chsdbacks Page 37
Page 37
67. Replace coffee with Nestlé. [Please subscribe and give flowers!]
The Midtown Financial Company building at this time.
Only the chairman's office had its lights on.
"Lady Alexandra, they rejected our offer to acquire you, but they have agreed to attend the cocktail party we're hosting tomorrow night."
A Japanese man in a suit, standing ramrod straight, bowed respectfully to a middle-aged woman sitting in the CEO's seat in the office.
Nobuyoshi Yoshioka.
He was considered second only to the Five Fingers in status within the Hand.
When Five Fingers wasn't in New York, he was in charge of handling the New York branch's affairs.
Of course, if five fingers were to appear, he would have to step aside.
"This is such a headache. How did that thing end up in Ryan's hands?" Alexandra sighed, rubbing her forehead.
This woman, dressed in a white suit, with a furrowed brow and an aura of authority and decadence, is Alexandra, one of the five fingers of the Hand.
She is not only the CEO of Zhongchengquan Financial Company, but also owns companies in multiple fields such as real estate, biotechnology, and port logistics. She is a billionaire, but she has always been very low-key and rarely appears in public. Only a few people know about her strength.
"Is that woman not even slightly willing to budge?" Alexandra said. "Are we confident we can persuade her to sell the building to us by tomorrow night?"
“Sir, even Ryan can’t refuse the Hand!” Yoshioka Shin said confidently. “Ryan is just a nouveau riche, while the Hand is an ancient organization with thousands of years of history! If Ryan doesn’t know what’s good for him, then perhaps we should show Ryan the power of the Hand, for example, by taking down a few of Ryan’s Group directors to show them.”
In Yoshioka Nobu's view, Ryan was just a chaebol who was lazy and complacent. He might have some talent in finance or business, but in the end, he was just an ordinary person.
Even though their partners, the Foot Gang, were defeated by Hawke, Gu Gangxin still didn't take them seriously. In his eyes, the Foot Gang were just a bunch of good-for-nothings, what were they doing with biochemical modifications!
Self-cultivation and self-improvement are the only true path!
While the Ryan family is indeed a behemoth, the Hand is not intimidated by them.
Even if they can't win in a direct confrontation, assassination is the Hand's specialty. If the Ryan family doesn't want to live in the shadow of assassination for the rest of their lives, they'd better obediently hand over what the Hand wants.
Emilia witnessed Yoshioka Shin's sense of superiority over the Ryan family and realized that these people might take risks.
It can only be said that weakness and ignorance are not obstacles to survival; arrogance is.
“Trust me, don’t be so radical.” Alexandra sighed and said, “If it can be bought with money, that would be the best, of course. Don’t ruin the harmony. In any case, let’s see at the dinner party tomorrow night.”
The five fingers of the Hand are all hundreds of years old, and their only pursuit is immortality.
So it's perfectly fine for them to be ruthless towards ordinary people, but when facing an opponent like Ryan, they have to be extremely cautious.
John Lane, the patriarch of the Lane family, was someone who could stand shoulder to shoulder with the person in the White House!
Or rather, these old money in America are actually considered to be among the shareholders of America!
Stark, Osborne, Lane, Roxson, Morgan, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, DuPont, and others.
No matter what, we cannot risk our lives; nothing is more important than their lives.
However, the TCRI building was too important to the five fingers of the Hand, so important that they would not care if they really broke ties with Ryan for it, because... nothing was more important than their lives!
The reason these five people were able to live for hundreds of years was because they stole a divine object called "dragon bone" from Kunlun, and it was by relying on the dragon bone that they extended their lives for hundreds of years.
Now, the "dragon bones" they possess are almost exhausted. If they cannot find new dragon bones to replenish them, then the five of them will suffer organ failure and die of old age like ordinary elderly people.
Through the discreet investigations of the Hand's five fingers, they learned that in a certain place in New York, the Dragon Bone, once sealed by Kunlun's Iron Fist, was sealed.
Coincidentally, they also discovered that TCRI was backed by the Foot Gang, which they considered a criminal organization, so they extended an olive branch for cooperation and began planning how to buy the building...
unfortunately.
Hawke beat him to it!
The building, which was considered a sure thing, was about to change hands. Alexandra, shrouded in the shadow of death, was on the verge of madness, as if she had already stepped into hell with one foot in it.
……
next day
The former TCRI headquarters building, now the headquarters building of Lane Biosciences, top floor offices.
The sun was shining brightly, and the view outside the huge floor-to-ceiling windows was unobstructed.
Hawke was leisurely flipping through a financial report, with a steaming cup of coffee beside him.
Emilia strode in: "Boss, Dr. Killian is downstairs. He only brought one female assistant with him, carrying a briefcase."
Hawke put down the report: "Have them come up. Take the private elevator directly to my office. Remember, have them have Nestlé coffee instead."
Emilia smiled knowingly: "I understand."
A moment later, the office door was pushed open.
Killian walked in, leaning on his cane.
He had changed into a sharp suit, but it still couldn't hide his exhaustion. His hair was combed, but the bloodshot eyes and taut jawline betrayed the turmoil in his heart.
Maya Hansen followed closely behind, clutching a silver metal briefcase tightly in her hands, looking tense and wary.
Killian's gaze immediately locked onto Hawke, who was sitting behind the large desk.
