“Kaze Lee, I thought you were a show-off. Come on, now that Mr. Ettinger is here, why don’t you call him a dog again?” Cole said with a smirk. He was standing in front of Collier, so he did not see the shift of expression on Collier’s face. Collier’s expression turned bitter. Kaze glanced at him and then smiled. “Collier, why don’t you bark for him?” His words stunned everyone again. They assumed he continued to court death with his words. Pft! Cole burst out in laughter. He called Kaze a stupid idiot inwardly. He provoked Kaze to disrespect Collier and Kaze fell for it. Kaze did not only do as told, but he did it worse than before. He was practically digging his own grave. “Mr. Ettinger, you hear that? Kaze Lee called you a dog and wanted you to bark in front of us. He disrespected you and the Viper’s Den South River Branch! “If I were you, I would break his arms and make him bark like a dog!” Cole then turned around to Collier with a smirk as he tried to fan t
Collier put his bandaged hands in front of his chest and barked like a dog, looking ridiculous. Everyone else was stunned by the scene yet once again. One word from Kaze and the eldest son of the Ettingers, a prominent figure of the Viper’s Den South River Branch, knelt and barked like a dog! What happened? Everyone’s mind went blank. No one understood what happened. Kaze said, “Kneel straight.” Woof! Woof! Seeing Kaze roll up his sleeve, Collier moved forward on his knee and straightened his back to extend his face for Kaze. Slap! Kaze slapped Collier in the face. The powerful momentum turned his face to the left. “I told you and Hannah to settle Josiah Dubb and you came here to crush me?” Collier was in so much pain. He gasped but he dared not argue. Slap! Kaze slapped his face back to the right. “Did you think I let you live so that you can continue to act like a bully?” Collier clenched his teeth tightly and dared not make a noise. Slap! Kaze slapp
Everyone knew how arrogant Collier was in the underworld of Riverbank. In fact, he could even disregard the government officials, let alone the young masters or gangsters from another city. After all, with the Viper’s Den behind his back, no one dared to disrespect him. Yet one word from Kaze turned the man into the most loyal dog. Ridiculous. Cole did not expect Collier to demand him to apologize. He flushed red and argued, “Collier, this stupid idiot is just a live-in husband who got kicked out. He came to Riverbank to be a freeloader, why should I kneel before him…” Bang! Before Cole could finish, Collier jumped up and landed another kick on his stomach. Bang! Thump! Thud! Collier kicked Cole furiously, causing the arrogant young man to cry excruciatingly. “You little piece of shit! Who gave you the balls to challenge Mr. Lee?!” Thump! “You ungrateful fuck! Mr. Lee can crush you with his pinky!” Woosh! “How dare you look down on Mr. Lee?! You ignorant stu
Cole was surprisingly tough. Even when beaten up, he refused to submit and apologize. He looked down on Kaze from the bottom of his heart. He saw Kaze as a loser who could not make it in his own city and decided to come to Riverbank to curry favors with the mayor. Making him kneel to a peasant like Kaze would be more miserable than killing him. “Cole Libra, if you want to die, be my guest!” Collier was furious. Even though Kaze spared his life and made him a lapdog, he knew he had to perform to stay alive. If he could not even deal with Cole, why would Kaze keep him as a lapdog? Under everyone’s surprised gaze, Collier grabbed a baseball bat from one of the young men. He then kicked Cole to the ground and then swung the bat at his arm. “Aaaargh!” Cole screamed excruciatingly. He held his broken arm in pain, twisting and twirling on the ground. “Collier, you fuck! I will kill you!” Collier grunted and then swung the bat down again. Cole’s other arm was broken. Th
“Kaze, are you free to talk right now? If you can wake up early tomorrow, come to my place and have breakfast.” Kaze instinctively declined the invite. “Mr. Yemen, I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to disturb you or your family in the morning.” “It’s no problem at all. You came all the way to Riverbank to visit me and gave us tens of millions worth of herbs, but we wasted them all. I feel like I have wasted your kindness. “Ryna said she wants to make it up to you as a token of apology. You can come over tomorrow morning, we are still staying in the same place. I’ll see you tomorrow.” After the call, Kaze put down his phone and shook his head helplessly. The herbs might be wasted but they seemed to work magically. …On the second morning, Kaze woke up early. This time, he went to Lock’s place without bringing Conan. Lock’s place was located in a residential area and arriving at the entrance brought back some memories for Kaze. He knew the place far too well. Man
