Chapter 222
After breakfast, Enripe, who wasn’t eager to go out at his age, handed each of them a gift envelope and then settled down to watch TV at home. Since one car couldn’t accommodate all of them, Aubree, intentionally avoiding Bowen, insisted on one car for herself.
Bowen didn’t provide any further comments, and the two cars left one after the other. Once inside the car, Alvin immediately muttered under his breath, “Uncle Bowen, I take back what I said about you being a beast yesterday.”
Bowen shot him a glance. “You’re a total monster,” Alvin added.
Bowen tried to restrain himself but ultimately couldn’t resist and gave Alvin a light smack on the head. “Could you show some respect, please?”
Alvin clutched his head but responded with a serious tone, “I’m not judging you, Uncle. That bite mark? I’m pretty sure you did most of the biting.”
Bowen gave him a long, meaningful glance. “It was bitten,” he said.
Alvin’s expression shifted, and he scoffed, “Whatever.”
“I drank too much last night,” Bowen said, trying to change the topic. Both Alvin, sitting beside him, and Ethan, driving up front, silently rolled their eyes at his blatant lie.
Ethan couldn’t help but stir the pot. “Mr. Turner, blaming it on booze is one of the oldest excuses out there. If you were truly that drunk, you would have passed out completely – there’s no way you’d be capable of anything else.”
Suddenly, Ethan felt a chill running down his spine. “Beyor’s team is understaffed. After Christmas, you’ll be going there for two months,” Bowen said.
Ethan fell silent immediately. Each of the nine had their responsibilities. Samson and Ethan stayed with Bowen, while Jase and Jay were tasked with protecting Alvin. Bryce oversaw operations in Yastraria. Zachary was typically assigned to conduct surveillance or investigations while the rest of the team provided backup support, always ready for assignments.
“Mr. Turner, I was wrong,” Ethan said, his expression filled with regret.
Bowen shot him an icy glare. “Make it three months. After we leave, you’ll head directly from Shiyvania. Notify Gilberto – when I return, he’ll take over your responsibilities.”
Ethan was now properly chastened and didn’t dare to utter another word.
After returning from the skating rink, they decided to shorten their stay in Shiyvania and head back early, rather than remain for a few more days. They had initially planned to stay until Aubree and Alvin returned for school. Little did they know that unexpected trouble had arisen in Rithol City – Playzy was in serious trouble.
Recently, due to the MindDrift situation, Aubree had Vincent exhaust his annual leave and lay the groundwork for her plan to expose MindDrift’s scandals right after the New Year.
Once that occurred, authorities would undoubtedly shut down MindDrift. Even if Carmen somehow managed to evade personal consequences, the platform would be doomed. A live-streaming platform struggling with fatalities and rampant money laundering, Carmen lacked the expertise to keep it running smoothly.
Aubree brought on Vincent to engage with regulatory officials, subtly promoting new regulations for live streaming. Once those regulations were established, she planned to launch PK battles and live-stream shopping on Playzy. Subsequently, she would collaborate with Aidan to develop a marketing campaign for Zappy’s short video platform.
Little did she anticipate that before she could take any action against MindDrift, someone else would act first. It seemed that whatever had happened with Emery had motivated Ronald to take a step forward.
At one point, Ronald got involved with a woman whose son was obsessed with live streams. The boy believed he could become a top streamer, but Playzy didn’t allow users under eighteen to stream on their platform. He ended up glued to the screen all day, refusing to...