80: Chapter 80: A Plot! To Bankrupt the Great Inventor!
Upon reaching the second-floor living room, Lin Tian instructed a servant to wring out a hot towel.
Elizabeth snatched the towel and, feeling heartbroken, pressed it against Anna's red, swollen cheek, cursing angrily: "How can there be such a heartless father? It's too detestable!"
Hearing her best friend's indignation, a flash of sorrow crossed the depths of Anna's azure eyes.
In fact, when she was very young, Edison loved her dearly.
At that time, the family wasn't so famous, nor did they have much money.
But in Anna's memory, the whole family lived very happily.
But at some point, everything changed.
Her father, who originally adored her, spent all day in the laboratory and never came home, leaving her mother to shoulder all the household affairs alone.
There were several times he even completely forgot Anna's birthday.
Whenever this happened, her kind mother would always hold her and soothe her in a soft voice: "Your father is a great inventor; the things he creates can change all of humanity. Anna, we must be more understanding of your father!"
Little Anna stared with her big, watery eyes, her face full of grievance: "But I just want Daddy to spend my birthday with me, and I want him to tell me the story of 'Snow White' before I go to sleep!"
"He will, Daddy will definitely tell you once he's finished working!" her mother would always comfort her this way.
Several years passed in the blink of an eye.
Until Anna stood by the hospital bed, clutching her mother's cold, thin hand, and listening to her mother's dying words urging her not to hold a grudge against her father, the hatred in Anna's heart erupted completely.
From that day on, Anna never showed Edison a smiling face again.
What chilled her heart the most was that just two years after her mother passed away, Edison abandoned his three biological children and turned around to marry a young girl from Ohio who was only nineteen.
Anna, whose heart had turned to ash, treated her own father as a stranger from then on.
If Edison could have admitted his mistake at her mother's grave and sat down to have a proper talk with the three siblings, given Anna's soft heart, she might not have been unable to forgive him.
But Edison was a notoriously stubborn old man; from beginning to end, he felt he hadn't done anything wrong at all.
This was exactly what Anna hated most about him.
Watching Anna's tears fall like beads from a broken string, Lin Tian deliberately straightened his face and spoke with a sinister tone:
"Since this old thing dares to make our Anna shed tears, in order to vent your anger, I'll immediately send someone to stuff him into a sack and sink him into New York Bay to feed the fish!"
"He's my dad! You can't..."
Anna was so scared she stood up immediately, her face full of anxiety.
She knew Lin Tian's current power all too well. Wanting to kill an has-been inventor was even easier than stepping on an ant.
But when she saw the mischievous smile Lin Tian couldn't hold back on his face, she immediately realized she had been played.
"Hmph!"
Anna lifted her petite chin, snorted coldly, and turned her head away, indicating that she was very angry.
"Alright, alright, since you can't bear to take his life, then let's make him a penniless pauper!"
Bruce stepped two steps closer and began to offer a bad idea.
"Think about it, if he goes bankrupt and can't pull a single cent out of his pocket, will his young, delicate bride who just married into the family still follow him wholeheartedly? I have a brilliant method."
Lin Tian leaned into Anna's ear and whispered a chain of schemes.
"This trick is too devious, Lin Tian!" Anna listened, dumbfounded.
"It just depends on whether this young stepmother can withstand the temptation. If she can truly keep her innocence and endure hardship with the old man, then calling her 'Mom' won't be a loss for you!" Lin Tian shrugged.
"Fine, let's do as you say!" Anna gritted her teeth and made the final decision.
"Mm, let's do it like this..."
Elizabeth, standing to the side, heard the entire conspiracy between the two and was completely stunned.
A biological daughter wanting to plant a big green grassland on her own father's head!
And the man beside her was calculating how to trick a veteran inventor into bankruptcy.
"God bless, did I just hear some unspeakable secret!"
Elizabeth, like a little white flower, covered her flushed cheeks, and for some reason, felt a faint sense of thrilling excitement in her heart.
After applying the hot towel for a while, the slap marks on Anna's face faded significantly.
