Insta Empire

Lily was still upset that Jason had stolen the credit for her success with Williams Media. And he did it right in front of the whole family at the celebration banquet! Jason continued to chip away at Lily's accomplishment, telling Grandma Jones, "For the sake of the family, no matter how much I suffer, I'm willing to carry on the struggle! I heard that Williams Media signed a new client named Britney Davis just a few days ago. I want to fight for it. Tomorrow, I'll help us negotiate the packaging contract for this new client. What do you think?" Since the Jones family had already established a basic partnership with Williams Media, the packaging deal for a new client would definitely be very easy to negotiate. Jason knew that now he had a real opportunity! As long as he got Britney's packaging deal, his grandmother would definitely give him all the credit for the family's success. Grandma Jones was very satisfied to see him working so hard. "Jayjay, you are indeed the most responsible one here. You're an asset to our family and to our company! I'll leave it all up to you. You're going to do a great job!" After hearing Grandma Jones's words, Lily felt very uneasy. She and Dorothy looked at each other and her mother could only lightly pat her hand under the table. Why the heck did Grandma Jones like Jason so much? Now that she had made up her mind to leave this matter up to him, what else could they do? Tonight's banquet originally belonged to Lily, but not anymore. Jason had snatched Lily's credit with a few words and now he was the star of the show. Although Lily felt torn up inside, she didn't show it. After all, she knew she wasn't Grandma Jones's favorite in the family. Jason grabbed the opportunity to look generous, "Today it's my treat! Eat and drink all that you want. I'm paying!" He waved his wallet at the head waiter . Jason sat down and waved at the waiter again. "Waiter, go and get a bottle of your best wine for every table! I want the best and most expensive wine you have! Hurry up!" The waiter was about to show him the wine list, but when he heard him say that, he nodded and went to get the wine from the cellar. After all the wine was served, Jason raised his glass and stood up happily. "Let's have a toast. Let's celebrate the signing of our new client contract with Williams Media tomorrow. Eat up! Drink up! Let's party all night! " Everyone stood up and raised their glasses to toast Jason. After all, his status in the family had just gone up a notch or two . When the banquet was coming to an end, Jason was unable to stand upright. His eyes were blurry as he called for the waiter to come over. He then pulled a card from his wallet and said, "Use my card to pay the bill!" "That's a Luxbank Sapphire Card!" Someone recognized Jason's credit card and immediately cried out in surprise. Those who were close to him couldn't help but widen their eyes when they saw the ultra high-end card in his hand. The Luxbank card wasn't something that just anyone could get. The most basic card, the silver card, had a limit of 25 thousand dollars. A gold card went up to 50 thousand dollars, and the sapphire card that Jason took out had a limit of 100 thousand dollars. Jason's personal wealth was about six million. But that didn't reflect how much cash he had on hand. So it took Jason nearly three years to save up enough to get this exclusive card. He'd only had it for two days. Jason looked over at Phoebe, who was seated next to him, and he couldn't help but feel a sense of pride. This was such a good opportunity to show off in front of Ms. Anderson. Naturally, he couldn't resist! When Phoebe saw Jason's Luxbank Sapphire Card, she couldn't help but look at him differently. Although she was a rising star in the Anderson family, she only had around 2 million in the bank. That's why she had the Luxbank Gold Card, which was one grade lower than Jason's. Although she had previously said that she could double the price to buy her own Dream Lover necklace, she was secretly going to ask her father to pay for it. Feeling Phoebe's gaze on him, Jason felt even more excited. He sat up straight. "You can do whatever you want. I will pay for everyone here tonight! However, that table isn't included." The table he pointed at was the one where Kevin was sitting. Because Kevin hadn't been fully accepted by the Jones family, very few people were willing to sit at the same table as him. The people who did choose to sit with him weren't as wealthy or popular as the rest of the guests. Jason simply didn't care if he offended them. He continued to push Kevin's buttons, "Kevin, do you have any money? Don't tell me you can't even afford to pay, and you still need to beg money from your wife?" Jason stood up unsteadily, staggered to Kevin's side, and patted him on the shoulder. Kevin smiled and didn't say anything. Jason pulled his hand away with a look of contempt in his eyes, and turned to look at Phoebe. "Ms. Anderson, you like Dream Lover, don't you? I have a lot of friends and connections. Don't worry, I will definitely help you buy it!" Phoebe nodded her head slightly in response to this spectacle. There was still no smile on her stoic yet elegant face. "Thank you for the kind offer, Mr. Jones." she replied. Jason was about to say something else, but at that moment, the waiter who had taken his sapphire card to pay the bill walked quickly over to him. "Mr. Jones, I am very sorry. The limit on this card isn't high enough to pay for tonight's bill." "Are you kidding me? This card has a 100,000-dollar limit, and you're telling me it's not enough for tonight's meal?" Jason looked at the waiter in disbelief. He reached out to grab the man's collar, but he was stopped by the people around him at his table. After all, this was the Witsler Hotel. Jason was a little drunk, but most of the other people were still very sober. This was not the time or place to cause trouble. The waiter took a step back and looked at Jason with an odd mix of horror and surprise in his eyes. "I'm sorry, but I forgot to tell you. Mr. Jones you've spent over a hundred and ten thousand dollars tonight." That