Other People's Children

Lin Feng's words made the maid's heart tremble slightly. Her expression turned somewhat unnatural as she clenched her fists nervously and asked,

"Is this a threat?"

Lin Feng shook his head. "No. It's advice."

"If they ignore my advice, lose money, and still dare come blame me, I'll send them to meet ETO."

The maid nodded seriously. "We will relay your warning word for word."

Inside a Wall Street skyscraper, a display screen hung before enormous floor-to-ceiling windows.

An elderly man stood leaning on a cane, listening to the woman on the screen speak with a frown.

If Lin Feng had been there, he would have recognized the woman on the screen as the maid who worked at his residence. The man video-calling her was Hugh William, a Wall Street financial tycoon frequently featured in finance journals.

"What does that mean?" old William asked.

"It means exactly what it says," the maid answered calmly.

Unlike the cautious manner she displayed before Lin Feng, the maid was exceedingly aloof before the man on the video call.

Old William considered it, then cautiously asked again, "Did Mr. Taylor mention anything else?"

"No. What you choose to do is your own decision," the maid said.

After hearing her response, old William silently nodded. His tightly furrowed brow relaxed, as though he had understood something.

"Thank you for putting us in contact, Ms. Edith."

"Old William, I can only help you this once. Mr. Taylor seems rather displeased with me doing this."

Upon hearing that, old William gave the maid, Edith, a slight bow and thanked her with utmost sincerity.

"Understood, Ms. Edith. The payment for this favor will be transferred to you at ten times the original amount."

When the call ended, the young man who had been standing silently behind old William stepped forward and asked,

"Father, Taylor refused to help us. What should we do next?"

"Refused to help?"

Old William was stunned at first. Then his face darkened as he snorted coldly. "When will you finally pull your head out of the women you bury it in?"

"If you keep being this useless, how can I possibly trust you with all my assets in the future?"

"Can't you learn from Feng Taylor? He's already become a Wallfacer, one of the United States' four powers. Do you have any idea how much influence he holds in the world? Yet you spend every day eyeing the little inheritance I plan to leave you. At your rate of extravagance, how long do you think my assets can last?"

Old William berated his son bitterly. As a father, he envied Frederick Taylor beyond measure for having such an outstanding son, one who had reached the pinnacle of power at such a young age.

Unlike his own son, who was good for nothing but eating, drinking, sleeping, and playing with women. In every other respect, he was far inferior to others.

Thinking of this, old William could not help but sigh. His son was so useless that after he died, the boy would have no ability to hold on to the family fortune. He would be so easily conned that he might even sell off his underwear.

Young William did not dare argue with his father. He lowered his head and hurriedly admitted his mistake while shifting the subject.

"You're right, Father. Haven't I already realized my mistake... What you meant just now was that Feng Taylor agreed to help us? But we haven't even negotiated yet."

Young William had been thinking of gathering Wall Street's financial capital, uniting the world's financial capital, and then negotiating with Wallfacer Feng Taylor to divide up the expanded virtual assets created by the new world order.

Bang!

The cane smashed heavily against the floor tiles, cracking them. Old William's body trembled slightly with rage.

Young William realized he had said the wrong thing. In all his memories from childhood to adulthood, he had only seen his father like this a handful of times.

Young William regretted it. He instinctively swallowed, but words once spoken were like water spilled on the ground—they could not be taken back.

Old William struck his son with his cane as he cursed furiously.

"Negotiate about what? What leverage do we have to negotiate with him? If we anger him, everything we possess could be stripped away! Can't you see how serious this is? Pig brain!"

"Who do you think you are? Who do you think he is? He's a Wallfacer! You're just the son of an ordinary financier! What do you have to negotiate with him?"

Old and frail, old William began panting after striking him for a while, then resentfully lowered his cane.

He glared at his disappointing son and said, "Feng Taylor has already told us the future trend and what we should do. That is helping us. He has already done more than enough. If we still aren't satisfied, we'll end up like ETO. Can't you understand the meaning behind his words?"

Rubbing the places where he had been struck, young William answered timidly,

"I... I was wrong, Father."

"You were very wrong!"

Old William sighed, turned around, and walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows, falling silent.

Having just received a harsh beating and scolding, young William did not dare disturb his father. He merely stood quietly to the side.

Looking at the towering buildings beyond the windows, old William finally spoke in a distant voice.

"Knight, weren't you once obsessed with virtual games? You will establish a game company. I will provide full support to see it through."

"This is an opportunity we barely managed to obtain from the Wallfacer. We must seize it."

After listening to his father, young William nodded heavily.

"Yes, Father. I will definitely seize this hard-won opportunity."

One week after the protest march, Lin Feng held a press conference.

As arrogant as ever, he sat at the press conference podium and angrily lambasted the reporters questioning whether the plan should be halted.

"Bullshit! What do you mean the real economy won't develop? If the main body of human society shifts into the virtual world, are humans supposed to start eating electricity? Will the restaurant industry and food delivery industry stop developing? What about courier services?"

"What do you mean the real economy is sluggish? How many jobs has the Macro-electron Energy Storage Project provided? How much in wages does it pay out every year? When those people resign and move into other industries, how much economic activity does that drive? What about their spending?"

"As for education, stop talking about it! I care about this more than any of you! These people aren't just your children; they're humanity's next generation! If you don't even try it, how do you know whether it's good or not? Information in the virtual network is so abundant now. Maybe it'll be even more effective for children's education? Don't you want your descendants to receive a better education?"

Those words made the reporters who had wanted to question Lin Feng about education fall silent.

Lin Feng hammered the table and continued his furious tirade.

"And those unhappy about their real estate investments losing value—are you idiots? Do you have to tie all your assets up in real estate? Will you die if you don't speculate on housing? Will you die if you don't collect rent? If you want to preserve your wealth, buy gold! Gold sure as hell never goes down!"

"What era are we living in, and you're still thinking every day about staking land and annexing territory? All you old capitalists ought to be swept away by the tide of the times!"

"Humanity won't stop moving forward because of you!"