Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“It is true that we’ve lost many opportunities on the African market. I hope that you can recover our losses at the minimum.”

“I understand.”

“Oh, and one more thing…”

The older man suddenly swung around to look at his son. He sized up the chap with narrowed eyes and commented leisurely, “I heard that you went to the Maldives for a holiday and then to Country Z.”

Gong Jie was completely caught off guard. His eyelids jumped for a second as he looked at his father with a feigned composure. “That’s right.”

“You seem… to have been frequenting that place recently.” His father paused suddenly, held his chin up, and gazed at the young man obliquely before curling his lips into a half-jest. “Why? Are you keeping a woman over there?”

The off-handed question sounded like a harmless probe.

“Woman?”

“Other than this possibility, I can’t think of any reason that will make you go there regularly.”

His eyelids violently twitched the moment he heard his father’s words.

It was true that he had been running to Country Z frequently lately.

In the past, he had devoted himself to work entirely and hardly visited Asia even on his vacation. After all, he was responsible for the North-American market and there was no need for him to go to that region except for emergencies.

Did I rouse my father’s suspicion as a result?

He could not grasp as to what extent his father knew about his whereabouts in Asia or his sister’s affairs.

The thought was enough to make him raise an eyebrow. In the end, he could only give the older man a rueful reply, “Father, I’m sure you’re aware that I have no interest in women.”

“Yes, I’m very aware of that. I don’t know why you seem to be a retard when it comes to women. When will you learn your lesson and bring home a girlfriend for a change?”

As the older man lectured his son, he turned around and sat down again. Leaning back lazily, he lifted his head to look at the young chap teasingly. “If you had half of my youthful vitality, I wouldn’t be concerned with you.”

Gong Jie furrowed his brows in a daze. “Are you going to share your affairs in your prime? I don’t want to listen to the same stories again.”

His father laughed and shook his head, commanding him in a half-serious tone, “All I want to tell you is: You’d better get down to the serious business of finding a wife soon.”

“Why are you talking about women again?” The young man became impatient and declared frivolously, “There isn’t any woman I have an interest in.”

“How could that be?! Women attract men’s primal instincts, unless…”—the older man squinted his eyes just a little—”you like men.”

The lad’s face sank as he looked at his father for confirmation gloomily. “Are you serious with that?”

His father rebutted his question mercilessly, “What other possibilities can I think of? You only hang out with your male gang, and I hardly see you with a woman. You claim not to be interested in any woman, but how many have you come in contact with at all? From what I can remember, the number of women you know since you’re young is so few that I can count them with my ten fingers.”

The chap had nothing to say to that as his eyelids violently twitched again.

What his father said was true, though. Other than Alice, he had barely befriended other ladies since he was a child.