All Chapters of Legacy of the Divine Healer: Chapter 91
- Chapter 100
102 chapters
CHAPTER 91: I'm Not Familiar With Him
Before Ethan could speak, Dean Xie's expression had already changed.He did not know the relationships between the people in this room. He did not need to. What he had just heard, a young woman calling the appointment letter he had personally prepared and delivered a forgery, was not something he was willing to let pass without correction."That's because Dr. Vale chose not to take a permanent position," he said. "The honorary deanship was offered to him and accepted by him. If he had wanted the full role, I would have given it to him without hesitation."Sun Xiaomei laughed."Very convincing. You've hired good extras, Ethan. This one has really committed to the performance."The relatives around the table found their footing."He hired a fake actor, that's a new level""All this trouble just for a blind date""Young people today, completely no sense of shame""The old man's acting is quite believable though"Then the uncle, Zhao Quan, stopped laughing.He had been watching the man wh
CHAPTER 92: Luxury Supercar
He Zhong looked at Sun Xiaomei's mother with the mild bewilderment of someone who has been told something that does not compute."Jiangnan Garden?" he said. "I haven't heard of it."Sun Xiaomei's mother's expression produced a flicker of satisfaction."A famous residential complex in the city center and you haven't heard of it," she said. "Beautiful location, convenient transportation, twenty thousand per square meter. My nephew bought a unit there for two million. It's considered one of the better addresses in the city."He Zhong nodded slowly, in the way of someone absorbing information they find modest.Then he reached into the document bag he was carrying and produced a receipt."This is the tax payment I just made when finalizing the property transfer for Dr. Vale," he said, and placed it on the table. "The tax alone came to five hundred thousand dollars."The room made the sound of people receiving a number that requires a moment to land properly.Sun Xiaomei's mother stared at
CHAPTER 93: You Are Not Good Enough for Me
Tang Sheng completed the handover and left the hotel.Ethan returned to the private dining room.The family he had left there had, in his absence, arrived at a collective decision about how they felt about Ethan Vale. The decision was visible immediately, the postures had changed, the expressions had changed, the specific quality of the room's attention had changed in the way a room changes when the social calculus has been significantly revised.Sun Xiaomei's mother came forward first, with the particular warmth of someone whose warmth has a new engine."Ethan Vale," she said, using the diminutive as though they had always been on those terms, "our family has absolutely no objections to you and Xiaomei. We support you completely. One hundred percent."Sun Xiaomei's father, "From the moment I saw you, I knew you two were well-matched. The connection is obvious."Sun Xiaomei herself was looking at Ethan with eyes that had taken on a different quality, the specific brightness of someone
CHAPTER 94: Let Them Clean the Toilets
The Sun family stood in the private dining room and looked at the bill that was going to be theirs.The logic of the situation had caught up with them all at once, and it was not comfortable. Ethan had never ordered anything. He had never agreed to host. He had never, at any point in the morning, said the words I'll pay for this. They had ordered sixteen dishes and six bottles of premium aged whiskey and had been operating on an assumption that had turned out to be entirely their own.The bill was somewhere above nine thousand dollars.Sun Xiaomei's father reassessed the available angles and settled on one.He moved toward Charlotte."Miss, please, you're a reasonable person. Isn't it normal, on a blind date, for the man to cover the meal? We're just asking for basic courtesy here."His calculation was visible, Charlotte Quinn was standing next to Ethan, she cared what he thought of her, and if she agreed that he should pay, Ethan would pay to preserve face in front of her.It was not
CHAPTER 95: The Generous New Boss
Ethan and Charlotte came out of the hotel's main entrance.Clara was waiting under a tree across the street, watching the entrance with the focused attention of someone who has deployed a resource and is waiting to assess the results.She stood up when she saw them.She looked at Charlotte.Her expression moved through several stages very rapidly, landing on something that was almost exactly what it would have been if she had arranged this blind date specifically."Son," she said, "is this the girl from the last introduction? I knew the third one would be right. Look how beautiful she is""Mom," Ethan said. "This is Charlotte Quinn. She's my girlfriend. I told you about her before. She's not from the blind dates."Charlotte was experiencing something she did not usually experience, which was a degree of nervousness. She was someone who walked into boardrooms and negotiated with industry figures and managed a major company's operations. She had presented to her father's board at twenty
