Sky went out with his friends, so only Kaze, Darcy, and her parents stayed home for dinner. “Emiko, wait. Why don’t you have dinner with us?” After the dishes were served, Emiko wanted to return to the kitchen to clean up. She wanted to eat her dinner after Kaze and the others had finished, but Darcy stopped her. Their house was not that strict with rules. Emiko had been busy with dinner preparation, and if they sent her back to the kitchen to eat only after they had finished, then it would seem cold of them. “Emiko, come on. Sit down and eat with us. We are family after all,” Hector said. Emiko eventually accepted the invitation to dine with them. She grabbed her plate and spoon and sat at the very end of the table while thanking the family. It was then Agnes came back from washing her hand and when she saw Emiko at the table, her expression darkened. “Who allowed you to sit here? You are a servant, you have no right to dine with the masters! Get into the kitchen! Know y
As anger took over, Agnes’ twisted features made her look ferocious. Darcy knew the situation had gone out of hand. She quickly stepped in, standing between her husband and mother. “Mom, Emiko worked hard and she’s only getting minimum wage. She even prepared a feast for us from her own pocket. “Yet you slapped her, and shoved her away? Where is your conscience? Kaze did what he had to do, and he’s right!” “Get out of my way!” Anger consumed Agnes. She could no longer be reasoned with. She shoved her daughter away and shouted at Kaze, “You little bastard! You slapped me! I’ll get you!” She charged at Kaze like a mad woman, raising her hand for a slap. However, before she could land her slap, Kaze caught her wrist and held her down like a clamp. Slap! Kaze slapped her again, forcing her to stagger backward. “Agnes, you have always been unreasonable. I have endured your nonsense for Darcy’s sake. I want to believe you’ve been causing a scene for her own good. “Now,
Kaze slammed the documents in Agnes’ face. “Don’t try to fool me with some stupid paper!” Agnes scoffed without batting an eye at the deed. Darcy bent over to pick them up for a glance. Then, she looked at Kaze in shock. “T-This villa was given to you by… by Kent Synder?!” “Darcy, don’t get fooled by this shithead!” Agnes scoffed, “He’s a live-in son-in-law, a good-for-nothing bastard, who would give him this villa? This is fake! He must have forged it to fool you!” “Mom, Kent Synder is the mayor of Riverbank. Who has the nerve to impersonate the mayor?” Darcy explained with furrowed brows and disbelief. “What?!” Agnes was stunned. “Kaze, why would the mayor give you this villa?” Darcy asked. She knew her husband was a worker of miracles but it still surprised her from time to time. She could not believe that the mayor of Riverbank, whose authority rivaled the deputy governor, would give Kaze a villa. Kaze said, “On the way to Riverbank, I saved the mayor’s life
Seeing no hint of change in Kaze’s expression, Agnes screamed frustratedly and finally decided to give in. “Fine! Fine! I’ll apologize!” Agnes went up to Emiko and feebly said, “Emiko, I was wrong to slap you. I apologize. I’m sorry.” After two slaps on the face, Agnes finally humbled herself and apologized. The lesson made her more obedient for the night. Though she still spoke sarcastically whenever triggered, at least she dared not scold Kaze in the face anymore or give Emiko a hard time. Kaze had the most relaxing sleep in recent times that night. The next day, he woke up to an alluring breakfast, prepared by Emiko. As he took his first bite, his phone rang. He answered it and lifted the phone to his ear. A woman’s frosty voice said, “Kaze Lee, Mrs. Heartano wanted me to inform you that the market is opening soon. When are you going to kneel in front of St. Mary Hospital?” The woman was the hospital director, Keiko Biyanus. It seemed like after a night, the
“You better not do it.” With that said, Kaze walked out of the door. Crank! Agnes smashed the bowl on the floor and strode to the living room. She threw herself on the couch and cried for Hector, voicing her complaints. “That bastard! How dare he disrespect me!? He’s just a live-in son-in-law! This must end! “Hector! If you don’t tell your daughter to divorce that piece of shit, I’ll die in front of you…” Kaze had no idea Agnes had decided to force Darcy to divorce him. Half an hour later, he arrived at St. Mary Hospital. As expected, he saw a crowd at the entrance but Miya and her lapdogs were nowhere to be found, let alone seeing someone kneeling. “Guess she wants to learn it the hard way,” Kaze scoffed as he entered the hospital. Suddenly, a group of women dashed out of the hospital. It was Nadia and her friends. They went up to Kaze and stopped him. Nadia crossed her arms and scoffed, “Look who we have here. Kaze Lee, you finally showed up. I thought you d
“Mrs. Heartano will slap that shitty mouth of yours off your stupid face!” Nadia and her friends were furious. If they had not experienced Kaze’s furious slaps firsthand yesterday, they would have jumped on him and slapped him already. The group of girls surrounded Kaze, scolding him in public and causing a scene. A crowd gathered and they thought Kaze cheated on all of them. “If you don’t want to get slapped again, stay out of my way!” Kaze grabbed Nadia’s arm and pushed her away. He strode into the hospital, unwilling to be treated like a spectacle. “Kaze Lee, you’re finally here.” When he entered the lobby, he bumped into Miya. She was being escorted by Keiko and the others, walking toward him arrogantly. She glanced behind Kaze and scoffed, “You’re alone? I thought you said you wanted the share price of my family’s companies to plummet. “How are you going to do it without anyone to help you? With that mouth of yours, speaking mindless words? Was it not just for