Bruce took the two girls downstairs, greeted Morgan, and made an excuse to leave early.
Because of the farce at the banquet, Morgan sent Lin Tian to his carriage with an apologetic face.
After the carriage drove away, Morgan turned to ask Andrew Carnegie: "Why are you so adamant about refusing Bruce's investment?"
In fact, Andrew Carnegie came to the banquet tonight just to find a bank to borrow a loan to acquire competitors.
If he had nodded and agreed to Bruce earlier, he wouldn't have to worry about the money to buy several steel mills at all.
"You might not believe it if I say it."
Andrew Carnegie sighed, "In Bruce, I see the shadows of both you and Rockefeller. He has the same vicious eye and decisive style as you, and the same cunning as Rockefeller."
"To be honest, shutting such a financier out is definitely not a wise move. But he is too close to Rockefeller! With this relationship, I would never let him take a stake in my steel mill, even if it killed me!" Andrew Carnegie's tone was very firm.
"Regardless, I support you! The loan matter is on me; I'll have the trust company release the funds tomorrow!" Morgan stepped forward and hugged his old friend.
"Thank you!"
Andrew Carnegie was full of gratitude, as if he could already see his steel empire about to take off.
On the other side.
Lin Tian first sent Anna back to her apartment in Manhattan, then had the carriage head straight to the Rockefeller Estate.
Nine-thirty at night.
As soon as The Old Butler saw it was Lin Tian and their young lady, he immediately opened the door and let them through.
The carriage stopped in front of the main building's steps.
Lin Tian instructed the driver to wait in the car and walked into the hall side-by-side with Elizabeth.
Rockefeller hadn't slept at all.
Having received news that the two had returned from the Morgan Estate, he walked downstairs wearing pajamas and gold-rimmed glasses.
"Daddy!" Elizabeth threw herself into Rockefeller's arms like a little bird.
"Did you have fun at old man Morgan's place?" Rockefeller stroked his youngest daughter's hair.
"It was alright. I'm sleepy, I'm going upstairs to sleep first, you keep Lin Tian company and chat!" Elizabeth was very sensible.
She knew in her heart that her father sitting here in his pajamas in the middle of the night must have important business to discuss with Lin Tian.
She let go and went upstairs obediently.
Only Rockefeller and Bruce were left in the hall, plus two maids standing against the wall.
"Would you like to drink something, Lin Tian?" Rockefeller asked.
"I won't drink anything tonight!" Bruce waved his hand.
Rockefeller waved his hand, and the two maids understood, retreating silently.
"Lin Tian, you've met Morgan, how do you feel?"
Lin Tian smiled slightly: "A cunning wolf!"
"Heh heh!" Rockefeller laughed out loud, "That's a very apt metaphor! Then what do you think of me?"
"A battle-hardened lion!" Lin Tian gave his evaluation directly.
"You're not just humoring me?"
"Absolutely not. You are a lion capable of snapping an enemy's neck at any time. And Morgan is the alpha wolf leading the pack. If it's one-on-one, none of them are your match. But once the wolf pack bands together, even the lion king has to retreat!"
Rockefeller nodded, agreeing completely: "That's a very thorough analysis; they are just a pack of wolves huddling together for warmth. If it were just one, I could easily tear him apart. But when they band together, even I find it tricky."
Rockefeller paused, then asked with a curious face: "Then Bruce, what animal are you?"
"I am a Giant Panda!" Bruce didn't even think about it.
"What is a Giant Panda?" Rockefeller was full of confusion.
In this era, people in the USA had never heard of this thing.
It wasn't until the 1930s that an American woman brought the first Giant Panda back from the East, causing a national sensation.
"It is a bear with black and white fur unique to China."
Lin Tian explained with a smile, "It looks harmless to humans and animals, and even a bit cute. But in ancient times, it had a nickname called the Iron-Eating Beast, and it was said to be the mount of the God of War; its bite force is no worse than a brown bear's!"
After hearing the explanation, Rockefeller nodded thoughtfully: "Mm, that's quite fitting!"