Charlie was somewhat shocked to hear that the Rothschild family would work with a drug lord like Gustavo. In his opinion, the Rothschild family was the most powerful in the world with hundreds of years of history that had become a great family that valued its reputation and dignity. He couldn't imagine the Rothschild family associating themselves with criminal groups and outlaws, let alone putting Gustavo in the prison that was controlled by them. It sounded a bit unreasonable. Noticing Charlie's skeptical expression, Leandro lowered his voice and explained, "The U.S. government has been trying to extradite Gustavo for trial. Gustavo has also been resisting with the Mexican government, hoping not to be extradited. He and his sons had been preparing to fight back and make a huge mess if the Mexican government decided to extradite them.” “In the end, the Rothschild family mediated. Eventually, Gustavo agreed to be extradited to the U.S. for trial on the condition that there woul
Several burly men surrounded a muscular man with gray hair. He looked about forty years old, but he was rather muscular because he exercised frequently. Leandro leaned over to Charlie and whispered, "That guy with gray hair is Moses Norris, Area 2's boss." Charlie asked, "Is he working with the Rothschild family too?" "No." Leandro shook his head. "He was imprisoned for many years and had already dominated the prison before the Rothschild family took control of it. After the family took over this place, they turned the prison into two areas, made Gustavo the boss of Area 1, and placed Moses in Area 2." He then tilted his head slightly and continued, "As far as I can tell, the Rothschild family wants to use Moses to control Gustavo. It would be difficult for the family to control Gustavo if they let him go berserk. He would be as free as a bird here. By keeping Moses here, Gustavo will stay manageable. Gustavo may be powerful and rich, but most of his influence is in Mexico. Mos
The man was enraged by Moses's snarky remarks and was about to strike him with his clenched fist when Gustavo suddenly admonished him, "Shut the fuck up, Armando!" The man named Armando abruptly stopped, gritted his teeth, and huffed in rage. Moses sneered disdainfully at Armando, who glared at him furiously. Then, he walked over to the table, picked up the half-empty bottle of wine, and said to Gustavo, "Let me try this. Since you have something this nice, just give me one." Gustavo was not annoyed. Instead, he smiled and joked, "My mistake. I'll prepare some for you next time." Then, he asked, "Do you need a decanter and a glass?" Moses drank a few mouthfuls straight from the bottle, then burped and laughed. "Wine glass? Nah! That's not my style." After that, he reached out, picked up the remaining half of the steak from Gustavo's plate, put it in his mouth, and exaggeratedly took a big bite. While chewing, he grumbled, "Fuck, why don't we have this? It's so unfair. If th
"So what?" Armando jabbered, "We're not afraid of them! I've killed more people than the women he has slept with!" "Do you really think we're in Mexico?" Gustavo snapped coldly. Once you kill someone here, those guys will lock you in a dark cell until you die!" He glared at Armando and continued, "You're all well-trained killers, but it's useless here without handy weapons and terrain advantages to hide in. Also, don't forget that we're outnumbered. If you start a fight, these bastards can beat all of you to death by throwing a chair at each of you. If you die, no one will protect me here, and I’ll have to beg the Rothschild family to send another group of people to protect me. When that happens, they will come up with another Moses to mock me..." He then sighed and added, "I know what the Rothschild family is up to. It's simple. They don't want me to enjoy my life here too much. They must also know that we're using our resources to recruit more people here, so they must want to
Charlie, who had been inquiring about the situation in the prison from Leandro, listened closely to the conversation between Gustavo and Moses. He hadn't expected an internal conspiracy circling Brookly Prison, a fully enclosed prison in downtown New York that didn't even have an outdoor yard. Observing the circumstances, he presumed that Moses, the boss of Area 2, was looking for a chance to deliver a fatal blow to Gustavo, the boss of Area 1. Although Gustavo lived a life of luxury in the prison that other inmates couldn't enjoy, he had his concerns. His family was powerful, but these lawless drug dealers couldn't even enter the country, let alone Brooklyn Prison, to help him. As a matter of fact, his safety and the future of his family were in the hands of the United States government and the Rothschild family. Leandro suddenly leaned over to Charlie and whispered, "Moses looks a little strange today. I bet he's up to something." "How can you tell?" Charlie asked curio
Charlie was a little anxious. He thought that Biden had been detained in the prison area. He figured that as long as he could meet Leandro, he would have a chance to uncover clues about Biden.However, he didn't expect that Leandro, who was extremely observant and well-informed, wouldn't know anything about Biden. It was not easy to search for a single person in such a big prison. Since he couldn't find Biden in the prison area, his other resort was to explore other areas using Reiki. Reiki exploration was Charlie's second choice in the search for Biden in the prison. Reiki was best for locating a singular enemy in a vast area, just like when he had searched for Miss Dijo, Ruby Chain, in the valley. At that time, she was the only living person in the valley. Reiki had covered the entire valley, and he had found her instantly. To put it bluntly, Brooklyn Prison was a complex building that accommodated thousands of people. The density of living beings in the institution was
