Chapter 18 - Chaos in LTX

The office was in absolute chaos that week. LTX's stock price dropped out of nowhere and no one knew why. Directors at the headquarters panicked and immediately held an emergency meeting. The atmosphere in the office became very tense and Finland could not focus on her work.

"Many guests who have accepted our invitation to the Bartz event in two weeks canceled their reservations," Meilin complained, frustrated. The Marketing Team held an emergency meeting because of this unexpected development.

"We can't cancel the program, everything is almost ready." Ms. Fang punched the table because she was so upset. "The three new brands looking to cooperate with us are now pending their projects."

Finland was stunned. If Bartz's new product launch is postponed, how can she win the bet? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for her...

Ugh, life has been anything but fair to her.

"Finland, sorry, but we have to ask you to contact your connection at Hotel Continental and tell them that we wish to postpone our event. The team from Bartz will fly here tomorrow to discuss the changes to the schedule. We will only embarrass ourselves if we hold such a large-scale event without any guests."

Finland, now realizing the severity of the situation, started to panic. If the company where she worked at was threatened like this, not only she could not quit after her probation was over, she could actually lose her job.

[Our event is postponed. Please tell your secretary that we will reschedule. Sorry, but there is an emergency at the company.] She sent a message to Caspar.

[Okay.]

Caspar sent a short reply to Finland five minutes later. His reply made Finland felt curious; why he didn't wonder that such a big event could be postponed?

Or maybe he already knew what had happened...?

[Won't you ask what the problem is?] She sent another message.

[There was a commotion on the stock market, right?] Caspar answered curtly. [Your company is facing a lot of problems and many contracts will be cancelled soon.]

For some reason Finland suddenly felt that the guy had something to do with the LTX shares plummeting this week.

[Do you have anything to do with it???]

[Maybe] came a reply from Caspar. [Maybe not.]

Damn, Finland was upset. If Caspar had anything to do with the plummeting of LTX shares this week, she wouldn't forgive him. He had no right to toy around with the fate of hundreds of LTX employees just because he was bored.

Finland suddenly recalled Caspar's annoyed look when he saw her and Tony having lunch at the Hotel Continental Moon Restaurant last week.

Did Caspar hear Tony mocking his appearance at that time? Was that the reason why he is now trying to kill the company?

Her forehead twitched... She was supposed to get her salary next week and the Bartz event was actually scheduled in two weeks. If the whole situation continued at this rate, she might lose her job!

[Ugh... I may need to start looking for a new job soon. Also, I think we need to cancel our bet.] She wrote, irritated. [Even though I'm very sure I could have won and taken over one of your companies.]

Caspar did not reply.

***

The next day, unexpectedly, the situation changed. Finland arrived at the office and found the office buzzing with activity. A group of guests from France, who were the representatives for Bartz, came with a good mood and insisted on continuing the event. The office became very crowded and many things had to be done immediately.

Suddenly Finland also had stuff to do as Ms. Fang asked her to re-schedule the event at Hotel Continental as before.

"What's the matter? Wasn't the program canceled yesterday?" she asked, confused.

Tran shrugged.

"Yesterday our Director suddenly received many requests for cooperation from Germany causing the value of our shares to rise again," she replied in a tone that was just as confused as Finland's.

Finland patted her forehead. Now she really believed that Caspar did something. It was really unbelievable how he could mess with the fate of a company and hundreds of employees that easily...

She was relieved that this man was not her enemy.

[Thank you.]

She sent a short message to Caspar. Then called Continental Hotel to re-schedule the Bartz event as before.

"Good afternoon, can I talk to Manager Park? Thank you."

[If your company went bankrupt we can't bet. I forgot about that yesterday.] Caspar replied her text. He quickly sent another message. [Do you want me to reschedule everything?]

[No need, thanks. I've contacted Manager Park myself. I don't want to bother you any further.]

Finland sighed. Now she knew how powerful Caspar was. Not only did he lead the massive Schneider Group which oversees hundreds of companies, he was also able to destroy LTX International only by affecting the stock market.

Suddenly she felt very small.

What did someone like Caspar want from her? She was just an orphan who struggles hard to do honest work and make money. She did not want to get involved into company politics like this.