“If you think South Hill Holdings don’t have enough means to sort out your problems, Peony Funds have you covered, Kaze,” a partner of Peony Funds said. With Dakota’s face falling, the investor said with a smile, “Don’t be mad, Dakota. We can’t fight with Red Mount Capital, Green Source Foundation, and Yellow Stream Capital. “Instead of letting these firms secure a partnership with Rove, we might as well band together and give Jeremy and the others a run for their money. “The profits will be shared, but so are the risks.” The tension in Dakota’s face eased. The investor from Peony Funds had a point. “You’re right. We can form a coalition.” “Count us in.” “That’s right.” The other investors expressed interest in allying. Red Mount Capital, Green Source Foundation, and Yellow Stream Capital had been dominating the scene for far too long. The other investors had longed for a chance to join up to compete against the big names. Dakota replied with a grin, “Alright. We wi
The partner of Peony Funds was not done talking. He held nothing back. “But Rove’s Mr. Lyfe made you the decision maker of Rove’s operating strategy, so we had to come to you. “You are in over your head to think you can hike up the price and manipulate us.“We might not hold absolute power in the financial market, but we have seen it all.” The other investors nodded in agreement. They did not think highly of Kaze when they found out who he was. Their impression of Kaze only went from bad to worse when they arrived on the scene of a dispute between Kaze and Tank at the supercar club. If they had not stepped in to intervene, Tank would have gotten his way with Kaze. Kaze even trashed the cars of the club members and refused to cough the money up. As the investors were there for Kaze, he made the club members sign a disclaimer. Kaze was nothing more than a hooligan. Anyway, these investors looked down on Kaze. He was just a moocher who lucked out. Kaze would never
Who could be so bold as to reprimand Dakota without mercy? The crowd turned to the source of the voice. A woman led a suited group into the club. Looking straight ahead, the woman approached and said in a cold voice, “Mr. Lee has always been with Hudson Investment Firm. When was he ever sacked? “You can be considered a known investor. Can’t you make up a better rumor? You are just making yourself look like a fool.” “Who are you calling a fool?” Dakota asked, his face grimacing. He was a big name in the industry. Yet, a young lady told him off in front of his peers. Dakota would not allow himself to be insulted. “Well, you just confirmed that yourself,” the woman responded. Leaving Dakota fuming, the woman proceeded ahead with the suited group in tow. The group of people lined up in two rows before Kaze. With the woman taking the lead, they nodded at Kaze. “I am Jennifer Barwise, the deputy manager of Hudson Investment Firm. On behalf of all the employees, we pl
In fact, Jennifer was shocked and excited the moment Rove went viral online. She could not believe Kaze actually generated buzz for Rove. Since Kaze worked at Hudson Investment Firm, he would surely want the investment in Rove to stay within the business. With the right execution, Hudson Investment Firm would be a top dog in the investment scene. However, she could not bring herself to beg for Kaze’s return. When the news about dozens of investors seeking Kaze reached her ears, Jennifer became restless and took the senior executives along to meet with Kaze. Kaze smiled pretentiously and teased, “So you are admitting you had a lapse of judgment and that Rove has potential?” “Yes, I was wrong. It proves you have a good eye.” Jennifer nodded. Kaze asked with a smile, “Was I making a huge mistake by proposing Hudson Investment Firm to invest in Rove?” Jennifer kicked herself. Had Hudson Investment Firm invested in Rove and saved the business from the brink of bankru
“You are turning out to be quite the guy, honey. The major firms are seeking to make you a partner.” As the car left Taurus Automobiles, Darcy sat in the front passenger seat excitedly. “I have always been quite the guy.” Kaze leaned toward her seat with a smile. “Do you want to know more? Kiss me, and I’ll tell you.” It was a great feeling to be admired by the love of his life. “Hey! Keep your eyes on the road.” Darcy pretended to be angry and pounded him in a light-hearted manner. Once they traveled at low velocity with fewer cars around, Darcy drew close to peck him on the cheek. “That’s a peck, not a kiss.” Kaze was not having it. Darcy rolled her eyes and replied, “Back to the subject of the matter, are you seriously not returning to Hudson Investment Firm? “Miru sent me a text, saying that you must stay in Hudson Investment Firm. Rove should make Hudson a shareholder.” To think the instruction came straight from Miru. Back then, Miru gave Kaze a job at H
“Get Miru to tend to us? That’s a great idea. I heard she’s one of the four most beautiful ladies in Lilyrose.” “It’s hard to split four gorgeous women between us three.” The two men with buzz cuts on each side laughed. “How dare you insult Ms. Scarlet!” Furious, Callum approached to apprehend them. “Die!” The man with a buzz cut lifted his leg for a kick. “Pow!” Struck, Callum spat blood and crashed to the ground. “Notify Ms. Scarlet. We have trouble in the lobby!” The employees of Lefteria Group shrieked in fright and pulled out their phones to alert the authorities. The hired muscles on the first floor rushed to the scene and started fighting without hesitation. “Here comes another group who is about to die.” Though outnumbered, the three men showed no fear and charged toward the crowd. “Wham!” “Argh!” Anguished cries echoed across the lobby as the fight ensued. When Miru caught wind and rushed over with backup, her men had fallen. “These three un
