Ch. 321..325: 11The Secretly Rich Man Chapter 321-325

Chapter 321

Gerald Crawford:The Secretly Rich Man Novel (Invisible or Poorest) Chapter 321 Leopold White’s next order from Gerald was to untie the other three girls and bring them along.

They had used his name freely, thinking they could do whatever they pleased without having to face the consequences. Making them anxious was his way of teaching them a lesson. He had never planned to leave the girls stranded there in the first place.

Leopold White—the man with white hair—was an outstanding bodyguard who worked under Michael. To put simply, Leopold’s job was similar to Flynn’s who worked under Zach.

Michael had brought him here from Hong Kong.

“They’ll be arriving soon, Mr. Zeke. It’ll be inconvenient for me to meet them here so I’ll be taking my leave first. Is my ride ready?” asked Gerald to Michael who was sitting beside the driver.

“The ride will be here at any moment now, Mr. Crawford. We’ll depart as soon as it arrives. Leopold can handle the rest. He’ll be safely escorting Miss Milton and the others back to their college.”

As he said that, a limousine stopped beside them. Gerald wiped the sweat off his forehead as he stepped into the limousine. He then left the area together with Michael.

Earlier when they had pinpointed the girls’ location, Gerald had told Zack to keep a close eye on the Rye Group as well as the police. Following that, he and Michael drove immediately to the place.

Gerald breathed a sigh of relief as soon as he confirmed that Naomi was safe.

As the four girls left the unfinished factory, they looked at Naomi. Yvonne, particularly, looked toward her with eyes filled with admiration.

“What was all that? Was it only you that they had initially come for, Naomi? Were you the one who called them over?”

From what they had seen and experienced, it seemed only fair to assume that the rescue team had only arrived to save Naomi.

As they descended the stairs, they were momentarily stunned when they realized how many people were involved in the operation.

In the room downstairs, at least twenty professional-looking bodyguards waited with their hands behind them.

Outside, there were at least six Maybach cars. There was even a high-end SUV.

Though Cassandra was rather powerful, only a few Rolls-Royce had come to pick her up at that moment.

Thinking back, Naomi’s team of bodyguards seemed even more outstanding than the current one, especially the white-haired youth who acted both coldly and cruelly without hesitation.

Both Felicity and Cassandra looked at Naomi curiously.

“Um… I don’t know either. I have no idea who any of these are! I’m as clueless as the rest of you…” said Naomi, looking extremely confused.

“If that’s the case… Who ordered you to save us, mister?” Cassandra couldn’t help but ask curiously.

Leopold however, retained his emotionless facade. He continued leading them without saying a word.

Realizing he wouldn’t answer, Cassandra signaled Naomi to try asking him instead.

“We’d like to thank the person who had told you to save us, mister. Please tell us who it is,” pleaded Naomi.

“I’m afraid I cannot comply, Miss Milton. My superior has specifically told me not to reveal his true identity. Not even to you,” answered Leopold respectfully.

“Actually… Couldn’t it be Gerald?” Yvonne said out loud.

“Gerald?” Both Felicity and Cassandra were stunned. The thought had never crossed their mind.

“Thinking back… We had all tried to call for help earlier but only Naomi was able to get her call across. Didn’t she call Gerald? That would mean that only he would be aware that we were in trouble in the first place!”

Analyzing the situation, Yvonne seemed unwilling to accept her own suggestion.

The same went for Felicity and Cassandra.

“Actually… Assuming it was Gerald who saved us, how would you say he got that many people to come save us? It’s kind of illogical to conclude that he saved us, don’t you think?” said Felicity.

Cassandra looked at Naomi nervously after Felicity had ended her sentence. She then asked, “Naomi, are you really sure that you called Gerald earlier? Maybe you actually called someone else? Are there any other influential and powerful people in your family? Maybe outside connections?”

They took turns looking at each other anxiously.

This was because both Cassandra and Felicity looked down on Gerald the most.

Chapter 322

Gerald Crawford:The Secretly Rich Man Novel (Invisible or Poorest) Chapter 322 However, if it was indeed true that Gerald was a powerful and influential man, they would prefer to die rather than accept that fact.

Cassandra recalled the time she had suffered terribly and had a restless night when she found her power bank in Flynn’s car before.

