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They stiffened, widening their eyes. Hou Luli asked, distressed, "Why, Lin? Didn\'t we tell you yesterday what you have to do?"

Hou Cai heaved a sigh of relief. His brother on the other side, explained. "I know. But I thought about it and concluded that you are wrong. I cannot fool someone with false feelings even if it might be for sometime. But…" his hands trembled with joy as he was about to say that despite doing the opposite, Da Shang appreciated him for not lying to her and agreed to talk to her father.

His eyes beamed with the light of good news but as he looked back at his father, he noticed his gaze darkened with fury and scorn. "Hou Lin!"

He loudly exclaimed and raised his hand to slap him like yesterday but Hou Luli quickly stopped him this time. "Stop it, Fa!"

"Stop it!? You are telling me? Why don\'t you tell this useless son of ours!? He had just one thing to do but he betrayed us in the end! My job…how I worked hard to earn my position over the years…he let it go down the drain in just a minute!"

Hou Lin tried to intervene. "It\'s not like that, Dad. Da Shang said-"

"Shut up! I don\'t want to hear a single word from your mouth! I thought you were an obedient son but you turned out to be a curse! It\'s easy for you to disregard my job right? You are just a brat. You don\'t earn your own money yet, how will you understand the gravity of losing my job!"

Hou Lin parted and shut his trembling lips. Hou Cai glared at his father and said, "Dad, Bro wants to say something. Please at least just listen to him once-"

"Is there anything left to listen to!?" Hou Fa\'s body trembled with anger. "Was it so hard to do a simple right thing for me that would have given me my job back? But no. He ran his mouth and did whatever he wanted! I cannot believe that he showed loyalty and sympathy at a girl who threatened him over his father who fucking damn raised him! It was then better that we wouldn\'t have ever given birth to a traitor son like you!"

It was at that moment when everything went still for Hou Lin. His father was in a rampage mode and his mother did little to nothing to stand by her son\'s side. Even the air he breathed felt prickly to him as if he was breathing thorns.

The noiseless atmosphere then got stirred when Hou Fa\'s phone rang. He had an urge to throw it away but as he noticed his company\'s number flashing on his mobile, his eyes widened. "Luli, it\'s from my company…"

She gasped. "P-pick it up quickly!"

He did so and immediately the person on the other side asked him to come to the office with his family. He hung up and said, confused, "They are calling all of us at the office."

—

Hou Luli lightly pinched the center of her neck in nervousness as she asked, "Why would they have called all of us here…?"

As they stepped into a big meeting room, Hou Fa recognized several high position directors and managers assembled in the room, including Da Pei, who had his head lowered.

One of the executive directors, Miss. Lin Yawen stepped forward and smiled. "Thank you for coming, Mr. Hou. I know it was really on a short notice to call you here especially with your family, and I really appreciate it."

Hou Fa straightened up as the woman before him was at a very senior position, even higher than Da Pei in authority. "Of course not, Miss. Lin. It wasn\'t any trouble."

She nodded. "We called you here because it came to our attention that Mr. Da Pei used his position to unfairly fire you from your job which is a serious violation of our company policy and code of conduct."

Hou Fa and Hou Luli widened their eyes.

Huh? How did this get exposed?

"We received an anonymous tip where it was clearly said in the conversation that he fired you to put pressure onto you and your son, Hou Lin. We sincerely admonish this unethical behavior, which is why we called you here. First is to respectfully invite you to rejoin our company and second to hear out Mr. Da Pei\'s apology."

Hou Fa was in disbelief the entire time. How did the worst situation suddenly turn into the most favorable one that he wanted?

Da Pei pursed his lips and walked towards Hou Fa in front of all the leaders, ashamed and embarrassed. He looked at him and said, "Hou Fa. I would sincerely like to apologize for my wrong actions. In no way was it ethical to use my position for my personal gains and unnecessarily put you and your family through such distress. Not only you but I want to apologize to your family too. I am extremely sorry. Seeing my daughter disheartened and broken, I couldn\'t control myself. I felt really angry at your son for breaking up with Shang. She is my only daughter. The apple of my eyes. Her tears made me weak…"

He exhaled out a small breath and then focused on Hou Lin with a soft smile. "But I thank you from the bottom of my heart, Hou Lin. I appreciate that you didn\'t succumb to the pressure. I know it sounds stupid because I threatened you in the first place. But I talked to Shang today and even though you refused her, she was really happy. I thought she was being foolish but…"

He awkwardly smiled as he felt further embarrassed. "After listening to her, it occurred to me that I was being the foolish one instead. I was only inviting more pain for her because if you had decided to just pretend and love her to help your father his job back…it would have hurt her even more. It was easy to lie to her given your circumstances but you didn\'t," his eyes ached with tears, "I am really sorry. I am an adult. I should be doing the right thing, but I acted foolishly instead that would have only hurt her more. Please forgive me."

Da Pei then looked back at Hou Fa and smiled. "You must be feeling so proud of Lin, right? You are very lucky to have a son like him, who could hold his ground and do the right thing when it was easy to do the wrong thing. You are really very lucky, Mr. Hou. You have a good son."