Chapter 245: A Red Rose on the Bed!
"Isn't that right?"
The oil painting beauty wasn't surprised by the sudden turn of events, her expression calm, a half-smile playing on her lips as she looked at Chuck.
"I told you—give her back to me, or we'll see if you can handle the collateral damage. Now tell me, can you handle it?"
"You wouldn't want me to be as indifferent to collateral damage as you are."
Chuck looked at her.
"Oh?"
The oil painting beauty's lips curled into a smile: "I'd like to see that."
"Say you'll stop bothering her, and then cure Professor Alicia Harper."
Chuck adjusted his decorative glasses and said slowly.
"Why should I?"
The oil painting beauty glanced mockingly at her fallen, dead subordinate: "Because you dare to kill? Do you dare to kill me?"
"Wrong choice."
Chuck walked step by step toward the oil painting beauty.
"You too."
The oil painting beauty watched Chuck approach, then suddenly pulled a small, elegant pistol from her clothes and pointed it at him.
Chuck ignored her gun and walked toward her step by step: "I bet you're out of bullets!"
"Looks like you really trust your own importance to her."
The oil painting beauty made a move to pull the trigger, but seeing that Chuck didn't react and continued walking, she holstered her gun and assumed a fighting stance.
Chuck didn't explain that his confidence wasn't in his importance to Anna, nor in Anna's importance to the oil painting beauty, thus giving him an absolute immunity card; it was simply in his own abilities.
The oil painting beauty attacked first, her movements agile, her angles tricky, and her strength considerable—clearly an enhanced version of her sister, Anna.
Even without a gun, her strength was enough to handle most dangers.
But this wasn't surprising.
Without such power, how could she possibly secure the throne of the global crime queen through mere scheming and manipulation, recruiting ruthless and unpredictable killers, and potentially offending powerful figures around the world?
An ant that could be easily killed by a mere accident—no one cares about her intelligence.
Only by ensuring she is difficult to kill herself, and then easily killing others, can she have enough deterrent power.
Chuck sparred with her for a few moves, and after comprehensively assessing her fighting abilities, he knocked her unconscious with a chop to the neck and took her away.
Hillside villa.
Underground chamber.
When the oil painting beauty woke up, looking at this unfamiliar place, she rubbed her neck where Chuck had struck her, and smirked: "Too rough. Are you planning to imprison me?"
"I told you,"
Chuck's voice rang out.
"Let me think—you mean your version of the Peerless Sisters, where the older sister was defeated by a man, imprisoned, and then went mad."
The oil painting beauty laughed: "You'll be disappointed. I won't go mad. Do you know why?"
"Because you already are."
Chuck said calmly.
"Since you know, what's the point of doing this?"
The oil painting beauty surveyed her surroundings. "You don't really think this place can hold me forever, do you?"
"Do you know what the most powerful force in this world is?"
Chuck said, noticing the oil painting beauty's narrowed eyes, he nodded. "Looks like you understand—it's time! Anything—emotions, willpower, everything—everything is insignificant before time, and you're no exception."
"You plan to imprison me for life?"
The oil painting beauty stared at Chuck's glasses. "Would she be willing?"
"There's no such thing as willing or unwilling."
Chuck said bluntly. "Didn't you always say you love her, that you only care about her? This is her life. Now you have the chance to experience it for yourself. Only then can you understand how she feels when you try to impose your will on her, and why she wants to escape from you."
As soon as he finished speaking, the wall lit up, revealing an embedded display screen showing Anna, a girl in white, quietly looking at her sister outside the screen.
The oil painting beauty stared intently at her sister on the large screen, then suddenly laughed: "That's fine, then I'll experience what you feel, sister. When we're reunited, our relationship will be even more harmonious."
Chuck said nothing more, took a white rose from his breast pocket, placed it on the bed in the chamber, and turned to leave.
The oil painting beauty looked at the white rose on the bed, a mocking smile on her lips, and said to Anna on the screen: "You just watch him use psychological warfare on me, trying to twist my will and reshape my personality?"
