When the food arrived and Zhao Lifei began digging in, she felt her mood drastically improve. Perhaps she was just too hangry [1] before.
"You know," She began while placing down her chopsticks. "This place is quite fancy and romantic for a brunch setting."
Wei Hantao paused for the briefest second before he raised his head, a wolf grin resting on his lips. "How so?"
"Well, for starters, a lot of couples are frequenting here." Zhao Lifei looked around her and then her eyes settled on a lit candle in front of her. "It's not even dinner time yet still there's a candle in front of us and, might I add, there's also a rose next to it."
Wei Hantao's long and slender fingers grabbed the rose and handed it to Zhao Lifei. "You should take it then. It would be a nice pop of color to your outfit."
"And how would I wear this?" She scoffed at his words, a loose smile hanging from her lips.
Wei Hantao flicked his finger, telling her to lean closer. She would've done so but realized it would be too weird. They were friends, nothing more.
"Nevermind, I already know what you're thinking of doing." Zhao Lifei straightened up her posture, took the flower, placed it down beside her plate, and began to eat again.
Wei Hantao laughed. "Well the least you could do was play along with it."
Zhao Lifei rolled her eyes. "That would be so cheesy and weird."
Wei Hantao's smile wavered at her words. Weird? Why? He wanted to ask her the questions but, at the last minute, decided against it. "Alright then, I guess we should get to the real reason as to why I invited you to lunch."
Zhao Lifei stopped eating and took a sip of the lemon water so that she could properly pay attention to what he was going to say. She saw his eyes nervously darted around, his tongue lightly licking his bottom lip.
"After news got out that Feili was finally accepting private face-to-face meetings, many companies have approached us desiring the same treatment."
"Yes, Huo Qiudong have told me this already." Zhao Lifei didn't understand why he looked so nervous. "I don't see the problem with that. We can always reject it."
"Well...about that…" Wei Hantao awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "I accepted a few of them on your behalf."
Zhao Lifei nearly chucked the water at him. "You accepted them without my consent?"
"Yes, but they're set in a few weeks from now. We'll have enough time to do your debut banquet—"
"Don't you mean OUR debut banquet?"
Wei Hantao was baffled at what she said. "Huh?"
"Well, Mr. Wei, if you're deciding things on my behalf, that involves my personal appearance, I suppose I should also decide on things for you." She revealed a sickly sweet smile.
Wei Hantao was frustrated at her words. He didn't want to be in the public limelight.
Zhao Lifei waved down the waiter and asked for the bill. She continued the conversation and said, "I will be out for three days next week for my grandmother's birthday. We can have the banquet a week after that."
The waiter came back with the bill and respectively handed it towards Wei Hantao, who made an attempt to take it, but Zhao Lifei interjected and snatched it. "The meal is on me." She paid in cash and stormed out of the restaurant, leaving a bewildered Wei Hantao in his seat.
Zhao Lifei made her way back to Feili, took the stack of papers that Wei Hantao was supposed to look at today, and then went to an unoccupied meeting room to do some light work.
- - - - -
Everyone is going to die today.
Well, everyone in the office at least.
No one dared to enter the dragon's den, especially when the last person that went in there nearly got his head chewed off. President Yang arrived in the office with a terrible mood and it only worsened throughout the day.
No one knew why, except for Chen Gaonan who was the one that delivered the pictures.
Yang Feng glowered at the pictures in front of him. He had wondered why she was so eager to wear revealing clothing today and now he finally realized why.
Sitting on his desk were the pictures of Zhao Lifei's smiling and laughing face while she conversed with Wei Hantao. The one picture that especially pissed him off was the one where she accepted the pathetic and cheap rose, the same color as her car that sped off this morning. Huh, was that why she was in a rush? Did she want to see her side piece so quickly in the morning?
When the atmosphere suddenly worsened, Chen Gaonan began to cry to the heavens for mercy. It was barely 12 in the afternoon, yet his boss already desired a massacre to happen! He knew he shouldn't have delivered the photos when they were mysteriously dropped onto his desk without warning.
He did not know where they came from and who delivered them. He went to grab his boss' second serving of coffee and when he came back, the pictures were sitting on his desk in a neatly wrapped box, pretending to be a gift. With his boss' reaction, Chen Gaonan concluded it was a gift from hell.
"Find out who took and delivered the pictures." Yang Feng seethed, abruptly standing up to grab his suit jacket.
"Boss, where are you going? President Ling is going to arrive here any minute now!" Chen Gaonan knew he would be the first to die today based on his next set of actions. He scrambled to the door, blocking it with his body. "Sir, you've already rejected the meeting with Zheng Tianyi. If you skip out on this meeting, your reputation will be damaged!"
Chen Gaonan felt his knees go weak when he dared to look into his boss's eyes. Pitch black, like the deepest pit of the Netherworld, they were promising a slow and merciless death. They were too deep and solemn to properly decipher, but the warning was clear.
With his menacing black aura that was swirling around him, Chen Gaonan could've sworn he saw the grim reaper right behind Yang Feng.
"Boss, please, you must think of the company before you rashly storm out of here." Chen Gaonan's voice trembled like his body. He was worried for his life, but he was more worried about his boss' reputation.
"She will still be in Shenbei when you come back from the meeting, but President Ling will not. I was informed he has a scheduled flight three hours from now and will be gone for at least a week. We need the details on the collaboration to be finalized!"
"He has ten minutes." Yang Feng snarled. He shoved Chen Gaonan aside, the force pushing the man to the ground.
Chen Gaonan always knew of his boss's brute strength. Even though he was trained his entire life to become one of the best fighters, Chen Gaonan could never beat his boss in sparring. It was 99 losses and 0 wins.