Zhuang Bingwen felt so small under Li Jing"s piercing gaze that he could not take it anymore and decided to give in."Alright, Mr. Li. You can have whatever you want." He answered wiping the sweat off his forehead. Not anyone could have just messed with Wu Zhang after all. Not without paying a huge price at the least. And he was smart enough to weigh his choices well.
Li Jing gave a small smile and nodded his head. "You made the right choice manager Zhuang."
"Yes Yes." Zhuang Bingwen nodded his head like a rattle drum out of nervousness. "Shall we go?"
"Yes please." Li Jing got up from his chair and straightened his lapel of the suit before both men headed towards the security department to check the CCTV footage of that day.
----
Inside the control room, Li Jing had a deep frown on his face while Zhuang Bingwen was s.h.i.+vering internally. Even the a.s.sistant of Wu Zhang was too scary, he thought to himself.
"Are you trying to fool me?" Li Jing had an obvious frustrated look on his face. "This video has been tampered with!!"
Zhuang Bingwen immediately pulled the security officer in charge of the CCTV handling by his collar from the chair and pushed him aside. "Get away!!" He then turned to Li Jing, "Let me have a look, Mr. Li."
Li Jing didn"t give any reaction and Zhuang Bingwen immediately got to work. His fingers fumbled rapidly on the mouse and the keyboard, desperately trying to find the video of the time lap that Li Jing wanted. His face fell when he realized that their system was hacked and the video of that particular time period was deleted.
"Mr. Li please believe me. We had no idea our system has been tampered with." He looked unnerved and very apologetic. The way he was sweating so profusely was its proof.
----
Song Jia has just gotten off work and was relaxing inside her private room attached to her office chamber. Her eyes were closed and her head rested against the cus.h.i.+oned headrest of the bed.
After some time, three tap knock came from the door and Song Jia called Wei Xin inside without opening her eyes. She knew who it was because except for Wei Xin and Jin Qingge no one else was allowed in this room and it was Wei Xin who always knocked in a three tap pattern.
"Young Miss, the make-up artist you asked for can"t come. She has met an emergency and had to go to her home town last minute." Wei Xin informed Song Jia to which she opened her eyes and looked at her.
"What am I supposed to do now? I am not good with make-up and the charity auction is in three hours." Song Jia looked a bit worried. She wasn"t very good with make-up and her a.s.sistant was worse than her. This was probably the only thing that Wei Xin could not help Song Jia with.
Tonight"s make-up was important for Song Jia because it was the first time Mo Biyu has asked her to go somewhere with her and she didn"t want to reject her. It was a very big charity auction and all the important people of the city were invited. Song Jia had also received an invitation as the President of Song International Corporations but was not originally planning to and has asked the Vice-chairman to go on the behalf of the company until Mo Biyu called.
"You don"t have to go if you don"t want to." Wu Zhang has told her after she told him about the call. But Song Jia had shaken her head to this and told him that she will go. She was aware that Mo Biyu had slight reservations when it came to her and she didn"t want the rift to go deeper so she agreed to go.
"I have asked another make-up artist to come and help you. She is on her way."
Song Jia was not very sure because she didn"t like putting on a lot of make-up. And the make-up artist that she has asked earlier knew her preferences perfectly. She didn"t very much like the idea of getting a new one at the last minute.
While she was still pondering, someone knocked the office chamber"s door and Wei Xin went to check who it was.
"Is it the make-up artist?" Song Jia came to the door of the room and was surprised to see the woman standing in front of her.
A smile appeared on her lips and she exclaimed in surprise. "Long Xiuping?!!"
Long Xiuping smiled beautifully, and her eyes shone with a bit of surprise. She was not expecting Song Jia to recognize her. It has been long, almost three years since they met last. They didn"t get a lot of chance to meet because Song Jia was not very social and rarely attended any gatherings, leaving her with almost no chance to meet her.
"I was not expecting the almighty President Song to recognize me." Her voice didn"t at all hide the amus.e.m.e.nt she felt as she extended her hand to shake it with Song Jia.
"Oh don"t flatter me." Song Jia waved her hand in the air and then invited her inside the room. "So what brings you here?"
Long Xiuping sat down on the couch in a corner of the room before she answered. "Actually, our company is holding it"s three-year anniversary party and I was hoping if you could come. So I came down to invite you personally. Your presence will honor me and my brother." As she said that, she handed an invitation to Song Jia.
Song Jia glanced at the invitation and then smiled. "Since you have troubled to come here all the way to invite me, I will have to come."
Song Jia had no idea of Long Xiuping"s feelings towards her. She treated her well because she really admired great talents and the Long siblings sure had it. The way their company has grown in such a short span was noteworthy and she found it commendable.
She then turned to Wei Xin, "Are you sure the make-up artist you have called will do her job fine?"
"She is a renowned make-up artist." Wei Xin tried to reason.
"Sorry to interrupt. If I may ask, are you going somewhere, President Song?"
"Yes, I have to go to a charity auction and my make-up artist could not make it here at the last minute. So I am a little troubled you see." Song Jia smiled awkwardly.
"If you don"t mind, I can help you with it."
Song Jia immediately shook her head. "Oh no, it"s alright. You are my guest. It would be rude to bother you."
The truth was Song Jia was very specific with her make-up, preferring it natural and was hesitant to get it done by anyone. It was not appropriate to reject Long Xiuping"s offer straightaway so she decided to be polite.
"It"s no trouble, President Song trust me. I am very good with cosmetics and I will not disappoint you at all. Look at my make-up, I have done it myself."