At ten o'clock in the morning on September 1st, Trick, Sam, and Cecilia received electronic invitations from their brother William at the same time.
The invitation was just two lines long: "Charity dinner at Palme d'Or Hotel, Bandar Seri Begawan, at 7pm on September 2nd."
"Please be there. -William Chapman"
Wandao County, Bandung City.
Trick chewed these dozens of words in his mouth countless times: "Sri Begawan City... Charity Dinner... Be sure to be there... Since William invited you and me, Sam must also be on the guest list."
"I checked and found that this charity dinner was not hosted by William. The organizer was a neutral businessman. The preparations for this dinner started two months ago. At present, it should be clean." The speaker was Cecilia, this shrewd woman has an excellent intelligence network.
"But this invitation is really not clean at all." Trick took a new cigar and lit it, not forgetting to give one to Cecilia opposite him: "There is no polite word, it's just like a secret code for a joint. "
Cecilia took the cigar, but she didn't want to smoke it. She and Trick had been puffing away for the past few hours, as if the nicotine was making their heads work faster. Just the night before, the murderer of Jack Chapman died in Sihanoukville. This incident stirred the nerves of everyone involved, so Cecilia came to Bandung to meet with Trick.
There was a mountain of cigarette butts in the ashtray, but the situation they both faced was not made better by the sacrifice of expensive cigars. They discussed for hours, analyzing their respective chances of winning the heir apparent, and the answer was no. Trik and Cecilia are destined to miss the position of lord, and their competitors Sam and William are far more powerful than them.
So after recognizing this reality, Trick and Cecilia chose to join forces, not to compete for more benefits, but to protect themselves. Sam and William are both careerists, and they both know this.
"William's meaning was very clear. He wanted to talk to us, face to face." Cecilia tapped the armrest of the sofa with her index finger. This was her little habit when thinking: "I can't think of anything that needs to be done." Talk to all of us in person.”
"Maybe he wants to announce to us personally that he will withdraw from this heirloom." The old man Trick also made a little joke: "Indeed, I wouldn't believe this kind of thing if he didn't say it himself."
In such a boring and heavy dialogue atmosphere, Trick's jokes seemed particularly harsh. Cecilia sighed leisurely: "Let's be realistic. Can we expect the jackal to spit out the meat it swallows?"
"Yes, jackal." Trick nodded: "I think he is ready to attack another jackal."
"Trick, tell me honestly, have you ever thought about killing all the heirs except yourself?"
"I have it, don't you?"
Cecilia said solemnly: "Of course there is, but later I found out that I didn't have the strength to match it, so I had to give up."
"Hahahaha." Trick laughed after hearing this, and after just a moment, the cigar in his hand was smoked clean: "Neither did I, and when Raymond and Palmer chose to stand behind them, I found that I didn’t even have the capital to survive.”
Trik only has one ghost-level guard officer, which is better than Celia: the latter only has tiger-level combat power, but fortunately there are enough people.
As for their competitors, not counting the support of the two governors, Sam and William each have two ghost-level ability users and several tiger-level humans as subordinates. This leaves Trick and Cecilia with nothing to fight over.
This kind of disadvantage can be said to have accumulated like a snowball: at the beginning, the gap between the four people was not too big, but Sam and William were the two with more future. The two used their high-ranking officials and generous salaries to recruit high-level ability users as private soldiers. If the master succeeded Joseph as lord, these guards would all be ministers of the humerus.
On the contrary, no one came to vote for Trik and Cecilia, who had average political prospects, which in turn led the two governors to abandon them and place their bets elsewhere.
However, after joining forces, the two of them are qualified to enter the game. As an ambiguous third party, Sam and William cannot ignore it. It is not a bad idea for Trick and Cecilia to choose the opportunity to play both sides.
"The situation is bad, but not that bad. After all...father is still there, isn't he?" The "father" in Cecilia's mouth refers to Joseph. She never thought that one day she would hope that this cheap daddy would live longer. .
"Hmm... maybe William wants to win over us? His and Sam's strengths are about 50-50, but with our help, he is sure to win."
"Now that we think about it, it's too late." Cecilia sneered: "We decided to reach a cooperation with Sam two weeks ago."
Trick was also tired of smoking. He asked the servant to clean the table full of cigarette ash, took the cup and took a sip of the black tea that had already cooled down: "If I didn't have a choice, I wouldn't want to cooperate with either of these two people. ah."