“Our boss sent me to give you a message, Mr. Lyfe. “Rove must only accept funding from Astral Wealth Management,” Charlotte said with a harsh tone.Hart snapped back. “Even Red Mount Capital isn’t demanding like you. I’ve never heard of Astral Wealth Management.” “That’s okay. Now you know.” Charlotte said condescendingly, “The heir of the great Glitter family, Astral Glitter built Astral Wealth Management from the ground up. “Mr. Glitter has been planning to conquer the financial market, and he needs a classic case to put Astral Wealth Management in the forefront. “It’s your honor that Mr. Glitter picked Rove.” Charlotte dumped a pile of papers on Hart. “This is Astral Wealth Management’s financing plan for Rove. You can read all about it, Mr. Lyfe.” Hart flipped through the financing plan before hurling the document to the ground in rage. “Is this even financing? This is daylight robbery. “The Glitters and Astral have no decency.” Unfazed, Charlotte said callousl
“Will that work, Mr. Glitter?” Charlotte said cautiously, “Kaze is a well-known dummy. He assaulted Mr. Gebach from the South River Group in public. “He will likely ignore your request to beg for mercy. “Maybe we should make him do it. We could get Tobias and his crew to summon his wife. “Mr. Leigh ordered for his wife’s indecent pictures to be scattered from a chopper, but his photos somehow were dumped instead. We could try that again,” Charlotte suggested wickedly. The mind of humans was a mystery. There was no feud between Charlotte and Darcy. Heck, they never even met before. Yet, Charlotte was jealous of Darcy from the moment she saw the latter’s picture. Astral said with a smile, “You have learned nothing despite working for me for a long time, Charlotte. “I sent the three titans to Lefteria Group and you to Hart, as well as put the word out, not to go after Kaze. He doesn’t deserve my attention. “I want the whole world to know that I’ve arrived in Lilyrose w
“How dare those men hijack the plane and take Kaze. They must be punished…” Despite her grumbles, Snow grew anxious. “Given Mr. Lee’s capabilities, he won’t be hurt.” The agents around her tried to comfort her. They believed she was being too nervous. “I know, but we as subordinates have failed him by allowing this to happen. We have to do our best to make up for the mistake, and not rely on Mr. Lee to get out because he can.” Snow drowned in self-blame and regretted not being able to help. It was her negligence that allowed the hijacking to happen. “But there’s nothing you can do now. It’s late. Even the hijackers need to rest. They won’t do anything yet.” “It’s because the hijackers need to rest that we have to hurry and beat them to it. That’s the only way to solve this matter!” “But we’ve searched high and low and didn’t find anything. No one knows where they have gone. Even if they transported the passengers via buses, we didn’t see any tracks.” The agents discu
Kaze breathed a sigh of relief. He quickly went over to Miguel and pressed his hands with the gun down so that it would not misfire. “Good job.” “Thanks.” Miguel curled his lips into a nervous smile. He frequently trained in the gym and mixed martial arts but had never encountered any real-life incident before, thus being inexperienced. Fortunately, his mentality was stronger than the others and allowed him to act accordingly. “I’ll be taking the gun. This is self-defense, you won’t be charged and you won’t need to take responsibility,” Kaze said. Miguel’s pale face looked relieved. “What should we do now? Are there more of them?” Miguel dared not let go of the gun, worried there might be more enemies. “I’ve counted the numbers and this guy here should be the last one.” He then took the gun from Miguel’s hands. “Really? Gosh! That was crazy! I was so terrified!” Miguel finally loosened up and let his instinct take over. His heart was pounding so fast that it
Manson came over and saw the mercenaries lying in their own puddle of blood. The gore shocked him and made him sick. He tried his best to hold back the urge to throw up as it would attract attention. “Don’t look if you can’t take it! Don’t make things worse!” “Yeah! Professor! Grow a pair of balls!” “I have never seen dead bodies like this before!” he explained with a flush of embarrassment on his face. “Can we go out now and run away?” The hostages were eager to leave as things had settled down outside. They thought the danger was over. A dead mercenary was inside the container with them and they were still horrified. Once the others found out about this, the hostages would be shot to death. “If you want to die, be my guest. The moment you step out, you’ll be shot!” Callahan said as he looked at the others scornfully. One of the hostages had already put his hand on the handle of the door and was ready to dash out, but he quickly pulled his hand back after listening
