Ch. 1231..1235: The Secretly Rich Man Chapter 1231-1235
Chapter 1231
Gerald Crawford:The Secretly Rich Man Novel (Invisible or Poorest) Chapter 1231
Soon after, the very next day came.
Despite facing a financial crisis, Noelle’s family still placed great importance in the preparation process for Noelle’s twentieth birthday. After all, Noelle being able to celebrate her birthday happily was the most important thing to her family.
It explained how what was initially a tiny birthday banquet ended up becoming more of a large family gathering instead.
The venue of the celebration itself was a large private room—that could accommodate up to thirty people—in Longthorne International Hotel that Noelle’s parents had booked for the day.
Among the thirty people invited to the banquet were Noelle’s family members, her classmates, her cousins, and several other relatives including her eldest, and third uncle. They were adamant on making this birthday banquet as festive as possible in order to rid their family of their bad luck.
“Sister-in-law and Second brother! Both of you are truly blessed to have such a beautiful daughter as Noelle! She has such a good temperament too! I’m sure the two of you will definitely be able to continue living and enjoying a good life together with Noelle in the future!” said Noelle’s third aunt with a smile as she looked at Noelle’s parents.
“Enjoy life? What even is there to enjoy? You should be well aware of how messy our family’s current financial state is, Third! We even have to begin thinking about how we’re going to survive the second half of our lives!” replied Zavien as he shook his head bitterly.
Hearing that, Noelle’s eldest and third uncle could only sigh.
“…Still, there’s no need to get too anxious… Quite honestly, our business isn’t doing as terribly as we had initially imagined. As long as we can get someone to invest a sum of money into our business, we’ll surely be able to get through this crisis! You know, I heard that Preston, the Wake family’s young master, has actively been pursuing after Noelle recently. Do any of you know anything about the Wake family’s strength or background?”
The moment Noelle’s third aunt changed the topic, everyone’s attention immediately fell on Noelle.
In truth, Noelle’s eldest and third uncle were people who only did things that benefitted themselves. With that in mind, why were they even bothering to bring their entire families along just to attend the birthday banquet of a young girl like Noelle?
Putting it bluntly, it was because they were well aware of the benefits that Noelle could potentially bring to their family.
Even Zavien and Gracie had heard about Preston’s pursuits of Noelle, so Noelle’s third aunt’s statement wasn’t wrong at all.
From what they knew, the Wake family was extremely formidable. Not only did they own a public listed company of their own, but their family also had the background of the Mayberry Commercial Group! With that in mind, anyone who met or encountered the Wakes would surely give them face.
Regardless, if Noelle truly ended up getting together with Preston—and Preston was willing to have a word with his father about their current situation on their behalf—then the Shadwells would definitely be able to turn things around and resolve their current crisis.
With that said, it was no wonder why Noelle’s aunts and uncles had taken their time to come over today just to celebrate her birthday.
“…Speaking of Preston, I heard that Noelle invited him over to the birthday banquet, right?” added her third aunt with a smile.
Gracie simply laughed subtly before saying, “To think that you’re even more well-informed than I am, sister! How did you even find out that she invited him over?”
Smiling awkwardly, Third aunt simply replied, “I… Just so happened to hear about it!”
“I see! For those who didn’t know any better, I’m sure they’d have assumed that you’ve been paying close attention to Preston. Sadly, though Faye is quite excellent, she hasn’t quite had the luck of bumping into someone like Preston at all. I guess she still needs to work harder to gain the attention and favor of someone like him, aren’t I right, Faye?” said Gracie as she looked at her third aunt’s daughter who was the same age as Noelle.
Gracie couldn’t help but feel slightly jealous since Third aunt was able to know quite a bit about Preston after just hearing his name a few times. It simultaneously also worried her that Noelle’s third aunt could be planning to introduce her own daughter, Faye, to Preston. Was she trying to snatch Gracie’s potential son-in-law from her? If that was the case, Gracie’s only comment was ‘dream on!’
After thinking about it a little while more, Gracie continued by saying, “Speaking of which, sister, you may not have heard about this, but Preston gave Noelle an extremely touching confession before the unfortunate incident took place yesterday! He even knelt before her, you know? I heard that many people were watching the entire thing as well! It’s just such a pity that Noelle, being the stubborn girl she is, simply refused to become his girlfriend!”
