16: PROJECT

"That was rude." Wang Xiu stares at the back of the man looking at the glass wall of the corner office. The room is used by the engineering director Mr. Choi who is out at the moment.

"I'm sorry." Li Jun answers, veering around to look at the woman behind him.

"I told the employees that you suddenly got nauseous at the elevator, that's why you walked past them while they were welcoming you." The woman crosses her arms on her chest. Her cousin's sudden action begins to irritate her and it's only been a few days since the man arrives from the US.

"I did." Li Jun answers, setting his hand at the temple of his head and making his voice hoarse to act like he's in pain

"Let me." Wang Xiu puts both of her index fingers on the sides of Li Jun's head, gently applying pressure to ease the man's pain. She stares at the newly appointed executive, pursing her lips to scowl, doubting if Li Jun has a real headache that made the man walkout.

Their bodies are an inch away and their faces are close which makes the man swallow hard as he smells the woman's sweet scent from her hair. The enclosure setting is good, the mood of the moment feels perfect. Gazing at Wang Xiu's lips, he leans down to let his rims reach for a kiss.

"Ms. Zhang…" A female employee comes knocking on the glass wall that separates the room. Wang Xiu puts her hand down and turns to face the employee at the door.

"Yes?"

"Director Ang Lim is waiting at your office."

"Okay. Thank you."

The female employee nodded and left them. Wang Xiu begins to fix her hair and clothes, inhaling deeply to loosen her dress and pulling it down from her waist to the back of her hips with the palm of her hand. The gesture is intimately seductive to anyone who could see it and Li Jun couldn't help but blush at the sight of the woman's beauty.

"You are already perfect." The man whispers as he goes out of the room and passes by Wang Xiu which makes the woman flash a smile at the compliment.

Wang Xiu knows that Li Jun is acting rather erratic because of her yet she doesn't feel responsible to reprimand him for his actions. It's not her fault that the man likes her. She never asks for his affection other than being a relative or a close friend she can have. And as far as she remembers that night that they kissed, she didn't say that she wants more than that.

They have not talked about that night and the woman feels there is no need to do that. Wang Xiu senses that Li Jun is trying to treat her as casually as he can, back to where they were before. The woman assumes Long Liu Wei has intervened when he visited Li Jun at her apartment, so convincing that his son's goal changed and he stops trying to take advantage of her when he can. And now the young man begins to do everything his father wants. It won't be easy to make him step down now even if the board of shareholders knows that he's unsuitable for the position.

She needs to deal with her cards carefully. One of her ace in hand is Li Jun's identity that she can leak to the board to make him less of a choice as CEO of the company. Wang Xiu only needs the right time and right place and she will win not only the position of CEO but also her dare to CEO Yang Fei Hong's offer.

π - π - π

The director waits, sitting in front of the wooden table with flowers on his lap and holding them both with his hands. Blooming long-stemmed red roses wrapped in weave-like glittering golden strings carrying their mild sweet scents. A specially made bouquet that the director bought and carried himself to give to someone special.

Li Jun opens the door for the woman and notices the director with a bunch of flowers in his hand. His brows fold staring at the man's wide and sweet smile towards the woman coming into the room. He quickly breathes in and lets himself calm to force a smile on his lips.

"Good morning, director." Wang Xiu greets the man once she gets a glimpse of the director.

"Flowers for you Ms. Zhang." The director stood up and handed the bouquet.

"Thank you, Director Lim," Wang Xiu gleamed a wide curve on her lips showing a part of her upper pearly white teeth.

"That's very formal, just call me Ang." The director says with a chuckle that makes his face round from his crumbling puffy cheeks.

"If I'm calling you Ang, then you call me Xiu." The woman replies with a giggling sweet laugh. She takes the bouquet of roses close to her face, smells their sweet scent before setting them down on her table in front of them.

"Okay, Xiu." Director Lim slightly nods with his smile still on his face. A moment of them staring at each other's eyes while standing a few steps away.

Li Jun switches his glare back and forth to the two people in front of him. He felt the sudden neglect from Wang Xiu because of the old and fat man that came with only a bunch of flowers for the woman. He fake coughs to make his presence known and the woman turns to him to introduce him to the director.

"I almost forgot, Ang, this is Mr. Long Li Jun, our new executive director in Marketing." Wang Xiu says, gesturing her hand towards the tall man standing beside her.

"Li Jun, this is Director Ang Lim, he will be directing our new advertisement film for the company." The woman continues to introduce the two men.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Long." The director stretches his short arms towards the man.

