A Call That Changed Her Entire Life

Chapter 1581 The Plight Of Cooking

After finishing negotiations with Herman Su, Jacob breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, there was no time to waste, so he headed back to the HT Group's headquarters to ask how their presales were going. When he arrived there, he saw that their sales were decent, but it was still not enough to compete with the KING Group. But since it had only been a few days since their promotions started, Jacob didn't know whether to feel satisfied or not with their progress.

Suddenly, Sam appeared behind Jacob and told him about his findings. His report clearly stated that their pre-sale had successfully split the consumers' attention evenly between the HT Group and KING Group. And when they asked the consumers about how the HT Group's products stack up against the KING Group's, their answers stated that they were even in quality as well.

With this in mind, Jacob worries disappeared. He was more than satisfied with the results compared to earlier, even if the plan was only half successful.

Shortly after, he walked to a quiet corridor, and then took out his phone to dial Darren's number.

Inside the CEO office of the KING Group, Darren had just finished speaking to Herman's subordinate through the phone. He was infuriated when he found out that the factory decided to work with the HT Group even though he had put so much effort into securing a deal with them. To make matters worse, he saw Jacob's name on his phone and instantly knew the latter was only calling him to rub salt on his wounds.

The only thing that Darren wanted to do was to smash his phone on the ground and stomp on it repeatedly. But doing so would be an admittance of defeat, and his inherent arrogance would never allow him to do that. There was no chance he could let Jacob savor this victory.

After taking multiple deep breaths, Darren answered his phone.

“Mr. Xu.“

The moment Darren heard Jacob's voice, he knew his assumptions were right. His rival was only calling to tease and make fun of him. Despite that, Darren tried his best to control his anger and respond casually.

“Jacob, what do you need? Get to the point because I still have a lot of things to do.“ Darren tried his best to come across as normal. That was why he even called Jacob by his first name.

“I'm sure you already know about my deal with Herman. I called because I feel a little bit guilty about taking him from you. I know business is business. But still, I hope you don't mind, Mr. Xu,“ Jacob answered in a slightly teasing tone. But he still wasn't done making fun of Darren, so he added, “By the way, Herman told me that when we're done with our deal, he'll still be willing to work with you. I hope there are no hard feelings between us, Mr. Xu. Okay?“

Darren's blood was at a boiling point but he still managed to keep his composure. “Don't worry about it, Jacob. And besides, I don't like working with people who change their minds even though we've already come to an agreement. I can assure you that I don't feel any ill will towards you, especially since Herman's factory doesn't deserve to be in business with the KING Group.“

This excuse to take the moral high ground was Darren's last attempt to save face.

That being said, it was no use since Jacob couldn't stop chuckling at him. Shortly after, he said, “That's good to hear, Mr. Xu. I'll talk to you later then.“ After that, Jacob didn't even wait for Darren's response and hung up the phone.

'What a show-off! I can't believe this bastard still has the audacity to rub his victory in my face!'

Darren thought while clenching his fists in rage. He was so infuriated that his nails dug deep in his palm. 'Jacob, just wait and see! I'll teach you a lesson someday!' Darren bitterly promised to himself.

After a couple of hours, Darren managed to calm himself down. But right after that, he felt extremely exhausted. He knew he needed to rest, so he walked to his desk and slumped down into a leather chair. With a frown, he rubbed his temples to find some sort of relief.

Although Darren said he didn't care about losing the factory, he knew how big of a blow it was to their success moving forward. The KING Groups' anti-aging skincare product, which was such a big success, was made in that particular factory. Darren couldn't figure out whether a spy had told Jacob about it or if it was just pure coincidence. The only thing that Darren could think of at that moment was how successful the KING Group would've been already if weren't for Jacob constantly throwing wrenches in his plans.

With that in mind, Darren knew he wouldn't be able to handle any more bad news for a while.

A few minutes later, Harlan finally got wind of the fact that the factory they were working with was being taken away. Filled with concern, he rushed over to the CEO's office to check on his boss.

As soon as Harlan opened the door, he asked, “What are we going to do now, Mr. Xu?“ Darren was still so upset at that point that he couldn't help but smash his fist on the table as a response. After that, he replied in a dejected voice, “The only thing we can do right now is to go to our second choice when we were looking for factories. It's better to go with our plan B than to just wait here and hope Herman changes his mind.“ Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

The next morning, the Li Family was busy preparing breakfast.

Cherish was excited to prepare breakfast as soon as she got up from her bed. But since she had made such a huge mess in the kitchen last time, the Li Family didn't allow her to do it on her own. It wasn't that they didn't want her to make a mess again, they just didn't want anything bad to happen to her.

That being said, Cherish was very outspoken about learning how to cook after getting married. Leah couldn't bear to let her down, so she had no choice but to teach her daughter-in-law. On the bright side,

Leah knew this was a good way to deepen her relationship with Cherish.

The menu for that day was shredded potatoes and minced meat porridge. Under Leah's keen gaze, Cherish carefully chopped up some potatoes, scallion, ginger, garlic, and a few other spices.

