"Young Master, it's been three years. Please come back with me this time!"
At the gate of the Black Dragon antique market in Zreledo, an old man in a suit stood in front of Harrison Solis and pleaded with him.
"The old master already knows he's wrong. Please forgive him!"
"Does he? Then why hasn't he divorced that woman yet?"
No matter how much the old man tried to persuade him, Harrison remained unmoved with a cold expression.
"Back then, in order to marry that woman, he hounded my mother to death and even drove me out of the house. He wants me to go home now because he knows he is wrong. What did he take my title as the supreme treasure appraiser for?"
After that, Harrison found a bag and put the tower figurine he had just purchased from the market into it. "Besides, I'm Harrison Solis now, not Harrison Neal."
With that, Harrison left without any hesitation.
The old man was left standing in the same place. "Harrison Neal... Harrison Solis... Young Master, it's been three years. It seems that you still can't forget the old madam..."
Three years ago, Harrison, who was supposed to be the young master of the Neal family, suddenly got expelled from the family. He didn't want to have anything to do with the Neal family. From then on, he changed his name and willingly became the matrilocal son-in-law of the Marks family.
It was because he loved the woman who had been pretending to be strong.
...
When Harrison rushed to the front of a luxuriously decorated villa, a beautiful woman stood at the door with impatience.
It was his wife, Johanna Marks. In terms of figure and appearance, she was the woman of every man's dreams. However, she married Harrison, who had nothing at that time and could be called a good-for-nothing.
The Mark clan had always disregarded Johanna's family because they didn't have male offspring. In addition, they had such a useless son-in-law.
From then on, the clan members looked down on them even more. Almost every time they met, they would ridicule Harrison, making him dinner-party material.
Harrison tightened the plastic bag in his hand and rushed to Johanna's side. "Honey, I'm sorry! There was a traffic jam. That's why I'm late..."
"You good-for-nothing! Just shut up! Do you know what day it is? Besides, it's such a hot summer day! How dare you make me wait for you for three minutes?" Johanna glared at Harrison with a disgusted look.
When she saw the sweat on his head, she took a step back in disgust and distanced herself from him.
"I'm sorry." Harrison lowered his eyes and didn't care about Johanna's subtle actions.
"Hmph, have you prepared the thing?"
"Of course! I've taken a long time to choose it. Honey, don't worry..." Harrison immediately took out the plastic bag and wanted to give it to her.
However, Johanna didn't even glance at him. She turned around coldly and walked into the hall.
If it weren't for the fact that she desperately needed a matrilocal husband to fight for the family property, she wouldn't have married this good-for-nothing.
As soon as she saw Harrison, Johanna was furious. "Even if you have no background and lack education, you should at least go out to do something after becoming my husband. Despite doing household chores, all you do is spend the day at the antique market every day."
Johanna thought Harrison deserved to get bullied by others for being so submissive all the time. If it weren't for the sake of the family property, she would have divorced this good-for-nothing long ago.
Harrison withdrew his arm, which was hanging awkwardly in the air. Then, he hurriedly followed Johanna with his head down.
Today was the performance evaluation of the Marks family.
The Marks family also engaged in the antique business. They ran an auction house and more than a dozen antique shops in Zreledo. Their strength was, at most, a second-rate family in Zreledo. But now, as the old master of the Marks family aged, the Marks family's business performance was getting worse.
Seeing that they could no longer retain their position as a second-rate family, the Old Master wanted to turn the tide. However, he was incapable of doing so, so he wanted to find a successor in the family.
The rule was that at this time of each year, every family in the clan had to take out the best antiques they had collected in a year to compete among themselves. In this way, they could compare their performance in the past year.
This performance also determined the status of every household in the clan. In the past, the Marks family did not pay much attention to it. After all, the status of every family in the clan had been established and consolidated, so there would not be much change.
But in the past three years, everyone began to attach great importance to it. After all, the old master was about to choose a successor. This performance was related to the best candidate in the old master's heart.
Even if one couldn't get a share of the company's property, maybe one could get more property when the old master resigned.
"Harrison, remember to keep your mouth shut after going in later. Whatever other people say, you have to bear it. Today is an important day. I don't want grandpa's judgment of us to get affected because of you!"
Before entering the reception room, Johanna did not forget to turn around and warn Harrison in a low voice.
Harrison nodded with a bitter smile, looking helpless.
When they arrived at the reception room, the other families of the clan had already arrived.
