AiLin stopped in front of a restaurant. Her eyes peered inside, finding a familiar face who was sitting at the corner of the window. The woman seemed agitated as she kept on fiddling with her hands, her legs shaking as if she was on edge.
With a smile, AiLin pulled a sunglass from her black leather jacket and settled it on the bridge of her nose. Making her way inside the restaurant, AiLin then sat down in front of the woman, startling the former who appeared wide eyed upon seeing her arrived.
The woman stared at her for a very long time, eyeing as if wondering if AiLin was really the person she was supposed to meet with. On the other hand, AiLin was with a smile as she watched the woman of her age eyeing her from the top of her hair to her feet.
"Have you had enough of assessing me?" AiLin spoke first as she called for the waiter to bring her a glass of cold coffee.
The woman in front of her seemed to be more nervous than before as she stared at AiLin again, "Are you… Canary's boss?"
AiLin chuckled. As always this woman in front of her wouldn't change. She is one of Jiang NianNian's closest friend, Lu Ping. In the past, Lu Ping born of a wealthy family was kind of a close friend to Jiang NianNian as Jiang NianNian's adoptive parents were a close friend to Lu Ping's family. Lu Ping, similar to Jiang NianNian, has a terrible habit of looking down on people they think lower than them.
Therefore Lu Ping must have felt so embarrassed coming today to beg for money.
Yes. Money.
Although Lu Ping's family is wealthy, Lu Ping herself wasn't someone who was able to produce as much wealth as her family. She had dropped off university to chase after her dream job as a model. That dream failed as she was caught in a horrendous scandal three years ago and eventually had to retire early after working as a model for merely three months.
Her family particularly dislike her lavish lifestyle as it had almost caused them to be on verge of bankruptcy and after the scandals, they decided to cut her off for good, giving not even a single penny to her. As if that wasn't enough, Lu Ping has a terrible habit of stealing and gambling. Her debt to Canary was almost ten million dollars.
Of course this didn't happen naturally. Even if Lu Ping was someone terrible with money, gaining such large debt in less than three years should have been impossible but not so impossible when there was someone who had planned her downfall from six years ago.
AiLin was the one who had directed Canary into offering money to Lu Ping. She had planned it ever since she was in prison with Canary, a plan that had been going on for years while she was still in prison. Now was the time for her to reap what she had sowed.
For the first year, Canary came to offer Lu Ping a few thousands of dollars for her to pay off her debts to other debtors. But what Lu Ping didn't know was Canary's extreme high interest. It wasn't legal but Lu Ping had no chance but take the dive and accept Canary's offer as her debts began to swell and her house was about to be taken from her. Then Canary introduced Lu Ping into a casino, a casino that Canary and AiLin owned, a place that AiLin had given her rights to Canary. Everything they planned went off as they planned as right the next week, Lu Ping came to take more debts and now Lu Ping is running out of ways to pay for her debts.
AiLin looked at Lu Ping calmly as she could tell Lu Ping was on verge of having a mental breakdown. Looking by the lack of expensive handbags and luxurious accessories, Lu Ping must have lost everything in gambling as she had told Canary to make sure every gambling that was done by Lu Ping in the casino to end up with more loss than win.
Lu Ping bite her chapped lips, her eyes watery as she said, "I- I will make sure to pay off the debt, Boss! As I- I have talked to Miss Canary… I would soon be receiving a big pay off."
"Pay off?" AiLin repeated as she chuckled. She moved closer and took the straw to her lips, chewing it as she gave a long silence that was enough to make Lu Ping go insane from tension. AiLin nodded, "The deadline of the payment is tomorrow. You know how much you have owed to me don't you? A total of ten million dollars, that's not a sum that I believe you would easily take care overnight."
"I will find a way!" Lu Ping said hurriedly, "It— It's just that I need a few more days… if you could just make it until the end of this week…"
"End of this week, do you really think I would simply agree to it?" repeated AiLin as she opened her phone and scoffed, "You know how my company works, Lu Ping. Every liars have their tongues cut out, Canary should have told you that before you decided to take debts from our place. I'm certain you have seen some of our previous liars who have acquired debts as much as you did. Or are you curious to know where they are now after failing to pay their debts?"
Lu Ping hiccuped. She questioned the god above why was she put into such a predicament?!
Canary, the woman who had given her money to pay her debt, had came across to her as a gentle person with a friendly face. Canary was gentle to her, even calling her a younger sister and allowing her to take a lot of debts even despite saying how difficult it was to actually give a higher amount of money for her sake. But all of a sudden, Canary's behavior changed! She came to her, telling that she only has a week to pay off her debt or she would be paying it with her entire body!
Lu Ping had begged for Canary's understanding but Canary only told her that their "boss", the woman who currently sat in front of her in such an aloof mien, was the one who deadened the debts to be paid as soon as possible.
But how could she find ten million dollars overnight?! All her gambles in the casino had caused more loss! She didn't work nor did she ever manage her money carefully so now she has less than a penny to go through day by day much less to pay ten million dollars!
"W- What do you want… I- I can give you anything!"
AiLin smiled as she had awaited for those words to come out from Lu Ping's mouth, "There is indeed something that I want from you. Do you know this land?" AiLin pulled out her phone and pointed to an empty land and upon seeing it, Lu Ping's face turn pale. "Yes. If you can give me the contract to this land as a pawn, I wouldn't mind waiting for another week for my ten million dollars to be paid."
But how could Lu Ping do it?! Lu Ping's face turned even paler as she knew that land belonged to her family as they had planned to construct an expensive condominium with the collaboration of Jiang Family!