"Glad to meet you too, Mr. Lim." Li Jun accepts the hands and firmly holds it and lets them go quickly.

"Did you get promoted, Xiu?" Ang Lim turns to the woman and furrows his brows, feeling excited that the project has helped the woman a step to go higher in her position.

"No, I am transferred to be the director of the Project and Engineering department." The woman answers with an awkward smile, the sudden change of her position became apparent to her face expressing a curve scowl on her lips.

"You got demoted?" The director turns to Wang Xiu, his brows furrowed and eyes low, worrying about the woman.

"No, it's the same position. Don't worry I will be handling this project until the very end." Wang Xiu let out a cheerful smile. The anxious look of the director makes her worry that the director will back out.

"That's good to know." Ang Lim's face brightened with the woman's announcement.

"I will be there to supervise the project as well," Li Jun says, interrupting the conversation between the two. His face looks stern, his cheeks and forehead are flat with a blank expression on his eyes.

Wang Xiu stares at Li Jun who conveys a cold glare towards the director who returned the gaze with a questioning look.

"Anyway, we can go to the conference room and present to you our proposal." The woman disrupts the tension between the two men. She turns to the director and lifts her arms to guide Ang out of her office. At the door, she stops and requests the director, "Ang, can you give us a minute?"

"Sure, Xiu." The director's reply and nods. He proceeds to go to the hallway with the members of the marketing team accommodating him until he reaches the elevator and conference room.

The woman turns to Li Jun who stands behind her with his forehead creasing from the surprising fierce look Wang Xiu's eyes express towards the man.

"Do you have a problem, Li Jun?" The woman asks with a stern voice, she crosses her hand in front of her chest. A gesture she does whenever she gets irritated.

"No." The man lifts his brows, answering innocently and pouting his lips.

"Well I have a problem and it's you." Wang Xiu says, expressing her annoyance to Li Jun. His cold look towards the director doesn't help her to pursue the man.

"What do you mean?" Li Jun continues to faintly make himself innocent of the woman's accusation.

"I work hard for this company. I care for this company. If you are going to make everything hard or sabotage my project, I'll make sure that your life as a CEO will be difficult." The woman explains with her voice firm. Her jaws are slightly clenched from the irritation she feels about Li Jun's constant coldness towards the director.

"I'm sorry." The man replies, looking away from the woman's judging eyes.

"You stay here." Want Xiu points her index down, telling the man to not join them at the presentation.

"Why?" Li Jun asks the man exclaim. He feels like a kid being punished for misbehaving.

"Why? You look at Ang like you are going to punch him." The woman explains, her voice goes high almost yelling at the man's face.

Li Jun did not answer. Wang Xiu is right that his attitude was not as welcoming as he should be. As an executive who is requesting for someone to work with them, he did a bad thing.

Wang Xiu left the office without a word with Li Jun wondering what to do in his spare time at the woman's office.

π - π - π

Wang Xiu opens the door of the conference room and sees the director sitting in the middle of the long circular table in front of the projector. The marketing team is already finished setting up the slides for the proposal and they are waiting for her to start showing them to the director.

The first slide contains the infrastructure that LCDC has made in Shanghai. Including a collaboration work with the famous Nampu Bridge or Spiral Bridge and Yangpu Bridge in Ningguo Road in Huangpu District. They also showed Mall Centers in different parts of the countries including Guangzhou, Beijing, and Hong Kong.

"How about Macau?" Director Lim asks as the buildings are one by one introduced by region.

"We have plans to make infrastructure in Macau, but we can't introduce it yet." Wang Xiu explains, hiding the truth that with all the success of the Long Construction, it's Macau they can't get a deal on.

One of the things that CEO Long Li Wei has a hard time making business with is the district of Macau. She doesn't know why but whenever there are projects available to the specific area, the CEO appears to ignore it or that their preposition gets ignored by the companies in that specific region.

"I like the concept and I'm happy to say, I'll be glad to do it." The director says, flashing a smile on his face.

"Thank you." Wang Xiu pays with the same grin on her face. She handed the contract to the man who slightly brushed his finger in her hand when he took the paper from the woman.

"But I have to ask my lawyer first." Director Lim replies.

"Of course. We can get back to the contract once your lawyer approves it." The woman nods. 

"I'll make sure she does." Director Lim answered with a wink and stood from the chair holding the contract in his hand.

"Can you give me your lawyer's number?" Wang Xiu asks before the director leaves the room.

"Sure." The man took his mobile phone out and sent an electronic business card to the woman's phone.

"Thank you." Wang Xiu responds