Chapter 293 Moss Appears

Chapter 293 Moss Appears

Hearing Madeline's words, Ivy felt nothing but endless indifference.

She truly hadn't expected Madeline to have the nerve to make such a demand. Wasn't she afraid of choking on her own greed?

That healing spa was something Ivy had built from the ground up, and all the formulas inside were her own creations. Now Madeline wanted her to just hand it over? That would be like giving her tens of millions in monthly revenue for free.

What a fantasy. Even if Ivy dared to give it, Madeline wouldn't have the guts to take it!

Ivy looked coldly at Madeline standing before her, though her words came out sweet as honey. "No problem, no problem. Let's do it that way. I'll give you the healing spa. But we do this as a proper exchange—money for goods. If nothing gets leaked within two weeks, if no one from the Inspector General's office comes looking for us, I'll transfer the shop to you. But if anything happens during that time, you get nothing. At worst, the Cooper family goes down. But Madeline, you'll probably be hit harder than us."

Seeing Ivy's expression, Madeline dismissed it as a final show of defiance. She nodded indifferently and said, "Fine. Either way, you have to withdraw the complaint against me first. Then I'll keep your secret. I'll bury this whistleblower letter. We'll meet again in two weeks and sign the transfer contract publicly."

"Sure, it's settled then. We'll see each other in two weeks. I'll go find the dean right away and withdraw the complaint against you."

Madeline watched Ivy walk away, her heart swelling with arrogance.

She suddenly felt something was different about Ivy compared to before. Something seemed off—how could she have been threatened so easily?

What happened to that Ivy who used to lord it over her?

Whatever. Didn't matter. At least things were finally settled.

Watching the retreating figure, Madeline got into her car with a smug smile and drove off.

Meanwhile, Moss, still standing at the street corner having witnessed the entire exchange, took a step back in disbelief. "Ha! Looks like this Ivy isn't all that impressive after all. She couldn't even see through this? How can someone like that lead a noble family? It's a miracle the Coopers have survived this long."

One of Moss's assassin subordinates chimed in, "Right? Madeline could totally wait until they withdraw the complaint and she gets ownership of that shop, then keep going after the Cooper family. If she wants money, she could threaten them for even more. If she's not after money and just wants to destroy them, she could report the Cooper family's fake medicine scheme to the authorities right then. Even I can figure this out—how could Ivy not know? Is she really the head of a noble family?"

The assassin thought for a moment, then asked, "Boss Moss, we're following the right person, aren't we? I heard she's got the treasure. Anso's treasure is so complex—countless people have tried to seize it over the years and failed, but now this young woman has it. Logically, she should be incredibly smart! How could this happen?"

Moss waved dismissively. "Forget it. We don't need to overthink this. We've got the right person, that's certain. This definitely happened. The Anso treasure is definitely in her hands. Whether she's smart or not doesn't matter anymore. The dumber she is, the easier it'll be for me to get my hands on the Anso treasure tonight."

His subordinate grinned. "True. Smart or stupid, once she's in our boss's hands, she's just a lamb for slaughter. As long as she tells us where the Anso treasure is, she's as good as dead anyway."

Dusk gradually fell. Madeline drove home happily and parked in her apartment building's garage.

She'd just parked and hadn't even gotten out when a figure flashed past her window, slamming shut the driver's door she'd been about to open.

A man in black suddenly appeared in the passenger seat. Madeline screamed, "Who are you? What do you want?"

A man dressed like a mercenary pulled out a gun and pressed the barrel against Madeline's temple, saying coldly, "You're Madeline, right?"

Madeline's face went deathly pale. She wanted to call for help, but realized the car was highly soundproof—and there was more than one person in black outside!

She stammered, "W-what do you want? What are you doing?"

The armed mercenary said coldly in the pitch-dark car, "You could have lived out your life in peace, but you just had to go and provoke Ms. Cooper. Don't you know what kind of background she has? If she hadn't been putting on an act today, she would've made her move already."

Madeline listened, trembling, taking several seconds to process before shouting, "What do you mean? You're Ivy's people? You're going to kill me? You're crazy! I'll call the police right now!"

The mercenary laughed arrogantly. "Ha! Call the police? Please. If we were afraid of that, we wouldn't have walked so brazenly into your underground garage. Before you die, I just want to tell you one thing—in your next life, don't provoke Ms. Cooper. She's not someone you can mess with. You thought you could threaten Ms. Cooper and take her healing spa? She might not be angry, but the big boss behind her is furious. When that boss gets angry, their methods are even more ruthless than Ms. Cooper's."

"What do you mean? You—"

Bang—a gunshot. Blood splattered inside the car. The voice cut off abruptly. Then the mercenary in the car said to those outside, "Clean this up. Don't leave any traces, or Mr. Green won't be happy."

Someone quickly slipped into the car and nodded. "Boss, don't worry. I'll handle this cleanly. Mr. Green just sent word—he wants us to rendezvous with his people immediately."

The mercenary leader said in a low voice, "Got it. I'm heading over now."

Night fell. Ivy strolled leisurely through the streets and alleys, slipping easily into a narrow alley. It was very dark inside, nothing visible, only the sound of unhurried footsteps echoing intermittently.

In the dim light, the corner of Ivy's mouth curved slightly. The next second, a dark figure descended from above, blocking her path.

A familiar silhouette. And a voice echoing in her ears.

"Ms. Cooper, we need to have a word with you."