Chapter 9: Third Sister Goes Berserk: Sell the Lin Group to Find My Brother!
Moon Shadow Group Headquarters, 88th Floor Cloud Conference Room.
The air here was maintained at a constant 24 degrees Celsius, yet it felt as cold as a morgue.
On either side of the ten-meter-long black-gold sandalwood conference table sat financial titans and group executives in bespoke suits. These power players who usually commanded the business world were now sitting bolt upright, not daring to even breathe heavily, their eyes darting fearfully toward the head of the table.
There sat the "business empress" who held the lifelines of the global economy—Second Sister.
But today, the empress was not herself.
She wore a perfectly tailored Chanel haute couture suit, gold-rimmed glasses perched on her nose, her hair impeccably styled in a bun—she still looked sharp and capable. But a closer look would reveal her left hand, hidden under the table, frantically picking at the edge of her right thumb's nail.
A hangnail was torn open, blood seeping out, staining her freshly done French manicure.
It hurt.
Ten fingers connect to the heart, but even this piercing pain couldn't suppress the anxiety growing wildly in her heart like weeds.
"Ms. Lin... Ms. Lin, about that 50-billion new energy project in Western Europe..."
The reporting Investment Director wiped cold sweat from his forehead, his voice trembling, "The other side hopes we can concede another two percentage points on the profit margin. If we don't agree, they might..."
"Then tell them to get lost."
Second Sister didn't even look up, her voice flat and devoid of inflection, her hand still mechanically tearing at the already mangled skin, "A paltry few billion business and you bother me with it? Are you all incompetent?"
Dead silence filled the room.
A few billion... paltry business?
That was the group's core strategic project for the second half of the year!
"Ms. Lin, but..." the Director was on the verge of tears.
"I said tell them to get lost. Do you not understand human speech?"
Second Sister suddenly raised her head. Her beautiful eyes, hidden behind the lenses, were shot through with terrifying blood vessels, her gaze as venomous as a snake whose tail had been stepped on. "I'm in a very bad mood right now, a very, very bad mood. If anyone dares waste my time with such nonsense again, I'll make them jump from this 88th floor."
In the past, during these high-pressure meetings, Lin Ji would always sit silently in the corner tea room.
Whenever she felt the slightest bit irritable, that figure would bring her a perfectly temperature-controlled pour-over coffee and whisper in her ear, "Third Sister, take a deep breath. Don't rush."
That voice was her sedative.
But now, the tea room was empty. Only a disgusting cup of instant coffee brought by that clueless new secretary, which tasted like dishwater.
"Xiao Ji..."
Second Sister muttered to herself, her fingers applying too much force, nearly tearing off her entire fingernail.
Just then, the screen of her private phone beside her hand went dark—that had been a call from Fifth Sister, Lin Zhishu.
Fifth Sister said that the newly returned Lin Tian was a waste, even a contaminant.
Fifth Sister said if they couldn't find Lin Ji, she was going to blow up the basement.
"Heh... waste."
Second Sister let out a nervous, low laugh, the sound particularly eerie in the silent conference room.
She suddenly understood.
What family glory, what blood ties—it was all bullshit in the face of life and death! Without Lin Ji, they, these women standing at the pinnacle of the world, were just a pack of beasts ready to go mad at any moment.
*Thwack!*
She slammed the priceless contract onto the table with such force that the million-dollar Montblanc pen snapped, its ink cartridge breaking. Black ink splattered across the table like a blooming black dahlia.
"Meeting adjourned."
Second Sister stood up, her chair scraping against the floor with a piercing shriek. "Dismissed."
"Ms. Lin? But..."
"I said dismissed!"
Second Sister's emotions spiraled completely out of control. She gripped the edges of the heavy solid wood conference table, veins bulging on the backs of her hands. She, who usually needed Lin Ji's help to open a bottle cap, now erupted with terrifying strength.
*Crash—!*
The several-hundred-pound conference table was forcibly overturned onto the floor!
Documents flew everywhere, computers shattered. Several executives who couldn't dodge in time were pinned under the table, letting out pig-like squeals.
"What's the use of this damn meeting?! What's the use of earning so much money?!"
Second Sister stood amidst the wreckage, her chest heaving violently, her delicate face now contorted with madness. "My brother is missing! My lifeline is gone! And you idiots are still here talking to me about some bullshit profit?!"
"Ms. Lin... Ms. Lin, please calm down!"
The Vice President cowered in a corner, raising a trembling hand. "We're doing everything we can to search, but..."
"But what? But there's no trace of him?"
Second Sister advanced step by step, her high heels crunching on broken glass. "Eldest Sister has even mobilized military satellites and found nothing. What use is your pathetic commercial intelligence network!"
She suddenly turned, her gaze sharp as a knife, landing on the Finance Director.
"Old Liu, how much liquid capital does the group have on hand right now?"
The Finance Director shuddered. "Approximately... approximately 80 billion. That's reserved for the acquisition of..."
"Withdraw it all."
Second Sister cut him off, her tone brooking no argument. "Immediately. Right now. Liquidate all assets that can be liquidated. Sell the stocks, mortgage the land. I want cash! I want enough cash!"
"Ms. Lin! What are you doing? This will cause a stock market crash!"
"A crash? Then let it crash!"
Second Sister sneered, reaching up to tear off the diamond necklace worth tens of millions around her neck and casually tossing it into the trash bin. "If we can't find Lin Ji, keeping this Moon Shadow Group is just keeping it for my funeral. Might as well burn it all. Maybe the smoke will draw my brother out!"
"Listen up!"
She scanned the room of these usually aloof elites, her voice hoarse and resolute:
"Issue a global bounty! Not just on the dark web. I want the whole world to know!"
"Anyone who provides a lead on Lin Ji gets a reward of one billion! US dollars!"
"Anyone who brings him back to me unharmed gets ten percent of Moon Shadow Group's shares! Even if he's a beggar, I'll make him an instant billionaire!"
Mad.
That was the only word left in all the executives' minds.
For a fake young master who had been driven out of the house, this business empress was willing to stake her entire commercial empire?
But it wasn't over.
After her outburst, Second Sister regained a sliver of rationality.
She knew very well that Lin Ji had prepared for this. If Eldest Sister's satellites couldn't find him, it meant someone was helping him block signals, or the kid had some secret she didn't know about.
Conventional methods were too slow.
By the time bounty hunters stumbled around like headless flies, Lin Ji might have already fled to the ends of the earth.
"We have to use unconventional means..."
Second Sister took a deep breath and pulled out another encrypted phone from her bag. It was specifically for contacting those sisters of hers with "special professions."
If satellites in the sky couldn't see, then search through the networks underground.
In this information age, as long as a person was alive, eating and sleeping, they couldn't avoid leaving electronic traces.
Even a breakfast purchase record of a few dollars.
Her fingers trembling, she dialed a number whose owner was definitely still asleep at this hour.
That was Ninth Sister.
The world's top-ranked hacking genius, codenamed "Hand of God," the internet-addicted girl—Lin Mengmeng.
"Hello..."
The phone rang for a long time before it was answered. An irritable, heavily sleep-deprived loli voice came through. "Who is it?! Don't you know I just pulled an all-nighter for a match?! If this isn't a matter of life and death, I swear I'll hack your entire family registry!"
"It's me."
Second Sister's voice was cold as ice. "Ninth Sister, stop sleeping. That 'matter of life and death' in our family who only knows how to cook is missing."
"You have three minutes to wake up, then hack into every surveillance system on the planet for me."
"If you can't find Lin Ji, you can look forward to eating the slop that waste Lin Tian cooks every day from now on."