“Tsk. Hold on.” Vexed, the man clicked his tongue and then waved at his colleague. “Come here. Someone fainted. Help me get him out.” The man wanted to take the professor out of the container. Manson’s heart pounded as he listened to the man. He was afraid he might be exposed, but there was no turning back now—he had to play along. Kaze stood behind the door, calming his breath down to lower his presence. “Get back. Stay away from the door. If anyone gets close, don’t blame me for being rough,” said the man as he unlocked the container. He opened the door and saw a number of hostages still sleeping. He then looked at the professor on the floor. He went closer to nudge him but did not get a response. It seemed like the professor needed medical attention. “Come on. Help me get him out.” The other man outside the container was on edge, looking as if he would pull the trigger at the slightest movement. “Why don’t we do it?” Callahan and Miguel volunteered. “You two
“It’s freaking troublesome.” “Boss, don’t worry about it. We’ll get an update tomorrow.” “Yeah. It’s late. Get some rest.” Tiguan’s men told him to get some rest and not worry so much. A few of them were already snoring on the chair. Tiguan sighed and killed the cigarette. He then closed his eyes to get some rest, too. The container that Kaze was in fell into silence once more. No one dared to make any noise but they all looked at Kaze, hoping to find out about his plans. Kaze’s eyes remained fixed on the window and showed no intention of revealing his thoughts. Miguel and Callahan were annoyed by the other hostages. “If you people want to get out of here alive, you better cooperate or come up with your own idea. No one is responsible for saving you.”“Yeah. I don’t want you guys to turn on us after we do all the heavy lifting. It will cost us our lives and you people won’t even be grateful.” Miguel’s tone was sarcastic because he disliked how the others looked at t
Kaze read the hostages’ minds and refused to be used. He wanted to leave but not under such circumstances. “That’s not true. We just don’t have the skills for this kind of situation. You guys are stronger, of course, you should be in the front,” said the man in glasses and a suit. A hint of sharpness gleamed in his eyes. Miguel knew what the man was planning, either. “That’s some plan you have there. You are just trying to use us to escape this place and no matter what happens, you’ll win.” “That’s not it! I just want everyone to stand together and get out of this place. I’ve never thought of using anyone!” the man argued, trying to look innocent. Even a monkey knew what he was planning, yet no one dared to speak up because they would benefit from it too. “Why don’t you guys think of something? If you need our help, we’ll help,” said another middle-aged gentleman who looked more just and fair, as if he could lead the group. “Then what is your plan?” Kaze suddenly wante
The hostages were locked up in the containers. Some of them were elites in their own field while some were ordinary people with average income, yet all of them got into trouble when they boarded the plane. Most of them could not accept their fate. Yet they dared not defy or resist the mercenaries. When things started to calm down, they broke down in tears, weeping in silence as resentment consumed them. Kaze sat down at a clean corner that allowed him to look outside the window. The window was dirty but at least he could see outside. The space inside the container was filled with people sitting closely, offering comfort to one another. They were aware they were just temporarily safe in this container. No one knew what the mercenaries would do to them at the next moment. “My parents must be worried. I said I would call them when I land but now I can’t even get in touch,” Barney muttered as he sat beside Kaze. He too looked outside the window, his feelings mixed. He watc
Kaze thought of what he had overheard in the toilet. If he told the hostages about that, they would probably panic. “It’s nothing. They are just going to separate us into different rooms or containers. They said the buses would be disposed of,” he said. He did not want to reveal too much because it would cause panic. Once the hostages knew their lives were on the line, things might spiral out of control. The mercenaries could kill a few of them to make an example, and none of the hostages would dare to cause problems anymore. Kaze kept it a secret because he wanted to protect the people. “That’s it?” “Is there anything else? How many men are there? What is their plan? Who are they looking for?” “We want to know because we want to survive. This isn't our problem—we just got caught up in it.” The hostages looked at Kaze, their eyes filled with worry. They felt aggrieved because they should not be caught in such a huge problem. “I don’t know either.” No matter how m
“There’s a room there. Get in.” The mercenary pointed his gun at the mother and son, which led them to look at Kaze nervously, seemingly asking for help. “What do you want?” The mother was nervous. She clutched her son’s hand tightly, nearly making him cry, but she reacted quickly enough to cover her son’s mouth to prevent him from doing so. “All women must go into that room. You go in now,” the mercenary explained. He did not want the woman to get the wrong idea. “You people won’t hurt me, right?” the mother asked, worried that she might be ravaged. “We are not into MILF,” said the other mercenary who was escorting Kaze, indirectly assuring the mother. Kaze shot a glance at the mother and nodded at her. “They told us they were going to separate us, so there’s nothing to worry about,” he said, worried that the mother and son would not cooperate. The mother then carried her son and followed the other mercenary into the room. It was called a room but it was actually ju