Chapter 293 Emerald City Would be Buzzing
"Mrs. Lowe, the elevator's just broken, not a power outage. Why do you insist we take the stairs?"
"Exactly! Who wants to walk down twenty-seven floors in heels?"
"Mrs. Lowe, let's just wait a bit longer! It's not that big a deal."
Seeing all the ladies chiming in one after another, the secretary moved closer to Zephyrine and called softly, "Mrs. Lowe."
"Call and ask if there's backup power." Zephyrine didn't dare make too much of a scene, worried everyone might get suspicious.
The secretary nodded, calmed everyone down, gestured for them to be patient, and went to another area with her phone to make the call.
"They say the elevator's under maintenance, it'll be a while."
Zephyrine looked at everyone present. "Everyone, the elevator's being serviced, we..."
Suddenly, the emergency exit door was pushed open, and people in uniforms came up from the stairwell.
"Someone reported there are illegal substances here."
"What illegal substances? Mrs. Lowe," These wealthy ladies were all prominent figures in their circles. Any one of them was the wife of a major player in Emerald City. They'd gathered here today out of respect for Zephyrine.
And now this? If word got out, it would be devastating.
"I don't understand either. What illegal substances are you talking about?"
"Then please, everyone return to where you were just dining."
Zephyrine's face darkened. "Do you know who's here today?"
"Do you know that in our country, anyone involved with illegal substances goes to jail?" The other person shot back without backing down.
Zephyrine clearly hadn't expected to run into someone so tough. She looked at him, trembling with anger. "Who's your supervisor?"
"Even our supervisor can't protect you. We're all law-abiding citizens. Recently, lots of colorless, odorless drugs have appeared on the market. We're here today following up on a report. If you have nothing to hide, just let us check. We're just doing our job. Why make things difficult for us?"
"Unless there's really something inside you don't want us to know about?"
"That's complete nonsense." Zephyrine was furious. She stared at him, refusing to back down, trying to make him give up, but clearly, he had no such intention.
After several minutes of standoff, the person in charge waved his hand. "Go check."
A group of people headed toward where they'd been dining. Seeing the servers cleaning up, they ordered them to stop what they were doing, instructed everyone to seal the scene, and had people bring in equipment for testing.
"What's going on? We just came for a meal and now we're being held by the police. Mrs. Lowe, don't you owe us an explanation?"
"If this gets out and our family's stock drops tomorrow, can I hold Mrs. Lowe responsible?"
"What is all this? Mrs. Lowe, say something! Aren't you going to explain?"
Zephyrine still had a reputation in their circle. Right now, even though everyone was panicking inside, their words were still relatively polite.
They held back their anger from exploding.
Zephyrine steadied her emotions. "Ladies, honestly, I'm more panicked than you are. If this gets out, it'll affect me just as much as you. Instead of all of us panicking together, we should think about how to handle this."
"I remember someone here is in charge of this area? Can you make a call and ask?"
"If we solve this, it's good for everyone."
"Right! Your family handles this, don't they? Make a call."
The person pushed forward, even though unwilling, could only bite the bullet and make the call at a time like this.
Just as she took out her phone and called, she found no service. "No answer, probably out on another assignment."
"At such a critical moment, really."
Someone sighed helplessly.
The longer they waited, the more anxious they became, starting to pace around.
"Don't worry, we haven't done anything wrong. What's there to panic about?"
Inside the room, someone detected something. The person in charge glanced at it and understood.
"Have everyone outside come in for blood tests."
"I'm afraid they won't cooperate. Every one of them is someone we can't afford to offend."
"Can't afford to offend or not, we have to. If this blows up later, do you want to offend people or lose your job?"
"Got it." The person scratched his head sheepishly and walked out to the elevator area.
"Ladies, please cooperate and let us draw some blood."
As soon as the words fell, the scene instantly erupted in chatter. "Why do we need blood drawn? Fine, you're investigating, but why blood tests?"
"Exactly! Who gave you that authority?"
"You'd better understand the consequences of abusing your power."
The person who came out to speak was overwhelmed by everyone talking at once, his head spinning. He slapped the wall. "We detected illegal substances in the cups you drank from. Do I need to be more blunt? Can you all understand? Recently, a colorless, odorless substance has appeared on the market. When you drink it, it feels just like plain water, but this stuff stays in your bloodstream for a week. Think it through—do you cooperate with our investigation today, or wait until someone finds it in you later? If you cooperate with the inspection today, you might still claim you didn't know. But if someone finds it in you later, you all know what that means, right?"
Everyone's faces went pale.
If it was found in them, they could very likely go to jail.
Instantly, the hallway fell silent.
"Come in and line up, one by one."
Zephyrine and her secretary's faces instantly went white. If everyone went in for blood tests at this moment, and everyone had it except them, what that meant was obvious.
"Mrs. Lowe, you come too! All staff need to be checked."
..........
"They found something upstairs, now they're making people get blood tests."
"The media's already on the way." The driver's door was pulled open, and Finn got in to update William. The latter slowly opened his slightly closed eyes.
"Where's Ethan?"
"Keeping watch!"
William nodded, turned to glance at Thalia sleeping against the car door, and reached over to adjust the suit jacket covering her. "Let's go home."
A night of storm—let it rage. When morning came, Emerald City would be buzzing.