When the burly man heard Vera say that she wanted to meet their master, he instantly frowned and asked coldly, “Who are you?!”Vera said indifferently, “I already told you, I’m Vera Lavor. You don’t need to ask me so many questions. I know that this place is heavily guarded, and I know that there are an unknown number of guns aiming at me from every direction. I’m just here today to pay a visit, so you only need to pass the message on, and your master will naturally come out to meet me in person.”The burly man said angrily, “Young girl, you must be crazy! Do you know who lives here?!”Vera raised her brows involuntarily but said in a calm tone, “You don’t need to waste time speaking in front of me. I just need you to pass the message on my behalf. My name, Vera Lavor, is neither poison nor a bomb, and it will not have any impact on your duty to protect him, but if you delayed business because you refused to pass the message, can you afford to bear the consequences as a mere bodygua
Only after one entered this gate could one see that the inside of this courtyard was incredibly large. The courtyard which was neatly paved with emerald stones was at least several thousand square meters.The old man led Vera all the way to his study room and then ordered everyone to leave the study room and stay about fifty meters away. Therefore, all the family members and servants retreated to the backyard. In the study room, the old man invited Vera to sit on the Lexington chair respectfully before he asked, “Miss, where did you come from? Why didn’t you inform me in advance so that I could have arranged for someone to pick you up?!”Vera said indifferently, “My journey was quite tumultuous. I set out from Northern Europe and then arrived in Murmansk in Russia by boat first. After that, I transferred to land from Murmansk and took a car and a train to Moscow before I took a flight from Moscow to Vietnam. I finally entered Oskia by land from Vietnam and then took a plane from
Ten minutes later, the old man knocked on the door and only opened the door and walked in slowly after getting Vera’s consent. He was holding a laptop in his hand, and he placed the laptop in front of Vera as he said, “Miss, I’ve already found all the information you asked me to investigate. There are a total of five hundred and forty males named ‘Charlie Wade’ in the whole country, and a total of two hundred and thirteen of them are males under the age of thirty.” After he was done speaking, he added, “All the information about Charlie Wade is here. Please take a look.” “Okay.” Vera nodded and then placed her finger on the arrow keys as she quickly browsed through every piece of information related to each Charlie Wade.Over the past few days, she had already remembered Charlie’s appearance clearly by watching the footage of the surveillance video repeatedly. Therefore, the main method of comparison at the moment was to check whether the information that she saw through the ide
As she spoke of this, Vera suddenly raised her head somewhat unwillingly and asked the old man, “Is there a possibility that his identity has been encrypted within the system?”“Encrypted?” The old man frowned and thought about it, then spoke up and said, “There are indeed cases of encryption. The relevant information for people with special identities will be encrypted, but the system itself is unable to access the encrypted content directly in order to ensure that this encrypted information will not be found out.”Vera asked him, “What is the general encryption logic?”The old man said, “As far as I know, there are two kinds of encryption logic. The first is that his identity information is completely erased from the system and his information is stored in another system that is mutually isolated. The latter will not have any connection with the network, which means that his real information only exists in the latter system and no one outside will be able to find out any clues abo
When the old man heard Vera’s question, he pursed his lips and sighed. “Miss, there is actually a very troublesome underlying logic behind this matter.” Vera said, “Tell me about it.” The old man said, “Whether it’s the first or second kind, the number of people who are hidden is not small. Some special talents, military experts, intelligence personnel, and secret service personnel have their identities encrypted. This adds up to tens of thousands of people in the country.” As the old man said this, he added, “But the trouble is that although there is a database for these two kinds of hidden people, the vast majority of people who have access to this database do not have the highest authority over this database.” “That is to say that even if I used these two methods to hide the information of these two people back then, and even if I have access to the database, I would only be able to access information related to these two people and I have no right to access information of o
So, she hurriedly told the old man, “I’ll review the information about the missing persons first. If I still can’t find anything, you should help me retrieve information about the relevant persons who have died.” The old man nodded. “No problem!” Vera looked at the laptop again and returned to the information about the first person before she began screening them one by one. Soon, a black and white photo appeared in front of her eyes, causing her eyes to widen. The boy in this black and white photo looked just about six or seven years old. The boy looked handsome, and his features and charm seemed familiar to Vera. She then looked at the boy’s information and muttered, “Charlie Wade, a native of Eastcliff, the son of Curtis Wade and Ashley Acker…” “Charlie studied in Eastcliff Second Experimental Primary School twenty-one years ago, then transferred to Aurous Hill First Primary School twenty years ago. He then disappeared, and information in his file was never updated agai
