Chapter 583 - 382: Dimensional Reduction Strike

Chapter 583: Chapter 382: Dimensional Reduction Strike

After landing in New York, Li Wei found that Elizabeth hadn’t waited for him to go see her; instead, she had personally come to the airport to pick him up.

As soon as he stepped off the boarding stairs, he saw Elizabeth pacing back and forth in front of two Range Rover EVs. Her hair was casually tied behind her head, and she wore a simple, creamy-white light coat.

The moment she saw Li Wei, she hurried over to greet him.

"So eager to see me?" Li Wei joked, opening his arms.

Elizabeth stepped forward, hugging and kissing him.

"You said you had to tell me in person," she urged. "Hurry up and get in the car. I only have this one-hour drive with you. I have four meetings waiting for me later."

Li Wei followed Elizabeth into the first car, while her bodyguards trailed in the second.

"Same last name, completely different fates," Li Wei sighed after getting into the car. "You’re both Mellons, but Ronan Mellon seems to have nothing to do all day. I watched him fish for over an hour."

"Lord Ronan’s situation is different from ours. He’s the Family Head of the entire Mellon Family. The financial business on his end basically doesn’t require him to lift a finger anymore," Elizabeth explained. "He has nothing to worry about. Unlike us."

Complaining as she spoke, she added, "I have to worry about the Foundation, and I also have to worry about the Free Port.

"A new batch of offshore assets is about to enter the Free Port. The legal structure of the last batch was different, and this batch comes from different source countries. The shell companies in the Cayman Islands, the trusts in Liechtenstein, and the SPVs in the British Virgin Islands all need new penetration testing. Silvia is dragging her feet on my end, claiming it’ll take three weeks."

She paused and rubbed her temples.

"And the Foundation isn’t giving me any peace either. The quarterly report for Uncle Richard’s 1 billion USD fund needs my signature." She unlocked her phone and showed Li Wei her schedule. "Tomorrow, there’s a congressional hearing in Washington regarding tax reform for non-profit organizations. They invited the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to send a representative."

Li Wei glanced at the schedule on Elizabeth’s phone. It was literally packed to the brim, starting from nine in the morning and running all the way until eleven at night.

Elizabeth ground her teeth. "Silvia said Grandfather’s energy hasn’t been great lately, so she told me to attend the hearing in his place."

"Sounds like Silvia’s a real thorn in your side," Li Wei said, recalling the Silvia he had met before—the Foundation’s lead counsel and an absolute loyalist of Alexander. "Why does she oppose you at every turn?"

"There’s nothing I can do; she’s even older than my mother," Elizabeth sighed. "It’s nothing more than her thinking I’m too young but holding too many shares. She just finds me an eyesore."

"Working this hard?" Li Wei teased. "Are you getting ready to take over the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation at a moment’s notice?"

Elizabeth let out a sharp "Hah!" and locked her phone.

"Wait for me to take over?" she scoffed. "Only when I manage to outlive Grandfather, Timothy, Alister, and Beatrice."

She had expected Li Wei to play along and say something in response, but he remained silent.

She turned her head to look at him. He didn’t look like he was joking.

"You’re kidding me, right?" she repeated.

"I’m not," Li Wei said. "Ronan Mellon said it."

"Wait." Elizabeth straightened her posture, her body half-leaning toward Li Wei. "What did Ronan Mellon say?"

As she spoke, she picked up the remote control from the center armrest between them and pressed a button.

The partition separating the front and rear seats smoothly rolled up, completely isolating their conversation.

"Ronan Mellon said the New York Times will break the news in June," Li Wei said. "Alexander is going to retire."

He stared at Elizabeth. "And based on the shares and voting seats of the Free Port, after Alexander retires, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will be taken over by you."

"Wait!" Elizabeth instinctively retorted. "That’s impossible."

"The Free Port is the Free Port, and the Foundation is the Foundation," she argued. "How could the Free Port’s shares and voting rights possibly dictate the ownership of the Foundation? Furthermore... even if Grandfather does retire, it shouldn’t be my turn."

"Well, that’s what Ronan Mellon told me," Li Wei said. "Maybe he plans to take over the Free Port and then leave the Foundation entirely for you guys to run?"

"But I... I wouldn’t be able to handle it." Elizabeth shook her head subconsciously. "The Foundation’s pool of funds currently exceeds 60 billion USD. Annual investments and expenditures easily run into the tens of billions, and the legally mandated donation quotas alone amount to billions."

"Hundreds, even thousands of hospitals, universities, and institutions—who receives the funding, which university secures naming rights, which hospital gets a capital injection..." She sank back into her seat. "All of this would have to pass through my hands. I—"

She didn’t doubt Li Wei’s words, because Li Wei would never lie to her.

She accepted the reality of the situation, yet found herself panicking in the face of the immense power that was soon to fall into her lap.

It meant that behind every donation she signed off on, every stroke of her pen, lay hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of people within those organizations. Thousands of families’ chances at a better life, more abundant funding, or even having more lives saved would hinge entirely on her decisions.

With Alexander at the helm, she previously felt that as long as she did her own job well, that was enough.

But now, when it was truly time for her to step up to the plate, she felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of problems and the crushing weight of the pressure.

