The agent's chatroom, the one not used for official business but the one agents use for fun boiled into a lively discussion until it became noisy. Sena would check the chatroom from time to time to get a heads up on the latest news in their circle.

However, today, their company seems to be on a hot topic. And not in a positive kind of way. 

Agent 6: See what happens when being too conceited? How embarrassing.

Agent 4: I know they would lose it, it’s good that they get to taste bitterness. At least next time they wouldn’t dare to bite off more than they can chew.  

Sena raised an eyebrow, they’re obviously talking about her and Linda. She’s amazed they still have time to spray on hate when the world is already too busy.

Agent 1: A fifteen-million dollar deal? The rival must be bleeding.

Agent 2: It was supposed to be handled by Sena and Linda but in the end the owner chose Hollyhock. Yi Ran will sell it.

Tch, your Yi Ran will cry a river soon and drown in it. 

Agent 1: Sigh~ those girls probably lacked something that is why they failed at the final step.      

Agent 3: Yeah, they lack the brain.

Agent 2: Hey, that’s below the belt.

Comrade, thank you for that kind word, Sena toasted the person in her heart.

Agent 3: So? It’s true anyway. Those bimbos better pack up and leave. If not for Leonard Tang’s connection do you think they will even have something to sell?”

Agent 2: Are you a moron? Stop running your mouth if you don’t understand something. 

She’s beginning to like this Agent 2.  

Agent 3: What’s wrong with what I said? If not for their pretty face who will come to them?

Agent 1: Then don’t you even ask yourself how are you able to sell with that tragic face of yours? 

Hmm, Agent 1 is not bad as well. 

Agent 3: Asshole.

Agent 2: FYI Linda Banks graduated with excellent grades and has an MBA, Sena Erde finished schooling and had her degree while her peers are still in senior high. She earned her broker’s license just last year. By the way, if Leonard Tang is rich so is Linda Banks. Your commission is not even worth a shoe of those two. Get your shit straight first before running your mouth.

Agent 1: Wow I never thought you look highly of those two.

Agent 2: I only look at skills. It’s rare to see juniors who value work instead of busying themselves throwing crap at others.  

Agent 4: Yi Ran is still the best. He personally goes around looking for possible clients instead of waiting.

Agent 3: Hear that? The Emerald Drive house is proof of how good Yi Ran is. Even Eaton put an offer to his listing. 

Agent 6: OMG, Eaton!? Yi Ran is on another level… unlike some people. 

The two level-headed agents no longer argued, they left the chatroom and let the noise to themselves.           

“Boss? Are we not going to do anything about this?” Elia asked, very distressed, chugging down a cold beer. She had been reading on her phone, getting upset by the minute.

The smell of barbecue and food floated in the whole restaurant making even those who had no appetite salivate. Half of their agents came today to unwind, while the other half were busy either catching on some sleep or preparing for their assigned listings. These worker bees get regular time off with the exemption of Elia and Katya who are still new and have more time than everyone else.

“Umm," she said, pinching a chewy dried squid strip in between her teeth. "Give it six more days, I promise you you'll have another reason to return here with a much happier face.”

Jue did not tell the two girls that their boss had some surprise. Tonight, they came here to enjoy themselves. “Alright, put away all your phones, come on. Let them say whatever they want.”

“I’m just so pissed!” Elia complained sprawling half of her body on the low table.

“You’ll get wrinkles and white hair early.” Sena scared her, making her silent all of a sudden. 

She knew Elia was most afraid of white hair since their family gets them as early as the mid-twenties. Her colleagues gave her a consoling pat on the back. 

Katya sat quietly by the wall while putting the pork belly on the grill. “Sorry boss, the seafood restaurant was full, we couldn’t squeeze in a reservation.”

Sena waved her hand. “No problem. Pork, beef, chicken feet and offals are quite good already. Besides, you haven’t sold the houses yet.”

She’s right, they just started surveying it and contacted the staging company only recently. It hasn’t even been put up in the market yet. 

