After breakfast, Enrique, who wasn’t eager to go out at his age, handed each of the five a gift envelope and then settled down to watch TV at home. Since one car couldn’t amodate all five of them, Aubree, intentionally avoiding Bowen, insisted on one car for herself.


    Bowen didn’t provide any furtherments, and the two cars left one after the other. Once inside the car, Alvin immediately muttered under his breath, “Uncle Bowen, I take back what I said about you being a beast yesterday.”


    Bowen shot him a nce. “You’re a total monster,” Alvin added.


    Bowen tried to restrain himself but ultimately couldn’t resist and gave Alvin a light smack on the head. “Could you show some respect, please?”


    Alvin clutched his head but responded with a serious tone, “I’m judging you, Uncle. That bite mark? I’m pretty sure you did most of the biting.”


    Bowen gave him a long, meaningful nce. “It was bitten,” he said.


    Alvin’s expression shifted, and he scoffed, “Whatever.”


    “I drank too muchst night,” Bowen said, trying to change the topic. Both Alvin, sitting beside him, and Ethan, driving up front, silently rolled their eyes at his tant lie.


    Ethan couldn’t help but stir the pot. “Mr. Turner, ming it on booze is one of the oldest excuses out there. If you were truly that drunk, you would have passed outpletely-there’s no way you’d be capable of anything else.”


    Suddenly, Ethan felt a chill running down his spine. “Bryce’s team is understaffed. After Christmas, you’ll be going there for wo months,” Bowen said.


    Ethan fell silent immediately. Each of the nine had their responsibilities. Samson and Ethan stayed with Bowen, while Jase and Jay were tasked with protecting Alvin. Bryce oversaw operations in Yastraria.


    Zachary was typically assigned to conduct surveince or investigations while the rest of the team provided backup support, always ready for assignments.


    ‘Mr. Turner, I was wrong,” Ethan said, his expression filled with regret.


    Bowen shot him an icy re. “Make it three months. After we leave, you’ll head directly from Shiyvania. Notify Gilberto- when I return, he’ll take over your responsibilities.”


    Ethan was now properly chastened and didn’t dare to utter another word.


    After returning from the skating rink, they decided to shorten their stay in Shiyvania and head back early, rather than remain for a few more days. They had initially nned to stay until Aubree and Alvin returned for school. Little did they know that unexpected trouble had arisen in Rithol City-yzy was in serious trouble.


    Recently, due to the MindDrift situation, Aubree had Vincent exhaust his annual leave andy the groundwork for her n to expose MindDrift’s scandals right after the New Year.


    Once that urred, authorities would undoubtedly shut down MindDrift. Even if Carmen somehow managed to evade personal consequences, the tform would be doomed. A live-streaming tform struggling with fatalities and rampant moneyundering, Carmencked the expertise to keep it running smoothly.


    Aubree brought on Vincent to engage with regtory officials, subtly promoting new regtions for live streaming. Once those regtions were established, she nned tounch PK battles and live-stream shopping on yzy. Subsequently, she would coborate with Aidan to develop a marketing campaign for Zappy’s short video tform.


    Little did she anticipate that before she could take any action against MindDrift, someone else would act first. It seemed that whatever had happened with Emery had motivated Ronald to take a step forward.


    At one point, Ronald got involved with a woman whose son was obsessed with live streams. The boy believed he could be a top streamer, but yzy didn’t allow users under eighteen to stream on their tform. He ended up glued to the screen all day, refusing to go to school.


    No one quite understood how Ronald managed to sway the family, but the boy eventually fell from a building. In the aftermath, his family stirred up a storm online, using yzy of leading the young astray and killing their drive to seed.


    When news of the incident surfaced, a wave of self-proimed concerned parents followed-some seemingly sincere, others more interested in fueling the uproar. As for the child, he remains hospitalized-alive, but he may never regain consciousness.


    Aubree’s team had already begun investigating the details. Before her flight home took off, Aubree sent a message to Vincent: [Expose the dirt on MindDrift. There’s no way we’re working hard while they sit around.]


    If that’s how they want to y, then no one’s getting off easy, she thought coldly.


    1:42 pm