If Porter were to send people from the Middle East to Vancouver, Canada, the flight distance alone would already be over ten thousand kilometers. He did not have a Concorde, and it would take them more than ten hours to get there at the earliest.In that case, if something were to happen to Stephanie within these ten hours, no one would be able to help her at all.So, the person who was closest to Stephanie at this time was Charlie himself.After all, if he were to fly from here, he could get to Vancouver in four hours, and he could also get there in three hours if he could rent a Gulfstream G650.Therefore, Charlie immediately decided to go to Vancouver personally! He was also worried if the person who had sent the text message was simply using this as a diversion to lure him away. In that case, his wife, Claire, would definitely be in danger if she was left alone in the United States. However, once Charlie thought of how the person who had sent the text message was by Steph
Claire saw that Charlie’s mind was already made up and so, she knew that it would be useless to persuade him. So, he said good-naturedly, “Okay, then you can take care of everything yourself!”Charlie nodded, got up, and said, “Honey, let’s pack the food to go, and you can go back to the hotel to eat first.”Claire hurriedly said, “You don’t have to worry about me. You can head to the airport directly! I’ll take a taxi back myself!”“No way!” Charlie shook his head and said, “I’m not comfortable with you going back by yourself. I’ll send you back to the hotel room, and you should not go out again either after you get back.”Claire had no choice but to nod when she saw Charlie insisting on doing so.Charlie then asked the waiter to pack the untouched food, and he drove the rented Audi A6 Touring Edition and sent Claire back to the hotel.Charlie was cautious when he sent Claire back to her room, and he instructed her, “Honey, lock the room door when you’re by yourself and don’t go
The appearances of the door on both sides of the streets of Oskiatown as well as the various signboards hanging high on both sides of the buildings were almost all written in Oskian dialect.Moreover, almost all the appearances of the people on both sides of the streets were Oskians. There were very few foreign faces here, which made people feel as if they were on the streets of Oskia. Vancouver’s Oskiatown was one of the world’s most famous Oskiatown, and it was also one of the largest Oskiatowns.In this city, the Oskians made up 21% of the entire population, which meant that one out of every five people in Vancouver was Oskian. Oskiatown was a place where the Oskian were highly concentrated, so it was normal not to see any foreigners here.The Hasting Street that Charlie was headed toward was the most prosperous and busy area of Oskiatown. When the taxi arrived on this street, the crowd was even more lively and bustling.Due to the direction of travel, the driver parked the
Charlie saw that Claudia looked like she was only about seventeen or eighteen years old, and she seemed to be Eurasian.She had blue eyes, long eyelashes, a high nose bridge, and she had brown-black hair. Her features were impeccable. However, although her features were very beautiful and her appearance was also very perfect, there was a burn scar from her right cheek all the way to her neck. The scar was very obvious, and her entire skin had been completely twisted. It was shocking and also a little gruesome.Claudia also deliberately turned sideways as she tried not to let Charlie see the scar on her right cheek. She even pulled up her collar involuntarily as she tried to block it as much as possible. Charlie looked at Claudia and said politely, “Hello, Claudia. You speak the Oskian dialect very well!”Claudia nodded slightly and said softly, “Thank you for the compliment, Mr. Wade...”Stephanie, who was aside, introduced, “Brother Charlie, this is the second employee in our
There were also many mobile food trucks in the pedestrian area on both sides of the road. Some were selling pancakes and fruits, whereas others were selling burgers. Although it was already after lunch hour, the vendors’ business was still doing very well.Charlie stopped and watched for a while, and the only feeling that he got was that life here was very comfortable and peaceful. He could not see or sense where the danger was.At this time, several young men and women who looked like they were high school students who were seventeen to eighteen years old came to the door of the convenience store together. They walked past Charlie, pushed the door open, and walked in.Charlie looked back, and he saw that the leader of the pack was an Oskian girl with long, dyed blonde hair, followed by a very trendy and flamboyant-looking Oskian boy. The both of them were walking arm-in-arm like a couple.There were also two girls dressed in colorful clothing behind this couple, and one of them
When faced with the girl’s provocation, Stephanie simply said indifferently, “I’m warning you, if you don’t leave my store right now, I will call the police!” “Call the police?” The girl said, “You can go ahead and call the police. Do you believe that if I make a phone call to my father right after you call the police, I could just ask him to buy this entire row of storefronts so that you can pack up and leave tomorrow?”Stephanie asked in a cold voice, “Why? So what if you’re rich? I’ve rented this shop for five years, so you can evict me as long as you pay me the money that I’ve invested in the store and compensate me for the breach of contract for the rental. I can always switch to another location, but that depends on whether you can afford to pay me or not.”The girl spoke disdainfully, “Sister, I can see that you’re not young, but you are truly naive! Do you believe that there will be ten thousand ways for me to make sure that you will not be able to open your store so that a
