Coralie panicked as well after learning about the situation. Indeed, import and export trade was very prone to pitfalls. Regardless of how profitable the business might be, the most crucial aspect was whether the payments could be recovered. She hastily relayed the news to Shawn.
“I’ll ask Danny to look into it immediately.” Shawn became serious as well. He had handed the entire list of Farwell Group’s clients in Epea to his assistant, Danny Yaeger, to handle.
After Danny received the instruction, the first person he contacted was Paolo. A few minute later, Danny reverted to Shawn. “What? The number was terminated?” Shawn was livid.
“I’ll try contacting the other two clients. Perhaps this is just a temporary issue. Mr. Paolo often gets into unnecessary trouble and frequently changes his phone number.” Danny tried to explain that it might just be a coincidence. However, he was actually distressed as well. He braced himself, hung up the call, and continued to dial the numbers of the other two major clients.
The increase in sales performance that month was mainly due to the three clients they snatched from Farwell Group. If the deals with all three of them encountered problems, it would be disastrous.
Soon, he received feedback after making the two phone calls- both numbers were also terminated. Danny became terrified. He hurriedly searched the contact details of the three clients’ companies. According to the information provided on the internet, he dialed the numbers with trembling hands.
The result was the same-the calls couldn’t be connected at all. Danny didn’t know how to report that to Shawn. He felt so disconcerted that his head was about to explode. Shawn was initially enjoying a glass of red wine at his villa, planning to go for a swim later.
However, he was no longer in the mood for that. Danny hasn’t gotten back to me after so long, which means something must have gone wrong. He swiftly changed his clothes, got into his Bentley, and headed to the company.
When he arrived at the CEO’s office, Danny was already standing by the entrance, the latter’s face gloomy as if he had been constipated for years.
“Did everything go wrong?” Shawn pushed the door open and walked in. Before receiving Danny’s reply, he had already thought of the most probable reason behind the occurrence of that predicament. Perhaps all of this is a trap set by Lucian to trick me. Damn it!
Shawn’s eyes darkened while Danny shivered and lowered his head, not daring to look up. At that moment, someone knocked on the door.
“Mr. Crawford, a guest sent over a flower basket and insisted you view it.” After all, that was their first day of moving into the building. Many guests had been sending flower baskets to them since morning.
Most of the gifts were either placed downstairs or at the entrance of the company. Danny frowned. Who is this impertinent businessman who ridiculously requested Mr. Crawford to look at a flower basket in person?
He immediately snapped at the secretary, “Don’t bother Mr. Crawford with such trivial matters! Just find a place to put it.”
A troubled look spread across the secretary’s face. “Ms. Crawford told me to send it over, and the sender of this flower basket is Lucian from Farwell Group.”
Shawn grimaced and instantaneously strode out of the office, startling the secretary. “As expected, he’s the culprit.” Shawn riveted his eyes on Lucian’s name. “Haha, what a provocation!”
The secretary was utterly frightened by Shawn’s facial expression which was now contorted with barely suppressible rage.
Danny hurriedly stepped out of the office to take a look too. Colors drained from his face as he glared at the secretary. Isn’t this just a deliberate attempt to get on Mr. Crawford’s nerves? So, those three clients actually pretended to betray Lucian and scammed a large sum from us that amounted to several hundred million.
Ultimately, Shawn restrained himself from smashing the flower basket as doing so would be beneath him. However, that would leave him with no outlet to vent the anger within his chest. Without saying a word, he turned around and returned to his office, slamming the door shut behind him.
Not long after, loud sounds of the office getting thrashed, and objects being shattered reverberated incessantly in the air.
That night, Shawn received a phone call from his family and endured a torrent of scolding for half an hour. Coralie also wore a grim expression as she knew Shawn’s failure to manage the company well would mean she had to return to the north
and face those decrepit old folks again. The northern climate was too dry and had deleterious effects on her skin. Nevertheless, her mood remained upbeat because she had successfully invited Jonathan for a meetup.
Coralie had asked him out by using the excuse of wanting to reimburse him for the car damage, but he had rejected her flatly. Then, after a bit of coaxing, he finally agreed to let her treat him to a meal as an expression of her apology.
Through constant inquiries with Frieda, Coralie finally understood Jonathan’s personality better. He was a relatively rigid person. Regardless, she found his cool character to be attractive.
When Shawn exited his room, Frieda hurriedly served him a glass of coffee, not daring to say much as she worried that any attempt to comfort him might only upset him further.
“Shawn, it’s just a few hundred million. There’s no need for them to be so mad. I don’t know what those old folks at home are thinking, fussing over this insignificant amount of money. Competing with Farwell Group is bound to involve losses. Didn’t you also cause Lucian to lose money recently? This just proves that he’s a worthy opponent.”
Coralie’s consolation struck a chord and immediately calmed Shawn down. Even his tense expression somewhat relaxed.
“You’re right! Still, we can confirm Lucian is targeting us now. In that case, there’s no need for us to be furtive anymore. We shall face him head-on. But I’m curious why those Epean clients are so hard to sway. Are they really that loyal to Lucian, or does he possess some dirt on them?” This time, Shawn suffered a loss without fully grasping the reason behind his defeat.
Coralie contemplated for a few moments but couldn’t provide him with an answer either. Frieda hesitated to speak. Noticing that, Shawn flashed a faint smile and said, “If you have something to share, go ahead. You probably know more than we do.”
Only then did Frieda begin to explain in a soft tone, “I heard from my brother that Lucian personally nurtured these Epean clients from scratch, so they likely reported to him right after we contacted them. I even suspect Mr. Paolo’s visit was specifically to locate us.”
Coralie narrowed her eyes and chimed in, “So, Mr. Paolo deliberately pretended to be a lecher to lower our guard. At the same time, Lucian arranged for the other two people to cooperate with Mr. Paolo to swindle our goods. A group of three clients was just right-not too many to raise suspicion, yet not too few to make us feel unmotivated.”
After listening to her analysis, Shawn mulled over his erroneous judgment. In the end, he gritted his teeth and said, “Ultimately, we underestimated Lucian.”
“Indeed. Lucian’s working style is very complicated, sometimes sincere, sometimes domineering, and sometimes cunning, making him hard to predict,” Frieda said objectively after she noticed Shawn had regained his rationality.
Coralie curled the corner of her lips into a sneer. “Shawn, he really is your biggest rival in this lifetime. You must try harder to avoid suffering overly humiliating defeats.”
Shawn shot a cold glance at his sister, warning her, “That goes without saying. I’ll bear my own responsibilities. As for you, I suggest you practice more caution when interacting with Jonathan to avoid revealing anything to him.. Frieda mentioned her brother has little interest in women, so you shouldn’t be too confident either.”
The siblings jibed at one another in a lighthearted manner. Frieda figured she would need more time to adapt to that kind of atmosphere. To the best of her recollection, her arguments with her own brother would always escalate quickly.
Lucian and Jonathan talked business over coffee in the mansion. There had been no further progress in the investigation of the cause of the accident.
Upon discovering that his sister was employed in Shawn’s company, Jonathan wanted to call her back for questioning, but Lucian stopped him.
“It was Shawn who asked Old Mr. Lomax to help us. Though it was Roxanne who had synthesized the antidote, Old Mr. Lomax’s help was crucial. I believe Shawn wouldn’t stoop to employ such tactics. We can eliminate his involvement with confidence.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.