The man had a boyish, youthful look, accompanied by an unruly shoulder length golden pink hair, coupled by a pair of s.h.i.+ning bright teasing emerald eyes, complemented by a thin pouty peach colored lips that always had a sly smile plastered on it.Refres.h.i.+ng and eye candy, this man, Zhane Devereaux, a sixteen years old prodigy when it came to computers and hacking.
We met in one of my travels to j.a.pan two years ago.
One looked, and I knew who he was. Thus, I offered to finance his secret lab of software development for him, much to his surprise.
At first, he avoided me like the plague. After much stalking, convincing and a little blackmailing, I finally recruited him. We agreed that I would finance his latest game software. In turn, he would help me in keeping my information private and my account from being hacked.
In short, he"s like my computer bodyguard.
In this era where computers and technologies dominated the world, with all information stored in a hard drive, it was essential to have protection against malicious hackers.
It had been two years since then. Zhane and I hardly communicated with each other unless I needed his help and him, reporting something that would require my attention.
"h.e.l.lo, Princess! Long time no see, have you been well?" His voice was high pitched and melodious with a hint that his vocal cord was not yet matured.
"Mmmm…. What"s up?" I replied, not looking at him.
He shrugged his shoulders and went straight to the point, "I want to develop a new kind of software."
"How much do you need?"
"Ten million."
"I want fifteen percent."
"Five percent and I will serve you for free for two years."
"Ten percent, serve me for free for four years. Take it or leave it."
Zhane looked at me, unblinking and said with an ecstatic voice. "You"re insane! All you have to do is give me the money! I"m the one who has to do all the work!"
"Ten million is no small amount."
".... You"re shrewd."
"Mmmm…"
"And lazy."
"I know."
"...."
Zhane looked at me with teary eyes and bullied like face.
"E-mail the recorded voice of our agreement to Michael so he can draft the contract. After you and I signed it, I"ll contact Vic to send the money to your account." I said casually, still keeping my eyes glued on my Wacom tablet.
"Why are you so sure that I"ll just agree to your demand and won"t ask for other investors?" Zhane said with a sneer.
"Your age," I replied matter-of-factly.
"....."
"....."
"...…. I"ll e-mail our agreement to Michael."
After that, he logged off with an aggrieved expression without even saying goodbye.
I smiled triumphantly. Of course, no one in their right mind would lend a thousand dollars to a young boy who hadn"t even received his rights of adulthood, much less ten million dollars. I also wouldn"t if it was not for the knowledge of my past life.
Sooner or later, when Zhane grew into an adult and found the right people to finance his projects, his name would spread throughout the four corners of the world.
I"m just advancing his progress.
The past me couldn"t be able to master this kind of confidence at such a young age, but thinking that I had lived more than seventy years, I imagined that the people I was talking to were just boys and girls, and I was a mature (old) woman, full of life"s experiences.
That gave me a boost of confidence.
"You seemed happy," said a calm elderly voice.
I raised my head.
With a wors.h.i.+pping gaze, stared at my computer to find a senior man in his sixties.