“…Is that so? My, how amazing Noelle is!” replied Third aunt as she blushed in embarrassment while praising Noelle in a slightly bitter tone.
At that moment, a waiter opened the door of the private room while saying, “Mr. Wake! Please, come in!”
Following that, a handsome young man wearing a white suit and a necktie walked into the room with a bouquet of flowers in hand.
Chapter 1232
Gerald Crawford:The Secretly Rich Man Novel (Invisible or Poorest) Chapter 1232 “Hello, Uncle Shadwell and Aunt Wauter!” greeted the charming boy as he quickly headed over to them. Of course, the handsome young man in question was none other than Preston.
Preston had been extremely excited from the moment he received Noelle’s invitation to her birthday banquet.
Due to that, he had made sure to pay extra attention to how he dressed today so that he could give off the aura of a young master from a rich family.
It seemed that his efforts paid off since soon enough, the Shadwell family began praising him endlessly. Because of that, Preston couldn’t help but feel a little smug and arrogant.
Shortly after, they invited him to sit at the main table.
However, it was at that moment when Gracie suddenly realized that her daughter wasn’t even around.
Momentarily pausing her chat with Preston before turning to look at Noelle’s roommates, Gracie then asked, “Speaking of which, where did Noelle and Yulisa go? I haven’t seen both of them in a while!”
“From what we heard, both of them went downstairs to receive someone!” replied one of her roommates as the rest of them continued sipping on their juice.
“They what? Isn’t Preston already here? Who else are they planning to receive? Say Preston, did you run into Noelle on your way up here?” asked Gracie, feelingly slightly puzzled.
After all, Preston was undoubtedly the protagonist today.
“Unfortunately, I haven’t. Since this hotel belongs to one of my uncles, I’ve always used the special VIP passage whenever I move around here. If I had known that she would be waiting for me downstairs,
then I’d definitely have used the regular entrance!” replied Preston, hints of excitement and joy on his face.
To be completely honest, Preston had already heard about the Shadwell family’s financial crisis from his father. With that in mind, it wasn’t hard for him to imagine that the Shadewells were only treating him this well because of said issue. After all, they were probably well aware that the Wake family had the support of the Mayberry Commercial Group.
In relation to that, the status of companies such as his family’s—that were under the Mayberry Commercial Group—within Mayberry City didn’t even need to be elaborated on.
Regardless, Preston knew that it was only a matter of time now before Noelle agreed to be his girlfriend. Hell, there was even a possibility that she would accept his confession today!
“Oh? So you came up here using a special VIP passage! That’s probably the reason why Noelle hasn’t come up again yet! Hold on, I’ll call her right this instant!” said Gracie with a smile.
“Oh, there’s no need to call her, Aunt Wauter! I feel pretty bad for having Noelle wait down there for so long so I’ll just go downstairs to look for her then bring her back up!” replied Preston as he shook his head with a smile on his face.
Though Preston had to kneel before Noelle yesterday just to ask her out, now that he had found out about the predicament the Shadwells were in, Preston was feeling pretty confident about himself. With that, he then began walking downstairs without the slightest hesitation.
“Wait for me, Preston! I’m coming along!” shouted Gracie as she immediately followed after him.
Gracie felt like she still wasn’t as close to Preston as she would like to be. After all, she was already treating him as though he was already her son-in-law.
Upon seeing Gracie and Preston leave, Yulisa’s roommates then said, “Let’s go look for Yulisa and Noelle as well!”
As the small group of people began descending the building, two girls could be seen waiting rather anxiously by the street right outside the hotel.
“Can’t we just stop waiting for him, Noelle? He must’ve been scared off the moment he read from your message that Longthorne International Hotel was the venue! I truly believe that from the venue of choice alone, he must’ve finally realized how large the difference between both of you were. From the looks of it, he’s probably never attended an event at such a grand place as Longthorne International Hotel! With that in mind, there’s a high possibility that he may be too pressured to even dare to show up here!” complained Yulisa, her arms crossed.
While Yulisa had a pretty good impression of Gerald in the beginning, after everything that had happened, her impression of him had severely dropped.
Quite frankly, if he hadn’t rescued them the day before, Yulisa wouldn’t ever have looked up to him again!
Then again, could she really be blamed for being realistic? After all, this was Gerald’s own fault for not being outstanding enough. Humph!
