Burning The House Of Cards: taking revenge on my billionaire family
Chapter 67 - 66. Unexpected Farming

Chapter 67: Chapter 66. Unexpected Farming

One day, Sarah woke up from her nap and found the whole annex shining. Every surface was spotless and sparkling as if it were new. Sarah didn’t think the building was this clean when her mother first used it.

Sarah looked at Hajin, who was still rubbing the dishes despite them being squeaky clean already. It was as if the man had become obsessed with cleanliness.

"Did you bathe the whole house or something?" Sarah tilted her head. She didn’t even know where to walk, feeling like she would dirty the floor or something if she did.

"I just clean," Hajin replied in a flat tone, before adding, "Master."

Sarah sighed. She thought the blind date situation was over already, but Hajin was still sulking for days. And it seemed like it reached its peak on the inevitable day, especially because of a new added condition.

"Shouldn’t I be able to at least drive you to the place?" Hajin grumbled while rubbing a brass bowl aggressively, so much so that Sarah was worried about the bowl.

But Hajin’s annoyance was understandable, because Sarah was also irritated by this condition. At first, they thought the temporary bodyguard only needed to accompany Sarah to the meeting place while Hajin drove them there. At least, then, he would be able to watch the place from somewhere near, or hack the security system to check the CCTV.

"They said they didn’t want the person to get jealous or whatever," Sarah shook her head in exasperation while walking to the fridge for some cold water.

Hajin narrowed his eyes. "Jealous?"

"It seems like there are rumors about us circulating too," Sarah shrugged.

"Oh?" the grey eyes shifted from the shiny brass bowl to Sarah.

"And..." Sarah looked at Hajin, pausing in reluctance as she cracked the water bottle open.

Hajin tilted his head. "And?"

"They thought he’d get his ego bruised if he saw you," Sarah said quickly before turning her head away to drink her water, deliberately avoiding the grey eyes.

When she was done drinking, Hajin was already standing beside her, leaning against the fridge with a twinkling in his previously cold eyes. "Do you think so?"

"What does it matter?" Sarah grumbled, pushing the man away. "They’re going to watch you so you can’t leave the mansion while I’m gone."

"Tsk."

Sarah hit the bodyguard’s head lightly with the bottle. "Rather than that, how about the investigation?"

Hajin twisted his lips in protest, but still went to the kitchen table to access his tablet. How the man could still do a background check while bathing the whole house, Sarah had no idea.

"He seems...decent," Hajin said with disgust, as if he was hoping the man was a grade-A asshole. "Nothing too disgusting--a bit of playing around during college, but no scandal above or below."

Meaning nothing that was swept under the rug too, like a covered-up DUI or silencing involved party with money. Hajin employed both resources from Aegis and Helios, so the accuracy of the information should be credible.

In the first place, there was no way the family would let the person pass if he had a glaringly red record. They were not that desperate. Maybe they wouldn’t be so picky when Sarah was ’old’, but she was only twenty-five, so there was no need to throw her to the sharks already.

"If there’s something to point out, it’s that he can’t seem to maintain her relationship," Hajin said. "Words are he was too busy with his works and--what’s this? Insensitive?" he tilted his head, eyes squinting to read the report.

"Hmm..."

"Oh, he’s a smoker," Hajin added, smirking in triumph. This was why he stopped smoking after Sarah left him in rejection that morning.

Sarah groaned, wondering if meeting in a cafe was a good idea. At least, restaurants usually have a no-smoking policy, but cafes rarely do so.

Oh, but she could use that as a justification to leave, so it didn’t sound as bad.

"Well, as long as he didn’t have a history of drug use or kidnapping, I think I’ll be fine," Sarah shrugged.

"But it’s the third wife cooking this," Hajin frowned.

Shit--he was right. She needed to be cautious about that one fact. Mina wouldn’t pick someone so obviously bad since the candidate still had to go through the chairman’s team, but it also didn’t make sense for her to pick someone good for her, so...

It was confusing.

"I’ll still be careful, so don’t worry about it," Sarah said. In the end, she wouldn’t know unless she could read that woman’s thoughts, so...

Hajin looked at Sarah incredulously. "It’s my job to worry about your safety and well-being, Master."

"Then start by feeding me enough so I won’t have any appetite later," Sarah shrugged.

Hajin smiled and held his master’s hand, kissing the back of it lightly. "Your wish is my command."

