Fourteen boxes

Ying Yue's eyes opened, and she sat up, confused and unhappy with that odd dream she just had. Her head tilted up to look at the wall clock. It was four in the morning.

Maybe it was the stress from work, or the emotional turmoil brought about by the incident at VX a few hours ago, but Ying Yue felt cold, exhausted, and a little bit lonely. She drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, staring off into space. A year ago, when life was completely different, she'd never felt this way at all.

"Huangjin…" She whispered.

The lioness who raged at the club was just a little bunny after all.

She sat there for a while, and when her eyelids became heavy again, she dragged herself towards her bedroom to sleep.

The next morning, she had someone from the phoenix team pick her up at her apartment building. The car wasn't going too fast or too slow, which allowed her some time to daydream. At first, she felt slightly disappointed that Fei Huangjin hadn't gone to look for her, but now, she'd started getting furious. A dull sense of frustration was brewing in her chest that made her ball her hands to fists on her lap.

How dare he do that last night and not try to patch things up before the sun rose?

She looked out the window, a frown perpetually etched onto her forehead. She wanted some sugar into her system to curb her anger. "Could we stop by at the pastry shop on the next street?"

"Yes, ma'am."

The car made a careful turn and slowed to a stop in front of Rose Garden, a popular bakery and dessert shop at the city. The man on the driver's seat unbuckled himself and prepared to go out with her, but Ying Yue stopped him with a tap on the shoulder. "I'll go by myself. Thank you, though."

He hesitated. He was ordered by Xi Shenghui to make sure nothing happens to her.

Ying Yue smiled at the troubled look that crossed his face. "I'll be quick and I'll be back before you know it. Tell Shenghui I'm fine."

The man blushed and looked ahead at the road in front of him. When the new boss of Juyan smiled at him, he couldn't help but think she looked like a pretty angel. "Uh, yes, ma'am." He made a mental note to go after her if she took longer than ten minutes.

She opened the car door herself and got in the quaint little shop. The baby blue dress and the beige linen coat she was wearing was honestly too feminine for her to wear at Juyan, but it went well with the shop she just entered, making her look like some heiress out on a little shopping spree. The shopkeeper welcomed her with a warm smile.

She nodded back at her and scanned the pastries on display. There were over fifty kinds of them in the shop -- cream puffs, danishes, cakes, and even freshly-baked bread of various types. She thought about it for a moment and decided she should probably buy a couple of boxes for her staff in Juyan. She counted the number of teams and departments they had over there in her head.

"Please get me eleven boxes of assorted bread and pastries-- no, make that thirteen." She wanted to make sure the maintenance and cleaning staff had their share, too. "And another extra box with just cream puffs."

The shopkeeper's eyes lit up. The woman was buying almost half of the goods on display, and it was still early in the morning. "Right away, madam! Please give me a few minutes to get everything packed."

Ying Yue nodded with a small smile. She was already feeling better at the moment. Retail therapy was really effective, after all.

"Fourteen boxes," a man whistled, sounding impressed and surprised at the same time.

Ying Yue's head whipped to one of the few tables in the shop, only to find Su Jianjun looking at her bemusedly with a newspaper open on his lap. He had a half-eaten danish on his plate and a cup of black coffee, which meant that he'd been here before she even stepped foot in the shop. There was also a man standing beside him, holding a tablet and looking at her curiously. He must be Su Jianjun's secretary.