Late at night. Charlie parked his car in a roadside parking lot and disappeared at the end of the alley. The Cole family mansion was located at the bend of a U-shaped stream. The mansion was right at the inner end of the U-shaped stream, so the mansion was not only at the end of the road but also surrounded by a stream on three sides. Not long ago, Charlie had remotely ordered Porter to kill Mr. Jothurn in Cyprus using a high-tech weapon combined with close-in defense artillery, so he knew very well that he must lay low and be extremely discreet tonight. Instead of rushing straight to the mansion, he decided to approach the mansion from the riverbank on the other side of the river. While hiding in the dark and moving silently, Charlie utilized his Reiki to constantly explore the surrounding situation. When he was about one mile from the mansion, he stopped and released more Reiki to explore the area within a radius of several hundred miles near the mansion. Soon, he discovere
Julien muttered in concern, "Everyone else is guarding the main access by land, water, and air, and we're the only ones sitting here waiting for a miracle. What if the miracle doesn't come? Our efforts would be in vain." He then pursed his lips and added, "This is not an ordinary mission. It's related to family inheritance. It will be all over if someone else gets the upper hand." "What do you have in mind?" asked Royce hastily. Julien was silent for a moment and attested, "I think the two of us should divide the work. I'll stay here to monitor the mansion, and you should go back. One is to find other ways, and another task is to monitor the others' progress. We'll see how far ahead or behind we are to others on getting to the treasure tower." "Alright!" Royce nodded decisively. "I'll get the chopper ready now." "I'll arrange it, and tell Hank about it by the way," said Julien. As he said that, he grabbed his phone and called Hank over. After a moment, Hank knocked on the
Skepticism immediately flashed across Julien's, Royce's, and Hank's eyes as they stood in the pitch-black room. Just as Hank was in a daze in the darkness, a loud commotion came from the walkie-talkie. A man said, "What's with the blackout?! All our monitoring equipment is down!" Another man echoed, "All the detection devices are also down! We can't see anything in the control room. The IFF has been disabled!" "What the heck is going on?!" another man shouted in confusion. "The villa has two power lines, doesn't it?!" Someone snapped, "So what?! There is no power now! Who is in charge of logistic support? Why didn't he prepare a backup power supply?!" Someone cursed, "No one said to prepare one! Even if the FBI goes out on a mission, they will not bring a backup power supply unless they go to the Middle East or Afghanistan! With so much equipment and power, what kind of backup power supply can meet the needs? A Cummins diesel generator? Should I get a power truck for you?"
Alas, Brody was too arrogant and had no sense of crisis. Charlie was different. He realized the importance of being prepared for anything, so he always had a wise method to counter the challenges. At this moment, in the dark room, Hank listened to the commotion in the walkie-talkie and barked, "Shut up! All of you! Go and repair the line right now! Everyone else should be alert and keep a close eye on the Cole family mansion! The rat may return to its nest! This time, we will catch it in the act!" Julien jumped in excitement and beamed, "Hank is right! Biden or his family must have come back to take the treasure tower! I told you that Biden was lying all this while. He said that the swapping was all his doing and had nothing to do with his family. From what I see, his family is in this together! It must be one of his family members who came back!" With that, he warned, "Hank, you must hold back! Wait until they get the treasure tower and catch them all in one fell swoop! Reme
Julien, Royce, and Hank were freaked out as the voice of a fourth man echoed across the dark room. As the faint light came in from the window, the three men could see the outline of a man standing in front of them, but they couldn't see his face. Judging from the figure and voice, they could tell that the man was relatively young, but they had no idea how or when the man had appeared in the room. There was a hint of playfulness and coldness in the man's voice, which made the three men extremely panicked. The man speaking was Charlie. The reason why the villa was without power was because Charlie had destroyed the two power lines across the river using his Reiki. Charlie knew that the villa was equipped with high-tech monitoring and self-defense equipment, so he decided to cut off the power. Ordinary houses did not have backup power. The villa had two power lines, one main and one backup, which was a high-end configuration in the residence. Once the two lines were cut, the hou
