Her first advantage was her exceptionally beautiful looks. No one across the entire European royal family could surpass her beauty. Even compared to the most beautiful Hollywood actresses, she was no less stunning than any of them. The second advantage was her youthful and positive energy combined with a healthy and radiant aura. Who in the elite circles of Europe and America did not have a bit of a dark past? Drug use, affairs, promiscuity, violence, prison time, or even connections with organized crime—it was not fair to say that the entire upper class of the West was a den of snakes and rats, but at the very least, it was full of all kinds of vices. But Helena was different. Born into a royal family, she received an aristocratic upbringing from a young age. When others reached puberty and began to indulge themselves, both of her parents passed away one after the other. As a result, she had to be extremely cautious to secure even a limited space for survival in the harsh
Helena's reschedule would be officially announced in a few hours. What awaited next was to see if Harrison would urge Royce to go to Canada. If everything went according to plan, Charlie could take Julien's helicopter and fly to Canada with Royce. Either way, Julien and Royce were now his so-called hostages. He did not have to worry about them spilling the beans. In fact, he could constantly control and threaten them using this collaboration, which was much more practical than psychologically manipulating them. Psychological manipulation would be risky as those who were most familiar with them would be able to sense the abnormality sooner or later. Hence, Charlie preferred this kind of mild blackmail, which would be efficient when facing a strong opponent. The harder the opponent struggled to break free, the tighter he would be bound. Julien and Royce were bewildered as they watched Charlie finish the phone call with Helena. They didn't expect that Helena, the Queen of Northe
This made the men monitoring the Cole family mansion shudder in bewilderment. An agitated voice suddenly echoed from Hank's walkie-talkie, "Sir, something is going on in the mansion!" "Shit!" Hank hastily shouted, "Maybe someone sneaked into the house through a secret passage we don't know about! Hurry! Catch them before they get away with the Four-Sided Treasure Tower! Everyone, move! Whoever catches them will be rewarded with 10 million! Whoever gets the treasure tower will be rewarded with 100 million!" As soon as the announcement was made, almost everyone sprinted out of their hiding places and rushed into the Cole family mansion like a herd of sheep. Even though they worked for the Rothschild family, they were in low-rank positions. Their annual salary was basically around a few hundred thousand dollars. Some had even less than that. It was no wonder that they would go berserk when they were offered such a lucrative reward. Besides, it was not their absence from duty but a
Charlie did not open the wooden box to save time. He used his Reiki to scan the box and immediately sensed two items inside. One was a thick book, which he assumed was the copy of the Preface of the Apocalyptic Book. The other was an item made of metal in the shape of a pagoda. After confirming that the items were intact, he wanted to retract his Reiki and quickly leave the Cole family mansion with the box. However, when his Reiki swept through the tower, the tower seemed to have sensed his presence. Immediately after, he felt his Reiki being forcibly drawn toward the tower without any warning. What shocked him even more was that because this strand of Reiki was controlled by his divine sense, effectively making it an invisible extension of his consciousness, when the Reiki was absorbed by the tower, it also forcibly took a wisp of his divine sense from his Reiki field. At that moment, he felt as if he was standing in a world of fuzziness. Whenever he looked, it was dark
The reason it seemed somewhat familiar yet unfamiliar was likely because the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda had undergone several renovations after its initial construction. Its appearance, features, and even the number of tiers had changed significantly. Moreover, these renovations happened hundreds or even thousands of years ago. People had only seen the pagoda as it appears today after five major reconstructions, passed down through history. No one knew what it originally looked like, which was why Charlie had that sense of déjà vu but couldn't be certain. Charlie muttered under his breath, "So, the priest I just saw was Saint Jerome?" In the midst of his thoughts, the image passed through the prosperous Coleham and arrived at a temple on a green mountain in the south outside of the city. From the terrain, Charlie recognized that the place was the northern foot of Mount Solis. The two large words ‘Josher Temple’ on the gate of the temple immediately enlightened him that this was S
The moment his divine sense returned to his body, Charlie immediately sobered up. Although it felt like a long time had passed when his divine sense left his body, it was actually a blink of an eye in reality. Charlie, who was in a daze from the confusion, shook his head to compose himself. He took the wooden box, made sure that the secret compartment was empty, and immediately pushed the lion statue back and covered the secret compartment. At this moment, the commotion was still ongoing in the Cole family mansion. He immediately turned around, jumped up, and flew in through the window of the room where Hank, Julien, and Royce were. Julien and Royce were both dumbfounded at the sight. Jumping out the window didn't seem like a big deal, but they were aghast to see Charlie jumping back in. When Charlie returned to the room and saw the horrified expression on Julien's and Royce's faces, he turned to Hank and commanded, "Make them turn around, and you turn around to watch the
