Saturday – At Sky City.
"I'll be late if you don't stop." Lily helplessly pushed Zhuo Jingren away from her. "This is a very important meeting."
"No, it's not," Zhuo Jingren said while looking at her with amusement. "Thinking about money while I'm naked beside you... I should feel insulted."
Lily simply rolled her eyes before pulling the covers away from her body and getting up from bed. As she was making her way to the bathroom, she heard the sound of footsteps coming closer towards her. "Where do you think you are going?" she asked with a smirk on her face.
"Taking a bath… with you," he said as he pulled Lily inside the bathroom before she could object. Which meeting is more important than him?
….
After two hours in the bath together, Lily dragged her sore body out of the bathroom with a frown. "You will not sleep with me during working days!" she said, her tone stern.
"Making love."
"I'm sorry?" she wrapped the robe tighter around her body and looked at Zhuo Jingren.
"I said, it's making love not sleeping together," he answered with a chuckle.
"You beast." Lily spat before choosing a set of corporate attire for her meeting. In fact, Lily could choose not to attend this quarterly meeting with the shareholders of A.R Mall and Boutique as she had already appointed Mr. Beau to be in charge for now. But how could she miss the opportunity to see for herself what schemes Liam and Xuan Hui had cooked up for her?
"Behind every man beast is a very beautiful wife." She heard Zhuo Jingren whisper into her ear while his arms smoothly wrapped themselves around her waist. Lily instantly slapped his arms before pulling herself out of his embrace. "I thought you're meeting the Mu family today?"
"They can wait," he answered as he removed the towel from his waist. A playful smirk was plastered on his face.
"Zhuo Jingren! Whatever it is that you are thinking, stop it now! Or I will leave this place and not see you for a week!" Lily warned, feeling the ache in her waist.
"I was just about to put on some clothes," he laughed before approaching her. "But since you want to…"
"No! Go change into your clothes," she said before hastily grabbing her clothes and bolting out of the walk-in closet, leaving an amused Zhuo Jingren behind. How could a man be so sweet and gentle during the day and behave like a beast at night?
….
"Yang Mi, have you released the photos of Liam spotted in the company of other girls in Europe?" Lily asked, the moment she boarded her car.
"Yes, President." Yang Mi nodded. "Liam Arison's father was fuming and called for an emergency meeting. Sofia Arison is also panicking knowing that Liam is here in Hong Kong. She is trying to cover for Liam while asking him to leave Hong Kong immediately."
Lily had asked her to release these photos on the day of the quarterly shareholders meeting to cause panic and discontentment among the shareholders. Even though A.R Mall and Boutique was no longer a subsidiary company under Arison Holdings, these shareholders still hold shares in Arison Holdings and other subsidiary companies under them. Moreover most of these shareholders still looked up to the former management and had not acknowledged the new management under Lily.
These photos would show what a playboy Liam Arison was. If netizens paid attention to the timestamp on these photos, they would know that Liam hadn't changed his playboy ways even after he was engaged to Lily. It would be easy to conclude that the reason why Lily broke off the engagement was because Liam had been cheating on her. Who would want to marry a cheater?
Not only would Liam be forced to leave Hong Kong to settle this matter, it also cleared up the misconception that Lily was heartless for breaking off the engagement for no reason. Yang Mi praised Lily inwardly for her brilliance.
Moreover, Lily had not ordered the release of Liam's photographs with his cousin yet. Yang Mi was sure that those photographs would be the nail to Liam's coffin if Lily decided to release them.
"I want you to release a statement that this was the reason why I cancelled the engagement," Lily said. Yang Mi nodded earnestly and made a mental note to send an email to their team in Europe the soonest as they were still on the road. It seemed that the president is showing Sofia and Liam her claws.
In less than fifteen minutes, they arrived at the A.R Mall and Boutique. Lily entered the meeting room with a smile on her face. But all of the shareholders were not happy that Lily was late and didn't seemed apologetic about it.
"Just in time, President Qin. We are just about to go through the list of candidates for the election of a new board of directors," Mr. Beau said, his blue eyes gleaming with mischief. Lily had told him beforehand of the possibility that the shareholders might demand for a new managing director and how they would most likely nominate someone who could benefit them, someone like Liam Arison.
'Too bad, he is not here right now,' thought Mr Beau.
Lily elegantly took the seat to Mr. Beau's left and opened her laptop without addressing everyone in the room. Then she lifted her head and looked at Mr. Beau, "Please continue. Don't mind my presence," she said while looking at the shareholders who were sitting around the circular table.
To her surprise, she actually recognized two of the shareholders. She recognized them from the charity ball that she attended with Zhuo Jingren a while back. Before she left the house, Zhuo Jingren had assured her that there would be no problems in this meeting and he sounded so confident. But at that point in time, Lily did not put much thought into it.
A look of surprise could also be seen on the faces of those two shareholders who also immediately recognized Lily. When Zhuo Jingren introduced Lily as his wife to them, they were not able to get Lily's last name. They assumed that she was just a foreigner that Zhuo Jingren met in one of his travels.
Who would have thought that she would be another beast in the business world? The two shareholders looked at each other, a tacit understanding could be seen in their eyes. They wouldn't dare to offend Zhuo Jingren for someone unreliable.
Lily gave a small smile before she continued working on her laptop.
The nomination of directorial candidates continued until Lily let out a surprised gasp that brought the meeting to a halt.
"President, are you alright?" Mr. Beau asked while glancing at Lily's laptop. This promoted the nearest person to Lily to also take a peek at Lily's laptop and as expected, he immediately frowned.
"Is that Liam Arison?" Mr. Beau asked, his face grim. This earned the curiosity of the shareholders as whispers started to fill the room. The shareholder who glanced at Lily's laptop confirmed that Liam Arison had hit the headlines and it was not for something good.
"I am alright… I was just surprised." Lily lowered her head and immediately closed her laptop. "Please continue."
At this point, everyone in the room was busy checking the news for themselves on their laptops and tablets. Their faces ugly turning from reading the news.
Was this the reason why Liam Arison had left hastily without informing them?
…
Editor: Swaning
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