"Johanna, you're not very capable, but you're really good at putting on airs. The whole clan is waiting for you!"
The one speaking was Sergio Marks, the son of Johanna's eldest uncle. His grandfather liked him very much. Sergio usually thought highly of himself and looked down upon Johanna and Harrison.
"Sergio, what's the use of her coming so early? She doesn't have much ability and still wants to compete for the family property. She could have a shorter time of getting humiliated by coming late."
"Haha, who says she doesn't have the ability? Isn't she the only one who has the ability to find trash?"
"That's right. Speaking of this, we are no match for her. Any beggar at the door is ten thousand times more capable than him, yet Johanna still picked him. I have to admire her good taste."
The families led by Sergio had always looked down on Johanna's family.
Three years ago, when the old master announced that he would choose an heir, the other families in the clan excluded Johanna's family from the line of successors. Since Johanna's father had no male offspring and Johanna would get married sooner or later, they assumed their family's business would fall into the hands of outsiders.
In order to shut them up and regain the right to be the heir, Johanna recruited Harrison as her matrilocal husband.
In their eyes, Harrison was Johanna's pawn in the fight for the family inheritance!
Therefore, they had never treated Harrison as a person. They treated him worse than how they treated their pet dog.
"Hey, Harrison, look at the bag in your hand. What rubbish did you pick up from the antique market? Come and show us!" Sergio looked at Harrison with a smile, and his gaze was full of sarcasm.
Harrison remained silent. In the past three years, he had gotten used to this kind of sarcasm and humiliation.
"Haha, are you still trying to take advantage of loopholes just like the supreme appraiser, Harrison Neal, did?"
"A good-for-nothing actually dares to learn from Harrison. Although your names are only one word short, your fates are completely different!"
As soon as Sergio finished speaking, there was a burst of laughter in the reception room.
As expected, Harrison obeyed Johanna's instructions. No matter how others mocked him, he kept smiling and didn't say a word.
Johanna looked even more upset. This good-for-nothing listened to her words and didn't even refute them.
For some reason, there was a strange feeling in Johanna's heart.
"Oh, Harrison, you are indeed a good-for-nothing. Today, I will prove to you that you are really a good-for-nothing who only knows how to pick up rubbish!"
Upon seeing that Harrison was indifferent toward his ridicule, Sergio felt even angrier.
Upon thinking of the antiques he brought, he immediately pointed at a porcelain bottle on the table with his eyes lit up. He said, "Do you know which dynasty this is from? It's from the Mileau Dynasty. Neal's Auction House assessed it at 20 million dollars. Take out the garbage in your hand, and let me see how much it is worth."
"Neal's Auction House? Is it worthy of being compared with the supreme treasure appraiser?" Harrison mocked in his heart.
When he was about to speak, Johanna's voice rang out in time.
"Sergio, all of us are members of the Marks family. Don't be so mean. Grandpa often warns us to deal with our family scandals privately."
Johanna didn't want to care about it at first, but when she saw Harrison's indifference toward the humiliation, she got infuriated.
She could not help but stop them.
Harrison glanced at Johanna in surprise. It was the first time in three years she spoke up for him.
"No way in hell am I going to approve of him as a member of the Marks family!" Sergio sneered. "Who here would approve of him as a part of us? This good-for-nothing is just a pawn you use to compete for the family property! If it weren't for him, the Marks family wouldn't have become a laughing stock in Zreledo! How dare you mention family scandals? If you guys were to get chased out, the Marks family would have no more scandals!"
"You!"
Johanna's face turned red with embarrassment.
But Sergio was right. It was hers and Harrison's wedding three years ago that disgraced the Marks family.
Not only did the wedding make her grandfather despise her, but Sergio and the others kept exacerbating the problem. She was sure that her grandfather must have long wanted to drive her out of the Marks family to wash away this shame.
"Sure, please take a look at it for me, cousin!"
At this time, Harrison, who had been silent, suddenly opened the bag in his hand. He took out the Black Tortoise Tower figurine from the bag and put it on the table.
"Is this the... Black Tortoise Tower?"
Sergio glanced at it and was about to mock Harrison when the chief appraiser of the Marks family suddenly exclaimed.
Harrison nodded and said indifferently, "I remember that Harrison was willing to pay 200 million dollars for this Black Tortoise Tower!"
Before Harrison's voice died away, the whole reception room was instantly silent.