The doctor suffers from amnesia, but not complete amnesia.

The fate of the Swire family was already sealed, because all their wealth and power were laid bare before Wei Yanwu and Qiao Yelan—both of whom possessed the power to easily crush him!

“You’ll have to face this step sooner or later. The difference is that Wei Yanwu might wait a few years, a dozen years, or until some critical moment before asking you, but I don’t have that much time—because one is one, and zero is zero. This little bit of time won’t change your personality, so I asked you directly.”

Qiao Yelan picked up the teapot and poured himself a cup of tea.

"The tea's cold."

At that very moment, Adams knelt down.

He knelt before this boy, who looked decades younger than him, as humbly as a servant meeting the emperor.

“I, Adams Swire, swear in the name of Swire that I will follow in your footsteps forever.”

The old man took off the ring from his hand and presented it to Qiao Yelan with both hands.

"This is the Swire family head's ring. Only it can respond to the Swire family's unique authentication ritual. With it, you can decide the selection of each head of the family."

“I will also wear the fake one and leave a will—to prevent the Swire family from being corrupted, I entrust the family head’s ring to you for safekeeping. The person you give it to is the family head I have already chosen.”

His voice was hoarse, but there was no hesitation or doubt.

Qiao Yelan took the ring, and Adams saw him casually toss it into the empty briefcase.

“Very good, I see your sincerity.”

The man held out his hand, gesturing for Adams to stand up.

"Please...please do me a favor."

He pleaded.

"Haven't I already offered a helping hand?"

"......already?"

"Yes, how was Wei Yanwu sent away?"

"Because Edward's identity was exposed—?!?"

Qiao Yelan turned the wheelchair around again, so that it faced away from Adams.

"That document highlights your and your family's value—maintaining connections with Victoria. So, if you want to cultivate good relations with the dukes, do you think it's better to choose a Victorian merchant family that has left their homeland, or to send them a descendant of the former king as a gift?"

Adams started shaking again.

“Now that this secret is out in the open, no amount of secret means will work. Edward’s matter will become a diplomatic incident, rather than a deal that can be settled privately. You should be glad that your family still has some power, and you should also be glad that Wei Yanwu at least cares about his own sister.”

Qiao Yelan placed her briefcase beside her, leaned back in her wheelchair, and lazily urged.

"Alright, dear Adams, we should go now—Little Beatrice is waiting for you to cut her cake."

Chapter Thirty-One: The Devil

"Outcast, you will be in charge of everything here in Lungmen from now on."

"I understand now. I get it pretty much from the fact that you brought me from Vidonia—they need a more proactive manager over there, not an old lady like me who likes to slack off."

The old angel chatted and laughed with Qiao Yelan as he pushed the wheelchair.

"Governor Wei Yanwu of Lungmen and the Swire family will assist you, so the number of people allocated in the early stages will be relatively small. As usual, we will first establish strongholds and evacuation routes before expanding."

“You’re a veteran employee now, you know about the Tower of Babel’s retirement policy. If you’re planning to retire, you can start preparing now. Find a deputy and train him properly—have you found anyone you like among the two people you’ve brought along this time?”

Qiao Yelan asked.

"No, Scout is the kind of guy who's rather quiet and only good at getting things done. Ace, on the other hand, is quite outgoing, but young people, you know, are full of energy and definitely don't want to stay in any city permanently."

Sakta continued to push Qiao Yelan forward.

"Besides, I haven't planned to retire yet. The notary office has already fired me, and I can't go back to Laterano. Where can an old man like me who only knows how to play with guns go? I might as well stay in Babel and take care of a few more children—or is Babel having a financial crisis and is forcibly laying off older employees?"

"That's not the case, Outcast. If you'd like to stay, that would be great."

The two stopped.

Before us is a convoy that has been completely reorganized.

Qiao Yelan came to Longmen for two reasons: first, to reassess the level of cooperation between Wei Yanwu and Adams; and second, to receive new intelligence and send people to build a new intelligence network there.

Now that both things are done, he naturally won't stay here any longer.

Since preparations at Longmen are not yet complete, there's no rush for the Great Yan Emperor's group. They might as well take some intelligence to deceive Kosichie and have her protect them on their journey to Holy Eagle Fortress.

It seems that the person sitting on the throne now must be in great need of external support.

Qiao Yelan didn't want to be beaten to it by someone else.

Soon, the convoy, now half its original size, left Lungmen. Outcast led the remaining men to the shop that Qiao Yelan had chosen earlier, preparing to establish a new Babel Tower outpost.