“I was nervous back then and now that I think about it, I’m not too sure if I had called Gerald anymore… However, it is undeniable that the first contact number in my contact list is his. The second is my cousin’s, whom I called just this morning. If we’re talking about connections, it could be her. She works as a vice president for an international trade enterprise so she would definitely know a lot of people,” said Naomi, careful with her words.

“That sounds much more logical. Your finger could have accidentally tapped her number. Following that, your cousin must have arranged for the rescue! Some of the guards here look like they could be SWAT cops while the others look like gangsters!” Cassandra said in a soft voice to them as she analyzed the members of their rescue team.

“Did we guess correctly, mister?” Felicity asked Leopold. They were quite sure that they had made the right conclusion.

However, Leopold’s face didn’t move a muscle. He simply opened the door of the Maybach which was parked in front of the other cars. It was the same car which Gerald and Michael had arrived at the factory with.

“It’s time to return to your college. Get in the car,” said Leopold.

“You’re avoiding our question… That must mean we guessed correctly!” Yvonne said happily.

“Mister, may I borrow your phone? I wish to call my cousin.” Yvonne’s confidence had assured Naomi that it was indeed her cousin who had saved them.

“Very well, Miss Milton,” said Leopold as he handed his phone to Naomi with utmost respect. All of them then entered the car.

“Hello? Cousin, is that you? This is Naomi. Were you the one who had orchestrated the rescue mission?”

“I wouldn’t say orchestrated but yes, I was the one who called the criminal investigation team. Have they already saved you? They work really fast. I’m glad to hear that you’re fine. I had tried to call you back earlier but the line kept going to voicemail. So I called your counselor but that failed too. I began to worry that something bad may have happened so I sent a message to your classmate, Gerald, to look into the situation. He told me that you had been kidnapped!” Naomi’s cousin said nervously.

Wait… How did her cousin know about Gerald? Was it because she had that many connections? Actually, where had Gerald gotten the money to buy that phone and those clothes for Xavia before? Was it even possible to earn that much money through a part-time job alone?

Thinking back, it was Naomi who had asked her cousin to find a place for Gerald, Harper and the others for their part-time jobs.

Sometime then, her cousin had occasionally made Gerald run errands for her. That was probably the reason why she had Gerald’s, Harper’s, and a few of her other friends’ contact numbers in the first place.

“I see… Well don’t worry, we’re fine now. They’re taking us back to the college at the moment.”

“That’s good to hear. Rest well, I’ll meet up with you tomorrow. You’re going for an internship soon so I’ll have to discuss the work details with you anyway.”

“Got it. Make sure you hit the hay soon too!”

Sitting so close to each other, the other girls were able to listen in to the entire conversation.

Putting two and two together, they eventually pieced the puzzle together.

It was indeed Gerald who had notified her about the kidnapping.

“That stupid Gerald! He knew we were being kidnapped but he didn’t do anything about it!”

“If Naomi’s cousin hadn’t called him, who knows what would have happened to us!”

“I’m going to strangle him to death once we return to college!” scowled Cassandra under her breath.

All of a sudden, Felicity yelped in pain. It seemed as though she had hurt herself somehow.

Biting her lower lip in pain, Felicity moved her hand beneath her to find whatever had hurt her butt.

She pulled out a small coat that had a phone inside it.

“I’m terribly sorry mister, I accidentally sat on your clothes!” said Felicity apologetically.

“…Hmm? This coat looks familiar…”

It took her a moment, but when she realized who it belonged to, Felicity was dumbfounded.

Chapter 323

Gerald Crawford:The Secretly Rich Man Novel (Invisible or Poorest) Chapter 323 “…Eh? Isn’t this the coat I bought for Gerald?” Felicity asked aloud, a clear confusion in her voice.

There was no doubt about it. It was definitely the coat she had bought for him in the mall that afternoon.

“Are you sure Felicity?” asked Cassandra, stunned at her claim.

She took the coat from her to have a look at it herself, and it was true. It was indeed the exact same coat.

‘How could this be? Why would his coat be in this particular Maybach?’ The girls were all thinking the same thing, their confusion reflected in their eyes as they took turns staring at Leopold who was still driving.

Leopold, for the first time since meeting the girls, began fidgeting slightly.