“He can give us that much and he doesn’t have any more? Sounds a little too ridiculous.” Ryna rolled her eyes at Lock and then smiled widely at Kaze. “Am I right, Kaze? You must have more of those herbs, right? Can you give us more? You know how weak Lock has always been.” She could not sleep last night due to the frustration. In the end, she and Cyan believed that if Kaze could give them tens of millions worth of herbs in a single meeting, then he must have more of them. She refused to believe that Kaze gave everything to them on the first meeting. Therefore, after a discussion with her daughter last night, she decided to invite Kaze over for breakfast and tried to persuade him to give them more expensive herbs. If they could get the herbs and then give them to prominent figures, they could earn a lot of resources and connections. Kaze looked at the enthusiasm on Ryna’s face and finally knew why her attitude was completely different from yesterday. He said, “I’m sorry,
Lock could not expose his wife in front of Kaze because she would use his in-laws against him. His in-laws used to be government officials and served at a rather high-ranking position, which explained their strictness and temper. If they found out that he wanted to marry their favorite granddaughter to Kaze, they would turn the house upside down and probably skin him alive. “Kaze, I…” Lock looked at Kaze and had a difficult time explaining himself. Kaze gave him tens of millions worth of herbs yesterday. He just invited Kaze to his house and offered a room for him to say but then he had to ask him to leave because of his wife. It was embarrassing for him to spew the words. Kaze smiled and said, “Mr. Yemen, you don’t need to arrange anything for me. I got a place to stay yesterday.” Lock glanced at Kaze’s clothes and they were the same as yesterday. He believed Kaze was just trying to make him feel less guilty. He felt bad for his student. Little did he know that it
Cyan then said with a sigh, “What can I do? I have been going live for two months and I don’t see any growth in my account, or my followers. “People like me who only have looks and no talents must rely on follower’s gifts to be popular. “Money doesn’t grow on trees. Beautiful girls have to sleep with people only then they can get boosted by real money, but I just can’t sacrifice my body.” The girl might have the tendency to be vain but she still had a bottom line. Wesley said, “You don’t need to worry. Don’t forget that the platform that you go live on belongs to Golden Scale Corporation. I, as an insider, have discounts to spend on it. “When you go live later, I will throw in a few million worth of gifts to boost your popularity. People will flock to your live stream.” Cyan’s eyes widened brightly. She sat straight up and asked, “Really? Can you really boost me?” “Of course! It might be a little hard for me to boost you into one of the top influencers but I can guarantee
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
“Can you make him stop? If the man comes back, we’ll be done for,” someone said. The kid’s crying made everyone anxious. “What can I do? He’s crying because he’s scared. I can’t just stop him.” The mother was afraid as well, and she did not want her son to be taken advantage of. “Calm down. Just don’t alert the men and we’ll be fine,” Miguel said, hoping to ease the situation. “I’ll fight him if he comes in. I believe I can make it,” someone said. Those with an impulsive nature grew restless from being kept on the bus for too long, feeling like livestock being kept in cages. “Shut it. They are coming,” Barney said after a glance outside the window. The other passengers fell silent, sat back down, lowered their heads, and tried their best not to look out the window. The mother quickly hugged her son and covered his mouth to prevent him from crying. Kaze felt peace and quiet once more, even the air felt smoother. He knew the passengers were merely ordinary people and
