Suddenly, a cone of ice cream was put in front of him. âWould you like to have some ice cream?â
Derek looked up to find that the corners of his mouth tasted salty; only then did he come to his senses and realize that his face was wet with tears. He wiped his tears away, saying, âThank you.â
Derek glanced at Quinton without saying a word as they ate ice cream silently.
His mind seemed to have recovered its balance when he looked at Quinton. At the very least, he didnât go astray, and somebody was still caring about him.
After eating the ice cream, Derek pulled himself together. Having a decision in mind, he looked firmly at Quinton before saying, âLetâs leave the mountain tomorrow.â
Quinton had lied down after eating his ice cream. Playing with his cell phone, he replied, âOkay.â
It had been seven days since Derek âdiedâ.
Over the last seven days, Sandra and Alex played up Derekâs death as much as possible. They seemed to have concluded that Derek must have been killed by either Sophia or Michael.
Sit-in protests had been staged downstairs at Dragon Technologyâs premises from time to time, for many urged the relevant departments to find the actual murderer to avenge Derek.
The police repeatedly asserted that the murderers had been found, and Sophia actually had nothing to do with the homicide. Even so, the public refused to believe this. To them, even the victimâs family couldnât be fooled by this story, let alone the outsiders. Moreover, Dragon Technology hadnât handed over Derekâs remains even now, so there must be something terribly wrong behind this!
There were huge crowds of people downstairs at Dragon Technologyâs premises on the seventh day after Derekâs death. Sandra and Alex showed up downstairs together; leading many of the Mitchells, they occupied the entrance and burned offerings for Derek.
As they burned the offerings, they cried with great sadness.
Sandra knew that the longer the matter dragged on, the worse it would be for her. She must make a big deal out of this incident as soon as possible to benefit from this.
âMy poor brother, please come out and meet me if you can see us. Tell Dad and me who killed you! Donât be afraid, for Dad and I will certainly speak up for you. You have the entire Mitchell Family at your back!
Oh, my brother! My poor, poor brotherâ¦â
Not only Sandra and Alex were wailing downstairs; a group of Mitchells who ranked as Derekâs junior in the family hierarchy were even forced to wear deep mourning and kneel downstairs; they wailed for the dead while burning offerings.
Standing in the mushroom-shaped building, Cooper couldnât help going ballistic at the sight of the scene.
âThis is so embarrassing! What a shame this is!â
However, this scene wasnât embarrassing in Alexâs eyes. To him, this was the golden opportunity to make Cooper fall from power, so he had to continue what he was doing no matter how embarrassing this was.
Since people were wailing for the dead downstairs and sitting in from time to time, the hotelâs business was seriously affected, so even the hotel received many complaints.
Cooper didnât expect to witness such a spectacle in his lifetime.
He simply pulled the curtains and stopped looking at the scene, for he really didnât want to spare a glance at these people.
It never occurred to him that the Mitchells had sunk to such a level 20 years after he left. Such a way of doing things was no different from that of the upstarts who shouted abuses in public! They couldnât care less about the honor and dignity of the nobility.
Holding Derekâs black-and-white photo in her arms, Sandra stood downstairs while wailing as the reporters pointed their cameras at her. Her face was streaming with tears as she cried pitifully while saying, âWe donât want to stir up trouble; I just want to get my younger brotherâs remains back! Today is the seventh day after his death, yet I canât even find his remains! Oh, God! How could you treat my brother like this? My poor brother!â
Sandra Mitchell, the former Universal Games champion, publicly demanded to redress the wrong done to her younger brother, creating a great stir.
Derek died, but his remains went missing. What an utter injustice!
There must be some secrets behind Derekâs death.
Sophia was also watching them in the building, for she wanted to see when they would stop making a scene.
Sandra seemed to be certain that Derek had died and that Sophia had hidden his remains away. If Sophia handed over his remains, it could then be determined that she had murdered him; if she couldnât hand over his remains, it would be proven that something was wrong with Dragon Technology, and they were the ones who killed Derek!
