The wealth of the Rothschild family had long been beyond the estimation or calculation of outsiders. Over the years, they had made both visible and hidden investments in countless fields. All offshore companies registered in the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands, as long as they remained unlisted, were not required to disclose shareholder information. Among them were numerous companies in which the Rothschild family held shares or even controls. The true value of these holdings was impossible to verify. Even for listed companies, shareholder information was only disclosed in the primary market. The secondary market was bought and held through various channels that were impossible to count. In addition, the Rothschild family had investments in real estate, energy, mining, transportation, and other areas around the world. It could be said that any industry that was at the forefront of the trend could make enormous wealth. In colonial times, Britain was known as the em
Seeing Harrison with his head down in deep thought, Helena knew he definitely wouldn't follow the original plan to pass the position of family head to Julien. Sure enough, Harrison lifted his head with a chuckle and said, "Your Majesty, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come to New York and attend my family meeting to establish the heir. Your presence truly brings us great honor!" Feigning a surprised expression, Helena asked, "Aren't we going to announce Julien's succession today? Why have you changed your mind?" Harrison waved her off and, with a slightly embarrassed smile, said, "Plans can't keep up with changes, and changes always outpace plans. Until this morning, I never imagined I could regain my health. Don't you think so?" Helena smiled slightly. "Your recovery is partly due to Julien's devotion, which seems to have touched God himself." Despite what she said, she couldn't help mumbling under her breath, "Harrison really did change his mind,
Harrison immediately caught the implication in her words and, with a smile, said, "Your Majesty, you are truly a brilliant negotiator. I've never seen someone so young yet able to control the pace of negotiations so skillfully! With you at the helm, the Nordic royal family is sure to soar to new heights!" Helena smiled and said, "You think too highly of me. I can control the rhythm well because I have a good mentor." "I wonder who your mentor is?" Harrison asked curiously. "I would like to meet him if there is a chance." Helena said lightly, "My mentor prefers to act with a low profile and isn't fond of the vanity that comes with fame, but I believe that you will have the opportunity to meet him in the future." "That would be wonderful!" Harrison replied with a beam. Helena then said, "It's getting late. I'll take my leave now." Harrison nodded. As he saw Helena turn to leave, he remembered something and hurriedly called after her, "Hold on, Your Majesty!" "Yes, Mr. Roths
Helena waved her hand dismissively. "You don't have to. As you mentioned, procuring the hardware for the AI models comes with its own costs. I'd rather take a loss myself than let you suffer. After all, you're already of such an age, and having had a stroke once before. If you end up losing something and it affects your mood, leading to a relapse, wouldn't that make me the bad guy?" "No, no, no!" Harrison, ignoring the subtle mockery, hurried over to Helena with great urgency and reassured, almost desperately, "Buying the hardware for Your Majesty is something we should do. Please accept it." As he said it, he lamented with regret, "Your Highness, I'm old, and my mindset is molded in the conservative mode because of decades of experience, and bargaining is one of them. Nevertheless, please rest assured that we will never again bargain when doing business with you." After experiencing the powerful effect of the Healing Pill, Harrison keenly realized that the pill must be a life-sa
After confirming the receipt of 20 billion dollars, Helena smiled at Harrison and said, "I've received the money, Mr. Rothschild. Thank you for your generous payment. It's been a pleasure working with you. I'll be returning to Northern Europe in a couple of days, and I hope your AI team will arrive there at the same time." "Of course, Your Majesty!" Harrison immediately responded. "I'll have them prepare right away and head over as soon as possible to take care of the preliminary planning and arrangements." While Helena was successfully selling the Healing Pill for 60 billion dollars plus a set of AI models, Julien, who was 20 meters away from the door, and Royce, who had just arrived, anxiously watched the time. In his view, the meeting between Harrison and Helena was taking a bit too long. It wasn't that he had any objection to their meeting. He was just worried it might delay the upcoming family meeting. After all, the meeting was set to start promptly at ten, and that mome
'Even if he actively participated in the best rehabilitation in the world, he would only be able to recover slightly better than he is now. It would be God's blessing if he could recover to the point where he could walk with crutches!' As he thought of this, Julien turned his head to look at the attending physician, his face full of confusion and bewilderment. In fact, the attending physician was even more baffled. He felt as if his whole brain and spine had been fried at the same time. He felt as if all his years of medical training had been for nothing. In his whole career, over half a lifetime in medicine, he had never seen someone just recover from a stroke and immediately get up and walk around effortlessly. More importantly, Harrison was now politely chatting with the queen, gesturing animatedly, speaking fluently, and looking full of energy—more lively than even he was! All the doctor could do was nudge his glasses, astonished, confused, yet delighted, exclaiming
Julien was completely overwhelmed at this moment, but Harrison, having already heard Helena speak highly of Julien, felt a mix of gratitude and guilt toward him. He didn't suspect that Julien harbored any rebellious thoughts. Seeing Julien looking completely devastated, Harrison thought Julien was simply too emotional. He quickly stepped forward, gave him a hug, and patted his shoulder, beaming, "My good son, thank you! Thank you for everything you've done for me!" Julien, being hugged by Harrison, leaned on Harrison's shoulder and looked at Helena with red eyes, his eyes full of doubt. With a faint smile, Helena said, "Mr. Rothschild, I'll take my leave now so as not to interrupt your sweet moment with your son. I have some other business to tend to." "Come on, Julien. See Her Majesty off!" Harrison instantly urged. Julien thought, 'Oh, great! I was just looking for an opportunity to ask her what's going on!' Hence, he quickly replied, "Okay, Dad! I'll see Her Majesty off.