sobered Jason up right away! One hundred and ten thousand dollars? What were they eating? Gold? "You're a thief! Get your manager here right now! " Kevin watched the whole scene without saying a word and finally he couldn't help laughing. Jason was really a dope. He pretended to be an uber rich person all day. Then he made a mess of the whole evening. It started when he asked the waiter to serve him a bottle of the hotel's best wine for each table. Others may not have seen it coming, but Kevin knew right away it would be a problem. The hotel served them one of the top wines in the world, a grand cru from Burgundy in France. The retail price of this wine was as high as 5 000 dollars per bottle. Not a wise decision on Jason's part. Seeing him reacting like this, the waiter was in no mood to argue with him. He turned around and called the hotel manager over. When the hotel manager arrived at his table Jason stepped up to him angrily and asked loudly, "This is how you do business? You're nothing but a thief? I'm going to file a complaint with the state liquor control commission ! I have friends downtown!" The hotel manager smiled and said calmly, "Mr. Jones, you said that I should serve you our best wine. That's what I did. Because you needed twenty bottles for the entire room, we gave you our best price. You actually saved almost eight thousand dollars. Your complaint will be thrown out by the commission." "You bastard! If this wine is so rare, how come you're able to sell more than 20 bottles at a time? Who are you trying to fool? You're making a big mistake!" Jason reached out to grab the hotel manager's lapels. Just then, an extremely calm voice came from the entrance of the banquet hall. "What seems to be the problem here?" Everyone looked over and saw a man in an Armani suit walking toward Jason. Behind him was a group of burly-looking men in black suits. As soon as Grandma Jones saw the man in the Armani suit, she quickly stood up and walked up to him. "Mr. Cook, I'm very sorry about this misunderstanding. My grandson sometimes drinks a little too much and makes bad decisions. I'm sure that we can find another way to settle this." After she said that, she offered her hand to the hotel owner as a gesture of good will. When everyone saw how much respect Grandma Jones was showing toward the man, they realized Jason put them in a bad position. Mitchell Cook wasn't just the owner of the Witsler Hotel. He was also well known as one of the most influential men in Chicago. Definitely a big shot you didn't want to mess with! When he saw Mr. Cook, Jason sobered up completely…but now he was covered in a layer of cold sweat. His hands trembling, he quickly let go of the hotel manager's suit. He even reached out to help smooth the wrinkles on his lapels. The hotel manager snorted. His boss had appeared, and he felt even more confident. He said to Jason sarcastically, "Your Jones family is pretty famous in Chicago. Since you asked for the best wine, how could you refuse to pay?" Jason didn't have the time to wipe the beads of sweat that kept flowing down his face. He snapped his finger and said, "I won't go back on my word. We'll pay for it!" As he spoke, he gave a pleading look toward his grandmother. He couldn't possibly scrape together four hundred thousand dollars this evening. He unconsciously took a step toward Grandma Jones, like he was going to use her to shield him from Mitchell Cook. Grandma Jones sighed and forced a smile at Mr. Cook. "It was our fault for what happened tonight. Mr. Cook, please don't hold it against us. And don't worry, we'll get you the money right away." After saying that, she turned to the Jones family members who were in the banquet hall. "We can't let Jayjay pay all the expenses tonight. Each of you should contribute five thousand dollars. The rest of the money will be paid by Jayjay and me." Everyone nodded in agreement. They had no choice, but they wanted to look like they were okay with it. However, two of them couldn't hide their concern and wore very embarrassed expressions on their faces: Lily and Dorothy. It would be pretty tough for them to come up with five thousand dollars for this meal. What was really unfair was they'd barely touched the wine. The four million dollars that Kevin gave Lily had already been used for her emergency expenses, so they didn't have any extra money left over. Jason, who had learned nothing from all this, asked her, "Lily, why are you looking so upset? Don't tell me you can't even come up with five thousand? Don't you want to pitch in?" Lily saw that everyone was looking at her because of Jason's insulting remarks. She tried to control her breathing and calm down. "We have five thousand dollars." Kevin suddenly interrupted Lily. His back was facing Jason, Mr. Cook and the others, so they hadn't noticed him yet. The moment Mitchell Cook heard Kevin's voice, his expression changed dramatically. "May I ask who you are?" Mr. Cook queried with a very slight quiver in his usually calm voice. The others probably didn't pick up on it, but Kevin could. He shook his head and grinned. Jason saw that Mr. Cook had suddenly taken an interest in Kevin. He thought that Kevin's actions had somehow offended the man. He tried to protect himself by addressing the boss, "Mr. Cook, please don't be angry. This man isn't even a true member of our family. He married into it. If you don't like him, do whatever you want. Just don't take it out on the rest of us!" "Get lost!" Mr. Cook glared at Jason, as he gestured for him to get out of the way. Kevin stood up, turned around, and looked calmly at Mr. Cook. An expression of pure joy and excitement instantly appeared on the man's face! He hadn't seen Kevin in seven years and he certainly hadn't expected to see him at the Witsler Hotel today! "Long time, no see." Kevin said as he greeted his old friend with a smile. His expression was relaxed and natural. He completely ignored the stunned members of the Jones family. Mr. Cook quickly walked over and gave Kevin a warm hug. He looked absolutely thrilled to see him. "It's really you! I can't believe it! How are you doing, Boss?"