“I leave the matter in your hands, Mr. Williams.”Kaze did not spare a glance at Scott. The trash was not worth Kaze’s time. Leland immediately had the footage from the trampoline area broadcast on a public screen.Sure enough, the video showed the foreign children picking on Brenda. The five-year-old girl was heart-wrenchingly pushed around on the trampoline. Later, Brenda grabbed Danny Jr. in tears when being shoved to the ground. It was a natural reaction to hold onto something when falling. “These foreign children bullied the girl, but as parents, you have the nerve to make false accusations.” “To think you make a girl and her parents apologize and pay compensation. That’s arrogance of you especially when you are guests on our land. You should be the ones to apologize!” “Shameless!” Exasperated, the onlooking customers lashed out at Danny and the others. With surveillance footage as proof, the grim-looking foreigners could not defend themselves. Leland stared
Swallowing their beef, Danny and the others resolved to simply walk away. However, Kaze’s words rubbed them the wrong way. “Bastard! Who do you think you are? Why do we need your approval to leave?” They cocked their heads back to glare at Kaze. Danny’s wife reamed out. “We have been nice enough not to press charges, lowlife. What more do you want, you dirt—” Kaze’s chilling gaze fell on the woman’s face. She froze, her words left hanging in the air. Still, she stared Kaze down. Ignoring her, Kaze led Brenda to the front and pointed at the foreign children. “Before we go, your children should apologize to my goddaughter.” The foreigners paused at first before rage overwhelmed them. “Shit! The bastard wants our children to apologize to the girl. Did I hear that right?” “Goddamnit! There’s no way our children will apologize to lowlifes.” “The guy must be dreaming.” The group of foreigners sneered at Kaze. The foreign children demonstrated resistance too. “Dadd
“Are you going to hit me, Arcadian?” Danny did not fear Kaze. As Kaze drew close, Danny stood there with a smirk and said, “I was gracious enough to slide the matter when you slapped my wife. “Do you think you can hit me and get away with it? “You might have some money from your job as a CEO of an investment firm, but that doesn’t mean you can do whatever you please. I’ll make you regret it if you lay a hand on me.” Due to diplomatic privileges, Danny acted all high and mighty in front of Kaze. “Your words, not mine.” Kaze nodded and said without looking back, “Brenda, cover your eyes.” “Sure, Godfather!” Brenda obediently put her hands over her eyes. Kaze was quick to strike. His palm reached Danny’s face with a loud whack before the latter knew it. Danny’s sturdy build wobbled and crashed to the ground. That was not all. Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth. He opened his mouth to find blood smeared between his teeth. Danny covered his face in rag
The onlooking customers gasped at Kaze’s remark. Even the Paladian royal family meant nothing to Kaze. That was bold of him to make that statement. The group of foreigners went ballistic. However, they sprawled across the floor, groaning in pain to refute him. Fighting back the pain, Danny swallowed a mouthful of blood and asked weakly, “W-What do you want?” He had no energy left to fight Kaze. Not now, at least. Kaze lit a cigarette unhurriedly. He blew a puff on Danny’s face before speaking to all the foreigners, “I want you to apologize to my goddaughter on behalf of your children.“I’ll let you go once you apologize.” The foreigners were reluctant to follow through with Kaze’s request. They had made it clear to their children that they did not owe the girl an apology. Agreeing to Kaze’s request would be a contradiction of everything they had said.They would be too humiliated to face their children if that were to happen. “If your apology is done right th
“It’s no secret that Kaze is a moocher who took his wife’s last name. No one gives any shit about him.” Jem was from Chrysant. He only followed Hudson to Lilyrose when the latter established an investment firm in the city. Upon learning that Kaze would be the CEO of the company, Jem looked him up and held him in disdain. “Mr. Tulip, Kaze only became the CEO of my firm through his wife. He’s only a CEO by name,” Jem uttered contemptuously. “Loser or not, I’m going to kill him.” Danny looked upset. It was not a great feeling to be beaten up by a well-known loser in the city. Jem said, “An emotional blow is more anguish than a physical attack, Mr. Tulip.” “Your people sure love to beat around the bush. What are you trying to say?” Danny asked impatiently. Jem uttered, “Kaze will be reporting to work tomorrow. I can resort to some tactics to sideline him and make him transfer billions of dollars into your projects. We can take the money and leave.“The investor would go
Hudson Investment Firm only had dozens of employees. The get-together was not a huge affair. Since it was a great opportunity to learn more about the people of the company, Sophie nodded her head and said, “Please thank Mr. Tart for me. I’ll be there tonight.” “You’re too kind, Ms. Song. I’ll get out of your hair now,” the secretary said with respect. Once out of the office, the secretary let out a smirk. “I bet she slept her way to the chairman’s assistant position. Such hypocrisy.” The woman left her jealousy outside Jem’s office and reported to him that Sophie had agreed to attend the party tonight. Jem waved his arm with a sneer. “Call Lennon and Theo over.” Soon, it was 8:00 PM. Sophie showed up at a hotel near the office, the venue for Hudson Investment Firm employee’s get-together. “There you are, Ms. Song.” Jem stood outside the hotel, waiting for Sophie with a friendly smile. Sophie said, “You’re too kind, Mr. Tart. You’re a senior employee. You should
