Aug, 05, Friday

  Lily smiled softly as she looked at the canvas in front of her.

  It was an oil painting of Lily in a cheongsam with a small smile on her face. Her beautiful and radiant face perfectly contrasted with the black, red and blue colors of the cheongsam. The background of the painting featured Chinese bamboo. It reminded Lily of the bamboo at the temple in Fussa, Japan that they’d visited months ago.

  The painting is a gift from Zhuo Jingren. He had his men deliver it to Lily’s office just this morning. Lily ran her fingers over the painting as she nodded in appreciation. Zhuo Jingren is indeed talented she thought while staring at the cheongsam’s red, black and blue interweaving colors that were in perfect harmony with each other. Lily instantly wondered when he found the time to paint this as both of them were so busy with work lately. Was it possible that she just failed to notice him working? Instantly guilt flashed in Lily’s eyes. She had been scheming and thinking about herself all this time and she didn’t even know if Zhuo Jingren had a special room for his paintings in Sky City.

  While she is aware that Zhuo Jingren has many paintings of her, she never even bothered to ask him about it. Now that she thought about it, Lily realized that she doesn’t really know a lot about Zhuo Jingren. She bit her lip before letting out a loud sigh. She is such an incompetent wife ah.

  She shook her head in irritation. She had been taking from Zhuo Jingren. She had been pampered and treated like a queen and she did not even think about giving back. Lily had always believed that a relationship should be equalbut it was obvious that she was failing to do her part in this relationship…… Her selfishness was engraved into her bones so deeply that it was truly hard for her to just remove these habits from her system.

  "Yang Mi?"

  "President," Yang Mi respectfully said.

  "When will VP Rossi arrive?"

  "Monday at 1300 our time," Yang Mi answered.

  "Alright," Lily nodded. Vice President Timothy Rossi had been working with the Facci Group for more than twenty years now. He had been Vice President of the company before Lily took over and now his role was Vice President of Operations for all of their subsidiaries in South America.

  The Subsidiaries in South America were fairly new so Lily took advantage of his skills and asked him to personally take charge and manage these companies for three months. Lily was sure that the profits of these companies would double after a quarter, and she was right.

  Now that VP Rossi had accomplished his goal, he will join them in Hong Kong. Lily also thought that this would be the perfect timing as having him here would allow her to spend more time adjusting to married life. After all, they’d really had no time together since they got married and she was also hopeful that they could spend time together to try for a baby.

  The other night, Zhuo Jingren mentioned visiting Japan for his adoptive mother’s death anniversary and using this opportunity to get tested in Japan as well. This made Lily a little excited and nervous at the same time. While she was hoping that they would get good results, she was also a little afraid that she would only be disappointed. Of course, Zhuo Jingren knew this and he immediately assured her that everything would be fine.

  "What is my schedule for today?" she asked after a few minutes of staring at the painting.

  "The market research for the new Harmony Isle in China and Singapore was already submitted and is waiting on your table. You have a meeting with Mr. Han later for that project in China that’s budgeted at a billion. This meeting is about his bid as he wanted to get your approval first."

  "What time is this meeting?" Lily asked.

  "1500 our time," Yang Mi answered.

  "Good. Let’s go and shop," Lily said. Unlike Zhuo Jingren, her talents were lacking. She doesn’t know how to draw or paint or play the piano. She also doesn’t know how to cook a good meal or give a very good massage.

  Now that Lily thought about it, she felt a little depressed. She doesn’t have the time to learn all these things. Moreover, she is a little too old to learn. She doesn’t want to embarrass herself by going into classes at this age.

  Lily could only think of one thing that she was good at and that was making money. She knew that her money making skills are on par, if not even above Zhuo Jingren’s skills, and she was planning to use this to give him something.

  However, she fell into another dilemma. Zhuo Jingren already had everything. What else could she give him? For some reason, Fernando’s voice suddenly echoed inside her mind.

  ’Why don’t you give him a lap dance instead?’


  Lily slowly swallowed her nonexistent saliva as she thought about her friends suggestion. A lap dance?

  ’What you need is a good strip dance.’


  Unknowingly, Lily’s face turned scarlet as she continued to think about it. A strip dance? Lily furrowed her brows in annoyance. She is actually considering Fernando’s suggestion, ah! How could she think about this in the middle of the day?

  Lily walked towards her table and grabbed her hand bag. Her lips then slowly curled into a smile which for some reason made Yang Mi shiver. She had been standing so close to Lily that she was able to see Lily’s expression changing. It instantly made her wonder if Lily had been scheming again. However, the smile on Lily’s face suddenly disappeared and was replaced by her usual calm demeanor.

  This immediately made Yang Mi wonder if she was just hallucinating. She decided to shake off these thoughts and follow Lily outside to shop.

  Since Harmony Isle was still under construction, Lily decided to go to another high end mall in the northern part of Hong Kong. This one was called Fair Pagoda Mall. With its Pagoda like structure, this mall was known for having all imported products from Europe and the US.

  This is also the reason why this mall was frequented by most socialites and people from Mainland China.

  After sitting in the car for almost an hour, the first thing that Lily did in the mall was to check out every store. Her goal today was actually to buy some imported lingerie, however, she also decided to check out men’s clothing to see if something would look good on Zhuo Jingren.

  "Aw!" Lily almost dropped all of the bags that she was carrying when someone suddenly bumped into her.

  Lily furrowed her brows as she lifted her head to look at the man with a grumpy expression who was towering over her.

  "You’ve ruined a very expensive keyboard!" the man said coldly. "Tell me how are you going to compensate me for something that was custom made abroad?"

  Lily examined the man in front of her. "How much is it?" Lily asked, her face cold. She could not understand why this man was acting as if he wanted to murder someone just because of a keyboard. Wasn’t this too childish?

  "Woman, I am in a competition tomorrow and this keyboard was made abroad. There is no way that I could buy another one for my competition," the man answered, his face still dark as he stared intently at Lily.

  "Tell me the model, price and manufacturer, I will have it delivered to your doorstep tomorrow," Lily answered. "You were the one who bumped into a small lady like me and yet you have the audacity to ask for compensation. Not that it matters, but I can buy you ten of those keyboards a week." Seeing a flash of shock on the man’s face, Lily continued, "Take it as my condolences for you being so childish at this age."