Claudia was a little alarmed at this point, and she subconsciously took a few steps backward. At the same time, she clenched her fists even tighter.She knew very well in her heart that Gigi was in no way joking with her.This girl looked harmless, but in truth, she was an extremely vicious person.She had been bullying their Oskian classmates who were studying here alone, and she had been engaging in school bullying at school.The number of students who had been bullied by her at school could not be counted with the fingers on both hands. She also came from a family with a strong background and so, many things could be set up for her. Therefore, the general public really could not afford to mess with her.At this time, Stephanie suddenly did not hesitate to stand in front of Claudia to block her, and she then looked at Charlie, who had been silent all along, with a pleading look on her face. She did not understand why Charlie, who had always been cynical about evil people, was
As soon as Charlie’s words fell, Gigi felt extremely offended, and she cursed furiously, “You f*cking said that my mouth stinks?! Do you believe that I will call someone to come over and tear your mouth apart?!”Gigi was angry, but she never would have dreamt that her boyfriend, who had always obeyed all of her orders, would suddenly turn around and stare at her with gritted teeth as he said coldly, “Your mouth stinks!”“F*ck!” Gigi’s eyes widened in shock as she cursed, “Hagrid Lynchson, what the f*ck are you saying about me?!”Hagrid yelled out loud, “I said that your f*cking mouth stinks!”After that, Hagrid rushed forward immediately, grabbed Gigi’s collar, and swung his right hand hard toward her face as he slapped her hard. This made everyone at the scene aside from Charlie look dumbfounded. This was especially so for Claudia and Gigi’s two followers. They used to be classmates, and all of them knew very well how humble Hagrid was in front of Gigi.As long as Gigi was
Pausing, Charlie then said, "I'll call Steve to drop by later too. I'm sure folks in Aurous Hill won't know him, but your potential troublemaker might.""I-Is that really fine?" Yolden blurted."What's not fine about it?" Charlie chuckled. "He has been treated like a tool ever since he came to Aurous Hill, and now that he has a chance to strut about, he wouldn't ask for more."Yolden appeared slightly relieved at that, and Charlie asked, "By the way, where's Paul, Matilda, and Autumn?""Getting their makeup done," Yolden replied. "Paul's my best man while Autumn's the maid of honor.""Good," Charlie nodded with a grin. "Don't worry—the wedding's going to be a success."As they spoke, Matilda stepped out of the dressing room in a stark-white wedding dress, flanked by Autumn and Paul.Seeing Charlie, Autumn nodded politely, "Good morning, Mr. Wade."As Charlie nodded in turn, Paul started, "G-Good morning… Mr. Wade…"Seeing that he was nervous and tentative, Charlie knew that he
As Yolden and Matilda were remarrying after living abroad for years, the wedding ceremony was much simpler, skipping Oskian customs and having a simple wedding reception for their guests at the hotel hall.There weren't that many guests either—aside from their children and close friends, only a handful of Yolden's colleagues at Aurous Hill University were invited.As the celebrant, Charlie didn't have much to do and was mainly the emcee.He brought along his jacket as he headed out to Shangri-La, not wearing it immediately so that Claire wouldn't guess that he was attending Matilda's wedding.Arriving at the Hanging Gardens before the guests were supposed to arrive, he found Yolden working with the staff to finalize the preparations.Seeing Charlie, Yolden approached him and said, "Thanks for coming this early, Charlie."Noticing that he was a little tired, Charlie asked in concern, "Had a bad night?"Yolden nodded, sighing, "Paul's uncle caused a huge mess. Both Matilda and I a
Tarlon nodded. "How do you suggest we find them?"Fleur scowled. "There's no rush. There are things which I'm still confused about, so just keep a close eye on the Ackers and the Wades for the time being. Report to me right away if anything important comes up—don't afford our enemies any opportunities to exploit.""Yes, milady!" -The next day, more news outlets were covering the joint project between the Ackers and the Wades as word continued to spread.However, neither family revealed too many details, be it the name of the company, who was the CEO, or the scale of their business.While the public was dying with curiosity, nothing else was known.Still, Aurous Hill's officials were especially interested, with the town hall visiting the Ackers the next day and showing utmost sincerity by leasing a whopping 2-million-square-meter land along the southern highway. Still, the condition was for the Ackers to come true on their promise to propel the city's economy to 15 billion US d
