Although Jude had come to value Kaze more, he still despised the young man who had slapped him. He created a rift between him and his daughter. Most importantly, he obstructed his path to power.The idea of begging Kaze was simply impossible.“Faith, don’t worry. Just wait a little longer…”Jude avoided her desperate gaze and said softly, “Dr. Wright has already contacted the two renowned doctors. They'll be here as soon as possible…”“Bang!”Just then, one of his men forced open the ward door and hurriedly entered, looking grim. “Chief, Dr. Wright asked me to inform you that he has contacted the two doctors.“However... Dr. Notthingham is unreachable. It seems he's out traveling again.“And Dr. Hardy has agreed to come. But the earliest he can make it is in three days. He also insists that you prepare one hundred million dollars in advance for his consultation fee…”“Bang!”Jude collapsed onto the floor, his face turning ashen.He could afford one hundred million dollars. An
It was ten in the evening, the perfect hour for supper.When Kaze and Buffy arrived at the Highland Lamb House, it had already been reserved entirely for their gathering.The usually bustling hall was silent, with only Jude seated at a central table. In front of him, a copper pot steamed away. There were plates of thinly sliced lambs on the table, arranged meticulously. Jude picked up a slice with his chopsticks and dipped it into the broth.His movements were slow and deliberate. Besides, he looked calm and seemed to be enjoying himself. It was a stark contrast to the anxious demeanor he had shown back in the hospital.Beside him sat a man who looked like a figure out of legend, with a long robe, a goatee, and an air of serene detachment. He, too, took his time with the food, seeming to savor each moment like a wandering sage.Buffy clearly recognized this man and was surprised to see him there. After a brief pause, she regained her composure and approached the man with a res
Jude might be attentive but he had no plans to introduce Kaze to Alfonso. Kaze did not mind either. He dipped the piece of meat into the sauce and then put it inside his mouth. He then said, “I am not a picky eater. As long as it’s cooked, I can put it in my mouth. Deputy Chief Gwake, make yourself at home, eat whatever you want, don’t mind me. It will only make me feel awkward. I feel like I am in debt to you, and I don’t like that. “Why don’t we split the bill for this supper?” Kaze then put a bank card on the table. What he suggested was certainly not a joke. Jude’s expression shifted when he saw the bank card. Alfonso’s expression darkened as well. His gaze at Kaze showed a hint of anger and contempt. Splitting the bill over supper with the deputy chief of the Viper’s Den South River Branch? Was it an insult intended for him or Jude? If people heard about this, they would assume that Jude could not even afford supper. Buffy looked rather helpless. She knew her f
Kaze saw through Jude’s hypocrisy with a glance. He did not pick up his glass for the proposed toast and simply scoffed. “Thank you for the high regards, Deputy Chief Gwake. Oh, may I ask about the Nether Viper Sword? “You bought it back a while ago, how did it feel? I think with the sword, you should be able to become chief right?” His mocking remarks left Jude stunned, his smile frozen. Kaze struck Jude at his weakness, rubbing salt in his wound. Alfonso looked at Kaze with narrowed eyes, his expression clearly displeased. After a brief observation, he realized Kaze was rude and impolite, he lacked the EQ to deal with people. Alfonso hated people like Kaze the most. Before Jude could say a word, Kaze skipped to the point and said, “Deputy Chief Gwake, let’s just skip the nonsense. This isn’t our first meeting, just tell me what you want. “If you are here just to eat supper with me, I could have just had supper with your daughter alone.” Buffy blushed at his words.
