:: Deserving ::

"I'll send you back to the office," Mila offers.

I ponder if I should accept her offer. After all, I have already accepted her help to stand up. What's wrong with accepting her help once more?

In the end, I am Lu Shengyi and the main stakeholder of Shengyi Corporation. What could she stand on taking from me?

So, I get into the passenger seat beside Mila and allow her to drop me off at the office. This is after ensuring that Xiaoxian is fine, but I didn't expect for her to progress that rapidly with Jia Yulin in just a few minutes.

Well, I did say move on, but now I have a problem. I now have to unsee what I just saw of my best friend kissing Jia Yulin with her hair dishevelled and her patient robe in a disarray.

They should have locked the door, ugh.

......…

Two weeks later

In Shengyi Corporation's Office

Dewey heads the discussion this morning. A troop of newly-hired soldiers in the sales team look on proudly as Dewey announces their achievements.

The only question that remains in my head is 'if we will be able to beat Fu Technologies'. So the rest of the discussion just blitzes past my ears and I do not seem to pay much heed to the hiring decisions of Dewey, the awarding of the sales team and the new investments Dewey has made towards the corporation. I don't care if its new computers, printers or scanners. As long as this brings us to a competitive advantage over Fu Technologies, I consent.

The discussion comes to an end and I just walk into the pantry to find something to fill my rumbling stomach.

I am still not a breakfast person, no matter which life this is. But by ten-thirty, which is the time the discussion has concluded, plus another fifteen minutes, I am starving like crazy.

A bowl of cornflakes and low-fat milk sits on the small table in front of me. Never mind the carbs, I never even get fat from them. The thing is I am so hungry that I could eat a whale right now.

"You didn't seem very invested in what I had to say earlier," Dewey states as he brushes past me to grab a coffee from the machine.

"You do what you have to do, Uncle Dewey. I trust your judgment and prediction," I tell him honestly. Since when has Dewey ever made a mistake?

He looks down at my attire this morning. I've woken up late after a strange dream of Devil Cullen again, that I hardly had time to do my hair or my makeup. I had to rush to get to work, plus the worst? The water supply was interrupted due to maintenance going on in the waterworks department located nearby.

So my hair is in a messy bun right now, and my clothes don't look very neat, since they have not been ironed. One would have thought that I would have a maid of my own, but nope. Nada.

Dewey gives me a short version of his lecture that attire and presentation express what I am. I pout.

"Water wasn't working this morning."

"I presume you didn't need water to iron your clothes?"

"Um..it's a steam iron," I lied.

"You could have prepared beforehand, instead of the morning before," Dewey argued. "You are the boss, but if you don't make an effort to dress appropriately for a discussion, even if you don't plan to be active in it, how do you want your employees to respect you?"

"You have a point there," I agree with him. "I promise you, I will start making a change about that."

He claps his hands. "Well done. I hope to see improvement in your attire from tomorrow onwards." Then he leaves the pantry.

I grit my teeth.

Argghhhhhh!!!!

But rather than be angry with this person who will help bring money and fame to Shengyi Corporation, I should save my energy for dealing with Cullen Fu.

The clock on the wall tells me that I still have a few minutes break before my next meeting. So, I pick up the phone and dial the number I remember so clearly in my heart.

"Xiaoxian, how are you?" I utter excitedly as she answers on the third ring.

"I...am fine."

That tone again? I scream in my mind. What is she playing, to be using that robotic voice on me? I groan.

"How are things between you and Jia Yulin?"

She gives me an account of what has happened between them in two weeks. The next thing is, she is telling me about their sexual life, so I hastily stop her.

"Too much info, Xiaoxian. That was not what I was asking. But thank you."

I am glad she has moved on from Shan Hanyu, but for her to indulge in such actions with Jia Yulin so quickly and desperately makes me feel something is not right with her.

"Do you love Jia Yulin, Xiaoxian?"

She answers in the same monotonous voice, "Do you want me to love him, Shengyi? Then I will."

What is this about asking me?

"I'm talking about you, Xiaoxian! Do you love him? What do you want in life?" I almost shout at her over the phone.

"I..uh, will do as your bidding. I will be strong and move on, be in a relationship with Jia Yulin, all for you."

She is as if she is in a trance.

Now, I want to strangle Shan Hanyu to death. But Xiaoxian is now acting like she no longer has a mind of her own. Is that just because she was hurt by the jerk?

Something doesn't seem right. I shuffle out of the room and walk over to Mila.

"Where's my next meeting?" I ask her. A week ago, after I forgot a small client meeting, Dewey has ordered Mila to become my 'secretary' as well, to assist with remembering appointments.

"At City Hall Plaza, with Mr Ambrose."

"Postpone it to tomorrow. I have something urgent that just cropped up," I state in a firm voice.

"Aye Aye, Miss Lu."

I zoom off and disappear down the stairs. Whatever meeting it is, it is not critical enough to keep me from heading over to the university dormitory and murdering Shan Hanyu.

As Shan Hanyu is not from this locality, he resides in the university dormitory until he finds a suitable place to stay. This is also provided that he finds a job. Even if Dewey selects him, he won't commence an internship with Shengyi Corporation until the semester is over.

I can't wait till then to slaughter him. I am raging so intensely that I can see the trees around me bursting into small flames. The atmosphere around me burns.

I stop right below the flat where he supposedly resides in.

"SHAN HANYU!" I holler. My voice is booming so loudly like the 'Lion's Roar' in wuxia comics, that blasts everyone in the area of effect. Everyone is panicking and in a matter of minutes, Shan Hanyu appears before me like a terrified rat.

"Shengyi, you called?" he mutters nervously. Fear is written all over his face, and he looks more guilty than a sentenced criminal.

"Shan Hanyu, you broke my friend!" I scream at him. "I could kill you!"

Every single person around seemed to have disappeared when I confronted Shan Hanyu. I have the whole area to myself. But if I killed Shan Hanyu in cold blood, I am no better than a murderer.

I, Lu Shengyi, have to be better than that, I remind myself.

'Make him suffer instead', a voice says inside me. 'He loves you, just continue to hurt him. Don't let him get you, because that is the best medicine for him.'

What? Is that true? Shan Hanyu loves me now, while he treated me like a fool my previous life?

'Why should I do this?' I contain myself long enough to face the voice speaking to me.

'Because you made the deal with your devil, didn't you? Your soul and love belong to the devil.'

I clamp down on my lower lip. The voice is right. I am sure that this voice must be my inner demon speaking. I made my decision then to surrender these two things of mine to the devil.

'Yes,' I say silently. 'I did. And I won't regret it.'

'So you know what to do'.

' I do.'

The conversation ends, but my mind is clear. I deal his face the strongest punch I can muster, and kick him between his legs. He slumps to the ground groaning. I have just given him a black eye and kicked him in the groin.

Pretty strong...of me?

"Consider this a warning. If you ever come near me or Xiaoxian ever again, I will return you a thousand times of what pain you feel now!"

"Shengyi...Xiaoxian...I have done wrong…."

My heart just rages with so much fury inside me, that I do not feel a tinge of pity for this bastard.