Chapter 78 One Must Always Be Vigilant
Caroline said, "Hard to say. I don't even know if my dad's off this weekend."
Leopold asked her to help find out. Caroline felt somewhat resistant to calling Elijah. Every time she called him, it felt like reporting to a boss. Over time, she always felt weighed down by invisible pressure. The two of them had barely even joked around with each other.
"I've got some stuff to deal with. Why don't you call him?"
Leopold: "Okay, give me his number."
Caroline recited a string of digits while Leopold wrote them down. "I'll hang up now and ask Mr. Tudor if he's coming fishing."
"Okay, bye." Caroline ended the video call.
At that moment, Elijah was visiting and inspecting the Collins Group. As a well-known leading enterprise and major taxpayer in Seaside City, the government sent people to visit the Collins Group every year to solve problems and help coordinate difficulties, while also indirectly reminding Beau to be a law-abiding and rule-following entrepreneur.
Beau and Elijah had known each other for many years. Just as he invited Elijah into the room, Elijah's phone rang.
Even though it was an unknown number, Elijah answered it. To make it convenient for citizens to report issues, Elijah had published his phone number on the government's official website. If people encountered problems they couldn't solve, within reasonable and legal limits, they could call him directly.
Among all the leaders Seaside City had seen over the years, his approach was the first of its kind. Many people advised him not to publish his phone number and create trouble for himself. He only said one thing in response: if even I'm afraid of trouble, who can citizens count on?
Elijah was an official who had risen from the grassroots level. Focusing on grassroots livelihood issues and solving practical difficulties for citizens—that was his duty.
"Hello."
Leopold called out: "Mr. Tudor, it's me, Leopold Wipere."
Hearing this, Elijah's expression relaxed slightly. "Leopold, what's up?"
Although the phone volume wasn't loud, in the quiet environment, one could somewhat hear the other person speaking. When he mentioned his surname Wipere, Beau confirmed that the caller was Leopold.
Beau's secretary poured coffee for each member of the inspection team, but Beau paid particular attention to this phone call.
Leopold said, "Mr. Tudor, it's the weekend. Do you have time to come fishing? I can pick you up."
Elijah said, "Not today. I've got some work to finish."
Hearing the pin-drop silence on the other end, Leopold said, "Okay, you go ahead with your work. I'll call you again later."
"Okay." Elijah put away his phone.
Beau asked, "That voice on the phone sounded like Leopold."
Elijah said, "It was him."
Beau paused. From Elijah's tone, their relationship seemed pretty good. When did they become connected?
Beau probed: "Leopold is smart, exceptionally sharp."
"Is that so?" Elijah said to his secretary Will Fisher, "Will, you guys go look at the materials Mr. Collins prepared. I'll have a cup of coffee with Mr. Collins and come down."
Will understood and left the office with the others, closing the door.
Elijah knew Beau too well. He wouldn't bring up Leopold for no reason.
"Do you know him?" Elijah asked back.
Beau said while pouring coffee for Elijah, "I've known him for many years. I've known him since Leopold was in elementary school."
Elijah: "What's his character like?"
That he would ask about character, combined with Caroline and Leopold getting close recently, Beau roughly figured out what this was about.
"His character..." Beau paused skillfully. "The thing is, I haven't had much private contact with him. We've done business together a few times. Leopold is very smart, good at planning, and aggressive in his approach. Whatever result he wants, he basically never loses to anyone in business."
Having built himself up from nothing to president of a large corporation today, Beau had certainly mastered some language arts. When some people ask you questions, they don't really want an answer—they just want to hear what they want to hear from you. You can't just tell them the truth straight out. Express it in a different way. If the other person can read between the lines, you've done your duty. If they can't, you can't be blamed for not giving them a hint.
From Beau's few sentences, Elijah picked up that Beau was praising Leopold on the surface but actually criticizing him indirectly.
Elijah picked up his coffee and took a light sip, saying, "We've known each other for so many years. Do you still need to hold back when talking to me? Just say whatever you want to say."
Beau fell silent for a moment, then asked back, "Is Caroline dating Leopold?"
Elijah nodded. "They just started dating recently."
Beau had watched Caroline grow up. Both professionally and personally, he didn't want her getting involved with Leopold.
"Leopold is calculating, not an ordinary person. Caroline needs to be careful dating him. He's someone who'll do whatever it takes to achieve his goals. You should also advise Caroline to be more careful. If it doesn't feel right, she should find someone else. He's really not good."
Seeing Beau hesitating to speak, Elijah's brow furrowed. "What's really going on?"
Beau said with a troubled expression, "I'm telling you this, but don't tell Caroline I said it, or she'll hate me to death."
Elijah: "I won't."
"Years ago, Mr. Preston Wipere told everyone Leopold was his nephew. Only in recent years, when his health deteriorated, did he announce that Leopold was his son.
Everyone knows Leopold wasn't born to Mr. Preston Wipere's legal wife Gemma Adams. Leopold also has a sister named Xiomara Wipere. Xiomara is Gemma's daughter. Mr. Preston Wipere wanted to keep the family business from falling into outsiders' hands, so he brought Leopold into hotel management. But Gemma disagreed and forced Mr. Preston Wipere to put all the hotels under Xiomara's name. She even made him write a will in advance to prevent the illegitimate son from taking all the family assets.
Mr. Preston Wipere expanded his business with support from Gemma's family, so most of the time he went along with her wishes and wrote the will. But I recently heard that Mr. Preston Wipere changed the will. Nobody knows exactly how he changed it, but some say most of the hotels are now under Leopold's name. Gemma definitely wouldn't be happy about that, so she's guarding against Leopold everywhere. Even if she rallies the old shareholders, she hasn't shaken Leopold's position. In fact, his influence these past two years has far exceeded Gemma's reputation. Tell me, how could someone without calculation, without planning skills, achieve what he has today?
Put simply, it's an internal family struggle. Hidden away for over ten years, he came back and got most of the family assets without breaking a sweat within days. Are you comfortable with Caroline dating someone like that?"
Beau said a lot about Leopold, and Elijah's mood grew heavy. Especially learning that a project Leopold was currently preparing was in his jurisdiction and required his approval added several more layers of suspicion.
When Elijah left the Collins Group, his brow was tightly furrowed. From their last meeting at home, he'd felt Leopold was pretty good after their interaction. But hearing Beau talk like this today, objectively speaking, Leopold was indeed good at networking and knew how to please people. To say he was pursuing Caroline with no ulterior motive did seem somewhat unbelievable.
As the saying goes: you shouldn't harm others, but you must guard against them.