Chapter 525

Chapter 525 The Center of the Dark World!

Tonight, Lin Aoxue has a banquet to attend, and since Su Rui had disappeared for so long, it was only natural that he would accompany her this time, otherwise he would be far too incompetent as a bodyguard.

“Isn’t this Ninghai’s rich folks banquet?”

Su Rui flipped through the guest list, feeling somewhat speechless.

Every single name on it was a well-known big boss or major entrepreneur, along with some rising startup stars — it was practically a grand gathering of Ninghai’s most successful businesspeople.

What was clearly a gathering of the wealthy had, in Su Rui’s eyes, become a gathering of nouveau riche.

“Tsk tsk, if some terrorists showed up with guns and kidnapped all these rich folks, they’d probably make a fortune.” Su Rui looked over the list and even entertained the feasibility of such a scenario.

This left Lin Aoxue thoroughly speechless.

“Looks like Bikang has been making quite a lot of money from Tricosamine lately, otherwise you and your dad’s names wouldn’t be ranked so high up.”

Su Rui noticed that the Lin father-daughter pair were ranked somewhere in the top ten.

Ninghai is the economic center of China, with countless mega-corporations, but fortunately most of the companies selected for this banquet were ones native to Ninghai. If rankings were strictly based on wealth, then the Lin father and daughter, who were not particularly skilled at equity and capital operations, might actually rank even further down.

“The new project in the capital is still under construction, and with Qin Ranlong’s help the progress has been fast. Some of the workshops that were completed ahead of schedule have even passed GMP certification. What Bikang needs to think about now is how to expand production capacity, because current orders are already backed up three years out.”

“Three years out?”

Su Rui was stunned by the news. At this rate, wasn’t Bikang’s Tricosamine basically a money-printing machine?

“There are pros and cons.”

Lin Aoxue turned to look at Su Rui, giving him a long, meaningful glance, and said, “And right now, it seems the cons outweigh the pros.”

“Everything will work out.” Su Rui gently patted Lin Aoxue’s hand, and he couldn’t help but recall the image of Lin Aoxue lightly holding his palm just an hour ago.

Thinking back on Lin Aoxue’s resolute gaze at that moment, Su Rui felt a quiet warmth in his heart.

What neither of them noticed was that just shortly after their car had pulled away, a petite and nimble figure slipped out from around the corner of Bikang’s parking garage.

Watching the direction Su Rui had left with a complicated expression, Danielle Sharp felt a sense of confusion unlike anything she had ever experienced before.

Her mind was filled with the look of disgust Su Rui had given her before leaving, and that look made Danielle Sharp feel deeply unsettled.

“What am I supposed to do?”

It was just a single look, and yet Danielle Sharp suddenly felt as though the past twenty-some years of her life had not amounted to much.

Relying on her status and her looks, she had done whatever she pleased in the dark world, and who knew how many people, like Apollo, had grown tired of her.

This might have been a moment of sudden awakening, or it might have been a case of going too far.

After standing in silence for a long while, Danielle Sharp finally murmured to herself, “Maybe, it’s time for me to make some changes.”

She didn’t want, and couldn’t bear, to ever face a look like Su Rui’s again.

After thinking it over for a few minutes, as though making an incredibly difficult decision, she took out her phone and dialed a number she had long committed to memory but had never once called.

…………

Europe, the Alps.

Few ordinary people would ever know that within this vast mountain range lay an expansive basin, and within that basin existed a city.

That’s right — a city, not a market town or a village.

Tall buildings stood in dense rows, forming a striking contrast with the towering trees.

The city was built along the mountains and laid out along the water, interwoven with the natural landscape. Though it looked somewhat chaotic at first glance, the overall planning was remarkably scientific, and it was clear that an enormous amount of design and planning had gone into the city before construction ever began.

God only knows how much manpower, resources, and money it took to build this city deep within the Alps!

Although the basin covered an enormous area, the surrounding cliffs were sheer as if cut by a blade. To enter or exit this city, aside from scaling the cliffs or flying in by plane, there was only one tunnel leading to the outside world.

This tunnel was easy to defend and hard to attack. If the tunnel were simply blown up, the city would be completely cut off from the outside world.

This city was the sacred ground in the hearts of members of the Western dark world — the Dark City!

The grand scale visible on the surface was merely the tip of the iceberg. Beneath the basin lay another city underground.

Metal structures extended in every direction, the entire underground of the basin had been transformed, and some of the mountain itself had even been hollowed out.

A city within a city, underground.

Together, these two cities above and below ground could accommodate hundreds of thousands of people.

The dark world had existed in the West since the Middle Ages, and it was precisely for this reason that this city had stood for several hundred years. Each generation had renovated and transformed it, giving it the scale it had today, filled with an atmosphere that blended the modern and the classical.

