"I learned a new recipe, son," said Carmen as she entered the library. In her hand was a tray of fresh orange juice and home-baked cookies. "Your dad liked it when he tasted it this morning. I'm sure you'll like it more," Yibo looked up from the papers he was studying. He smiled at his mother indulgently. As far as he could remember, his mother had been baking cookies. She made every new recipe she learned from her friends.
And he had missed lunch, and that was his mother's way to compensate for him not having lunch.
Wang Carmen was still stunningly beautiful at fifty-two. Her hair, which was naturally brown, was stylishly cut short. And the only telltale signs of age are the fine laugh lines around her eyes and corners of her mouth.
Yibo inherited his mother's eyes. The faintest of blue. And just like his mother's, his eyes change color depending on emotion. They turned into deep blue when angry.
Carmen put the tray down on the executive desk. He was doing what he was doing. "It's Saturday, son. Your dad is at the golf course. Why are you so busy with work?"
"Haikuan and Yifei's leaving for Europe the day after tomorrow." She was referring to his cousin Haikuan and his wife. Haikuan and his wife Yifei's are going to Europe for a two-month vacation. They never really had a proper honeymoon since their wedding less than a year ago. And they deserved this trip because YIfei's was pregnant with their first child.
"I'll be the one to attend the monthly meeting with the staff at the distillery, Mom. I am preparing and studying just in case problems may arise."
"You and Haikuan are doing well, son." Carmen's voice was full of pride. "You know, I'm secretly jealous of the attention that Papa Jun is giving to Haikuan. I always thought that he didn't care about you..."
Yibo let out a laugh, "'Mom, Zufu Jun looks at his grandchildren equally. It just so happens that Haikuan needs more attention than any of his grandchildren. And you know the reason why."
Haikuan's mother died when he was still very young. And his father, Tony, paid more attention to his eldest son than him.
"And I'm ashamed of myself, son. I've known your grandfather for a long time, but I still doubted him. You understood what I didn't understand..."
Yibo reached for his mother's hand and kissed it. "Don't be hard on yourself. You are jealous for me. Forget it. Everybody's happy that Haikuan and Uncle Tony are finally okay.
"Yeah. And you have proven your worth, son. Your father and I are so proud of you." She smiled faintly. The distillery was established by Haikuan to prove to everyone that apart from being able to raise the business that almost collapsed when his half-brother Quinn took over, he was still able to establish his own business by benefiting from the sugarcane plantation on the land -owned by a family that has not been given much attention. The distillery is a corporation of their cousins. When Haikuan first told him about it he didn't hesitate.
He has long wanted to build a company outside of the WJC. But his father Quiren wouldn't hear of it. WJC (the Wang family corporation that named after Yibo's grandfather – Wang Jun Corporation) was an international food and canning corporation. Why did he have to break away to start his own company and start from the bottom when the company he was supposed to manage was already there?
Perhaps Quiren was right. But his father was still young and in his prime and had no intention of retiring. He will remain in his father's shadow. And Yibo wanted to prove something, if not to the family, then to himself.
He had his own money. Even if it wasn't big, he could consider it his own. And with the combined resources of their cousins including the money that Haikuan owed to the bank, Destileria Wang was established whose stockholders were Haikuan and Yibo.
