Chapter 2932

Ye Chen's words left Steve stunned without meaning to be.

Upon careful thought, Ye Chen's words made perfect sense—whoever takes it back becomes the first in line to inherit, so what I've been thinking is simply to get the Four Directions Treasure Tower back as soon as possible, lest others seize the opportunity.

But if I look at it from another angle, what if no one can bring the Four Directions Treasure Tower back? I was originally the first in line to inherit; by cutting off others' chances to advance, am I still not the first in line?

Of course, the only difference is that in this case, although I'd still be the first in line to inherit, the Four Directions Treasure Tower would no longer belong to the Rothschild family.

But I have no choice now.

Right now, my very life is in others' hands—just being able to survive is already a blessing from heaven.

So he instinctively asked Ye Chen: "Mr., can you guarantee that this Four Directions Treasure Tower will never again fall into the hands of other Rothschild family members?"

Ye Chen furrowed his sword-like brows slightly and asked coldly: "You're using the word 'guarantee' rather presumptuously, aren't you? What qualifications do you have to demand that I guarantee anything to you?"

Steve hurriedly apologized: "Sorry, really sorry—I didn't mean it that way, please don't misunderstand..."

Ye Chen pressed forward aggressively: "Then what do you mean?"

Steve quickly wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, stammering: "I... I just wanted to know... how you plan to handle the Four Directions Treasure Tower..."

Ye Chen glanced at him and said calmly: "The Four Directions Treasure Tower itself was something you plundered from China, so what I intend to do is return it to its rightful owner, restore it intact, and send it back to China."

As he spoke, Ye Chen looked at Steve and added: "So you don't need to worry too much—once the Four Directions Treasure Tower returns to China, China will naturally protect it properly and will never allow this national treasure to leave Chinese territory again."

Upon hearing this, Steve felt a sudden release of tension in his chest, and an unwilling smile actually appeared at the corner of his mouth.

【15> He kept rubbing his hands together happily, muttering under his breath: "Great, really great..."

He happily kept rubbing his hands together, muttering to himself: "This is wonderful, truly wonderful..."

Ye Chen smiled and asked him: "What's so great about it?"

Steve quickly replied: "This Four Directions Treasure Tower originally belonged to China—returning it to China is naturally the best possible outcome..."

Ye Chen then asked: "Your father has been dreaming of the Four Directions Treasure Tower returning to your Rothschild family—why aren't you and he of one mind?"

Steve thought Ye Chen was testing him, trying to get him to state his position, so he immediately adopted a righteous and solemn demeanor and said: "Mr., don't take offense—I'll tell you frankly, my father's mind is still filled with imperialist thinking; he believes that if he seizes something, it becomes his—how could that possibly be? Nowadays we live in a civilized society! The Four Directions Treasure Tower had dubious origins to begin with, and now returning it to its rightful owner is only natural. As someone who has received modern legal education, I still possess this sense of justice!"

Ye Chen nodded satisfactorily and asked him: "So you're willing to help me bring the Four Directions Treasure Tower back to China, even though you are the Rothschild family's first in line to inherit, even though you would take your father as the Rothschild family patriarch into account, and even though you disregard everything in hoping the Four Directions Treasure Tower returns to the Rothschild family—you would still defy his wishes to help me accomplish this, correct?"

Steve nodded firmly without hesitation, clenched his fists in midair and struck downward with force, speaking with a resonant and powerful voice: "Yes! I am willing!"

After saying that, Steve quickly lowered his voice in a most humble tone: "However, Mr., I have a small request—I hope you can agree to it."

Ye Chen said calmly: "Go ahead and say it."

Steve hurriedly said: "I hope that after you bring the Four Directions Treasure Tower back to China, you will not disclose our conversation tonight to the world..."

Ye Chen feigned sudden understanding and smiled: "Oh, I see—you're afraid your father will come after you to settle the score."

