Chapter 478: The Anderson Family’s Secrets, Undercurrents in Emerald City
Chapter 478: The Anderson Family’s Secrets, Undercurrents in Emerald City
The black Maybach, like a silent beast, tore through the night, leaving that steel graveyard reeking of rust and decay far behind.
Inside the car, a deathly silence.
Sophia's cheek pressed against the cold window. The neon lights racing backward outside dragged chaotic trails of light across her pupils, exactly like those fragmented memories that had been forcibly shoved into her brain.
She said nothing. Every cell in her body seemed to be digesting that letter from her "father" and the sickening truth behind it.
Nicholas beside her was equally silent.
He didn't say a single word of comfort, just kept issuing one cold command after another through his phone. The screen's cold light reflected on his sharp profile, making him look like an unsheathed blade.
"Look into the Anderson family from Emerald City, twenty years ago. All related materials."
The words he spoke into the phone were ice-cold.
"Dig up everything. I want it all."
Sophia's gaze shifted from the window, her voice drifting, almost like talking to herself.
"Twenty years... it's been that long already."
Nicholas hung up and turned to look at her. The light in the car was dim, making it hard to see each other's expressions.
An invisible net, centered on the Martinez Group, was quietly spreading toward Emerald City twenty years ago.
Target—the Anderson family.
...
The next morning.
Sunlight had just broken through the clouds when the assistant was already standing in the study of the Martinez family villa, his face more serious than ever.
"Mr. Martinez, Ms. Anderson." He placed a thick file on the desk. "Everything about the Anderson family from Emerald City twenty years ago is here."
The investigation results were shocking.
Twenty years ago, the Anderson family was a giant in Emerald City's medical world. Generations of doctors, deep roots, and especially when it came to Gordon's generation, his amazing talent in biological genetics pushed the Anderson family's reputation to its peak.
But this thriving medical dynasty was devoured to the bone in just one month.
"Official records show Gordon was suspected of serious academic fraud and unethical human experiments, and was investigated." The assistant's voice was dry. "But the strangest part is, before the case produced any results, Gordon vanished. Right after that, the Anderson family collapsed rapidly. Assets were divided up by multiple parties, family members died or scattered, and overnight, they were erased from Emerald City's top circles."
"Divided up?" Sophia repeated the phrase, her lips curling into a mocking smile. "Like carving up a pig."
The assistant opened another page of the file, showing a chart marked with various colors tracking asset flows—dizzying to look at.
"This is the key part." He pointed to the largest red area. "After Gordon disappeared, all his labs, patents, and research materials—the biggest portion—ended up in the hands of the wife of the Bennett Group's leader at the time. That's Candice."
"Candice." Nicholas spoke the name like grinding it between his teeth.
This name appearing was within Sophia's expectations.
"There's also a small portion." The assistant's fingertip pointed to an inconspicuous corner marked in black on the chart. "Swallowed by an extremely mysterious force. We've exhausted every channel, and only found that this force's funding came from overseas. They operate without leaving a trace, with no physical companies domestically. The money trail circled the globe seven or eight times before ending at a shell company, like a ghost you can't catch."
Sophia's gaze fell on that black territory, her brow furrowed.
Those fragmented memories in her mind, combined with the crazy words in Gordon's diary, instantly connected into a chilling theory.
Gordon's research wasn't just some academic taboo.
He likely touched on the most core, most hidden secrets of certain powerful families.
Like... using some method to extend life, or transplant talent.
This kind of fate-defying technology was a deadly temptation for those at the top of the power pyramid, and a Pandora's box they had to keep tightly in their grip.
The Anderson family's destruction wasn't because of scandal.
It was because they possessed something too valuable.
"The so-called academic fraud was just an excuse." Nicholas's voice was ice-cold. "A convenient, high-minded reason for them to strike. Candice... definitely wasn't just picking up scraps. Most likely, Candice was Gordon's research sponsor from the start, maybe even the mastermind behind it all."
A crazy scientist and an ambitious woman.
Their collaboration birthed the monster called "Project Phoenix."
"What about Graham?" Sophia suddenly asked. "When did he get involved? Is he Candice's accomplice, or did he come in later, trying to be the one who waits for the right moment?"
Countless mysteries closed in like a net, suffocating.
"Mommy..."
A small, uneasy call interrupted Sophia's thoughts.
She looked down to see Olivia had woken up at some point, clutching her clothes, looking at her with clear eyes. Last night's commotion had obviously scared Olivia, but she didn't cry or fuss, just quietly sought Sophia's warmth.
Sophia's heart instantly melted.
She crouched down and pulled Olivia into a tight embrace, nuzzling her soft hair with her cheek.
In that instant.
A blurry, almost impossible-to-catch image exploded from the depths of her mind without warning.
...At the orphanage, lazy afternoon sunlight.
A tiny version of herself sat in the yard playing in the mud.
A man in a black trench coat stood outside the iron fence in the distance, quietly watching her through the rusty bars.
She couldn't see the man's face clearly, but she remembered he had an out-of-place gloominess about him, like thick fog that wouldn't dissipate.
How long did he stand there?
What was she thinking then?
Why this person specifically?
Who was that person? Gordon's accomplice? Or... another party coveting "Project Phoenix"? That untraceable "ghost"?
Sophia's heart sank bit by bit.
Her childhood never had the word "peaceful" in it.
She'd always lived under countless watching eyes, like a commodity waiting to be sold, secretly observed, assessed, and coveted by various forces.
"We must find the other half of the jade pendant."
Sophia stood up, her voice no longer wavering.
Gordon said in his letter that it held "the Anderson family's true secret."
This secret was the key to unlocking all the mysteries.
Nicholas looked at her, knowing she'd made her decision.
"What do you want to do?"
"Gordon was an obsessive narcissist." Sophia's thinking was frighteningly clear. "He said in his letter that 'only his daughter' could find that place, and specifically emphasized 'there are no shared memories there.' He's giving me a range, ruling out all the places he and I lived together. The clue must be hidden in something he left me, or in his past relationships."
"Start with his old friends and students." Nicholas immediately followed. "I'll have Assistant Zhou investigate everyone mentioned in the diary. Twenty years later, some people are still alive, and someone will slip up."
Emerald City's surface remained bustling and calm.
But beneath the water, undercurrents had begun churning wildly.
As the Martinez Group's massive machine ran at full power, a name sealed away for twenty years—Gordon—was thrown back into the deep waters of Emerald City.
This name, like a huge stone, instantly awakened countless sleeping predators.
Those who had once participated in dividing up the Anderson family, those forces who thought they'd long buried the past, all caught a whiff of danger.
A silent war over "the Anderson family's secrets" had begun.
And what was about to be revealed would be a past more bloody and cruel than they ever imagined.