A Graduation Gift

"Are you serious, Rufus?"
Cassandra asked, surprised. This was the first time she saw Rufus so impulsive. He was normally calm.
Rufus turned around to look at the worried woman and gave her a sly smile. She rarely saw him with such a soft expression.
"I knew it!"
Cassandra said sheepishly. A part of her worried that Rufus was really going to settle their rivalry with violence.
Surely, he was just joking. But Rufus wasn't the type who would kid about things like that.
Unknown to Cassandra, his eyes turned fierce.
Jasper Li called Arthur. The usual level-headed man now sounded angry through the phone.
"Mr. Zhuang, as one of your shareholders, I feel that it's my responsibility to remind you to watch your behavior! I heard you stole
someone's project. That was not part of our deal,"
Jasper said, questioning Arthur's business ethics and doing his best to hold back his rage.
"Mr. Li, you misunderstand me. I did it exactly for our partnership. It's to make the most out of your investment. Besides, there
was no contract yet. The project was still open for public bidding. I did not break any law,"
Arthur explained, trying to defend himself. Investors were important and he did not want to upset them. He did his best to
convince Jasper that there was nothing unethical with what they did.
"Mr. Zhuang, even though what you did was not illegal, it's still not something we can be proud of. I worry that our peers will go
against us if they find out what you did. Remember your position. As the Deputy Director of the Union, you can't compete with
the Director. On top of that, what you did was very inappropriate,"
Jasper replied impatiently. He was on the verge of losing his patience. Then he began to wonder whether Arthur was truly a good
steward of his money, seeing what he was capable of.
He began to feel as if the chairman had picked the wrong guy to work with.

"Mr. Li, the Dawn Star Group is going towards a very bright future. Road bumps are normal while we're expanding. The question
is, will we let them stop us or will we push through them? Maybe you look down on the way I deal with it. But it can lead to the
results we both want,"
Arthur reasoned. It seemed as though he came prepared with the possible comments of his investors.
"Then as your investor, your ethics are important to us. We need to know that you are really a good person to entrust with our
money and that you know what you're doing, instead of just stealing projects from our competitors. If not, we will withdraw our
support for your company,"
Jasper replied. He made it as clear as he could. He wanted Arthur to give up the project in exchange for his financial support.
"Mr. Li...I will take what you said into consideration!"
Arthur interrupted, sensing Jasper's disagreement with his explanation.
He clenched his fists in rage after hanging up the phone and almost wanted to overturn his table. Thankfully, his reason trumped
his fury.
Jasper's reaction did not make sense to Arthur. He was their investor but why was he taking their competitor's side?
Was he connected with the Tang Group?
Arthur did do something dirty to win the amusement park project, but it was practically common practice within their circle. Why
was it even important to stay decent?
The Dawn Star Group needed TY Group's financial support. They wouldn't survive without it.
Arthur had no intention of giving up a lucrative project that was already in his hands. It was also a doorway to many opportunities
down the road. Giving it up meant not only giving up a tree, but also giving up a whole forest.
He started to feel furious. 'Everything would have ironed out if Rufus did not come back all of sudden.
How should I manage to foil this?'
"Mr. Zhuang, Miss Qin is here,"
his secretary, Nana, called him through the internal line.

"Let her in!"
Arthur's eyes brightened at the news. There was Cloris. She was a pawn he could still take advantage of.
His last plan failed but he would be more well-prepared this time.
"Arthur, you haven't texted me back for two days! What have you been busy with?"
Cloris pouted. Wearing a beige coat that showed off her fair skin, she looked pretty cute in her pink lipstick.
"I am in the middle of a project, baby,"
Arthur said, hugging her.
"What's wrong with the project?"
Cloris looked at him with curious, glittering eyes. She wanted to understand Arthur's anxiety and what had been bothering him.
Projects were usually good to have, weren't they?
Arthur let go of Cloris slowly and looked out the window. His worried face made him look much more vulnerable.
"I won a project that the Tang Group has been gunning for but they refused to believe it. Now, they're accusing me of dirty tricks.
You know what? Your sister even went to the government official who was in charge of the project today. It looks like she
pressured him saying the Tang Group had been given an assurance and they even finished their design in advance,"
Arthur narrated as he shook his head miserably. Then, he looked at Cloris with helpless eyes.
"Are they stupid? That is so not fair! The project was open for bidding and you won it fair and square. Why are you not allowed to
have it? Competition is normal. Someone wins and someone loses!" she expressed.
As expected, Cloris flared up when Cassandra was mentioned. Her face hardened and her voice became sharp.
"Well, your sister is one of the best architects in town. She must be mad that her design was turned down. But we can't give the
Tang Group everything they want. How will I pay my people every month? It was a fair competition, we didn't hurt anyone on
purpose,"
Arthur related, giving the impression that he was being bullied by the powerful Tang Group. He knew about Cloris's grudges
against Cassandra and intended to use it to his advantage.

"Don't worry, Arthur. I will go to her now and tell her what a bitch she is,"
Cloris said as she stormed out.
'Cloris, what an innocent girl believing everything I tell you...
It's rare to find someone as dumb as you are. Don't blame me for taking advantage of your innocence, ' he thought.
Cloris had no idea that this man who she had trusted all along would ruin her life one day.
The door of Cassandra's office flung open.
"Sorry, Manager Qin. This lady claimed to be your sister and broke in,"
her assistant apologized as she held the door.
"Cloris, what happened?"
Cassandra asked as she put down her drawing and looked up at her sister. She was busy with the cases Horace assigned to her
lately.
"Aren't you supposed to be in school? You are going to study abroad soon, aren't you?"
Cassandra stood up and looked at Cloris warmly. The latter, on the other hand, greeted her with a glare.
"Cassandra, you went too far!"
she said as she walked to her sister's desk.
"What do you mean, Cloris?"
Cassandra asked, sensing something very wrong. Her smile was instantly replaced by a look of concern.
"What do I mean? Cassandra, have you always been jealous of me? You must be taking out all your anger on me because our
parents liked me better. Why can't you be happy for me? You always try to sabotage my life!" she said angrily.
Cloris's pretty face was distorted with fury. She looked like a wild animal baring its teeth and ready to attack Cassandra.
"Cloris, I think there was a misunderstanding. Let's sit down and talk,"

Cassandra said, trying to calm Cloris down. Unfortunately, it annoyed her instead.
"Misunderstanding? Come on, Cassandra. Stop pretending that you are innocent. It's disgusting, you know?"
Cloris shook off her sister's hand as she was about to touch her. The look on Cloris's face made Cassandra turn white.
The assistant at the door stood shocked by the scene. It's the first time that anyone talked to Manager Qin like that. Plus, it was
her own sister. This was too juicy.
"You can go now. I'll take care of this. Please close the door,"
Cassandra told the assistant when she spotted her dumbfounded face.
It was embarrassing that someone saw her being cursed by her own sister.
Unexpectedly, the simple sentence triggered her sister.
"Close the door? Why do you need to have the door closed? What are you hiding if you did everything right?" Cloris challenged.