Their Mistake, Her Rise - Chapter 124: Chapter 124

But Joseph quickly dismissed the suspicion.
After all, Zoe was just a country girl—there was no way someone like her could possibly have access to a big shot like Walther. Joseph told himself he was overthinking it.
He speculated instead that they had somehow accidentally interfered with some hidden interests, which was what triggered Walther's retaliation. The timing of this retaliation just happened to coincide with their suppression of the Evans family, which led to the current misunderstanding.
"Quick! Cease all attacks on the Evans family immediately and focus everything on recovering our stock prices!" Joseph ordered without hesitation.
After giving the command, he glared off into the distance. "The Evans family got lucky this time," he said bitterly. "If it hadn't been for conglomerates in Goldewood coming after us and the Whites at the same time, they would've been finished!"
Sean had no idea he had just narrowly escaped disaster. His eyes remained glued to the computer screen, and he'd already taken countless phone calls—all of them informing him that the Evans Group was on the verge of collapse.
But just as Zoe came downstairs, a miracle happened.
"What? Are you serious?" Sean exclaimed into the phone. "The Ludwig family has stopped suppressing the Evans family? And the White family too?"
"That's incredible..." he muttered, dazed, completely unaware as Zoe walked right past him.
Zoe bypassed Sean and left the Evans residence without a word. On her way to the military base, the taxi she was riding in was suddenly intercepted by another vehicle.
"Zoe, I'm sorry for coming to you so suddenly like this." The man who had stopped her wasn't Henry, as she'd expected, but a senior executive from the Clusian Racing Association. That caught Zoe off guard.
Scratching his head, the man explained, "Henry's caught up with something and couldn't make it."
"What's going on?" Zoe asked, knowing full well that he wouldn't have stopped her just to deliver that message.
As expected, the next moment the man pulled out a formal invitation from his coat and offered it to her with both hands. It was an entry ticket for an international racing competition.
"This is an invitation to a racing event overseas," he explained. "The scale is pretty large, almost up to the standards of a global championship. Racers from all over the world will be participating.
"As you know, the Clusian racing scene is lacking. We don't have many racers who can hold their own. In past years, foreign racers have bullied our drivers, flaunting their strength. During races, they whistle, heckle, and insult our team.
"Last year was even worse. One of their racers killed a racer from our association and dismissed it as a 'racing accident.' Because the rules of the track mean you race at your own risk, we couldn't hold him accountable.
"So Zoe, we're hoping you'll compete—for justice, and to win back our honor."
His tone was sincere. When he brought up last year's incident, he clenched his jaw in fury—the racer who died had been his own brother.
That racer had barely started the race when he was dragged out of his car, covered in blood, his skull crushed beyond recognition. The incident still haunted the association and left its members feeling powerless and enraged.
"Unbelievable! Young lady, if this gentleman came to you, it means you've got what it takes. You should do it! What an honor it would be to bring glory to your country!" the taxi driver chimed in, leaning out of the window in indignation.
Soon, they got Zoe's response. "I'll do it."
"Y-You really will? That's fantastic! I'll go back right away and inform everyone!" the executive was elated.
Zoe accepted the invitation and asked, "When's the race?"
"Next week!" the man replied. "Don't worry—just show up. We'll take care of everything else."
Zoe casually slipped the invitation into her pocket, then continued on her way in the taxi.
Meanwhile, as soon as Sean realized that the Ludwig family and the White family had ceased their suppression of the Evans family, he immediately mobilized all his resources to investigate the situation thoroughly.
"Hello? Have you figured out exactly what happened? What made the Ludwig family and the White family suddenly back off?" Sean sat in the living room, phone in hand, listening as his subordinate reported the details.
"Mr. Evans, we've found out," the subordinate said. "The Ludwig family and the White family abruptly halted their sanctions against the Evans family because someone joined forces with several conglomerates to launch a massive attack on their international holdings.
"Apparently, in the international stock market, every company that the Ludwig and White families had invested in experienced a catastrophic crash—much worse than what Evans Group just went through. The speed and scale were terrifying.
"If those forces hadn't stopped in time, the Ludwig family and the White family might have been completely wiped out from Jelonsburg."
Sean was stunned. He never imagined that the once-dominant Ludwig and White families in Clusia could be forced into such a humiliating retreat. He couldn't begin to fathom the kind of immense power it would take to pull something like this off.
"Did you find out why Walther and those conglomerates would choose this exact moment to go after the Ludwig and White families?" Sean, regaining his composure, pressed further.
There was a brief silence on the other end of the line before his subordinate replied, "Based on the timeline, it looks like Walther made his move specifically because of the Evans Group. There's no other clear motive.
"And what's more, the businesses he targeted were exactly the ones those two families had been using to suppress the Evans Group."
Sean's shock deepened.
Neither he, nor anyone else in the Evans Group—parents, grandparents, or anyone in the family's history—had ever had any connection to Walther. Walther would never randomly help someone without a reason. There had to be a massive secret hidden behind all this.
A single business proposal from one of Goldewood's conglomerates was worth billions of dollars. There was no reason for them to assist the Evans Group.
Suddenly, Sean leapt from the sofa.
He remembered something: not long ago, Eunice had stolen Zoe's business plan, which was worth billions of dollars. His eyes widened. 'Could it be... because of Zoe?' he thought to himself.
Sean had always been a decisive man. Once a thought struck him, he acted on it immediately. So the moment Zoe returned home, he went straight to find her.
"Zoe, you're finally back!" he said, stopping her at the stairs.
At that moment, the Evans residence was empty except for the two of them—everyone else had gone out. Zoe looked at him coolly.
In stark contrast to Zoe's aloofness, Sean was visibly agitated. He asked, "Zoe, tell me the truth. Did you handle the Evans Group's crisis yourself?"
Zoe remained silent. Sean suddenly felt like an idiot for asking.
Walther Alcott wasn't just some ordinary businessman. Zoe had just returned from a rural village—she'd never even been abroad. It was not very likely that she would have known him.
Just as Sean was about to drop the subject, Zoe answered calmly and without hesitation. "Yes, I did. I just asked a friend for a little favor."
Sean froze.