January 10, 20XX (Thursday)Y Building, Beijing
On the eighteenth floor of the building, Zhao Yang sat on his chair unmoving. His eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Yang"s brain ached with how to arrange the words of the poem to form the hidden message. On his drawer, he hid a special ink that lights up even when it"s not entirely pitch black like a glow in the dark ink does.
"Yang, my mentor called me last night." Mei Li"s voice interrupted him as the door opened.
Yang felt his soul jumped in surprise as he immediately flickered his mouse to hide the window he was working on and pretended to be reading a doc.u.ment about a business report. Mei Li went near him and stood on his side. Yang followed her movements with his eyes, his palms growing sweaty after that previous scare. He turned his chair to face Mei Li.
"Oh," Yang said casually. He had already guessed that this possibility would come. He was one of the people that vouched for her father to come to China as soon as possible. He had even help Chang Min secure the condo next to Mei Li"s in secret. This Xue family thought they were so obvious, but they are too easy to read than most family. Because he had expected father Bonaparte to come earlier than planned, Yang immediately decided to ask Mei Li out formally.
He"ll respect his future father-in-law, but that doesn"t mean he"ll demean himself to lower and beg. Her father may be a Bonaparte, but Zhao Yang is a member of the Royal Family of Xing. They were direct descendants of Chinese royalty with an immediate claim to the throne. Let Mei Li"s father think he"s won, that"s when he"ll checkmate him.
Yang smiled at his knowing thoughts before he continued, "What did he say?"
Mei Li reported, "He said he"ll be here on January at the twenty-seventh. Can we get him from the airport? Please, I"ll owe you an IOU."
"No," Yang denied.
Mei Li pouted at him with her lower lips protruded as if a bee had bitten it. Yang flicked her forehead and continued, "I"m saying no to the IOU, but we can get your mentor that day together. You can even choose the car we will ride."
"Thank You! You"re the best!" Mei Li kissed both of his cheeks causing Yang to close one eye every time she did because her kisses had landed near his eyes. He chuckled when Mei Li went out of the office to go to Trisha, who was probably waiting for her, with a happy expression and a skip in her steps.
Yang had been so focused on calming himself and not appearing nervous that he hadn"t noticed the little facts. Mei Li snorted when she closed the door and was out of hearing from Yang"s ears. Who would believe that he was not hiding something? He had been on the same business report on the same page and the same paragraph for the last four hours when usually reading a business report would only take him about an hour to finish.
Yesterday, Yang had gone to Zhao Manor with "reasons" for business. Mei Li also rolled her eyes when she heard it. Why would he go to do business in Zhao Manor when his work is done here at Y Building? Yesterday night, he was fiddling so much with his phone that he finished eating after an hour. In the morning when Mei Li had woken him up, she saw a text from a restaurant requesting Yang to confirm his reservations for Friday. Beside that fact, Yang had also asked her on Monday if she was doing anything important on Friday. She remembered answering no, so she cleared all of her schedules on that day.
Whatever it is that Yang plans to do, Mei Li plans to counter-attack.
"Trisha, can we go to a jewelry store?" Mei Li pleaded to the woman waiting for her near the elevator once she was near enough for Trisha to hear.
Trisha raised one eyebrow while asking, "Why? What are you planning to buy?"
Mei Li"s eyes glanced at the door of Yang"s office then replied, "I"m buying a leash..."
The innocent and naive interior designer blinked her eyes in confusion. She questioned Mei Li with doubt, "A leash? How about going to be a pet store instead of a jewelry store?"
Mei Li giggle out loud, "A leash for humans, Trisha. I don"t have a dog or a cat."
Trisha c.o.c.ked her head and murmured to Mei Li"s ears careful not to let other people hear, "Are you a dominatrix, Mei Li?"
Mei Li"s giggles turned into full-blown laughter. Tears even began to gather in her eyes. Mei Li explained to her, "Instead of a leash, I"ll use a branded collar... something to tie Yang and be a constant reminder to his commitment for when he asks me to be his girlfriend tomorrow." Mei Li entered the elevator still amused while Trisha was blus.h.i.+ng in embarra.s.sment.
Trisha had learned that day that she would never again try to fool Wu Mei Li because the woman was too observant for her. On the way down, Trisha pleaded for Mei Li to not involve her on schemes but was too late when Mei Li grinned at her.
Meanwhile, near the end of today"s work, Yang called Secretary Bai demanding with a graved voice, "I need a frame."
"What kind and what size?" Secretary Bai asked.
He knew the plans that Yang was doing, and he couldn"t help but cringe at his overly sweet poem structured weirdly around the white and simple background.
"A simple black frame that fits this." Yang handed Secretary Bai one A4 bond paper printed with the finished product on his poem. Secretary Bai read the hidden message to confirm the CEO"s work was perfect before nodding to the CEO.
Secretary Bai prayed for many things, especially for tomorrow. Hopefully, Me Li would notice the hidden message. Hopefully, everything will go as planned. Hopefully, she will accept the s.a.d.i.s.tic CEO. The employees would suffer h.e.l.l again if Zhao Yang fails.