Sarah only made an appointment for a cafe meeting, avoiding any possibility of being alone in a small private room. Even if the man rented the whole cafe, it would still be a large open space where she could see the outside easily. She wouldn’t eat much during the ’date’ anyway, but thinking about vomiting in front of the man seemed a viable exit strategy.

Not that she wanted to do it for real, but...

At any rate, she indulged herself in Hajin’a delicious food and got ready for the meeting--although rather than a date, she geared up like she wanted to go clubbing instead. She was told it was unbecoming and received a disapproving look from the house manager who told her that the car and the temp bodyguard were ready, so it seemed like she was heading in the right direction.

"Master..."

Still, someone clung to her closely on the door. Sarah sighed and spared her real bodyguard a glance. "What now?"

With a charming smile, Hajin asked quietly. "Do you think so?"

Ugh--he hadn’t let that go? Sarah rolled her eyes. "Yes--satisfied now?"

Hajin laughed softly while watching Sarah walk toward the car who would be driven by someone else. At least she was able to request a female bodyguard for this, which lessened their worry a little bit.

Just for a little bit.

His smile disappeared as Sarah vanished from his sight. With a big sigh, Hajin looked at the small garden surrounding the annex and shrugged.

"Might as well..."

* * *

While she was still abroad, Sua was diligently told Sua to watch dramas--aside from playing games. It was entertaining and gave her some ideas on how arrogant people acted, although she already had plenty of examples from her siblings. It also helped with her acting, somewhat.

In one of those dramas, there was this scene of a blind date when the girl acted all silly and stupid to make the partner fed up with her and prevent any further meetings. Didn’t really work in the drama itself since the partner was the love interest, but it should work in real life, right?

With that thought, Sarah had planned to be as annoying as she could be to destroy the date.

Turned out, she didn’t need to do that.

She didn’t even need to open her mouth at all, since the man did everything for her.

From the start, the man--Henry or something like that--who came in a neat three-piece-suit, already looked at her with the same disapproving look that the house manager gave her. He seemed to come from a conservative family, so Sarah understood his sentiment toward bold, smoky makeup and revealing clothes that belonged on the other spectrum of the good daughter-in-law.

How nice. She already succeeded even before she opened her mouth. Sarah had a feeling that Mina gave them her old picture--the one she took after graduation--when she still looked innocent.

Right away, without giving her time for an introduction, he already berated her about her unfortunate choice of clothing. Well...she said ’berate’, but the man actually did it calmly, with a smile--albeit a stiff one--and even started it by saying he understood that she had just returned from abroad and it was summer, before going full-on life advice mode.

Sarah, who didn’t really care what he was saying, just nodded occasionally. They were renting the whole cafe, but she couldn’t even order anything--which was actually a good thing for her.

Seeing how Sarah was being quiet and receptive, the man went on and shifted the conversation toward himself, bragging about how his family educated him on proper manners and etiquette. It was so natural that Sarah knew right away it must have been a habit, a trait. He was also casually slipping into how his partner would have to dress properly and how his family would educate his partner to be a perfect wife.

Rather fast, weren’t you, boy?

Sarah held back from chuckling as she finally understood why he couldn’t maintain relationships.

It wasn’t something scandalous or glaringly red flag. It was just annoying at first, with a hint of strict, traditional patriarchal view--not the type that downright belittled women and treated them like a slave, but the type that thought women’s duty was to give birth and take care of the house, becoming the flower of the household--which later would always lead to break up and divorce--especially in this modern society.

The man didn’t seem abusive, and actually pretty soft-spoken considering he had a very strict and narrow view of things. Those who met him for a casual date might not catch this at first, or were fine with it as long as he bought them stuff since he was so adamant as a provider. But after several times, they would get suffocated and break it off with him. Well...unless he found someone very submissive and traditional.

Like her mother, sadly.

Listening to him was annoying, but also better than him asking him lots of questions and making her talk. She just needed to yawn every once in a while to insert her own dose of annoyance, although the man didn’t look deterred at all and kept on yapping.

Perhaps he was also trying to be annoying and avoid further dates? Sarah smirked at the possibility.

But he was getting bored and thinking about the best way of ending this one-way date when she suddenly heard something interesting in the middle of the endless drawl.

"...know you never have any real work, but you still need to know about your husband’s work somewhat..."

When did it turn into ’husband’ all of a sudden? Perhaps this man truly wanted to make her ick.

"...and just so you know, I have this upcoming big project in the M-Hill area. It’s so big that several big companies already pitching in for a bid and..."

Sarah didn’t care about the man’s work, but she cared about that area: the M-Hill.

After all, she owned the deeds for several plots over there.