Chapter 17: (A scene at the company)
The elevator doors slid open to the top floor of Black Mesa Games. The building was quiet, the evening lights of Beijing flickering faintly across the city below.
Yang Zhi stepped out of the elevator, his polished shoe echoing against the marble floor. He walked into his office and dropped his briefcase on the desk looking at the partnership contract that still sat open on his table with Lei Zhang's signature gleaming under the lamplight. Yang Zhi smiled faintly.
"Finally",
he murmured picking up his phone.
"Fei",
he said, his tone casual, almost lazy.
"Have the finance team send me the revised expense plan. Move fifty percent of the marketing cost under Titan Core's allocation, make it look like a shared expense. No email record, paper copies only ",
yang Zhi said and Fei's nervous voice came through the phone.
"But sir, won't Mr Lei notice the change ",
Fei said and Yang Zhi's lips curled into a slow smirk.
"He's an artist Fei, artists notice colours, not numbers ",
Yang Zhi said and with that he ended the call then stared out the window. Below, the traffic crawled like glowing veins through the city and Yang Zhi whispered to himself.
"Partnerships are wars in suits. The one who blinks first loses".
The following morning at Titan Core, Lei Zhang sat in his office busy with his computer as usual when Xu Jin walked in with two cups of coffee and a folder.
"Good morning ",
Xu Jin said and Lei Zhang took his eyes of the screen to Xu Jin. He placed one of the cup of coffee beside Lei Zhang then sat opposite him placing his own coffee in his front then sliding the folder to Lei Zhang.
"The joint expense document from Yang Zhi's team just arrived, they want your signature by noon",
Xu Jin said and Lei Zhang raised a brow.
"Already", Lei Zhang said.
"It seems they're moving aggressively",
Xu Jin said and Lei Zhang opened the folder. The first few pages looked clean, structured and reasonable, but then his eyes narrowed. The allocation number were off by subtle margins but not small enough to ignore.
"Marketing..... fifty percent, why is that doubled", Lei Zhang asked rhetorically.
"Do you think it's deliberate?",
Xu Jin asked and Lei Zhang rubbed his temples.
"I don't know yet",
Lei Zhang said but still picked up the pen and signed the first page without hesitation closing the folder.
"Now it can be sent back", Lei Zhang said.
"You signed it", Xu Jin said.
"For now, if this is a game, I'll let him think he's winning",
Lei Zhang said taking the coffee and sipping it while Xu Jin leaned back on his chair siping he's as well.
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Xiao Wan sat proudly with some other female employees chatting as they complemented her.
"You're the first intern the CEO has ever accepted, he always rejects internships" one of the lady said.
"And he even interviewed you personally",
another lady said and Xiao Wan rolled her eyes smiling filling thrilled.
"He's sweet you know, at first I thought I'd be nervous but he's so nice" Xiao Wan said.
"Nice?, he's strict, especially to female employees", another lady said.
"Geez I'm really jealous, he must like you", another lady said and Xiao Wan blushed.
"What's there not to like, I'm really beautiful aren't I", Xiao Wan said and the ladies nodded.
"Can you ladies stop saying nonsense and get back to work",
Su Jing the HR manager said and the ladies stood up going back to their various jobs but Xiao Wan rolled her eyes and arrogantly walked up to Su Jing.
"And who are you to tell me to get back to work ",
Xiao Wan said and eyes began turning towards them.
"Some guts you have, you're just an intern not even a real employee and you're already being so arrogant", Su Jing said.
"I'm an intern and you're the HR manager, that's why you feel you can boss me around. Well, news flash young lady, I'm not like the others your HR team hired that you can boss around and fire. I was personally hired by the CEO so you can't boss or fire me ", Xiao Wan said.
"And because of that, you're spreading rumors that the CEO likes you ", Su Jing said
. "Are you jealous, whore",
Xiao Wan said and Su Jing glared at her.
"What did you just call me", Su Jing said.
"I said you're a f*cking wh....",
her words were immediately cut short by a loud slap in the face from Su Jing shocking the employees present and at the same time, Xu Jin and Lei Zhang had just walked in and had seen the slapping episode.
"what's happening here!",
Lei Zhang yelled frightening all the employees and Xiao Wan immediately faked tears pointing at Su Jing.
"She slapped me, she's been bullying me", she said.
Lei Zhang could see the pretense right through her act and could tell Xiao Wan had probably started the problem but for the sake of being Xiao Yanran's sister, he didn't want to scold her.
He took her hand and led her out of the scene shocking all the employees present. They knew this boss of theirs didn't even like being touched by women let alone holding a woman's hand himself. Was it really true that their boss was indeed falling for Xiao Wan.
"Why are you all standing around!",
Xu Jin shouted and they all immediately went back to what ever they were doing.
"Mrs Su, can we talk",
Xu Jin said to Su Jing and she nodded as they left.
Lei Zhang finally let go of her hand when they were alone in the passageway.
"I'm sorry about the issue back there, she bullies me a lot cause I'm an intern", Xiao Wan said.
"Just stay out of trouble",
Lei Zhang said walking away and Xiao Wan grinned as she watched Lei Zhang leave. She had heard this CEO was always harsh but not towards her. It was only a matter of time and this CEO would be crawling all over her.
Xu Jin and Su Jing walked along one of the passageway in the company as Su Jing explained to him what had happened.
"She and some other ladies were gathered together chatting and I told them to get back to work. They all obeyed except Xiao Wan, and I wouldn't have slapped her if she hadn't called me a whore", Su Jing said Xu Jin heaved a sigh.
"I'm really sorry about that, I'll see that it doesn't happen again ", Xu Jin said and Su Jing nodded.
"But why is Lei Zhang being so nice to her, it's one of the reasons she's so arrogant",
Su Jing said and Xu Jin exhaled.
"Well actually Xiao Wan isn't just an intern to Lei Zhang",
Xu Jin said and Su Jing's eyes widened.
"is he really falling for her?", Su Jing asked shocking Xu Jin.
"What, no, it's not like that, never mind, I'll just see that she doesn't disrespect you or anyone again",
Xu Jin said and Su Jing nodded before walking away. T.B.C