As if sensing Charlie’s nerves, Dawson smiled. “You don’t have to be too polite. While this is the first time we’re meeting, we’re going to be a family very soon. You’re older than me, so I’ll just treat you as my brother and call you Charlie. You can do the same as well.”
Seeing how easy-going such a wealthy man like Dawson was, Charlie immediately took a liking to the man and chuckled. “Then I’ll just call you Dawson, since I’m older than you.”
“There we go. This must be my sister-in-law, then?” Dawson turned to smile at Sally and greeted her.
Seeing how their parents were speaking cheerfully with one another, both Jasper and Wendy exhaled a sigh of relief.
“You look beautiful today,” Jasper told Wendy with a chuckle.
Wendy was donned in a pink faux-fur coat today with a scarf around her fair neck. Her choice of clothing had only made Wendy look more bright and playful.
Wendy chuckled. “You look very handsome today as well.”
The two families entered the villa with smiles on their faces, and Charlie gave Jasper a look to prompt the other to bring out a large box. Jasper then handed it to Dawson. “Uncle Schuler, my parents didn’t know what gift to get since it’s their first time coming over. Please enjoy this small offering of ours.”
Dawson was stunned. “It’s enough that you’re here, what’s with all this gift-giving?”
“These are rare goods, Dad. Some 200-year-old wild ginseng,” Wendy told him as she stood beside him.
Dawson’s expression changed. “200 years old? What a treasure.”
He opened the box in front of everyone, and within the red gift box was a stalk of wild ginseng that would unfurl to a length of more than one meter long. It looked like it was pregnant.
“This is too much,” Dawson turned to Charlie.
Charlie smiled. “Its value isn’t important. You were the one who told me not to be too polite.”
Dawson did not protest and accepted the gift with a smile.
Lunch went by joyfully.
Both Dawson and Charlie had drunk some alcohol, so the two went to their own rooms to rest after lunch.
Jasper was just planning to bring his girlfriend out on a date when he received a phone call from Sean.
Thinking that it was just a call for greetings, Jasper accepted it only to hear Sean’s frantic tone echo through the speakers once the call connected.
“Something has happened, Mr. Laine! The site… Something has happened on the site!”
Jasper’s eyebrows arched as he replied with a heavy tone, “What are you so panicked about? Tell me what happened slowly.”
Hearing that, Wendy’s expression turned serious as well.
Sean gulped a few times over the phone as he forced himself to calm down. When he spoke again, it was with an exceptionally grim tone, “I’ve just received news that a fire broke out at the site half an hour ago. Firefighters are still trying to extinguish the flames but they’ve already pulled out five to six people from the site. All of them are severely injured and official personnel is carrying out emergency rescue on them…”
Jasper was furious at what he heard and roared, “What the hell were the people in charge of the site doing? How many times have I told them that it’s New Year’s and while I understand everyone is trying to meet deadlines, we have to be careful! How could a fire break out at such a stage? And with five to six workers severely injured?!”
Sean replied sorrowfully, “We’ve been especially careful all this time but it was really weird how the fire started. It started from the workers’ living quarters during lunch break when most of the workers were sleeping. It started too abruptly for anyone to make it out in time.”
‘Where are you now?” Jasper pushed down his anger and asked.
“On my way to the construction site,” Sean replied frantically.
“Get there as fast as you can and focus on placating the workers. You have to control this situation and don’t let news of it leak yet. I’ll be there shortly.”
Jasper then hung up the phone.
“The site caught on fire, Jasp?” Wendy asked worriedly.
Jasper nodded and replied grimly, “We still don’t know what happened exactly, but there are already five to six of them severely injured. There might be more people inside but we haven’t found them yet. I’ve got to go over. Wait for my news here.”
“Should I wake my dad?” Wendy asked.
Jasper shook his head. “He drank quite a bit during lunch, so let him rest. I’ll deal with this.”
Jasper then informed Julian and sped toward the construction site.
