Spy-x-War Showdown
Chapter 1131 - 1136: Silver-Tongued

Chapter 1131: Chapter 1136: Silver-Tongued

"What should we do? Are you confident?"

Chris shook his head, then said to Xiao Ran: "I am confident, but definitely not fully confident."

Xiao Ran took a deep breath and said, "I can guess what that guy Anton will do, those people are nothing but brute force, but you..."

After sizing Chris up and down, Xiao Ran frowned and said: "Are you really up for it? I’m not doubting your ability, but turning someone over or, let’s say, bribing someone is really not the same as swindling."

Chris smiled and then replied with a calm face: "Actually, it’s more or less the same, it’s all about fooling people."

Xiao Ran shrugged and said: "I hope you won’t need me to step in when the time comes. Apart from not wanting to kill to silence someone, actually... I really dislike blood, especially being up close, you know I only brought a handgun, and I don’t plan on using it."

Chris smiled again, not arguing further with Xiao Ran, but instead glanced at his watch and said: "It’s eleven o’clock, we should hurry, it’s not good if we’re too late."

"What does being early or late have to do with anything?"

"Anton uses violence, and I cannot use violence. Since I cannot resort to violence, I have to be polite, and being polite means not disturbing people too late."

"Alright, that makes some sense."

Xiao Ran stopped talking, quietly following Chris to the front of a two-story house.

Although it is a detached house, the security in this area isn’t very good, nor are the schools, so the houses here aren’t that expensive.

"As a former Wall Street bank employee, living in such a place really seems inappropriate."

Chris mumbled to himself, then looked at Xiao Ran beside him and said: "I’ll knock on the door myself, you wait outside for me. If I can’t handle it, I’ll call for you, okay?"

"Alright, be careful on your own. If you feel unsafe, signal me and I’ll come up to rescue you, and incidentally eliminate any threats, uh, I sound quite evil, don’t I? Alright, the signal is ’I’m thirsty.’ That’s it, I wish you good luck."

Xiao Ran walked away and stood in the shadow under a tree, while Chris stepped forward to ring the doorbell.

After pressing the doorbell several times, lights finally turned on inside the house, and then a man’s voice boomed: "Who is it, who’s knocking so late at night?"

Chris raised his voice and said: "Hello, sorry for the late visit, but I have very important business I need to discuss with you."

An elderly man with graying hair opened the door. He looked at Chris, then said with a puzzled face: "I don’t know you."

Chris smiled and said solemnly: "Of course you don’t know me because we’re not from the same bank, but may I come in and talk to you? What I have to discuss is very important, and please believe me, it will be to your benefit."

The old man frowned and pondered for a long time, then he finally said softly: "My family is already asleep."

"I know, but please believe me, what I have to say will benefit you and your family. They definitely won’t mind being disturbed, and I promise to speak very softly."

Chris smiled warmly, and he had a convincing face, one that made him seem trustworthy at first glance.

Finally, the old man stepped aside and said sternly: "Come in."

Chris nodded in acknowledgment and entered the man’s home.

"Please sit, would you like something to drink? How about a beer?"

"Oh, sure, thank you."

The old man got two bottles of beer, drank one himself, and placed the other in front of Chris. He then sat on the single sofa beside Chris, looking dubious: "Now that you are seated, and the beer is in front of you, what is it you wanted to talk to me about?"

Chris looked around at the room’s furnishings, then with a smile said: "Well, let me start. First, please forgive my rudeness, your furniture is somewhat outdated, as are most of your appliances, and your annual salary is about eighty thousand dollars, which is a high income. So, may I ask why does your lifestyle still seem somewhat strained?"

The old man’s expression turned unhappy, and he said somberly: "That’s my business."

Chris smiled and continued: "Your life is somewhat strained because you have four children, and two of them are currently in college. Your wife has no income, so the expenses for the entire family need to be covered by your salary alone, which is certainly pressing."

The old man’s expression was as still as water as he said: "You’re not here to advise me on financial management, are you?"

"Come to your house at half-past eleven at night to talk about financial management? Oh, certainly not, God, I’d be beaten to death for that, I know."

After laughing, Chris continued: "With your experience, you should have taken on more important responsibilities. At least ten years ago, you should’ve been in a department manager’s position. In that case, your annual salary should have reached one hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year ago, right?"

The old man replied indifferently: "No way around it, I missed that opportunity."

"Because your position was taken by someone else, but that’s not fair, it was not that you failed to compete, someone supplanted you."

"You had another chance for promotion, but during the financial crisis, times were hard for everyone, so once again you missed the opportunity for promotion."

"The last chance for promotion was the year before last; you worked excellently, you never made any mistakes on the job, but you’re getting older, you are about to retire, and the amount of your pension is based on the position you hold when you retire, so you lost your last chance for a promotion."

Smiling after finishing speaking, Chris sincerely looked at the old man and said: "Am I right?"

The old man drank the wine in his bottle in one go and then looked at Chris saying: "Yes, you’re right, it’s exactly that, my work is excellent, but I’m old, so what’s meant to be mine is gone, what about it? What can you do?"

Chris said lightly: "We want to launch a hostile takeover of Bell Securities, you have a few months left until retirement, my offer is five hundred thousand dollars in cash, plus a promotion to department manager after we take over the bank, and when you retire, you can receive the pension that should rightfully come to you."

The old man’s face turned stiff, and then he said gravely: "You want me to betray the bank I work for..."

"Not betray, but take back everything that is rightly yours!"

Chris suddenly became somewhat fierce, and then he whispered: "Want to hear my story?"

"Uh, you... also work in banking?"

Chris told a long story, then with a look of regret said: "Just like me, now your chance is lying before you. Five hundred thousand isn’t much, but you can think about it, is it better to follow a company that doesn’t value you, that treats you as a useless old thing and kicks you to the curb, or is it to strike back at the last moment?"