Chapter 169 Stepping Up

"Why aren't you saying anything, bitch? Why aren't you leaving already, huh?! Could it be that you're still planning to invest in this shop?!"

As long as he didn't strike first, instead pressing on their nerves and baiting them to commit any actions that could be emotionally interpreted as an attempted assault, he would strike back ruthlessly.

Leonardo gave this big guy a look and sighed, "This is a bit troublesome, I need to keep lowkey…" He muttered to himself with a frown, ignoring the obvious taunting.

Luckily, Merlin wasn't like most women who were too sentimental to make a clear-cut judgment while detached from emotion. Otherwise, she might have long ended up with a brilliant handprint across her face.

As a businessman, Leonardo also knew how to exploit loopholes in regulations and corner a shop into bankruptcy before forcing a takeover, and he could assess the situation from the clear gazes of pity and disdain from the various shopkeepers around.

Although he didn't know the reason behind the takeover or the full story and details, he could make a rough estimate of how long this takeover plan had been undergoing, especially from the impatience displayed by this bodyguard who wanted to play the crocodile.

Drag them into the water then rip them to shreds before they could mount any counterattack.

"Don't drag other people into this! Even if we were forced into free labor, we would never sell the shop to you! Even after bribing all these shopkeepers, even after exhausting all your resources to make us sell, we will never!"

The woman spat on the floor, disgusted.

"Is that so? Haha!" The bodyguard suddenly cracked laughing, checking up on this seemingly virtuous and conservative woman. Although thick robes concealed her figure, anyone could make a general estimate of how beautiful she might be.

He vulgarly clutched at his crotch, his tongue swaying in the wind as he snickered, "Boss Ray has just the right free labor for a woman like you— the mines have been lacking in some 'gentle' working force to motivate the exhausted brothers and slaves there, boss Ray simply needs to pull some strings and you'll make the best cheerleader underground."

The woman's body trembled visibly, but she still clenched her teeth and glared back, unrelenting.

The old man coughed softly by her side, weakly caressing her tender white hand, shaking his head.

Then, he spoke in a low and resolute voice, "I hereby disown you from this family, and I hereby permanently expel you from this shop as a minor shareholder, you will take possession of my old house as remuneration…"

He barely finished talking before going through another violent fit of coughing.

"Grandpa! What are you saying?!" The woman snapped, her hard and unrelenting expression breaking into distraught tears in a heartbeat from that ruthless decree.

The bodyguard's face twisted into something nonhuman.

The old man showed a shallow smile, weakly saying, "Like this, even the Vast Sky Avenue committee of regulations can't do anything to you, let alone those people. As long as you don't break the law, no one can touch you…"

The old man spoke and coughed. Then, he looked over at Merlin.

"This old man and this unfilial woman dragged you into so much trouble, hopefully, you won't hold it against her in the future. She's usually very bright, I don't know what had gotten into her all of a sudden…"

"No! What are you doing?! We still have three months left! We can earn the money if you let me work on the inscriptions!" The woman stood up and screamed at her own two feet, feeling exasperated.

"Hahaha! You? Do you want to work on runic inscriptions?! Is this some kind of a twisted joke?! Haha!" The bodyguard started adding fuel to the fire.

"Your old man had long since lost his ability to concentrate his spiritual energy, incapable of subduing the laws even within his own domain, let alone inscribing runes on durable materials! All of your employees left for a better environment, you have nothing left! Now, you want to tell me that a tender girl like you suddenly learned runic inscriptions? If you really could inscribe runes, your business wouldn't have deteriorated to such an extent!"

"You!" The woman snapped.

"Elizabeth!" The old man snapped as well, albeit with a touch of unnatural redness to his muddled face. "Listen to this old man on this matter, go and work for that woman instead!"

He turned his eyes to Merlin who was watching silently from the side, not having noticed Leonardo's presence.

Although the old man only said one sentence, his hand clenched tightly around Elizabeth's wrist, hoping to convey his meaning. The old man knew that everything he had in his mind about runic inscriptions was already embedded deeply into this granddaughter of his.

Even if they lost the shop temporarily now, so what?

As long as his granddaughter could grow up unobstructed, coming back to the Vast Sky Avenue wouldn't be an issue at all.

The business world is simply that ruthless.

"We can't let them win no matter what…"

The old man pleaded weakly.

The woman's body was trembling from head to toe in helpless anger, but there was nothing she could do at this point. At most, she could only become a burden to this grandfather who secretly taught her everything, as though he saw a day like this coming.

Everyone said this old man had already run out of oil, grew muddle-headed, and was unable to discern good from bad.

But she knew that he was doing all of that to leave her a path of retreat at such a critical moment.

"Do you think this is over just because you said it was?!" Roared the bodyguard angrily, pointing and cursing vulgarities.

Elizabeth was about to yell back from sheer anger when a man dressed in a lavish white set of clothes, hands tucked away into the pockets of his coat, silently appeared between herself and that bodyguard with a faint smile on his face.

"Can you not threaten my employees right under my nose? Thank you."