“You keep this up, clown!” “I have never seen such a fool in my life!” Nadia and the others continued to mock Kaze. Miya looked at Kaze and shook her head helplessly. Then, she raised her hand at one of her men, and said without looking back, “Let people know that from now on, I, Miya Heartano, will go after Kaze Lee and his family. “All factions in Riverbank can start to make a move now. Anyone, anything, or any companies that are related to Kaze Lee can be targeted and they can come to me for a reward after they purged those filthy bastards! “Kaze Lee, you’re pretentious. Now I shall show you what true despair is…” She was fierce when she spoke, her eyes overflowing with murderous intent. One of her men nodded and went to make the necessary calls. However, before the man could make the first call, he received one. He answered it and a few seconds later, his expression changed. “Madam! This is bad!” Miya was drinking the coffee her other man had brought her and s
A while later, almost every one of Miya’s men received a phone call. “Madam! This just came in! The men we sent to Ridgesouth were arrested by the police, suspected of smuggling.” “The livestream account you’ve been on is now banned. They claimed that you are doing false advertising and spreading false information, tax evasion…” “A few artists under one of our labels got their contracts terminated by companies in the mainland…” …The calls were ceaseless and sounded like a symphony of distress and bad news. All the calls reported something bad happening to Heartanos’ family business. Miya’s expression shifted multiple times. She was skeptical at first, simply assuming it was just a coincidence. As more and more calls came in, she almost lost her balance. Many of the reports were trivial matters and usually, Miya would not even bat an eye at them. The people in charge of the respective subsidiary companies would deal with them. Yet when all of them happened at onc
“Do ask around,” Kaze said without being overly concerned. Since he was with Dwight, if they got any news, it would attract even more attention. However, if they did not ask around for more after causing a scene, it would also be strange. Therefore, Dwight’s little investigation was a great cover. “I have to use the toilet. Wait for me here,” Kaze said as he got up. Dwight nodded at Kaze as he was going to make a call. “Sure. If you want to leave, just give me a heads up.” He then sat down on the couch, took a sip of beer, and leisurely watched girls dancing on the dance floor. After seeing Dwight’s casual reaction, Kaze lowered his guard against him. He had been observing Dwight since the start and now he finally knew the man well enough. Dwight never saw Kaze as an outsider or some VIP guest. He was thoughtful and kind and never harbored any ill intentions. “He’s really a simple guy.” Kaze headed to the toilet as he muttered to himself. On the way there, he sa
“She’s quite capable but this will cost her.” Kaze thought Rosie was not being rational enough. If a customer crossed the line, she would have every reason to throw him out. There was no need to endure him or suck up for the sake of a little business. Rosie might seem to be the boss of the club but she often had to endure ridiculous requests for the sake of the well-being of the establishment. Dominic’s words made many uncomfortable, especially the waiter and the security guards. They were ready to throw him out. If he continued to be rude, they would not mind being physical with him. When Dominic calmed down, he would realize what he had done. After all, when one was drunk, one would not have total control over his or her actions, which would lead to making mistakes. Such mistakes would easily slip due to the person being drunk but it only worked when the person could not remember or was not conscious at all. If a person remained sane and could act logically, then be
“I’ll let this slip but you guys can’t always ruin my fun,” Dominic said with a frown. His plan of having fun was foiled before anything could happen. Rosie’s expression turned bitter. “That girl is just an innocent lady, our customer. You can’t just force yourself on her.” Dominic was not deterred. He believed that with his status and how much he had spent at the club, he could do anything he wanted. Yet the boss interrupted his plan and even let the girl go. It fueled his resentment. “Since when is Absolute Zero scared of anything? That girl is just some random girl, and even if I drag her to my bed, nothing bad will happen,” he said confidently. He even moved closer to Rosie, putting his chubby hand around her waist. Dwight was surprised as he had never encountered such a situation before. Dominic acted like he owned the club. He tried to force a girl against her will and now he put his dirty hand on the boss of the club. He was just the boss of a company who
