32 The Banquet

"What? I am just loosening my garden soil. What has it got to do with you?" The old man harrumphed.

"Does your wife know that you are ravaging her plants here?" Li Yang asked which earned him a death stare. "Not that I am here about it. I am not talking about this. What are you doing with Elliot?" Li Yang said coming back to the main reason he was here when he saw the old man flare up.

"What do you mean? What am I doing? I don't know what you are talking about." The old man grunted.

"You don't know? Don't play dumb with me old man. I know that you know all about Erena. The things that we don't know, isn't it? And it was all in your plan to bring her here. Tell me what are you planning? I swear to God that if that Erena dares to hurt my friend, I will neither let her or you to have a peaceful life." Li Yang warned the old man.

"Heh! Now even the little rabbit dares to challenge the tiger. I don't know what you are talking about." The old man remained firm.

"We will see." Li Yang snickered. Despite knowing that it was impossible to make this old man spit out his plan, he still came to let the old man know that he was aware of it so that he wouldn't be rampant on his moves. Although he knew that Erena was harmless, it was only for now. He did not know about the future. It was better to be careful at the beginning than to regret it later.

He turned around to go back unknown that the moment his back was facing the old man, the old man sneered. But the expression on his face didn't manage to last long because just as Li Yang entered back the hall of the villa, he roared, "Old lady! Your husband is ruining your plants early on the morning and he even stole your favourite printed gardening apron. Again." after snitching on the old man, he dashed out of the villa before the old man could catch him.

Behind him, he heard the voice of an old lady chasing an old man with a baseball bat in her hands while cursing the man nonstop. He chuckled, "serves you right, old man."

Back at the Apexi corporation, Jay was getting better and better at digesting the change in his boss. He wasn't the best assistant in the world for nothing. In a little dark corner of his mind, he was even happy that he had less work to do as most of his work was being diverted to Rain now.

After a few days, at the Apexi corporation, Rain finally got a moment for herself once it was noon. She approached Jay as she saw him and asked in her usual monotonous voice "Is there something wrong with Kai? Is he not feeling well? I saw Dr. Li Yang dragging him and muttering about taking him for an emergency health check-up that day. And since that day Kai is even behaving strangely."

"Oh! Miss Erena." Jay was startled.

"Please just call me Erena." Rain said.

"Oh! Okay. Boss is fine. Mr. Yang was just joking and boss is also in good health. It's just that he has not been taking enough rest so he's acting this way." Jay answered flustered not wanting to let the cat out of the bag.

Just as Jay was about to continue, the intercom on Rain's desk rang. Both of them knew who the call was from "I need to go now. I'll will talk to you later" saying this Rain headed towards the president office.

A few months passed by, and Elliot began to care more and more about Rain. Jay was immunised of his boss's unusual behaviour at this point in time. He had long accepted his fate.

One day at noon Elliot called Rain to his office. "Erena, be prepared. I will be bringing you to attend a business banquet tonight and I am bringing you as my female partner." Elliot said as soon as Rain entered.

"But I have never attended a business banquet." Rain said.

"There's always a first time. You don't have to worry about it. Be ready, I will take to shop for a dress for the banquet at noon. I guess you do not have one if you have not attended one." Elliot smiled. "You may leave now and send Jay here once you are out." Elliot said once he was done talking, to which Rain nodded.

"Sir you were looking for me?" Jay asked once he entered.

"What is the progress on the Monkey gang's case?" Elliot asked, his eyes glued to the documents in his hands.

"We still have no leads about it boss. But because this case is so extraordinary, our intel stumbled upon some cases of the past. They are suspecting that this case resembles those. But…" Jay hesitated.

Hearing this, Elliot raised his head, his brows furrowed. "But what?" he asked in a deep voice.

"But those cases took place a decade ago and they are still unable to find the culprit behind them. No, its not right to say culprit, they could not find any evidence that could help them head towards a direction. Just like this case. There were no traces. Like it was a work of a phantom. It's a bit spooky." Jay gulped. "That's why they suspect that this case is related to them."