489: Chapter 484 Have you thought it through?

Kevin's fists clenched quietly at his sides.

His fingernails dug deeply into his palms.

The pain made him clearer-headed.

"You can help me take back everything that belongs to me."

"No."

Kevin stepped forward, his voice carrying a ruthlessness he hadn't even noticed himself.

"You will help me destroy them."

Shen Yan finally reacted.

He slowly turned around.

His gaze fell upon Kevin's face.

Kevin did not flinch.

He raised his head, meeting Shen Yan's eyes.

The timidity and confusion that were once in those blue eyes had long been replaced by a more intense emotion.

It was hatred steeped in poison.

It was the resolve of someone burning their bridges.

Like a wolf cub cornered at a cliff's edge, forced to bare its fangs.

Sharp, dangerous, and carrying a hint of reckless mutual destruction.

He asked the question that would decide his future destiny, clearly, solemnly, word by word.

"Is that so?"

Those poisonous blue eyes stared directly at Shen Yan.

Without the slightest hint of backing down.

The air seemed to freeze.

The city lights outside the floor-to-ceiling windows were like stars whose pause button had been pressed.

After a long while.

The corner of Shen Yan's mouth curved into an extremely faint arc, almost invisible.

"Have you made up your mind?"

His voice was light, yet it was like a scalpel, precisely dissecting the tough shell Kevin was pretending to have, probing his still-trembling heart.

Kevin didn't speak.

He just nodded heavily.

This movement used up all the strength in his body.

And it severed all his escape routes.

Shen Yan withdrew his gaze and drained the last sip of whiskey from his glass.

The ice cubes hit the empty glass wall with a crisp sound.

Clear, and final.

"I'll help you,"

Shen Yan said.

Kevin's breath hitched abruptly.

Hope began to grow wildly from the ruins of his heart like vines.

But before he could grasp it, Shen Yan's next sentence poured a basin of ice water over the tender sprout of hope.

"What can you give me?"

The color instantly drained from Kevin's face.

Right.

What could he give?

He was penniless now; to put it bluntly, he was a wanted fugitive.

His name, his identity, everything about him had become a joke.

He couldn't even produce a decent bargaining chip.

Looking at Kevin's pale face, Shen Yan showed no expression.

He offered neither mockery nor pity.

It was as if he were looking at an inanimate object.

Assessing its value.

Kevin's lips moved, but no sound came out.

A huge sense of powerlessness drowned him completely.

He thought he had already fallen to the bottom, but unexpectedly, beneath the bottom, there was an even deeper abyss.

Shen Yan pulled out a bar stool next to the counter.

Then, he pointed to the other one opposite.

"Sit down."

His tone was not a suggestion, but a command.

Kevin stiffly shuffled his feet and sat down.

The two faced off across a small counter.

The myriad lights outside the window became the grandest yet coldest backdrop behind them.

"You currently have nothing,"

Shen Yan stated the fact, his voice as flat as if he were discussing the weather.

"Your name, Kevin Hossen, has a bounty of three hundred million US dollars on the wanted list in Saint-Luo."

"But you also know that three hundred million is to buy your life."

"Your Bank accounts are frozen, your credit cards are suspended."

"Your friends dare not answer your calls."

"Your father allows your older brother to hunt you down."

"You don't even have a legal identity."

With every sentence Shen Yan spoke, Kevin's head lowered a little more.

These words were like ice-cold knives, repeatedly stabbing his wounds.

"So, on what grounds do you think you are qualified to negotiate a deal with me?"

Shen Yan leaned slightly forward.

An invisible pressure enveloped Kevin.

"I..."

Kevin's voice was strained.

"I can give you everything I have... once I take back the Hossen Family..."

He couldn't continue.

Because he himself felt that it sounded like a bounced check, utterly ridiculous.

"No,"

Shen Yan shook his head.

"I don't want your future."

"I want your present."

Kevin suddenly looked up, his eyes full of confusion.

His present?

What did he have right now?

"Your name, Kevin Hossen, is worth more than three hundred million US dollars."

Shen Yan looked at him and said word by word,

"It is the status of the second son of the Hossen Family, one of the rightful claims to inheritance."

"This is your biggest chip."

"Your hatred, your understanding of Andrew, the memory of all the dirty secrets within the Hossen Family."

"This is your sharpest weapon."

"And..."

Shen Yan's gaze grew deep.

"This life of yours."

Kevin's heart skipped a beat.

"I want you, Kevin Hossen, to become my spokesperson within the Hossen Family."

Shen Yan's voice wasn't loud, but it resonated in the spacious suite.

"I will help you ascend to the position that should have been yours."

"In exchange, from the day you become the ruler of Hossen Group, I require absolute say over all Hossen Group businesses in the Far East region, as well as future investments in emerging technology fields."

"You will merely be my hands and my mouth on the Board of Directors."

"Are you willing?"

Kevin stared blankly at Shen Yan.

He finally understood.

Shen Yan didn't want his money.

He wanted the future of the entire Hossen Family as the stake for this revenge.

He wasn't helping a fallen young nobleman.

He was supporting a puppet who would completely obey him.

Kevin suddenly wanted to laugh.

He had lost his freedom, yet he had to trade his future lack of freedom for the qualification to take revenge.

How absurd.

Yet, how fair.

"I am willing."

Kevin heard his own voice say.

Without hesitation.

Without struggle.

When a person no longer fears even death, selling one's soul doesn't seem like an unacceptable transaction.

Shen Yan nodded.

As if expressing satisfaction with the quality of this 'commodity'.

"Very good."

"Then let's discuss how to take the first step."

He took a small metal USB drive from his pocket and placed it on the counter.

"This is an encrypted communicator, built with an independent satellite line, capable of preventing any form of wiretapping."

"Remember, from now on, all our contacts will be through this."

Then, he looked at Kevin.

"List out all the evidence you possess regarding Andrew, one by one again."

"It needs to be the most detailed, specific down to the time, location, names—don't omit any detail."

"I know you are smart; what you told me before was just scratching the surface."

The night grew deep.

This secret meeting, which would determine the future direction of a massive business empire, quietly began in the penthouse suite of this hotel.

No contracts, no lawyers.