Mr. Crawford had specifically ordered him to keep his identity a secret.

However, with the progression of the girls’ conversation, things were becoming awkward for him very quickly.

“That’s my coat. I usually just leave it on the passenger’s seat,” lied Leopold.

Felicity and Cassandra looked at each other. They doubted Leopold’s claim because the coat definitely looked like it cost less than a hundred bucks. While Gerald usually wore coats that ranged around three hundred dollars, Leopold was even less likely to be the owner of the coat.

This was because the coat Leopold currently wore probably cost at least five thousand dollars.

‘Oh god, was Gerald in this car before them?’ the girls thought to themselves, shocked.

“It really is mine, no need to speculate. I wear casual clothes too you know!” said Leopold with a slight quiver in his voice. He knew they weren’t buying his story.

A guilty person usually starts talking more. Cassandra knew this as a fact.

Felicity didn’t believe him either. She slid her hand into the coat and took the phone out. It was what had hurt her butt earlier.

“Isn’t… This Gerald’s phone?” she asked, stunned as she observed the familiar phone.

“Let me have a look!” Felicity said aloud, her hands shaking slightly.

Before she could grab it for herself, Yvonne snatched it out of Felicity’s hand. ‘…It’s true!’ Yvonne thought to herself.

‘Mr. Crawford must have forgotten about his coat and phone earlier while he was hurrying back,’ Leopold concluded in his mind.

But Leopold wasn’t one to give in easily to pressure. No matter how much the girls asked after that point, he remained quiet and refused to say anything.

His mission was completed the moment they returned to college. After dropping them off, he drove away immediately.

“So… Counselor, is it really true? Was it really Gerald who saved us? Why else would his coat and phone be in the car! Thinking back, he was the first to learn that we were kidnapped too!” Yvonne cried out, almost in tears.

Her nervousness was warranted as Yvonne had always condemned Gerald. If there were to ever come a day where he grew more powerful than her, she would definitely feel extremely upset.

Felicity’s face went pale as well as she considered the thought. ‘If that were the case, what was Gerald’s true identity? Could he actually be Mr. Crawford? Or even Ordinary Man?’ Felicity thought to herself, slightly shaking.

“That’s enough! Stop playing the guessing game and calm yourselves for a moment. The coat and phone may be similar to Gerald’s, but how certain are we that they’re actually his? Another possibility would be that Gerald could have been in the car for a while after he told the police about us. Since the police needed to keep the informant’s identity a secret, they sent Gerald to a safe place before coming over to save us. Aren’t those explanations logical as well?” Cassandra explained her theories in a quivering, but mature voice.

She had experienced a similar nervousness before. In fact, Cassandra was probably the most nervous among the girls at that moment.

It was because she knew that Gerald had borrowed her power bank before this. It was left behind in a Rolls-Royce. Now both the coat and his phone were left in the Maybach. It was just too much of a behavioral coincidence.

What more, Gerald was the first to suspect that something was wrong in both incidents.

At the moment, Cassandra’s mind actively refused to link the coincidences together.

“That’s enough. How about this? We’ll go to Gerald’s dorm and ask him about it in person. We’re going to ask him what happened today.”

Cassandra said again.

“Alright. If we’ve our phones with us, we could give Gerald a call!” Yvonne reacted soon.

“Tried it. It won’t work since the phone’s switched off and the battery’s dead anyway.” Felicity sighed as she lifted her hands in the air to show her resignation to the idea. “However, we can still take the coat and phone along with us to pass them back to him when we meet him later. Hopefully all our questions will be answered.”

Back in the men’s dormitory, Gerald shed his clothes off, leaving only a pair of shorts on before he lay on his bed.

All of a sudden, the dorm’s door was flung open with a loud bang.

A scream followed shortly after.

It was Harper as he ran off to find something to hide his underwear from plain view.

“Counselor Felicity! What on earth are you doing here?”

Chapter 324

Gerald Crawford:The Secretly Rich Man Novel (Invisible or Poorest) Chapter 324 Harper repeated his question, his voice full of anxiety.

However, Yvonne simply ignored him and walked toward Gerald’s bed.

“Get up immediately, Gerald!” she sneered.

She then pulled Gerald’s blanket off him without bothering to consider what he had on at the moment. Once he was in plain view, she yanked him off the bed recklessly.

