouth shut now, you little silly goose, and leave me alone for a while".
Betty went silent while the live mashup performance kept banging. Seeing many people recording videos of stage performances, Diana, on the spur of the moment, also took out her mobile phone to record a few short videos and sent them to Josh.
After sending the video, she also carefully chose the words when texting.
Diana: [I'm attending a friend's birthday party. Are you tired from work? Wanna watch the performance to relax?]
After a while, Josh replied: [The performance could be less revealing.]
She looked back at the recorded video. Oh, it happened to be a male idol lifting his shirt.
Diana: [I can leave here after the birthday cake is cut. Are you in the company? Do you want me to bring you a piece of cake? What else do you want to eat? There is a soup shop nearby. I saw it was still open from the car on the way here.]
The top of the dialogue box showed "the other party is typing" several times, but no content was sent. Diana was a little puzzled.
Josh was much more confused. Probably what adult males were most afraid of was their wives' sudden inquiry after their health.
He thought for a while, and finally replied with consideration: [Is there something you want to buy going beyond the budget?]