Vera had found out all information about Charlie’s double identity through Claire and Elaine, which really made her feel extraordinarily excited.She felt that she seemed to be receiving heavenly help when she came to Aurous Hill this time, making everything go extremely smoothly for her.However, she did not intend to approach the mother-and-daughter duo, let alone Charlie.She felt that she had to stick to her plan yesterday and not take the initiative to contact Charlie until after school started and she became friends with Claudia. At this time, Charlie did not know that the young girl whom he had accidentally rescued in Northern Europe had already found out information about his two layers of identity.Isaac called Charlie at this moment and said respectfully over the phone, “Young Master, I’ve already confirmed it with Mr. Waldron. The old lady that you’re looking for has just returned to her natal home in Skywinger with her son some time ago. I’ve already gotten the specif
“Okay, Young Master.” Isaac said without hesitation, “I’ll send it to your WhatsApp now.”Isaac sent the information file to Charlie after hanging up the phone.After Charlie looked at it, he found that the old lady’s background was very simple, but there also seemed to be something extraordinary about it.The old lady’s name was Fumiko Jenson. She was born in the mountainous area of southern Skywinger, and she grew up in the mountains of Skywinger since she was young. She did not marry far away but married a young man from the same village.There was a high probability that she rarely left the small mountain village in fifty years because she was a permanent resident of the family during every census, and it was clearly marked on the information that she cooperated with the census.In its heyday, there were only about forty households in the village with more than three hundred people, but there was a serious population loss, and there were only a dozen households with more than
That night, after Claire came home, Charlie told her about the trip he was going to take with Isaac tomorrow.Since Isaac was the owner of Shangri-La, in the eyes of ordinary people, Claire thought that Charlie was going to help Isaac take a look at Feng Shui.Although she felt a little distressed that Charlie was going to look at Feng Shui right after returning to Oskia, she did not stop him since he claimed that he had already made an appointment with Isaac. Early the next morning, Charlie and Isaac flew to Granger Province, which was located in the southwest of Oskia. Since Charlie concluded from the old lady’s name that the old lady’s family background was not simple, he called Porter after the plane took off.When the phone was connected, Porter asked respectfully, “Mr. Wade, what are your orders for me?”Charlie said, “Porter, I need you to tell me the old lady’s state and performance in detail after we rescued the victims in Mexico that day.”Porter said, “Mr. Wade, aft
Porter replied, “Mr. Wade, after they woke up, I arranged for someone to record all of their identity information. Since their passports were destroyed, I had someone help them contact the embassy for the replacement of their documents and then purchased tickets for them to go home. I gave each of them 3,000 US dollars in emergency cash and sent them on the plane one by one.”With that said, Porter added, “But the old lady and her son were exceptions.”“I arranged for the soldiers from Ten Thousand Armies to escort them back to the country personally, and they were then sent all the way home.”“Before leaving, the soldier in charge of escorting them wanted to give the old lady and her son 100,000 dollars according to my instructions, but the old lady refused to accept it. I thought about how you mentioned that you were going to visit them after returning to the country, so I did not ask the soldier to insist on giving them the money.”“I see.” Charlie frowned slightly. Although he
Charlie smiled faintly when he heard the other party’s question and said, “You must be Lady Jenson’s son, right? My name is Charlie Wade, and my father was an old acquaintance of your father. He asked me to come and see Lady Jenson.”The other party asked in surprise, “Your father knows my father?”Charlie nodded slightly. An old lady then slowly walked out from the cooking shed and looked at Charlie somewhat doubtfully as she frowned and asked, “Young man, you know my husband?”Charlie said, “You must be Lady Jenson, right? My father knows your husband.”The old lady hesitated for a moment and then quickly said, “Come in, come in!”With that said, she said to her son, “Jeremy, invite the guests into the house quickly and serve them some water.”The middle-aged man hurriedly opened the door and said politely, “Please come in and have a seat!”Charlie nodded, thanked him, and then entered the courtyard with Isaac.The small courtyard was not that big and was only a few dozen s
Only then did Charlie come back to his senses and say with a smile, “Thank you, but there’s no need for you to go through all the trouble. We’re not thirsty.”As he spoke, Lady Jenson washed her hands. She disregarded the water droplets on her hand and hurriedly trotted in as she spoke with some trepidation, “Our distinguished guests, please have a seat. I feel really sorry because our family is poor so we don’t have any decent furniture for you to sit on!”Charlie said respectfully, “Lady Jenson, please have a seat first!”Lady Jenson hesitated for a moment and then smiled as she sat down in front of Charlie. She looked at Charlie kindly and asked curiously, “Young man, you said that your father knows my husband, so I wonder what is your father’s name?”Charlie was suddenly at a loss for words. In truth, his previous idea was very simple. After finding the old lady, he would give her a Rejuvenating Pill under the pretext that he was the son of her husband’s good friend. He would
Charlie was shocked by the old lady’s words.He subconsciously thought that the old lady’s memory of him had not been erased by his Reiki as he had guessed before. This kind of thing had never happened in Charlie’s perception.So, he subconsciously wondered if this old lady also possessed the mastery of Reiki to a certain extent. So, he asked tentatively, “Lady Jenson, why are you asking such a question?”When the old lady saw that Charlie seemed to be defensive, she said very frankly, “Young man, to tell you the truth, I’m just making a guess.”After that, she paused slightly and continued speaking, “When I was rescued from Mexico by those heroes, I found that it was not just me and Jeremy, but everyone on the bus had lost their memories. We all remembered how we were tricked to go there and how those people mutilated us, but we couldn’t remember how we were rescued.”“Those heroes then told us that they used some kind of tear gas or something that must have caused our memory
Charlie did not conceal it any longer at this point and said solemnly, “Lady Jenson, I was hunting down the members of Crazy Juarez in Mexico when I discovered that they were imprisoning so many innocent people there by chance. So, I asked my subordinates to take all of you out and send you back home.”The old lady was pleasantly surprised and excited as she said, “It seems that my guess was not wrong. You really are our benefactor!”With that said, she trembled as she attempted to grovel before Charlie, but Charlie stopped her and said seriously, “Lady Jenson, you don’t have to do this. Any normal person in Mexico that day wouldn’t have sat back idly without doing anything.”The old lady was teary-eyed as she sobbed and said, “Thank you for saving our lives, Benefactor! If it weren’t for you, the Jenson family’s lineage would have ended with us...”Having said that, she looked up at the portrait on the wall, but what she looked at was not the man in the middle, but the child who w
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
Zachary then said, "By the way, I have some friends who have a lot of stock. How much capital do you have, Mr. Cole? I'll check if they have stuff that suits you, and you can partner with them."When Zachary asked how much capital, he was basically asking Raymond how much he would invest in his own business and how much he could spend on taking new stock as he was buying.As such, Raymond replied modestly, "I've been chasing my tail for a while, so I didn't earn more than a few hundred thousand. I definitely would have no issue taking items with rebates, but I'm afraid I can't afford premiums.""Alright!" Zachary nodded, having discerned the scale of Zachary's capital."I'll check on what's available and see if we can get a few personal deals."Raymond nodded. "Thank you, Zachary!"Zachary smiled, shaking his head. "Mr. Crane, please buy another fruit basket for Mr. Cole—I'll pay you later."Mick quickly said, "Oh, you don't have to, Mr. Evans! It's my pleasure, no worries!"Zach