“What are you doing?!” Gerald yelped as his hands moved to cover his crotch.

These women were terrifying.

But instead of answering his question, Yvonne simply began rummaging through his things. Not too far away, both Cassandra and Felicity had their arms crossed as they watched the scene play out. Naomi simply hid in a corner.

“Counselor, Felicity! I found his coat and phone here!” Yvonne shouted as she held the two items up for them to see.

All the girls were stunned. All of them were thinking the same thing. ‘So it wasn’t Gerald after all!’

They felt relief wash over them as if they were prisoners who had just been freed after many years.

This was especially the case for Cassandra who felt almost overjoyed. ‘I’m glad it wasn’t him.’

After calming themselves down, they soon came to the realization that all the men in the dormitory were staring at them in shock.

Cassandra coughed before clearing her throat. She then asked, “Gerald, after you received a call from Naomi asking for help, where exactly did you go? And what were you doing at the time?”

“Well I was nervous of course, and I wanted to call the police. Before I could, Xyleena sent me a message asking me where Naomi was and I told her what I knew. She immediately arranged for some people to rescue you. I’m glad to see that all of you are safe and sound,” said Gerald with a smile on his face.

“…It seems you hit the nail on the head, Counselor. So much for overthinking earlier! We really were saved by Naomi’s cousin!” shouted Yvonne excitedly.

“And why don’t you wear pajamas when you sleep? Disgusting!”

After condemning Gerald one last time, the women were finally willing to leave.

Naomi however, stayed back for a while to explain to Gerald about the incidents that had happened.

Gerald couldn’t help but smile bitterly. ‘Thank god I reacted quickly enough…’ thought Gerald to himself.

The truth was that he had been extremely nervous throughout the entire rescue mission. He was sweating profusely so he had to take off his coat in the car.

Before the limousine arrived, he spent every second nervously observing the girls as they left the building. He did so through his laptop which had access to a surveillance camera.

Once he actually entered the limousine, his eyes were still glued onto the laptop’s monitor. It took him a while, but he eventually realized that his coat and phone were still in the previous car.

In his mind, Gerald knew that his identity would definitely be exposed if he didn’t act swiftly.

In the nick of time, an idea came to him. He immediately went off to get a similar phone and jacket. However, he could only hope that the battery in his old phone died quickly so that the phone would turn off on its own. If someone made a call before the phone died, it would all be over.

Thankfully, the phone seemed to have died before they managed to call him.

To be safe, Gerald even canceled his number at the last minute so that the phone would no longer be able to receive any calling signals.

From that point on, Gerald would have little need to contact the women aside from Naomi.

‘There’s no reason for me to expose my identity to them.’

The night had been an anxiously eventful one, but they somehow managed to subdue all the danger in time. It was finally time to get a well deserved rest.

A few hours later, Saturday morning came.

It was ten in the morning and Gerald was doing some revision in his dorm.

Out of the blue, Naomi gave him a call.

Though he canceled his number the night before, Gerald had told Zack to help register his number again with his ID before he slept. It wasn’t exactly a difficult task.

Earlier that morning, Gerald had gone to the service hall to retrieve his new contact number card.

“Good morning, Gerald. My cousin came to visit today and after the chaos yesterday, she’s planning to hold a feast for a table at a restaurant near our college. I’m indebted to you for your help yesterday.

Please come! My cousin could even arrange a job for you. Harper and the others are free to attend as well.”

“I think I’ll pass. Besides, I hardly helped at all,” Gerald said, a bitter smile on his face.

“You had better come immediately, Gerald. Otherwise, I’ll come to your dorm to invite you over personally! On a serious note, my cousin really wishes to express her gratitude toward you.”

“Well… Alright, we’ll be there soon.”

Gerald couldn’t bring himself to decline Naomi’s invitation. In truth, he had indeed helped them. It was fine to indulge himself with a simple meal like this every once in a while.

The problem wasn’t meeting up with Naomi. Gerald was simply reluctant to meet up with her cousin.

Chapter 325

Gerald Crawford:The Secretly Rich Man Novel (Invisible or Poorest) Chapter 325 When Gerald, Harper, and a few others arrived at the restaurant, Naomi was already there with her cousin, Xyleena.

