Chapter 188 - Savior
"You finally decided to meet me." Gerard Jackson added as he looked at Lewis Johnson who smiled. The tall and handsome man was standing in the middle of the shed, looking completely mismatched with their surroundings.
"Yes." Lewis Johnson answered. "You have always known I am that child you saved thirty years ago." He said, his voice is filled with emotion.
It is a protocol to check one's background before hiring them, especially their criminal records – if there is. Added to the fact that they are someone from the underworld, naturally, Gerard Jackson would dig his, Lewis Johnson, history. And he let Gerard Jackson dig the information he wanted him to only know.
Thus, Gerard Jackson never associated him to the underworld, and instead introduced him to it as his secretary. He never found out that he, Lewis Johnson, is the giant boss of the underworld who never showed his face in the public..
"Yes." Gerard Jackson honestly answered. "You approached me because I saved you." He said. He is referring to Lewis Johnson applying as his secretary. Lewis Johnson wanted to repay him for saving his life by working for him for a lifetime.
He never knew that, at first, Lewis Johnson only wanted to work for him temporarily to snare him. He would never imagine that Lewis Johnson had gradually changed his motives and would really want to work – be with him, for a lifetime now.
"Yet you accepted me. Because you once saved me." Lewis Johnson looked at Gerard Jackson's eyes with his eyes filled with gratitude.
If Gerard Jackson ignored him and didn't hire him… he doesn't know how to cautiously approach him again, to not startle him and scare him with his emotions he brewed in his heart for a very long time.
"And now you saved me again." He added. Gerard Jackson saved the him, who is originally a cold-blooded individual, from his loneliness. He changed his heart that never fluctuated to any emotion, and now it belongs to Gerard Jackson to repay its savior.
"Because I felt guilty." Gerard Jackson said. "I promised you I would find some help and save you, but I failed you. I forgot you, and then left you." He sighed. That was his regret.
If he knew how to calm his emotions, he wouldn't be too shocked by the reveal of his parents and he could gather his wits, thus recalling the child he had left giving the child hope with his words. However, he was just also a child. How would he calm his emotions? How can he know how to calm his emotions?
Yet, wasn't Lewis Johnson a child that time, too? Him, being a child, is not a reason to neglect another child.
Lewis Johnson shook his head. "You giving me your phone is already enough." He said and explained to him what happened to him after Gerard Jackson left. Afterwards, he paused and reluctantly looked at Gerard Jackson's expression. "I should be the one to feel guilty. I lost your phone, so I couldn't return it to you. It was also because of it that I couldn't find you to thank you." He told him and sighed in regret. If only he didn't lose the phone, he would've met Gerard Jackson earlier. Then, they could start their love story as early as when they were children…
Thinking this, his eyes staring at Gerard Jackson became deeper.
"You working as my right-hand man is enough." Gerard Jackson, who didn't notice the subtle change in Lewis Johnson's deepening gaze, said. He stared at the dusty floor as he reflected everything that happened in the past thirty years.
From his birth, to his childhood ruined by his parents, to his bleak adolescence, then when he inherited his parents' positions when he became a young man, until he became powerful and threw his parents to the nursing home, while his relatives to the prison.
Lewis Johnson retracted his gaze that is mixed with desire and smiled. "I am alive now, so we should forget the what ifs and regrets we had accumulated over the past years." He told him.
Silently watching Gerard Jackson's changing expressions as he reminisced his past, Lewis Johnson knew Gerard Jackson's past is no better than his own bitter past.
"En." Gerard Jackson nodded as an agreement as he lowered his head.
The darkness of the late night blanketed their surroundings as they continued to chat in the old shed where they first met.
Meanwhile, in the middle of the night, just before Huo Zhansan and his wife, Li Fei, went home from the hospital and were about to sleep, Huo Zhansan's assistant called him.
As soon as he answered the call, his assistant's frantic voice greeted him. "BOSS!!!" he cried when Huo Zhansan finally answered. "Boss! Have you read my mails and messages? Something happened!" he said.
"No. I haven't yet. Something happened to our family, and I went to visit my niece in the hospital…" Huo Zhansan explained.
Since they were in the hospital, they set their phone to silent mode. Because they were panicking earlier, they forgot to turn their phone to vibrate mode. And after they left the hospital and went home, they were too tired – physically, mentally and emotionally, so they didn't bother with their phone and just ate a quick dinner and bathed.
"What happened?" he asked.
"Boss – " the assistant choked back his words.
He was too busy for hours, being yelled and cursed at left and right his two hands aren't enough to deal with the problems, yet his boss didn't even glance at his messages?!
He took a deep breath to calm his anger before he calmly spoke. "Boss. Just this eight in the evening, where there's only an hour left before our companies close, the police stormed inside, presenting a warrant of arrest." He said and gritted his teeth when he remembered what the policemen has said earlier.
"WHAT?!" Huo Zhansan was shocked. He glanced at the bathroom where his wife Li Fei was taking a bath before he went out to the terrace to continue his call with his assistant.
"Yes." the assistant sneered when he recalled the chaos in the company earlier. "Not only that. The residents in the xxx Homes were caught by the police and were dragged out of their houses." He said and listed the other real estate businesses of Huo Zhansan where similar things happened.
"What the heck… WHY?!" Huo Zhansan was frightened out of his wits and he exclaimed in shock. His face paled, and also reddened in anger.
"The policemen said that they have long been eyeing our companies due to illegal transactions and that they have no business permits." The assistant answered. "The same with the real estates. They said that they are informal settlements, and the residents are informal settlers." He explained, frustration in his voice and face.
Huo Zhansan was dumbfounded. As if on cue, their telephone rang. The ringing sound echoed in their walls, as if a drum pounding loudly inside his head.
He lowered his hand, his face registered shock. He can't hear his assistant's voice repeatedly calling for him because his ears are ringing and his made went blank. In the corner of his eye, he saw the screen of his wife's phone lit up, indicating there was an incoming call and incoming messages. After a minute, the call was dropped, and the lit up lock screen was shown.
Numerous notifications for messages and missed calls can be seen on the lock screen of the phone, as well as his after his assistant dropped the call.
Three out of their five businesses were reported for not having a business permit, and were unregistered! Their real estate business, their clients were driven out of their homes! Now, their clients are frantically calling him, including his wife, Li Fei, who acted as intermediary for some of them, her phone was bombarded and they were cursing her like him.
Then, as if a final hammer, he received a message from his assistant.
Boss, there's one more thing that you should know. That bastard Zhu Yang has been deceiving us all along! When the police came, he wasn't present. I only noticed it until later, and found he had embezzled the company's money, and even sold some of the company's secrets to our rival in business! Now, they are attacking us!
Huo Zhansan dropped his phone and he fell on his knees. When Li Fei came out of the bathroom, she was startled by her husband's horrible expression. "H-husband… what's wrong? What happened to you?" she asked.
"Feifei…" he called. His voice is hoarse and his eyes reddened.
"Husband?" she called when she didn't hear Huo Zhansan continued what he's saying.
Huo Zhansan can't bear to tell Li Fei of what happened, but it cannot be hidden from her. She will eventually know. All his and his wife's hard work was gone in an instant, and he was even suspended from their family's company.
His tears finally fell. There's only one person that can save them. "Call Jinghua."
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