Never Judge

"Mr. Wu!" Emilio Reyes greeted as a young Chinese man in an Italian suit entered his home.

Wu Jun was shorter than she had expected, by the looks of it, she was even taller than Wu Jun and she was short at 165cm. 

She could see as Wu Jun tried to intimidate them with his entourage, he had multiple bodyguards and multiple assistants. The Wu family was undeniably richer, but there was one thing that they craved, a lineage.

When Ayanna had heard that Wu Jun would be working with her brother, she looked into how the Wus came to their fortune. She knew that she would need to help Cedric and her father with this man.

Wu Jun's father was the man that built their family's empire, he had been a poor farm boy that had managed to go to school and grab a scholarship. From there he worked hard till he established his business.

From what Ayanna could find Wu Jun was embarrassed by his poor lineage and was insecure around those that had come from old rich families, his latest rival, Guan Ming.. 

"Please, uncle Emilio, call me Wu Jun. You and my father go way back, there should be no formalities between us." Wu Jun said as his eyes lingered on Ayanna.

"Ah yes, you've never met my children." Emilio Reyes said as he noticed Wu Jun looking at Ayanna. "My daughter, Ayanna Laurence."

"Laurence?" Wu Jun said as his hand stopped midair as he reached out to shake Ayanna's hand.

"Yes, Ayanna Reyes - Laurence. I chose to take my husband's last name." Ayanna said with a poisonous smile. She knew that Wu Jun had been checking her out and her husband was the best deterrent against men like him.

"Well, that's not an issue." Wu Jun said with a smirk.

Ayanna gave him a nasty look as she dropped his hand and turned to leave.

"Please, this way." Emilio told Wu Jun as he led the young man to the dining room.

"Uncle Emilio, I find it odd that your son and his wife aren't here to welcome me." Wu Jun pointed out in a condescending manner as they walked slowly.

"My daughter-in-law will not be joining us." Emilio Reyes informed Wu Jun.

"Oh, is there some misunderstanding between the couple?" Wu Jun asked as he assumed the worst.

"No, no. Nothing like that." Emilio Reyes said as he laughed off Wu Jun's question. "My daughter-in-law runs her own company. She still has a lot of work so my son told her to just go home ahead and skip tonight's dinner."

"You should really get your women back at home uncle Emilio, I don't think it's healthy for them to be out managing business. It's not healthy for the company either, imagine being dictated to by a woman." Wu Jun said with a laugh.

Emilio watched as Ayanna stopped in her tracks, he knew his daughter was deeply offended by this. It was these kinds of men that had made it hard for his daughter to prove herself in the industry.

"Wu Jun, things are different in our country." Emilio Reyes explained as he tried to avoid an argument between his daughter and their guest. "Here, we are more than happy to see a woman in business, leading a company. As a matter of fact, both my daughter and daughter-in-law have been extremely successful." 

"Probably why you haven't reached our heights yet, but it's your culture." Wu Jun said with a shrug.

Emilio Reyes shook his head as he gestured for Ayanna not to say anything, he knew that men like Wu Jun suffer for their comments eventually.

"And your son, the new CEO, is he always late to welcome guests?" Wu Jun asked as they entered the dining room.

"Cedric is just running a little late, he had to handle some things at the office." Emilio Reyes explained.

As if on cue, Cedric, followed by Ian, Dave, Mae, and Leon, entered the dining room.

"Ah, Mr. Wu, a pleasure to meet you. I'm Cedric Reyes." He said as he shook Wu Jun's hand.

"A pleasure as well Cedric, please drop the formalities and just call me Wu Jun." The Chinese man said.

"Please, take a seat, let's get straight to the point, I'm not one for small talk." Cedric said as he gestured for Wu Jun to sit across him as Emilio Reyes took the seat at the head of the table.

"I hope you don't mind western food, Wu Jun." Ayanna said as the maids brought in their dinner. Ayanna had, of course, gone ahead and did some research into what food Wu Jun liked.

Based on what she found he liked everything foreign, especially western food.

"It will do." Wu Jun said as he tried to seem unimpressed, but the look on his eyes gave off how much he liked the feast Ayanna had managed to get their chefs to prepare.

"Your father always preferred Chinese food. Maybe my daughter should have had that prepared for you. We can still have it changed." Emilio Reyes said as he tried to get Wu Jun to react.

"No, no, this is good." Wu Jun said as  he refused to let Emilio Reyes change the food that had been served.

"That's good then." Emilio Reyes said with a nod. "Let's eat."

"We are glad that you can help us with Mor Co., Wu Jun." Cedric said as they ate their meal.

"Our families go way back, and Lucius Ting is a man that has been a thorn at my side since our school days." Wu Jun explained. "So I'm hitting two birds with one stone."

"I thought the reporters said you were good friends, that's why they speculated your visit to our country was for him." Ayanna asked as she tried to get more of the story from Wu Jun. 

Ayanna knew that the more information they had on him, the better it would be for them, like a safety net against any of his plans to turn against them.

"I guess you could call us frenemies." Wu Jun said with a grin.