Chapter 1233
Gerald Crawford:The Secretly Rich Man Novel (Invisible or Poorest) Chapter 1233
“I refuse! After all, he’s already said that he would come today! As for all that you’ve said, I’ve already taken all that into consideration the night before! That’s the reason why I arranged to meet up with him at the entrance of the hotel!” said Noelle.
With her beauty and how meticulous she was with details, it was hard not to call Noelle a goddess.
Just as Yulisa had said, Noelle had taken into consideration that Gerald had probably never stepped foot into a five-star hotel like this before. With that in mind, she had a feeling that he would definitely be feeling slightly timid and pressured. Due to that, Noel had told him to meet up with her at the hotel’s entrance so that they could enter together!
However, though they had agreed to meet up at nine that morning, it was nearing nine forty now yet Gerald still couldn’t be seen anywhere! In fact, he hadn’t even read any of Noelle’s messages on WhatsApp!
Due to all that, Noel truly couldn’t help but wonder whether Gerald really wasn’t coming.
She also remembered him mentioning that he was going to prepare a special gift for a friend of his. Who was that friend? Could it be a girl who was close to him? Could Gerald already like someone else other than her?
If Gerald had just been some ordinary guy, she wouldn’t have been bothered about that fact at all. However, Gerald was no ordinary person.
He had several positive points, for one, his greatest being how strong and skillful he was. He was also currently a hero in the minds of several people. In other words, he was an outstanding person.
It was because of this that Noelle couldn’t help but feel a little entangled whenever she thought about whether Gerald truly liked her or not.
This wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for girls to think about, especially beautiful ones. It was simply something that happened and was completely understandable.
At that moment, Preston, Gracie, and Yulisa’s roommates arrived at the hotel’s entrance.
“Noelle! There you are! I’m terribly sorry for having you wait for such a long time! I entered through the special VIP passage earlier!”
Earlier when he was seconds away from arriving at the hotel’s entrance, Preston had already seen how anxiously Noelle was looking at both sides of a street. Recalling how she had rejected him yesterday and comparing it to how she was today, Preston immediately felt a great sense of satisfaction.
Following that, Gracie then smiled before saying, “Did you know that Preston’s brought along a birthday gift for you, Noelle? Also, while I was just planning to call you up through the phone earlier, Preston kept insisting that he go downstairs to personally look for you!
“Oh. Thanks, Preston! Regardless, you and mom can go back upstairs now,” replied Noelle as she smiled briefly at Preston.
Upon hearing that, Preston’s face immediately went pale! Even Gracie was slightly taken aback. Something wasn’t quite right with her daughter…
Had she not been waiting for Preston this entire time?
As Preston himself began thinking the same thing Gracie was, Gracie asked in a rather impatient tone, “…Noelle? Who exactly are you waiting for?”
“I’m just waiting for my friend… I wonder why he’s not here yet!” replied Noelle without considering her words too much.
“A… friend? …Noelle, is it a he or a she…?” asked Gracie again.
Instead of replying, however, Noelle simply walked further out toward the roadside to see why Gerald still hadn’t arrived.
Seeing that, Gracie then turned to look at Yulisa before asking, “Yulisa, who exactly are both of you waiting for?”
With that, Yulisa then began telling everything to her, starting from when she had asked Gerald for his help to take some pictures for them.
After hearing about all that had happened, Gracie finally understood that the person her daughter was waiting for was just some poor person!
Preston—who had been listening to Yurisa as she explained—found himself taking in a deep breath, his sheer jealousy evident on his face.
Noticing the change of expression on his face, Gracie instantly began gritting her teeth as well. And here she was thinking that her daughter knew better! Shouldn’t she be well aware that Preston was way more important than Gerald in terms of solving their family’s current dilemma?
Fuming in anger, Gracie then instantly walked over to Noelle, reprimanding her viciously.
…
Moving back to Gerald, after receiving Noelle’s invitation last night, he had attached great importance to the event. Due to that, he had been well-prepared to head to the banquet from very early in the
morning.
By his estimations back then, he should’ve arrived—in his car—before eight thirty even came.
Instead of driving a luxury or sports car, however, Gerald chose to drive an ordinary one.
This was because after resolving his misunderstanding with Noelle, he realized that he didn’t need to use money or any interest to build their relationship up. The only thing he needed to do was attend her birthday banquet and present her with a gift that he had meticulously prepared. Once that was done, everything else would flow smoothly.
