Chapter 9：History (1)

Xu Jing exhaled heavily with frustration and more than a touch of desperation, "Mother, things are not looking well. The Lin Corp has been eyeing our company even before father passed away, but now they are just being bolder and harsher with their tactics."

"We should have expected that. This is how the business world operates. It was foolish of us to assume they will not take advantage of this situation," Commented Mrs. Xu.

"But to take advantage of a death? That is just beyond despicable!" Hissed Xu Jing.

"All is fair in love and war, Xu Jing and what is business but a modern day war?" Mrs. Xu sighed before adding with determination, "However, we must try to resist and hold on as long as we can, for the sake of your father."

"Of course, mother."

…

The story between Xiu Ling and Lin Kang started about seven months when Xiu Ling answered a classified ad on the internet. It was for a personal secretary post.

She did not think too much of it even though the interview conducted by Lin Kang lasted less than 30 minutes and not one question related to her profession or secretarial experience had been asked.

With a naivete typical of most romance webnovels' female main character, Xiu Ling brushed that off as Lin Kang being affected by the first impression she gave. In a way, she was right, he was in awe but not in the way she imagined.

There were plenty of red flags along the way but she had managed to misconstrue all of them, for example, the disproportionately high salary for a personal assistant, she assumed that was because she was lucky to have found a wonderful boss and company; the "expected to perform special services" that was included in her job agreement, she assumed that meant following Lin Kang when he went overseas or something of that sort.

Little did she know that was how Lin Kang searched for his next prey. In fact, when Lin Kang said he was going to go seek stress relief elsewhere earlier, she had no doubt he went to look for his newest secretary, one of the many who had replaced her since her resignation, one she knew would be younger and prettier than she was.

Lin Kang, for his part, did not waste any time to exact his rights from the agreement. He gave Xiu Ling one month to get used to the job and then one night, when the two of them were left alone at the company after a long day of work, he strike.

Xiu Ling was, for the lack of a better term to describe this, r*ped that night by Lin Kang.

She tried resisting him but as mentioned earlier, that only worked to fuel his desire. Unable to struggle loose from his aggression, she was thus taken by the savage man. Lost in his burning passion, Lin Kang did not even realize Xiu Ling was not merely playing a role as he thought she was.

There were two reasons why Lin Kang thought that way. One, many women had tried to earn his favor this way before by researching about and playing into his fetish, there was no reason for him not to assume Xiu Ling was merely another one of such women; Two, the woman had signed the agreement at the very beginning, she knew what she could expect, so no one would be that daft to assume otherwise, right?

After he had had his fill, Lin Kang put on his clothes and left the office, leaving behind a Xiu Ling who was too traumatized to really comprehend what had just happened.

As Xiu Ling dragged her damaged body home that night, she reflected on the things that had happened to her and of course, the reason why. Eventually she remembered the job agreement that she signed.

Viewed in a new light, many details that she had missed started to surface like how she was trapped in a non-disclosure clause. She had wondered why that was there when she first signed the agreement and now she knew why. She regretted not asking for more details earlier.

She tossed and turned in bed that night, trying to come up with a solution to her problem, should she leave or should she stay, perhaps she should risk reporting this to the police but would anyone believe her, and if they did, could the law enforcement even do anything to Lin Kang.

Xiu Ling had the strange sensation of her world falling around her. As incredulous as it was, she still reported to work the next morning, because human beings depended on habit and routine to ground themselves in reality especially in period of great turmoil and confusion.

While Xiu Ling was still caught in a conundrum on how to deal with Lin Kang, the latter had no such worry. He greeted her like usual that morning and even slid an envelope of bonus on her table, praising her for her "performance" on the night before.

The ease with which Lin Kang did the series of actions filled Xiu Ling with a foreboding sense of futility. This was a wall that she could not scale. This was the confidence of a man who knew he had the world underneath his fingertips. If she so much as revolted against him, she knew she would be crushed like a bug.

Since confronting Lin Kang on what he did was not an option, she chose to flee. Later that day, she handed in her letter of resignation, an action which she believed left no mark on Lin Kang and she would be right.

The man simply assumed she had moved onto greener pastures and since he was not exactly lacking in female companion, her departure affected him not even one bit. It would be her return that would truly rock his world.

This was because not long after Xiu Ling left Lin Kang's employment, she discovered that she was pregnant with his child.