After the Four-Sided Treasure Tower was in Oskia, it could be returned to the Oskian government with the help of Emmett, and the mission would be completed. However, Charlie had no intention of leaving the United States just like that. Raymond was still in the hospital for treatment, and no one knew what the U.S. government and the Rothschild family would do to him after he was discharged. Charlie did not want to leave him alone. If possible, he would do his best to get Raymond out of prison and restore his freedom. Meanwhile... Hank ordered a group of men to rush into the Cole family mansion. They turned the mansion upside down but could not find any traces of breaking in. What puzzled them was that there was a lot of noise inside the house, and a lot of furniture and decorations were indeed broken. It was obvious that someone had been there. Otherwise, how could things fall with a crash inside an empty mansion with locked doors? But here came the strange part. It did look
Hank answered, "I have no comment for now. I need to investigate first." Harrison asked, "Do you think the person who sneaked into the mansion tonight came to take the Four-Sided Treasure Tower?" "It must be," Hank replied firmly. "He took such a big risk. The tower must be his only reason." Harrison felt even more depressed. He muttered, "If that's the case, he must have taken it away..." After that, he shouted at the top of his lungs to the butler, "Notify everyone and all departments to strictly seal all access in and out of New York as well as the surrounding areas! At the same time, start searching within the blockade area and find the Four-Sided Treasure Tower at all costs!" Just then, someone next to Harrison suddenly reported, "Sir, I’ve just received news from Canada that Princess Helena's trip to Canada has been pushed forward." "What?" Harrison frowned. "When?" "Today. They say she will take off in about three hours. The first stop will be Ottawa, and then M
Unable to nitpick on the air stewardess' response, Elaine pouted, "Well, try to ask management to improve on your first-class cabins anyway. Maybe even make a premium-class or something since it's not like we can't afford it."The air stewardess quickly said, "We will definitely relay your message to the management."Nodding in satisfaction, Elaine waved her off. "Alright. You can go back to work now."Clearly relieved, the air stewardess bowed her head respectfully. "Always happy to be of service."After the air stewardess left, Jacob asked Elaine in curiosity, "Was the private jet that good?"Elaine rolled her eyes. "Didn't you see the stuff I posted in the chat group?""Not really," Jacob blurted. Elaine was ready to snap at him for not caring, but considering that they had made up now and she shouldn't fuss too much over the little things, she snorted, "Just remember to like and comment on all my posts in the chat group, otherwise, I will make you regret it!""No problem!"
While the ten collectors were taking turns studying the bronze sculpture, Jacob and Elaine were boarding their flight.As they were flying first-class, they had priority over the other passengers and boarded from the separate plug door at the first-class section.The capacity of the Boeing 777 was huge, and the wide-body aircraft could be connected to a special double corridor bridge where first class and business class passengers boarded separately from the economy class passengers.As the terminals to economy class and business class were connected, Elaine and Jacob were able to get through the first-class terminal unimpeded, but the passengers in economy class had a queue of over two hundred passengers. Even as she walked, Elaine was looking over her shoulder and exclaiming at Jacob, "Must be nice being rich! We used to have to queue like the rest of them, waiting for over thirty minutes just to board our flight." "In first class, we may be in the same plane, but we don't hav
Meanwhile, once Raymond had briefed everyone about the rules, he opened the door and invited everyone into Treasure Measure.It was not that wide but appeared spacious since the interior was mostly empty—it was not really crowded even with thirty-ish people.Then, locking the door from the inside, Raymond told them, "I can tell from everyone's faces that we are all veterans here, so I'm sure you understand the rules while appraising: no photos or videos, thank you very much."Indeed, there were many rules that governed the hobby, the most important being respecting the seller's requests and privacy.As the collectors listened, they knew that Raymond was selling but did not want the public to know too much about him.They all nodded, and those who had their phones out slid them back into their pockets.With that, Raymond took out the bronze sculpture that he had brought, leaving Trippy a little surprised.He had never seen the bronze sculpture with his own eyes before, only from
