A Graduation Gift

Cassandra was already asleep when Rufus drove her home.
As gently as he could without waking her up, Rufus scooped her into his arms and carried her out of the car. Half-awake,
Cassandra got a glimpse of his face as he carried her before letting the drowsiness take over her.
In his arms, she had nothing to fear. Knowing that Rufus was with her as she fell asleep, she felt utterly secure.
As he felt her breathing turn slow and steady, Rufus gazed upon the little woman's sleeping face and smiled.
Even as he helped her out of her coat and tucked her into bed, Cassandra stayed sound asleep.
For a moment before he left, Rufus stayed to make sure she was comfortably fast asleep, a soft look in his eyes. Sure not to
make a sound, he cautiously stepped out of the room before heading to his study downstairs and giving Victor a call.
"I found a few bugs in the lobby of the Qin family mansion and cleared them. They must've been from Arthur. Did you find
anything?" Rufus's expression and tone were rather grim.
It seemed that his neighbor dared to monitor the Qin family for some ambitious plan.
"Recently the Dawn Star Group and Tang Group are both bidding for an important project. The Tang Group is betting everything
this time. If they fail, it'll be the end of the company. No bank will bother loaning them anything because they'll have no means to
pay their debts. If they're prosecuted, they'll go bankrupt,"
Victor just reported to Rufus the most recent status of Tang Group. With that, Rufus's dream of the downfall of the Tang Group
was finally coming close to reality.
"Plus, Mr. Tang has been looking for you. He said that you haven't been picking up his calls so he found and asked me to
arrange a meeting with you."
Upon hearing Horace's request, Rufus sneered, "He's been making phone calls to find me? Doesn't seem like anything urgent."
Of course, he wouldn't pick up Horace's calls. Since the day he left Tang Group, he had decided that he wasn't going to help
Horace no matter how hard he pleaded.
Even when Charlie asked Horace to hold the fake engagement ceremony, Rufus didn't even bother to speak with him.
"It must be about the bidding event. Dawn Star is their most powerful rival, after all."

Victor's tone turned unusually strange when he said it. The change was subtle but still detectable to Rufus.
"What exactly...did he say to you?"
Rufus asked, his eyebrows furrowing.
"He...
He was worried that you wouldn't be there if he came," Victor responded.
He remembered how worried and anxious Horace was when he came to him. Seeing such a pitiful look on the old man's face,
Victor couldn't help but feel sympathetic.
"Mr. Luo...
How about helping them this time?" Victor carefully suggested. Unsurprisingly, it took no time for Rufus to refuse, "No!
Remember, you are my subordinate. Don't ever speak for him again!"
Rufus's voice went cold as ice after hearing Victor's infuriating suggestion.
"It's just that, today, when I saw Mr. Tang, he seemed terribly sick. I think... I think it really struck him hard this time."
Again, as Victor tried to give Horace the benefit of the doubt, Rufus cut him off impatiently.
"Victor, if you really wish to help him, you're free to go! Go ahead! Go back to the Tang Group!"
It irritated Rufus to the bone. How could Victor, who had been loyal to him all the while, start sounding like his enemy at such a
crucial juncture? How could Rufus ever accept that?
On the other end of the line, Victor instantly shut his mouth.
At the very least, he knew that when Rufus was angry, it was best to stop pushing him any further.
"When did he go to you?" Rufus asked.
"This afternoon with Mrs. Tang," Victor instantly replied, keeping his sentence short.
At that point, he was afraid that even a moment's hesitation would fuel Rufus's fury.

"Alright, I get it. Just tell your people to keep an eye on Clark and Arthur. You shouldn't be concerned about anything else!"
The minute he finished speaking, Rufus hung up the phone rather aggressively. Unease filled his heart.
'Well...Horace sought out Victor instead of me. At least he knew that he wouldn't get anything out of me. Smart move, I would
say.
Horace, why do you always leave things up to the last minute? Why didn't you do it right from the start?' Rufus thought to
himself.
When Lionel misappropriated the money, if Horace could have trusted him a bit more, instead of buying totally what Lionel had
said, Rufus wouldn't have become so cold-hearted right now.
The phrase, 'blood is thicker than water, ' was merely an empty set of words to him now. Between Rufus and the rather useless
Lionel, his father still chose the latter.
He wanted Horace to taste regret. He wanted him to know, that how disastrous his absence would be to him!
It was Horace who abandoned him and his mother. All their suffering was his doing and now, it was time for him to pay the price.
He had it coming!
However, for some reason, Rufus wasn't feeling as contented as he imagined he would be. He had successfully fulfilled his
revenge. What was wrong with him?
The euphoric feeling he was anticipating didn't seem to come to him. It was a long time waiting for the end of the Tang Group. He
had been craving for it. Why wasn't he excited about it?
Oddly enough, Rufus felt rather down.
As he closed his eyes, he pulled out the tiny bugs from his pocket.
Without another thought, he crushed them in his hand, leaving just a bunch of useless electronic pieces.
That night, Arthur was surely going to be in the Qin family mansion and he would then discover that the bugs were missing.
Naturally, he would suspect Rufus for that.