“Then do you have a way to cure the condition?” Jude asked, his body leaned forward and his eyes showed a sense of hope. “I am a man of my word. If I said I can cure your wife, then I can cure your wife.” Kaze confidently said, “It’s not a difficult issue, and it won’t take long, probably around half an hour. Then, all her health issues can be cured.” Even Hannah, who was completely crippled after her first meeting with Kaze, was cured and recovered to her prime. Faith’s condition was incurable to most of the doctors but to Kaze, it was nothing serious. Pft! Alfonso could not help but chuckle. He found Kaze’s confidence amusing. His tone was frivolous, which felt unconvincing. Jude was skeptical as well. “Half an hour? You’re that confident? I believe you only saw my wife for a very brief time. How are you planning to do that?” “Since this is a condition caused by the old martial arts, of course, I’ll use the ways of the old martial arts. That’s all I can tell you for
Kaze then realized what he said sounded wrong. He laughed and then explained, “What were you thinking? I mean I believe in your capabilities and if you use the money to run a business, you’ll be able to make a hundred times more. You just have to pay me a dividend and I don’t need to worry anymore.” Buffy simply grunted and then kept quiet. Watching Kaze tease and flirt with her daughter right in front of his face, Jude felt disgusted and repulsive. “If you don’t want money, what do you want?” he asked, his expression darkened. Kaze explained, “If you want to know how much I charge for saving Faith, then let me tell you not even all the money in the world. “As for what I want, I have already made it clear the other day. You owed Buffy and her mother an explanation. “As for Faith, she offended me and now I have to save her? Does she even deserve it?” Kaze did not show any courtesy as he explained. Buffy looked at him with a sense of warmth and emotion. Jude felt that h
“And the Krads... I don’t like people knocking at my door with trouble but if they insist on waking up the dragon, I don’t mind burning them all alive, since the dragon is simply slumbering. “As for the deputy chief, branch chief of the South River Branch, I am not interested. To be honest, I think even the position of West State Branch Leader is a burden. “Besides, you are just the deputy chief and you have not even been selected yet. Isn’t it a little too early to jump to conclusions? “Most importantly, you made me these offers because you want me to temporarily choose sides. Given your personality, it’s no big deal that you walk away from the promise. “Can I say that once I treated Faith and at the next second, you two will come after me, trying to slice me into a thousand pieces? Am I right? “So don’t simply make empty offers. I am not interested and I found them funny.” Kaze looked and sounded frivolous. Jude’s expression darkened as he asked gravely, “If you already
“You! How dare you!” Jude slammed the table and bellowed, “Just because you are slightly capable, you think you can disrespect me and treat me like a fool? You’re asking for it!” His eyes were burning with anger, his teeth clenched, and he looked like a vicious beast trying to devour Kaze. As he bellowed, Serene and the agents pulled their guns out, and pointed them at Kaze as they stared at him coldly. One word from Jude and they would rain bullets on him. The atmosphere in the restaurant became tense and heavy. Buffy’s face paled. She looked at Kaze, worried. Despite being surrounded by guns and Jude’s ferocious glare, Kaze remained unfazed. He remained seated, unfazed. “Splash!” Suddenly, Kaze splashed a cup of tea at Jude’s face. He said, “Jude, stop playing mind games with me. Your little gang might scare others but not me. “No one begs people like you do. If you want to ask for a favor, try to show some humility.” Jude’s face was wet, and several pieces of
“How dare those men hijack the plane and take Kaze. They must be punished…” Despite her grumbles, Snow grew anxious. “Given Mr. Lee’s capabilities, he won’t be hurt.” The agents around her tried to comfort her. They believed she was being too nervous. “I know, but we as subordinates have failed him by allowing this to happen. We have to do our best to make up for the mistake, and not rely on Mr. Lee to get out because he can.” Snow drowned in self-blame and regretted not being able to help. It was her negligence that allowed the hijacking to happen. “But there’s nothing you can do now. It’s late. Even the hijackers need to rest. They won’t do anything yet.” “It’s because the hijackers need to rest that we have to hurry and beat them to it. That’s the only way to solve this matter!” “But we’ve searched high and low and didn’t find anything. No one knows where they have gone. Even if they transported the passengers via buses, we didn’t see any tracks.” The agents discu
Kaze breathed a sigh of relief. He quickly went over to Miguel and pressed his hands with the gun down so that it would not misfire. “Good job.” “Thanks.” Miguel curled his lips into a nervous smile. He frequently trained in the gym and mixed martial arts but had never encountered any real-life incident before, thus being inexperienced. Fortunately, his mentality was stronger than the others and allowed him to act accordingly. “I’ll be taking the gun. This is self-defense, you won’t be charged and you won’t need to take responsibility,” Kaze said. Miguel’s pale face looked relieved. “What should we do now? Are there more of them?” Miguel dared not let go of the gun, worried there might be more enemies. “I’ve counted the numbers and this guy here should be the last one.” He then took the gun from Miguel’s hands. “Really? Gosh! That was crazy! I was so terrified!” Miguel finally loosened up and let his instinct take over. His heart was pounding so fast that it
