Meili could not believe her eyes. she was seeing her bestie after almost five years. She had tears in her eyes and could not express her feelings. Pulling away from the hug for a bit, she intensely gazed at her bestie and once again embraced her tightly
"Jinjing oh my God!!!!" choking slightly Meili said "I cannot believe it…... I missed you so much Jinjing. How are you doing?" breaking away she asked her best friend.
Despite what had transpired between Liang and her, Jinjing never held Meili accountable for it. The only reason she never kept in contact with her was to avoid any sort of connection with Liang. But after seeing Meili today, she was overwhelmed with emotions.
"I am doing great Mei…. How about you?" Jinjing asked with a sincere smile on her face.
"awesome as always." Replied the enthusiastic Meili.
Looking at Jinjing, Meili understood her brother's morning dilemma. 'so this is why he has been behaving so weird from all these days.' She thought to herself.
Meanwhile, Luwei had approached Liang and the later stood up and both shook hands like true professionals. But everyone could feel sparks fly from that simple handshake. Their eyes held hostility for each other. The temperature of the room suddenly dropped, making the others attending the meeting, feel nervous.
Being the president of the host company, Luwei sat at the head of the long glass table. As a sign of respect for his extraordinary status, Sheng Liang was arranged to sit at the other head with Meili to his right. Jinjing sat in the right of Luwei and the remaining team from Yun enterprise seated themselves on the same side. The other side of the table was occupied by the visiting members of Sheng Corp.
Each of their secretaries took a seat slightly behind them. Assistant Lu introduced everyone from Sheng Corp. While, Luwei's secretary did the same for their side.
The lights in the room were dimmed and the projector displayed the presentation for the project. An employee from Sheng's started explaining in detail. While everyone concentrated on the presentation, Liang was intermittently stealing glances at Jinjing.
She was completely focused on the presentation, taking notes. Periodically, she would whisper something in Luwei's ear and he would nod. Their proximity was making Liang seethe with rage. He did not pay heed to anything being said or done in that room, his scorching gaze was fixed on his woman.
Jinjing could feel him look at her, but she remained strong willed and did not glance even once at him. She did not want to give him any false hopes.
Soon the presentation came to an end and the lights were turned on to their former brightness. The sudden illumination broke Liang's gaze and brought him back to the project. The project teams from both sides waited for their bosses to say something.
Taking lead, Luwei said "the project has great potential and if executed well, will definitely bring in great profits. We have noted a few shortcomings, which both the project teams can look into in detail." He paused at that and waited for Liang to respond. "we are honored that president Yun is interested in the project. We will definitely work together to take care of your concerns."
The meeting was a formality just for the teams to meet. Whereas the project was already agreed upon by the elders. It was almost noon. On Luwei's instruction, his secretary informed everyone about the arrangement of lunch. The contract details were to be discussed post lunch.
At that time, everyone stood up from their seats and headed for lunch. Liang messaged Meili "I want some alone time…. Take the third wheel out."
Reading the message from her brother, Meili did not need to be told twice, she reluctantly approached Luwei, who was discussing something with his secretary. Through the short distance to him, Meili was literally chanting 'sorry Buzz…this is for my brother.'
"hello Yun Luwei. It's been a long time since we met. How have you been?" Meili hesitantly asked, trying to strike a conversation and taking him away from the seen.
"I am fine Sheng Meili. It has indeed been a long time. Nice to see you." He dropped a glance at Jinjing who was busy discussing something with a subordinate on the laptop. Seeing she was busy and fine, he continued his chat with Meili. Absorbing him in conversation, Meili tactfully took him out of the room and the subordinates followed.
The one working with Jinjing finished his work and left. Jinjing started gathering her stuff and looked around to find the room empty. She finally let out a sigh of relief as nothing major occurred during the meeting. Guess she was too quick to relax. The moment she walked towards the door, a large hand grabbed her arm from behind and shut the door to the conference room turning the lock.
Startled Jinjing lost grip of the files and laptop in her hand. Before she could comprehend the situation she was roughly pinned to the wall beside the door. The next second, a deep voice sounded from above her "where do you think you are going?"
Jinjing looked up in horror.