Chapter 317

Charles watched as Mason snipped off a perfectly healthy branch, his brow furrowing before he quickly caught on.

"Mr. Mason Williams, are you saying that if Mr. John Williams doesn't kick these bad habits, even if he thrives, he'll end up choked out like this branch?" Charles asked.

But Mason just shook his head. "I'm getting old, my eyesight's not what it used to be. I meant to cut the dead branch next to it but messed up."

Mason sighed, tossed the scissors aside, and headed back inside, looking pretty down.

Charles sighed too, watching Mason walk away.

All three major families were just waiting for Mason to kick the bucket, and his time was running out.

Meanwhile, Jasper, who had already fled the country, used some cash to change into new clothes and then hopped on another plane.

Sitting on the plane, Jasper watched the scenery shrink below, feeling a rush of excitement.

'Finally, I'm outta here! Now I can live it up as a rich guy,' Jasper thought.

What Jasper didn't know was that, not far from his seat, a young guy with a lazy look was hiding behind a newspaper, pretending to sleep.

But if you looked closely, you'd see the young guy sneaking peeks at Jasper from behind the paper.

'Jasper looks pretty pleased with himself, huh? Thinks he's in the clear? What an idiot, he has no clue what's inside him,' the young guy thought.

This was Tim, who had been tailing Jasper all along.

After silently mocking Jasper, Tim hid behind the newspaper again. Up in the air, he didn't have to worry about Jasper making a run for it. He needed to rest and get used to the time difference.

'Gotta rest up if I'm gonna keep tracking him. I really hope Jasper's hiding spot for the public funds is interesting. If he's just got it all piled up in one room, I'm gonna be so disappointed,' Tim thought.

On the other side, after a thorough investigation, the three major families finally tracked down the cargo ship. It had set sail for Lumaria.

Only the Davis Family could intercept the ship, so Richard sent his people.

After hours of turbulence, the helicopter finally landed on the cargo ship. The people sent by the three major families quickly took control of everyone on board and searched the entire ship.

But they found nothing, just some of Jasper's hair and poop in a red container.

"Tell me, where did the guy in that container go? Wasn't he supposed to head to Lumaria?" a tough-looking guy demanded, glaring at the captain.

The captain gulped, at first thinking they were pirates, but then realizing they were from the four major families he couldn't mess with.

"That guy didn't go to Lumaria. Joe told me he only had enough fare for the first stop, so he got off the ship right after we left the country. I don't know where he went after that. I'm just a boatman," the captain said with a nervous smile.

"Damn it, we've been tricked again!" The tough guy shoved the captain aside and stormed back to the helicopter.

The three major families came up empty-handed, only finding out that Jasper had jumped ship halfway. They headed back to report the bad news.

The captain watched the helicopter take off and let out a sigh of relief. His shipping company wasn't tied to the four major families, but his boss couldn't afford to cross them. Plus, with all three families working together, it was best to just go along with it.

"Mr. Williams, you should've seen the looks on their faces when they found out. It was priceless," Joe called Michael, laughing heartily over the phone.

Even though Joe had bailed from the dock and disbanded his gang, he still had a few guys left on the cargo ship.

After the three families' people left, one of Joe's guys called him and spilled everything.

Michael chuckled. He knew Joe would have to lay low in the safe house for a while, which would be boring, so he didn't mind Joe acting a little crazy.

"Next, the three families will keep digging around that port. But that country's pretty close to us. The three families still have some pull there, so it won't be too hard to find out the truth. I just hope Jasper isn't dumb enough to stash the public funds somewhere easy to find. He better hide it far away, somewhere even the four families can't reach," Michael said with a faint smile.

After Michael and Joe wrapped up their call, another call came in.

Michael glanced at the phone, saw it was Mike, and picked up.

"What's up, Mike? Did you find out who that man from the media company is?" Michael asked.

Mike nodded. "Yeah, Mr. Williams, we figured out who he is and found something interesting."

"What's so interesting? Spill it," Michael said, intrigued.

Mike continued, "Remember when Mrs. Williams was holding her first press conference, and a masked journalist barged in at the end, asking her questions? Then Mrs. Williams got attacked."

Michael's expression turned serious. "Are you saying those two are the same person?"

"Yep, Mr. Williams, they're the same guy. And we know where he's staying. We're about to nab him," Mike said, eyeing a nearby hotel.

After a lot of digging, they finally confirmed he was staying at this hotel. Now, they just needed to get in, find him, and make him talk about who he was working for.

After making sure Mike and the team were safe, Michael hung up.

Meanwhile, the journalist, who was about to get busted, was chilling in his room, playing with his phone.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. The journalist got up, looked through the peephole, and saw an old janitor outside.

"I don't need any cleaning," the journalist said, opening the door with a frown.

But then a gun was pointed at his head, followed by a gunshot.