Chapter 1514 - 1512: Order

Chapter 1514: Chapter 1512: Order

People didn’t just track down the former chairman of the board who had a good relationship with Mr. Wardrick; they even reached out to his family—Severa.

As one of the top elite offspring in Bupen and even the entire Federation, Severa actually behaves far better than most people—much, much better.

She doesn’t sleep around, doesn’t sink into all kinds of hallucinogenic or addictive drugs or food to the point of losing herself, doesn’t like gambling, has no unsavory quirks, and up to now she’s still single.

She’s poured almost all her energy into business.

When people talk about this, it’s usually with envy; at the very least, with a child like this, no matter what she achieves in the future, as parents, right now they ought to feel proud.

Unlike some people, who just do whatever outrageous thing comes to mind, there are those who practically live on the front page of every third-rate tabloid.

If it’s not organizing some massive topless party, then it’s lying naked on the beach with a few girlfriends, sunbathing while openly flirting without caring about anyone’s eyes on them.

Severa is so outstanding that many of her peers mentally place her in the "elders’" tier and don’t actually treat her as one of their own generation.

This also means that, at her age and in this circle, she doesn’t have many friends—barely a few people she can really talk to.

On this point, Lynch does far better than she does; Lynch has never rejected that kind of activity, and when necessary he’ll even organize it himself.

To them it’s all just normal socializing. Maybe in some people’s eyes it’s chaotic, indecent, but for Lynch, and for the children of the powerful, this is simply life.

Anyone who tries to set themselves above all that will only end up being ostracized.

Lynch occasionally makes the papers or TV because of his private life, which naturally gives him a certain tacit understanding with his peers.

They may never have met before, but the moment their eyes meet they can read that "this guy is fucking interesting" kind of vibe off each other.

True "transcendence" doesn’t mean treating everyone else like idiots and insisting that only you hold the truth!

Real transcendence is becoming one with everyone, no separation, yet still clearly recognizing who is yourself and who is everyone else!

Those people searched and searched, couldn’t find anyone genuinely close to Severa, and in the end they dug up a former schoolmate of hers to talk to her, hoping she could persuade her father not to do something stupid.

And it was through this that Severa learned Mr. Wardrick was planning to "withdraw from the Consortium"!

"...I don’t think I have a problem!"

In the study, Severa loudly argued her point the moment she found out Mr. Wardrick had submitted his resignation for her sake.

Along with the emotion, there was also a vague sense of discontent.

I’m not a kid anymore—how could I not be able to handle these people?

Over the past few years Severa has kept racking up success in business, which has given her unprecedented confidence—confidence in her ability, in her vision, in everything.

She doesn’t believe she’ll lose to those old men. Looking at these guys from a young person’s perspective, she feels they’re all antiques already.

They may not even be her match!

This is exactly the kind of problem most young people frequently run into—they always think those old men aren’t that impressive, until...

Seeing the unconcerned look on Severa’s face, Mr. Wardrick curled his lip. "To be honest, if I weren’t taking the group’s stability into account, I wouldn’t be their match!"

There’s something buried in that sentence—for example, he said "them." If you single any one of them out, he really doesn’t care much.

With the experience and insight he’s gained over the years, plus the Wealth and power he controls, the idea of beating him head?on is a joke!

But add all of them together, and they become very hard for him to deal with.

If Severa runs into that crowd, a single careless mistake is enough for them to seize the chance and knock her out of the game.

This is not a fair, friendly, or peaceful game; he doesn’t want to still be worrying about his daughter when he’s on the verge of leaving this world.

Severa’s somewhat disbelieving expression made him laugh. "Maybe Lynch could, but if you think you have abilities on par with Lynch, then perhaps we can give it a try."

"But the question is—do you?"

Severa fell silent. Like hell she did.

After a brief lull, Severa accepted the reality.

She looked a little dazed. "Then what are you planning to do, next?"

"I heard they might be about to teach you a lesson. Can we handle that?"

She still didn’t fully understand what they would be facing once Mr. Wardrick resigned from the Consortium, but she already had an intuitive sense—it definitely wouldn’t be a good thing.

Mr. Wardrick, however, didn’t seem nervous at all. "That’s why I called you back. I’ve invited Lynch over; tonight we’ll have dinner at home together and talk about the next deals while we’re at it..."

Pulling Lynch in is Mr. Wardrick’s effective way of dealing with the Consortium’s subsequent coercion and pressure. After several rounds of large Military orders, Darkstone Capital’s assets are already no weaker than any Consortium’s.

