On the top floor of Ming Enterprise.
Reuben glanced at his phone and then at his loyal assistant who had come in to disturb him.
"Boss, the meeting will begin in a few minutes now. We should hurry now." Mathew reminded his boss when he noticed that he was in deep thought.
'First, she doesn't answer my calls and now she makes an excuse to refuse my invitation?' Reuben frowned as he shut the laptop and passed it to Mathew.
'Did I do something to upset her?' He was worried that he had somehow offended her.
He scrutinized his past behavior whenever he had met her and did not find any such instance that would make her avoid him.
So he decided to put this matter at the back of his head and focus on the meeting he had now.
"Assistant Kim, is everything prepared for our trip on Sunday?" He inquired as they left his office room.
"Yes Boss, everything is set for your inspection." Mathew nodded and gave him a positive answer.
"But, boss…" He hesitated when something came to his mind.
Reuben glanced at his loyal eunuch who was pondering on how to speak the next words.
"Speak up if you want to say something." He impatiently ordered and Mathew hurriedly nodded.
"Boss will you really not attend the party that the Yang family has organized?" Mathew asked the question that had been on his mind ever since he had heard Reuben rejecting the invitation.
On Monday, when Patrick Yang had announced at the press meet about this introduction event for someone special, being one of the top families, the Ming family also received their invite.
But Reuben had rejected the invitation in an outright manner because he had already made plans for his weekend.
"Why should I attend the event?" Reuben glanced down at his assistant and cocked an eyebrow.
"Because it might be some explosive news that the Yang family wants to announce to everyone in high society." Mathew was excited because he was aware of their illegitimate daughter scandal.
"We do not have many ties with the Yang family. Whatever they decide to do has no direct relation to us." He rolled his eyes and entered the room where the meeting would be held.
'Will he melt if he shows a sliver of interest in something other than his family and his money?' Mathew sneered inwardly and cursed his luck for having such a boring boss.
When Reuben took his seat at the table and signaled for the meeting to commence, a sudden thought struck his mind.
'Lina told me that she has to attend a party that she can not miss. Was she talking about the same party?' He raised an eyebrow and his interest in the said party increased by a small percentage.
'Maybe I should drop by if I still have time.' He tapped his fingers on the table as he came to this decision.
"What are you looking at my face for? Stop wasting my time and start the meeting!" He scowled at the directors who were gawking at his face.
Mathew and the others in the room looked away in a hurry and tried to minimize their presence.
'We were staring because your frozen face just had a subtle smile on it!' One of the directors thought as he looked at the file before him.
Mathew on the other hand was mourning because he had just missed the chance to capture the rare moment of his Emperor's smile.
---
Back in the hospital ward, Lina was on an important video call.
"Will I ever stop having these fainting episodes?" She asked with her brows furrowed.
The screen showed a foreigner man with deep red hair and gold-rimmed glasses that rested on the bridge of his nose.
"Lina you have to understand that this is because of the trauma you underwent as a child. That has left a deep wound in your mind and it keeps appearing whenever you are in similar situations." He spoke with a grim expression.
The man speaking to her was her therapist, Dr. Jacob Silverstone.
He had taken over Lina's case after his father, Lina's childhood therapist had departed.
"You still have unresolved issues and until you can find a way to solve them, I doubt these episodes will ever stop." He shook his head and gave her his diagnosis.
Lina sighed and looked at her clenched fists.
"I understand, doctor. I'll try to figure out what is making me so scared about a small accident that happened in the past." She nodded and then hung up after speaking for a few more minutes.
According to Lina's memories of the accident, she had just crashed the mechanical toy car into a tree and fainted.
But what had happened on that day was much more complicated than that.
Even the vision she had seen after she had collapsed was just a small portion of the truth.
Her mind had blocked that entire incident and she could only remember bits and pieces of it.
The only person who knew the complete truth of that incident was the man she had just hung up on, her therapist, Dr. Silverstone.
It was lunchtime now and Benji had brought her a healthy lunch along with her laptop.
After eating, she had asked Benji to step out for a few minutes and that was when she had contacted her doctor.
Now that she was done with her video call, she gave Benji a call and asked him to come back inside.
