5 Chapter 4

The Miss Lin Rong came into the office. She was about 160 cm, on the plump side but not too fat, sharp nose and jaw lines, olive skinned and dyed brown hair which was pulled into a bun, unlike Xiulan who was 175 cm, with an enviable figure, fair and smooth skin with loose jet black hair which was a little shorter than waist length. She eyed Xiulan for a second before turning to the Chairman who gave her a description of what needs to be done. She accepted and led Xiulan out of the office. She (Miss Lin) then turned sharply startling her (Xiulan). She said " Miss Zhang, I don't know what you did but I advise you to stay away from the new chairman. Mr. Lan is a man of principles and doesn't like women who harbor ulterior motives and get close to him." Hearing this, Xiulan scoffed in her mind and thought ' if anyone has ulterior motives, it's that guy why the hell will I put myself willingly in this situation?' Then she said out loud "Thank you for the heads up Miss Lin, I shall remember your advise" and smiled. Lin Rong eyed her once again, scoffed audibly and started walking again.

For the entire day Xiulan was listening to Lin Rong harping away about the requirements the personal secretary has to meet. As soon as the clock showed 5pm, they wrapped up and started to leave. Xiulan was waiting in front of the company for a taxi when a Bentley Bentayga slowly stopped in front of her. The window rolled down revealing Lan Jingfeng at the back passenger seat. He looked up and said "Hop on I will send you home." Xiulan mentally rolled her eyes and said out loud, "That's fine Mr. Lan, I live in the opposite direction so I don't want to trouble you." and forced out a smile.

Lan Jingfeng's eyes dangerously darkened. He said "I thought I made it clear that I don't respond well to rejections Miss Zhang. When I said I will drop you home, you are expected to just hop in without questions."

Xiulan's patience was running low. She grit her teeth, forced herself to calm down. She took a deep breath and clambered into the car. Right after, the car zoomed off all with her being watched without her knowledge.

She was sitting on the edge of the seat inching away from that creepy man as much as she could. She was on the edge the whole time. No one talked throughout the way towards her apartment. When they arrived, she just got off the car swiftly, thanked him and walked away feeling his gaze on her back. When she reached the 7th floor she speed walked to her door, unlocked it, got in and slammed it shut. She went straight to the kitchen and drank a glass of water. She wiped her mouth and the sweat off her brows. She frowned when she realised that she never told her address to Lan Jingfeng when she agreed to his 'order'. She assumed that he might have gotten someone to get her background checked. She felt more wary of him.

This arrangement continued for a few days. She was cautious and felt the need to learn self defence. She then joined classes to learn martial arts. When in the evening Lan Jingfeng asked her to get into the car, she rejected him politely saying she had other commitments. She caught a cab and headed to a studio which was a 35 minute drive from the company, stayed there for about 2 hours and started to head home. She had a peculiar feeling of being watched. She looked around discreetly and found nothing. She pushed this feeling down and went home.

3 days after this at Lan Corps., she felt a bit strange. People were whispering and talking everywhere. When they saw her, they awkwardly stopped talking and busied themselves. She noticed that earlier, even the reciptionist was a bit cold towards her. She decided to swing by the planning department first and then to her cabin on the top floor.

Xiulan saw Meng Xin and walked towards her. Meng Xin noticed her and immediately pulled Xiulan into a deserted corner and asked with a heavy face "Did you see the company's internal forum? Somebody managed to catch the picture of you getting into the Chairman's car yesterday evening and wrote some pretty nasty things about you." Xiulan did a double take and opened the forum. There were pretty nasty things written about her. Xiulan was slowly seeing red. But she forced hereof to calm down and think rationally. She then decided to observe the situation further and told Meng Xin. She agreed with her (Xiulan) decision. They parted after promising to meet at lunch.