Although he was certain that Arthur had his motives for approaching Cloris, Rufus still couldn't decipher what exactly Arthur was
trying to use Cloris for.
It seemed as though, in the darkness, a kind of war was breaking out.
The next day, Cassandra was awakened by the ringing of a bell from downstairs. Abruptly, she sprang up and realized that she
was the only person left in the room.
"Rufus? Rufus!" Cassandra shouted out his name but there was no response.
After scanning the room, she noticed a small note by the bed.
"I have something to do. Breakfast is in the kitchen."
With that, she confirmed that Rufus was gone. Otherwise, he would've taken care of the doorbell ringing.
With a sigh, Cassandra stood up and briefly tidied up her messy hair, changed into decent clothes before heading to the door,
only to discover that it was Horace on her monitor.
Why would he visit her?
Even though she was nonplussed by the guest, she still opened the door and let him in.
Since the last time she saw him, his condition seemed to have worsened. Because he was stuck in a wheelchair, Jill had to bring
him there.
When they reached the doorstep, Horace had no way to elevate himself so Cassandra decided to just walk out of the house.
"Do you need me to help bring you in, Mr. Tang?" she politely asked.
The lack of a slope designed for the wheelchair to roll up on her porch worried Cassandra.
"No need. We can speak here."
Just as he was about to start, he went into a coughing fit. Worried, Jill leaned down to help but Horace simply waved her away.
"Cassandra, Rufus isn't here right now, is he?"

It was disappointing, to say the least. He had come specifically for Rufus but it was unexpectedly Cassandra who greeted him at
the door.
"Yeah, he's away for the moment. Would you like to wait for him?"
Worried that the weather might have been too cold, Cassandra invited him inside.
"No, it's fine. I know that he's avoiding me..."
With a sigh, Horace looked helpless.
His abundance of white-turned hair was a clear sign of the stress he had been facing lately.
Looking at the state he was in, Cassandra felt rather heartbroken. The slight disgruntlement she had toward Horace when she
left the Tang family simply faded away.
After all, Horace was merely a typical businessman. It was rather understandable for such a man to be calculating in his
decisions, prioritizing profit in his life.
Generally, a businessman's ultimate goal would be to acquire fame and money, after all. Although Horace had already achieved
both in his life, he was defeated in recent years. Because he was already at such an old age, Arthur had the upper hand. Still,
Lionel wasn't capable of matching him in the rivalry while Rufus wasn't around to help him.
Horace's thoughts went on to recall the Qin Group. If someone had helped Vernon or provided some guidance, he probably
wouldn't have ended up in jail. Vernon might have still been around to offer him a helping hand—Horace blamed himself for
letting the Qin Group fall.
"Cassandra, we're having a bidding event soon. You should've heard about it, right? Lionel said that he gave you the bid
proposal so you can take a look. What are the chances that we'll win?" He looked at Cassandra a little too hopefully.
His eyes were desperate as he pulled on Cassandra's wrist in his eagerness.
Cassandra suddenly thought of Lionel, and a weird feeling rose in her heart.
Actually, she had thought of helping Lionel to revise the proposal. However, she later suspected that Lionel was playing a crucial
role in Lyndsy's accident. Probably he was hiding from her and didn't have the courage to see her. And of course, she wouldn't
actively offer her help.

After all, Lionel had done wrong. Neither did he apologize to her, nor did he take up the responsibility to pay back for what he
had done to Lyndsy. From the bottom of her heart, she was reluctant to help him.
At this moment, though, when she looked at signs of ageing on the old man's face, and the wistfulness in his eyes, Cassandra
vacillated.