185 Malintentions

"I guess they wanted to swallow the entire bitter pill in one go rather than go through the torture piecemeal," Eric replied with a shake of his head.

"Really? I didn't know that the situation was that bad," came Hui's dry voiced reaction from behind them.

Both Jia Li and Eric jumped up guiltily. Eric gave him a sheepish look but didn't try and defend his words.

"Anyways, I am going to see you tomorrow directly at the press conference. Since its their idea, let them hog the limelight. I will be present only to show my face as their partner. Please ensure that you communicate this to the clients in a sugar coated manner, since mine may taste bitter!" he quipped and left.

Jia Li realised the breath which she had been holding. That had been a close call. Thankfully Mr. Ying had only heard Eric's words and not hers. He already disliked her for no reason. Had he heard her remarks, he would have got a valid excuse and maybe chucked her out on spot.

She bid Eric goodbye and trudged towards the Tube station.

Next day started mildly. It was going to be a win-win situation with the clients getting the maximum exposure in front of the media and Ying Hui getting to sit peacefully in the shadow, not expected to participate in any conversation. She recalled Eric instructing him the previous day about making sure that he smiled.

She couldn't wrap her head around her boss's eccentric personality. He was a gifted man when it came to his work. But there was no trace of conceit. In fact, he looked embarrassed every time someone waxed praises in his honour. However, he was unforgiving, impatient and rude when it came down to extracting work from people around him.

She had accidently discovered his real reason for agreeing to work with these corporates despite his clear loathing of them and their work style. His passion for a cleaner, greener Earth was visible in the hand written notebook which had been tucked away in the bookshelf in his cabin. She had stumbled upon that notebook when she had last pulled out a book from that room before being discovered by Ying Hui.

Fascinated, she had read through the whole thing sitting cross legged on the floor of his cabin, that day. Her respect for him had gone up by many notches. There were a lot of philanthropists but very few who hid their true intentions in such a manner.

Conscious of the media presence, she had taken extra care with her appearance today. She wore a pair of formal white shorts and teemed it with a navy blue shirt and white fitted jacket on top. Her hair was done in a French plait this morning and feet were encased in navy blue ballerinas. The feet hadn't forgiven her yet for the rough treatment from the day before, hence she hadn't dared to don on the heels!

"Good Morning, Eric. Are we all set?" she came and stood next to him and whispered.

He acknowledged her with a slightly preoccupied expression. His attention was on his phone.

"Is something wrong," she asked, looking at his reaction.

"One of the media correspondent has sent some questions for Ying Hui. I thought we had made it extremely clear that he was going to read a statement and won't be taking any questions in today's conference," he replied with a frown.

"Let me have a look," she took the phone from his hand and scrolled down to note the name of the concerned person.

"No need to worry about this. I will look into it right away," with that, she sped towards the main exit.

By the time, she returned to the room, the speech had already started. As decided, Hui was reading his piece first, informing everyone about the association formed between the two companies to extract Rare earth elements in the most economical way. Eric was standing next to the podium where Hui was giving his speech in a droning voice, guaranteed to put almost everyone to sleep. He looked at Jia Li in enquiry. She raised her hand to assure him that all was under control. She had taken care of it. Eric looked visibly relieved. Hui was coming to the end of his speech. Eric climbed up to the podium to invite the other company's executives to start speaking.

Suddenly, someone from the gathering spoke up.

"Mr. Ying, under the current trade war which is escalating between America and China, whom do you support?" a journalist asked the minute Hui finished his speech.

Hui looked at Eric, nonplussed.Was he supposed to answer questions today?

"Umm, as informed earlier, Mr. Ying will not be taking any questions at the moment. I would now like to welcome…" Eric started to speak.

But the persistent journalist interrupted him again.