Later in the afternoon, Jin Liwei met with his friends by the river closest to the university’s business school. They planned on driving to Downtown Boston to find something fun to do and maybe eat dinner along the way or even hang out in a pub later in the evening.

His friends were currently in a fierce arm-wrestling competition. The winner would be riding with Jin Liwei in his limited-edition luxury sports car. The others would have to squeeze themselves in their other friends’ more normal and older cars.

While his friends were roaring like battle-crazed gladiators, Jin Liwei was busy working on something on his laptop. He was checking on the performances of his stock portfolios and other investments. Although he was being groomed as the successor of Jin Corporation, it wasn’t a guarantee that that he would become the next President-CEO after his father. In the end, it would still all come down to his own skills, abilities, and accomplishments.

Jin Corporation prioritized skills, abilities, and accomplishments over blood ties. This was evident in the fact that there was currently nobody from the Lu family who held high positions in the company despite Grandpa Lu’s influence. Also, most members of the Lu family inherited a “my pace” personality. They were usually happy go lucky fellows who liked to do things their own way and didn’t care much about what other people thought of them. As a result, only a few of them were interested in working at Jin Corporation. Most of them chased after their own dreams and happiness, like Jin Liwei’s fifth brother.

Lu Zihao was currently living in Toronto and studying in a Canadian university. However, his grades were barely passable because he was spending most of his free time travelling all over Canada—and during vacations, in other countries—in search for the most thrilling and dangerous ski slopes in the world. It wasn’t only skiing that Lu Zihao was crazy about. Any extreme sports like parachuting, street car racing, free ice climbing, to name just a few, were all up Lu Zihao’s alley. He had no interest whatsoever in working at Jin Corporation. Ever. Just the thought of working a corporate job was enough to make him shudder in fright.

Unlike his devil-may-care fifth brother, Jin Liwei’s goal was to succeed his father and become the next President-CEO of Jin Corporation. Running a business was what he was most passionate about, and of course, preserving the legacy of Grandfather Jin and Grandpa Lu for generations to come. He was born to reign over this massive business empire. That was why he spared no expense in honing himself as a successful business leader. Not only were his school marks top-notch but his other accomplishments were all impressive as well. He already built a considerable wealth on his own even before formally entering Jin Corporation. If he planned on becoming the company’s next President-CEO, he must go above and beyond Jin Corporation’s already high standards and dominate the entire competition in order to leave no doubt in everyone’s minds that he was the perfect person for the job.

[This novel is a contracted work with W e b n o v e l . c o m (remove spaces). If you’re not reading this chapter on W e b n o v e l, it has been stolen. It’s very discouraging to see thieves profitting from my hard work. Please read this novel on W e b n o v e l. Thank you! -Arria]

Back to the present, Jin Liwei made some changes on his investment portfolios according to his own personal forecast of the market. To the side, the arm-wrestling competition between his friends was heating up. It was the final round.

Everyone in their group was too preoccupied to notice a little girl about five to seven years old running in their direction. She held a leash with both of her hands and was being pulled by an overexcited golden retriever puppy. Before the guys could even realize what was happening, the puppy and the girl had already both crashed into Jin Liwei and a couple of their other friends.

Jin Liwei’s laptop and a few other objects like soft drink cups and chips lay in a heap on the concrete ground. The laptop’s screen cracked a little but the device seemed to be still working.

As for the girl and her puppy, it was a good thing that Jin Liwei managed to block her head from hitting the bench with his arm while the puppy was caught by his friend beside him.

However, the crash was still painful. It was no surprise that the girl and the puppy began wailing and crying together. The group of guys had no idea what to do and so they began to panic. They looked around for the girl’s parents or guardians but they couldn’t see anyone.

“Fuck, what should we do?”

“Watch your language! She’s a kid.”

“Oh shit, my bad. Oops. Sorry. I’ll just shut up now.”

They tried comforting the crying little girl and her puppy. Someone told lame jokes while another made funny faces. Surprisingly, they were effective and the little girl started giggling while still crying. Then she told them that her puppy made her run so fast that they lost her parents somewhere. They had no choice but to accompany the little girl and the puppy while looking for her parents. A few minutes later, her frantic parents finally found them.

“Thank you, big brothers!”

The friends felt good and proud of themselves after helping an adorable little girl. Except for a certain cold-faced guy, everyone chatted with the girl and her parents and played with the cute puppy.

“Let’s give her a candy or something.”

They all patted their pockets and bags looking for a treat but failed to find anything. Disappointed for their lack of preparation, all they could do was wave at the family goodbye. But then a certain cold-faced guy whipped out a neat pack of mints and wordlessly handed it to the little girl.

“For me?” she asked.

Jin Liwei nodded.

“Thank you, handsome big brother!”

He nodded again, stiffly this time, because he didn’t know how to interact with children. His friends teased him for being a Surprise Mr. Nice Guy but he ignored them to check his laptop instead.

For some inexplicable reason, an Italian aria sung by a beautiful voice began playing in his mind as he examined his cracked computer.