After saying that, she could not help but answer her own question, “The odds are that this should be the case!” Vera’s guess was correct. After Stephen arranged for Charlie to be placed in the orphanage, he gave Charlie a new identity. Although his new identity was still Charlie Wade, it was no longer the Charlie of the Wade family from Eastcliff. Instead, he was a boy with no parents and was adopted by Aurous Hill Welfare Institute. His household registration was placed on the collective household registration of the Aurous Hill Welfare Institute, which was the case for all children adopted by the orphanage. Therefore, he naturally had a new identification number that belonged to Aurous Hill. This way, neither the Wade nor the Acker families would be able to find him anymore, and the only person who could find him was Stephen. The old man said, “If someone changed his identity, this previous information would not reveal any details then. You have to know his new identity
“Miss, the Charlie you saw looks exactly like Curtis?!” The old man had an incredulous expression at this point. Vera nodded slightly and said faintly, “I can’t say that they look a hundred percent similar, but there’s at least a ninety percent resemblance.” “Ninety percent…” The old man said in shock, “In that case, there shouldn’t be any deviation then. The appearance of the two adults is similar, coupled with the fact that the person’s name is also Charlie Wade. So, there shouldn’t be any problems…” As he spoke of this, he could not help but murmur, “Then… this means that… Curtis and Ashley’s son is still alive?!” Vera’s previous gloom disappeared, and she said with a smile, “Not only is he alive but also living very well! He is very strong, and the members of the Armed Calvary Guards from the Qing Eliminating Society were like carrots piled on a chopping board before him. They didn't have any ability to resist, which was really impressive!” “Is that so?!” The old man wa
Jacob was naturally gleeful that he could get the late medieval bronze sculpture along with its base. Right after he wired the agreed upon ninety-eight grand to Mr. Cardensky, he was already imagining how Raymond would buy it from him for several hundred grand.On the other hand, once Mr. Cardensky received the transfer, he saw the name on the account: Jacob Wilson.He was left perplexed—wasn't that man's last name Montague? Who was this Jacob Wilson?Still, he didn't worry about it too much since most antique hustlers preferred to work with anonymity and therefore, using a different name was perfectly normal.He then carefully wrapped up the bronze sculpture before passing it Jacob, asking politely, "Would you happen to have any other requests, Mr. Montague? I have plenty of other items here if you'd permit me to give an introduction."Jacob shook his head, "Just this sculpture will do. I'm not fully confident in your work either since this is our first deal, so I'm just trying i
Jacob asked, "Then, what would this sculpture be worth if it was genuine?"Mr. Cardensky thought about it. "Well, there are standards when it comes to Renaissance relics, but with something this exquisite, it'd definitely be auctionable for one or two million—and that's the conservative estimate.""How much would you sell it to me for?" Jacob then asked."Thirty percent of the market price," Mr. Cardensky quickly replied. "As I've said, the conservative estimate for this one is around one to two million, so we will set the price with the median estimate value at 1.5 million. And thirty percent means 450 grand."Jacob shook his head right away. "No, no, no… that's too expensive. What if I end up unable to sell it, on top of that?"In his mind, while he could barely accept that pricing, he still needed Raymond to be able to afford it if he wanted to swindle Raymond for twice the money.Mr. Cardensky quickly chuckled, "Oh, Mr. Montague—now you're being too serious. In this business,
"Okay!"Mr. Cardensky smiled and pointed at a nearby farmyard. "There's our workshop—the good stuff is all in there. Allow me to take you there!"The farmyard seemed uninteresting at first glance, but Mr. Cardensky soon led them to the stables and brushed off the straws covering the floor, revealing a plank laid flat on the ground.Mr. Cardensky then lifted it, revealing a passage below—they had dug a cellar into the ground beneath, with the stables as an entry point.As Jacob followed Mr. Cardensky down the cellar, he exclaimed in awe, "Your operation is definitely big, digging such a huge cellar!"Mr. Cardensky smiled humbly. "Anyone working in the business would have sustained their losses before. In the end, we're all folk of humble origins, starting out with raiding tombs or excavating artifacts. Just digging a cellar is really nothing."As they conversed, they cleared the stairs and arrived at the main hall.It was certainly a hall as it was around a hundred square meters,
Zachary nodded repeatedly. "Mr. Montague? Very well!""Yes!" Jacob grinned smugly. "Longer last names are simply better—it just sounds so authoritative."With that agreed upon, both men alighted, where the master was waiting nearby.Seeing them get off, he hurried over to them, smiling, "Please, follow me."Zachary looked around and huffed, "Honestly, Mr. Cardensky, isn't this way too far from the highway? The road is narrow and terrible, and I have to park my car all the way out here. Just coming here is taxing."Mr. Cardensky smiled in turn. "My friend, that's exactly why we picked this place. Do you remember seeing a couple of cars parked by the road, occupying half of it?""We arranged for them to be there. Anyone coming by car would have to slow down that way, buying time for us to see who they truly are. If it's cops, our watchers would quietly text us while we clean the house and bail."Zachary exclaimed in realization, "You boys really run a tight ship!""For sure," Mr.
