Charlie asked, "Isn't this the same as what you said earlier?" Helena stuck out her tongue cheekily. "At least the order has changed. There's still a difference." Speaking of which, Helena said, "What you asked me to do is a piece of cake for me. It isn’t right to accept your money again..." Charlie affirmed earnestly, "Listen, this is the last price. Go to Harrison, and we will split the money 50-50 when it's done. If that's fine, we'll proceed. If you don't want to take the deal, I'll find someone else to help me." Helena felt both joy and concern as she looked at Charlie, with his overwhelming display of masculinity. The joy was obvious—not because of money, but because Charlie was always thinking of her and cared about her. As for the concern, it wasn't about being unable to repay the favor, as that was already impossible. Her real worry was that none of her fantasies about men could ever compare to even a fraction of Charlie himself. Having fallen into this love trap,
Meanwhile, Harrison was on the verge of collapse. Although his men had already cleaned up the scene and he had hidden Hank and the others away, even planning to send them overseas at the right moment, he was still extremely anxious. He had expended so much effort and endured so much pressure from the public, yet he had not been able to locate the Four-Sided Treasure Tower. That was still not the worst part. He had even implicated the Qing Eliminating Society. What was even worse was that he had inexplicably killed a core member of the Qing Eliminating Society. The misery would be worth it if he could hide the truth from the Qing Eliminating Society and recover the Four-Sided Treasure Tower. But if, by any chance, the tower could not be retrieved and the Qing Eliminating Society came after him for revenge, he'd really be wishing for death. The torment over the past few days had caused his blood pressure to rise continuously. After examining him, his personal doctor strongl
"No problem," Emmett reassured with a smile. "Don't worry about it. Everything has already been arranged. The flight will land in Eastcliff in two hours, and military journalists will be there to capture some footage. At 10 p.m., some edited footage will be handed over for the evening news broadcast. You can keep an eye on it." "Wonderful!" Charlie beamed. "I'll wait for the news to be released." - Just as Emmett's plane took off from Aurous Hill, the Boeing 777 plane that Fleur was on finally landed at New York Kennedy Airport. On the plane, Fleur was feeling a little cramped and agitated. Despite her determination to come to the United States for the Four-Sided Treasure Tower, she couldn't help but feel a subtle sense of unease when she thought about how she'd recently broken decades of low-profile living and had been going out frequently. Fleur had almost never left the base since the beginning of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union in the last ce
The disappearance of the coordinate points did not necessarily mean that the corresponding member of the Qing Eliminating Society had died, but it did mean that he had lost contact. The Qing Eliminating Society had very strict disciplinary requirements for members like Zekeiah who were on long-term missions outside the base, and the punishment for losing contact was very severe. If the disconnection was intentional and malicious, once caught, the person could be executed on the spot. Even if they managed to hide, it wouldn't help as the poison in their body had a set activation period. If they didn't receive the antidote within the deadline, they would surely die. If the disconnection was due to negligence, such as forgetting to charge the special phone or equipment malfunction, the organization would not let it slide easily either. Depending on the situation, they would send an envoy to punish the individual. In the lightest case, that person would have to take a special poison
The medical staff were busy with their duty of tending to the patients, while the security department was like a cat on a hot tin roof. The reason for their anxiety was that two very bizarre incidents had happened this morning. The first incident was that the patient in Ward 1707 had been found dead in his bed earlier that morning. The preliminary cause of death was acute morphine intoxication, and the autopsy report from the police was in progress. The hospital reviewed the patient's medical records. As he had been admitted to hospital following a car accident, he had indeed been injected with morphine last night to relieve the pain, but the recorded dosage was very safe and unlikely to cause morphine overdose, so the possibility of homicide was not ruled out. Secondly, this morning, as the staff responsible for the surveillance system discovered that the system had some minor vulnerabilities that needed fixing, they opted for an automatic repair, but after the repair was comp
Hearing the policeman's answer, Fleur felt even more depressed. Zekeiah and Mr. Zorro had both disappeared from Manhattan Hospital, and Zekeiah's assistant had died in this hospital. It went without saying that there had to be an enemy behind the scenes. Now, there was only one body left of the three, and the other two seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth. It made Fleur extremely anxious. Zekeiah's assistant was found dead in the morning. The coordinate point of Zekeiah and Mr. Zorro was in the hospital at midnight, and they had disappeared before dawn. Fleur figured that if they were attacked, this person would have killed Zekeiah and Mr. Zorro first and Zekeiah's assistant next. She mumbled under her breath, "Why did that person kill Zekeiah's assistant? What kind of threat would an injured patient pose to him? Could the assistant have seen him?" Thinking about this, she immediately asked, "Is there any evidence that the patient was murdered?" The policeman s
