My Fiancé's Scandals Never End, So I Married His Uncle Instead-Chapter 32: A Restless Night

Another round of discussion about body codes generated hundreds more messages.

Inside the car, Silas Norwood stared at the stream of group messages, a bit lost in thought. His usually cool eyes darkened to near black.

Body code.

A match made in heaven.

The ultimate experience.

He remained his usual noble and distant self, but his expression was exceptionally subtle. The words "the ultimate experience" in particular made him lose his composure, stirring a storm within him.

"Get me a glass of ice water."

He ordered Theo Chambers in a low voice, then casually sent a red envelope to the group chat.

The red envelope had a two-hundred-yuan limit, with the amount randomly split among sixty people. On average, each person would only get about three yuan. But the added value was off the charts:

Rivermoon: [Whoever grabs one gets a bottle of top-tier perfumery ingredients. Type is random.]

[Ahhh! Top-tier perfumery ingredients! You can’t buy those for a thousand gold pieces! They’re more expensive than gold! This is the extravagance of a true powerhouse!]

[Thank you, Daddy!]

[Thank you, Daddy!]

...

The night was already deep.

The Sterling Villa had a dedicated Perfumery Lab.

Celia Sterling carefully extracted drops of essence from a delicate bottle, working frantically amidst various instruments until she was completely disoriented.

By the time she reached a stopping point in her work, it was already five in the morning.

She had pulled an all-nighter.

After quickly washing up, she lay on her bed and casually picked up her phone to check for messages. She saw the perfumery discussion group, which was boiling over like a tempestuous sea with over three thousand unread messages.

Nearly a hundred of them were the exact same message:

[Thank you, Daddy!]

Driven by curiosity, she scrolled up, swiping for a long time before she found the grayed-out red envelope.

’So it was a red envelope grab...’

’Fighting like crazy over a few yuan... How did these Perfumery Circle bigwigs, who are usually so composed, suddenly become so down-to-earth?’

There were just too many messages. She glanced at them casually and saw that before the red envelope was sent, the group had been discussing all sorts of strange topics. They’d gone from serious perfume creation to less-than-proper private talk about bodies, and they seemed to be having a lively conversation.

Celia Sterling didn’t scroll up any further.

She sent a message to the group:

[Came late, missed the powerhouse’s red envelope. What a shame.]

She exited the group chat and, while she was at it, deleted the dense swarm of messages that were taking up so much memory.

The next moment, her phone chimed.

A message popped up in a private chat window.

Rivermoon: [Red Envelope]

Rivermoon: [You get one too.]

Celia Sterling’s mind was still flooded with the screen full of [Daddy], so she reflexively typed out the same thanks:

Cece: [Thank you, Daddy]

The other side went silent.

Cece: [Daddy’s up so early?]

The other side remained silent.

Several minutes later—

Rivermoon: [A little worked up. Didn’t sleep all night.]

Celia Sterling was about to say, ’What a coincidence, I also battled through the night without sleep,’ but then she suddenly felt that she and the other person weren’t familiar enough for that kind of small talk about their private lives.

She carefully typed out a few words:

[Get some rest.]

He didn’t reply again.

Celia Sterling casually opened his profile and saw a new post:

A picture of the moon, identical to his profile picture. The caption read: [Got a girlfriend. Going through a lot of ice cubes.] Posted at: 4:00 AM.

’What’s the connection between a girlfriend and ice cubes?’ Celia Sterling pondered it for a few seconds but couldn’t figure it out. She tossed her phone onto the bedside table and decisively went to catch up on sleep.

「Oakhaven.」

The magnificent, dazzling night view of the city did nothing to calm Summer Sutton’s heart.

The process of establishing her studio had gone smoothly, without any deliberate obstacles from Eldest Young Master Norwood. Tomorrow was the scheduled day to sign the contract with Delia Caine.