With a faint smile, Helena said, "Maybe it's for your sake that Mr. Wade saved your father. After all, you are his friend. It's normal for him to help his friend's sick father, isn't it?" Julie was like a bear with a sore head. Shaking and pointing at Helena with trembling fingers, he roared, "I would have believed it had it been anyone else, but I don't believe Charlie! I'm sure he was the reason why my dad had a stroke!" Helena smiled and said, "As an objective third party, I don't think there's anything wrong with Mr. Wade. The main reason your father had a stroke was because the Four-Sided Treasure Tower suddenly returned to Oskia. But if I remember correctly, you were the one who sent the tower out of New York, right?" Julien was so shocked that the blood drained from his face. He quickly waved his hands, panicked, and whispered, "Your Majesty, you must not say that!" Helena shrugged slightly and said, "Am I wrong? I seem to remember that it was your helicopter that carrie
Trippy rolled his eyes as he texted back: [Hell no. I need to start my business instead of wasting my time. You morons can come get a number yourself if you like. Haha!]Still, Trippy had just sent his text when a trio arrived in a hurry outside Treasure Measure.Seeing that the doors were closed, the leader asked Trippy, "Excuse me, can I ask if this is Treasure Measure? Owned by a man named Mr. Cole?"Trippy was at once surprised. "You mean Raymond Cole?"The leader quickly said, "We don't know his first name, only that his last name is Cole, and his handle name was Treasure Measure's Mr. Cole."Trippy chuckled. "That'd be him. Has to be, since he hand wrote that shop sign."Pausing, he then asked in curiosity, "So, you've come to see him being a sucker?"The leader was naturally curious as to what Trippy was talking about. However, he was also reluctant to reveal why he had come since there was a killer bargain at stake. In fact, every other collector who was coming was k
Raymond also added that the 20 million price tag wouldn't be cut or increased. To put it simply, the bronze sculpture was right there in Aurous Hill and waiting—it was a race.Hence, many reputable collectors contacted expert appraisers throughout the night, some even booking night flights straight to Aurous Hill.The best amongst them was a fanatic collector of bronze items in Eastcliff.Following a brief exchange with Raymond online, he immediately called an expert who was also a close friend. As soon as his call was answered, he asked the other man if he had time to travel to Aurous Hill so that no one else would beat them to it—and they would drive out in the night if at all possible.After all, the earliest flight was at six in the morning, and it'd be eight by the time they made it to Aurous Hill Airport and nine by the time they got to Antique Street in a cab.Therefore, the ideal way to get there was by driving over six hundred miles at top speed, and that meant reaching A
While Jacob was feeling delighted after pulling off his con, Raymond had posted details of the bronze sculpture online.The website he was using was the biggest platform for antique collectors and the antique trade where each user could set a favorite tag in the antique category and era. If a user who preferred canvas art pieces of the Tudor dynasty set that label as their favorite, they would immediately be notified with text or desktop notifications in regards to any item with the same label.As medieval bronze sculptures were rare in the first place, most who were interested had already set that label on their favorites and were immediately notified soon after Raymond posted pictures of the bronze sculpture online.The collectors were naturally eager to check it out as gilded sculptures of the medieval era were really rare, and most collectors would go a lifetime without picking one up for their collection.On top of that, the seller had even listed a major flaw and was only ask
"Nope," Jacob chuckled. "We were both working separately and just happened to get back in at the same time."Then, he immediately became smug and excited, "Guess what, dear? I made 200 thousand out of the deal! In net profits!""For real?!" Elaine gaped. "200 thousand in just one night?! That's amazing! How did you do that?"Claire was surprised to hear that too, and she came over to ask, "What deal was it, Dad?"Jacob grinned, "Oh, it's nothing to brag about. It's just that I managed to pick up a nice antique item thanks to my wisdom and then sold it for 200 thousand."Pausing, he then sighed in dismay, "However, the buyer wasn't too rich—I would have squeezed him for 400 thousand, but he couldn't afford more, so I had to settle for less."Elaine quickly exclaimed, "Shit, we're talking about a loss of 200 thousand! People would work a year and still never earn that much…"She trailed off for a moment before asking, "By the way, dear—are we still flying out first thing tomorrow?