“Many of the employees aren’t locals. Our former boss was at odds with Mr. Lee before. It’s a little unsettling now that we’re getting a new boss. We don’t mean any harm. We just hope Mr. Lee will treat us all the same.” Jem added, “We’d feel uneasy if you didn’t accept the gift.” That was the true reflection of many employees’ thoughts. Jem had previously put ideas in the employees’ heads. Now all departments decided to present Sophie with a gift. At that point, Sophie could not refuse the gifts. Representatives from other departments offered gifts that were not too expensive, so Sophie accepted them without reservations. Another two male employees carried chocolate Easter eggs over. “I’m Lennon Zest, Ms. Song. That’s Theo Kunt, my colleague in the back office. This is a gift for you, from the back office.”Giggles filled the room. A female employee teased, “Lennon, Easter is over. Are you giving away the chocolate eggs stashed in the office? I supposed the leftover e
Jem said, “Hello, Mr. Lee. I am Jem Tart, the sales director of the company.” “Oh.” Kaze nodded and stepped foot into his office. “Since you’re here to welcome me, we can have a briefing here to get to know each other.” “Hang on,” Jem said. Furrowing his brows, Kaze asked without looking back, “Do you have a problem, Mr. Tart?” “Not a problem, but I thought we could sort out a little thing before the briefing.” Jem entered the office with a chuckle, stood face-to-face with Kaze, and clapped his hand. “Bring it in.” Thud! Thud! His beautiful secretary carried two boxes into the office and threw them on Kaze’s desk. As Kaze’s assistant, Sophie stood by him. She reprimanded the secretary for her rudeness. “Please show Mr. Chairman some respect, Leslie.” Leslie, Jem’s secretary, smiled offhandedly without a care. “It’s okay, Sophie.” Kaze waved his arm, not taking Leslie’s crude behavior to heart. Jem sucked up to foreigners instead of sticking up for his own ki
Kaze watched as the senior citizens took off. The place was quiet as usual, and many things in the unit were left uncollected. “Mr. Lee, does this arrangement work?” Arthur awaited Kaze’s orders. “It will do for now.” After being out for the day, Kaze had seen some stuff. Business was all about making money, but some lines should not be crossed. As long as things remained within reason, there would not be scrutiny or blame. It was astounding the lengths Jet would go to. “The area will be demolished after a while. I want all of the Frosts’ projects on hold. Don’t approve any of them.” One word from Kaze could shake the very foundation of the Frosts’ business. “Alright. My team is on it. “But the Frosts will ask questions and find out who is behind this.” Arthur looked at Kaze worriedly. “They can’t find anything.” No one would know who Kaze was without his permission. It probably never crossed Jet’s mind that Snow had a powerful friend. Otherwise, he woul
Kaze was confused. Surely, the authorities would not disregard human lives and demolish the place by force. “Well, we tried to relocate them, but they refused our services. If they are still not on board, they will be sent to the retirement home tonight.” That was all Pax knew. The retirement home was just another place for the senior citizens to await death. “Is there nothing else you can do? So you signed the contract without thinking about the consequences? Karma will get back at you.” Pax’s shamelessness shocked Arthur. Pax mentioned that he would put the demolition on hold. It had not been long, and now the rights to the land were handed over. “It’s out of my hands. Jet went to my superiors to seal the deal. We are not allowed to intervene. “We had been figuring out ways to reach reconciliation for these senior citizens, but Jet was determined to make them pay.” It was the best Pax could do. He was just an employee, working to make a living. He did not have a say
“I want to see the person in charge of the demolition project now.” It was not a matter of time before the area was bulldozed, but Kaze hoped to delay it. Generally, it would take a large amount of capital to launch a project. Any delay would cause massive losses. Jet had several projects that had been put on hold, and it was a heavy blow to him. If Jet could not fix things quickly enough, all his money tied to the projects would be gone. He would be forced to ditch some projects to cut his losses. “I’ll get him here right now.” Arthur went out to make phone calls. He believed Kaze did the right thing as the senior citizens had nowhere to turn to. The senior citizens could only survive with some help. “Thank you, young man. Why are you helping us?” The senior citizens were old, but they could tell that Kaze genuinely wanted them to be okay. “I don’t think it’s right to bully you.” Kaze looked at the senior citizens earnestly, feeling sorry for them. Jet lack
