Chapter Two

The morning shift starts at 8. a.m. Summer got off the bus with dark sleepy eyes and order an onion bagel.

"Morning, Summer. Have you heard that the princess of Marble caught in a car accident last night?" Her colleague Britney popped out of nowhere and dropped the newspaper in front of Summer.

Marble is the leading retailing group with over one hundred supermarkets national wide. It is the biggest competitor of W-Mart that Summer works in.

Stuffing the bagel emotionlessly, Summer shot a glance at the newspaper. The scene was quite familiar.

"I know. I witnessed the crash and called the ambulance for them." Summer bumbled as her mouth was full of bagel. She flushed it down with a cup of coffee before being chocked.

"What?" Britney looked at Summer, wide-eyed and shocked. She could not believe what she just heard from her bestie.

To satisfy her curiosity for gossip, Summer took another sip of coffee to gather her energy and told Britney what happened last night.

"And then?" Britney was in desperate need of more details.

"Then what? That's all."

"You fool! They are billionaires! The New Money! You save their lives and should be rewarded a blank check for you to write down whatever number you want! With a hell lot of zeros" Britney got excited, "At least a phone number!"

"I'll definitely do that next time." Summer giggled.

On their way to the supermarket, Summer thought a lot. She whispered to Britney when she was changing her uniform in the restroom. "Don't tell anyone about the accident. The manager would be unhappy about it. I don't want to get involved in any trouble."

Britney nodded and zipped her mouth.

The W-Mart that Summer works in is surrounded by commercial buildings that shaped the skyline of the big city and several communities of upper classes. The geographic advantage makes it successful. Among all 84 W-Marts, it is the one with the best sales performance in the last three years. The manager of the W-Mart, however, is pretty young. His name is Vincent, 26 years old, tall and fit. He's always the first one to be here and have everything under control until midnight. The success of the W-Mart credits to his diligence, intelligence, and experience.

8:30 a.m. Every morning, leaders of different departments would gather at Vincent's office at the exact same time, and Vincent does not like anyone being late. Among them, the leader of the marketing department, Emily, was the only one with a big smile.

"Vincent, the princess of Marble was injured badly in a car accident. It was said that Marble had planned to open a new supermarket right opposite to us. But now, their plan was likely to be put off." Emily excitedly delivered the good news to all.

The accident was a tragedy but all of them were delighted by it.

"I have to say she deserves it. Marble is jealous of our success and wants to steal cake from our basket. That's the end of being filthy." The leader of the outsourcing team spoke out.

Almost all other leaders agreed with him and felt happy about the accident. Vincent did not say a word but the slight smirk on his face sold him out. A successful businessman would never be kind to his competitor, and Vincent is no exception.

Being observant, Emily noticed that micro expression and was about to continue, but she chose not to as Vincent put out the cigar.

"I heard that there was another man in the accident, a friend of the princess and invited from Wall Street. It's said he is a genius with unrivaled business insights. He would be the one to take full charge of the new Marble." Vincent's voice was clear and deep. His words threw a bomb in the room.

"Wall Street?" "Friend?" "Who's that?" "Genius?"… the whole meeting now turned into a heated discussion on a new face.

"The princess might bring her boyfriend back, hahahah~~~" a burst of loud laughter burst out.

But not Vincent. "Pay more attention to this guy. We need to get well prepared and smash Marble from the very begging. " He emphasized, "And Emily, investigate that guy and give me a detailed report this afternoon."

"No problem, Vincent."

When the meeting was dismissed, Summer yawned and fell asleep on her spot. She was too tired to keep her tearful eyes open. Without any support, her body gradually inclined. "Bang" she fell on the floor.

Summer immediately stood up and sat back to her spot. Luckily, the time was early and there was no one nearby. But when she looked up, she found Vincent and Emily stood right behind, looking in her direction. She immediately blushed and turned back, pretending to analyze sales data with Excel. After a few minutes, she lifted her eyesight only to find both of them had gone.

"That's close." Summer took a big relief and smiled.

However, her smile frozen a few minutes later when Emily called her through the internal line to have a small conversation in her office.

It was not the first time for Summer to be here. It was in this room that Emily interviewed her one year ago, and promoted her from an intern to a junior six months ago. But this was the first time that Summer felt nervous. If possible, she really did not want to open that door. However, she had no choice.

The door was in fact wide open. Emily was not on the seat but standing beside the window, watering the orchid. She shot a smiley glare when Summer knocked and came in.

"Take a seat."

"Thank you!" Summer was embarrassed and did not dare to look up at Emily.

"Poor sleep last night?"

Emily broke the silence. Her voice was not harsh. It seemed that she was not going to say anything with Summer for deconcentrating on work. But this only made Summer more unease and shameful.

"I would not make such a mistake again, Emily." Summer blushed and her face was more like a crab just taken out from the cooker.

"Relax. I'm not blaming you for that. I know the power of insomnia." Emily padded Summer's shoulder, "I'm asking you a favor."

"A favor?" Summer was surprised. How can I help the manger? She thought to herself.

"Yes, I need you to investigate the new general manager of Marble." Summer threw a file right in front of Sumer, "get it done before you get off."

"Okay. I'll do my best." Summer answered without hesitation even though she had no idea of the whole stuff. The moment she closed the door, she regretted it. Her expertise is data analysis rather than due diligence, let alone investigation on a real person. Frustrated as she was, Summer quickly returned to her position and get started. She really wanted to impress Emily.

"Eric Snow, 28-year-old, graduated from Watton Business School and became the youngest VP in Morgan Stanley; started his own VC two years ago and became a legend ever since." The man is a monster.

Summer continued browsing and her eyes were caught by a small image.

"Holy crap" Summer could not help screaming out of course in heart. It's the man in the car crash last night. That rude yet handsome man!

This excited Summer and she immediately forgot how sleepy she was in the first place. She kept searching and found even more explosive news about Eric. SMART! HOT! WEALTHY! POWERFUL! The man really kicks other's ass almost from all aspects. No wonder he was driving a Ferrari last night. His gentle and charming voice kept coming into Summer's ears.

By the time Summer pulled herself back from the information sea in the Internet, it was already 6 p.m. She's running late and had no choice but quickly wrapped the report back to send it to Emily. She could not work overtime today because she had an appointment with her childhood besties.

"Received with thanks-Emily". Since the report has been confirmed by Emily, Summer closed the computer, picked up her handbag and dashed out to catch the 6:30 bus.