Chapter 295: Chapter 298: This Was Prepared for Willow Quincy
"Felix, what are you doing?!"
Mason Shaw grabbed Felix Preston, who had suddenly bolted, his expression a mix of panic and confusion.
Felix Preston’s eyes were wide as he said through clenched teeth, "Riley Chase heard Charlotte’s voice! Charlotte is really being held in that villa! I have to go find her... I have to go find her!"
"Wait!" Mason Shaw yanked him back, his voice low and strained. "The villa is crawling with bodyguards. If you’re going in, you need a solid plan! If you just charge in like this, forget about rescuing Charlotte—we’ll end up as Willow Quincy’s hostages ourselves!"
"He’s right," Jasper Linden added, helping Mason persuade him. "Felix Preston, calm down. Let’s think of a plan first, then figure out how to get in."
"..." Felix Preston clenched his fists, clearly out of patience for slow-and-steady plans.
Just then, his phone screen lit up faintly.
Jasper Linden whispered a reminder, "Felix Preston, I think Riley Chase just sent you a message."
Hearing this, Felix Preston quickly picked up his phone to read Riley Chase’s message.
—Preston, it sounds like your wife is arguing with someone.
Felix Preston typed out a few words with trembling fingers.
—Who is she arguing with? Willow Quincy?
Riley: Not Willow Quincy. A woman.
Felix Preston: A woman?
Riley Chase focused, listening carefully to the sounds from the second floor of the villa.
"Seriously, are you out of your mind, you old hag?!" Charlotte Shaw’s voice was filled with exasperation, and if you listened closely, a hint of her breaking down.
"You’re just Willow Quincy’s housekeeper, not his mother. Why are you so worried about his affairs all the time? Besides, I’ve told you countless times, I will never give in to Willow Quincy. Not even if I die!"
"Sonia..." Another, older female voice replied. "Why must you be so stubborn? What does it matter who you spend your life with, as long as he treats you well?"
Charlotte Shaw: "Shut up!! Don’t think I won’t hit you just because you’re old!!"
Riley: Your wife is in a huge fight with an old woman. She’s so angry, it sounds like she’s about to hit her.
"An old woman?" Mason Shaw frowned in confusion as he looked at Felix Preston’s phone. "Why would there be an old woman in the villa? Could it be Fiona Dalton?"
"It can’t be Fiona Dalton," Felix Preston said with certainty. "Fiona Dalton is under house arrest by the criminal investigation team in Aethelburg. There’s no way she could have come to Kyloria. Besides, Willow Quincy wouldn’t have the guts to let Charlotte interact with Fiona Dalton under these circumstances."
"But if it’s not Fiona Dalton, who could this old woman be?" Jasper Linden asked, puzzled.
Felix Preston thought for a moment, then said with a hint of irritation, "Probably the housekeeper. A villa this big would be unlivable without a housekeeper to clean it."
"...A housekeeper?" Mason Shaw was incredulous. "What would Charlotte have to argue about with a housekeeper?"
"I don’t know." Felix Preston wasn’t in the mood to worry about that now. He sent Riley Chase a message.
—What’s the security situation in the villa?
It was almost a minute before Riley replied.
—There are a ton of bodyguards inside. More than twenty just guarding the villa itself.
Felix Preston: What about the bodyguards elsewhere? Are there as many?
Riley: Not as many elsewhere. If you want to get in, you can take the small path on the right. There are no patrols on that path, and there’s a lot of greenery for cover. If you’re careful, you won’t be easily spotted.
Felix Preston replied with an "Okay" and then turned off his phone.
"It’s 2:50 AM. Willow Quincy will probably be back in about an hour. In that time, even if we can’t rescue Charlotte, we can still sneak onto the estate and hide."
"So, are we making our move?" Mason Shaw asked in a low voice, his eyes on a lone bodyguard in the distance.
"We move," Felix Preston said without a hint of hesitation.
"What about that bodyguard?" Jasper Linden asked, worried. "Do we just clock him with a rock to knock him out?"
"Hmph..." Felix Preston chuckled, swinging the backpack from his shoulder to his front. "No need to be so violent."
As he spoke, he unzipped the bag and pulled out a towel and a small bottle of colorless, transparent liquid.
"What’s that?" Jasper Linden asked.
"Ether," Felix Preston said bluntly.
"...Ether?" Jasper Linden was stunned. "How did you get something like that?"
Felix Preston: "I prepared this for Willow Quincy. My original plan was to use it to knock him out if I got close. If I couldn’t get close, I’d just splash it on him and light him on fire."
"Felix!" Mason Shaw’s face darkened, his tone sharp with displeasure. "Stop talking such nonsense."
Felix Preston just raised an eyebrow, not responding to him.
He unscrewed the bottle and poured the liquid onto the towel. "Who’s confident they can take him down in one move?"
"I am!" A tall, muscular man stepped out from the darkness behind them.
"Preston, I was a fitness coach for six years and I’ve trained in Taekwondo for three. Taking him down will be no problem."
Hearing this, Felix Preston sized the man up. Seeing that he indeed looked capable, he handed him the towel.
"Ether evaporates quickly. Try to be as fast as possible."
The man: "No problem!"
He took the towel, casually hid it behind his back, and sauntered out of the small grove of trees.
He hummed a carefree tune, heading straight for the bodyguard at the gate.
At first, the bodyguard didn’t understand what he was up to. It was only when the man got closer that he called out, "Hey, what do you think you’re doing?"
The man answered with a swagger, "Not doing anything. Just taking a walk. What, is that against the law?"
The bodyguard: "It’s not illegal, but this is a private estate. If you want to take a walk, go somewhere else."
"Private estate?" The man didn’t stop walking. "So what if it’s a private estate? I’m not walking through that gate."
"Doesn’t matter!" The bodyguard grabbed the man’s arm and gave him a push. "The land outside this gate also belongs to our boss. I say you can’t walk here, you can’t walk here!"
"Whoa!" The man shook off the bodyguard’s hand, puffed out his chest, and glared at him. "Your boss is quite the tyrant, not even letting people walk on the ground outside his gate!"
The bodyguard: "That’s right, you can’t! Now go back to wherever you came from!"
The man shook his head cheekily. "I don’t think I will!"
"Tsk, are you fucking deaf or just stupid?" The bodyguard was getting angry and, losing his temper, moved to drive him away.
But the man suddenly dodged, moving swiftly to get behind the bodyguard.
"Huh?" Before the bodyguard could react, a thick towel was suddenly clamped over his mouth and nose.
The towel had a pungent smell. After just a few breaths, his head felt swollen and his vision swam.
"MMPH—" He started to struggle instinctively, but the man’s strong arm immediately wrapped around his neck.
At the same time, the hand covering his mouth and nose pressed down harder. A sharp pain shot through his nose, and he felt as if his nasal bone was about to be crushed.
"Mmph..." He struggled futilely a few more times before abruptly losing consciousness.
THUD!
The man dropped the unconscious bodyguard to the ground. The heavy body made a dull thud as it hit the concrete.
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