“We agreed on relocation because we would get a place to stay. “But these people were unreasonable. We were offered only one-third of what everyone else got.” The senior citizens were going to swallow their losses. They just needed the money to live their last days, and they did not have family, to begin with. Later, the same people had their eyes on their money and tried to put them up at an old folks’ home. The senior citizens refused to relocate and finally chose to protect themselves by contacting the media. These people sure left the senior citizens to die. Kaze was sympathetic to the senior citizens. He went back with them to a unit on the ground floor. The place was bare, with several beds placed together. The senior citizens must be sleeping in the same room. There was little to eat, only some water and dry provisions.The old residents did not have much savings. It was good enough that they had something to eat. “Have a cup of water, boy. We don’t have any
“Are you one of those people from the pier? Are you trying to get us to leave?” A grizzled-haired man looked at Kaze warily. “I was just passing by when I saw you struggling with the buckets. I came to help you.” Kaze explained patiently. He could understand why their guards were up. They must have been lied to many times before. “Are you here to help?” “Yes, I am. My companion has gone to get you some water. He’ll be back soon. There’s no need for you to fetch water,” Kaze said kindly. “We’ll pay you.” The senior citizens exchanged glances before accepting Kaze’s gesture. They could not handle the weight of the heavy buckets. “The building here is about to be demolished. Why are you still living here?” Pretending to be in the dark, Kaze asked. “This is our home. Someone is trying to take this land away.” The grizzled-haired man was upset. “What? I thought no one could demolish the building unless they had the residents’ permission.” “You’re right, but there
“Jet sure is bold to ensure business. Isn’t he afraid of shooting himself in the foot?” Kaze had never met a man like Jet. “He has done a lot to get to the top. His ruthless methods got him a lot of money. A lot of people are happy to support him.” Arthur was impressed with Jet’s tactics. However, his approach was too cruel for his liking. “Let’s head to the residential building.” Kaze just wanted to check out the area. He was happy to help when needed. The flashy, red sports car was eye-catching. However, the flamboyant car was uncommon in these places. Most workers would express their amazement, but they would not ask questions. The car pulled up outside a soon-to-be abandoned building. It looked desolate. The power lines and infrastructure were not visible either. Kaze knew that was one of the Frosts’ methods. Sometimes, nothing, not even demolition, was required. The goal was to get the residents out. All Jet needed to do was cut the water and electricity.
“Just tell me what you need, Arthur. You wouldn’t be calling unless you have received orders.” Philip was surprised to get a call from Arthur. Though they were acquainted, they had only communicated because of work. “We have just left Rising Sun. Don’t approve the films for now.” Arthur was blunt. “I can do that, but can I ask why?” Philip was caught in a dilemma because he had just promised Jet to release the films. Philip needed to know if the orders to delay came from a high power who could cover his ass. “Since you got a call from me, you should know that there are eyes on Jet. “You should know what you can and cannot say. Otherwise, you never know when you’re going to lose your job.” Arthur threatened. Philip was reluctant. He accepted Jet’s payment, and now he had to go back on his word. Nevertheless, Arthur was part of the Viper’s Den, and his status was rather unique. Arthur provided services to confidential individuals. These individuals were elites among t
A balanced, profitable dynamic had been developed among the ports in Butterworth. Jet spotted his chance in the lucrative port business. He covertly took out some money to invest in a dying port. The port was situated in a more remote area. Some businesspeople favored more accessible ports. This drove shippers away from the dying port. Jet snagged the steal and improved the logistics and facilities around the area. The port was up and running again. Business at the port was decent enough. As the Frosts would run their business through the port, the local economy took off too. It was a good thing. However, Jet set his sights on several residential buildings around the area. He needed space to accommodate containers. The land was required to make business at the port more profitable. This triggered a whole new thing. Jet could spend some money to buy the residents out of their homes. However, the residents preferred to stay put in their long-time homes. No a
“I’ll keep the bank cards for now. I’ll talk to our superiors and give you a decision. Since the man said that the cards are meant for us, they won’t be going anywhere.” Knox had no idea who Kaze was, but he knew Arthur was with the Viper’s Den. Arthur must be someone from high places. Eli soon put the little incident behind him. He got a call from Aloysius yesterday and was made aware of Jet’s plans. The films had been put on hold for far too long, and the people above Eli were anxious to get things moving. Though Eli was surprised by the review board’s visit, everything was still in his control. Eli left the matter at that without reporting the incident to the higher-ups. The flashy, red car sped along the road. Arthur kept looking back at Kaze, eager to find out about the next plan. Arthur brought Kaze out today to witness how Eli and his team operated. As it happened, Eli adopted such a shallow ploy. Arthur was not surprised, though. Eli’s methods were common.