Quite personally, Gerald himself felt that it was rather repulsive to drive a luxury car, just to show off his wealth.
Noelle simply wasn’t the same as Cundrie was.
Chapter 1234
Gerald Crawford:The Secretly Rich Man Novel (Invisible or Poorest) Chapter 1234 From what he found, though Cundrie didn’t really care about money, Noelle still exhibited hints that she had a little interest in riches.
With that in mind, Gerald was afraid that once she found out that he was actually rich, her feelings wouldn’t be sincere anymore. Should that happen, even if he were to successfully obtain invigorating blood from her, it would be completely useless to him. That was the reason why he had refrained from driving a luxury car over today.
Even Aiden had said that there was no need for him to show her his financial resources. Due to that, the car Gerald was driving today was only an ordinary one that cost around ten thousand dollars.
Alas, he truly hadn’t anticipated for there to be a traffic jam this early in the morning!
While driving along slowly, the car in front of Gerald suddenly hit the brakes! Seeing that, Gerald instantly stopped his car as well.
While he managed to avoid hitting the car in front of him, the sound of something crashing soon followed from behind him as Gerald’s car rocked forward slightly!
It was obvious that whoever it was behind him, they had accidentally stepped on the accelerator instead of the brakes!
Knowing that the back of his car had been hit, Gerald instantly turned around to see a rather pretty yet coquettish girl who was wearing a hat and driving a Porsche behind him. Not only was he stuck in a traffic jam, but now his car was damaged as well! How couldn’t Gerald be frustrated!
As if that wasn’t enough, the woman—who was also smoking a cigarette—then got out of her car, her handbag in hand, before walking to Gerald and yelling, “You b*stard! Don’t you keep your eyes open
when you drive? How could you just stop your car like that!”
“I beg your pardon? It’s clearly your fault for banging into my car, auntie!” retorted Gerald, truly at a loss for words before this unreasonable woman.
The second she heard him referring to her as ‘auntie’, the woman instantly recoiled in shock. A second later, her entire body began shuddering as her expression turned extremely ugly.
“You… How dare you call me an auntie?! Acting all arrogant before me! I’ve already seen many poor folk like you! Just have a good look at your own car then compare it to mine! I’m warning you now, you’d better be smart and compensate me for the damage! Otherwise, I’m calling my husband right this instant to deal with you!” roared the woman in rage.
Hearing that, Gerald could only shake his head with a wry smile.
Since the traffic was so heavy that the cars literally weren’t even moving anymore, several of the people trapped there began rolling down their car windows to watch the exciting show.
As the sounds of car horns filled the air, Gerald looked at the fuming woman. Since it seemed like she really cared about her face, Gerald could tell that she wasn’t going to let him off that easily before sufficiently having her revenge.
Naturally, Gerald wasn’t going to pay a single cent to her, resulting in her calling her husband over!
It wasn’t long before her husband drove over in a big Hummer. The second he arrived, he immediately dashed across the sidewalk over to Gerald and his wife was.
Sticking closely behind him were several big and sturdy-looking men, each of them wearing gold chains around their necks. Upon getting close enough to Gerald, they instantly slid their hands into their
pockets, making sure to crack their necks with loud ‘plops’ as they smoked their cigarettes rather intimidatingly.
“That’s him, husband! He’s the one who stopped his car out of the blue and caused me to bump into him!” explained the woman quickly.
“You’ve got guts to target my woman, young lad. Are you sick of living in Mayberry City already? Tell me, do you know who I am?” asked the middle-aged leader of the group in a frigid tone. In his left hand, was a bag and on his wrist, a golden watch glistened.
“Beats me!” replied Gerald, shaking his head as he took his cell phone out to check the time.
“You f*cker!” shouted the guards as soon as they heard Gerald say that.
As each of them instantly stepped forward, the middle-aged man shouted in rage, “How dare you! You truly are done for today, young man! I’ll make sure you won’t even be able to stand up once we’re done with you!”
“Oh? Who exactly is going to do the deed?” asked Gerald as he casually looked at the woman’s husband.
“Me, of course!” roared the middle-aged man in reply. Upon hearing that, Gerald simply laughed out loud before shaking his head and glaring straight into the man’s eyes.
Realizing that Gerald was still trying to make a fool out of him, the middle-aged man felt his anger peak. The same went for his men as well who were now all fuming in anger.