Jacob laughed. "Put that issue behind us? Sure, but we're not becoming friends. Hell, I can't even hold a grudge now that you're shit out of luck."Then, his tone changed sharply and suddenly became icy, "But you see, Aurous Hill is not a place you can stay just because you want to. No… After this, you're not going to be able to make a living in the antique trade.""If I were you, I'd be running a thousand miles away, far away from Aurous Hill where no one would know my face to start over. That way, you just might be able to make a living."Raymond simply kept smiling, "You need not be concerned about how I'm going to survive here, Mr. Wilson. I'd be very grateful if you'd cease any form of harassment once you leave my premises."Jacob pursed his lips, staring at Raymond in disappointment. "I'm plenty magnanimous, so I won't stoop to such pettiness. Just do whatever you like!"Clicking his tongue, he huffed, "Tut, tut… And here I'd thought you're tough, but you're just yet another
Raymond chuckled at the title, humble as ever, "The Duke of Wastage? Now, that's quite the royal title, and I don't think I deserve such an honor…"Trailing off, he then made an especially curious look, "By the way, how'd you know they were calling me that?"Seeing that he was still so ignorant, Jacob scoffed. "You bought a Renaissance-era bronze sculpture earlier, didn't you?"Raymond nodded. "I did. But technically, it's medieval and not Renaissance, along with a Renaissance-era base."Jacob clutched his stomach as he laughed, "Oh, please! Medieval? Hahaha… You're killing me, Mr. Cole!"Raymond kept a serious look on his face. "It's really medieval. Why don't you take a look?""No way," Jacob snorted, pursing his lips. "Anyway, word has already spread that someone was selling a counterfeit bronze sculpture to defraud Antique Street for some serious dough. He went first to Vintage Deluxe, but their manager, Mr. Crane, saw through it and didn't buy it… and then he came to you, an
That was why most of the collectors only knew that such an item existed but they did not know in whose possession it was.After registering a new account and paying the ten thousand registration fee, Raymond got in.It was very safe as it was anonymous, and he posted a photo of the bronze sculpture and an announcement with an asking price of twenty million.In his opinion, it wasn't that expensive—if it was still gilded, it would be worth around a hundred million. Without it, it was plenty reasonable to cut the price down to just thirty million.And Raymond was cutting another ten million off that, so twenty million was plenty reasonable.Moreover, medieval bronze sculptures were exceedingly rare, and less than one specimen showed up annually at times. Collectors who desired it would therefore be willing to break the bank for it, and that was why Raymond was sure that someone would put in an order once he posted it.As he wrote the summary of the item, someone knocked on his door
Jacob frowned in disdain. "Why would I be worried? He's no longer the manager of Vintage Deluxe, and he just lost a shit ton of money for messing up his appraisal. I am also the vice president of the Calligraphy and Painting Association, so why would I be worried about some loser who will soon be kicked out of Antique Street?"Straightening his collar, he snorted coldly, "I am now going to see Raymond Cole and humiliate him face-to-face! He thinks he's impressive, doesn't he? Let's see how he will keep up that facade!"Zachary chuckled, "Yes, exactly! People like him need to be given a slap in the face! As hard as you can! Don't worry—I'll be right behind you. If he gets physical, I'll rush in to help. If he doesn't dare to start a fight, you just insult him as much as possible!""Good plan!" Jacob nodded since he was concerned that Raymond might get physical when pushed too far.And with his body, there was no way he could beat anyone…Spreading his arms, he exclaimed, "Come! I'l
Mick inspected every video to see who was getting the most views, and he then paid out of his own pocket to use paid advertising to get the video viral.It cost five thousand and it hurt, but reaching the trending page was definitely worth it.Mick was quite shrewd too, making sure that the paid advertising was focused locally. After all, he knew all too well that five thousand didn't buy many clicks, and clicks from elsewhere might be too sporadic to gain any worthwhile attention.As he worked in Antique Street, he naturally had to come up with a plan to promote himself in this place, ideally presenting himself as a master appraiser.That way, his fame would slowly extend throughout the province and perhaps Eastern Oskia, and eventually the country.As such, focusing on Aurous Hill was the best idea.Moreover, he also had another idea—if Jasmine Moore happened to see this video, she would see him in a new light.When that happened, he could look forward to getting really rich!