Enraged, Fleur queried, "Zekeiah disappeared early this morning. How did he leave the hospital? Don't you know?" "No," the policeman answered honestly. "All the CCTV footage is gone. To find clues, we can only rely on forensic experts to search the crime scene bit by bit, but the clues at the crime scene have been destroyed. Not even a complete footprint or fingerprint can be extracted, so for the time being, we don't know how they left." As Harrison's henchman, Hank might not be the most powerful martial artist, but he was a professional agent and very good at handling various clues. Charlie had ordered him to stay here yesterday to clean up all the clues and make it difficult for the police and Fleur to make any breakthroughs, and Hank had completed his task flawlessly. Fleur felt a deep sense of powerlessness. At the thought of the Four-Sided Treasure Tower, she queried, "The antique dealer... B-Biden Cole, right? Isn't he admitted here? Where is he now?" The policeman answe
"No." The policeman shook his head. "I have nothing to add." Sighing in disappointment, Fleur glared at the two policemen and commanded, "Listen, don't tell anyone about your encounter with me. If you have any leads, come to the Starbucks across the hospital. I'll be there." "Okay." The two policemen stared ahead blankly, but they nodded firmly. Fleur ignored them, turned around, and walked out of the hospital. Tarlon was waiting outside the hospital. Seeing Fleur come out so quickly, he hurried forward and whispered, "Lord, why did you come out so quickly? Have you found any clues?" With a gloomy expression, Fleur shook her head. She felt that she had reached a dead-end, but she couldn't give up. So, she coldly ordered Tarlon, "Call Esteban Briggs of the Left Military Governor Office and ask him to mobilize all the intelligence networks of the office in the country to locate Zekeiah, Mr. Zorro, and that antique dealer at all costs! Whoever finds them will be handsomely rewar
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
"Exactly!"Charlie agreed, striking the metal while it was hot. "To be honest, the years Matilda spent in the States would be wasted if she was actually still interested!" "She's a Wall Street veteran who'd definitely have met so many successful men! Why would she be interested in a loser like Jacbo Wilson? It's not like she returned from the States after thirty years to help the poor, don't you agree?"Charlie then finished with a sigh. "The way I see it? You're the only one who'd be interested in him."Jacob heard that from behind the wall and was left absolutely fuming and humiliated.He was the only one who knew that Matilda had come back for him—even if she was worth millions now.However, he just didn't have the spine to divorce Elaine and get together with Matilda.He presumed that it was no rush and that he could just give Elaine the silent treatment—who knew, she might just give in and ask for a divorce herself, and then, he would have no issues getting together with M
"Her real lover?!" Elaine exclaimed in shock. "What are you talking about?"Charlie put on a serious face as she said, "Matilda came back to Oskia for her one true love, who is now her fiance. His name is Yolden Hart, a top economist who's now a lecturer at Aurous Hill University, who was invited all the way from the States. He's a professional manager and used to work in Wall Street, so he'd be qualified to be a CEO in any Fortune 500 company…""Professional manager?" Elaine pouted. "That still means he's a wage slave!"Charlie laughed. "Don't underestimate professional managers now. Just look at Apple Inc.'s CEO—the man earns around a hundred million USD per year, and that's over seven hundred million in Oskian dollars!"Elaine was left gaping, unable to imagine how a wage slave could earn so much.At the same time, Charlie continued, "To be fair, Professor Hart wouldn't earn that much, but 50 million per year is still no sweat for him. Do you get the amount of money we're talki
Elaine appeared taken aback, and she promptly demanded, "You've met Matilda too?!"It was only then that Claire realized she had let the cat out of the bag, and she suddenly didn't know what to say. "Oh… Uh… Mom… I, uh… didn't?"Nonetheless, Elaine was suddenly pressing her menacingly, "If you've never met her, how would you know she's a serious person?!"As Claire stayed silent, Elaine broke down in tears. "No… You're lying to me too! Aren't you?!"While Claire was left at a loss of how she should salvage this mess, Charlie suddenly entered and said, "Claire didn't—but I did.""What?!" Elaine was left staring at Charlie, stunned.Still, she soon demanded, "Y-You've met Matilda?! Did Jacob take you with him to see her?""Yes," Charlie admitted, nodding.Elaine snapped right then, and she bellowed, "Then why didn't you tell me?! To think that I've always done right by you, treating you like my own son, but you wouldn't tell me that Jacob is cheating on me! Y-You disappoint me!"