At this moment, Charlie's Reiki suddenly sensed that someone had emerged from the ground. He immediately gathered his Reiki there and abruptly found that next to the prison's pipe shaft, there was a very narrow elevator shaft. The length and width of the elevator shaft were both about 1.5 meters, and the elevator cabin was pitifully small, only about 1.2 square meters. Moreover, the elevator shaft had no openings on the first and middle floors, which meant that it went directly from the top floor to the underground. Charlie was not in a hurry to send his Reiki downward. Instead, he stayed with the people in the elevator to the top floor. What was even more outrageous was that the elevator was in a compartment hidden behind a huge office on the top floor. According to Charlie's perception, this office was the largest in the entire prison. He figured that it was most likely the warden's office. Therefore, he hastily used his Reiki to go down the elevator shaft, but to his bewil
Gustavo wanted to see the warden, and so did Charlie. It would be best if he could meet the warden without being noticed by the Rothschild family. However, due to the special situation in the prison, it was not easy for Charlie to achieve this goal. It seemed that Gustavo was his chance. In Charlie's opinion, approaching Gustavo was at least easier than approaching the warden. Moreover, he and Gustavo happened to be in the same prison area. Hence, he leaned toward Leandro and asked, "Do you know how I can be friends with Gustavo?" "Who? Gustavo?!" Leandro shrieked in surprise and then laughed. "Dude, Gustavo was a drug lord in Mexico and also a billionaire. He is probably among the top 100 richest men in the world. He is also the leader of Mexico's leading private armed forces. His existence in this prison is like locking a tiger in a cat's cage. How could he be friends with people like us..." Charlie couldn't help but snort when he heard this. In Leandro's view, Charlie
As it turned out, the bean counters of the Moore Group had been suggesting that Jasmine axe Deluxe Vintage and other antique-related businesses.After all, Aurous Hill was hardly the heart of the nation's antique business—not even a hub, and Vintage Deluxe wouldn't grow on such soil.Moreover, their revenue wasn't optimistic.While the business wasn't exactly falling off after Mick took charge, the lack of experience amongst the management team meant they were struggling to break even.And for the bean counters, keeping Vintage Deluxe meant no profits—even net losses in the immediate future. Right now, they might still be able to package it nicely and sell it off, and selling a fixed asset coupled with brand value would more or less turn a profit. But once Vintage Deluxe started incurring losses and the brand value diminished in turn, it would be reduced to zero completely.In other words, the value of Vintage Deluxe was on a springboard—sell it anytime now, and the value would be
The Mr. Crane from the other end of the call was Mick Crane—the current manager of Vintage Deluxe, and a man whom all of Antique Street fawned over.Mick was the assistant manager to Raymond back then, and his skill in the antique trade was at best moderate. However, thanks to his friendly personality, he had managed to secure himself many decent connections down Antique Street.As such, once Jasmine had fired Raymond, Mick had taken over his position as caretaker manager. She was also aware that Mick didn't have the skills to do well as a manager, and her plan had always been to keep him as a caretaker before she found someone better.As her ties with Charlie had strengthened and he had started helping her, her position in her family had skyrocketed. However, that also meant she couldn't watch over most of Vintage Deluxe's operations.Now that she was the head of the Moore family and the leader of a dynasty worth billions, a small business like Vintage Deluxe was even less signifi
Moreover, Raymond's old identity had various occupations connected to antiques. So, his plan now was to head over to Antique Street, find a place to rest his legs, and then get a shop of moderate scale and cheap rent to start a business in Aurous Hill.He headed to the precinct at Antique Street to register his face and other details into the database, reinforcing his legal certification. The precinct then issued him a visa so that he would have clearance to stay at a hotel for a while.Most of Antique Street's stalls were closing shop by the time he left the precinct, but he picked up his backpack and went for a stroll.It was not that different from before, though he thought he would never come back at the time…Still, he hadn't been there for long when a vendor recognized him and exclaimed in surprise, "Hey! Aren't you Mr. Cole? From Vintage Deluxe? When did you come back?"As things hadn't changed down the street for the businesses or the environment, Vintage Deluxe was stil
