“Just be straight with me. “I’ll help you if it means getting Kaze permanently out of the picture,” Cosmo said indifferently, brushing off Mandy’s flirting. Cosmo had been involved with too many women that he was immune to Mandy’s coyness. Cutting to the chase, Mandy said, “Kaze knows I have dirt on him, so he donated 100 million dollars to South River University to fire me. “You must help me, Mr. Cosmo. I want to make sure his wife’s cousin doesn’t get enrolled in South River University. “It’s not a big deal, but it will cause problems in the home. Heck, his wife might even divorce him.” Mandy’s voice was tainted with bitterness. Her mind was filled with nothing but getting even with Kaze. “You have a point.” Cosmo said, “You know what? Frederick Yale, a teaching faculty member at South River University is one of my people. I’ll get him to give you your job back at South River University. “Lilyrose is appealing to good schools to set up campuses there right now. My
“Oh, you’re more important to the school than the 100-million-dollar donation. “Even a billion-dollar donation doesn’t matter more than you,” Connor said uprightly while playing the whole thing off with a laugh. It did not occur to him that Mandy would seek help from the Sunrise Lees. Hence, he swallowed his pride and took the humiliation. After the call from Frederick, Connor agreed to let Mandy remain at South River University right away. The 100 million dollars was already in his bank account, and Connor had no intentions of returning the money. He had learned whatever he needed to know about Kaze. The Sunrise Lees disowned him, he took his wife’s last name, and earned a few quick bucks by chance. Connor saw no repercussions in defying him. With Connor saying good things on the other end, Mandy kept a smirk on her face. Connor no longer meant anything to her anymore. However, Mandy had no plans to cut ties with him just yet. Mandy said with a smile, “Alright. I’ll
Rose threw herself into Darcy’s arms and wailed. South River University had always been her dream school. To obtain the guaranteed admission spot at the School of Arts, Rose put in a lot of hard work. Now, she lost the right for admission. She lost it. Failed?The sudden change threw everybody off. “That’s impossible. How could you fail? I’m sure there’s some sort of mistake,” Agatha cried with an ashen look while scrolling through the name list displayed. Rose was on the list with several others, and all of them passed the observation review except for Rose. “Oh, my God. Rose is an amazing candidate. Why did they fail her?” Feeling faint, Agatha cocked her head and yelled angrily, “Are you sure everything went well, Kaze? What’s with this?” Kaze frowned and said, “South River University must have made a mistake.” Mandy was fired, so it made no sense something would go wrong. With the family getting on Kaze’s case, Darcy said, “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
“Admittedly, this individual isn’t the immediate family of the candidate, but they lived together under one roof. “We had to consider whether the living situation would have a bad influence on her well-being. “Hence, after careful consideration, we decided that the candidate isn’t a right fit for South River University.” Mandy spoke eloquently in the video. Standing in front of the screen, Darcy and the others had a bad feeling. Rose was the only one who did not pass the observation test, so Mandy was talking about Rose. Mandy said, “I’ll put on the interview tape with the family member, and you can be the judge.” Everybody held their breaths and stared intently at the screen. “Please introduce yourself.” “I am Kaze Lee, a family member of Rose Oceanid.” The camera angle cut to Kaze. “I heard that the Sunrise Lees disowned you because you committed an offense. That was when you married into the Quint family and took their last name.”“That’s right.” “Did you b
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Darcy uttered in contemplation, “Didn’t you notice Kaze admitting to all the slander Mandy made on the video? Do you think he’s that foolish?“The video was edited, right, Kaze?” Darcy refused to believe that her husband would be so foolish to admit something he did not do just for the heck of it. Kaze nodded with relief. “That’s right.” “Is there bad blood between you and Mandy?” Darcy asked. She had been curious. Kaze answered, “She made a biased article about Lil Dee, and when the public turned against him, she was fired. She hates me for it, but I didn’t even know her before the observation meeting.” For real? If that were the case, Mandy would be acting unreasonably. The family realized that they were simply unlucky. Agatha said in tears, “Even if this has nothing to do with Kaze, what are we going to do about this? Does Rose have to miss out on university?” Nelson said with a scowl, “She posted the video on the university’s
“It’s just a video, Mandy. Why does it make you so happy? “Does it change the way I live or make money?” Faced with Mandy’s taunting, Kaze responded indifferently. “Hahaha. Don’t act tough, Kaze.” Mandy scoffed. “You have no reputation to begin with, so nothing can get you down.“But your wife’s cousin doesn’t have a life anymore because of you.“South River University will never accept her, and I doubt other good schools would take her in.“I think she should spend some money to get into community college. Well, you have the money to pay for her education anyway. “Maybe I can recommend some community colleges, and you can donate a couple hundred million dollars to them too. I’ll talk to them in advance, so you won’t spend your money for nothing. Hahaha.” Mandy burst out laughing. Kaze was an idiot to get her fired by donating 100 million dollars to South River University. One phone call from Cosmo was all it took to ruin his plans. Mandy bet Kaze was dumbstruck.
These powerful entities could sway the direction of schools into Lilyrose, which gave them more bargaining power in the negotiations. Following their persuasions, the prestigious schools sent out their representatives. The representatives rushed to Lilyrose overnight. Kaze was glad to see the enthusiasm. The development of Lilyrose New City needed the influx of capital. The city council did not have the means and resources to afford the entire project. Kaze was fine with businesses outside the city to make profits so long as they played by the city’s rules. “The forum is set up at the city council hall, Mr. Lee.” Caleb reported to Kaze at the office. Kaze flipped through the file on every school. Apart from South River University, many representatives from other prestigious universities were there too. Some of the best high schools in Sunrise City sent agents to attend the forum. They came prepared too, submitting a proposal draft for the building of their campus
Hmph. Mandy believed Kaze got what he deserved for going against her. Feeling smug, Mandy chuckled. ‘Kaze, it’s not over between us. ‘This is just the beginning. ‘I’ll show the consequences of upsetting a powerful woman.’The other representatives looked over curiously as Mandy laughed to herself. Her laughter, though off-putting, could not detract from her undeniable beauty.Several male representatives with a keen interest in her kept staring and asked, “What’s funny? Care to share?” Snapping out of her thoughts, Mandy tucked wisps of her hair behind her ear and replied, “Something nice just happened.“I met a very rude and despicable family member of the candidate I was supposed to observe. “During the interaction, I noticed the bad behavior in the candidate’s family and defied her admission. “I just received word that the candidate’s family is pulling strings and bribing our staff to get into South River University.“But my colleagues rejected them. “South R
“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