'From a young age, I had known that there would come a day when my father passed, he would leave behind a will. This would, of course, be something like an eighty-seven-page dossier with detailed instructions as to how every single fragment of his vast fortune, many assets, and of course, unimaginably large fortune, would be divided up. For most families across the world, the passing of a member of the family would be the cause for mass mourning and many tears, however, the passing of Zhao Bohai was cause for uncertainty and concern in the business world and the source of all the new gossip in the city. Of course, the hot topic of the month: the reading of Zhao Bohai's will.'
Zhao Yingyue had tossed and turned her way throughout the night before she finally admitted defeat and finally pulled herself out of bed at 5 am and dragged herself to the bathroom to freshen up. She spent a small while putting together an outfit that would give the right impression. Her late father's PA, Elise Faulkner, had texted her the previous evening to remind her to pick office-appropriate attire for the reading of the will that day. Yingyue pulled her wardrobe doors wide open and swept a critical eye over all the garments hanging up, neatly, colour-coded and organised by garment type. She flicked through the garments, ruling out jeans, casual hoodies, sweatshirts and trainers. Next, she pulled all of her club and party appropriate clothing to one side and then pulled a few neat blouses and some skirts. She finally picked out a white blouse with a high neck and silk sleeves with a conservative black skirt and a pair of patent black kitten heels to go with it. Yingyue then set about covering up her eyebags at her vanity and applying some discrete makeup. Her phone rung twice before she picked up Elise's call, " I'm heading down, see you soon," she replied quickly and tossed her phone and keys into a purse and exiting the apartment.
"You took my advice Selena," Elise sounded surprised as Yingyue stepped into the car and pulled her seatbelt over her.
"Well, of course, I'm not so foolish to ignore the one person who actually seems to have my best interests at heart," she replied quietly, "anyway, I already know what is waiting for me in his will. It'll be an ivory envelope with someone's name in it, and I'll more than likely have to marry him and all that, have kids and so on and so forth. I'm so confused, why did he send me to London to study business when all he wants is for me to rejoin the social circles and be a stay at home wife, it's not like I'll ever need that degree now that the company will probably be passed onto some uncle I've never met."
Yingyue's three years in London followed by her summer travelling Europe had been some of the best times of her young life. Adjusting to student life had been tough for her at the beginning. After all, she had been waited on hand and foot by an army of people pretty much since she was old enough to give orders and being self-sufficient was a brand new concept to her younger self. Only later did she find how much more freeing it felt to be able to decide to go out for dinner or stay in, to take the underground or walk to her lectures, whether to go out clubbing and for how long. In her three years away, the only time her father had interfered was to tell her that she would be taking extra exams in order to graduate a year earlier than the rest of her cohort. At this news, Yingyue had been ecstatic. Since as far as she could remember, her days were filled with deportment and dancing classes, how to mingle, how to speak to various people, in a phrase: socialite training. Although Yingyue had been very bright as a child and had flown through the high school curriculum even when she was barely 14, she was not been allowed to pursue higher education instead, she had been forced to learn which fork to use at which course and make small take with a whole host of people she didn't even know. When her father had sent her away to business school she had naively hoped that he was going to train her to hopefully enter Zhao Hai Industries, as she had shown interest in the business since she was young, instead of marrying her off to keep the peace between himself and some other business tycoon. However, it seemed that her father had other more predictable plans for his only daughter.
When Yingyue and Elise Faulkner walked through the revolving doors of the headquarters building, the chattering of employees suddenly ceased and they all looked down, pretending to be busy. Elise, after giving several members of staff the death glare, steered her off to the left where there was a row of elevators opposite a blank wall. Elise produced a lanyard with a swipe key pass attached and flipped the cover of what Yingyue had thought to be an emergency button before pressing her card to the sensor. There was a quiet beeping noise and the seamless walls parted silently to reveal the shiny interior of a private elevator. The two women stepped in wordlessly and Yinguue studied her reflection in the elevator mirror as Elise pulled out her black work phone on which she sent a few messages in rapid succession before dialing a number and holding the phone to her ear while tapping her foot impatiently. Yingyue tuned out Elise's clipped voice as she tore apart whoever was on the other end of the phone and she examined the lift buttons. She noticed that in particular, levels 7, 13, 17 and 23 were more worn than all others. Yingyue wondered what was on those floors. In all her years, she had only been to the Zhao Hai headquarters a handful of times. Even then she had only ever gone to her father's office on the 23rd floor, skipping past all the other floors, chaperoned by a chauffeur, one of many PAs of the past or a nanny.
The door dinged open and Elise guided Yingyue towards a meeting room which was already full of men in suits of various shades of grey and navy, all of whom were either conversing among themselves or looking indiscreetly at their watches and cursing the timing of the meeting. Among the sea of faces, Yingyue recognised only a few. Some were long-standing members of the board of directors, various investors, shareholders and some of the men she had seen previously at social events and other assorted functions. Although Yingyue had been gone for a good while, the change in the men had been marginal at best. There were a few snug waistlines and receding hairlines here and there among the older members and a few newer faces but nothing that seemed out of the ordinary or that Yingyue had not already expected to see.
Suddenly Yingyue's eyes stopped at one of the young men. He wore a burgundy suit and black tie with tousled hair which had some product in and was not idly passing the time like all the others. His eyes were alert, darting left and right, as if he was looking for something. His face was completely expressionless aside from a small wrinkle that marred his forehead. Without warning his eyes snapped up to meet hers and she froze, eyes wide like a deer in headlights. Yingyue could feel the scrutinising gaze even through the glass of the meeting room and the throng of people in between them. It felt as if he was standing right in front of her, staring right into her innermost thought and fears, as if he was seeing right into her soul. All of a sudden something in the back of Yingyue's mind clicked and it dawned on her. This man was the one who had lent his jacket to her at the funeral; the one who had helped her up when she fell and the one who she had not been able to read when she first met him. Adrian Lee, the mystery.
Zhao Yingyue had a sinking feeling in her stomach as she took a deep breath and steeled her nerves before pushing the handle to the door open and taking the first step into the meeting room.