Love Began with the First Meeting

reading people's minds so she couldn't hide anything from him.

After hearing Brian's inference, Ximena shrugged. She had a sip of the cocktail "Endless Melancholy", then found that she did indeed feel very melancholy at the moment. All of a sudden, she understood what Molly had meant when she said that Brian had a knack of "Set your mind at ease. I haven't told Mol yet..." Brian said as if he saw through what Ximena was thinking.

Ximena's eyes widened in shock for a second and mumbled in a low voice, "Is there any difference?" Then she pulled out her cellphone from her handbag and was about to call Molly when Brian interrupted her.

"I'm going back home. Would you like to go there with me?" he asked.

Ximena didn't want to go with him because she felt a little uneasy that Brian had been reading her thoughts all along. "No, it's okay. I'll stay here," she answered.

Despite her protest, in the end, Ximena went to the guest room to collect her luggage and then went back to Brian's villa with him. When they arrived, Molly had just put the twins to sleep. She walked out of their bedroom and was going to go downstairs to drink some water when suddenly her eyes caught sight of someone familiar entering the villa.

At first, Molly thought she was seeing things and closed her eyes and opened them to refocus. When she opened them, she saw clearly that it was without any doubt, Ximena. Her eyes were as wide as saucers, and she called out with excitement, "Ximena!" Ximena glanced up to see Molly dressed in leisure wear running down the stairs towards her, and she opened her arms wide with a broad smile on her face to embrace her. The friendship between women was quite different from that between men. If two men were close friends, they would have a drink together. If two women were close friends, they liked to be together all the time and as close as possible, just like conjoined twin babies.

"I have something to do at Grand Night. You two have fun chatting, but don't stay up too late," Brian said when the two women finally released their grip on each other. "Okay, go ahead," Molly said.

Brian raised an eyebrow at Molly's response, and he didn't know if he should laugh or cry. It was evident that the biggest rival for a husband was his wife's best friend, which was even more challenging to win over than a male rival in love. He looked at the two women and shook his head with a smile. Then to rub the salt into his wounds, Ximena winked at him, to show off how highly Molly valued her friendship. Brian sighed then turned around and left the villa, leaving the two women to their own devices.

Brian didn't have anything important to do at the casino at the moment. He only said it because he wanted to leave the two women to enjoy themselves. However, he did have something important to do in several hours. Due to the time difference, the opening quotation in Australia would happen when it was three o'clock in the morning in A City. Brian had to keep watch on it today. Otherwise, if Harrow wasn't able to cope, a crash may occur at the end, which might further lead to a global financial crisis. If that happened, Emp would close down too.

Brian didn't go to Grand Night Casino as he had told Molly. Instead, he went directly to Emp. Tonight, all the personnel except those at the entrance hall on the first floor were working overtime, keeping watch on the stock market in Australia. After parking the car in the underground parking, he took the VIP elevator that went straight to the top floor. As he expected, Harrow was there together with five other elites of Emp on the top floor.

When the six people saw Brian, they each greeted him one by one and then went back to their work. In contrast, Brian looked a little bored.

It wasn't until quite a while later that Harrow had been able to take a temporary break. He poured wine into two glasses and walked towards Brian with them. "Didn't you say that you would be coming in at two o'clock?" he asked while handing a glass to Brian. Taking over the glass, Brian answered, "There's a visitor at my home, so I became the redundant one."

Harrow was initially taken aback by what he said, and then he thought about it for a moment. His eyes then lit up, and he burst into laughter. The only person who was able to shut Brian out from their home must be Molly's bosom buddy, the wife of Aaron from QY Island. Harrow worked it out without having to think about it.

"She came so suddenly," Harrow said, teasing his boss.

Brian could not help but smile helplessly. Then he asked some questions about their preparation. He didn't find any flaw in Harrow's introduction of the process. However, things didn't go on as they had expected. An emergency had occurred.

Opening quotation took place ten minutes later than they had anticipated, and no one knew why. However, because of the ten-minute delay, all the plans that were put in place had been sent into complete chaos. Although Brian managed to prevent a possible crash in the stock market, it left an aftermath of problems, which would prove to be difficult for everyone to deal with soon. Among all the troubles the most severely hit was the Dragon Empire Group, which resulted in a global financial crisis.

Eric had arrived at T City. He attended meetings from morning to night and gave orders one by one. Video conferences with senior executives all over the world were held frequently. As a result, everybody involved kept working around the clock. "CEO, this just came in from Australia." The executive director of Flight Media handed the fax he had just received to Eric.

After reading through the fax, Eric's face became more gloomy.

"CEO, how..."

"Arrange a private airplane. I'm going there," Eric uttered his decision.

The executive director was in a dilemma. There was only one CEO, but there were problems everywhere that need attention. It was impossible for the CEO to go to every place in person. However, the problem in Australia was extremely urgent.

At the same time, Eric's cellphone rang. He didn't have time to look at the screen of the cellphone. Instead, he picked it up and answered, "Hello, this is Eric Long!"

"You keep an eye on the overall situation. I'm going to Australia," the voice on the other end of the phone said.

Hearing that, Eric heaved a heavy sigh of relief and said, "Cousin Brian, you should have gone there earlier. After all, the trouble was caused by you."

"Then you'd better go by yourself!" Brian said.

"Wait a minute," Eric said with hast, as he felt that Brian was about to hang up the phone. "All right. I'll invite you over for dinner when you come back!" Although he had said that Brian or Emp had caused the trouble, he knew clearly that this crisis would have been more severe if Emp hadn't stepped in to help. All these problems at present would have been under control if the opening quotation had not been delayed for ten minutes. That was the only difference.

Now that Brian was going to Australia to solve the problems there, Eric would no longer need to worry about that region and could deal with problems in other places. For the time being, the Dragon Empire Group could not afford to make any mistakes. Otherwise, it would be more difficult for him to nationalize the four prominent families on Dragon Island.

The National Congress was unyielding based on the great influence of the Dragon Empire Group in the whole world. Once such an influence disappeared, the four families might align with each other, which would cause endless trouble in the future. "Inform the four, conference in half an hour," Eric said to the executive director while pointing at four countries on a map.

The executive director answered yes. Then he ordered somebody to contact the senior executives responsible for the branches in those four countries to attend a video conference in half an hour. Meanwhile, Eric received an unexpected phone call.