Chapter 182 - He's joking!

Meanwhile, DX was having a troublesome lunch as well.

He thought that with the presence of Callum and Song Qiao, he would be able to have a peaceful lunch.

However, his mother was adamant in her quest to find him a wife.

"CEO Liu just sent us the invitation to his youngest son's wedding. XiAn, do you remember the boy? He used to come over to play with Callum."

"No," answered DX honestly. He had never cared much for most of Callum's friends.

Old Madam Du looked wistfully at Song Qiao before sighing dramatically, "Qiao Qiao, when can I attend my own son's wedding? With the rate way things are going, I'd be meeting his father in heaven before I get to see my daughter-in-law."

A lesser man would have rolled his eyes at the carefully disguised threat. However, DX being DX, merely ignored his mother. He was used to all her tricks.

Song Qiao smiled and took Old Madam Du's hand, "Old Madam Du, I'm sure President Du is doing his best to find someone for you."

Old Madam Du lamented, "If he is doing his best, he would have given me some grandbabies to play with."

Callum glanced at DX who continued to eat without any care. Since the latter did not care about protecting himself, he decided to help him out.

"XiAn has given you a pair of twins to play with..."

She huffed, "How is that the same? They came to us when they were already 6! I didn't get to have the chance to play with them when they were babies."

DX thought about his mother's words. Truth be told, he felt the same way as her. As a father, he loved his sons dearly.

However, sometimes he wished that they came to him earlier. There were barely any pictures of the boys from when they were babies.

Even among the limited amount of pictures that they managed to find, they were all pictures of Jack.

That cruel woman not only sold Lyle off. She basically treated him as if he did not exist at all.

As he thought about his eldest son's misfortune, he gritted his teeth.

Not having them by his side from the very beginning was one of the regrets he had in life.

He gave a quick glance to his mother who was still being dramatic.

"If I have another child..." thought DX while he ate quietly.

If Kai Xin gave him a son or a daughter, he would be more like a new father than an experienced one.

Thinking about the possibility of having a child with the woman he loved more than anything else, DX's lips twitched slightly as he tried to contain his excitement.

Being thoughtful, Song Qiao tried to direct the discussion away to something else.

"Old Madam Du, I found something interesting today."

Old Madam Du smiled at her and said, "Qiao Qiao, I've told you before. Call me Ma. It's only a matter of time before my son opens his eyes. Besides, I've always thought of you as my daughter."

Song Qiao blushed. She glanced coyly at DX before saying,

"M-Ma..."

Knowing that this would not do anyone any good, DX placed his chopsticks down and said sternly, "Old Madam Du, please stop."

"You bad boy! How long do you intend to make me wait before you get married? You know that Qiao Qiao has been waiting for you! She's not getting any younger!"

He ignored everything his mother said about Song Qiao and replied, "K and I have our plans."

"K?!" snapped Old Madam Du. She slapped her chopsticks down angrily before continuing, "I would never agree to a man as your spouse."

"Unfortunately, K is all you would get. I have no intention of marrying someone else."

Song Qiao looked down sadly at her hands which were resting on her laps. At the corner of her eyes were beads of tears that were about to fall.

Even though she tried to hide it, Old Madam Du saw her action. Glaring at her son, she declared angrily,

"I will only take a woman like Song Qiao as my daughter-in-law. Not a man of unknown origin."

DX calmly blotted his lips with a napkin before standing up.

"Callum, I have an urgent matter to attend to. Please deal with my mother."

Song Qiao stood up and grabbed his arm, "XiAn! Please don't go! Ma is only joking with you."

Without any expression on his face, DX gently pulled her hand away, "Qiao Qiao, Callum would send you back to the office later."

... .

He drove straight to the Japanese restaurant and pretended to 'bump' into Kai Xin and Ki Hong.

"President Du! What are you doing here?" asked Ki Hong. He was surprised when he saw DX walking past the corridor near their private table and called out to him.

"My mother wants some dessert from this restaurant," explained DX before turning to the waiter to make his order. He then told them to deliver back to his mansion.

Ki Hong easily accepted his explanation.

"Can't you just order it online?" asked Kai Xin while she glared at him. She knew that he was there to check on her.

"Too troublesome. Han Ye's not here."

She rolled her eyes at his blatant lie while Ki Hong smiled and said, "President Du, if you don't mind, we can go back to the office together."

DX nodded.

When the waiter came with their bills, Ki Hong took out his card and Kai Xin immediately reached over to stop him, "I thought I'm paying?"

He laughed and patted her head, "I was joking with you earlier. The meal is on me..."

With a wink, he said, "...After all, this is a first date."

He was so busy chatting with the waiter as they waited for the portable payment terminal to clear the payment that he did not realize that DX and Kai Xin were communicating with their eyes.

"A first date?" DX raised a brow at her questioningly.

She shook her head nervously and mouthed, "He's joking!"

Once the payment was done, they walked back to the office.

Along the way, Ki Hong dropped his happy go lucky persona and talked to DX about the missing amount of money.

"The accounts are in a mess. In order to cover up his track, he spent 10x the amount of money on insignificant things. There's definitely more than one party involved. He must have 'spent' hundreds and thousands, and that's only for last year. At the moment, Ms. Song and I decided to go through the accounts from the time he joined."

DX nodded as he listened to Ki Hong drone on about the state of the accounts that were under John's responsibility.

Even before Kai Xin joined them, he had the intention to replace John Warwick.

John's work had been sloppy and he kept making mistakes that should not be made by someone at his level of expertise.

In addition, with him being Director Xiong's man present an additional problem as well.

Director Xiong was one of those who wanted to take over the power held by the Du Family and DX believed that he was actually working for someone else.

DX had his suspicion on who the mastermind was but at this moment, there was no concrete proof. His best hope was to wait for the man to make a mistake.

In this dog eat dog world, trust was something that DX cannot afford to give freely.

When Han Ye introduced Ki Hong to him, he agreed to hire him almost immediately.

What interested him was not the fact that the man was a graduate of an Ivy League university or that he was trained in the Big 4.

He hired Ki Hong mostly for another reason. Ki Hong was trained in the financial forensic sector and DX needed someone like that in his team.

DX cannot afford to have such a capable person falls into the hand on another.

In fact, Ki Hong would have joined them earlier if not for his contract with the other company.

The Du Corporation offered to pay for the damages from the breach of contract but the man refused the offer. He was unwilling to leave his previous company before a successor was found.

When Ki Hong was done talking, he noticed that Kai Xin was staring at him. She had an odd expression on her usually blank face.

With a grin, he teased, "What? Do I look more handsome than usual now that you know I'm actually good at my work?"

She rolled her eyes at his ability to brag, "I didn't know that you are actually capable of something..."

Ki Hong playfully growled at her.

"I see Mr. Ki and Ms. Zhen are quite close," noted DX calmly.

"Of course we are close! Not only that we are best friends... "

Ki Hong wrapped his arms around Kai Xin and patted his own chest proudly as he continued, "...She took my first kiss!"