However, Benji was not the only one who entered her room.
Behind him, a petite man in a white coat who must have been even shorter than Lina also entered.
Lina glanced at the unknown man and then at Benji.
'Who is this now?' Her eyes relayed what she wanted to ask and Benji understood her actions.
"Lina, this is Doctor Su. He is in charge of your case here." Benji introduced the petite man.
'Huh? Then who is that old doctor who keeps coming to check on me?' Lina wondered because she had only met the older doctor a couple of times and never seen this man.
"I can guess what you are thinking. That was my disciple who checked your condition." The man called Dr. Su chuckled when he saw Lina's confused face.
"Heh? Disciple? But... How?" Those words blurted out of her mouth before she even realized it.
Her confusion and doubt were valid because who would think that this man who seemed to be in his thirties would have such an old disciple.
"What can I say? I was a child genius." Dr. Su confidently shrugged his shoulders as he boasted about his intelligence.
'Wow… This man really loves himself.' Lina was impressed with the charisma and confidence that oozed from his words and actions.
'But there is a matter much more pressing right now!' She shook her head and decided to talk about what was needed at the moment.
"Doctor Su, can I-" Her words were cut off by the short doctor.
"Zane. Call me Zane." He smiled and asked her to call him by his first name.
'An over-friendly doctor, sure whatever.' She was not bothered and continued her words.
"Dr. Zane, what do you think of my reports? Am I fit to be discharged?" She blinked her eyes and hoped that he would give her the green signal right away.
"What's the hurry? You just woke up last night. Stay here for a couple more days and then you can leave after you are perfectly healthy." He smiled at her in an amicable way.
He neither gave her a positive nor a negative answer.
Benji stood at the side and watched as this man was trying to flirt with his boss in a subtle way.
'Why does she attract men even when she looks like that?' He scowled at the pale and tired face that was looking back at the doctor.
"My friend leaves the country tomorrow and I need to meet her before she disappears for a long time." Lina made up a lie to validate her reason for leaving the hospital.
Zane paused and looked at her crestfallen expression as though she would lose someone dear and pondered for a while.
'He's falling for it!' Lina decided to keep going with her drama to make him agree with her request.
"I was on my way to meet her when I fainted, you see. She already thinks that I abandoned her once and now if I don't meet her before she leaves…" She sniffled her nose as though she would cry at any minute now.
"I think I will lose my best friend forever!" She covered her face in her palms and her shoulders began to tremble.
Zane panicked when he saw her shaking body and he looked at Benji for help.
'Drama Queen!' He rolled his eyes and quickly moved to her side.
As always, he had no other choice but to help her out.
So he rubbed her shoulders and acted as though he was comforting her.
"Doctor is there any way she can be discharged today. I think that staying here will only make her feel worse about what happened." He tried to negotiate with Zane.
"How about we take her home and monitor her there. We can come back if she doesn't feel good." He glanced at the doctor and waited for his response.
Zane looked conflicted but when he saw Lina's trembling shoulders and the soft cries that were heard, he nodded his head in defeat.
"There is nothing physically wrong with her so there is no need for her to stay over." He spoke up after contemplating it for a few seconds.
Just as Lina was about to celebrate, she heard his stern and resolute words.
"But this does not mean you will tire yourself out. Your body has not been awake for three whole days. Keep that in mind before exerting yourself too hard." He warned her.
Lina looked up from Benji's shoulders and nodded at him with a jubilant smile on her face.
"Thank you, doctor. I promise to be careful." She placed a hand over her chest to show that she had sworn to obey his words.
Zane chuckled when he saw her childish behavior.
"I'll prescribe some medicines, take them if you feel tired." He pulled out a notepad from his coat's pocket and scribbled something on it.
Handing the note to Benji, he then turned to Lina.
"Remember, no stress and definitely no overworking yourself. If your condition worsens then make sure to come back here." He repeated his words once again.
Lina and Benji both nodded at the same time.
"The nurse will soon be here with your discharge forms." He then gave them a few last-minute advice to help Lina recover and then left the room.
'Finally, I can be out of this boring vanilla room!' She rejoiced the moment Zane left the room.