Andrew nodded indifferently and said, “Sorry to keep everyone waiting.” “It’s fine!” many of the guests quickly responded. Most of the female guests, other than Darcy and Honey, looked at Andrew with overflowing admiration. Aside from his attractive features, his identity as the direct descendant of the Tulip Royal Family alone was enough to charm the women. However, Andrew came to the banquet with a plus-one. “Sir Andrew, who might this be?” Phil asked politely. The woman might wear heavy makeup and be distinctively different from Honey’s natural allure, she was close with Andrew and it was enough for Phil to show her some respect. “A new friend whom I just met two days ago,” Andrew indifferently said and did not spare extra attention on the woman. With his status, he did not need to do anything and women would come to him automatically. The woman was just another one of his admirers who volunteered to serve him when he stayed at Geranium City. For the past two day
More people approached Andrew, flattering him and possibly trying to curry favor. Andrew’s identity was worth their time to do so. With Blossom Corporation’s resources, the smallest piece of pie from the company would be enough for them to earn a massive profit. On top of that, many of them admired the lifestyle in Paladia and wanted to emigrate there. To the wealthy, the major problem would be maintaining their assets after the emigration. It was not easy trying to become another country’s citizen. Without powerful support or a wealthy foundation, emigration would turn a wealthy man into a big fat piece of meat for locals to devour. Therefore, all of them tried to curry favors with Andrew. However, there were a lot of guests at the banquet and only a few of them got the rare chance to speak to him. Most of the guests did not even catch Andrew’s attention. All they could do was watch from afar with a jealous gaze, laughing and nodding along. Kaze and Darcy were furt
After an intensive internal struggle, Darcy bit the bullet and took a step forward. It was then Kaze held her back by her arm. Darcy looked at him, confused. Phil was also surprised. He glared at Kaze and bellowed, “Kaze Lee, what is the meaning of this?” “If he wants to meet my wife, shouldn’t he come to her instead? Is he the so-called noble of Paladia? He doesn’t even know social etiquette?” Kaze said indifferently. What? Kaze’s words shocked everyone. The live-in husband must have lost his mind. How dare he ask Andrew to go up to Darcy instead? Kaze was right because it was common social etiquette, but it depended on who he was talking to. Andrew was none other than the person in charge of Blossoms Corporation, a member of the Tulip Royal Family! Kaze was courting death! Everyone looked at him as if he was an idiot who had lost his mind. Phil regained his composure and got angrier. He stared at Darcy viciously and bellowed, “Ms. Quint, is this how your l
Blossoms Corporation had its eyes on Rove for a long time now. Starting from Kailan to Dakota, all of them were tasked to acquire Rove. When Rove had their open bid for investment, Blossoms Corporation planned extensively beforehand. They did not just invest a lot in the process, they even used their connection with the Lyfe family of Geranium. One of the Geranium Four, Sieg Lyfe, was sent to Lilyrose to take over Rove. With the influence and extensive connections of Blossoms Corporation in the world of capitalism, nothing could possibly go wrong. Rove was already seen as the Blossoms Corporation’s subsidiary at one point. However, Kaze used Astral Wealth Management to snatch Rove at the very last moment. Blossoms Corporation had never suffered such a major defeat since its founding over a hundred years ago. The loss was unacceptable to Andrew, as well as the top brass of the company. Therefore, Andrew came to Lilyrose himself to acquire Sky Ocean Corporation to mak
The others had a similar thought to Phil. Everyone thought Kaze would eventually kneel, except for two people. First, it was Honey. She remained seated on her chair and watched with a faint smile on her face. She decided to be an observer from the start and did not pick any sides. The other one would be Darcy. When she heard Andrew wanted Kaze to apologize in the most insulting way possible, she got mad. Her eyes were burning with rage. “Darcy, relax. Have a seat.” Kaze held Darcy back and calmly asked her to sit down. Darcy frowned but she sat down anyway. She did not know why Kaze could remain calm in the face of insult, but since Kaze had spoken, she believed he had a way around the situation. Phil was angrier than ever. He shouted, “Darcy Quint, what is the meaning of this? Have you forgotten about the Mountain Dew project? Tell your useless husband to kneel and apologize, or your project will never pass the inspection. All it takes is a word from me!” He was
Moreover, both Darcy and Honey had their attention on Kaze instead of Andrew. It was also unacceptable for Andrew who was secretly a playboy with the goal of conquering all beautiful women he met. “Mr. Andrew!” As the atmosphere in the hall grew tense, someone suddenly stumbled in and ran over to Andrew. Andrew turned around and was surprised to see someone he knew. “Kenneth? What happened to you?” The man was Kenneth, who had just left a while ago. His nostrils were stuffed with tissue paper, his forehead wrapped in a bandage, and he reeked of iodine, which made Andrew frown with disgust. Andrew instinctively took a step back. “Mr. Andrew, please help me!” Kenneth pointed at Kaze and bellowed angrily, “Before you arrived, that bastard beat me up because of a joke I made! “The others saw it as well! He slapped and kicked me! You can ask them if you don’t believe me! “Mr. Andrew, I am your guest and that bastard beat me up in front of everyone! It is not just dis
Upon listening to Andrew’s confirmation, everyone else in the hall widened their eyes in shock. They were from the same upper social circle, so they had heard of the Paladia Foreign Legion. The legion might not be as famous as Glowmoss Foreign Legion, but they too were powerful. In other words, Andrew’s bodyguards were veterans who had experienced war on the battlefield. There was no way Kaze could escape this. The same thought occurred in everyone’s mind at the same time. Even if Kaze could survive this, he would at least be severely crippled or comatose at the hands of the foreign legion veterans. Failing to notice the calm look on Kaze, Darcy’s heart pounded violently. She might not have seen how powerful these foreign legion veterans were but the name alone scared her. She instinctively got up from her seat and said with an apologetic look. “Sir Andrew, can we talk about this? “My husband beat Mr. Knull up with a good reason. It was Mr. Knull who started it and
The flames of fury burned brightly in Darcy’s eyes as she looked at the share transfer document. She did not blame Kaze for acting recklessly, which put her in a difficult situation. Previously, Cosmo did the same and used guns to force her to surrender the company. Now, Andrew organized this so-called banquet to lure Kaze and Darcy into a trap, ultimately forcing her to surrender the company as well. Every single one of them was after Sky Ocean Corporation, which should not be a surprise at this point anymore. Even if Kaze did not beat up Kenneth, Andrew would use another way to force her into the same situation. Nothing would change. Darcy knew she had to face difficulties the moment she agreed to attend the banquet. Andrew and Phil could always come up with another excuse to force her. Therefore, getting mad at Kaze would not help the situation at all. She felt helpless against Blossoms Corporation. Seeing Darcy’s hesitance, Andrew scoffed, “Ms. Quint, the choi
“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