CHAPTER 96: Stellar Media
"How much more?" Ethan said. Donovan had the numbers ready, he had been running them in his head since the conversation about specifications had started. "My original plan to finish the development would need another forty million to close out. With your revised specifications, the materials you've specified, the quality level you're targeting, it's more like seventy million." Ethan had taken over a development that had been nearly complete at the time of its distress sale. He had also, in conversations with Donovan since the auction, communicated ideas for finishing touches and specifications that were above what the original plan had budgeted for. Combined with the doubled worker wages, the capital requirement had grown. He thought for a moment. "I have about twenty-eight million available right now," he said. "Use that to start. I'll work out the rest." Donovan accepted this with the practical nod of a builder who has been managing capital gaps his entire career. "The
CHAPTER 97: Ingratitude
Donovan looked in the direction the Ferrari had gone and sighed."Boss, we've made an enemy of Stellar Media. That's going to cause problems.""It's fine," Ethan said. "He's just a bully with a megaphone. Even if he controls every media outlet in this district, he can't cover what this place actually is. When the units are ready, people will line up. We won't need promotion."Donovan exhaled slowly, the exhale of a practical man who has worked with optimistic bosses before and has developed patience for it.He went back to the site.Ethan stayed through the afternoon, watching the work, checking in with the crew leaders, making himself present until the last worker had packed up for the day. When they left, they left with the specific body language of people who had come in uncertain and were leaving having decided something.He drove back to the city as the sun was finishing its descent.The next morning, when he arrived at Hargrove's Table, Clara was already there.He stopped in the
CHAPTER 98: Relatives Visit
Ethan wanted to keep talking, but he saw his mother's expression and stopped.There was a quality to Clara's face when she was done discussing something, not the expression of someone who has won an argument but the expression of someone who has decided the conversation has reached its limit and is requesting that it stop. He had learned to read it over twenty years."I know they've gone too far sometimes," Clara said. "But she's still my biological sister. Whatever she's become."Ethan shook his head.His mother's kindness was real and it was not something he would ask her to give up. But kindness without discernment produced exactly the pattern he had watched repeat throughout his childhood, Clara extending grace, the other party taking it as a baseline and pressing for more."If you can't be around them," Clara said, "you can go take care of your business. You don't have to be here.""I'm staying," Ethan said."Ethan""If I'm not here, they'll bully you. You know they will."Clara
CHAPTER 99: Everyday Black Tea
Ethan's expression changed the moment he understood what had happened.He knew the tea. The loose-leaf black tea in the plain packaging, he had seen it in the street market stalls near their old apartment in the Bronx. A few dollars a bag. The kind of tea you bought because it was tea and you needed tea and price was the primary consideration.The Dragon Well in the elegant box was a different category entirely. The packaging communicated its price before you opened it.Ouyang Hui had brought one gift bag containing two items. She had kept the expensive one for herself and handed Clara the cheapest variety available, in a plain bag, in front of her own son."Aunt," Ethan said. "What exactly is the meaning of this?"Ouyang Hui looked at him with the flat certainty of someone who does not perceive themselves as having done anything that requires justification."What meaning? Your mother drinks this kind of tea. That's appropriate." She settled the Dragon Well box beside her own place at
CHAPTER 100: Did a Donkey Kick Your Head
Ouyang Hui and Kang Zhijun flagged a cab outside Hargrove's Table and headed to the Health Bureau.The shift in their bearing from the restaurant was immediate and complete. The posture they had carried in front of Clara and Ethan, the chin-up, sharp-tongued authority of people who believe they occupy the higher position, was put away neatly and replaced by the posture they used for people who actually had something they needed.They found Secretary Wang's office and went in with the careful deference of people executing a request they have been building toward."Secretary Wang, we're from Wufeng County"Ouyang Hui presented the Dragon Well tea. When he didn't take it immediately, she set it on his desk with the practiced ease of someone who has done this kind of thing before and knows not to make it awkward.Secretary Wang looked up from his desk."Old Kang and I go back, no need to be formal."Ouyang Hui settled into the chair across from him with the practiced gratitude of someone