Chapter 48 An Awkward Conversation
Though she stayed calm and collected, Melinda began her investigation of the evil things Yulia had done.
She didn't know how to set someone up, but she would do it with real evidence to back her claims.
Back in the Gu's mansion, Nelson sat behind his desk inside the study. He looked at the company's business reports for the past
two months, which made him smile with satisfaction.
Anyway, Jonas wouldn't let him down.
"Knock, knock, knock."
There was a sudden knock on the door. Nelson took off his reading glasses, secured the company records, and stashed them in
a small side drawer of his table. Then he took out a book from the nearby bookshelf.
The hardbound cover was a little yellowish, but Nelson preserved it well. He rubbed the corners of the book carefully, and then
said to the person on the other side of the door in a low voice, "Come in."
When Yulia heard Nelson's voice, she pulled herself together and pushed the door open. Seeing that Nelson was reading a
book, she asked with a pleasing smile, "Grandpa, what are you reading?"
"Nothing interesting. Do you want something from me?"
Nelson held a handbook containing private letters from a long time ago. All these years, he had a habit of looking over the
contents, but he no longer felt any impression bearing those written words.
"Grandpa, I feel much better now. I want to do something to distract myself."
Yulia had been doing well for a long time. To get Nelson's attention, she had been pretending to be ill. She thought no one would
find out, but she did not expect for Melinda to know about it. So at this point, she stopped pretending.
"Just do whatever it is that you want to do. There's no need to explain it to me. You just need to remember the rules of our
family."
The rich and powerful clans hated those people who did awful things to disgrace their bloodline. In the Gu family, there were also
many rules, although both Jonas and Melinda had broken most of it.
"I know, Grandpa. But I want to start my own business."
Yulia stated her purpose. The essential requirement for starting a business was a startup capital. She had no funds, so she came
to ask help from Nelson.
When Nelson learned that Yulia wanted to develop her own business, he thought it was a good thing. If something else
distracted Yulia's attention, it might be helpful to her illness.
"What are you going to do?"
Nelson asked. He had been involved in the commercial business for many years and had a sharp eye for opportunities. Although
the family was rich enough to let Yulia try even if she failed, he could help her when he could.
Yulia felt very happy that Nelson cared for her and provided her needs. She thought for a while and said, "I want to try the
fashion industry. Grandpa. I will do my very best."
Nelson told her some insights that needed to be considered and given full attention during the early stage of the business life
cycle. He then asked his secretary to give her money.
Now that she had the cash on hand, she could start executing some of the plans.
When Melinda was about to go out, she ran across Yulia, dressed in a plaid shirt and a tight denim skirt that highlighted her
curvy figure. On the contrary, Melinda wore a plain white T-shirt and slim-fit pants, which couldn't be more casual.
"Melinda, are you going out?"
"Yes."
Melinda didn't drive by herself, so she often needed a driver to take her everywhere. Yulia had parked her car beside her, so she
opened the door directly and said with a smile, "I'm going out as well. Let me give you a ride."
Melinda didn't think that Yulia would be so kind, but she couldn't reject her upfront with so many people watching. Yulia didn't
dare to do anything to her anyway, so three seconds later, she hopped into Yulia's car.
Yulia's car was a red BMW, and the interior decoration and accessories were very girly. Melinda mentioned her destination and
closed her eyes.
Yulia glanced at Melinda, and she wanted to move closer to slap her in the face. Melinda treated Yulia like a driver, but when she
thought of what she would do next, she tried her best to calm herself down.
Girls usually drove slowly. Maybe it had something to do with their mood. Yulia was cautious when driving, and she was very
smooth all the way. Melinda only closed her eyes to rest for a while. She almost dozed off because of the snail-like speed.
The smooth-running car suddenly stopped on the side of the road. Melinda opened her eyes in an instant, and the look on Yulia's
face was exaggeratedly frightened.
"I'll go down to check what's going on."
Yulia unfastened her seat belt and got out of the car. After a while, she came back and told Melinda that the car had broken
down. The two were still some distance away from the downtown area.
"Honk!"
Just as Melinda pondered what exactly Yulia had planned to do today, a car horn sounded next to her, and a red sports car
thoughtlessly stopped beside Yulia's car.
'The color of this car looked compatible with that of Yulia's,' Melinda thought to herself while the driver rolled down the window
and looked at them.
"Are you in any trouble?"