Anna didn't react, just stared, her eyes vacant.
The oil painting beauty knew that her sister's focus had shifted to Chuck. She could tolerate it before, but now she felt an urge to explode, though she forced herself to accept her imprisonment.
She wanted to see if Chuck could truly endure the collateral damage.
The next day.
Daytime.
Chuck brought in the food, set it down, and said to the oil painting beauty, whose smile remained unchanged, "I've helped you wrap up your business in New York; you don't need to worry about it anymore."
"Oh? How did you wrap it up?"
the oil painting beauty asked with great interest as she ate slowly and gracefully, with an air of nobility.
"You came to New York in person to see me, but the official reason was to raise more funds for your criminal organization,"
Chuck said. "You have enough resources to get a New York State legislator to introduce a bill to extract shale gas locally in New York, so the state wouldn't need to import gas from elsewhere.
The stock prices of gas companies that supply New York, which are usually stable, would plummet. You arranged everything, shorting the market in advance, and the proposal was guaranteed to pass for you, no matter what means you used.
You invested $300 million; if successful, the returns would be in the billions. Even for a global criminal organization like yours, this is a plan that cannot afford to fail.
That's the fundamental reason why you knowingly stayed in New York, risking everything to see if I could withstand the collateral damage, even though you knew I was here.
Unfortunately, you chose the wrong path this time.
Did you expect to be able to continue being a Wall Street market genius, secretly profiting, like you did with Amy?"
"Looks like she told you everything."
The oil painting beauty glanced at Anna on the screen on the wall.
"She didn't need to tell me."
Chuck shook his head. "I could tell from the start that Amazing Amy was suspicious. Even after you made Anna say she was fine, I still knew she was suspicious, and I knew Anna was in trouble. If I'm not mistaken, Amazing Amy probably deliberately showed off in front of Nick, inciting his criminal impulses, and then you set up such a massive scheme, right?"
"That's right."
The oil painting beauty didn't deny it. "Amazing Amy has always been one of my people. I saw her extraordinary talent long ago and secretly recruited and trained her."
Saying this, she glanced at Anna. "How was her performance?"
"Her technique is excellent, very valuable for research."
Chuck said bluntly. "Back to cleaning up your mess—the proposal has been officially approved. Without any warning, the gas company's stock crash you predicted did indeed happen, losing 90% of its market value.
But unfortunately, someone bought up all the shares circulating in the market beforehand. While you made a fortune from short selling, you couldn't buy back enough shares to complete the transaction."
"You went long."
"That's right,"
Chuck nodded. "I'll say it again: tell Anna you'll stop bothering her, fix the collateral damage, and while there's still a chance, I'll make a deal with you, let you buy them back, and set you free.
Otherwise, you'll lose everything, and your global criminal organization will be destabilized. Plus, without you, how long do you think your global criminal organization can last?"
"It's alright,"
the oil painting beauty was silent for a moment, then smiled again. "I can afford to lose all of that. The real key to the criminal organization is me, not everything else.
When I return, what's mine will be mine.
I just don't know how long your beautiful professor can last.
Just a heads up—she doesn't have much time left.
Are you prepared to lose her?"
"She'll be fine,"
Chuck said calmly. "The one who really doesn't have much time left is you. Once we cure her, you'll have no chance to negotiate with me again."
"You can't cure her!"
the oil painting beauty laughed. "Unless I tell you how."
"Want to take a bet?"
Chuck looked at her.
"What are we betting on?"
the oil painting beauty asked with interest. "And what are the stakes?"
"I'm betting that she won't be harmed even if you don't speak,"
Chuck said. "If you win, I'll let you go."
The smile on her lips froze. She stared intently into Chuck's eyes, trying to discern whether he was bluffing.
Chuck's words clearly showed his absolute confidence in saving Professor Alicia Harper. He dared to say that even if she won, and the damage was irreversible, he would still let her go.