Her manager, Anne Lowell, sat across from her, giving her the customary briefing on the brand’s information:

"You’ve been with the Ninth Master for so many years, you must know his family’s assets quite well. Delia Caine is also a brand under the Sterling Group. You should know more about it than I do, so there’s no need for me to go into detail, right?"

Summer Sutton leaned languidly on the chaise lounge, humming in agreement with a strange expression.

In truth, she didn’t know much at all.

For all these years, she seemed to have an intimate relationship with Kian Sterling, but in reality, aside from generously giving her all sorts of resources, he never mentioned anything about the Sterlings in front of her. He would even avoid her when Evan Rhodes came to give him a report.

As a deeply rooted super-family in Metropia, she had no idea how many businesses the Sterling Conglomerate actually owned beyond the tip of the iceberg she could find online. Whenever she occasionally asked in a wheedling tone, Kian Sterling’s response would be quite heartless:

"Just be a good little canary. The Sterlings’ affairs are not for you to ask about."

But Anne Lowell had been very disappointed in her lately.

Summer Sutton was unwilling to burn bridges with her capable manager during this low point in her career. She said slowly,

"Although the Ninth Master has told me a lot, Delia Caine is mainly managed by his sister, so my knowledge isn’t very detailed."

"Then I’ll give you a brief overview." The manager focused on the key points. "From what I understand, besides you, there were two other A-list candidates for this brand ambassadorship. The fact that they chose you is more or less due to your connection with the Ninth Master. No matter how bad your falling out with him has been recently, I hope this endorsement deal will help you two mend your relationship. Metropia isn’t like Port Sovereign. It’s crawling with the rich and powerful. Without the Ninth Master’s protection, you won’t get far."

She flipped open the file in her hands.

"You use perfume, so you should know that Delia Caine is one of the top five international perfume brands. It holds two-thirds of the market share in the entire domestic market. Its target audience is mainly the middle and upper classes. It occasionally releases a few affordable versions, but what has truly allowed the Delia Caine brand to stand strong for so many years are its timeless collector’s editions."

Summer Sutton knew about the collector’s editions.

Years ago, Delia Caine had been hit by a market downturn and was on the brink of collapse. Its R&D team had fallen apart. Kian Sterling traveled a great distance to seek help from his mother, Sylvia Lowell, who came from a top perfumery family. She taught him everything she knew and helped him rebuild an elite team, which was how they overcame that crisis.

If the other perfumes were aimed at the general public, the collector’s editions were limited-edition fragrances created to compete with the world’s most luxurious perfume brands. They circulated mainly among the rich and famous, with prices starting in the hundreds of thousands. At international perfume auctions, they had even fetched prices in the millions on multiple occasions.

The collector’s editions from many years ago were marked with an iris. But after Celia Sterling took over a few years ago, the new collector’s editions were marked with a moon.

"For this endorsement shoot, you’ll be using a collector’s edition with the moon mark. I heard that’s the creator’s signature. And in the perfumery competition circuit in recent years, the collector’s editions from this Sterling creator have repeatedly won gold medals. The impact this has had on the Delia Caine brand is self-evident."

After she finished, Anne Lowell handed her another stack of documents. "This is the founding background of Delia Caine and some pictures of the collector’s editions. You can familiarize yourself with them. You’ve always been a favorite of luxury brands and have plenty of experience. I’m sure you’ll handle tomorrow’s contract signing with ease."

Summer Sutton’s eyes fell on the documents. She had many endorsements, but for her, the Delia Caine brand ambassadorship held a greater value: it was a way to test the waters.

The contract signing was to take place at the Delia Caine brand operations department in the Sterling Group Headquarters building.

At ten the next morning, Summer Sutton’s private van pulled up in the plaza in front of Sterling Tower.

Director Churchill came out to greet her personally.

"Miss Sutton, you’re even more beautiful in person than on screen." Director Churchill personally led her into the building and toward the elevator, his tone very polite. "Our Delia Caine operations department is on the eighty-eighth floor. This way, Miss Sutton, please."

Summer Sutton asked, as if casually, "What floor is the Ninth Master on?"