"Yes..." Steve said with an apologetic smile: "I help you bring the Four Directions Treasure Tower back to China, you help me keep this secret—everyone wins. What do you think?"

Ye Chen smiled faintly: "If your father knew you were doing this to secure your own position as first heir, helping an outsider smuggle the Four Directions Treasure Tower out of America, he would surely be furious, wouldn't he?"

"More than just furious..." Steve sighed: "I'm afraid he'll want my life! You don't know—he values the Four Directions Treasure Tower immensely; in his eyes, the only thing in the world possibly more important than the Four Directions Treasure Tower might be his own life, and besides that, nothing else compares to it in importance."

Ye Chen nodded: "In that case, let's discuss cooperation."

Steve quickly said: "Please, Mr., speak! As long as it's within my ability, I will give it my all!"

Ye Chen said: "I can spare your life and your son's life, but you must find a way to send me and the Four Directions Treasure Tower out of America together. In return, I will bring the Four Directions Treasure Tower back to China and hand it over intact to the Chinese government. That way, you can continue to rest easy as the first heir."

Steve said without hesitation: "Mr., I have no objection to your proposal of cooperation—I only worry that I cannot get you out of America in a short time, since the entire family is now doing everything possible to turn New York into an iron barrel. If my helicopter can't fly out tonight, I'll just have to wait for another opportunity."

At that moment, the sound of a helicopter's roar came from far and near, and Ye Chen's eyes lit up as he said: "Your son is back."

Steve instinctively said: "I hope they didn't run into any trouble!"

A few minutes later, Hank and Royce returned together to the room where Ye Chen was.

As soon as the two entered, Steve couldn't wait to ask: "How was it? Did anyone stop you?"

"They did..." Royce said resentfully: "The National Security Administration's radar had already locked onto the airspace within the sealed zone. As soon as our helicopter reached the edge of the blocked area, they used radio to warn us that, due to national security concerns, all non-government helicopters are currently prohibited from taking off in this airspace, and they demanded we land in their designated area for inspection. I reported my identity, and after they verified it was correct, they didn't force us to land for inspection—instead, they demanded we stay away from the edge of the sealed zone."

Hank also spoke up from the side: "Such strict controls—only seen during 9/11."

Upon hearing this, Ye Chen couldn't help but silently marvel at the Rothschild family's power.

They usually keep a low profile, rarely appearing in media reports. Although there are many rumors about them in society, they have never come forward to confirm or deny them, and few people know their true strength—but today, Ye Chen has witnessed it.

The Rothschild family is actually powerful enough to have multiple U. S. government departments serve their private interests—FBI, CIA, FDA, Customs, even the National Security Agency—these departments actually perform their respective duties in this matter, helping the Rothschild family silently and tightly seal off all of New York and its surrounding areas.

Moreover, each department has its own reasons and justifications, and together they have sealed off land, sea, and air, rigorously inspecting all people and vehicles passing through—this clearly shows that the Rothschild family is an unmatched presence in the United States.

This made Ye Chen hesitate for a moment.

He naturally wants to get the Four Directions Treasure Tower out of America as soon as possible, but even if I had more abilities, I couldn't fly through the earth or vanish into the void—if I want to leave America, I must either take a plane or a ship, or go by car to Canada or Mexico.

But the hardest part right now is that everyone manning the checkpoints wears recording devices that are continuously synchronized with online servers, uploading everything they see to the cloud without delay. It would be simple for me to fight my way out, but I would certainly expose my identity.

Given the Rothschild family's influence over U. S. government departments, it's not hard to guess that once my identity is exposed, the U. S. government will spare no effort to capture me, and by then I might well be placed on Interpol's global wanted list.

Since Tang Sihai again sought out Ye Chen, Ye Chen has been doing everything in his power to conceal his identity—even Xiao Churan remains in the dark to this day, and including hidden enemies like Wu Feiyan, they still don't know of his existence. If he is even slightly careless now, all his previous efforts could come to nothing, and he might even drag himself and those around him into the abyss.