Manson came over and saw the mercenaries lying in their own puddle of blood. The gore shocked him and made him sick. He tried his best to hold back the urge to throw up as it would attract attention. “Don’t look if you can’t take it! Don’t make things worse!” “Yeah! Professor! Grow a pair of balls!” “I have never seen dead bodies like this before!” he explained with a flush of embarrassment on his face. “Can we go out now and run away?” The hostages were eager to leave as things had settled down outside. They thought the danger was over. A dead mercenary was inside the container with them and they were still horrified. Once the others found out about this, the hostages would be shot to death. “If you want to die, be my guest. The moment you step out, you’ll be shot!” Callahan said as he looked at the others scornfully. One of the hostages had already put his hand on the handle of the door and was ready to dash out, but he quickly pulled his hand back after listening
“Tsk. Hold on.” Vexed, the man clicked his tongue and then waved at his colleague. “Come here. Someone fainted. Help me get him out.” The man wanted to take the professor out of the container. Manson’s heart pounded as he listened to the man. He was afraid he might be exposed, but there was no turning back now—he had to play along. Kaze stood behind the door, calming his breath down to lower his presence. “Get back. Stay away from the door. If anyone gets close, don’t blame me for being rough,” said the man as he unlocked the container. He opened the door and saw a number of hostages still sleeping. He then looked at the professor on the floor. He went closer to nudge him but did not get a response. It seemed like the professor needed medical attention. “Come on. Help me get him out.” The other man outside the container was on edge, looking as if he would pull the trigger at the slightest movement. “Why don’t we do it?” Callahan and Miguel volunteered. “You two
“It’s freaking troublesome.” “Boss, don’t worry about it. We’ll get an update tomorrow.” “Yeah. It’s late. Get some rest.” Tiguan’s men told him to get some rest and not worry so much. A few of them were already snoring on the chair. Tiguan sighed and killed the cigarette. He then closed his eyes to get some rest, too. The container that Kaze was in fell into silence once more. No one dared to make any noise but they all looked at Kaze, hoping to find out about his plans. Kaze’s eyes remained fixed on the window and showed no intention of revealing his thoughts. Miguel and Callahan were annoyed by the other hostages. “If you people want to get out of here alive, you better cooperate or come up with your own idea. No one is responsible for saving you.”“Yeah. I don’t want you guys to turn on us after we do all the heavy lifting. It will cost us our lives and you people won’t even be grateful.” Miguel’s tone was sarcastic because he disliked how the others looked at t
Kaze read the hostages’ minds and refused to be used. He wanted to leave but not under such circumstances. “That’s not true. We just don’t have the skills for this kind of situation. You guys are stronger, of course, you should be in the front,” said the man in glasses and a suit. A hint of sharpness gleamed in his eyes. Miguel knew what the man was planning, either. “That’s some plan you have there. You are just trying to use us to escape this place and no matter what happens, you’ll win.” “That’s not it! I just want everyone to stand together and get out of this place. I’ve never thought of using anyone!” the man argued, trying to look innocent. Even a monkey knew what he was planning, yet no one dared to speak up because they would benefit from it too. “Why don’t you guys think of something? If you need our help, we’ll help,” said another middle-aged gentleman who looked more just and fair, as if he could lead the group. “Then what is your plan?” Kaze suddenly wante
The hostages were locked up in the containers. Some of them were elites in their own field while some were ordinary people with average income, yet all of them got into trouble when they boarded the plane. Most of them could not accept their fate. Yet they dared not defy or resist the mercenaries. When things started to calm down, they broke down in tears, weeping in silence as resentment consumed them. Kaze sat down at a clean corner that allowed him to look outside the window. The window was dirty but at least he could see outside. The space inside the container was filled with people sitting closely, offering comfort to one another. They were aware they were just temporarily safe in this container. No one knew what the mercenaries would do to them at the next moment. “My parents must be worried. I said I would call them when I land but now I can’t even get in touch,” Barney muttered as he sat beside Kaze. He too looked outside the window, his feelings mixed. He watc
Kaze thought of what he had overheard in the toilet. If he told the hostages about that, they would probably panic. “It’s nothing. They are just going to separate us into different rooms or containers. They said the buses would be disposed of,” he said. He did not want to reveal too much because it would cause panic. Once the hostages knew their lives were on the line, things might spiral out of control. The mercenaries could kill a few of them to make an example, and none of the hostages would dare to cause problems anymore. Kaze kept it a secret because he wanted to protect the people. “That’s it?” “Is there anything else? How many men are there? What is their plan? Who are they looking for?” “We want to know because we want to survive. This isn't our problem—we just got caught up in it.” The hostages looked at Kaze, their eyes filled with worry. They felt aggrieved because they should not be caught in such a huge problem. “I don’t know either.” No matter how m
“There’s a room there. Get in.” The mercenary pointed his gun at the mother and son, which led them to look at Kaze nervously, seemingly asking for help. “What do you want?” The mother was nervous. She clutched her son’s hand tightly, nearly making him cry, but she reacted quickly enough to cover her son’s mouth to prevent him from doing so. “All women must go into that room. You go in now,” the mercenary explained. He did not want the woman to get the wrong idea. “You people won’t hurt me, right?” the mother asked, worried that she might be ravaged. “We are not into MILF,” said the other mercenary who was escorting Kaze, indirectly assuring the mother. Kaze shot a glance at the mother and nodded at her. “They told us they were going to separate us, so there’s nothing to worry about,” he said, worried that the mother and son would not cooperate. The mother then carried her son and followed the other mercenary into the room. It was called a room but it was actually ju