'There is a saying that snitches get stitches, or in my father's case, snitches get a lifetime of mental torture and trying to rebuild the life they used to have which had been conveniently been reduced to a pile of smouldering rubble, and that was the ones who were getting off lightly. He always used to say that fear is the best motivator and that he was only an opportunist by harnessing its true power. He wasn't wrong, for the first decade of Zhao Hai Industries, he was hailed as the 'Overnight Success King' and later as the 'Dragon King' referring to his infamous temper of course.'
When Zhao Yingyue finally composed herself after her speech at the service, she had almost missed the lower of the casket. She placed her lily against the freshly dug mound of earth and wiped her tears before tucking her handkerchief into her purse. She had planned on slipping out at this precise moment when all the fortune-hungry socialites and shark-like businessmen were inside the marquee snacking on hors d'heurves and downing champagne or expensive alcoholic punch. She had reserved herself a table at a dive bar in the heart of the city where she could drown away her sorrow and anxieties in peace and quiet. Apparently not.
A woman that Yingyue didn't recognise was power walking towards her under an umbrella. She was fairly short, even with her heels on, and had long blond hair and bright green eyes which sparkled even in the fading light of the evening. The stranger wore a slinky black evening gown that pooled at her feet and tasteful jewellery, a simple silver bracelet and earring set with simple but beautiful diamonds. "You must be Selena, my deepest condolences, I'm Elise Faulkner, your father's PA at the office," she stated quietly, holding the umbrella higher to better shield the both of them from the elements.
"What kind of PA were you? The work kind or the other kind?" Yingyue asked emotionlessly, she had learned the hard way as a child that it was better to confirm which kind the PA she was speaking to before commencing a conversation. Once when she was about ten, there had been a very awkward conversation due to this very mishap and that memory had been seared into her brain forever.
"I was the kind that organised his meetings and replied to emails," Elise replied quietly, "people are asking for you inside the marquee, I thought it best if I came and got you before the rumours begin to spread like wildfire as they usually do, I'm sure that you know how it goes."
"Yes, yes, I do," Yingyue said in a quiet voice. She drew in a deep breath, ran a hand through her hair, tucking the loose flyaways under her ear and ducked under the umbrella with Elise before the women both made their way down the grassy knoll toward the marquee.
The atmosphere in the marquee was absolutely buzzing, all the stiff and tight-lipped business people and socialites were much more relaxed after a few glasses of bubbly. Although Zhao Yingyue did not enjoy the socialite scene at all, she loved this part of the evening, after the bubbly and too many glasses of wine comes the reason for the phrase: 'loose lips sink ships'. Yingyue never usually drank in public, preferring to keep a clear head and an alert mind in order to not be tricked or swindled into anything that she didn't want to be attached to. When she had been younger, she had rebelled against the idea that she couldn't have alcohol when she was out at events but after a certain incident at her former best friend's debutante ball. The excess alcohol consumption that night had been one of the driving reasons why Felicity Wang was now her ex-best friend.
There was a particular group of young socialites who were being particularly rowdy, Yingyue felt that some of them looked very familiar and so she glided past the appetizer table and picked up a flute of champagne, dumped half of in a nearby plant pot and skirted around the back of the small huddle inconspicuously. As she blended herself into the edges of the crowd she focused on blocking out all the background noise to focus on the one specific conversation happening in front of her.
"Also, did you hear about the Wang's party? The whole affair is set to be all old Hollywood elegance and masquerade balls, it would have been quite nice apart from the whole tacky fake plant thing and that argument with that catering company. Now, none of the companies within a fifty-mile radius of town will cater to her." A young woman, Vanessa Young whose insanely rich father owned Youth Cosmetics who was only a little older than Zhao Yingyue herself addressed the group. As she finished she let out a very unladylike cackle which suited a witch much better than it suited a socialite of her class and standing. "Serves that cow right anyway, she had some guts to come after my catering company."
"Wait that whole scandal was your doing? No wonder!" Another young woman exclaimed, this one was the shortest of the whole group and had a babyface. Yingyue remembered her as the younger sister of Euginia Starks, someone she used to know before her less than graceful fall from grace, Penelope Starks. Although both Starks sisters had a Chinese father, they all took their American mother's surname in order to better assimilate into British life. Their lilting speech and the distinctive American twang in their voices made the pair quite impossible to miss, quite often to their chagrin.
"Yes, I had heard but also, what about the matter at hand, Vanessa? Remember we are drinking quite literally out of her precious trust fund." The girls laughed loudly and raised their glasses to clink a toast before downing their glasses and waves a poor waiter over for refills.
"We should totally bleed her dry, it would serve that little b*tch right, especially after her ruining you debutante, right Felicity?"
"I know right, she's such a -"
"I'm such a what Felicity?" Yingyue stepped into the group and those around her jostled so that she was staring face to face with her former best friend, Felicity Mengyi Zhang. "I'm such a what exactly?"