At seven o’clock in the morning, Mrs. Hunt woke Nora up.
Had it been before, she would have lost her temper a long time ago-after all, she had always been extremely grumpy right after she woke up. Now, though, no matter how displeased she might be, when she saw how aged Mrs. Hunt looked and how she had become even less spirited than before, she could only get out of bed in silence.
Then, under the supervision of Mrs. Hunt, she would go out for a run.
Next to her, Mrs. Hunt said, “You can stop once you work up a sweat. If you don’t, then you have to continue running until it’s eight o’clock. Only then will you look more energetic. It’s obvious from how listless you look all the time that you are not exercising enough.”
Nora let out a big yawn, her eyelids so heavy that she could hardly even lift them.
Mrs. Hunt was still standing where she was and saying, “Can you open your eyes? Otherwise, how would you be able to intimidate and keep those people in the Hunt Corporation in check? They are all waiting to laugh at you today!”
Nora yawned again.
Mrs. Hunt felt even more distressed when she saw her yawning non-stop. She couldn’t help but say to Fanny, “Justin had always been self-disciplined. He went to bed at eleven every night and woke up at five to exercise. How on earth did he fall in love with a lazy woman like her?”
Fanny sighed. “You talk about her so disdainfully, yet you are always encouraging her with your actions!”
Mrs. Hunt said, “Of course I have to be encouraging towards her! Otherwise, what if she goes on strike? Even if it’s just for Pete, I have to inculcate in her a sense of belonging to the Hunts!”
Fanny did not speak.
Mrs. Hunt then said, “I wonder if she will ever remarry, and if she does, will she be willing to be buried next to Justin after her death? Justin would be too lonely if he’s all alone… It’s all my fault. In the past, I had thought that just him being strong would be enough…”
It was only when someone was no longer around that others would realize that it didn’t matter what they did, as long as they were still alive.
Often, people only learned to cherish what they had after losing it.
It was just like how parents often wanted their children to do well in school, but once something went wrong with their health, they would realize that their children’s health and happiness were what truly mattered the most in life.
This was the same for Mrs. Hunt toward Justin.
When Fanny heard what she said, she heaved another quiet sigh.
Justin’s departure had dealt too great a blow to Mrs. Hunt, causing even a competitive woman like her to become much more laid-back.
In the past, she would have demanded a lot of Nora, but now, she only had one requirement for her, and that was… to look more energetic and keep up appearances?
Fanny shook her head and looked in front of her again.
What entered her sight, though, was Nora jogging at a speed neither too fast nor too slow and in control of the rhythm. She had already been jogging for half an hour, though. A normal youngster would probably already be sweating profusely, yet she didn’t even break a sweat.
“Alright, that’s enough.”
Half an hour later, at the sight of Nora’s pale visage, Mrs. Hunt stopped the training. In the end, she couldn’t bear to push her too hard after all, for fear that the sudden training load would be too much and end up burdening her.
She said, “Just increase the duration bit by bit every day, doing so much in one go won’t work. Look at how pale you’ve become, your complexion is almost transparent! Do you feel dizzy? Let’s go back and have a bite! Your health is too poor!”
Nora: “?”
She had just been warming up!
Was it already over?
The old lady was too easy to please.
As Nora thought so, she yawned again.
Her complexion had become even paler because of her sleepiness, so the old lady fed her a lot of nourishing food for breakfast. She said, “You are too lazy. If you stay this lazy all the time, your body will become weak. Eat more and exercise more from now on, okay?”
Nora: “…”
After gobbling down the food, Nora got up to go to the office.
She had only just stepped out of the house when Mrs. Hunt suddenly got up.
“Where are you going?” Fanny asked.
Mrs. Hunt cast her eyes down and said, “To the office. Today is the last day of the three-day period she mentioned. Outsiders aren’t the only ones paying attention; some of the old-timers in the Hunt Corporation are paying even more attention than them. So, I’m going there to support her!”
Mrs. Hunt knew very well that the people currently in the company were all either capable or loyal to Justin.
However, it was exactly these people who would make things difficult for Nora.
Of course, Mrs. Hunt would never be bewitched or blinded by the rumors and gossip outside. She knew very well that the Hunt Corporation and the Smith Corporation had always been in a win-win situation.
Only with competition between the two would there be pressure on the companies to grow. This was also the foundation that both companies needed in order to survive and continue being leaders in business.
This was a kind of commercial balance. If one established a monopoly, then they easily became arrogant, leading to them becoming blinded and missing the forest for the trees. If that happened, it would instead put the enterprise at an even bigger risk.
Fanny said, “Alright.”
At the Smiths.
Joel got up early in the morning and went downstairs. Tanya asked, “Why are you setting off so early today?”
Joel replied, “The market opens at nine o’clock. Once it opens, gold prices will also become set. I suspect that the Hunts will make use of this to make things difficult for Nora, so I’m going over to back her up.”
Upon hearing this, Tanya immediately took Joel’s arm and said, “I’ll go with you! Let’s support Nora together!” Joel nodded. “Yeah.”
—
At the Andersons’.
Simon was counting his savings. Melissa sighed. “Mrs. Hunt could produce 80 million dollars so easily, and so could the Smiths. Once upon a time, our family was also considered well-off, so why are we so poor compared to them?”
Simon also sighed. “Yeah, I know, right?”
While the two of them were grousing, Logan entered the room and took out a check. “This is a check for 30 million dollars. Why don’t you pass this to her?”
As soon as he said that, Simon and Melissa both looked at him. “Logan, did you go racing again?”
When Logan suffered his leg injury previously, many doctors had said that it would be very tough for it to heal completely. However, Nora had cured him subsequently, so he’d continued his most beloved career.
Logan was now America’s top car racer in standard car racing!
In spite of that, Logan was still working hard to improve his skills. Whenever someone asked him about it, he would always say, “… Compared to her, I’m still too far behind!”
Logan nodded. “I wonder if this is enough.”
Simon said, “With our money added, it should be enough to make up for the losses this time. Surely she won’t incur a loss of 65 million dollars, right? Melissa, what’s on your mind?”
Melissa replied, “I suddenly feel like we may not really need to send her the money.”
Simon was taken aback. “Why?”
Since Melissa married him, she had always given her all for the family. Had she suddenly become selfish?
However, Simon was understanding about that too. Life hadn’t been easy for his wife all these years.
As soon as the thought formed in his mind, Melissa said, “I suddenly thought of the last time Nora invested in stocks for me. It was also a constant loss in the beginning, but in the end, I made money.”
As soon as she said that, Simon chuckled and said, “You were investing in stocks then, it’s different this time. Gold prices have been falling for two consecutive months, it is impossible that they would rise all at once…”
