Chapter 449: Ten Tons of Gold for Travel Expenses—I'm Going to Crash the Event!

On the phone, James Reed's wailing, tinged with a sobbing tone, kept going, mixed with various background noises, like a ridiculous and absurd farce.

"Counselor Lu... my God... how are we supposed to explain this to the Parliament? Ten Tons of Gold! That's one of our nation's key reserves! Her Majesty the Queen..."

Lu Qingshan had no interest in listening to a deputy prime minister's complaints.

He reached out and hung up the phone.

The harsh busy tone, like a sharp gate blade, cut off all noise coming from London.

The top floor of Saint Remo Apartment fell once again into a surreal silence.

David Cohen's body was like a puddle of melted butter, sprawled on the carpet; he even gave up exaggerating his expression, merely staring blankly at the ceiling while muttering a single word.

"Gold... Ten tons of gold..."

Li Junjie looked ghastly, holding his forehead, feeling the logical circuits in his brain had been burned to charcoal.

"Did they... did they pay?" he whispered, his voice full of incomprehensible bewilderment, "Did they really pay? Using the Queen's order, taking Ten Tons of Gold from the vault of the Bank of England, just for... travel expenses?"

Zhang Qianru leaned against the table, her body trembling slightly.

As a Princeton‑educated top law student, all the knowledge she had learned about international law, sovereign states, and financial regulations turned at that moment into a pile of meaningless waste paper.

This world simply does not operate according to textbook rules.

"Brother..." Lu Qingjun looked at his elder brother's overly calm profile, his throat dry, "These old vampires, are they being cowardly?"

"Cowardly?"

Lu Qingshan turned around, looked at his completely demoralized team, and suddenly laughed.

"You think they're paying?"

He shook his head, walked to Ye Ning's computer, and pointed at the email that had vanished without a trace, sent to the Rothschild family.

"I asked them to reply to the email; they didn't reply."

He also pointed at the red telephone that had just been hung up.

"I told them to deposit money into our Swiss account; they didn't deposit."

"They directly used the Queen's order, took the gold out of the Bank of England's vault. What do you think this is for?"

Lu Qingshan's voice was low, yet like a scalpel, it precisely cut open the tumor of Fear and bewilderment in everyone's hearts.

Li Junjie jerked his head up, and a spark of light began to reconvene in his dimmed eyes.

"They... they're protesting!"

"Exactly." Lu Qingshan snapped his fingers, "They're telling me their game is different from ours. While we still communicate by email and phone, they can already mobilize a sovereign nation's highest authority and core assets directly."

"These Ten Tons of Gold aren't for travel expenses, nor for lecture fees."

Lu Qingshan's voice carried a knowing mockery.

"It's a new chip they've thrown onto the table—a glittering token bright enough to blind the whole world."

"They're saying: Look, this is our strength. Now, do you still dare to come to Geneva?"

Those words instantly reversed the atmosphere in the apartment.

The bewilderment born of Fear and absurdity was replaced by an even more bone‑chilling cold.

The other side isn't being cowardly.

They're counterattacking in a higher‑dimensional, more domineering way!

"Then... should we still go?" Zhang Qianru's voice trembled.

"Go, why not?" Lu Qingshan laughed even brighter, "The stage is set, the opening drums are already booming; as the protagonists, how can we not show up?"

He looked around, seeing one tense face after another.

"Moreover, they seem to have gotten something else wrong."

"What?" Lu Qingjun asked instinctively.

"They think these Ten Tons of Gold can scare me?"

Lu Qingshan walked to David Cohen's side and nudged him with his toe.

"Get up, stop lying like a corpse on the floor, and get to work."

David sprang up with a fish‑flip, his face showing a reckless, break‑the‑vase kind of madness.

"Boss! You say it! Even if you want me to carry those Ten Tons of Gold back, I'll go!"

"Carry back?" Lu Qingshan glanced at him, "Who said the gold is for us?"

David was stunned.

Everyone in the apartment was stunned.

"Ye Ning!" Lu Qingshan raised his voice.

