Chapter 3376

Although they were all old acquaintances of Tavana, they had never seen her so cold-hearted before.

At this moment, Tavana completely ignored the anxious and uneasy looks of these people, only focusing on eating her meal with a blank expression.

The others were extremely worried in their hearts, so they all turned to look at Steve.

They came all the way to China either out of respect for Steve's face or because they were pressured by him.

They had thought Steve was backing Tavana, but judging by the current situation, it didn't seem quite like that.

Several people lowered their heads and whispered to each other, then one of them looked at Steve and nervously asked: "Mr. Rothschild, could you please trouble yourself to roughly explain to us what your intention is in having us come to China?"

Steve coldly said: "Didn't you hear what Miss Svetlana just said? Let you all eat first, and later someone will come to talk to you."

Everyone became even more panicked inside.

Who could eat with peace of mind if nothing is made clear?

After all, everyone had previously wanted to kill Tavana, especially Matt Finkelstein, who had even put out a bounty of ten billion dark flower coins; now Tavana was sitting at the same dining table with them, so they naturally worried that Tavana would take revenge.

These more than ten people picked up their chopsticks, hesitated for a long time, then put them down again, repeating this cycle several times.

Just as they were growing increasingly worried, the private room door was suddenly pushed open; the person pushing it was Master Hong Wu, who, after opening the door, immediately stepped aside and respectfully said: "Master Ye, please."

Ye Chen walked in under everyone's gaze.

The more than ten American guests who had flown over kept sizing up Ye Chen, wondering what background this young man had to be able to make a grand entrance at Steve Rothschild's banquet.

Ye Chen didn't seem to be doing anything for show; he simply had to send his wife home first before he could rush over.

As soon as Ye Chen entered the private room, Steve immediately stood up, saying respectfully: "Mr. Ye, you've arrived; please sit beside me!"

Tavana, who had just said a word and then lowered her head to eat, now also put down her chopsticks and stood up, saying respectfully: "Mr. Ye!"

Matt Finkelstein also jumped up like a lapdog, not daring to greet Ye Chen, merely bowing to him by himself.

Although the others didn't know Ye Chen's background, seeing this scene, they guessed he was certainly no ordinary person, possibly the one secretly backing Tavana.

So, everyone also hurriedly stood up, standing honestly in place, not daring to say a word.

Ye Chen came to sit in the empty seat between Steve and Tavana, looked around, and said: "Thank you all for coming from afar to China, partly to celebrate Tavana's achievement, partly to give face to my friend Mr. Hong."

Everyone was momentarily puzzled: Who is Mr. Hong? I've never heard of him.

Ye Chen stretched lazily, casually leaned back against the chair, and said offhand: "I see some of you look quite familiar; you should all be prominent figures in America. I'm really curious—why can't you just live your good lives properly? Why must you resort to those despicable, perverted methods?"

Ye Chen asked so directly that no one dared to answer; what they had done on the island was indeed heinous, which is why they had to cover up their crimes by continuously killing those related to it.

Earlier, there was someone similar to Matt Finkelstein who had bought an island and organized gatherings for everyone; he had already been killed by them in prison not long ago.

According to their plan, this time they were to first force Matt Finkelstein to kill Tavana, then find an opportunity to eliminate Matt Finkelstein as well.

If they could also cut off this lead, they would basically be able to rest easy.

But at that time, no one had thought this matter would actually turn out like this today.

Seeing that they all remained silent, Ye Chen said: "You're unwilling to speak, right? Then that's fine—you don't need to speak; I'll speak for you."

After saying that, Ye Chen raised his voice slightly: "First, you wanted to assassinate Tavana and actually had murderous intent—you must at least bear the responsibility for killing. I can reach an agreement with you on Tavana's behalf. From now on, Tavana will not disclose any of your matters to the outside, but you must stop all actions harming Tavana. Additionally, you must apologize to Tavana and compensate her for mental distress for what you have done."

One person's heart leapt with joy, and he quickly said: "No problem, no problem! As long as Miss Svetlana doesn't reveal our secrets to the outside, we will certainly not offend Miss Svetlana again in any way. As for the mental distress you mentioned earlier, we are also willing to bear it!"

These people all knew clearly in their hearts that, although they didn't know Ye Chen's background, even if Steve Rothschild treated him with utmost respect, it was evident this person was not ordinary; if they truly angered him, Steve might be the first to disagree.