After working in Antique Street for years, Zachary's connections and influence were naturally special. And yet, though he was acquainted with some of the more impressive individuals, he was not that close with them either.For example, the forgery masters who worked specifically to deceive experts only accepted jobs from major clients, usually antique traders high in social status and wealth.In contrast, they wouldn't ever be interested in frivolous people like Zachary. Even if he could reach them, they might not look at him twice.If one would describe them as the cartel boss, then Zachary would be a low-level enforcer, managing night joints or goofing off.But now, Zachary had turned over a new leaf—he worked under Don Albert, so one of those masters was pleasantly surprised when he called one of them, inviting him to his own workshop for a visit and further discussion.As such, Zachary picked up Jacob and went over to the master's hideout where the latter worked on his count
Zachary was naturally shrewd enough to read Jacob's intention.In reality, he wasn't offering to pay just because he wanted the profit. He merely wanted to get in Jacob's good graces. After all, wouldn't Jacob be even more grateful that he wasn't just helping his revenge but also helping him make money?As such, he didn't hesitate to tell Jacob, "Well, chief—since you'll be paying, I will make sure that you will get every cent of profit that you deserve."Jacob was grinning ear-to-ear, but he said, "Oh, you don't have to! If we really are making a profit, there's no way I would let your good work go unrewarded!"Spreading his arms, he continued generously, "How about this? I will pay the full cost while you get twenty percent of the net profit!"Zachary laughed. "Now, that can wait, chief. We need to pay as soon as we decide on the item we want, and there's no time for buyer's regret. But if Raymond doesn't take the bait, all that money will go down the drain, and whether we can s
Zachary chuckled and continued, "Well, I went to Antique Street and asked around. Turns out our mutual friend only brought a few hundred thousand grand with him. If he messes up and loses all his money, won't it be over for him?""He won't just be broke either—he'd be humiliated and forced to fuck off from Antique Street. You'd get even then!"Jacob was at once excited.Just yesterday, Claire and Charlie were warning him that assault meant doing time.As the vice president of the Calligraphy and Painting Association and the next presidential-hopeful, he would lose his place if he was charged with assault or being an accessory to a case.However, Zachary's plan was much better. Jacob wouldn't have to take responsibility, and the damage on Raymond would be even worse!In comparison, slapping Raymond meant nothing. Watching him go broke and get humiliated would really ease his heart!With that in mind, he promptly pressed Zachary, "Are you sure that prick will mess up?""I can't a
Jacob Wilson was in his office at the Calligraphy and Painting Association, planning his itinerary in Dubai.Still, he was immediately thrilled when Zachary told him that there was progress, and he quickly said, "Come see me at the Calligraphy and Painting Association. We'll talk in my office!""Alright!" Zachary agreed to it happily. "Just wait, Mr. Wilson. I'll be right there!"Jacob then quickly told him, "By the way, remember to address me as the vice president when you're here. Got it?"Zachary was naturally sharp enough to understand why, especially around other members of the Calligraphy and Painting Association.Smiling, he said, "Don't worry, chief. You can always be at ease when I'm on the job!"Once he hung up, he drove to the Calligraphy and Painting Association at top speed.There were just a dozen people around the dozens of work cubicles although Zachary was curious about the personal effects or office tools in the cubicles.After asking around, a staff member le
Then, Mick continued, "I won't lie—Moore Group's bean counters have been eager to get rid of Vintage Deluxe for a while now. It's only Miss Moore's insistence that keeps them at bay, even occasionally coming to check on how business is going. That means she holds sentiment for this place, but if she knows that Raymond is back and doing well, she might hire him again!"Zachary could laugh right then. After all, Mick was terrible at gathering information—he could worry about anyone taking his palace, but not Raymond. The man was fired because he had insulted Master Wade's father in-law, and Miss Moore was endlessly respectful—even obedient to Master Wade. There was no chance that she would hire Raymond back after what he had done, and Mick was just being paranoid.However, Zachary did not tell Mick that.As Mick was begging him to intervene and thus owing him big time, he would also be helping Jacob Wilson get even.Two birds with one stone, so why not?With that in mind, Zachar