He got a callfrom Ansel, who sounded infuriated. Before Darius could say anything, Anselsnarled, “Mr. Reid, it’s as you expected—none of them want to come with me! Infact, they’re unbelievably contemptuous.”Darius smiled.“Check your inbox in two minutes, then forward my email to them.” After hangingup, his fingers flew over the keyboard. A few seconds later, information on FTTV’s board of directors appeared on his desktop. He sighed, thencopied all the dirt he could find on them into a word document before sendingit to Ansel.Ansel forwardedit to the board members without looking at it. Then, they turned to him with anodd mixture of angry looks and sycophantic smiles. How could there be suchpeople in this world? He felt weirdedout and didn’t really know how to respond, so he put his hands behind his back.It was a goodthing he’d grown up in a challenging environment. He’d heard plenty aboutpeople like this in the past, but this was his first time seeing them inperson
This was thefirst time he felt like someone trusted him wholly. He was desperate to dosomething for Darius, so he pulled his phone out again. Darius raised aneyebrow, not knowing what he was up to. Then, he saw Ansel frown again. “Mr. Reid, Ithink I’ve failed you once again. The board members aren’t coming here.” He wasnervous to say this, but he didn’t expect to see Darius smile again.Ansel clenchedhis fists and trembled with a mixture of nervousness and anger. He didn’t knowwhy Darius was smiling. Even if he could tell that there was no malice behindit, it still made him uncomfortable. The anger on hisface was obvious, and Darius could sense his negative emotions. He immediatelydropped the smile, straightened up, and put a hand on Ansel’s shoulder. “I can guesswhat’s on your mind, but there’s no need for that. You’re justinexperienced—perhaps it’s because you’ve never learned these things before, orperhaps it’s because someone stopped you from learning about them. W
Darius alreadyheld the board members accountable for his wasted time here. He smirked andturned his computer on again to scrutinize the information he’d gotten on them.The more he read, the wider his eyes became. There werethirteen board members in total, and aside from Ansel, none of the remainingtwelve were kind souls. Not only had they not done a single act of kindness intheir lives, but they were also continuously doing bad things.Darius narrowedhis eyes, practically spitting fire. It was hard to believe that he hadn’tnoticed these things before. He took a deep breath, stood up, and put his handsbehind his back. Ansel frowned at this, sensing that Darius wasn’t in a goodmood. He put his phoneon speaker, noticing that it made Darius look slightly appeased, and herelaxed. However, it didn’t last long because the person on the other end ofthe line hung up after a few seconds.Ansel’sexpression darkened, and he looked at Darius. No matter how dense he was, hecould te
He handed Dariusthe phone without hesitation and watched him curiously.Darius held thephone up and said without preamble, “I’m sure you’ve already seen the news—oneof your owner’s not-so-loyal dogs, Felix, died after jumping from my window.Yet I haven’t been punished in any way. In fact, I’m free to roam every cornerof Almiron City, whether it’s your company or home. I’m ten minutes away fromreaching the peak of my anger.” After that, he hung up.Ansel gaped athim. He was shocked by Darius’ words but more so by the board members’ actions.He’d noticed that the second Darius started speaking, the booming music on theother end of the line had disappeared. It made him wonder where they reallywere.“They’re at thecorner-most bar on 18th Avenue,” Darius said. Even if Ansel hadn’t asked, heknew what he was wondering.Ansel gaped evenmore. “How’d you know, Mr. Reid? They didn’t tell us anything.”Darius smiled. Heput the phone down and pushed it toward Ansel. At the same time,
Any job thatwould match his education level would require him to have a stable family thatcould support him, not one that constantly wanted to exploit him. Darius felldeep into thought.If this were anyother time, Ansel would definitely notice something was up with Darius.Unfortunately, he was too focused on finishing the document that he didn’trealize this. He sighed with relief when he was finally done and patted himselfon the chest. Then, he lookedup at Darius. The joy on his face immediately disappeared and was replaced byanxiety. His eyes widened, and he didn’t even dare to blink. He said shakily,“Mr. Reid, no one’s looked at me like that before, so I’m really nervous now.”He didn’t hide his true emotions.Darius was theone whose eyes widened this time. He was surprised, but he smiled at Ansel’schange. He could now be frank about his thoughts and wasn’t shy to share them.Darius nodded and said, “I’m surprised that you can express your emotions andthoughts before m
“We don’t know whether his arm would still be the same even if he’d been operated on in a timely manner.”“Is that all? A broken arm?” Darius raised an eyebrow, looking surprised. “Well, have him discharged from that hospital and admitted into another one. I’ll foot the bill but ensure the doctors do their best to keep his arm. Money isn’t an issue.”Ansel nodded and tapped on his phone vigorously. When he was done, he stiffened, not knowing how to answer Darius’ question. To him, the probable loss of an arm was a serious injury, but it didn’t seem to mean much to Darius. He opened his mouth, then closed it again, not knowing what to say. In the end, he shook his head and said truthfully, “That’s not his only injury. He has many broken bones, other injuries, and even organ damage. Someone—likely several people—beat him up violently.” He shuddered at the sudden drop in temperature.The atmosphere in the room was suddenly frosty, and he gulped. He clasped his hands nervously, not darin
Darius smiled at them mockingly. “What a bunch of idiots,” he thought. Then, he said, “That is—if the authorities don’t come after you.” The atmosphere in the room tensed again, and no one said anything. He shrugged. “Now, let me tell you what’s going to happen from now on. I’m sure you’ve noticed that someone’s absent despite this being a board meeting—the manager Ansel hired, the one with a controlling stake, isn’t here. All of you are experienced and successful businessmen, so I don’t think I need to tell you what that means. Now, let me make it clear that I wouldn’t mind if all the board members were to be bankrupt. In fact, I’d be happy to see you lose your wealth, status, and control over your respective companies. There’s a chance that you know nothing about my family because you’re just not wealthy enough to have earned the right to know.”He crossed his legs, looking carefree, but his aura kept the board members silent. They couldn’t refute him at all, and Darius was pleased
“Not a single person in Almiron City has ever had the nerve to say that about me!”The dark-suited board member thought he was already swift enough, as did everyone else. However, to Darius, he was moving at a snail’s pace. He didn’t even need to channel his life force; it enveloped him—seemingly out of instinct. This was his first time watching it actually happen, and it mystified him.Once Darius’ awe over his energy’s new function subsided, he even had the time to sweep his gaze over the other board members—that was how slow the dark-suited board member was moving in his eyes.Ansel let out a yell, but Darius remained seated, looking calm. The dark-suited board member finally stood before him, and Darius couldn’t help feeling like he’d waited for ages. To the others, everything had happened in the blink of an eye.Suddenly, the dark-suited board member’s eyes widened, and he looked horrified. He could clearly see two Dariuses—one was sitting down, looking calm, while the other sto