The only thing they might be lacking is heritage, but heritage is just something that can be filled in as long as you have time.

Now that he’s tied himself to Lynch, anyone who wants to go after him has to factor in Lynch’s attitude.

And he believed that even if Lynch didn’t lend a hand, he at least wouldn’t give him a shove.

Even in the worst?case scenario, he had ways to get through it.

When she heard Lynch was coming, Rella quickly wrapped up her conversation with Mr. Wardrick and went back to her room.

As soon as she returned to her own room, she started picking out clothes.

The head maid stood off to the side, watching Rella pull out one set after another of clothes she’d bought but never worn, holding them up in front of three huge floor?to?ceiling mirrors, then tossing them aside.

These outfits, each running into the thousands or tens of thousands, didn’t seem to satisfy her at all. If those tailors knew that the clothes they made might never be worn even once and were just thrown around carelessly, they’d probably be heartbroken.

"Which one do you think looks good?" Rella was still changing, "How about this one, the new spring collection, it looks pretty nice?"

The tender green and white palette, along with an excellent cut, gave it a lively, energetic feel.

But very quickly Rella shook her head and tossed the clothes aside. "Too girlish. I’m not that young anymore, I need something more mature..."

The head maid stood silently by, head lowered, saying nothing.

A little after four in the afternoon, Lynch’s car arrived at Mr. Wardrick’s estate, and he brought a block of ham.

The real kind of block ham: they take the best part of a leg, cut off a piece a foot long and half a foot wide.

It doesn’t look that big, but it’s not cheap.

Federation people, especially some of the rich, are quite into ham. Lynch didn’t know whether Mr. Wardrick’s family shared this hobby, but he decided to give it a try.

Mr. Wardrick’s wife took the ham and handed it to the cook; they’d be having a dinner made with ham that night.

The two of them walked down to the lakeside, away from the house, not noticing that Rella had followed.

She pretended to be fishing, though in truth she’d never liked fishing.

"I saw today’s news. The share prices of your core industrial companies all dropped by at least ten?odd percent."

There was a hint of schadenfreude on Lynch’s face—just a hint, not necessarily the real thing.

His smile was always like that, with only subtle shifts, so you could never quite tell what those tiny changes meant.

The group company ultimately failed to keep Mr. Wardrick, and for such an important senior decision?maker who has served the Consortium for so long to submit an abnormal resignation in a high position, there are a lot of issues implicit in that.

If they were going to handle this the Consortium way, they’d wait—wait until next year or the year after, because this year is an election year.

Mr. Wardrick and Mr. Truman have at least some personal rapport, and that rapport, plus their backing and donations, will bring more returns to the group.

Once Mr. Truman’s seat is secure, a year or two later, when the group company no longer needs Mr. Wardrick, that’s when they’ll use personnel appointments to quietly move him out of any key posts.

They’ll give him some kind of honorary position, then gradually weaken his influence in the group company. After another one to three years, they’ll marginalize him and then kick him out.

The whole process could take three to five years, and Mr. Wardrick doesn’t have that much time to waste here.

Besides, war is about to break out. He has to get the new company fully set up before the war starts; otherwise, if he waits until halfway through, it’ll be too late.

There’s an inevitable conflict in all this: if he follows the Consortium’s timeline, he’ll miss his most critical window of opportunity for development.

But if he wants to cut off the past and start his new venture immediately, he has to leave the Consortium right now.

Sacrifice himself or sacrifice others—he didn’t hesitate much.

He left decisively, very cleanly, which unsettled some of the managers and some subsidiaries within the Consortium, so the stock price crash was perfectly logical.

Because of that crash, quite a few people went bankrupt, but quite a few others achieved financial freedom overnight.

Bupen never runs out of miracles, as long as you dare to bet your life!

Mr. Wardrick nudged the turf at his feet with his shoe. "All that has nothing to do with me anymore. Once the transfer of some assets we’re holding is finished, I’ll have plenty of time to do what I want."

"But before that, I need to place an order with you..."

He turned his head to look at Lynch. "I need Darkstone Security to protect me and my family."

Lynch was a bit surprised, because in this kind of matter, most people trust their own.

Both Mr. Wardrick’s and his wife’s families have their own security staff. He chose not to use them and instead handed Lynch an order—that was risky, and bold.

Lynch gave him a couple of measuring looks, then nodded and agreed.