"Lawrence. Let's call the police first.""You're right. And I'll put in a call to your dad, too," Lawrence added.---Using his phone, Lawrence dialed the emergency number, giving a precise, clipped description of the incident and their location.The dispatcher confirmed they would arrive immediately and instructed them to wait at the scene while keeping a vigilant eye on their surroundings, adding a cryptic note that the suspect was considered "a bit strange." The comment made Lawrence frown even more deeply, adding another layer to his unease.Afterwards, he called Albert. He relayed what had happened in a steady tone, detailing the threat and the chaotic, high-stakes resolution. From the other side of the line, Albert's voice initially spiked with panic before forcibly calming itself upon hearing they were both safe. He told them he would send a driver to pick them up immediately, and that the car would be there quickly if the police hadn't arrived before it. Then the call ended.

The police quickly scoured the scene, finding the discarded shotgun inside the wrecked car. Lawrence immediately approached one of the officers to inquire about the criminal and was shocked to hear their report: they had found him on the ground below the overpass… still alive.The drop from the overpass to the ground was about fifteen to eighteen meters high. For a man to survive a fall from that height onto concrete was, in itself, a medical anomaly. But to survive it after the violent chaos of the car’s flight? It was enough to prove one unsettling thing: the man was definitely not ordinary.“I’ll have to ask Albert about this after getting home,” Lawrence muttered inwardly, the suspicion coiling tighter in his gut.Meanwhile, a tow truck arrived, its yellow lights flashing, and began the slow process of hauling away the mangled skeleton of the Porsche. During this operation, a stately, armored Mercedes Benz S-Class Guard—a vehicle worth well over five million dollars—glided to a si

"Who's that?" a middle-aged man dressed in a slick, expensive suit asked, his sharp, eagle-like eyes tracking a young man being escorted out of Duncan Innovations' main lobby by a security guard who nodded respectfully.The young man didn't enter a luxury car. Instead, he walked directly to the curb and got into a waiting taxi."I don't know," another man by his side replied with a cold, dismissive tone as they watched Lawrence's taxi pull into traffic. "But he definitely isn't important in the grand scheme of things.""A man taking a taxi, yet treated with such deference? I didn't know Nexus being hit so hard had made Duncan Enterprise sink so low as to treat a car-less boy with such importance," the eagle-eyed man mocked, his voice laced with condescension.He didn't put Duncan Enterprise in his eyes. To be honest, he had seen countless companies like them rise with ambition, and in the end, they had all succumbed to the dominance of Omniverse.While they were talking, a female secr

Hazel finally could no longer continue the diplomatic charade. Her expression hardened, all pretense of politeness evaporating. "Is that all you have to say? If so, please leave. I am a busy woman and will not waste time escorting you out."What a joke!How could she not see through their transparent, predatory agenda? She had watched, time and again, as companies they acquired faced the same fate: initial cooperation, followed by swift, engineered dismissal under the guise of "illegal activities" or "gross misconduct." Did they truly think she was that naive? Did they look down on her intelligence so completely?The condescension in their offer, the sheer arrogance of it, ignited a cold, furious fire within her.Hearing the defiant response they had never anticipated, Mr. Zhang finally lost his composure. His face tightened into a stern mask, his voice dropping to a grave, threatening register. "Are you certain about this, Hazel? You are fully aware of our company's influence? We hol

"I knew you wouldn't refuse my request," Ralph said, a mischievous smile spreading across his face as he leaned in to whisper, "after all, there are—""Oh, please shut up," Lawrence said, playfully pushing Ralph's face away as his friend breathed down his neck."Seriously, though, I'm not going there for the girls," Lawrence added as he began following Ralph, who was leading him through the familiar campus pathways toward a less-frequented wing of the athletic complex."I believe you," Ralph replied, looking back over his shoulder with a perfectly straight face that somehow managed to scream, 'Oh, please! Be honest with yourself!'"When you see the place, you definitely won't regret it. You'll thank me for opening your eyes to a whole new part of our school you never knew existed," Ralph said, clearly pleased that Lawrence had agreed. His excitement grew, and he threw a companionable arm around Lawrence's shoulders, steering him enthusiastically toward the Taekwondo club.As soon as t