Fleur had repeatedly mentioned the conspiracy theory of Ashley using a body double over the last twenty years.Tarlon had investigated from many different angles, but everything from the gender, age, dental records, to body figure pointed to the fact that the deceased was Ashley Acker.And yet, Fleur had never bought it, insisting that Curtis was prepared for them just because Curtis' son had gone missing soon after.There was no way Curtis would save his son but not his wife, and the disfigured corpse only added fuel to Fleur's suspicion.Thus, over the last twenty years, Fleur had kept a close eye on the Ackers, arranging for two 'scholars' to be embedded amongst their ranks as sleeper agents. She went that far all to determine if Ashley was dead or had faked her death.However, the scholars had since been killed in action, and they had no spies within the Ackers left.As for Tarlon, he still doubted Fleur's theory even now, but he remained respectful as he spoke, "Milady, I mu
Meanwhile, on the edge of the South Pole, Tarlon Griffin rushed outside of Fleur Griffin's room, knocking the door gingerly as he announced, "I have news, my lady!"Fleur didn't respond, but the thick wooden door between them slowly opened as if pushed by an invisible force.Tarlon entered to find Fleur seated on the floor with her legs crossed at the ankles. Her eyes remained closed as she molded her Reiki, asking, "What is it?"Tarlon quickly answered, "News from Oskia. The Ackers are partnering with the Wades on a joint venture into electric-powered vehicles."Fleur slowly opened her eyes, asking quietly, "And you're telling me because?"Tarlon quickly explained, "It just came out of the blue, so I thought I should report it to you right away."Fleur sighed. "After I tried and failed to wipe out the Ackers so many times, they wouldn't dare set foot stateside. If anything, they must have decided to seek asylum in Oskia by offering a substantial investment, and it's a base whe
Silent for a while, Matilda then asked Yolden, "Do you think I can do it?""Yes!" Yolden nodded without hesitation. "You definitely won't have any problems!"Matilda sighed, shaking her head. "We traveled far abroad to study while we were young, but we didn't return to Oskia to help the country's development. It's been thirty years since, and now that we have returned to the country at the same time, I definitely wouldn't turn down such an opportunity to help."Pausing, she then said, "That said, major corporations make it a point to not hire family members. Forget spouses—employees aren't allowed to date, and one of the two will be asked to resign if necessary."Don't you think it's inappropriate since we are legally married, having gotten our certificate and all? And if we set these precedents, we would have trouble asking other employees to follow that policy. You are going to be a CEO, so you need a very clear answer on this issue."Yolden shrugged. "In the first place, that p
Yolden nodded slightly. "He does.""My gosh…" Matilda murmured. "That's too much… Ashley's son? A member of the Acker family and the Wades?!"Pausing, she then asked in confusion, "Wait, if Charlie has so much power and influence, why would he permanently reside in Aurous Hill… No, why would he be content as Jacob Wilson's son-in-law? Does Jacob know who he really is?""Definitely not," Yolden shook his head. "There were some compelling circumstances, and his identity is a sensitive one. That's why I'm asking you to tell no one except Paul—and even then, you should only tell him if he can keep the secret."Matilda was sharp enough to pick up on the reasoning, too. "Charlie's hiding because of his parents' accident, isn't he?""Yes," Yolden sighed. "He has his plans, but I didn't pry since I can only do that much, let alone help him on that.""Got it," Matilda nodded repeatedly. "Don't worry. My lips are sealed… And you just said you're resigning? Are you going to help with this e
"That would be Ashley Layna Acker," Matilda replied without hesitation. "She was our age, as well as a major investor in Silicon Valley, while we were only starting to get our first clients. It's no exaggeration to say that she's the shining example in many case studies when it comes to business."Pausing, she then continued, "And she used to be your classmate, right? I remember you mentioning that in our conversations before.""Yes," Yolden sighed emotionally. "She was a classmate and the star of our generation."Matilda nodded but soon shook her head, "Wait, weren't we talking about Charlie's car company? What does that have to do with Ashley Acker?" "Here's where I let you in on a secret," Yolden said. "But first, you have to promise me that you won't tell anyone except Paul."Matilda nodded without hesitation. "Don't worry—if it's a secret, I won't tell Paul either."Yolden scratched his head. "Actually, Paul should know. We are going to marry soon, and he's my stepson, lega
In fact, the legal department of major enterprises covered many responsibilities, the chief of which concerned intellectual property, which was why veterans were needed to lead.Additionally, Charlie trusted Matilda's accomplishments in the legal field, especially since she had worked in the United States for years.With Curtis Autos' intended expansion worldwide, that meant the legal department should also know the laws of countries abroad, ready to file or respond to lawsuits at any time. After all, competitors may use the law to impede their growth, along with the government applying unfair policies to impede their development and impact on local businesses.Moreover, Charlie considered Paul young and therefore lacking in experience, not to mention that it was not likely he would abandon his family's law firm. As such, the ideal solution was to poach Matilda for now.As for Matilda, she was still in the dark and had no idea what she was in for, asking Charlie in confusion, "Lega