“Stop causing problems!” The security guards gained on Kaze and Dwight, trying to get them out of the club. Dwight was also a hot-tempered person and he could not allow injustice to happen, especially to himself. “It’s that fat prick who started it! Why aren’t you guys throwing him out? The girl has made it clear that they don’t know each other! Why are you two gaining on us?!” He was not weak and could easily take down two security guards, but he remained resentful. They tried to help a girl but the situation turned on them. “You can’t be sure. Maybe the girl is playing hard to get. This is not Mr. Jarbosky’s first time here, and he will never break the rules here,” the security guard said. His words attracted even more attention, but they dared not speak up. Vivi’s face turned pale. She wanted to explain but nothing came out of her mouth. Her explanations seemed weak. Everyone seemed to believe that she seduced Dominic, but she was the victim. “No! It’s not like t
“Kaze, you might not know since you are new here but he’s the boss of Dominion Group, Dominic Jarbosky. We can’t offend him. His company works closely with the Viper’s Den.” Dwight came over and whispered into Kaze’s ears. He just wanted to inform Kaze to rethink his decision. The girl might be in danger but she had it coming. Coming to a club in a skimpy outfit was certainly a bad idea. Since Dominic had his eyes on her, and she did not want his company, then it was up to her to break free. Dwight thought that by explaining Dominic’s status to Kaze, the conflict would be resolved. “I said, it’s time for you to stop,” Kaze said once more, his tone colder than before. Dominic frowned after being interrupted once more. He finally got his eyes on a young girl who looked beautiful and innocent, thinking he could release his sexual desires on her for the entire night, yet someone poked his nose into his business. “What do you have to do with this? Are you into this girl as w
“Seems like there’s nothing to see here.” Kaze was slightly disappointed. He came here just to find out more about the club’s operations and the person running the place. Yet there was nothing he found, or maybe he did not get the right chance. Clubs were loud and messy, fights even broke out occasionally. Men would fight over a woman, and once the fight broke out, the person in charge of the club must step up to resolve the conflict. Kaze just needed to wait patiently for the chance to arrive. With alcohol involved, people tended to be impulsive and physical once the girls rejected them. Dwight continued to test his luck but got turned down every single time. A few minutes later, a void formed around him with no girls wanting to be close to him. He was annoyed. He was tall and handsome, yet no girls wanted to be with him. He saw other men, who were shorter and looked normal, surrounded by girls. The only difference was the watches and branded outfits they wore.
As they arrived, they saw a dozen expensive cars parked outside. The customer base was relatively stable as the establishment was targeted at the upper class. The people lining up at the club were young men and women of ordinary background. All were allowed inside Absolute Zero with an entrance fee. Since this would be a chance for ordinary people to meet and interact with the upper-class elites, they cherished it and tried their best to look good. Even movie producers and scriptwriters came to the club, seeking investments or a role in movie production. It was a shortcut to reach out to the upper crust after all. Yet they were just a bunch of fresh graduates with no resources and connections, so the club was their only chance at achieving something great. Dwight would never understand how rare the opportunity was, as he was narrow-sighted. He had never experienced power and wealth before, so he lacked the understanding of how things worked in society. “I never thought
With that in mind, Dwight checked his outfit. His black leather jacket brought out his height and wild side. He then observed Kaze. The latter was dressed casually. Dwight was worried that they would not be allowed into Absolute Zero because of their attire. Nevertheless, he could not let slip that he had never been to Absolute Zero. Without a word, Dwight led Kaze down the apartment building. Kaze could pick up on Dwight’s nerves. While in the elevator, Dwight could not stop straightening out his clothes. It was clear that he was nervous. Even so, Kaze said nothing and pretended not to notice. They got into the car and drove to an alley. The area was not huge, but there were stands selling street food. “The food is great here. Since it’s early, we can grab a bite.” Dwight was not being tight with money. As their destination was a bar, there was no need to get a proper meal. “I’ll get a skewer then.” Kaze did not have much of an appetite anyway. “Okay. I’ll or
“You’re the guest. I should be hosting you, but I don’t seem to be doing a good job.” Dwight knew he had to do better. “It’s okay. I don’t have much to do. It’s just a delivery anyway.” Kaze bought a lot of stuff online. All they had to do was wait for the delivery. Once the items arrived, they could head out. Dwight talked about taking him to a bar under the Viper’s Den’s umbrella. It was a great opportunity for Kaze to check out the scene. He had heard that the Wittersons were tied to all the Viper’s Den’s business operations.Kaze would not meet Edmund and Morris in person, but he would grasp all information related to them. Then, Kaze would stir things up between them and sit back while reaping the benefits. Kaze had it all planned out. He simply had to take his time in playing the long game. Nevertheless, it was important for him to remain discreet. At the very least, he should not show them what he was made of. It was easy to execute his plan when everybody