Under these circumstances, they naturally dared not refute Ye Chen's words in any way.

This person expressed his stance, and others also followed suit one after another.

At this moment, everyone was also willing to spend money to avoid disaster—let alone them, even Matt Finkelstein, the pimp who brokered this, was the same; his reason for willing to spend ten billion US dollars to have Tavana killed was to keep this group's secret, so they could rest easy.

So Ye Chen said: "Let's do this—I won't ask for much. You people, each pay one billion US dollars as mental compensation. As for Matt Finkelstein, you are the mastermind who hired the killer, so you should pay a bit more. Originally you planned to spend ten billion US dollars to eliminate this future trouble; now that trouble is already resolved, you still take out those ten billion US dollars—it's equivalent to you not wasting a single penny unnecessarily, and I won't hold you accountable for what you've done."

The others had no objection to the demand of one billion US dollars; for them, one billion US dollars could resolve the Tavana threat and avoid being pursued by Ye Chen and Steve for responsibility—already a very good deal. So they immediately agreed, fearing Ye Chen might regret it.

Matt Finkelstein felt a bit depressed in his heart—others only needed to pay one billion US dollars, but when it came to him, he had to pay ten billion US dollars, truly painful.

But although it hurt, he had now become Steve's lackey and naturally dared not defy Ye Chen, so he immediately declared: "Mr. Ye, rest assured—I can take out ten billion US dollars anytime..."

Tavana was now somewhat shocked; she hadn't expected Ye Chen to open his mouth and prepare to extract over two billion US dollars from these people, and moreover, if this money were given to her, she wouldn't dare to accept it.

So she softly said to Ye Chen: "Mr. Ye... I cannot accept this money..."

Ye Chen nodded: "Originally, this money wasn't meant to be given directly to you."

Tavana felt a bit embarrassed; it seemed she had been overly sentimental.

Ye Chen then said to these people: "The money you promised—30% will be directly paid to Tavana, and the remaining 70%, I need you to jointly establish a fund."

"A fund?!" Everyone was greatly surprised; one person asked Ye Chen: "Do you mean you want us to use the remaining money to set up a charitable fund?"

"No." Ye Chen waved his hand: "Having you people do charity? Frankly, that's just spitting in the face of charity."

After saying that, he sighed and said emotionally: "I've kept a low profile these two years; otherwise, the best way to deal with people like you would be to slash wounds all over your bodies, stuff you all into an iron cage, weld it shut, and throw it into the Yangtze River, letting the carnivorous fish eat your flesh, leaving only your bones."

Ye Chen said it lightly, but it made these upper-class people with innocent girls' blood on their hands each feel a chill of fear.

They utterly doubted nothing of Ye Chen's words; they even believed Ye Chen had certainly done similar things before.

Matt Finkelstein nervously asked: "Mr. Ye, may I ask what kind of nature the fund you mentioned has?"

Ye Chen snorted coldly and said: "I want you to register a fund organization in a lawless place; all its funds will be used to buy Bitcoin, which will be used through underground networks to issue bounties worldwide—whoever exposes those like you who harm innocent women yet evade the law will receive a reward; whoever kills them will get an even greater reward."

Saying this, Ye Chen's eyes were full of killing intent, and he coldly said: "Let me give an example: if someone in the United States is still doing the same thing as you, and someone exposes it with solid evidence, they can be rewarded five million US dollars; if someone can kill those outlaws, each killing earns a reward of five million US dollars; if there are too many such people, and the fund runs out of money after killing them all, then you each will need to invest another one billion US dollars into it."

Matt Finkelstein was terrified and blurted out: "Mr. Ye... this... this is openly hiring assassins for murder—what if the FBI or other countries investigate and find out? We might be in serious trouble..."

Steve beside him furrowed his brow, raised his hand, and delivered a hard slap to his face, angrily cursing: "You son of a bitch, when you hired assassins to kill Tavana earlier, didn't you think there would be big trouble? Now you're starting to fear trouble—is that it?"

Matt Finkelstein hadn't expected Steve to actually strike him; his face burned with pain, and his heart filled with even greater dread.

Only then did he realize he now had no way out.

Without Steve's protection, he might not survive until tomorrow, and the people present would likely first find someone to kill him.

Now what does he have to fear offending others? As long as he doesn't offend Steve and Ye Chen, everything else doesn't matter—even if he's globally wanted by American police, with Steve's protection, he at least won't die...