Cassandra, Felicity, and Yvonne were there too. Sitting beside Xyleena, was a young man in his mid- twenties. He wore a suit and his shoes were made of leather.

Xyleena looked as feminine as ever. She was one of the more outstanding people in society, and she had social connections all over the place.

Gerald, Harper, and many others knew Xyleena mostly due to her social connections with them. This, however, granted them the knowledge that Xyleena was actually a rather arrogant person. She only helped Gerald and a few others find part-time jobs because they were friends with Naomi. Otherwise, she wouldn’t even have batted an eyelid at them.

“Come, take a seat. All of you,” Xyleena said in a soft voice.

Gerald complied.

“What a frightening chain of events, last night was. We’ll have a toast in a bit, but before that, I’d like to introduce someone to all of you. This man is Brian Merrall, and he’s been my friend all the way back from high school. He’s the team leader of the criminal investigation team in Mayberry and he’s also the one I called for help yesterday!”

“Nice to meet you Brian. Thank you very much for saving us!” said Yvonne. After realizing who Brian was, Yvonne couldn’t help but admire him.

“You’re very welcome. I’m just doing my job. Honestly, it should be me thanking all of you. After catching the suspects yesterday, we were able to uncover an even bigger criminal case that they were involved in. If it wasn’t for you, we may never have gotten the chance to take down such a powerful person as Jake.” Brian smiled after finishing his sentence.

“Look at how well-spoken he is, Naomi! Let’s have a toast with the one who saved you!”

Seeing that her cousin wasn’t reacting appropriately, Xyleena took it into her own hands to remind her cousin immediately.

“Oh yes, aside from thanking Brian, I would also like to thank Gerald as well. If it wasn’t for him, we may never have been saved in time!” said Naomi.

After all, if he hadn’t told anyone about the call, who knows what would have become of them.

“What are you doing Naomi? I told you to thank Inspector Merrall, not Gerald,” said Xyleena, slightly unhappy.

“Xyleena’s right, what did that poor man do? He said he was going to launch a police report but he must have been too stunned to do anything. Had Xyleena not messaged him or called Inspector Merrall, all of us could be dead by now!” said Yvonne.

Brian simply shook his head and laughed.

“Well said! If anyone is to receive our gratitude, it should be Xyleena and Inspector Merrall! I’ll be having tea instead of wine, but allow me to toast to you. Since I failed to protect Naomi and the others, I’ll drink first!” said Cassandra as she smiled.

Clearly, she didn’t care about Gerald at all.

While all this was happening, Naomi felt that something was off.

She realized that Brian had not appeared at all throughout their rescue mission the day before. On another note, Leopold was also clearly much stronger than Brian in terms of both aura and strength.

Something was definitely wrong.

In addition to that, Naomi felt slightly sick hearing how the rest continued to ridicule Gerald.

“Naomi, I know that you have quite a good relationship with Gerald. How about this, I’ll use my connections to try landing him a job with benefits. One that includes endowment insurance, medical insurance, unemployment insurance, work-related injury insurance, and even childbirth insurance!” said Xyleena. She didn’t want to embarrass her cousin too much.

“Is that true, cousin? How about a job with all the previous insurances as well as housing funds?” asked Naomi.

“That would be quite difficult! Only outstanding companies provide their employees with housing funds these days. With Gerald, it may be a little difficult to arrange such a company to take him in. However, I’ll try my best!” said Xyleena before coughing slightly.

It was quite obvious that she was indirectly saying that Gerald was clearly not that capable.

“Xyleena’s right. If Gerald gets into an outstanding company, he’ll most probably only be a hindrance to the other employees!” Yvonne said without filtering her words at all.

“That’s true! The best he can do is paperwork or be an office worker given his character. He really can’t do much else and even the counselor would agree,” said Felicity as she shook her head, a bitter smile on her face.

Gerald felt his blood boil as he heard all the insults.

‘D*amn it, this happens every time! It’s almost as if they run out of topics to say if they’re not mocking me!’

‘Sure, I was an honest man before this, but that doesn’t mean I’m stupid.’

‘I was only honest because I didn’t have much money or power.’

Gerald fumed angrily in silence.

At that moment, his phone rang.

Glancing at it to see who was calling, he saw that it was his sister.

He then got up and walked away from them before picking up.