Xavier took her to T tower just 10 minutes away from Lee Group. It is the tallest building in the financial district. Yuki was amazed by the state of technology of the tower. From the entrance, their had a body scanned by a computer like those sci-fi movies. After security clearance, an attendant welcome us and activated the elevator through thumbprint and retina scan. The elevator took us to a restaurant on top of the tower.
Xavier explained this is where he will be when he wants to dine alone. No disturbance, no press and quiet. It allows him to think which is a rare commodity to him since he is always surrounded by people due to various investment projects.
They sat down on a table by the floor length glass window which allows unlimited night view of the city. Yuki took the menu offered by the waitress and flipped it close again. She open a small gap and peer inside. Nope, she is not dreaming; it cost $100 for a pasta. What kind of pasta cost $100, is it made in gold?! True that she is having a 5 digit salary now but she haven't even got her first month pay, how is she going to eat in places like this. She hopes is not one of those regularities that Xavier has been feeding her. Her salary won't last a week dining in places like this. Lucky for her, she get to experience this with her boss.
Xavier brow knitted together when he noticed Yuki strange behaviour. He didn't think much about it and order a bottle of red wine with his steak medium rare as usual. Yuki was still browsing through the menu when her boss questioned,"Hard to choose? Want me to help?"
Yuki nodded her head vigorously. Some of the ingredients in the menu sound so alien to her that she is scared to order something expensive and doesn't sit well in her stomach. It will totally destroy her image in front of her boss.
Xavier probe,"Meat, Fish or something else?"
Yuki choose fish since it is a scarce resource in the mountains. She haven't had much of it after moving to the city either. Xavier order grilled seabass with vegetables on the side for her and she loves it tenderness.
During dinner, Xavier brought up the cafe incident. Yuki was so embarrassed that she turned red from head to toes just like a tomato. Yuki apologised again but saw that Xavier is asking out of genuine concern so she narrate her life while she was still juggling with two part time jobs and how Casey and HuangMin has help her a lot. Xavier make a mental note to have these people check. Yuki has never been so reposed that now they got that little incident behind them.
Xavier gave her a briefing on Lee Group of Investment history which was started by his grandfather. The family has always been in property development until his grandfather best friend became politically involve. Therefore his grandfather took the opportunity to expand the company business portfolio winning government tender on building public facilities like highway, airport, train lines and more. After his grandfather retirement and the increase in competition due to Country Y open policy, his father has redirect Lee Group resources overseas for similar public infrastructure projects. Along the way, there have been many opportunities to divest their investment into other industry; film and entertainment was one of it.
Lee Group is under his reign since 2 years ago and he wanted to solidify media power to gain upmost political support and engage persuasive method whenever necessary to move public opinion. There are also hotels and exclusive clubs under Lee Group management, most of the time he preferred to have reliable partner for each core unit and maintain their investment at 30 to 40 percent ownership. In this way, the main share holder will work hard and ensure profits even if Lee Group do not hold a tight reign."We want control but not exhaustion, we need to live our life too," his father advice rang behind his strategy. He is still looking out for a partnership for the hotel management unit but exclusive clubs was a joint investment between T Comm and Frankie. The main management falls to Frankie which take off quite a big part of our burden.
Yuki was listening intently and didn't realised it was already 10pm. Mr. Xavier was kind enough to get Daniel to send her home while he walk back to the office. He said it will aid digestion and clear his mind to finish off work.