Her voice gradually trailed off, and her fingers subconsciously clutched the edge of her coat.

Li Wei gently grabbed Elizabeth’s hand.

Elizabeth looked at him. Suddenly, she rose from her seat with a slight stoop, took two steps over, and curled up into his arms.

A few minutes passed.

"I’ve fantasized about that position since I was a child," she murmured. "I always thought it would be at least ten, maybe twenty years down the line. Definitely not now."

Staring blankly ahead, she asked, "Do you think I can do a good job? Will Grandfather be willing to retire peacefully? Will Timothy and the others accept this? Will Silvia and her camp listen to me?"

"I’ll help you," Li Wei comforted her. "Relax. You can absolutely do this."

"Really?" Elizabeth lifted her head. "You’ll help me?"

"Of course," Li Wei said. "As long as you don’t start thinking my little enterprise is too insignificant and decide to swallow up my assets outright."

Pulled out of her gloomy mood by this remark, Elizabeth shot him a glare.

"Then aren’t you afraid I’ll swallow you up right now?" she asked.

Li Wei, in response, stared back at her with undisguised intent—so much so that Elizabeth actually blushed.

"I... I was joking," she hurriedly said. "I promised Anya that I wouldn’t keep any more secrets from her."

Speaking of which, Li Wei cleared his throat. "I got a Fabergé Egg."

Elizabeth was stunned.

"From Ronan," Li Wei said. "Can you imagine? Ronan has over a dozen of them, and he just gave me one."

Elizabeth’s expression turned rather subtle, laced with hesitation.

"But now isn’t the right time," Li Wei shook his head. "You definitely don’t have the energy for it right now. Let’s wait until you’ve sorted out this current mess."

Elizabeth gave Li Wei a kiss. "When I’m ready, I’ll let you know," she said, her face flushed red.

Li Wei wrapped his arm around Elizabeth’s waist, pulling her a little closer.

"By the way," he asked, "does Alexander actually believe the New York Times thing or not? Ronan’s actions won’t end up targeting my Free Port entities, will they?"

"I don’t know, but I’m guessing they won’t," Elizabeth said, shaking her head as she broke away from the tender atmosphere. "But I do know that Beatrice also went to see Grandfather."

Beatrice was the first person to discover that the New York Times was going to report on the Free Port. The moment Elizabeth mentioned her, it clicked for Li Wei.

"Alexander believed it?" Seeing Elizabeth nod, he continued, "Then things are really going to be turbulent for a while."

Torn between Li Wei and her grandfather, Elizabeth stood firmly on Li Wei’s side without a shred of hesitation.

"You need to keep a low profile for a while," she advised. "Once Grandfather finds out you secured the military contract, he might try everything to pull you onto his ship."

"He doesn’t know Ronan was the one who pulled the strings for that?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "Like I said, our side of the family isn’t very closely connected to Ronan Mellon’s—especially not at a critical juncture like this."

"Be careful. It’d be best if you just stayed put in Los Angeles for the near future," she added.

Li Wei understood exactly what Elizabeth was implying.

Ronan Mellon had secured the military contract for Li Wei, but Alexander didn’t know it was Ronan’s doing. Instead, he might mistakenly assume Li Wei knew some high-ranking official at the Pentagon and try to recruit him into his own Power to oppose Ronan.

But Li Wei highly doubted Alexander could rival Ronan.

Ronan Mellon came across as far too nonchalant, too calm. Alexander, on the other hand, was frantic, constantly scrambling for ways to fight back against Ronan.

To Li Wei, it felt like two martial arts masters preparing for a legendary duel at the peak of the Forbidden City. Alexander was the one who scurried back to bitterly cultivate his mental method, diligently practicing and sharpening his sword.

But Ronan gave Li Wei the distinct impression that he simply brought a gun.

"I understand," Li Wei said. "I’ll stay for two days and then leave."

Elizabeth nodded.

The Range Rover dropped Li Wei off at the Long Island villa.

Now all that was left was to wait, Li Wei thought.

To wait peacefully for the ticking time bomb that was the New York Times to finally detonate.

***

Early the next morning, Li Wei was shaken awake from his dreams by Anya.

Although he practically didn’t need to sleep anymore and rarely felt tired, he still allowed himself a good night’s rest when returning home, relaxing his mind and body with nothing to do after some nighttime exercises.

"What are you doing?" Li Wei opened his eyes.

Anya was straddling his waist, holding a phone in one hand with the front-facing camera open, while her other hand gripped Li Wei’s shoulder.

"You’re not trying to record a video of us, are you?" Li Wei asked. "Is that really a good idea? Isn’t that a bit too—"

"Pervert!" Anya punched him lightly. Leaning close, she cupped her cheeks with both hands and shoved her face right in front of his eyes. "Look at my face!"

Li Wei stared at it for a long time. Because she frequented beauty treatments and had been pampered since childhood, Anya’s face not only lacked the large pores typical of many Caucasians, but it was also practically devoid of any peach fuzz.

He scrutinized her face for ages but couldn’t spot a single difference.

"I’ve looked," he said, raising his eyes. "Nothing’s changed. What exactly do you want me to see?"