Therefore, Ye Chen also knows clearly that he cannot rely on luck or take chances—he must find a method that is absolutely reliable.

Furthermore, merely leaving the sealed zone is not enough—no one can guarantee that the Rothschild family won't secretly instruct these departments to expand the blockade. The best solution is to find an opportunity to leave the United States directly.

Thinking this through, Ye Chen asked Steve: "Your Rothschild family should have many enterprises worldwide, and going abroad should be quite common for you normally. If your family members need to go abroad at this time, could you avoid the inspections?"

"Well..." Steve said: "My father's current stance is to mobilize the entire family's strength, spare no effort in searching for the Four Directions Treasure Tower, and put everything else on hold for now. So under these circumstances, he shouldn't let us leave America—not only that, many core members of overseas family branches have also begun returning to America, after all, the position of family head and heir is at stake—no one wants to leave America at such a time."

Ye Chen smacked his lips—it seemed the possibility of hitching a ride on the Rothschild family's tailwind to leave America was also slim.

At this moment, he suddenly thought of Canada, which is only over 300 kilometers away in a straight line from here, and so he said to Steve: "If I remember correctly, the straight-line distance from here to Montreal, Canada, should be less than 400 kilometers—your helicopter should definitely be able to fly there nonstop. Think about it—under what circumstances would your father let you leave America immediately and head to Canada?"

Steve frowned, thought for a long time, then shook his head and said: "I can't think of any. Although we do have some business in Montreal, it's not large-scale, and moreover, Canadian affairs in the family are assigned to my third brother to handle. If anything comes up, my father would definitely send him, not me."

At this moment, Royce suddenly spoke up beside him: "By the way, Dad, Her Majesty Queen Helena of Northern Europe is visiting Canada next week—Grandfather previously reminded me that he hopes I can develop something with her. If it comes to next week when Helena arrives in Canada, I might as well say I want to go see her—he might agree."

Steve said hesitantly: "But that would mean waiting until next week, and besides, the situation is special now—it's uncertain whether he would let you go to Canada or not."

Ye Chen asked curiously: "Given how powerful the Rothschild family is, why would Howard hope his eldest grandson would develop something with the Queen of Northern Europe?"

Steve explained: "Mr., you may not know this—although the Rothschild family has strong influence in America, our reputation in Europe has never been good. Although European royalty basically has deep cooperation with us, they have never been willing to intermarry with us. Over the past one or two hundred years, we have repeatedly proposed marriage alliances with different European royal houses, but all were rejected."

Continuing, Steve said: "However, Helena's situation is special—she was originally a discard from the Northern European royalty, unexpectedly turned things around from adversity, directly boarded a plane and became queen. Moreover, looking across all of Europe, there is only one unmarried queen—Helena. For the Rothschild family, if we could marry into European royalty, then in terms of rank, Helena would be the highest."

"Besides that, our think tank's analysis suggests Helena's personality should differ somewhat from that of traditional European royalty, and her values should also differ significantly. Other royal families, due to traditional thinking, find it hard to accept marriage with the Rothschild family, but Helena has discarded many traditions, so her acceptance would be much higher."

There is intelligence indicating that after Helena ascended the throne, members of the Nordic royal family had discussed with her several times the matter of future marriages, hoping that Helena would follow royal tradition by seeking a prince from another European royal family willing to marry into the Nordic royal family and change his nationality to Nordic, after which he would be granted a princely title, and their children could become heirs to the Nordic throne.

However, Helena seems somewhat unconventional; she had clearly told the royal family that she would not marry into another royal family, and also explicitly stated that she prefers to seek true love and marry the one she truly loves, and if that is not possible, she is willing to remain unmarried for life. Based on this intelligence, the think tank judged that for the Rothschild family, the chances of a successful marriage alliance with Helena would be higher.

Ye Chen nodded thoughtfully and said: "If Helena departs for Canada tonight, would your father proactively ask Royce to go there immediately?"