This Would Be Good

"A criminal organization working for the police. When has that ever been normal?"

He shrugged and smiled "Since I decided— why not?" 

She stared him down with both brows raised, her expression telling him she didn't believe him. "Oh really? She asked.

"It's more of a partnership. I give them information, and they turn a blind eye to our operations, nothing too complicated"

She placed the documents on the coffee table and crossed her legs. "Then how did this 'partnership' come to be", she said making air quotation marks,

"Simple," He remarked as he stood up from behind his desk and slowly walked to where she sat. Her eyes lazily followed him as he picked up the documents she had placed on the table and stood in front of her, hand in pocket. "I walked into the station and negotiated one"

She stared up at his smug smirk. "And they just agreed to start dealings with a criminal boss"

"Well it took a lot of....convincing, but it worked out later on"

She sighed and stood up, deciding not to continue with the interrogation session. "I'm done. Good night". She said, walking right past him, ignoring his piercing gaze trained on her back.

************************************

~Li Corporation

Liling could feel the weight of the stress from the almost over day pushing down on her shoulders as she walked out of the meeting room along with the rest of her colleagues.

It had been the monthly company meeting with the heads of department, and it had been overseen by the managing directors as usual. 

She made her way out of the elevator and to her office, fully ready to end the day behind her desk signing the last of her documents. Just as she was about to step through the door, the familiar chime of her phone drew her attention. She stopped to check it. It was a message from Li Hao telling her to come to his office when her meeting was over. 

She raised a brow skeptically. Usually, if he needed anything, he would make himself present in her office despite her frequently voicing her displeasure about it. 

Deciding that it was most likely important, she made her way to an elevator and up to the highest floor in the building. She heard a soft 'ding', as the doors slid open, and she stepped into the quiet hallway leading to his office. 

She knocked once making her presence known and pushed the door open once she heard the familiar deep hum of his voice telling her to come in.

Stepping into the large office, she quietly took in its sheer size. The room was pristine, bathed in warm light, and dominated by sleek lines, a monochromatic color scheme implementing shades of grey and white, sleek furniture, and abstract art pieces. For some reason, she couldn't see him being the one who decorated the place, it felt...colder, more detached than his usual nature. 

"I'm here now. What's the problem?" she asked casually, crossing the room to meet him at his desk. He stared up at her, his usual playful expression on. 

"Nothing much. Just this", he said sliding over a document. She took them, brows raised, he still hadn't told her why she was up here.

She went over the words reading through the contractual terms. Slowly, her brows furrowed going over it multiple times, trying to understand what it was leading to. 

"Li Hao. What is this?" She asked, eyes looking up from the papers and locking onto his gaze. She didn't know what to feel exactly, so she wanted to hear the words from him before making judgment.

The documents in question were a Request for Proposal outlining the company's offer of a contract to a material production company for their latest construction projects. She was very knowledgeable on how contracts like these worked, but what she couldn't understand was why the Xu Corporation was part of the list of companies being considered for the contract. Why was he giving her uncle a gateway to the Li Corporation?

 Li Hao could easily say that he had gotten better at understanding her over the past few months, so he could tell the thoughts crossing through her mind. 

He spoke up, "I'm giving you control over the proposal and the contract awarding, do with it as you please"

What he had also learned about her, was that she was incredibly smart, and insightful. His reasoning as to why he had handed over a proposal would seem vague to others, but he was confident she would immediately understand it. 

Her eyes widened in shock hardly believing his words, she looked back over the proposal and her lips slowly turned up as she began to see what his intentions were. He was giving her full rein against her uncle, and his company. This was her ticket to revenge. 

A playful gleam replaced her usual ice-cold glare, who would have known that just getting involved with him would get her this much? She basked in the knowledge of her newfound power, the thought of having more bringing a slight spark of joy to her chest. 

Li Hao watched as the gleam in her eyes intensified. He felt satisfied knowing he had been the one to elicit this reaction, knowing he had caused the blood lust emanating from her in waves, watching her, he could practically see the gears in her head turning as she planned out her next moves, lips turned up in a smile. 

This would be good.

********************************************

She stepped through the doors to her office after making her way back down, still basking in the idea that her uncle would soon face his doom.

Shen Ru was sat in her usual position at the coffee table. She casually looked up at Liling's entrance and faced her task again. "Something came for you while you were away"

Liling paused for a second, momentarily shocked Shen Ru had spoken to her. She considered replying but decided staying silent was the better plan of action as she walked to her desk. 

A large brown envelope had been placed on her table. It looked flat with only her address on it, there was no return address in sight. She picked it up and weighed it in her palm trying to guess what it was, seeing as it was very light, she opened it. 

As she took out the contents, she froze and tensed up. Panic surged through her as she put it back into the envelope and stuffed it in her bag, trying her best to hold on to her last shred of calm. The joy in her had dissipated replaced with the growing feeling of dread in her stomach.

Noticing her uncharacteristic reaction, Shen Ru spoke up again, her eyes slightly flickering with concern. "What was in the envelope? Why are you acting like that?"