"Well, my parents Hou Jang and Du Anling, met when my father attended a meeting at the Lu household, with Lu Jinhu's grandfather. My mother was the daughter of the family's housekeeper, and Lu Jinhu's parents has become engaged. His father bullied and hara.s.sed my mother. My father saw what was happening and stepped in to prevent her being a.s.saulted. What they tell me is when my father turned around ad saw my mother, it was love at first sight for both of them. The meeting, apparently ended badly, but before he left my father gave my mother a contact number for him to use at any time. She called him three days later when apparently Lu Jinhu's father broke into the room that my mother shared with her mother. My grandmother was undertaking work in the household, and Lu Jinhu's father s.e.xually a.s.saulted my mother. This was something apparently, he had done to other women in the household, but his father always believed that he was innocent of any charges against him. Both my mother and grandmother believe if my grandmother had not walked in my mother would have been raped. My grandmother therefore helped her daughter escape the house for her safety, only after my mother extracted a promise that when she came for her, she would leave. As soon as my mother got to safety, and to a telephone she called the number my father left her. He collected her within an hour and took her to his parents' home."

Hou Yi took a deep breath and then continued "They were married within days and got my grandmother out of the Lu house soon after that. My mother's escape and marriage started the ongoing animosity between our families. I was born 10 months after my parents got married. Despite attempts they never had any more children."

"I was educated here for my primary and secondary education before being sent to the United Kingdom to obtain by Bachelor's degree in economics and business. After that the plan was I would complete an MBA. My father wanted me to do this in the UK, my grandfather at an Ivy League University in the US. I opted for Melbourne University, as Australia and the AsiPacific was were Hou Enterprises was expanding and growing, and I felt that this would be a better benefit for the company. I achieved my MBA when I was 23 and returned home."

"For about 12 months I worked under my father and was then appointed as a co-CEO's with my father for another. My father retired when I was 25 but remains a non-executive director of the company. My grandfather is the company chairman and will be so until he dies or hands it over to my father."

"Business wise, since becoming the sole CEO, the average profit growth has been eight percent each year for the last four years. My close family is my parents, paternal grandparents and my paternal uncle's widow. My maternal grandmother died three years ago. My grandfather had two younger siblings who have died, and they had children and grandchildren. I am not really close to any of them. There is also more distant relatives. Friend wise, we can simply say that I have told you that I have a couple here and some from my study, but have not really spoken to you about them, or about you to them."

He took another deep breath. "That is my basic information I know my family will expect you know, along with the threat to hand the company over to the Lu's if I was not married by today and presented them with my bride tonight, they will also expect you know about my romantic history. I have only had three serious girlfriends, but I have had other s.e.xual partners. Any partner who came into this apartment, never came into this suite, as this was always designated to be my bride's room only."

"My first girlfriend was from my undergraduate days, Jane. We lasted eighteen months, and on the day I was going to propose to her, I found out that she had been using me. I thought she knew nothing about my family's wealth, but she knew and targeted me, with the plan to get me to marry her and soon afterwards divorce me with a huge settlement for marry the man who she really loved. On the date that night, I dumped her, telling her I had no feelings for her while my heart was breaking."

"The second was Mary, who was studying for an MBA with me. We met in our first cla.s.s, with the activity for us to tell the cla.s.s about why we were studying for our MBA. As we had to disclose this on our application, we could not lie. We simply drifted apart, however she remains one of my close friends and is married to another Steve Kent. Steve knows about our history and has no issues with it. In fact I am G.o.dfather to their three children, and they trust me enough that they have asked me to be the children's guardian should anything happen to both of them."

"The final relations.h.i.+p ended 18 months ago and was about 12 months long. It is the most hurtful of the three, as while Jane was simply a gold digger, this woman had designs on the company for her lover, the CEO of a company in City A where she lived. As we simply made time when our busy schedules allowed it did not worry me if there was a couple of weeks between us seeing each other. When my plane had unexpected trouble and had to make a stopover in City A, I decided to unexpectedly drop in on her, and what I walked in on, the less said the better. I dumped her there and then and told her lover what he could do with the proposed deal."

"As I have said there have been other s.e.xual relations.h.i.+ps, but nothing long term nor serious. If there were ever here, they were in one of the guest rooms, none have set foot in here, as this room was always designated for my bride alone. As I have told you Yang Lin was the daughter of family friends, and when we were talking at that time, she agreed that if I found no one to marry before the deadline that she would marry me, however you know where that ended up. Yes, she visited the apartment a few times, but we never had a s.e.xual relations.h.i.+p, nor was she allowed into any of the bedrooms."