On the western edge of the city, beside a cliff, stood a palace complex steeped in ancient Greek character. White stone columns had weathered countless storms and radiated a deep sense of age, while the surface of the palace was covered in enormous reliefs, each one a story, each one narrating history.

A middle-aged man standing nearly two meters tall was positioned at the edge of the cliff, gazing down over the magnificent city. Half of his foot extended almost beyond the cliff’s edge, yet he showed not the slightest trace of fear.

Standing firm in the wind, still as a sculpture.

He wore a short beard, golden hair draped over his shoulders, and a golden robe, making him look like a golden, radiant lion king — powerful and commanding, with an air of authority between his brows, exuding every sense of dominion.

Indeed, on this land, he was king, for he bore a name: Zeus.

Just then, he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket.

It was quite a feat — to give this mountain city cell signal, he had no idea how many cell towers he had built throughout the Alps.

“Who is this?”

Zeus answered the call. He didn’t recognize the number.

But in the next second, his entire body went rigid.

Because he heard clearly the voice coming through the receiver.

“Zeus, it’s me. Apollo told me to come back and see you. I think I should listen to him.”

Far away across countless miles in China, Danielle Sharp hung up after saying those words. It was as though she had set down a burden of hundreds of pounds, and she felt completely at ease.

…………

The gathering of Ninghai’s nouveau riche — no, wealthy elite — was held at a high-end private club in Ninghai called “Huaning Club.”

Just from the name alone you could sense how prestigious this Huaning Club was. The first two characters meant “China’s Ninghai,” and no matter how much money you had, wanting to become a member didn’t mean you could. To join, having assets exceeding 1 billion was just one of the requirements. You also needed a joint recommendation from at least two existing members and the approval of more than two-thirds of all members before you could be admitted to the “Huaning Club.”

Once inside, it meant you now had access to an endless wealth of business resources. You could meet the top executives at the pinnacle of the pyramid, exchange what each had and needed, support one another, and every member even had the right to unconditionally call upon the help of the other members once.

Su Rui had long heard of this Huaning Club. He stood at the entrance, looking at the magnificent knight sculpture, and said, “Are you a member here too?”

“Not interested.” Lin Aoxue made her stance perfectly clear in a single sentence.

She had once been a top student, wholly devoted to research. It was only later, when the company needed to pivot, that she gradually stepped into management. Finance and socializing were genuinely not Lin Aoxue’s strong suits.

If she had joined the Huaning Club earlier, Bikang’s new project in the capital would never have run into any problems raising funds in the early stages.

Now, given her position, there were certain gatherings she simply had no choice but to attend.

Even Lin Fuzhang, who was already a member himself, had begun making preparations to recommend Lin Aoxue for membership.

As the two approached the entrance of the Huaning Club, two tall and handsome attendants greeted them politely and said, “Good evening, please present your invitation.”

Lin Aoxue handed over her invitation. The attendant checked it and returned it respectfully.

“Sir, please present your invitation.” The attendant turned to Su Rui.

“I don’t have one.” Su Rui said it plainly.

“He came with me to attend the banquet. I invited him.” Lin Aoxue said coolly. She hadn’t known about this rule beforehand.

But at that moment, the rule made Lin Aoxue feel somewhat embarrassed. She didn’t want Su Rui to be turned away and lose face.

“So he’s just a pretty boy riding on Lin Aoxue’s coattails.” A quiet flicker of contempt passed through both attendants’ minds.

“Miss Lin, we’re very sorry, but we have strict regulations — anyone without an invitation is not permitted to enter.” Although both of them had some disdain for Su Rui, their rigorous training meant they would not let it show.

“It’s fine, Aoxue. Since that’s the rule, I’ll just wait for you at the door.”

Su Rui was entirely unbothered. After all, this was the establishment’s policy, just like many upscale residential communities that strictly barred outsiders from entering — it was precisely that kind of rule that ensured the safety of the residents.

If anyone without an invitation could just walk in freely, the high-profile members of the Huaning Club surely wouldn’t stand for it.

Besides, given Su Rui’s personality, attending a banquet that symbolized status and prestige was far less appealing than squatting by the door chatting with the security guards.

Hearing Su Rui say this, both attendants let out a quiet sigh of relief. If the other party had been unreasonable and tried to force his way in, they really wouldn’t have known what to do.

Lin Aoxue, however, looked at the two attendants coolly and said, “I want him to come in with me.”

“We’re sorry, Miss Lin, this gentleman truly cannot enter. It’s the rules.”

“Fine, then I won’t attend either.”

With that, Lin Aoxue took Su Rui’s arm and turned to leave.

Absolutely effortlessly cool.

The two attendants were practically on the verge of tears.

Because they had previously received “special instructions” from a certain person to take extra care of Lin Aoxue.

If Lin Aoxue left at this moment, they would have no idea what to do.

“Miss Lin, please wait. We are willing to make an exception for you. This gentleman may accompany you inside.”