The Enchanted Night

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Jill, with her towering fury, stood up angrily and pushed the dining chair back. She went on with the heated argument with Rufus. She was shouting mean words towards him like a shrew.

"That's enough!"

Horace slammed his heavy hands down the table. His roar-like voice made Cassandra jerk.

"Jill! I'm warning you. Rufus is my son and a member of the Tang family. If you continue on humiliating him, I will definitely drive you out of this house! Then we'll see who will be no longer part of this family!"

Jill's pale face quivered with embarrassment. She knew for sure that he meant what he had just said. It was for real and not a threat as Horace bristled with anger. She deemed it wise to just stop and take her seat, or else she would be an outcast in no time.

Her retreat, however, didn't mean that she had admitted defeat. She glared at Rufus silently and sat back in her seat with a sinister plan of revenge running on the back of her mind.

A servant hurried towards Rufus and cleansed his wounds with some disinfectant and wrapped it neatly with white gauze. After that, he turned towards Horace and bent over to whisper something in his ear, "Mr. Tong called and said he would come over because he had something urgent to discuss with you. He also added that he would come personally to check on Mr. Luo's injuries."

Upon hearing the news that Jenks was coming, he turned to the servant and ordered, "Tell the chef that Jenks is coming. I have oriented him about his favorite dishes last time. Make sure he cooks something he likes."

The servant nodded. Cold sweats were popping out of his forehead.

Horace was naturally strict at ordinary days, but it was very rare to see him so upset. He was so infuriated that the heavy and raspy yell he had made earlier veiled a mask of fear to everyone at the house.

Everyone knew well that the reasons for it all were Jill and Rufus, but no one dared to point it out. The fear of Horace weakened the strength out of them.

Jill had been difficult to get along with. Over the years, she had been peevish and grew fond of criticizing and finding faults with the servants' work for no reason whatsoever. Every servant was afraid of her, but they were like a dumb man eating the bitter herb - suffering in silence.

However, Jill was a great pretender. She always wore a smile in front of guests as if everything was fine with her. Especially when Horace was around, she would transform into an elegant, sophisticated, well-mannered woman and act like everything was perfect and orderly fine.

Nonetheless, misunderstandings had habituated the household recently. It started the moment Rufus moved in together with the Tang family.

Ever since Horace learned about Rufus's existence, he had done everything possible for Rufus to be accepted to the family.

Rufus was his biological son, and he owed Rufus's mother a lot. His conscience smote him for not providing and taking care of them in the past.

When all his plans for Rufus were set, he pulled all the courage he had to tell Jill about his son from another woman. Jill was so mad, but Horace was confused if her ma

When her sister ran away from the wedding, Autumn was forced to marry Charles.

His name had been linked to innumerable ladies.

He had different girlfriends for every day of a year.

Autumn had never thought that she would fall in love with him.

zling outside. His hair was slightly wet when he came in.

Horace rose from his seat to greet him, and everyone else came up to show respect and welcome him.

Jenks first checked on Rufus's wound. It wasn't serious, so he just asked Rufus to go to the hospital for a tetanus shot after dinner.

Horace repeatedly thanked him and led him to the seat of honor. Then they began to talk.

"Jenks, I heard that you were going to build another branch in the suburbs."

Jenks nodded, but his eyebrows knitted in a frown.

"I do have a plan, but I've been hesitating about who will be the director of the branch."

Seeing his hesitation, Horace knew that he was still upset by his wayward son. He comforted him with a bright smile, "Don't worry. I've talked with your son last time. He said he knew how you felt. He is a high-caliber medical school graduate. It won't be easy for him to give up his calling. I'm sure he will come back."

Jenks shook his head in dismay, but his face remained relaxed.

"I am learning to accept his decision. He is so like me. I also rebelled and argued with my family when I was young. So I just let him do whatever he wants."

Horace was glad to see his friend's knitted brows smoothened.

"Our children and grandchildren have their own lives to live. Don't worry too much about them. Jason is a good doctor. You must be very proud of him."

Speaking of his favorite student's achievements, Jenks let out a smile.

"You are right. I'm so proud of him and satisfied with his ordeals. I'll have a good talk with him after he comes back from abroad."

Suddenly something came to his mind.

"By the way, you said last time that you would introduce a special planner for the architectural design of my branch. Who is that?"

Horace replied with a complacent smile, "The designer is young but insightful. She is now the design manager of the Tang Group."

Then he pointed to Cassandra, who had been hanging her head low beside Lionel.

"She's my daughter-in-law, Cassandra. I want her to take charge of the architectural design for your branch."