It's true, but Trick and Cecilia have to fight for their lives. The reason they chose Sam was not because he had a better chance of winning. On the contrary, Sam was weaker than William.
As mentioned earlier, among Joseph's four children, William was the most favored. It's easy to add icing on the cake, but it's difficult to provide help in times of trouble. Trick and Cecilia's decision to cooperate with Sam at this time will undoubtedly be more valued by the latter. Moreover, Cecilia, like Sam, is a child "created" by Joseph. With this relationship, Cecilia is more inclined towards Sam in her heart.
William did not lie to everyone in the revival organization, and he did not enlist the help of a third party, causing him to face pressure from the other three heirs at the same time. This was indeed a failure. The chain reaction of this mistake was that William spent a huge price to find the Renaissance Organization to help. It is true that this move is suspected of driving away tigers and wolves, but William can't control that much.
"Are we going?" Trick asked. He was getting older, and his thinking was far less flexible than before. In the past, the conversation had always been dominated by his half-sister in front of him.
"Go." Cecily's tone was decisive: "It is precisely because we don't know what William wants to do with the opportunity of the charity dinner that we need to go."
"Maybe it has something to do with what happened last night. Anwar's death was bizarre, which gave us a wake-up call." Trick guessed.
Cecilia's focus is on other aspects: "Contact Sam, we are nominal allies, and we must advance and retreat together when facing William."
…
Bao Xiang District, Hanoi City.
"Hehehe, Mr. Raymond, have you received it too? My ambitious brother sent an invitation. Trick and Cecilia each also got one." Sam looked at the phone and sneered again and again. Full of murderous intent.
"Mr. William invited us to a charity dinner in Bandar Seri Begawan at this time... he must have some intention, right?" Raymond said nonsense.
Sure enough, Sam couldn't stand listening anymore: "Stop talking such nonsense, Raymond."
"I don't need you to tell me these ambiguous things. I want to hear your thoughts and ideas. Don't tell me that your mind is empty and there is nothing. In that case, you should abdicate the position of Governor of Baoxiang County and make way for someone else. Better."
We can see from Sam's aggressive demeanor that Raymond's cooperation with him may be mutually beneficial, but it is by no means equal.
It is rare for a dignified head of a county to be scolded like a grandson, but this is the form. Raymond actually did not do well in the officialdom, and his position was far less secure than Palmer's. His ability to become governor was largely due to the nepotism between his father and Joseph.
Raymond's political ability can only be considered average, and his personality is a bit too eager to achieve success. From this point of view, it is not surprising that he would do such a frustrating thing as stealing a review car.
It is true that Raymond's nepotism was strong, but it could only last as long as Joseph was alive. Once Joseph died, his career as governor was over, no matter who was in charge. Therefore, Sam tied Raymond to his own chariot with only a few chips.
"Mr. William may want to change the strategy previously agreed upon by the four parties." Raymond immediately thought of a possibility: "Anwar's death is very mysterious and mysterious, but we cannot take it lightly."
"It makes sense, but it's not reasonable enough." Sam showed an excellent way of controlling his subordinates: affirming what his subordinates said and then adding what he didn't say; not only encouraging, but also showing that his intelligence is superior to the other's. It can be seen that Sam is also an old fox who has been immersed in officialdom for many years.
"This kind of thing can be settled in an online meeting, so there is no need for him to add extravagance and ask us to be present in person."
"What kind of shady thing could it be?" Sam stroked the non-existent beard on his chin: "Redistribution of interests? Join forces with me to exclude Trik and Cecilia?"
"Mr. Sam..." Raymond hesitated and said, "Actually, I have a bold guess."
"Tell me."
"William, do you want to catch everyone else in one go?" This guess was really bold, but he got it right.
"Brainless idea." Sam dismissed Raymond ruthlessly: "Not to mention that he does not have the strength to deal with three heirs at the same time, Joseph cannot just sit back and watch him slaughter his brothers."
"that's true."
"Raymond, don't think too highly of our opponent. William is not a person with that kind of decisiveness." Sam advised.
It has to be said that he knows very little about his younger brother.
Raymond did not insist on his idea and asked a new question: "This invitation is unclear. What William wants to do is an unsolved mystery. Are we going to the banquet?"
"Going." Sam replied decisively.
"I have a hunch that this is the last time the four of us brothers and sisters will see each other."
"Father only has a few months to live, and this battle for the right to inherit the throne is coming to an end."
"Before all the heirs meet in arms, let us have a normal and harmless gathering like an ordinary family."
