As soon as he whistled, the door flung open, and five henchmen came running into the hall. Four of the men were carrying a long black box. Each man holding each end of the black box.
The fifth man was leading the way. He was making sure that there was no obstruction as the other four ventured through the aisle.
The leader of the henchmen walked straight to Baron and Wirtz. He bowed to them, and the four took suit.
"Why are you stopping here? Move along." Wirtz snapped at the men.
The men quickly picked up themselves and headed straight to the patriarch.
"I'll leave my son to do the honor of presenting this gift to you, father." Wirtz said with a full smile, placing his palm on his chest as he bowed. Then he took his seat.
All eyes were on Baron and the five men. There were murmurs flying around.
"His family loves to make a big show. What the hell." The son of the caregiver grunted as he watched.
His wife, a young petite lady, held his hand to help calm his nerves. He took a glance at her, then spared a soft smile.
All attention was restored on Baron and the five men. The men finally arrived at the feet of Chairman Hullevard, the patriarch.
"Grandfather. Allow me to present this gift to you." Baron dropped on his knees at the feet of the old man.
"What could be in that box?"
"I'm not sure what to expect either."
"Simply looking at the glittering box, as though it was coated in diamond, the content must be very valuable."
"I bet so, too. Remember that last year, it was the Wirtz family that won the favor of Grandfather. Was that not how to got to be the face of company throughout the year?!"
"At first, I thought that things might change eventually, but seeing the grand entrance Baron is giving this gift,I'm sure that they'll keep the title of being the face of the company. Perhaps Elaine's time would come next year."
Two distant relatives who had come for the party were arguing about the situation, too. But they kept quiet as soon as Baron turned to the box.
"If you will allow me." Baron asked the old man for the hundredth time.
"What the hell is wrong with him? Didn't he ask the same question just now?" Distant relative one argued.
"It's not that deep. The old man must nod first before anyone does anything. That must be what Baron is waiting for." Distant relative two answered.
As soon as Baron got the nod of the old man, he bent towards the box. The henchmen wanted to unveil the content, but he stopped them, claiming that he would be the one to do it!
He slowly opened the content, killing the rest of the family members with curiosity.
When he opened it eventually, and the people took a peek of it, they all gasped. They gasped at the beautiful and ethereal sight of the wonderful present.
"Isn't that a Guqin???" The first distant relative screamed it.
Baron could have shot a glare in the direction of the woman if it was a spoiler alert. Instead, he looked really pleased by her reaction.
The fact that she yelled the name of the present out loud for everyone to hear meant that today was going to be a wonderful day for his family.
"Like my fifth aunt said, this is really a Guqin." Baron announced as he presented the gift to the old man.
Across his both arms rested a zither-like musical instrument that had seven strings. There were beautiful letters carved onto the surface of the flat baseboard. The texts were beautifully scattered around the board to create a unique word.
"Isn't that your name on the Guqin, honey?" The caregiver jumped up on her feet and hurried to the instrument.
"Yes, It is. This gift took at least three years to get it ready and another five months to carve all the letters. But this is nothing compared to the wonderful things that you deserve, grandfather. We really wish that we could turn the world upside down just to please you. Even if we did that, it wouldn't be enough to appreciate everything you've given for the name of his family." Baron bowed as he presented the gift directly to the old man.
There was a soft smile curling up the wrinkled face of the old man. He looked quite pleased by the gift he had just received.
"Where is he?" A random voice called out of nowhere.
All eyes suddenly moved in the direction of the voice. Who had just spoken? It was none other than the young man. The son of the caregiver.
"Where is who, Archie?!" Baron snapped at the young man.
"Forgive me, grandpa." Archie bowed to the old man, then turned to Baron almost immediately. "But I mean, if you got grandpa a musical instrument. Shouldn't you get him someone who would play it for him?" Archie kept a straight face, but sarcasm was dominating.
"Oh, wait! You didn't mean to say that grandpa, in his wisdom and old age, would play this? Are you cruel? Do you want to break his back? Or do you want to enslave my mother? To play that instrument every day?!" Archie yelled at Baron.
This argument supplanted by Baron has divided the families into two. There were some who saw sense in what he had said, and there were some who actually didn't support either side.
"This son of a swine!" Wirtz was fuming as he jumped on his feet.
But before he could get the chance to make a show, there was an interruption,
"The fact that you're slow, Archie. Does not mean that everyone else is." Baron said out of the blue.
"Huh?" Archie gasped. He could never have expected Baron to say something like that.
When he dished out his own blow, perhaps he thought Baron would not be able to pull a comeback.
"Of course, a provision has been made. Do you really think everyone is as senseless as you are?" Baron didn't hold back as he lashed out at Archie.
"Are you sure you're not only running your mouth?" Archie scoffed. "Trying to sound tough in order to save face?"
"That piece of -" Baron was gritting his teeth.
"You shouldn't be the only one who knows the provision. He's our grandfather, and we all love and care about him. Tell us! Tell us now what the provision is!!" Archie yelled again.
Baron was about to go crazy when,
"Silly." The hoarse voice of the old man came, followed by a cough.
As soon as the old man spoke, everywhere was dead silent. It would seem as though it was a cemetery.