"Our car broke down,"
Yulia answered. The man opened the door and got out of the car. His clothes were subtle and subdued but did not fit his nature.
In Melinda's opinion, a man's clothing was unreliable, and many times the character of a person would destroy a gorgeous dress.
People and apparel should be complementary to each other.
The man seemed very enthusiastic. He got off his car to help them inspect the problem and said that he could repair it. Seeing
that the two were both busy, Melinda was too embarrassed to stay inside the car the entire time. So she got out of the vehicle to
help out.
It seemed that Yulia was a good talker. She had a friendly chat with the man, but the man showed more interest in Melinda,
which made her unhappy.
After the fix-up, Melinda wiped the sweat on her forehead with the back of her hand. The man's clothes were a little dirty, and
Yulia handed him a bottle of water in gratitude.
"Miss Gu, please check if the car will start,"
the man said with a smile. When Yulia went back to the car for inspection, Melinda stayed outside. Before that, Yulia gave her a
bottle of water, but she shook her head. It was better for her not to accept anything from Yulia.
"My name is Perry Yang. It's nice to meet you,"
the man continued to speak, and Melinda had always been helping him indifferently without saying a word.
"Melinda Mo."
Since the man had helped them, Melinda concealed her cold face. She directly said her name without any follow-up.
"Mr. Yang, the car has been repaired. Thank you so much."
Yulia thanked him gratefully. Perry Yang smiled shyly and asked where they were going. Yulia answered him back, but Melinda
kept silent.
Such a typical approach to making conversation made her feel uncomfortable, even disgusted, and she felt something weird
today.
"Melinda, please exchange number with Mr. Yang. He helped us today. We'll invite him to dinner next time,"
Yulia said before that she would never address her sister-in-law in public, which Melinda had known long ago. She didn't feel
strange, but when she ordered to swap contact information, she refused inwardly.
"How can I let two beautiful ladies pay the bill? Destiny brought us to meet together. Next time I'll treat you, and you can't turn my
offer down,"
Perry Yang said, trying to make himself smile mildly, but it was a little incoherent. Melinda felt that the man before her was simply
playing the role of a gentleman with all effort.
It turned out to be a bad idea.
"You can exchange your numbers,"
Melinda said. This was personal information, and she hated it the most when someone violated her privacy.
"It's not a big deal. We can be friends."
Yulia tried to reason with Melinda. To avoid her nagging, they changed their numbers and drove away.
Perry Yang's car trailed them behind in a proper distance. As soon as Melinda arrived in the area where she could take a taxi,
she asked Yulia to drop her and took a taxi to her destination.
She didn't know that after she left, Yulia and Perry Yang talked some more like they had known each other for a long time.
To find a book, Melinda went to the downtown library. Halfway there, Jonas called and told her that he would have dinner
outside. So she stayed at the library until it was time to leave. The driver that Jonas arranged had already been waiting for her
out for a long time.
That evening, Melinda's cellphone kept vibrating while she took a shower. When she picked up her phone and was about to
browse some short videos, she saw a dozen text messages in her inbox.
If it were one or two calls, then it was definitely from the telecom company or any public number. But this time, there were more
than ten of them. Melinda clicked on her phone and saw the name, Perry Yang.
Melinda tried her best to recall who he was and finally remembered his face. Then, it seemed that they were not so familiar with
each other. The barrage of text messages was unthinkable.
Out of politeness, Melinda opened the text. It started with a simple greeting. Perry Yang wrote that he heard from Yulia about
Melinda being a writer and that he was a literary lover. Besides, he read many books that were famous over the past few years,
with some understanding.
Looking at the words on the screen, Melinda felt awkward, but Perry Yang didn't know that and kept on sending her messages.
He expressed his vast interest in literature, but Melinda found a typographical error which he copied from the internet.
"For the book you mentioned, the writer was not from Y country. He settled in Y country when he became famous, and he was
from F country."
Melinda was silent for a while. When she read the next message, Perry Yang was embarrassed and said that he had made a
mistake.
He then tried his best to improve his literacy, but Melinda ridiculed him. 'Didn't these people know that we can't trust the internet?'
This kind of awkward conversation made Perry Yang aware that he shouldn't act like he knew better than the professional like
Melinda, and then he stopped struggling with this topic.
Facts had proved that it was unwise to talk with the real experts of the topic since they would immediately spot your error and
mock you.