Jacob certainly left Charlie speechless—the man might get kicked out of the house, but he was more worried about his car.Sighing in exasperation, he told Jacob, "Look, if it fails, I won't be able to get you a nice place, let alone leave the Cullinan with you."Jacob blurted out, "But why—""Don't forget—I'm still living in this house even if you're gone!" Charlie explained, his expression dead serious. "If I let you have a nice place and the Cullinan, God knows how terrible a grudge your wife would hold against me. I need to have a sense of self-preservation too!""If I got you a rundown apartment, I could at least defend myself even if she gets upset about that. I mean, I can't let you sleep in the streets, can I? Claire and I would be guilty of abandoning our elders."Seeing the serious look on Charlie's face, Jacob breathed a long sigh as he clapped him on the shoulder, groaning mournfully, "Oh, I get it. I wouldn't want to upset Elaine if I were in your shoes too…"Charlie
Charlie sighed. "I told you it'd blow up, Dad, but you had to doubt me.""I wasn't doubting you," Jacob promptly defended himself. "I thought I might catch a lucky break—"Charlie cut him short, "Fair enough. Then, how are you going to handle this? I can try to stop Mom from going to that wedding and prevent her from getting in the hall even if she went, but what's going to happen to the both of you? Do you want a divorce or do you want to stay with her?"The light in Jacob's faded as he shrugged and sighed. "If I could divorce her, I would've—and I would be living happily with Matilda now. What company would I have if I did it now? Do you think Elaine would let me stay in Thompson First, with that attitude of hers?""In the end, I'd be chased out without a place to stay, and I can't suffer the humiliation of moving back with my mom and brother, can I? Hell, they might not even take me back!""So, that's a no?" Charlie pressed.Jacob smiled wryly. "At my age, even if I could, I w
Hearing that Elaine was threatening suicide, Claire exclaimed urgently, "Take me to her now!"The traffic police officer quickly nodded. "Come on!"As the traffic police officer quickly led Claire to Elaine, Charlie arrived just then and gave chase after leaving the luggage by the entrance.Stopping them, he asked, "Excuse me, officer—where's the gentleman who came with Madam Parker? May I see him?""And who are you?" The traffic police officer asked."I'm his son-in-law," Charlier replied. "I was thinking that while my wife talks to her mom, I can talk to my father-in-law, make peace, and take them both home.""Oh, that'd be great!"The traffic police officer exclaimed and quickly beckoned at a colleague, "Come over. Take this gentleman to Jacob Wilson!""Okay!" The other traffic police officer was also quite enthusiastic.Charlie entered the room where Jacob was first, immediately seeing a disfigured Jacob taking deep puffs of his cigarette.Another traffic police officer w
Charlie frowned in thought for a while, before saying, "Well, there is a plan, but I can't vouch for the chances. I also need you to cooperate with me and not let anything slip, or everything will go to waste. Can you do that?""I can!" Claire nodded, determined, before quickly asking, "So? What's the plan?""Well, it's not specific," Charlie replied. "We just have to improvise as we go along. Let's just head in for now!"-They left the airport and took a cab to the traffic police's headquarters. Just as she entered, they saw their Cullinan parked outside.Charlie sent Claire in first while he carried her luggage before following.Meanwhile, Elaine was wailing in her room, "I've been married to him for years! Suffering so much pain and humiliation, only for him to hook up with an old flame behind my back! Is it wrong if I struck out?"The traffic police officer was on the verge of a breakdown, but he still said patiently, "Ma'am, I've told you many times—what he did was wrong
Claire wasn't all that experienced in love and hence didn't know how a person caught in a love triangle would think or why they would experience such terrible mood swings.Still, Charlie's explanation gave her a general idea, and she sighed, "Actually, Dad looked really bad when Matilda came back. He was so obsessed with her that he didn't care if Mom was alive—even bringing her home for dinner. I'd be seething if I was Mom."Charlie sighed in exasperation. "Well, let's not loiter about. Let's go to the traffic police station.""Yeah!" Claire nodded, before holding his arm, "If they're there, that means they're safe, and they won't be fighting with those officers around. So, let's not head over so quickly."Charlie raised a brow. "What are you getting at?"Claire sighed, clearly troubled. "We have to think—how are we going to alleviate this crisis? If it's really as you say and Mom has mostly guessed it right, this fight might just be the start. At best, that fight on the highway