Despite how easy her tasks were, Cherish still did it with the utmost care. She didn't want to disappoint anyone anymore.

But because of this, it took her more than half an hour to prepare all the ingredients they needed. To make matters worse, her lack of knife skills and desire for perfection caused her to waste a lot of the vegetables, to the point that they didn't have enough potatoes to feed the entire family. Fortunately, Leah had expected this to happen, so she had bought extra ingredients for that day. But in the end, Cherish still managed to waste too much of the potatoes, so they had to make something else.

“Forget it. We're making mashed potatoes today.“ Leah said while helplessly shaking her head. Seeing Cherish's skills in the kitchen, she had no choice but to make something easy, the kind of food that even a child could make.

“Just cut the potatoes into chunks, and then immediately place them in a pot of water. If you just leave them be, they'll oxidize and turn brown,“ Leah calmly said while trying her best to keep a straight face.

'Chunks? How big should they be?'

Cherish immediately asked herself.

She didn't know what to do, but she was too embarrassed to ask again. Just relying on luck, Cherish just aligned her knife in the middle of each potato and sliced right through. It was such a precarious scene since she was having so much trouble going through the bigger potatoes.

“Don't do anything else while I'm gone, okay? Just cut everything up and wait till I'm back from the bathroom.“ Since Leah had been in the kitchen for more than an hour, her bladder was about to burst. Thinking that Cherish could easily handle cutting up potatoes into chunks by herself, she took this chance to go to the bathroom in a hurry.

However, when Leah came back to the kitchen, she realized that she had given Cherish too much credit.

It was nice that Cherish hadn't forgotten to soak the potatoes right after cutting them. But each individual piece varied in size and shape. Because of that, there was no doubt that the smaller ones would cook faster than the bigger ones.

'Adults should know to cut things evenly so they all cook at the same rate, right? How did she even think that this was okay?'

At that moment, Leah didn't know whether to laugh or shake her head in disappointment. But even then, she couldn't blame Cherish since she knew she hadn't given her the most specific instructions. To salvage their breakfast, Leah just tried her best to cut the bigger pieces into smaller ones. While she was doing so, she said to Cherish, “Cherish, just take out the pork belly from the fridge while I'm doing this. Don't forget to put it in some boiling water to get rid of the rancid smell.“

As soon as Cherish turned around, a frown made its way onto her face since she knew she hadn't done a good enough job. Despite that, she didn't give up and went straight to the fridge to do what she was asked. But when Cherish touched the piece of raw meat, she immediately felt squeamish. But since Leah was around, she knew it was rude to act finicky. That was why she just grabbed the piece of meat and threw it in the pot as fast as she could.

After a few minutes, the water started to boil and the aroma of the meat and spices pervaded the air. Leah couldn't help herself from enjoying the delicious smell and praising it. “That sure is top-notch pork.

I'm sure it's going to be delicious. Cherish, don't you agree?“

For some reason, Cherish couldn't bear the smell of pork that morning. As soon as the aroma entered her nose, she felt her stomach act up. To make matters worse, she started to feel nauseous and it even gave her a headache.

Right then and there, Cherish started to think of why she was reacting this way. It didn't make sense to her since she loved the smell of pork. She had even had some a few days ago and she enjoyed it. What could possibly be the reason for her to be this way?

“Mom, I'm sorry, but I think I'm going to throw up,“

Cherish murmured the last second she possibly could. Right after that, she rushed to the bathroom and placed her head on the toilet.

It was an ordinary morning. They hadn't even drunk alcohol last night. But Cherish was throwing up like she had just come from a party.

Being an experienced mother, Leah immediately realized that Cherish could possibly be going through morning sickness. With that in mind, she called a butler and told him to buy a pregnancy test from the pharmacy while she helped Cherish in the bathroom.

After thirty minutes, Cherish took the test by herself. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw that there were two red lines on the screen. She didn't know how to feel at that moment, and her face was as red as an apple.

As soon as Leah saw her rosy cheeks, she grinned from ear to ear and clapped her hands, “I knew it! This is great! I've been waiting for this day to come for so long! We're done cooking for today. We have to go to the hospital right now! If you're really pregnant, you have to get a physical examination as soon as possible. Carlos, come down here! How long do you plan to sleep? We have to go right now!“

Standing still, Cherish couldn't think of a single word to say. She just stared blankly while Leah rushed upstairs to drag Carlos out of bed.

“Mom, what's going on? Aren't you supposed to be cooking with Cherish right now?“ Carlos asked in confusion. When he looked at his alarm clock, he couldn't understand why his mother was waking him up before seven o'clock.

“Just get up and get dressed! You have to go to the hospital with your wife right now!“ Before Carlos could stand up, Leah had already picked out his clothes from the closet.

When Carlos repeated Leah's words in his mind, the word “hospital“ immediately woke him up. He thought something bad had happened to his wife so he asked, “Mom! Did Cherish cut her finger or something?“