Jacob shrugged. "If Hannah's debt is cleared, then she's fine now, no?""Yeah," Elaine replied. "I heard from an old friend not two days ago, saying that the document of her non-arrest… non-prosecution or whatever was sent in. Once it's approved, she's free to go home.""Most likely non-prosecution," Charlie replied."Right, I think that's it!" Elaine nodded repeatedly and sighed unhappily. "She's really been let off easy. She should be arrested and jailed for at least ten years."Jacob couldn't help sighing. "Come on, dear—Mom and Chris were out of line, but things are terrible for them now as it is. There's no reason to hope for the worst for them since Harold and Chris are still too hurt to work. It's thanks to Wendy's income that they have a living, otherwise, they wouldn't be able to survive."Then, worried that Elaine would get upset that he might be siding with his brother and mother too much, he quickly added, "I'm not taking their side or trying to get their case reinvest
Charlie actually had to change his opinion of Elaine after seeing her ready to kill Jacob earlier but getting all clingy now.Despite her many flaws, Elaine was the one half of their marriage who was earnestly in love.As for Jacob, he didn't seem to have any genuine feelings for Elaine at all.The mere mention of his past with Elaine always left him grumbling and complaining, but now, it was clear that Elaine was his best choice. With his attitude and the way he did things, he and Matilda would have split up by now even if they had gone to the States together.In the end, Jacob simply had too many of the flaws common amongst men his age, but while others would have no more than five out of twenty of those flaws, he had eighteen.As such, from another perspective entirely, the only woman who could tolerate Jacob now was Elaine and only Elaine. Coincidentally, her straightforward personality and tendency to get violent was the perfect counter against all of Jacob's flaws, reducing
Elaine nodded, emotional as well. "Well, Claire's finally home after being in the States for so long. Let's stop being clowns already—let's go home!"Jacob nodded, utterly relieved and teary-eyed. "Yes! Let's go home!"Meanwhile, Claire was left dumbfounded even as she watched while Charlie was left wiping the sweat off his brow—they had really just snatched victory from the jaws of defeat there!And it looked like they had truly succeeded in clearing any suspicion Elaine had of Matilda, and she most likely would do her best to avoid running into Matilda as well.That way, all the nonsense he had said wouldn't be exposed.Still, as Claire came to her senses, she told Charlie, "Darling, that was amazing! You somehow managed to talk your way out of that!"Charlie chuckled in embarrassment. "I had no choice but to sacrifice my pride for the peace in the family."Claire hugged his arm and giggled happily, "There's no victory without sacrifice. You're the best, dear!"-Meanwhile,
Though Jacob had nothing going for him, he had always had a huge ego, and he had never once admitted that he would lose to anyone in the presence of his wife and daughter.That was why both Elaine and Claire were shocked when he suddenly openly admitted that he was a piece of shit in front of them. They had never heard such a thing from him in the decades they had lived with him!In fact, Jacob himself was reluctant to insult himself like that.However, Charlie told him repeatedly that he absolutely must say it before he came here—because Charlie was dead sure that this line was the key to getting over this impasse, and it truly did put this crisis to rest.Even as Jacob finished, his heart was bleeding as he felt like he had just put his pride on the floor and trampled all over it until it was crushed to oblivion. Even though it was to clear any suspicion Elaine held toward him, to call himself a piece of shit—to say it himself that his beloved woman would think him beneath her,
Before Elaine knew it, she was reading the website she had just read again, and she did indeed find Yolden's name on it.With that, everything Charlie had said snapped together into a perfect chain of logic.Seeing the troubled look on her face, Charlie quickly added, "I'm not going to lie—Dad told me right away when he was told Matilda was getting married. We even discussed if we should tell you, and now you know why." "Matilda is doing so well for herself and got such an amazing husband, and they've picked Shangri-La's Sky Garden—something an average Joe could never hope to reach. And since she invited our whole family and not just us, Dad had to really think about it.""Eventually, he told me to hide it from you or it'd leave you devastated, so none of us said anything. We just didn't think you'd find that invitation and then end up having a big fight about it."Sighing, Charlie then continued, "But if you really want to go, we can go together for their wedding to put your min
Bitterness swelled in Elaine's heart as she really didn't think that Matilda was doing so well for herself.The fact that Matilda was worth millions alone made her far superior.At the same time, she was also rejoicing that she had never actually met Matilda. If Matilda asked how she was doing directly, how would she respond?In the end, Matilda was no Hannah Queen.Elaine would actually feel accomplished if she compared herself to Hannah.On the other hand, Matilda eclipsed Elaine in every way—she was more beautiful, kind, smart, and knowledgeable. Even her figure left Elaine dead in the water!It was as pointless as comparing a hen to a peacock!Whenever she thought of her, she could comfort herself that she had stolen her man even if she couldn't measure up in any way.But now, Jacob was completely insignificant to Matilda while Elaine still treated Jacob like a trophy.Even as a sense of inferiority seized her, Charlie sighed. "Come on, you should understand where Jacob is