Royce hastily began, "Sir, my name is Royce Rothschild, the eldest grandson of Harrison Rothschild, the current patriarch of the family—" He then gestured at Julien and continued, "This is my father, Julien Rothschild, my grandfather's eldest son." Charlie glanced at the two men and drew a breath in surprise. He hadn't expected to encounter the inner circle of the core members of the Rothschild family. Normally, the eldest son and the eldest grandson of the family's current patriarch were the first and second heirs of the family. With the presence of these two people, Charlie would be fine taking the Four-Sided Treasure Tower out of the Cole family mansion and even out of the United States. Thus, Charlie composed himself and told Julien and Royce, "Listen to my instruction, and I will spare your lives. However, you only have one chance. If you disobey me even once, I'll kill you right away. Do you understand?" "Yes, yes!" The two hurriedly nodded and said in unison, "We u
"Take your chopper?" Charlie looked at Julien skeptically and queried, "Where can your chopper take me?" Julien answered hastily, "Its range is about 300 miles. You can go anywhere it can fly!" He then added, "I just told the pilot to get ready to take off. You can go anytime!" "Where were you heading when you told the pilot to prepare for takeoff?" asked Charlie. Julien quickly responded, "I was planning to have Royce go home and check on the situation, to see how the others are progressing and gather some information..." Charlie replied calmly, "You're sending your son home, not outside the blockade. How can you be sure that your chopper can enter and exit the blockade?" Julien affirmed, "I'm the first heir of the family. My chopper can definitely get in and out freely. No one can stop me." "We'll see about that," Charlie smirked. He then turned to Hank and ordered, "You will accompany Mr. Royce to take the chopper for a spin. Fly directly outside the blockade area
Hank's men responded promptly, "Alright, boss! We’ve got it!" Charlie knew that there were hundreds of people watching the Cole family mansion now. He could sneak in quietly, but it was impossible to go to the gate and take the Four-Sided Treasure Stone from the lion statue. Moreover, he did not know whether he could take the treasure tower out of that place. There was no doubt that no one would be able to stop him if he forced his way out of the restricted area with the tower, but he would risk exposing himself. Currently, the big trouble with the Qing Eliminating Society hadn't been solved yet. It would only give him more trouble if he exposed himself to the Rothschild family now. Hence, Charlie needed to think of a method that was as safe as possible. He would have fulfilled Raymond's wish as long as he could quietly bring the treasure tower back to Oskia. It was now about three hours before dawn. Charlie decided to see if the helicopter route was feasible. Ten minutes l
Naturally, Jimmy couldn't care less about Julien's suggestion, even looking at him pointedly from head to toe while smirking in contempt, "What, do you think I'd just do what any nutjob tells me to do just because they're claiming to be the Rothschilds' heir apparent?"Julien nodded, still smiling. "Good point, but don't worry—it's the same whether you call him or he calls you."Jimmy laughed. "I was offering you a way out, but you want to keep pressing your luck? Since you don't care to back off, let's see how you're going to finish this fight."Then, he shrugged while pointing at Yolden. "Well, it's the perfect chance to measure Matilda's husband, I guess."Based on what he saw of Yolden, there was no way he would buy Julien's claims, and thus labeled him an impostor in his mind.An ordinary lecturer in Aurous Hill, being friends with the Rothschilds' heir apparent? Not to mention that there had been plenty of fraudulent cases outside the States where the Rothschild name was use
Jimmy was taken aback since he didn't recognize Julien at all, mainly because the Rothschilds had always kept out of the public eye.In fact, it was basically impossible to gather genuine information about the Rothschilds online, as it was a mix of press releases and gossip. Most online biographies would only be about the older generations or certain frivolous figures. Any information about key members like Steve would never be searchable online.Matilda was confused as well, not quite understanding who Julien was since he wasn't on the list of guests invited.Seeing that she was confused, Julien turned and smiled at Yolden, "So, Professor, shouldn't you introduce me to the bride?"Yolden finally remembered that and quickly nodded, "Sorry, it slipped my mind."Turning toward Matilda, he smiled, "Darling, this is Julien Rothschild… A friend of mine from the states…"Julien's full name left everyone within earshot gaping as the Rothschild name was way too famous across the globe.
