Chapter 346 - 344: Was He Kidnapped?

The manager walked over, giving Mina a bitter smile. "Thanks, Mina. Otherwise, who knows how long this would have dragged on today."

Mina shook her head. "Don’t thank me. Everyone’s just trying to survive. We all know giving you a hard time is useless, but right now, you’re our only hope. You have to keep fighting!"

With that, Mina patted Jasmine Sterling, who was standing beside her. "Jasmine said she’s here to resign. You were the one who convinced her to stay, so you should talk to her."

The manager looked at Jasmine Sterling, a bit of embarrassment on his face.

Back then, he had been quite the silver-tongued salesman, painting a perfect picture of the job. But in the end, the company was the one with problems, making his earlier words feel like a resounding slap to his face.

Having worked in the hotel industry for so many years, Jasmine Sterling was a good judge of character. She could tell the manager was competent and a decent person.

It wasn’t right to blame him for the company’s problems.

So, before the manager could speak, Jasmine Sterling cut in, "Manager, I didn’t decide to resign because of what just happened. I’d already made up my mind before coming here today. This job just isn’t the right fit for me anymore, so I wanted to come and tell you in person."

The manager pressed his lips together and nodded. "Alright. I never expected things to turn out like this with the company. I have no grounds to ask you to stay on. To be honest, I don’t even have faith in my own words right now."

"But the feedback on the few jobs you did was quite good. If it’s possible, I’ll do my best to get you your commission. I’ll contact you when I can."

"I was still in my probationary period, and I’m the one who initiated the resignation. I won’t insist on the commission. I think the others need their salaries sorted out more urgently than I do. Manager, you should focus on helping them."

Hearing Jasmine Sterling’s words, the manager looked even more guilty. If he had known this would happen, he wouldn’t have tried so hard to convince her to stay.

In the end, he’d just made her work for nothing.

After resigning from her housekeeping job at Cleansweep Serenity, a sense of indescribable relief welled up from within Jasmine Sterling the moment she walked out the door.

Starting today, she was going to live a different life!

*

「No. 2 High School, Cafeteria!」

Ethan Sterling and Renee Reid got their food, one after the other, and saw Jameson Stone waving at them from a short distance away. He had already saved them a spot.

The two of them walked over and sat down. Renee Reid asked in confusion, "How did you get here so fast?"

"Our last period was gym."

"Your class still has gym?" Renee Reid was even more shocked.

Jameson Stone raised his eyebrows smugly, then turned to Ethan Sterling and asked, "Ethan, did you tell your sister about what happened yesterday? We don’t want that guy ambushing you at the school gate again after class."

"I did," Ethan Sterling said while mixing his black bean noodles. "I video-chatted with my sister last night after you left. She told me not to worry, just to leave school and go home like normal. She said she’d handle it."

Jameson Stone already saw Ethan’s sister as some kind of hero because of what happened last time. Hearing Ethan’s words now, his eyes lit up with excitement. "Damn, your sister is so cool!"

At his words, Ethan Sterling smiled with a touch of pride.

Renee Reid was listening from the side, completely lost. "Didn’t we leave school together yesterday? Weren’t you going to Ethan’s house for tutoring? What happened?"

So, Jameson Stone vividly recounted the events at the school gate yesterday for Renee Reid, leaving her completely stunned.

"Your second uncle came to school to corner you?"

Ethan Sterling nodded.

"And the thugs who kicked your bike were the ones who helped you out?"

Ethan Sterling nodded again.

Renee Reid blinked, clearly finding the whole thing a bit too surreal.

Jameson Stone continued, "Renee, it’s such a shame you didn’t come yesterday. Do you know how big Ethan’s house is? The whole yard, front and back, has to be nearly a thousand square meters. The villa has five floors above ground and three below. It’s just him and his mom living there—in an eight-story house! Oh, right, and there’s a puppy the size of his palm!"

Renee Reid’s expression froze as she listened.

"Aren’t you exaggerating a little...?"

This is the Capital, Lorcain. If what Jameson Stone said was true, wouldn’t Ethan’s house be worth... tens of millions?

"I’m not exaggerating at all! I don’t even know how to describe it. You really have to see it for yourself sometime. How can the wealth gap between people be so huge...?"

Renee Reid looked at Ethan Sterling. "Is he telling the truth? Is your house a thousand square meters?"

Ethan Sterling scratched his head and said in a low voice, "It might be even bigger. My sister bought the house; I never asked. Actually, we used to be a really ordinary family. My mom raised three kids on her own. It was only after my sister started making money that our family’s situation became what it is today. This all just happened in the last two years!"

Renee Reid: "..."

Just as Ethan Sterling had thought, Victor Fulton wasn’t going to give up so easily. He arrived early in the afternoon, but this time he was smarter. He staked out an intersection in front of the school with less foot traffic. Since Ethan had left in this direction yesterday, Victor figured this was the way home for him.

He hid behind a tree trunk, waiting for Ethan to get out of school. It was tedious, but his family had already agreed: whoever managed to get Ethan’s household registration back would get a bigger cut of the money.

This demolition compensation was no small sum; otherwise, it wouldn’t have been worth him traveling a thousand miles to Lorcain to find him.

And just as he was sitting on the curb, bored out of his mind and scrolling through videos to kill time, a black van suddenly pulled up in front of him.

Victor Fulton instinctively looked up. Before he could even react, two large men in black burst out of the van, grabbed him, and threw him inside!

His cry of alarm was cut off halfway by the slamming door, and then the driver stomped on the gas and sped away.

In the van, Victor Fulton was sandwiched between two burly northern toughs, like the meat patty in a hamburger. He, the "southern patty," seemed particularly small and cheap in comparison.

"Who... who are you? What do you want?"

Victor Fulton was scared out of his wits. He was just on a street in Lorcain—Lorcain was the Capital!

’Was he being kidnapped?’

A head suddenly poked back from the front passenger seat. It was a young man wearing sunglasses, who grinned and said, "Don’t be scared. Someone wants to see you. Just come with me quietly."

Victor Fulton swallowed hard. "Hey, buddy. I’m from out of town. I don’t know anyone in Lorcain. Did you grab the wrong person?"

Duane turned his head away and ignored Victor Fulton. The van sped through the streets of Lorcain and soon arrived at the underground parking garage of Aetherium.

After getting out of the van, Victor Fulton was practically forced into the elevator lobby. The elevator went all the way up, finally stopping on the 16th floor.

Though his heart was pounding with anxiety, Victor Fulton knew he couldn’t escape. He could only follow Duane obediently to the door of a private room.

The door opened. Duane stepped inside first. "Cecilia, I brought him!"