On the towering walls of the mobile city, two people stood watching the convoy depart.

"As expected, Lungmen is not an important place to him at all."

Wei Yanwu said calmly.

"Yes, I didn't expect that after he confronted me, he would leave immediately without any forceful pressure or intention to turn against me."

Adams gave a wry smile.

"How did you reply to him?"

"What other reply can we give? We can only cut our losses and bleed out. But thankfully, he probably hopes the Lungmen Coin project will succeed, so he only asked for a little more profit sharing and also asked the Swire family to be responsible for the initial construction investment."

The old man said dejectedly.

"After all, you were planning to take advantage of him, so you're lucky he only took a small amount of money. Adams, I gave you a subtle warning before, but I didn't expect you to ignore it."

How do I know that all young people these days are monsters?

Wei Yanwu didn't care about Adams's complaints. He had deliberately not explained things clearly before, also wanting to use Adams's thoughts to test Qiao Yelan. He was quite satisfied with the current result.

Qiao Yelan's actions were very measured; he only extorted a sum of money from the Swire family and left quickly without any intention of turning against them or settling scores. This was in line with his character and also showed that he really just wanted to make money.

"After I left, besides confronting you, what else did he say to you?"

"There's one more thing—he told me to make sure you know this: if Edward's identity is exposed, you must be careful that he doesn't do anything stupid, like trying to save your sister and the baby in her womb by committing suicide."

The old man reminisced as he spoke.

"What instructions do I need... Do you think I don't know what that guy is capable of?"

Wei Yanwu shook his head, turned to leave, but froze on the spot.

"what happened?"

Adams was somewhat puzzled.

"So this is what they were waiting for me!"

The man said through gritted teeth.

"What do you mean?"

“He was warning me that if I did it again, he had plenty of ways to get back at me.”

Wei Yanwu slammed his fist heavily against the city wall.

"He and Edward are also on good terms, so if he pretends to care and says this to him, Edward, that stubborn guy, will definitely think it's a good idea. Therefore, if there is any pressure on Lungmen, he will definitely take this approach!"

"And this is actually a good way to solve the problem once and for all, because once he dies, things will be settled. He and my sister had a secret marriage. As long as she gives birth to the child, I will force her to marry a nobleman from the Great Yan Dynasty. That way, both she and her child can be saved!"

"this......"

Adams gasped.

"So he told me this to use me as a way to put you in a bad light?"

"I'm afraid it's not just a warning to me, but also a trap to set for you. If we were just ordinary sponsors and beneficiaries before, then you would have said this in front of Edward and me. And as long as those words reached Edward's ears, that would be enough—because things would inevitably end up sliding into the worst possible abyss!"

"Then I'll completely lose your trust because I've angered you..."

Adams murmured.

"Then the only person I can rely on is Qiao Yelan! Because I don't have any middle or lower-level officials to keep Lungmen running. The only ones who have these people are the Swire family and the Tower of Babel. And I can't trust you anymore, so I have no choice but to let the people of the Tower of Babel take over—because I must stand firm in Lungmen to ensure that my sister and I are not killed by the emperor!"

Wei Yanwu rubbed his forehead, realizing for the first time that flirting with Qiao Yelan was a mistake.

However, he quickly calmed down and resumed thinking.

"It seems very likely that Edward's intelligence has indeed been leaked by Kosiché, otherwise he wouldn't have prepared such a trap for the two of us in advance."

"Could it be that Qiao Yelan leaked it?"

Adams couldn't help but press for an answer.

"No, otherwise he could have talked to Edward directly, as I suggested, instead of going through you. This means he actually hopes that Lungmen can remain firmly in our hands, instead of being taken back by Kosichie—this is a warning and a threat, not something he actually intends to do."

"why?"

"Because of the Lungmen Coin plan he presented—he could easily take this plan to Koschei. We only started preparing to take over Lungmen fifteen years ago, while Koschei had occupied Lungmen for decades before that. Although Ursus failed to win the Urdung War, they undoubtedly have the same qualifications as the Great Yan to support Lungmen Coin."

Wei Yanwu pointed to the ground beneath their feet.

"They must have been preparing this plan for a long time. You could even say that it was because of this plan that Babel wanted to bring us in, expel Koschei, and create this kind of currency. Therefore, Qiao Yelan could cooperate with anyone to oppose me, but he could never cooperate with Koschei, otherwise wouldn't he be hindering his own plans?"

Is that impossible...?