… It simply could not be. If he had drank more than a finger of whiskey before leaving home he would have considered that he might be drunk but he was perfectly sober yet Natzin was standing in front of him looking and cool as ice.
He wanted to shake his head but he quickly recollected himself and respectfully bowed low to the couple. "Welcome to Osmanthus Mr and Mrs Xhi, thank you for gracing us with your presence. I am so grateful that you found our company worthy of partnership."
"It is a pleasure to be here in your lovely city, I have heard so much about it and if you are going to show gratitude to anyone then it should be to my wife, she is the one who is responsible for deciding on your company as the beneficiary." The old man said and Jie's eyes flickered to Natzin who looked on impassively.
"Then my thanks should go to you Mrs Xhi, thank you for bestowing our company with your partnership." Jie bowed to her while his feelings ran amok.
He still could not understand what he was seeing, Natzin has allegedly died in childbirth three years ago so how is it that she was here now?
"Let me show you around." Jie said and left An mei along with Lee while he went introducing the couple to executives at the Cheng company.
An mei meanwhile was fuming at being ignored by Jie during the introduction, he should have held her and allowed her to play hostess instead of acting like she was not there at all and paying an undue amount of attention to that woman.
She huffed angrily and Lee turned to her and smiled understandingly.
"You should know that you are going to need to be patient with Jie. If you treat him with kid gloves you are more likely to achieve the results that you want instead of trying to force him and sulk at him, he is quite different from most men." He confided.
He knew his friend well and was aware that this was all about business to him while An mei was probably already picking furniture for their home together.
He stopped a passing waiter and retrieved two glasses of champagne then he handed one to An mei.
"Now, let us move onto more pleasant things, like a toast."
"Hmm." An mei said thoughtfully, "a toast then, to future relationships."
They clinked their glasses together and drank from the flutes. If another man had treated An mei the way Jie had treated her then she would have thrown a tantrum and probably stormed off. She was well aware of her beauty and the fact that men fawned all over her but Jie was different.
If she had to calm down a little and tuck in her pride then she would do it just so that she could get her prize and when he was securely in her clutches she would teach him a lesson. Until then she would be sweet and patient.
After a little while Jie came back and joined them. Lee noticed that he did not even apologize to An mei for leaving her unattended and he wished he could knock his head, for someone so smart he sure acted obtuse with women and somehow they still flocked to him.
An mei made excuses to leave them in order to powder her nose and when she was gone Lee came closer and looked at his friend.
"Sometimes you are so clueless that I find it hard to believe. Can't you see that An mei is unhappy that you ignored her?" Lee asked.
"She knows that this a professional setting and she is getting paid, what more does she want?" Jie asked darkly.
"All I am just saying is that she is a beautiful woman that a lot of men would give their arms for plus she would make a great Cheng wife don't you think?" He asked cunningly and watched in shock as Jie stopped a waiter and grabbed two glasses of champagne and downed them in one gulp each.
The pressure of the very public event must be getting to him. He knew that his friend could not stand these things and would rather be locked up in a room somewhere than be out in public with people.
With a shrug he continued talking. "Did you see Mrs Xhi? The stories don't do her justice at all, she is not a beautiful woman but a goddess among the rest. Do you think that you could get me to sit next to their table? Now that I have seen her husband I am sure she needs a young Buck like me to entertain her." He said jokingly and Jie glared angrily at him.
"All you ever do is sprout all this disgusting nonsense from your mouth, do you think of nothing else." Jie said and walked away in a huff of anger, leaving Lee stunned at his response.
Jie must know that he was mostly teasing when he talked, he liked ladies but he talked more than he actually took action and while Mrs Xhi was indeed beautiful, he doubted that she would want a guy like him. Why would Jie seem so angry at such a harmless remark?
*
Despite her calm exterior, Natzin was quaking inside at the thought of seeing Jie after a long time. She also figured that Bing would probably be by his side so understandably, the thought of seeing her two arch enemies together filled her with dread.
When eventually they got to the event and Mr Song introduced them to Jie she could see that he looked almost faint and she had felt a perverse sense of satisfaction. He probably thought that after ordering to have her killed she was ashes carelessly poured out in some garbage but he had a massive unexpected surprise.
She noticed to her surprise however that Bing had not come, she was nowhere to be seen and infact there was a pretty young girl who had stood beside Jie and shot daggers with her eyes at her.
It had not bothered her in the least. She was used to the scorn and mockery from women who were intimidated by her beauty and looked down on her for marrying a man old enough to be her grandfather.
What bothered her was the fact that Jie seemed to have a new girlfriend as he had never seemed like the type to change girlfriends at will but she had not thought that he was capable of cold blooded murder either.
Natzin shrugged it off and decided that it served Bing right anyway but it also made her wonder what they had decided to do with her baby.
As Jie took them around, introducing them to senior staff in his company she basked in the thought that she was about to destroy his life and there was nothing that could stop it from happening.