Unfortunately, Leah knew she would not get an answer out of Snow since she was refusing to help. Everything seemed to have changed following her mother’s disappearance. She tried to stay for answers but when security came in, she could not resist them anymore. It was the first time she was escorted out by security guards and it impacted her. She used to be the daughter of the CEO of Northborn Group—everyone respected her. She used to enjoy a privileged status. No matter where she went, she was the star of the event. Yet when her mother disappeared, everything changed. She wanted to look for Kaze but she had just lost the chance. Snow turned her down and gazed at her with contempt and irritation. Leah could not accept the changes but some things felt like they were destined to change. She was forced to leave the branch office but then had no idea where else to go. She felt abandoned by the world. Before this, she could still hope for Kaze’s help, but now she had no
Leah went to her mother’s company but did not find her anywhere. Joey was busy working in the CEO’s office. Leah went over and asked, “Joey, where’s my mother? I can’t reach her.” She wanted to know what happened to her mother. “I don’t know about your mother either. We went out together earlier in the day but I don’t know where she went. I can’t get in touch with her.” Joey was so busy that she could not even free herself from the desk to explain to the girl. “Where did she go? How am I supposed to find her?” Leah panicked. If even Joey did not know where her mother went, then something must have happened. A bad feeling rose from her heart. Things just got serious. “I don’t know. Why don’t you ask someone else?” Joey did not have time to deal with the girl. Leah was unfamiliar with Joey’s coldness. Joey had always treated her with kindness and flattery, so the sudden coldness caught her off guard. She felt like something had changed. “Who should I be looking f
“No! My daughter is still in the hospital!” Katie refused to accept her punishment. She started to regret her decision but it was too late. “Now only you think about your daughter? I guess you are not that foolish, but have you thought about her when you betrayed Chairman Lee? “Don’t worry. Leah knew Chairman Lee personally and we won’t hurt her, but she might not live a good life anymore,” Snow said coldly. She did not want to put the girl in a difficult situation but her life as a princess would come to an end. “You can’t do that!” Katie could not believe Snow would do that. “I bet you never thought of the consequences when you leaked the information. Too bad. You’ve lost.” Snow revealed the truth because she wanted Katie to suffer for the decision she made. Katie would now regret every decision she made because she knew she had jeopardized her daughter’s life. She would feel like a fool. She devoted her life to climbing higher to gain more power but she ignored the
“I went to a bar to have a drink and I bumped into an informant of the Viper’s Den.” Katie looked helpless as she explained as if everything that had happened was planned out for her, pushing her to the edge step by step. It was a lively night at the bar. The atmosphere was pleasant and most of the guests were having a good time. Katie was a single woman. She needed care and love at times. She was alone when she visited the bar. She started off by ordering some drinks at the counter, waiting for a chance to meet a man who shared the same ideals. A drink or two later, maybe she could get herself a company for the night. As a grown-up woman, she had her desires. It was a way to release her stress. Katie entered the bar in a casual outfit but it did not diminish her elegant demeanor. When she sat down at the counter, a few young men approached her but she was not interested in immature boys. She continued drinking. She looked at the dance floor occasionally, searching for a
“Who do you think will believe you?” Arthur frowned. There were too many coincidences that it felt like a giant setup. “I’ve explained what I need to. Don’t interrogate me like I’m a criminal. I am the CEO of the Northborn Group.” Katie left them speechless. She had said the necessary and it was up to them whether they wanted to believe it or not. They did not have the evidence to charge her anyway. “You really think we can’t hold you responsible?” Snow was not really looking for a definite answer. The moment she suspected Katie, whether or not she was truly the traitor, Snow already had the right to hold her accountable. It was necessary to make things clear and it was to find out who Katie leaked Kaze’s information to. “It has come down to this. No matter how you deny it, it’s useless. We already know what you have done and you can’t escape. Even if you don’t want to confess, we can continue the investigation, and we’ll eventually find out the truth. “If you come clean