Chapter 65: The Banquet After the Banquet
"Hello, beautiful lady." Horus saw Andrea, his eyes lighting up as he stepped forward.
"Ah!" Andrea jumped in fright and quickly stood up, drawing the knife from her waist and pointing it at Horus. "Who are you?"
A flash of disdain passed through Horus's eyes, but he still raised both hands, pretending to be afraid as he deliberately said, "I, I'm a cowboy at this ranch. I just saw you coming over here alone."
"I was a bit worried you might have an accident, so I came to check!"
Andrea hated being looked down upon most of all. This reminded her of Caesar. She suddenly thrust forward. "Get away from me."
"Meeting you is the biggest accident that could happen to me!"
"Self-important man!" Andrea looked Horus up and down, her eyes filled with undisguised contempt.
This made Horus's heart surge with anger, silently cursing this stupid woman.
He forced a smile, still suppressing the fury in his heart as he said carefully, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to look down on you."
"It's just, I think you don't need to be so strong-willed."
"Strong-willed, you're saying I'm strong-willed!" Horus had precisely stepped on Andrea's sore spot, making her explode with rage.
"Uh... sorry, sorry."
After some arguing, the two finally sat down.
"What do you want from me?" Andrea wasn't stupid. Horus's appearance was too suspicious, carrying a strong sense of purpose.
Horus was covered in sweat. This was the first time he'd encountered such a difficult woman—like a powder keg that exploded at the slightest touch.
"I actually just want to understand your ranch's situation."
After thinking it over, Horus said frankly.
His appearance was too coincidental. Better to be honest and see if he could use sincerity to gain some intelligence.
As for what would happen if Caesar found out, it had no impact on him. At most, this stupid woman would be executed.
Andrea laughed twice, looking at Horus. "You're this stupid and you still want to gather intelligence?"
Son of a bitch...
Two veins popped on Horus's forehead. His eyes shifted as he thought of a good idea.
"I've just been to Caesar's ranch before and know Caesar. But he's changed a lot now, making me feel somewhat unfamiliar. I want to understand his situation."
Andrea raised her head, looking at him with surprise. "Then why don't you go find him directly?"
"Uh..." Horus paused before speaking. "He's talking with Leader Leon, so I didn't interrupt."
"All right, I'll tell you."
Andrea felt there was nothing she couldn't say. Besides, in her view, Horus was so stupid—if he was really sent to gather information, the person who sent him must have something wrong with their brain too.
Then Andrea began describing what happened after she and her group met Caesar.
However, Andrea kept her guard up and didn't mention the CDC or the food wholesale market.
The more Horus listened, the brighter his eyes became. So they'd scavenged around Atlanta and absorbed two teams.
No wonder there were suddenly so many more people. The continuous expansion of power had made Caesar confident and strong.
Horus nodded. He could understand why Caesar had changed so much. If he went out with two or three people and came back with forty or fifty, he'd also be inflated and confident.
Thinking he'd fully understood Caesar's team situation, having achieved his goal, Horus stopped wasting words with Andrea and said directly, "Okay, thanks."
"I need to go herd cattle. Goodbye."
"Goodbye!" Andrea waved her hand, looking at the green grass at her feet, quietly spacing out.
Two shadows blocked Andrea's view, trampling the green grass. Andrea raised her head to see T-Dog and Morales.
Their expressions were serious, and the way they looked at Andrea made her feel terrifyingly unfamiliar.
"Andrea, what did you do?" Morales spoke coldly.
Andrea looked at them nervously. "I..."
"What did I do?"
Andrea recalled her memories and quickly focused on Horus just now. Combined with how quickly these two appeared, there was only one possibility.
"You were monitoring me?" Andrea's eyes widened as she pointed at herself. "You assumed I would definitely leak information?"
Morales and T-Dog exchanged glances. After leaving the conference room, Caesar had them closely monitor Andrea.
They themselves hadn't expected someone would actually come find Andrea to learn about the ranch situation.
Morales spoke. "Andrea, we know you didn't leak the ranch's specific situation, but after we bring you back to the ranch, we still need to monitor you."
"That's right, until we confirm you're truly not a suspect." T-Dog supplemented.
Andrea stood up. "Weren't you just listening the whole time?"
"Don't you know whether I leaked information or not?"
"Andrea." Morales said, "We only know that in your conversation, you didn't leak much. Whether there were other acts of betrayal, we're not clear."
T-Dog kindly reminded her, "You don't need to make this so difficult. Just accept the monitoring. If you have no problems, you don't need to fear anything."
In the end, Andrea still submitted, because she couldn't prove her innocence. She could only prove it by accepting monitoring.
At dinner time, Caesar and his group participated in a banquet at Leon's ranch.
This banquet was attended by people from all three major ranches. Although it was arranged last minute, Old Man Leon still made it quite grand.
After all, the three ranches were now the three strongest forces in Black Pine Valley. The other ranches were far inferior to them.
There wasn't much to say about the dinner—plenty of alcohol and meat. The meat was raised by Leon's ranch themselves, roasted beef brisket, very fragrant and tender.
Caesar, Horus, and Old Man Leon sat at one table. Old Man Leon raised his wine glass with a smiling, festive appearance.
The three clinked glasses, very lively.
After the banquet, Horus quickly left.
Just as Caesar and his group were preparing to leave, a cowboy appeared beside Caesar's vehicle.
He said in a low voice, "Ranch Owner Caesar, Leader Leon requests your presence!"
Caesar narrowed his eyes, the corners of his mouth curving into a smile. "Lead the way."
"Morales, T-Dog, you two come with me."
"Merle, you guard the vehicles."
Under the cowboy's lead, Caesar and his group came to a small wooden cabin. The cabin was cozy, not large, looking like a single-person cabin for a cowboy leader.
After knocking on the door, they heard a voice say "Come in."
It was Old Man Leon's voice.
The leading cowboy opened the wooden door, let Caesar walk in, and blocked Morales and T-Dog behind him.
Caesar gave the two a look and said, "Just wait for me outside."