A Graduation Gift

The day of the bidding arrived as scheduled. Everything seemed to go as planned until Lionel discovered something awry.
When he inserted his flash drive to upload his presentation, a notification appeared saying that there were no files that could be
found. Confused, he removed and plugged it in again. The same message window appeared. All his files were gone!
Of course, this was no time to troubleshoot. Anxiously, he walked down the stage, found his secretary, and asked her to fetch a
backup disk. To his surprise, it also failed to read anything.
Several minutes passed and Lionel still could not begin his presentation. The audience began to murmur and the project director
frowned in dismay.
Beads of sweat started to form in Lionel's forehead. Embarrassed, he mumbled an apology to the awaiting public. He felt like an
ant in a hot pot.
'What happened to my flash drive?' he wondered. He remembered checking it in the computer yesterday and not encountering
any issue. How could he have anticipated something like this to happen at such a critical moment? What was more, what was he
to do to fix this?
Suddenly, he remembered that the same thing happened to Cassandra at another bidding. Still, she managed to push through
with her presentation. Lionel doubted he could pull off the same stunt.
Left with no other choice, however, he had to make do. Without his notes, he started his presentation. Stumbling over his words
once in a while, he soon finished presenting all the pieces of information he could remember. Nervously, he scanned his
audience and spotted the project director's face. He did not seem pleased. Then and there, Lionel knew he was done.
As he was stepping down the stage, he met eyes with Arthur who was now about to present next.
"Thank you, Mr. Tang, for making this easier for me,"
he said in a low voice with a smirk on his face. This made Lionel as enraged as he was embarrassed.
Out of words, he stared at Arthur who then responded with a meaningful smile.
Restraining himself, Lionel continued to proceed to his seat. His secretary could not seem to look at him, possibly scared of his
reprimand. Nervously, she sat, half expecting her boss to scold her anytime.

Arthur delivered his presentation smoothly and confidently. It was a stark contrast to Lionel's awkward and seemingly unprepared
performance.
It was clear that the Dawn Star Group would win the bid. Realizing this, Lionel decided that he no longer had business staying.
Void of hope, he left even before the bidding finished.
Seeing this, Arthur smirked as he was presenting. Satisfaction filled him when he saw his opponent accepting defeat. He would
have laughed out loud if he were not in the middle of a business presentation.
Arthur beamed as he descended the stage. Victory felt certain. Now, all he had to do was just sit and wait.
Still, a part of him no longer needed the confirmation. With Lionel's bad performance, the Tang Group did not stand a chance. He
was certain that his company would emerge as the winner.
He remembered all the humiliation he felt because of Lionel as he was growing up. Looking at how far he had come now
compared to Lionel filled him with joy.
He finally had his revenge. Now, Lionel could no longer compete with him.
The Tang Group was doomed to lose this deal.
Lionel, on the other hand, drove aimlessly. He did not really know where he wanted to go. He couldn't go to the office as he was
not ready to face his colleagues after the mess he made.
He couldn't really go home either. His parents were counting on him to win the bidding. After what happened, he did not know
how he would even begin to tell them.
Jill, his mother, told him that she went down on her knees just to ask Cassandra for her help.
Thinking about how his proud mother humbled herself and begged for the sake of the Tang Group gave Lionel mixed feelings.
Suddenly, he realized something... It was Cassandra who gave him the flash drive. Could she have something to do with the
accident? It seemed impossible for the flash drive to suddenly malfunction for no reason.
He took out the disk and examined it. The thought gave him chills down his spine.
It felt unlikely that Cassandra would have deliberately damaged the disk to make him a laughing stock at the bidding.

