CH 141

In De Carma’s Springfield Villa Hotel, Eunice was on a call.

The person on the other end was Eunice’s friend who worked in the private ports. He informed her that a fleet of heavyweight space freight shuttles carrying compressed modular structures had docked in the port, declared as being for medical use on the review specs. 

These compressed modular structures were basically prefabricated structural modules made of a special mix of intelligent metal and architectural materials which could be compressed for easy transport, as well as extended and restored in an instant.

In this manner, a city could be built in just a few hours.

“When did it start?” Eunice asked.

“It started coming in earlier in the morning. It’s the fourth batch now.” the other said, “There’s also a shipment of medical equipment and quarantine cabins coming in at the same time.” 

“On the Cliffs’ space shuttles?”

“Yeah. After all, as a big-name family, inspections do spot checks on them far less often than they do on others.”

“Which other ports have these heavyweight shuttles gone?” Eunice listed a few before being prompted. “Let me guess. Tian Qin? Redstone? All planets with viral hotspots should have seen movement, right?”

“You’re not wrong.”

Eunice went on to say, “Then where are the goods transported after they land at port? Shall I give it a guess?”

Despite calling it a guess, her tone was completely certain, successively rattling off a few addresses.

These addresses mapped to old property buildings that were mostly abandoned. They had unorthodox locations. Some were nicknamed ‘ghettos in the heart of the commercial hub’, while others were deep within residential areas, but always occupied the most chaotic corners.

In essence, they were smack where trouble was most likely to come knocking. 

Besides having unorthodox locations, these old properties had another common feature:

They were all bought by the Manson brothers.

The other said, “Bingo, those places. There was no activity before, but they’re not even covering up their movements now. Predictable of the Mansons.”

They had made countless speculations when the Mansons bought those old property buildings. Yet, there was no follow-up action after that, as though they had bought them just to let them lie idle. 

Now, there were precision demolishers, medical-standard compressed modular structures, and an assortment of medical equipment and quarantine cabins. When combined with the press release made by Westshore Pharmaceutical, the Manson brothers’ objective was plain as day.

Eunice stood in front of the window. She crossed her arms and snorted, slightly vexed. “What’s wrong with me seriously… How did I not think of it before?”

But leaving aside her vexation, she was actually well aware that, even if time were reversed, she would still have a hard time deciphering what the Manson brothers were up to.

The Mansons wanted in on the action in the healthcare field—that much was more than obvious ever since the Manson brothers appeared on the scene. But due to the Yves’ Spring Ivy, it actually wasn’t that easy for them to edge in. 

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“If there are no surprises, we’ll be seeing treatment centres for the infection topped with the Mansons’ family crest erected across the alliance in less than a few hours.” the other said, “They seized the initiative and won the public over. After some time, these emergency treatment centres will be upgraded to a chain hospital, and that’s that.” 

After the call ended, Eunice sat at the office desk, her brows furrowed in thought.

Another communications request cut in.

“Has your brother gone mad?” It was Eunice and Joe’s mutual friend this time, and he flung this sentence over the moment the call connected.

“What happened?” Eunice asked. 

The person on the other end sounded completely befuddled. “He’s getting me to go through all of the port security documents in the past few years in search of a silly bird.”

“Didn’t he tell you why?” Eunice, conversely, was composed.

“The young master was quite agitated. I don’t know if he was too angry or whatever, but I suspect it might have slipped his mind. When I tried to call him back, I could only get the busy tone. I guessed I might not be able to squeeze into the queue on my own, so I simply came to you.”

Eunice said, “I’m already surprised that he managed to articulate himself well enough to ask for your help. When he came to me half an hour ago, I wanted to take him to see a doctor.” 

“So why a bird?”

“Because that bird has been associated with almost twenty cases involving loss of human life over the last thirty years,” Eunice said. “And you’ve heard of Ke Jin, right? You helped quite a bit with that in the past. Joe and his lawyer friends just found some clues that we missed out…”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“It’s possible that Lawyer Ke’s mental condition was man-made.” 

“Man-made?” Their mutual friend was astonished. “You mean it’s not just because his mind can’t accept that Lee Connor is still on the loose?”

Eunice said, “Pretty much.”

In actuality, by noon that day, everyone that Eunice and Joe could trust in their network received a comms.

From those in the healthcare system, those in the juridical system, those in the media, as well as a few other well-connected friends. All of them had helped Joe look into Ke Jin’s case. While there was some progress at first, it had been stalled by the lack of vital links, and there was no progress at all in the last two years. 

They had thought that that was the end of the matter, but they never imagined that there would actually be new developments.

Most preposterously, the new development was a bird.