"Alright!" Trippy was at once fawning, tagging along behind Raymond like a little child.Around thirty people were waiting in front of Treasure Measure by now. The collectors came in twos or threes, and all ten numbers had since been taken.Before Raymond arrived, he had a brief look at the collectors' faces through the security cameras before walking over, and he was really relieved to see no familiar faces.Having traded Oskian antiques for years abroad, it was only natural that he was acquainted with some of the elite collectors in the country.He also knew that they were especially demanding with the quality of their collection and wanted almost flawless items. As such, the bronze sculpture which had been completely lost wouldn't interest them.Still, he was also a little concerned that amongst the elite collectors he knew, there might be some who were losing money and losing purchasing power in turn. If they happened to take an interest in the bronze sculpture on top of that,
Trippy grinned. "I mean, just look at my stall—ain't no way I'm getting any business here. Why not let me check out this item of yours? And see how interested they are? I'm really interested in learning and upping my game."Then, as if worried that Raymond would refuse, he quickly added, "Don't worry—I promise to stay in a corner and just watch."Still, Raymond could guess right then that someone must have sent Trippy to spy on him.It didn't matter whether it was Mick, Jacob, or Zachary either—they were all in this plot together, and one knowing meant all three knowing.Trippy was a gossiper in nature. If he was allowed to witness the whole process, everyone down Antique Street would definitely know before long.In fact, he could use someone like that right now, and Trippy had come straight to his doorstep.With that in mind, Raymond smiled, "Come join me if you're interested. It's not like there's anything to hide…"Pausing, he then warned Trippy, "But since you're going in my
After watching Mick's video, Jasmine's opinion of the man improved considerably.She was actually well aware that the decline of Vintage Deluxe was mostly due to Mick's incompetence.However, as Jasmine was now managing a billion-dollar company, she couldn't spare any time to ask many questions about Vintage Deluxe's performance. In her opinion, as long as Vintage Deluxe didn't lose too much money or ruin the reputation they had worked so hard to build, she wasn't interested in a regime change.It was the same mindset as Marianne Long, who begged her father to keep that lane full of food stalls in Hong Kong over sentiment.As such, seeing that Mick actually had some skill pleased her considerably.She couldn't resist checking out the comments of the video too.She saw that many were praising the manager of Vintage Deluxe for taking a tough stand against the scammer as well as how Vintage Deluxe's reputation was long-standing and without comparison.She soon noticed Jacob's comme
Soon, more collectors had gathered outside Treasure Measure even before Raymond showed up at Antique Street, with over ten of them gathered outside in no time at all.Since Raymond had only prepared ten slips, the rest left in disappointment seeing that they had no chance.Even so, the ten collectors who had gotten a number were nervous—save for the first man who had arrived.The details on the online sales post insisted that the price was fixed, and that first-come first-serve applies.If he bought the bronze sculpture, the other nine would have come all this way for nothing.However, if the seller decided to make it an auction, they would have a chance too, although their net profit would thin in turn. After all, they could have acquired the bronze sculpture for just 20 million, and that meant a solid 8 million in profit.An auction would at least raise the price to 27 million, and more would make it chicken feed.If they gave up at that point, it was a waste of a trip.If
Trippy naturally wasn't going to tell Mick everything word-for-word, so he said vaguely, "Uh, they were just being stubborn and refused to listen to anything I said. They kept saying that they wouldn't know until they saw the actual item."Mick got out of bed, staring at his phone as he mused to himself.This was getting a little ridiculous, was it not? A fool who was scammed, actually able to scam someone else? But if he really could sell it, wouldn't all their work be for nothing?With that in mind, he promptly called Zachary, who wasn't even up yet.Ever since he had started working for Don Albert, his daily routine was no longer the same as the days when he was a humble stall owner working on Antique Street, but a man of importance who slept late and woke up late.In the evening, he would be spending his time patrolling Don Albert's night entertainment properties as well as holding meetings with subordinates to decide on management policies and the like. That was why he wo
Seeing that Mick had a favor to ask, Trippy was naturally eager to seize the opportunity to get in his good graces."Don't worry, Mr. Crane!" He promptly replied. "Just leave it to me!"Returning to Treasure Measure, he went up to the first man who had come and said, "Hey, brother… Did you come to buy the bronze sculpture from Mr. Cole?"The man asked warily, "You know about the bronze sculpture?""Of course!" Trippy grinned. "I know all too well—it's actually famous here in Aurous Hill."Whipping out his phone, he played the short video that Mick had spent five grand promoting, saying, "Here—check this out!"Curious, the man took the phone and watched the video solemnly.The other latecomer soon hurried over as well and stared fixedly at the screen too.They watched as Bill entered a room with the bronze sculpture with Mick, the latter who checked it out and started commenting on it.The first man exclaimed in surprise, "Oh, it really is that bronze sculpture."The second ma