Seeing that Jimmy was getting a little nervous, Charlie smiled and assured him, "Please, you have nothing to worry about. No one's going to do anything to you, but if you feel threatened in any way, you can call the cops. The Oskian emergency hotline is 110, by the way."Jimmy was slightly relieved as he could see that Charlie really wasn't trying to make things awkward for him, and he straightened his collar as he said, "Actually, I didn't mean to cause trouble—I'm pleased that Matilda has found true love once more, and if we can be friends, I can set aside my claim and stay for the rest of this wedding, offering the newlyweds our best wishes as a representative of my family."Still, his expression showed contempt as he turned toward Yolden. "Also, I'm really curious and looking forward to seeing what connections Professor Hart might have that you say could be better than Bill.""You'll see soon enough," Charlie smiled and nodded.Jimmy remained skeptical and scoffed, "I really do
If Charlie really did get Jimmy to stay, who knew what other rubbish Jimmy would spout.As for Jimmy, he was actually surprised Charlie was asking him to stay, and his instincts told him that Charlie definitely didn't mean well.Not only that, he was on foreign soil—wouldn't he be defenseless if Charlie called in his friends to beat him up?Hence, he shook his head without hesitation as he said, "I'm sorry, but my sister-in-law is quite keen for me to leave, so I have no reason to stay and add to her problems. And it is her big day. I can afford to let her save face instead of spilling the beans on her all at once.""Oh, but you were complaining about the lack of important people just now!" Charlie quickly interjected. "It just so happens that we have a big-shot on his way here, and he's a good friend of the groom. When I told him about you over the phone, he said to keep you here no matter what it took, since he would like to talk to you face to face."Jimmy frowned. "What, are y
And with those words, Jimmy turned to leave.Despite threatening Matilda, there was no such agreement, and he knew that Matilda was well aware of that.Regardless, the only strategy he had in mind when he came to Oskia was harassment. As such, he simply came up with a lie to make Matilda look bad in public. All it took from there was just for one person to relay what he had said—even if it were all lies, Matilda's character would still be called into question.He made himself very clear so that Matilda would understand that if she didn't give in, his family would keep hounding her to take their two pounds of flesh. Even if she wouldn't surrender the stateside estates and human resources of Smith Group Corporate Law, they would still claim a sizable chunk.But if that failed too, they would just have to destroy Matilda's reputation along with Smith Group Corporate Law.Either way, they were not letting her off easy!And reading that much from Jimmy's behavior, Matilda snapped co
Jimmy didn't expect Matilda to break down the share ownership of Smith Group Corporate Law to such detail, and he hollered as he was starting to feel embarrassed, "Now, you're just being irresponsible, Matilda. My father gave my brother a million to start the law firm in the first place, and they had agreed that the family would have a stake, albeit only at 49%, to not deny your decision-making as a startup. Or are you denying it?"Matilda immediately became furious and snapped, "Bullshit! That was just a loan of one million, and the agreed term was three years. However, your brother returned it in one! I even asked him to return the money with every single one of his siblings watching, since you might all get skeptical, yet suddenly, you're calling it an investment?""You said he's returned it? Well, what proof do you have?" Jimmy quickly shot back. "Our entire family can testify that the money hasn't come back to us!""So, this is how you're going to play it?" Matilda smirked. "Th
In the first place, Jimmy had come to Oskia to claim a stake in Smith Group Corporate Law, ideally strong-arming Paul and Matilda into splitting the firm in two, with Jimmy taking everything in the States while Paul kept what was left.The way Jimmy saw it, Paul and Matilda were going to be permanently residing in Oskia anyway. There was no way they could manage things over in another country properly, so it was basically returning the firm to the rightful owner.Naturally, Jimmy also knew that despite bearing the Smith family name, the success of Smith Group Corporate Law was all the work of Jimmy's brother and Matilda. Jimmy's father had helped to a certain extent, but that extent of financial support wouldn't amount to an investment at all. No judge in the world would support his claim to the law firm's shares.Therefore, when he learned that Matilda was remarrying, he thought he could seize the moment to cause a scene. Nothing could be better if she and Paul decided to sacrifice
Jimmy deliberately raised his voice as he said coolly, "Oh, but I didn't want to intervene. It's you and your mother who left the States in a split second, taking with you the law firm which bears the Smith family name. Don't you think such behavior is inappropriate?"Seeing the surprised reactions of the guests, Paul promptly retorted, "The law firm uses the Smith family name, but it is my parents' legacy! They worked blood and sweat to build it from the ground up, and as their only son, I have a veto when it comes to decisions. Or did we need your permission to move to Oskia?""Where's your conscience, Paul?" Jimmy pursed his lips. "Even if you don't know how Smith Group Corporate Law was founded, is that the case for you? It would have been a joke if it weren't for my father's connections!"Hell, it's no exaggeration that it was my father who fought to expand the law firm across America, and just using the family name means you're borrowing the family's influence. The family hono
The blonde man's voice drew everyone's attention in an instant.Despite his foreign appearance, he spoke Oskian fluently and walked with a haughty gait, almost as though he was above the rest.Paul's expression turned grim the instant he saw him, and he hurried over with Charlie.Still, before Paul could speak, Charlie stopped him, frowning at the man as he said, "Don't you think it's inappropriate to come slinging personal attacks at someone else's wedding?"The man clearly didn't know Charlie, and he wasn't worried, seeing that he was young.Snorting in disdain, he asked, "You must be from the groom's family, yes? Please tell him that he doesn't deserve my sister-in-law.""It's up to the happy couple to decide that," Charlie retorted quietly. "Deserving someone is no issue as long as they both love each other."The man pursed his lips and looked pointedly around him. "Just look at how simple this wedding is. Forget picking an unassuming city like Aurous Hill—is there a single