“Well, then. I get why Joe is in such a terrible mood now,” the person on the other end said. “I’ll do my best. If it’s really caused by someone… jesus. That’s seriously fucked up.”

“Let alone that idiot, even I was furious when I heard about it.” Eunice sneered at the mere thought of it. 

“Furious at what?” A low voice suddenly resounded in the room.

Eunice whipped her head around to see her father, Devore Yves, standing at the suite door, his hand raised as though he was about to knock.

“Nothing,” Eunice unconsciously said.

The friends that she and Joe sought help from were roughly around their age, a network that they had developed outside their father’s influence over the years. They had relied on these same people to help look into Mr Devore Yves’ past involvements. 

Gazing into Yves’ eyes past his lenses, she inexplicably felt guilty, laced by faint remorse.

Ke Jin’s situation used to be apart from this, but now because it was linked to the herdingbird and the Sweeper, it also ended up being linked to the relationship Devore Yves had with the Manson family. As such, it wasn’t convenient to talk about.

“That’ll be it for now. Thank you.” Eunice hung up the comms, turning her head to explain to her father, “I just got word from the port. Westshore is likely working with the Mansons to set up the treatment centres they talked about. But the news came a bit late. They already made their preparations and should be announcing it to the public in the afternoon. If their move into the medical sector goes smoothly, Spring Ivy…”

Devore Yves’ touched his glasses. Unhurriedly, he knocked on the door twice before entering his daughter’s office space. 

The blonde of his younger days had receded into silvery grey, and the wrinkles on his face deepened with the passing of the years. Yet, he still kept himself as immaculately groomed as a refined gentleman in his years.

In fact, Eunice felt that Joe the Idiot’s description—Old Fox—was rather apt.

Devore Yves, in his years, really did look like a silver fox at times.

There was a time in her childhood when Eunice felt as though her father would never do any wrong. He doted on her and taught her, reacting with laughter in moments of adoring resignation. 

Until Joe the Idiot bounced into existence, forcing their father to pick up an ashtray every now and then…

“Spring Ivy will be affected, that’s inevitable.” Devore Yves sat on the guest sofa, tinkering casually with the decorations on the table. “Have you been keeping an eye on the Mansons again?”

“…Yeah.”

Devore Yves chuckled, but his tone was helpless. “Missy, didn’t I tell you to leave the Mansons alone?” 

Eunice pursed her lips. “What? Are you still thinking about working with those brothers? I’ll be honest, dad, with the way things are going, our cooperation is just a unilateral boost to the brothers. They’d become even more unscrupulous and then take over our territory. There’s nothing good in it for us, so why?”

Recently, the times that the father and daughter had a proper conversation were few, and even then most of it was provoked by the Mansons.

Eunice braced her arms on the office desk, going on a rare tirade analysing the current situation for Spring Ivy and the Mansons, the way to move forward, the best opportunity and timing for Spring Ivy to develop, the best distance to keep from the Mansons, etc…

Throughout all of it, Devore Yves watched her, listening attentively to her. 

He made an occasional correction to Eunice’s words—not exactly corrections, either, but rather inputting his own views on the matter. For example, Eunice believed that the moment the Mansons established a position in the medical sector, they’d expand aggressively, occupying as much territory as they could. When it equalled Spring Ivy in terms of hospitals, their strength would naturally be matched, and thereafter it would be a logical step to overpower Spring Ivy.

However, Devore Yves was certain that, in the short term, they wouldn’t be looking to expand their position in healthcare but focus on research.

This was more in line with their collaboration with Westshore to push out a cure.

“Shall we bet on it?” Devore Yves said. 

Eunice rolled her eyes at her father.

A smile tugged at Yves’ lips.

Sometimes, Eunice would even catch a trace of pride in his expression.

He approves, Eunice thought to herself. 

Yet, after saying that, Devore Yves insisted on his earlier stance. “I meant what I said. Stay out of it.”

Eunice glared at him suspiciously.

Devore Yves raised a hand to block her line of sight, teasing her as he did when she was a child, cooing, “Yeah, yeah. I know you have big eyes, but your eyeballs are going to fall out if you keep glaring, and I’d have to pick them up for you.”

He smiled, then got up and left the office suite. 

Eunice actually still had a lot on her hands to do, but she didn’t call her secretary over.

She sat alone behind the office desk. She swivelled the chair and gazed out of the French windows at the open view of the lake, feeling an indescribable melancholy. It was very slight, and it was hard to tell if it was her brother’s call or her father’s joke that made her feel this way.

She knew that she wouldn’t be able to get hold of Joe at this time, and she didn’t know how to express her thoughts.

After a long silence, she still decided to send her younger brother a message. 

–I might be overthinking it, but I feel like… dad is deliberately playing along with Manson.