Raelle’s fingers finally stopped typing and she stretched her body. Right at this moment, Cloe entered, “Chief, you’re finally done?”

“Weren’t you gonna have dinner with your colleagues this evening?” inquired Raelle as she put everything back to it’s original place, cleaned up her desk, and stood up.

“Yes, but I couldn’t leave without you so they all left without me,” informed Cloe with a bitter tone.

“Oh? So, it’s your birthday but they are enjoying dinner with my money?”

Cloe acted wronged and nodded her head, “They even threw me such pitiful gazes as if I was left alone in a tiger’s den. Well, your momentum is no less than a tiger but giving me such looks really didn’t settle well with me.”

Raelle took her blazer, “You also used to look at me like I’m a tiger who would eat you one day.”

Cloe gave a dry laugh, “And yet I managed to survive for seven years around you.”

“Yes, you did,” was all Raelle said as she walked out of the office with Cloe following behind her. Raelle took the elevator to the ground floor. It was half-past 8, the office building was mostly empty now. She was one of those special cases who stayed behind to work overtime. When Cloe opened the car door for Raelle, the latter paused and thought about something, “You must know where they are having dinner, right? Let’s join them. We both haven’t had dinner yet anyway.”

Cloe knew who she was referring to but it still made her blank out for a while. It sounded like her boss was being very kind by gracing such a small gathering of her employees with her incomparable existence. However, Cloe knew someone’s death was imminent today. She just couldn’t tell who dared to overstep and why on her birthday?!

As she sat in the front seat with an uneasy look, received a message and looked at it before reporting it to Raelle, “Chief, Military General Daniel has requested to meet you personally. Again!”

“What for?” asked Raelle as her eyes were trained on the passing lights outside the window.

“He says he would like to personally thank you for all the contribution you have made to the country. Also, he says, his soldiers would love to see their anonymous benefactor once.”

Raelle didn’t react for a while before saying, “I don’t have time for this.”

Cloe cursed her luck. Today, her boss was not in the mood to give her proper instructions. She had to come up with an excuse again. She really didn’t know what she was thinking. Even when they hadn’t moved to H country, Raelle had been investing generously in the military projects. Especially that involved the families of martyrs. To be honest, she didn’t think her boss was patriotic. Heck! She never even felt any attachment with this country or any place. Then the question was, why did she do it?

“Chief, I still don’t get it,” she spoke cautiously. “Why do you even do it?”

“For my grandfather,” was Raelle’s answer. “Didn’t you hear that my Xiang ancestors had all been in the military?” Cloe was alarmed. “Of course, you didn’t hear it. Grandfather left this country to finally break away from that tradition. He said he had already lost enough.”

Cloe was truly taken aback, she never thought Xiang Family had a history like this. She always found a heroic spirit in Elder Xiang but who knew that dignified aura was deep-rooted in his blood and bones from generations.

….

“She is still wet behind the ear[1], don’t know what she thinks of herself! This is not how one can do business here. She’s too headstrong! She won’t last long, I’m telling you all to be careful. All she knows is how to dress up. She thinks she can use her cheap seductions to establish herself here, she’s dreaming! Those cheap tricks only worked in those western countries! Unlike those vulgar people, in our country, we value seniority, manners, respect, filial piety! A rude brat like her definitely has no place here!”

Cloe’s face froze as soon as she heard those words about her boss who was standing right beside her with an indifferent look on her face. They had just reached the private room that was booked by her colleagues and the door happened to be slightly ajar. One could clearly hear those remarks from inside.

Cloe made a cross on her chest and looked heavenward in silent prayer as she watched her boss step inside the private room unannounced and said, “Director Mo seems to hold me in high regards. If I knew earlier, I’d have been nicer to you. What a pity!”

The air stagnated inside the room as everyone stared wide-eyed at Raelle’s face and stood up in shock. Even without anyone asking her to sit, she took an empty chair in a leisurely manner. She was the one paying for this extravagant meal anyway. So, who would stop her from sitting?

“President Xiang, it’s an honor to have you join us for dinner,” said bootlicking employee number 1.

“President Xiang, sorry we didn’t know you’d be joining so we started without you. Hope you don’t mind.” Another one joined in.

With a cautious smile, a girl also added, “It seems like the whole room brightened up with President Xiang’s presence.”

Raelle’s lips curled into a lop-sided grin as she eyed them all one by one. Taking her time patiently. And when each of them felt her gaze on their bodies, their scalp felt numb.

Raelle’s eyes stopped at that Director Mo who seemed to have a lot of opinions regarding her. He tried to appear calm and proud as if the earlier comments hadn’t been made by him at all.

“Why are you all standing? Please, enjoy your dinner! I’m also here to enjoy this dinner I held for my assistant’s birthday who seemed to be the only one who had been absent.”

Every one of them felt like someone slapped them harshly on their faces. They didn’t dare sit back down as if there were nails on their chairs.

“But it’s okay, I’m a generous person. I brought the birthday girl all the way here by myself,” Raelle smiled at them in such a way that they call felt like the temperature in the room was dropping considerably.

[1] wet behind the ear: Being too young or naive.