“We’re ending you, you mother*cker!” roared all of his men as they tossed their cigarettes to the ground and made a dash at Gerald!
Chapter 1235
Gerald Crawford:The Secretly Rich Man Novel (Invisible or Poorest) Chapter 1235 As the big burly men immediately surrounded Gerald, ready to assault him, Gerald could tell that this wasn’t their first rodeo doing this.
The woman herself was waiting for the thugs to grab hold of Gerald so that she could give him two tight slaps across his face to vent out all her frustration.
To everyone’s surprise, the moment one of the men rushed over, Gerald simply launched a swift kick to his stomach, sending the hundred and twenty kilogram man flying a good twenty meters away! Everyone could only stare wide-eyed as the thug collided with the middle-aged man’s Hummer, causing all of the car’s windows to shatter into pieces!
As the glass shards scattered across the road, the woman instantly began screaming in shock. Even her husband was flabbergasted by the turn of events. After all, everyone had simply assumed that Gerald was just a poor young man. Nobody could’ve anticipated him to be this powerful!
After seeing what happened to their ally, the remaining thugs didn’t dare to move a muscle anymore, and for good reason too. They could all see that the injured man had now curled into a ball from the pain, and even his mouth was foaming! To think that Gerald had almost killed their ally with a single kick! Only an idiot would dare make another move so soon after witnessing such power.
Seeing that nobody was attacking, Gerald resumed looking at the time on his phone. From the moment the car accident had happened, quite a bit of time had passed. Adding that to the terrible traffic jam before this, it was now already past nine forty. In other words, it was long past the time Gerald had agreed to meet up with Noelle.
Noelle must have been waiting anxiously for him this entire time, and from what Aiden had told him yesterday, women hated it most when men didn’t keep their promises.
As he thought about it, he couldn’t help but imagine Mila waiting for him back then.
Unfortunately, he didn’t show up in time and he wasn’t even able to see her before her disappearance.
If he made Noelle wait for him too long at the hotel, then all the good impressions he had made on her the day before would’ve been for naught! The thought of that alone made Gerald feel extremely nervous. He truly couldn’t afford to delay this any longer!
Turning to look at the middle-aged man who was still paralyzed in fear, Gerald then fished his cell phone out to call Zack.
“Mr. Lyle, send a helicopter over to where I am, immediately! I need to attend a birthday banquet ASAP and I don’t have a proper mode of transportation!”
Following that, Gerald then hung up his phone. He definitely wasn’t going anywhere in his car with such a terrible traffic jam, and he couldn’t just sit here waiting any longer.
With the helicopter, he would be able to reach the hotel relatively quickly. Even so, there was the obvious risk of him exposing his true identity. However, running over there would simply take too long. There truly was no other way other than heading there with a helicopter.
“A… helicopter?” muttered several of the pedestrians who had overheard Gerald’s conversation earlier. Though it sounded extremely absurd, many of them didn’t dare to laugh after seeing how strong Gerald was. Of course, that meant that some of them still did.
“Did he truly just ask someone to pick him up in a helicopter? He must’ve gone bonkers!”
“Maybe he’s gotten a bit too simple-minded after spending all his time only training and developing his fighting skills!”
As more and more people began laughing and making fun of Gerald, the middle-aged man finally returned to his senses again. His opponent was just some kid! Why was he even this frightened by him? D*mn it!
Since Gerald was still staring at his phone, the middle-aged took advantage of the situation by getting his remaining men to surround him again.
A split second later, the middle-aged man revealed a small but very sharp knife! After giving out another order, the other men took out similar knives as well!
With all of them prepared to launch their attack on Gerald, the enraged middle-aged man was just about to order them to attack when suddenly, a droning sound began filling the air!
The men were familiar enough with the sound to know that it was coming from a helicopter, and upon realizing this, all of them froze in place in their utter shock.
“A-A helicopter has truly arrived!” shouted several of the pedestrians as they looked up at the sky.
Hearing that, many of the stuck car drivers instantly got off their vehicles to have a look for themselves.
The helicopter—that resembled a huge falcon hovering in the sky—was now slowly descending, almost as though it was preparing to land. Due to how close it was to the ground, the strong winds it produced were so immense that they could cause a person’s lips to crack!
Soon enough, those on the helicopter pinpointed where Gerald was standing…