Because he was certain of his victory!
This made her somewhat suspicious.
The illness she had orchestrated in Professor Alicia Harper's case had a very high and rapid mortality rate without her intervention, but it wasn't certain death; there was a very small chance she would pull through.
Life and death were entirely in the hands of fate.
How could Chuck be so certain he would win?
The two stared at each other for a long time, but the oil painting beauty couldn't find the slightest flaw in Chuck's expression. The pressure suddenly shifted to her.
If time runs out and she loses, although she doesn't think she'll be trapped here forever, too long is unbearable.
"There's still time."
Chuck stood up, took another white rose from his pocket, and placed it by the bedside.
"I prefer red roses,"
the oil painting beauty suddenly said.
"I know."
Chuck, who had reached the door, turned back. "We'll give you a red rose the day you rise from the ashes, but not now."
The oil painting beauty continued her meal slowly, but in the instant she lowered her head, her eyes flickered with uncertainty; clearly, her emotions were swayed by Chuck, and she was no longer as confident as yesterday.
Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital.
"Should I call the police?"
The beautiful Dr. Cameron stood by the bedside, glanced at Professor John Harper pacing back and forth outside the room, muttering to himself, and spoke to the weak Professor Alicia Harper on the bed.
"No need,"
Professor Alicia Harper shook her head. "John didn't do it on purpose. He's just not a good husband, not an abusive one."
"Alright,"
the beautiful Dr. Cameron said, seeing this, she didn't press further.
"What exactly is wrong with me?"
Professor Alicia Harper asked, her face pale.
"We've done a full toxicology screen and found no signs of poisoning. We also did an MRI, ruling out brain tumors and other neurological diseases..."
Dr. Cameron explained all the efforts they had made.
"So you still don't know what's wrong with me,"
Professor Alicia Harper, with her exceptional intelligence, immediately grasped the key point.
"I'm sorry."
The beautiful Dr. Cameron looked at her apologetically, "But Dr. House is one of the best diagnostic doctors in the country, even the world. He specializes in difficult and complicated cases. If anyone can help you, it's him. That's why Dr. Chuck Wolfe had your husband transfer you here."
"Chuck..."
Professor Alicia Harper murmured, "Has he been here?"
"Well... no, but when Dr. House called him, he seemed very busy."
The beautiful Dr. Cameron said cautiously, "He has full confidence in your recovery and said that if Dr. House isn't capable of curing you, he'll come himself."
"Really?"
Professor Alicia Harper immediately smiled, "That's very Chuck. I can almost see him facing Sheldon. Hmm, isn't Dr. House's personality similar to Sheldon's?"
As she spoke, she described some of Sheldon's personality traits.
"In some ways, they really are alike."
Dr. Cameron, the beautiful doctor, laughed upon hearing this. "Both have an inherent arrogance, and both make those around them uncomfortable. It's strange, isn't it? Does Dr. Wolfe really enjoy being friends with people like Dr. House?"
"It's not necessarily about being friends,"
Professor Alicia Harper chuckled. "Maybe he just can't stand their arrogant, sarcastic attitude and wants to challenge them. Chuck's dry humor is always entertaining."
"That's probably it."
Dr. Cameron nodded, then glanced at Professor Alicia Harper's stunning face, unable to suppress her curiosity: "You and Dr. Wolfe..."
"Of course not!"
Professor Alicia Harper immediately denied. "How could you think that... Besides, Chuck is right there. Don't say that, it's embarrassing."
"Dr. Wolfe is here?"
Dr. Cameron looked in surprise, following Professor Alicia Harper's gaze, but saw no one.
"Yes."
Professor Alicia Harper turned her head to the empty area and said, "Chuck, where's Eileen? Did she leave?"
The beautiful Dr. Cameron waved her hand in front of Professor Alicia Harper's eyes, her expression changed, and she quickly pressed the emergency button to notify her colleagues and Dr. House.
(End of Chapter)