Last Step Up

An Hour Earlier...

"I'm Malien Smith Ying"

Zhang stared through his office window down at Malien and Li Jun. He couldn't get his eyes off Malien for a second and then...

He got angry like he wanted to remove the window off the frame of the stupid office.

His eyes diverted to Li who is now smiling at her and talking to her. His day won't get bad by the second.

"Chunhua" He picked the office telephone and called Chunhua, who is the receptionist.

"Send Li Jun in. I will like to have a word with him"

"Yes sir"

He dropped the phone and the kind hanged up as he sat in expectation of the arrival of Li.

Chunhua should send the Mogul in anytime now. He should be ready for whatsoever comes his way, he thought.

And the girl.

Malien's type is all I need to make my life settled. I just need her to be with me and then... I don't think I will have worries, ever again, Zhang thought.

"Come in"

Li makes his way into Zhang's office as he scanned him.

"Good Afternoon, Sir"

"What's good about it?"

Li didn't move, instead, he looked over to Zhang as he walked up to the window and stood by it.

"Who's the lady you were standing outside with?"

Everywhere is dead silent and Zhang looked forward in anticipation.

"Sir... Her name is Malien Smith Ying and she said she got the job vacancy that was left in this company"

"Have you finished the assignment?"

He asked the question just to drop the topic.

"Yes sir..."

"Good!" he turned to face him.

"Submit the documents to Chunhua and your partner will be shown to you soon"

Li couldn't hide his joy.

"Thank you Sir, so much" he said.

Li, out of excitement and with a little potray, turned and left.

Malien should be home by now. he thought.

'Hey. This is your first assignment for tommorow, I suggest that you start working on it"

He press the send button on the phone and with a sigh of relief, he relaxed on chair slowly as he shook his head.

"Malien..." he thought again.

"All this is force" he whispered as he buried his forehead in his wide palms.

Meanwhile, Malien on the other hand was already planning on how to go about the assignment.

"63 prototypes? Who does he think he's dealing with? An android?" she asked herself in the middle of the calculation she engaged in.

She shoved the documents about and sighed in exhaustion.

She picked her phone in a quick manner and texted Zhang.

Her fingers trembled at the thought of doing this for the first time which she already dreaded from the day she had a name.

"I got 43 done. Can I continue tommorow?"

She texted like her fingers wants to pull off. Her eyes nearly went blank as she stared at the send button but she still pressed it anyway.

Immediately, Zhang's reply came in and it says:-

"No. At least do 55 today. You have much work tommorow"

Malien's head boiled like she was a pot of boiling water.

"He doesn't even thank his ass I managed and did 43 prototypes" she thought as she smacked her head with her palm. What else does human beings have for her.

Throughout the night, Malien worked till when it was six am. She didn't even know that the there's a new dawn.

Quickly, she gathered the documents for the prototypes and placed it in her small beanie bag. She wore a black long sleeve dress that exposed little of her cleavage and is a knee level shaped gown. She made her hair into a bun with little strands pulling out and applied little white powder on her face.

She wore on of the shoes her dad gave to her the last time they visited which was last year on Christmas.

And for the last time, she stood in front of the cream color mirror and looked at herself for the last time.

"Remember... I'm doing this for my future" she whispered and walked out of her bunk and out of the school.

On her way out, she peeped into Zhang's bunk and there he was... Sitting on the only couch the school have to offer in all bunks chatting with the boys he'd described as friends.

Malien didn't want to disturb, so she walked off to Penteiop where she works now, at least for the time being.

As she got to the door post of the company, the wide glass door opened and she stepped in making the door to shut close automatically.

"Welcome, Malien" Chunhua, who had a bright and happy face on said as she walked up to Malien.

"Good morning, Chunhua" Malien greeted sarcastically.

"Now, Now, dear. I came in, positively" Chunhua said as she slipped her arm under Malien's right arm, making Malien to feel uncomfortable.

"I will be showing you to your office and the lists of projects assigned to you will be given to you by Zhang himself or Zhang will send one of his assistants. Follow me"

Chunhua's behavior surprised Malien. She have never been so happy like today before, what's going on? So many questions going through Malien's head as she carefully scanned Chunhua to get clues of what's making her bunkmate and friend to be acting like a happy Moron.

The Office of Malien is spacious, wide and decorated with flowers that seems to be from another country. On the wall is a wonderful writing that says:- "WELCOME MISS MALIEN".

Malien was impressed.

"Who wrote this?" she asked still staring at the writing.

"You like it?" Chunhua asked and Malien nodded.

"Of course I like it. It's beautiful and well spaced with all curves in..."

"It's Zhang"

Chunhua watched Malien closely to see her expression.

Malien blinked twice still staring at the writing. Though, Chunhua expected that she will shut up and forget about it, but...

"It's lovely" Malien whispered.

Chunhua let a smile creep on her face and she turned to face the other side and then at Malien again.

"This is your office and the list of your projects is over there"

She pointed to a red briefcase and gave Malien a key to the briefcase.

"Here you go. If this is misplaced come to me and I will surely give you another"

Malien collected it slowly, still looking at the writing as she walked further into the office.

She dropped on her seat and stared at the wide desk.

"My desk" she whispered and touched it slightly, feeling the smoothness of the wooden desk.

Meanwhile, Zhang made his way to the company with the rest of his friends as they all laughed together in his car.

Stepping into the company, all the staffs that weren't in their offices stopped their whereabouts to greet them.

The rest of the guys flirted with some female staffs as they all made their way to Chunhua.

"Where is she?"

"In her office. She said the writing you placed on the wall is lovely"

Zhang froze. He didn't see that coming.

All the guys around him made teasy faces at him and was like - "Go get her dude".

Zhang on the other hand, was surprised. He didn't expect a compliment so quickly.

"Have you given her any work yet?"

"I gave her the key to her office briefcase" Chunhua said as she proceeded with the analysis she had at hand.

Zhang scoffed at her ignorance and behavior as he walked to the office he knew the girl they were talking about would be and knocked.

Hearing some rufflings of paper and footsteps, he waited patiently.

And finally, the door opened without creaking and as he looked up, he met the beautiful eyes of Malien Smith.