"I'm here, boss!" Ye Ning snapped upright.

"In the name of Xinghan Capital, issue an immediate public statement to the world."

Ye Ning's fingers hovered over the keyboard, awaiting the command that would shake the world.

"The statement is simple," Lu Qingshan's voice rang terrifyingly clear in the quiet apartment.

"State that, in response to the current Global Financial Crisis and to maintain world financial stability, Xinghan Capital, together with the British royal family, jointly launch the establishment of the 'Global Stability and Development Fund'."

"The initial capital for the fund is personally donated by Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom, Elizabeth II."

"Amount..."

Lu Qingshan looked out at the New York night sky, a faint smile curling his lips.

"Ten Tons of Gold."

Boom—!

Those words exploded like ten thousand tons of TNT in the apartment, blasting everyone's Rationality and imagination to ash!

David Cohen gaped, his eyes bulging outward, feeling his heart clenched by an invisible giant hand, ready to burst at any moment.

Shameless!

Too shameless!

The other side used the queen's name to protest, and you turned around and tied the queen to your war chariot!

And you called the money for this protest a personal donation from the queen as startup capital!

This isn't business at all; it's clearly digging up the British Empire's ancestral tomb and making the queen hand you a shovel!

"And also!" Lu Qingshan seemed to think that wasn't enough, and added, "In the final statement, special thanks must be given to the Rothschild family for their 'active mediation and huge contribution' that facilitated this cooperation."

Thump!

David Cohen this time didn't stand steady, and his butt fell back onto the carpet.

It's over.

This world has gone completely mad.

"Yes!" a sickly flush appeared on Ye Ning's face; her fingertips struck the keyboard, leaving afterimages, and she entered an extremely excited state.

"Li Junjie! Zhang Qianru!"

"Here! Boss!" the two said in unison, their voices pitch‑shifted from excitement.

"Continue to follow up on the AIG and Barclays matters! I want, before I arrive in Geneva, to see Bao Ersen and Ried, and have them sign all the documents that need signing!"

"I don't care what methods you use—threats or bribes—I will let them know that what I'm discussing in Geneva is the grand affair of dividing the world. If they can't even handle this small matter, they have no right to partake in the upcoming feast!"

"Understood!"

"Mission guaranteed!"

The entire Saint Remo Apartment, the war‑machine hub named "Xinghan Capital," after a brief outage, resumed a new round of operation in an even crazier, more reckless manner.

And at that moment, that Red Telephone representing top secret, coming from the Capital City, rang again.

This time, Lu Qingshan himself walked over and picked up the handset.

"Minister Wang."

"Comrade Qingshan." On the other end, Wang Shanghong's voice carried an unprecedented gravity, "We already know the matter in London."

"Ten Tons of Gold, your hand is far larger than what we anticipated in the Capital City."

"Just playing along with them," Lu Qingshan replied lightly.

"Play?" the voice on the other end grew much more serious, "Comrade Qingshan, this isn't play. You're no longer knocking on their door; you're tearing down their load‑bearing wall."

"There are some things I must remind you."

"Please speak."

"Once your statement is released, there will be no turning back. You will stand completely opposite the entire Western Old Aristocracy. They will employ every means, at any cost, to make you disappear."

"I understand."

"No, you don't understand." Wang Shanghong's voice lowered further, "We just received a top‑level classified intel from Moscow."

"The KGB's highest official in Europe, code‑named 'Crow', Victor Ivanov, secretly arrived in Geneva last night."

"He brought a list."

"A list of top agents that the Soviet Union has placed throughout the European financial system, all of whom have been hidden for decades."

"And his counterpart in the deal is the Rothschild family."

Lu Qingshan's hand gripping the phone turned slightly white at the knuckles from the pressure.

He finally understood what deadly "feast" the Geneva banquet had prepared for him.

"They want to trade the entire Soviet spy network in Europe for my life?"

"No." Wang Shanghong said word for word on the other end.

"They intend to use that list to obtain all your data in the Capital City."

"Including your family."