General Sayu sighed heavily as she removed her clothing once she closed the doors to her mansion at the Capital City military base.
She bit her lip as she admired herself in the mirror. She complimented herself mentally. For a woman in her late thirties, she had accomplished so much in her life, and yet maintained herself wonderfully.
She'd always enjoyed the attention of men, and leading them around with the leash in her hands. But there was someone in her life now that she just could not tame. He kept her at an arm's length and seemed to have more power than she did.
Her mind drifted to the big boss. He was excrutiatingly attractive. He was older, mature, with a mind of his own. Something she had never really known. His strong, chiseled features, and the allure masked under a musky scent and cigar smoke.
He pulled everyone's strings from the shadows, living and thriving in the cover of darkness, normal people just pawns to him. And yet, he had let her into his bed. She must be special to him in some way!
There was one thing she could give him that nobody else could. She had information, she always knew what he wanted to hear. Using what Ro-kun had told her today, she believed she could get closer to him.
If he had been interested in the Moshi family, she had a lot of ammunition under her belt. Ro-kun was desperate enough. It seemed like he cared too much about someone, enough to give his employer away.
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~at the Consultancy~
Mei was eating lunch alone at her desk, working simultaneously on work Lina had designated to her. Things were getting stressful at the consultancy lately with some big cases hitting roadblocks such as losing their contact from Country A's government.
If he was dead, which most like was the case, the people responsible were going to keep moving forwards with their plans and Lina and consultancy would be flying blind.
Mei grimaced as she thought about the possible issues they would encounter, typing furiously while her rice lay cold to the side of her desk.
"You're going to turn into skin and bones if you don't eat and just overwork yourself, Meimei" a familiar male voice startled her.
As she looked up, she saw a good looking man she recognised in front of her.
She stood up quickly, shocked to see him there.
"Shu! Oh my god, what are you doing here?!" she exclaimed, a smile slowly creeping upon her lips. She was happy to see the clean cut, cheerful, kind man she had been dating here. It was an unexpected surprise.
"I hope you don't mind, I missed you and I wanted to get lunch with you during your break…but it looks like your boss keeps you occupied at all hours!" Shu said observantly, looking at Mei's cluttered desk and her fl.u.s.tered demeanor.
The 'lunch' barely looked like a snack, a little box of fried rice, nothing more. Shu frowned. He had begun to care a lot about this cute, diligent woman who never seemed to give herself enough credit.
As he opened his mouth to protest her eating habits when an undeniable aura entered.
Shu saw Mei's face light up. He frowned, because she seemed happier to see the person who just entered than she was to see him.
"Boss! You're back! How was lunch with the young master?" she asked excitedly.
Shu turned to see Lina enter. He panicked a little, since Lina now knew who he was, but Mei didn't.
As Lina's eyes fell upon him, she smiled secretly to herself. He was sweet to Mei, and she liked that. It didn't matter who he was, he would tell her in his own time. But she could still tease them!
"Ah! Looks like your admirer has dropped in during work hours!" she commented mischievously.
"Sorry boss, he's just leaving, he came to bring me some lunch" Mei tried to save face desperately pointing at her sad little rice box.
Shu looked amused at her sucking up to her great boss. This girl was already throwing him under the bus, saying he was leaving when he had only just arrived!
Little did she know he halted a very important board meeting at Yinan Industries to take her out to lunch! He would definitely think about how to punish her later.
"That's not much of a lunch to bring someone and come all the way to drop off is it? It looks rather unappetising? Meimei! You won't be of any use to me if that's what he's feeding you!" Lina continued teasing.
But Shu's face began to turn red, and Mei felt a little guilty about the lashing he was taking from Lina because of her.
She opened her mouth to protest but Shu beat her to it.
"Well this was just an appetiser! I'm actually here to take her to a nice restaurant for lunch and make sure she eats properly and isn't entirely over-worked!" Shu's jab at Lina was also obvious.
Mei panicked, unable to find words. Did her potential new boyfriend just insult her boss underhandedly?
But Lina's laugh soothed her worried.
"Ok ok, I'll stop torturing Meimei. Please take care of her for me" she said with a pleasant smile. Mei needed a break.
She turned to Mei and in a somewhat serious tone, gave her further instructions.
"Come to me when you're back Meimei, we need to discuss the Country A situation. But first, make sure you buy all the food in the restaurant. I'm sure Shu can afford it!"
Saying this, Lina walked back into her office with a subtle wink at Shu.
As Shu and Mei left the office hand in hand, Lina watched them with a smile from her window. But as she turned away and sat at her desk, her smile disappeared. She held her head in her hands as she began to think of her husband and Moshi Corp's involvement in the shipping of illegal arms to Country A.
The last thing she wanted was for Shen to get hurt. She was absolutely sure for some reason that he had nothing to do with the smuggling, but someone was out to get him — and worse, frame him.
She felt like she was flying blind, with nobody to trust and no information to go on with. She angrily slammed her fist on to her desk, making a loud sound.
But as she looked down, a small compartment from under the desk had been pushed out from the under-side.
Lina quickly felt the under-side of the desk out and found a latch she could pull the compartment out using. As the little, hidden drawer slid out with ease, she found a thick white envelope inside.