Spy-x-War Showdown
Chapter 279 - 278 Puppet

Chapter 279: Chapter 278 Puppet

Life is full of surprises everywhere.

I never felt secure about that hundred million US dollars from the start. To say Yang Yi didn’t regret not exchanging Boer for a bounty would be to deceive himself and everyone else. But truthfully, he couldn’t bear to hand over Boer, whom he had defended with his life. According to Zhang Yong, Yang Yi still lacked the ruthless heart cultivated by the underworld.

The money was gone, but he had to make up for it elsewhere. Therefore, after thinking it over, Yang Yi believed that the quickest way to cash in on Boer was to utilize his special talents.

Go gambling, since Boer was so skilled at playing cards.

Hence, Yang Yi was very serious when he suggested that Boer go to the casino and win money to pay off their debt.

Still looking disinterested, Boer turned his head to look at Yang Yi and said weakly, "Win money at a casino? Which one, Monte Carlo Casino? There is indeed a VIP gambling hall there with two hundred thousand US dollar chips. But I am a VIP at Monte Carlo. If I go there, I will receive the highest standard of reception, and then be politely escorted out. Also, let me add, if I dare show up at a casino, it will surely attract those who want to kill me. Are you trying to protect me, or do you want to facilitate my assassination? If it’s the latter, you don’t need to make it so complicated; you can kill me right now."

All of a sudden, Mike burst out in anger, "I don’t believe that’s your only stash of money. Don’t think that by acting suicidal, I’ll believe you. Tell me, where else have you hidden money!"

Boer gestured with his hand and said, "My personal assets are in the billions. I have about a dozen properties, two private jets, a farm, and a yacht. I can give all of these to you. Go ahead, see if you can still get them."

Boer sighed and said with a melancholic look, "When they decided to kill me, everything I had ceased to exist."

Yang Yi raised his hand and said, "Stop, don’t talk about how much wealth you once had anymore. Tell us clearly now, why would someone want to kill you, who wants to kill you."

Boer fell silent for a moment, then said softly, "My deeds were discovered, so I had to die."

"What deeds?"

Boer took a breath, looked up at the sky, and said softly, "It’s a clichéd story, long if I start from the beginning, but I still have to start from there. I was born in Detroit. My father died when I was four, shot and killed during a robbery by a Black man. My mother didn’t remarry, she raised me by herself."

No one said a word, they just watched Boer recount his personal history.

"Since childhood, I showed a talent for mathematics. My impoverished childhood made me especially sensitive to money. I excelled in school, and I was admitted to the finance department of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. I received student loans, and then I went on to earn my master’s degree from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania."

Boer took a deep breath and continued indifferently, "In college, I had a girlfriend who was my classmate. We moved in together soon after, and then I graduated. I became an intern in the fund management department at Goldman Sachs Group. I was born for this job. In three months, I became a regular employee at Goldman Sachs. In two years, I had become a business manager. I was 27 years old that year."

Boer rubbed his face vigorously and said somberly, "I was always on a smooth path. In six years, I became a department manager in Goldman Sachs’ investment banking division. At that time, I was invincible."

Xiao Ran suddenly asked, "What about your college girlfriend?"

Boer glanced at Xiao Ran and replied quietly, "Of course, she was still my girlfriend. She worked in the operations department of a company in New York. I moved my mother from Detroit to New York, and my girlfriend and I rented an apartment outside. I was very happy then, but my biggest problem was that I was never satisfied."

With hands clasped together, Boer said in a solemn tone, "At that time, my annual salary reached four hundred thousand US dollars. In that era, that was truly a high salary. But I felt that I could earn more, if I worked for myself. I don’t know if any of you follow the financial industry, but if you do, you would know that I was truly a legend at that time."

With a forceful comb of his hair, Boer showed a bitter smile and said, "When I decided to start my own business, I received an invitation to attend a dinner hosted by the Rockefeller Family. That evening, I met my wife. She was beautiful, with an impressively dazzling family background. It was then that a member of the Rockefeller Family proposed a partnership with me, to establish an investment bank."

"Wait a second!"

Yang Yi raised his hand with a puzzled expression and asked, "The Rockefeller Family has their own bank, Chase Bank. Why would they need to partner with you to start a new bank?"

Boer exhaled and said, "Did I say the Rockefeller Family was partnering with me? No, it wasn’t the Rockefeller Family, just a collateral member of the family."

Yang Yi shrugged and responded, "Please, continue."

"We established the bank, and I held a twenty-five percent share. Then the newly founded bank operated very well, extremely well. And then, I broke up with my girlfriend, because of my wife Fina. She was truly charming, and I must admit I was deeply attracted by her beauty and poise. Moreover, I knew that only by marrying her could I get everything I wanted, the support I needed, the success in my career, but..."

Fearing the ’buts’, Boer showed an expression of helplessness and explained, "I knew it was a marriage of convenience, but I did not anticipate that the marriage would make me so miserable."

Boer took a painful breath and said, "Let’s cut the long story short. I got married, I was successful, and only then did I realize the cost was too great. My wife slept with countless men outside, she was a qualified socialite, but she was in no way a qualified wife. And I, I became nothing more than a glorified puppet."

All of a sudden, Mike said, "It all sounds quite normal to me. What’s so strange about that?"

Boer sighed and explained, "I couldn’t bring my mother home, because her lifestyle and breeding were intolerable to my wife. My investment bank was growing rapidly, but it was merely a tool for money laundering. And I was a puppet controlled by others. I had to act on my partners’ commands, something I couldn’t stand. Of course, I planned to rebel, but by then I found out it was all too late."

Xiao Ran asked, "What’s too late? Divorce, liquidate your shares, wouldn’t that solve it?"

Boer sighed again and said, "If only it were so easy. An ostensibly normal marriage was one of the necessary conditions for the cooperation. Divorce was impossible. I wanted to liquidate my shares, but that was impossible too, because I knew too much."