"If it weren't for Orange, I would have been put behind bars. I owe him a lot. In fact, I don't know if I would be able to get out of there at all if it weren't for him. Can you imagine what would have happened if your sons were born in a jail cell? I didn't even know where they would be taken after they were born. We both owe Orange for the lives of our boys!"
Erica said seriously. If Matthew allowed Erica to continue, he wondered whether she would make it seem like Orange had been a benefactor to both the Huo and Li families?
Sure enough, before he could speak, Erica wiped her tears with the back of her hand and continued, "Just thinking about it makes me nervous. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night because of the guilt. If I had somehow managed to get out of jail, the first thing I would do is find my sons. If I had failed to find them, I would have come back to ask you for help. Surely, if the Huo and Li families knew that their grandsons were missing, they would have lost sleep, same as me. So, technically, if you think about it, Orange is the benefactor of both the Huo family and the Li family." Lo and behold, Erica had managed to make it look like Orange was the benefactor of the two families.
"Since Orange has been of great help to both of the families, each family will send one person to avenge him. Gifford is chosen from the Li family and the person from the Huo family is me. You don't need to get yourself involved in all this. You should just focus on running your studio and finally finishing school," Matthew dismissed her.
Erica had delayed her study because she had run away from home for more than three years. However, as education was paramount, they had reached an agreement to let her go to school for further study.
Erica was stunned by Matthew's response. The only reason why she took the time to explain everything to him was that she wanted him to know how much the matter of avenging Orange meant to her. Why was Matthew making light of the situation? Why was he so unsupportive of her wish to avenge Orange?
In the end, however, Erica managed to persuade Matthew to agree with her, despite his reluctance, using both hard and soft tactics. But they agreed that Matthew would always accompany her in person if she were to take action in the future.
In another villa in Y City
Michel slowly pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and stared pensively at the red wine in the glass. Behind his glasses, there was unconcealed viciousness in his eyes. "What's wrong with the truck?"
The man next to him reported, "We've checked the truck, and there was nothing wrong with it. The car our men were chasing was the first one to run a red light, and our men's car was just behind it. Then our men's car crashed into the truck."
Two of their people died on the spot, but the truck driver survived the crash with minor injuries.
If their people hadn't died, they would have caught up to the people they were chasing and who knew what would have happened after that.
"So there was nothing wrong with the truck?" Michel asked.
"I believe so."
"What can you tell me about that car?"
"We checked the surveillance footage and found that it was a very common black sedan, but we couldn't find any other information because there was no license plate on the car. By the time our people found the car, it had burned to ashes."
Furious, Michel smashed the glass against the wall, spilling red wine all over the floor. "I've been doing this since I was twenty years old and I've never let the cat out of the bag, let alone let the police sniff something on me." Now, because of Kirk, several forces were secretly investigating him.
At present, the prime suspect in his eyes was Erica. The reason why Michel suspected Erica was that two days before she came back from Tow Village, Kirk and his men were arrested.
The easiest way to untangle this mess was to ask Kirk if their capture had anything to do with Matthew and Erica. They didn't even know why Kirk and Pike were secretly taken away and imprisoned. In fact, no one knew where they were being held as they couldn't get any news out.
"What about the goods?" Michel asked.
"The goods are on the way. We will hand them over to the other party within the designated time."
"Be more vigilant when delivering the goods. Don't let your guard down. We're going to have to stay low and suspend all work for the time being after this," Michel ordered. Since there were too many eyes on him, Michel knew that he would get caught if he didn't stop his operation for at least a while.
"I understand, sir."
After a moment of silence, Michel continued, "Also, have someone to keep an eye on Erica Li." Michel was smart enough not to have his people keep an eye on Matthew because he was afraid of alerting him.
"Yes, sir!" said the bodyguard, before he turned around and walked out of the room.
With his hands behind his back, Michel stared at the mural on the wall in silence.
Michel had to transfer his entire operation from K Country to Y City because he was being hunted by the royal forces in K Country. In order to avoid the royal family, he had no choice but to move to Y City. However, when he moved to Y City, he met a bigger problem.
And now, he wouldn't even dare to make any moves against Erica—a mere woman. Back in the day, he would have dealt with a person like Erica just by himself.
Unfortunately for him, Erica was the apple of Wesley's and Matthew's eye. If he even laid a finger on her, the entire Huo family and Li family would get involved. Not to mention the Lu family and the Tang family from Y City as well. Things would become even more difficult to deal with then.
After all, it was all Kirk's fault. But what could Michel do now? Since Kirk was missing in action, Michel had no choice but to halt all high-risk operations temporarily until things got better.
Erica got up early this morning on purpose, of course because she wanted to take her sons to the kindergarten by herself.
By the time it took her to wash her face and rinse her mouth, Matthew was already dressed neatly, lacking only a tie to complete his attire.
Erica walked over to him and took the tie from his hand. "Teach me how to tie a tie properly!" In fact, Erica should have learned how to tie a tie a long time ago, but she had been dragging it till now.
Matthew didn't refuse. "Here! Watch me closely," he said. He flipped up the collar of his shirt and tied a Windsor knot, then patted the tie and his collar flat again.
Erica observed carefully and her eyes widened in awe. "Wow, it's so simple! I think I can do it!" she said. She was a smart girl! After all, she had just mastered the art of tying a tie just by watching him do it once.
The man raised his eyebrows, untied his tie and asked her to do it on her own.
Erica took the tie and started her performance. "The first step... The second step, er, no, that's not right..." A few minutes later, her face was downcast.
Erica thought she had learned everything there was about tying a tie, but when it was her turn to shine, she fell at the first hurdle.
Matthew took the tie from her hands and smiled. "Pay attention. Let's do it again!"
"Okay!"
The man straightened his collar and hung the tie around his neck. When he was about to do the first knot, Erica suddenly stopped him. "Wait!"
"What's wrong?" Matthew paused and looked at her in confusion.
Tilting her head, Erica reached out her hand to brush her finger over the collar of his shirt. She noticed two words embroidered on his collar.
When the man noticed a subtle change in the woman's facial expression, he swallowed nervously. With a sense of immediacy, he quickly took her hand and said, "It's getting late. You should get changed!"
Unfortunately, the man's expression told Erica that things weren't as simple as she would have preferred.
"Let go of me!" She was consumed by curiosity. Today, she had to find out what those two words meant!
Matthew loosened his grip and dragged his collar back. Then he strode towards the bedroom door, tying his tie while walking. "I'll wait for you downstairs!" he told her.
It was blatantly obvious that Matthew was trying to hide something from her. It must have been something he didn't want her to know.
Erica realized what Matthew was doing. Before the man could quicken his pace and leave the bedroom, she stood at the door and blocked him in the bedroom.