Derek had gone missing, and the people involved were dead. The three murderers who killed him had died, and the oil tanker that rammed into their car had exploded on the spot, killing the oil tankerâs driver.
Since there were no witnesses to testify, Sophia and Cooper were caught in a no-win situation, and both of them could never turn the tables.
Some even made Michael the target of their attack; they forcibly dragged him into the case by seeing him as an accomplice.
Itâs really impressive of them to raise such a ruckus from early in the morning until noon! Itâs such a cold day, and itâs snowing. Arenât they bothered by the cold? thought Sophia to herself.
It was already noon, and the reporters had left for lunch, but the Mitchells still refused to leave. They kneeled on the floor and warmed their hands with their breaths while shivering, whereas Sandra and Alex had returned to their van to have lunch.
Sophia uttered, âItâs okay. Just let them make trouble while we have lunch first. I shall treat everyone to lunch today.â
They had to eat their fill to have the strength to confront these people.
Cooper didnât want to go out because he thought that this scene was too embarrassing. Sophia, however, was seething with rage; for Derekâs sake, she must go downstairs and raise merry hell with the Mitchells on this day!
Michael sneaked into the building from the parking lot at noon to deliver sautéed lobster and nourishing mutton soup to her.
Celine, who came with him as well, was carrying a few boxes carefully. The instant she entered the company, she searched everywhere for Quinton. âWhereâs my brother? Whereâs my little brother?â
After finding Quintonâwho was sleeping in a cornerâshe pulled at him like a kid, urging, âGet up and have lunch, Quinton!â
Quinton rubbed his sleepy eyes and got up to have lunch.
Seeing Quintonâs decadent appearance, Michael was exasperated, for the former failed to meet his expectations. He reproved with a commanding look, âJust look at you! You never change your clothes, wash your pants, shave your beard, comb your hair, or even smarten yourself up! All you do every day is eat and sleep, and you never tidy your room. Do you think itâs cool to only know to play games and play with your cell phone every dayâ¦â
Quintonâs eyes were heavy with sleep, and his unkempt hair hung above his eyebrows, making him look a bit wild and uninhibited. He opened the lunchbox Celine gave him while Michael rattled on in exasperation.
Celine loved him dearly, though. She kept picking up food for him, saying, âHere, Quinton, eat this. This is delicious.â
Michael stared at Quinton with a look of exasperation in his eyes, but he could do nothing else with the latter. He couldnât help thinking to himself, Whatâs the point of the existence of something inhuman like a younger brother?
Quinton thought to himself, This brother of mine is so annoying.
The Mitchells had intended to hold their annual year-end meeting here on this day, so there were many people in the company. The Mitchells were all here, and even Linusâwho didnât have the surname Mitchellâwas present. Everyone didnât expect Alex to come and make trouble, so they were prepared to go out and put up a vigorous fight with him after eating their fill.
It could be said that this day was the first time they would rip each other in public like this ever since the Mitchells were split up, so everyone really looked forward to it.
Family scandals shouldnât be made public. Since someone as famous as Sandra could risk losing face by putting up a fight in public, they could only fulfil her wish!
Everyone had spent the entire morning having the meeting. As the head of the Mitchell Family, Cooper made a speech and voiced his plans for the new year.
Filled with enthusiasm, everyone was ready to roll up their sleeves under Cooperâs leadership.
Everyone then had lunch after the meeting ended.
The sight of the current size of this branch family of the Mitchells filled Cooper with gratification.
Currently, the branch family owned many properties of different sizes apart from Dragon Technology and Mitchell International Energy and Technology. These companies had expanded to a very considerable scale over the past two years, which was even faster than he had expected.
The younger generation is to be regarded with respect!
Cooper waved his hand after lunch, saying, âI hereby declare this meeting adjourned.â
Everyone gave a cheer and gathered up their stuff before going downstairs, ready to fight with Alex and his men.
Cooper shook his head in resignation while looking at the group of high-spirited young people.