4.8 The young man with a seemingly harmless smile on his face.
Hawke didn't get up, but casually gestured to the sofa opposite him: "Dr. Killian, nice to meet you. Please have a seat. Coffee? It's freshly made, please don't mind it."
Killian's temples throbbed twice. Hawke's indifferent, even dismissive attitude hurt him more than a direct insult.
He suppressed his surging anger, ignoring the obviously instant coffee, and sat stiffly on the sofa, getting straight to the point:
“Mr. Hawke Lane. Let’s not beat around the bush. TCRI’s statement is very clever.”
Hawke chuckled softly, leaning forward slightly. "You flatter me, Doctor. It's all for the company's development, eliminating potential risks, and purifying the business environment."
68. My Heart Flutters for Killian [Please Subscribe and Give Flowers]
Killian's eye twitched: "Risk? Purification? Ha..."
He took a deep breath, as if using all his strength to say what he was saying: "I admit that it's understandable for Lane Capital to review the terms of the partnership after acquiring TCRI. But the value of the 'Desperate Situation' project far exceeds your imagination. Abruptly ending it would be a huge loss for both of us."
He gestured towards Maya.
Maya immediately stepped forward, placed the silver briefcase on Hawke's huge desk, and entered the password to open it.
Hawke glanced at the woman.
Clearly, she was a beautiful blonde with blue eyes, a classic white woman.
Her face was lightly made up, just right.
She has a good figure, with long legs covered in flesh-colored stockings under her short skirt.
Maya Hansen!
The developers of the Extremis virus.
It can be described as a combination of intelligence and beauty.
Two documents were visible inside the safe: a thick experimental data report and an equity transfer agreement.
“This is my sincerity, Mr. Ryan,” Killian’s voice was deep. “Fifteen percent of AIM’s equity represents our determination to cooperate. And,” he pointed to the data file, “this contains the most core and closest batch of experimental data from our '06 Extinction' project, proving its enormous potential—healing trauma, limb regeneration, strength enhancement… the value it can bring is enough to drive any capital crazy. As long as TCRI restores the supply of core raw materials and technical support channels, we can jointly develop these potentials.”
He stared intently into Hawke's eyes, trying to detect greed or wavering: "Yesterday's statement... we can interpret it as a minor business friction. Cooperation is the only path to the future. Mr. Hawke, what do you think?"
The office was silent.
Hawke's gaze fell on the documents and agreements in the briefcase, his fingers tapping lightly on the table, making a rhythmic sound.
The sunlight streaming in through the window clearly illuminated the tension and anticipation that Killian was trying so hard to hide on his face.
Hawke finally raised his head, his face still bearing that enigmatic smile:
"Sincerity... the Doctor did bring it. However," he drawled, "this 'desperate situation' seems a bit... unstable? If it explodes, it'll be hard to handle."
Killian's heart sank instantly.
The air in the office seemed to freeze for a few seconds.
Killian's heart nearly leaped out of his chest.
Hawke's word "unstable" was like an ice pick piercing his eardrums, precisely hitting his deepest fears and sore spots.
Maya stood to his side and slightly behind, her knuckles white as she held the briefcase, her eyes darting nervously between Hawke and the core data.
Hawke's gaze did not linger long on the data files and equity agreements. Instead, he took a keen look at Killian's face, which was trying hard to remain calm but still betrayed a hint of panic.
He slowly picked up his coffee, blew on it to cool it down, and took a sip.
“Fifteen percent of AIM shares…that’s quite a substantial amount for the Doctor.” Hawke’s tone was neither complimentary nor critical, as if he were evaluating an ordinary product. “This core data must have taken a lot of effort from the Doctor, right? To be able to compile the ‘closest to success’ part in such a short time is quite efficient.”
Killian's taut jawline relaxed slightly, as if he saw a glimmer of hope: "Mr. Ryan, 'desperate situation' represents the future! Its value..."
“I know its value better than you do.” Hawke put down his coffee cup, the bottom of which made a crisp clinking sound against the coaster, interrupting Killian’s words.
He leaned forward slightly, his eyes, which always held a smile, now sharp as a hawk's, piercing directly at Killian. "Limb regeneration? Strength enhancement? Indeed tempting. But that's on the premise that it's 'stable'."
Hawke pointed a finger precisely at the briefcase in Maya's arms, as if he had pinpointed a fatal flaw in the data file from afar: "Doctor, what is the stability threshold of the core energy furnace in your so-called 'closest to success'? Where is the point of collapse at the limit of human endurance? The irreversible erosion rate of the serum on the central nervous system... has it been controlled?"
boom--!
Killian felt as if his brain had been struck hard by an invisible hammer!
His pupils contracted instantly, and the composure he had been trying to maintain vanished, leaving only a deathly pale expression of terror!
Maya gasped, instinctively taking a half-step back, her arms trembling as she held the briefcase.
The deepest, most fatal flaws in these experiments... how could Hawke Lane possibly know?!
How could he know so much detail?!
A chill ran from the soles of Killian's feet straight up to the top of his head.
He finally realized that the seemingly young and wealthy man in front of him was not an ignorant nouveau riche at all!
His understanding of "desperate situations" may be deeper and more terrifying than he imagined!
Intelligence leak?
Insider?