But if that were true, then that would make Cassandra a very evil person that deserved to be punished. Lionel decided that it was
best to look into his suspicions. He did not want to jump into conclusions without due diligence. In the same way, he was not
about to let someone who crossed him go on without taking accountability.
He decided to approach a friend of his who was an expert on computers and give the flash drive to him for inspection.
To his surprise, his friend reported that it had a virus that deleted all its files automatically at set times.
The source code was there. His friend managed to find it.
"It's very destructive and irreversible. The person who installed this must really hate you! Do you still remember where you got
this disk? I hope you can find this person," his friend said.
The findings shocked Lionel. He did not know how to feel. After a few minutes of processing his thoughts, he instructed his
friend, "Don't tell anyone about this. I would like to deal with this myself."
No one was supposed to know that he knew about the sabotage, so he wanted to be clear that his friend understood this as well.
Furiously, Lionel drove to the Garden Villa. He knocked at the gate forcefully and shouted, "Cassandra! Get out! Come here,
now!"
Cassandra peeked out, unhappy with the scene Lionel was creating. Irritated, she approached.
He shook the gate frantically and was clearly enraged. Yet, Cassandra had no idea what was going on.
She was considered whether she should open the door or not. She no longer feared this upsetting man. His feelings no longer
meant anything to her.
Then again, they were now in Rufus's house. Surely, Lionel would not do anything to hurt her under his roof. Realizing that, she
decided to open the gate and hear him out.
Lionel rushed in immediately and yelled, "Look, Cassandra, I know you hate me but I did not expect this kind of behavior from
you. Playing tricks behind my back? I never expected you to go so low! You can refuse to help me, sure. That's your choice. But
making sure I was embarrassed at the bidding? That's low!"
With that, he tossed the disk at Cassandra. It happened so quickly that Cassandra failed to make any response. The disk hit her
face and a shallow cut appeared because of the flash drive's metal edge.

Cassandra instinctively covered the painful injury on her cheek and yelled back, "What the hell is wrong with you, Lionel? If you
want to go crazy, get out of my house!"
He was behaving like a madman—so rude and frantic. Still, this did not frighten Cassandra. She stood her ground and called him
out.
"Oh, Cassandra, cut it out. Stop playing innocent. You think I don't know? You promised my parents that you'd help me, but in
reality, you set me up! Did you know how I felt when I found out that the flash drive you gave me was broken during the bidding?
Do you know how many people attended and how important this bidding was to our company? The Tang Group was a laughing
stock and this was all your fault!"
Lionel yelled furiously, pointing a finger at Cassandra's face.
"I could have at least completed the original tender. This would have been enough for me. I would have accepted defeat
gracefully if that were the case. How dare you install a virus to ruin all my files. You even destroyed my backup disk! How could
you?"
Lionel went on and on blaming everything on Cassandra
who stood listening, looking very confused. Perplexed, she asked, "What are you talking about? I destroyed your flash drive? Are
you kidding? I worked day and night to revise your design. I even dropped most of my work to help you. I had to leave my
business to Rufus in the time being. And this is how you thank me? By making unfounded accusations?"
She looked at Lionel with utter disbelief. Oh, how she wished she could read his mind at that very moment just so she could
understand his train of thought. How could a man be so dumb but so sure of himself?
The mention of Rufus made Lionel even more furious.
"Oh, come on, stop that! Stop acting. I already know, okay? Instead of helping us, Rufus chose to stand on the sidelines and
watch us crumble and drown. Still, after what my father did to him, I can't really blame him for feeling like that about the Tang
Group. As for you, though, I trusted you! You were my ex-wife! You used to be part of our family! Then again, you were kicked
out. I should not have trusted you! You probably want to help Rufus destroy our future! How could I not have seen that before? I
will never forget this! I will never forget! You, Cassandra, are an evil woman!"
Cassandra's face turned pale at Lionel's words.

"Lionel, I would suggest that you keep your mouth shut if you don't have proof about the things you are saying right now. Believe
it or not, I did not do anything of the sort. Your parents came to me and begged for my help and I did what I could. Your family
owes me. Now, you totally discredit my work and my effort. If you have a problem with me, please ask your parents to confront
me and present me with pieces of evidence on why they're pinning all these on me. As for you, I never want to see your face
again. You should get out now!"
Cassandra said as she pointed a trembling finger towards the gate. As if wiping away the remaining warmth of the room, the cold
wind blew through the open door.
But nothing—not the wind nor the look on Lionel's face—was colder than Cassandra's heart.
"You're asking me to get out? Aha, who do you think you are? Are you the owner of this villa? You're just Rufus's pet and you can
be kicked out anytime. Cassandra, let me tell you: you are nothing. I look down on you and you are not worth anything!"
Lionel said, mustering all the hurtful words he could think of to insult Cassandra, totally forgetting he had begged sincerely for
her help.