November 13, 20XX (Tuesday)
Y Building, Beijing
"What a wonderful room!" Mei Li's voice was soft and cheery but Yang knew what was brewing inside. She entered the room with Yang uncomfortable in his chair. He was afraid to stand up to appease her anger; he knew if he did something now, he would only be fanning the flames bigger.
"…Musigny Grand Cru 1990," Mei Li took one of the wines that were especially separated from the others with its own container and read the label.
Yang dare not utter a sound.
If Mei Li was exchanged with his mother, all the bottles would be broken into the floor by now. He was lucky that Mei Li was the one that discovered it and not Mother Zhao. He regretted loving wine enough to collect them.
"Is this expensive?" Mei Li asked Yang, her face uncharacteristically stoic and aloof.
Seeing as Yang had no intention of answering her, she turned to Secretary Bai and asked, "How much is this?"
Secretary Bai turned to his boss before turning to Mei Li, shifting nervously at being the person sandwich in between two opposing forces. When he notices Yang nod at him, he replied in the smallest voice he could, "… about eleven thousand dollars."
Mei Li's face lightened with a smile, "Then you can have this as Yang's gratefulness for your unwavering support and dependable services."
The painter then turned to Trisha after she had picked another expensive bottle and reading the label out loud, "…Richebourg Grand Cru 1949. This is for you, Trisha. You can throw it away if you don't want it."
The interior designer had vehemently protested against it. If this wine was on the same level as the one given to Secretary Bai, she was not qualified to drink a beverage that was worth 3 months of her salary.
The three other people in the room watched with tensed shoulders and awkward silence as Mei Li then took every expensive bottle of wine and arrange it on the table, took a picture, sent it to Mother Zhao with a caption, 「Your son was gracious enough to reward his best employees with his most expensive wine.」
Yang looked helplessly when she had taken her phone, knowing that his mother would receive this piece of information after a few seconds. In fact, she would probably be fuming at him right about now.
He touched the bridge of his nose, now feeling a real headache coming. He had been so careless to forget this hidden room. He had been so distracted by the pictures to even think about wine! He had not drunk one sip of wine for almost three weeks now! Not since the day he had meet Mei Li, that was the last time he had a wine glass on his hands.
Yang's phone vibrated. Turning to look at the painter, Mei Li motioned for him to read the text out loud.
"You have to give one to every department heads and anybody that wants it… If it's not all gone, you can kiss all your companies goodbye by tomorrow. Much love, Mama Zhao." Yang read with concealed distress. Damn it, there was a wine that cost half a million dollars in his collection. In fact, the total of this wine collection would amount to a large house in Beijing and he would just have to give it away?!
Mei Li pushed the wine into Secretary Bai's hands and did the same with Trisha, "You heard him."
Mei Li scoffed at Yang's ugly contorted face like a deer in headlights, "You can keep 3 bottles for yourself. Greater than those 3 bottles, I will tell Mother Zhao."
Yang immediately darted to take the top three most expensive wine on the shelf. Mei Li was calm in the face of anger; that was scary. She was her most unpredictable side when she was angered. He should have known since he had witnessed the woman break off her relationship in the middle of her cheating boyfriend having intimate relations with other women.
Yang watched Mei Li and Trisha go out with mixed emotions, his usual fake smile vanishing from his handsome face. When Mei Li reached to open the door of his office, he immediately stopped her with a question, "Are you going to be walking around the building with that shoes on?"
Mei Li, who was still mad, raised her eyebrows at him with her arms crossed in front making her breast rest on that fragile arms. He couldn't help staring a little before he got up, took a familiar box, opened it, took the shoes he had bought three days ago out, walked towards Mei Li, kneeled in front of her, and started unstrapping her Louboutin shoat; as if this occurrence happened every day.
Mei Li forced herself from smiling at his gentleman act. She reminded herself that she was supposed to be angry at the man who was personally changing her shoes because he was worried that she would walk all over 33 floors with high heels.
Really, how can you be angry in the face of a man concerned for you enough to worry about the smallest details that he would anticipate her actions and make plans to make her life more comfortable?
Mei Li's face flushed with shyness but her smile speaks her gladness.
Secretary Bai and Trisha were forced to eat dog food while watching the CEO slipping the flat shoes he had bought into the company into Mei Li's small feet.
At the end of the day, Mei Li and Yang went back to Zhao Manor together with Yang on a happier mode regardless of all the expensive wine bottles that were given to his employees because he knew he pulled a good move as evident to Mei Li's soft smile...
Nevertheless, CEO Zhao Yang had found a woman scarier than his mother. He knew that Mei Li had held back her savagery because they were still not as close as he wanted. Soon, she could be savage to him all she wants. He would gladly take all her anger with a smile if it meant she would spend all her days with him.