Noreen invited Erica out to coffee. Since they weren't friends, Erica doubted her intentions. 'That's strange. She must have some kind of ulterior motive. What's she up to?' Erica thought for a bit. She shook her head decisively. "I'm sorry. ZL Group owns too many coffee shops as it is, most of them mediocre. Whenever Matthew is at home with me, he grinds the beans so that I can have a fresh cup. I'm really not in the mood for coffee right now.
Even thinking about going out to the average cafe makes me hurl!" Noreen was furious. 'Listen to her! She's literally bragging about her rich husband!' Despite that, she continued, "Coffee not your thing? No problem! There's a teahouse nearby..."
"No. my husband owns tons of tea factories. After the tea is picked and packed, the bags of tea leaves are piled high like mountains in our warehouses. I never want for tea. But I feel bad for you, Miss Xia. You have to go to a public place like a teahouse to drink tea? I would have thought a famous actress like yourself wouldn't have to do that. How about this? Since you've been so nice to me, I'll ask someone to send you a few pounds of our finest tea, so you can see how the other half lives," Erica offered.
Flames of fury were burning in Noreen's eyes. "Honestly, you're just a terrible bitch!"
"What? A bitch? Moi? Miss Xia, why are you acting like this?" Erica said, pretending to be hurt. "I offered you some of our best tea, and you call me names? Wow! Just—wow. I'm not sure what bug crawled in your panties, but that's no reason to take it out on me!"
"Erica Li!" Noreen was so angry she forgot that she was a public figure. Her rep could be damaged by losing it like this. She strode over and raised her hand to slap Erica.
But before she could do anything, a bodyguard came out, gripped Noreen's wrist tightly and threw her to the ground. He was anything but gentle.
Noreen fell to the ground awkwardly, and her eyes were full of defiance. "Erica Li, you'll pay for humiliating me like this! I'll make your life a living hell!"
Erica walked past the bodyguards, squatted down and looked at her with a smug grin. "Oooh, I'm shaking in my boots, Aunt Noreen. Don't worry. After we're done here, we're done, period.
Find another photographer. Maybe they'll be okay with being slapped around."
Then she stood up and got into the car.
After the car left, her agent helped Noreen up.
Looking at the car zooming away in the distance, she took out her cell phone and dialed a number. "Hey, it's me. I messed with Erica just now. She shouldn't suspect a thing."
After Michel had said his piece on the other end, she nodded and ended the call.
Erica heaved a sigh of relief when Noreen disappeared from her rearview mirror. She took out her phone and dialed a number. "Send people to every dock in the city. Yeah, you heard right. I want detailed reports on every ship coming and going."
Back to the villa, Erica turned on her camera and checked the photos she shot today. She was annoyed just looking at them.
She really didn't want to touch up the photos for Noreen. It disgusted her looking at the woman, but it was her job.
'Dammit! Forget it. Work is work, and I shouldn't bring my personal feelings into it. I better start working.'
Erica had a good work ethic, and was a consummate professional. This collection of Noreen's photos caused quite a stir after they were released, just like Dylan's photos did. Erica was quite the photographer, and knew what she was doing.
Everyone knew the photographer was EM, which made it even more exciting. She was getting famous for her photos.
Matthew's team was quite efficient, and delivered the design sketches for Erica's new studio. The next step was to figure out decorations. Erica didn't really care about that. She just needed to make sure everything went smoothly. Matthew didn't need to worry about the decorations either. A group of interior designers were responsible for that.
The members of the Violet Eagles had been dispatched to the 45 or so docks in the city. They were keeping tabs on them for about a week before they found something unusual at one of the docks. It was a smaller one, and a historic site to boot.
When Erica received the phone call from her associates, she was playing hide and seek with her four kids. Everywhere in the villa was fair game—upstairs, downstairs, didn't matter. Damian was busy trying to find his mother, who was hiding. When he heard her phone go off, he knew where she was. He found her in the 2nd floor collection room.
"That was too easy, Mom!" Damian said. Holding her hand, he walked downstairs with her.
"Yes, you're so smart. I love to be beaten by you!" said Erica with a big smile.
"Ha-ha! You're smart too, Mom," Damian said.
When the mother and son arrived at the first floor, Erica told the kids, "I have something to deal with now, so Mommy can't stick around. You can play a little longer and after that, you need to go upstairs with the nanny and sleep, okay?"
The four kids answered at the same time, "Okay, Mommy!" This wasn't their first rodeo. Plus, they were getting bored with hide and seek.
They were only playing the game to make their mother happy, anyway. Their mom suggested it, and they went along with it. They had other things they liked to do, like board games or coloring.
After making sure the kids were good, Erica changed her clothes and left the villa in a hurry.
There was already a car waiting for her at the gate. She got in the car, and Edward was waiting in the passenger seat. He snapped to attention and gave her his report. "There was nothing unusual about the manifest. Just several tons of wing powder. But there were several attacks reported around that area. Our people found that if someone got too close, they got jumped. If our guys hadn't had to use the bathroom and found those thugs hiding, they could have easily walked into a trap."
There were people lurking around the boat? What was so important they were willing to attack others to protect it? There was definitely something unusual.
The dock was about an hour's drive from the Pearl Villa District. When they arrived, the dockhands had almost finished unloading the goods. They had seven or eight trucks loaded up with goods. They were ready to enter the city.
Erica's car stopped at an inconspicuous spot on the roadside. Erica, dressed all in black, got out of the car first. They weren't about to do anything stupid. It was dark, yes, and the others guarding the boat hadn't left yet.
She quickly climbed to the roof of the car, took the night vision telescope from Edward and scanned the dock.
The view at night was not that good, but thanks to the lights on the dock, they could just barely see people moving over there.
The last group of people got in the same minibus and followed the other trucks, intending to leave the marina.
Erica still wanted to see the people left on the dock, but suddenly a loud roar came from off to the side. "Who's there?"
'Holy crap! I've been made!' Erica folded the telescope and threw it to Edward. She jumped from the car with one hand on the roof.
She got inside as fast as she could. At the same time, the driver started the vehicle up. When everyone piled in, they turned around and left.
But it was too late.
The hapless thug stumbled out of the bathroom. His stomach felt better, but he ran into a suspicious car. After finding a suitable hiding place, he made a call. Dozens of people appeared in the darkness and blocked the road.
Fortunately, Erica and her associates had removed the license plate of their car before they came here. The lights of the car shone on them, and dozens of people with batons stood in the middle of the road, blocking their way.
Erica rolled down the window and looked behind her. The lead car had about the same number of thugs as the car behind them. If there was any difference between the two cars, Erica couldn't see it.
The driver was a little nervous, and fidgeted anxiously. "Erma, what should we do?"
Erica did some quick calculations. There were only three of them in the car, and she couldn't defeat all of them. Ten people was a little unfair, and she'd be outmatched. She decisively ordered, "Slow down, honk, and speed over!"
Receiving the order, the driver honked the horn and plowed into the crowd. They didn't seem to hear the horn. But they stretched out their arms to cover their sight because of the dazzling light.
Edward said to the driver, "Alternate the high and low beams! Do it now!"
The driver turned on the lights. The high beams were so dazzling that the people in front of the car couldn't open their eyes for a moment.