Everyone looked at their nonchalant little boss sitting cross-legged. She kicked her shoes at the door of their private room, slumped on the mat not caring if she wrinkled her poplin skirt. Plus the smell will cling on their clothes. Right now, the neat and elegant Sena finished chewing on her squid and is about to reach a spicy chicken feet. 

“If you stare at me too much you’re going to lose your appetite,” she said. 

The agents lowered their heads and laughed at her. She had been shoving food into her mouth like a starving refugee, how could they have the heart to rob her of food? 

“Everyone, what are you waiting for? There’s a lot on the table.” 

One by one, they started to dig in, putting away the formalities from the office. The tasty selection of meat plus ice-cold beers is the best to start a weekend. The awkward atmosphere caused by the forum passed, the others who had a little impression of her before started to warm up and they started talking about mundane things. 

This was what she is after exactly, to let everyone loosen up. The rivalry is common but she wouldn’t tolerate intense jealousy and unhealthy grudges. She wanted to make sure that by the time the couple returned, their office was harmonious and compact, not hollow and easy to push.

“Nex time, let’s go to that steak house on the other street.” Elia pointed at the converted warehouse and stopped all of a sudden. “Nevermind.”

Noticing her sudden change of mood, Katya elbowed her gently. “What’s up?”

Elia clicked her tongue and drew in a deep breath. “I just recalled something unpleasant.” 

“You mean your shitty ex-boyfriend and that hussy?” Katya snorted in disdain. 

As a former schoolteacher, Katya’s demeanour had always been gentle and patient but when Elia’s issue was dug up, she would huff and puff for her sake. Sena continues to eat her barbecue skewers but her mind whirring with thoughts about Elia’s dilemma. 

Some time ago she was a regular office employee of a company. She had a stable job, an apartment and a good friend staying with her. The problem started when she dated the owner of a small IT company. Their relationship started sweet until the guy faced a few troubles in business. Because Elia was afraid to leave him alone, she let him stay in her apartment for supervision.   

With her help, it took less than a year for him to completely recover from depression. Because he had a good personality he met plenty of friends on the field who expressed interest in his new business proposal. Encouraged, he took this opportunity that eventually helped him back to his feet. 

However, as he began to start up a new business, his relationship with Elia slowly got affected. What was warm before turned cool, worse, he started seeing Elia as someone overly controlling and naggy. On the other hand, he finds Elia’s good friend's gentle and quiet personality a great contrast to his own girlfriend’s shrewish behaviour.

And just like any other story, this recipe for disaster was made. Leaving her boyfriend and best friend alone while she worked her ass off was like giving them a free ticket to adultery. Unbeknownst to him that if it weren’t for Elia’s hard work of seeking his old friends and asking them for several meetings for his sake how could those people who barely had time off consider him?

When Elia caught him and her good friend wrestling on the bed, she didn’t even get to shed a tear because the good friend began sobbing her heart out like she was the most pitiful victim who had fallen into the snare of love yet unable to escape from it. Her boyfriend who didn’t have a stitch of clothing on him ran to comfort the crying little bird. 

“I thought you were just too stressed,” Elia said almost whispering, “I even though you may not be able to get it up still, I love you.” 

“Can you blame me? You’re always so pushy and noisy it’s stressing me even more!”

Elia sneered, “Fuck you, you impotent bastard. It’s not that you couldn’t get it up, you want an entirely different flavour!”  

Disappointed on top of being heartbroken. Elia brandished her long-cherished baseball bat and waved it at the shitty adulterous pair driving them out two blocks away butt naked.    

“If I ever see you and that cunt within thirty meters near me, I fucking swear to Christ I will give you two a full body massage with this bat!”

Sena chewed slowly while thoughtfully looking at Elia. She's a tough girl born and raised in the Capital City, as a millennial her outlook had always been broad and bold but even so, she’s a girl with a tender heart. Who doesn’t have one, right? 

No matter how carefully you polish your steel armour, in the face of betrayal, your heart will hurt. 

“Ugh, stop thinking about those two.” Katya grumpily pinched her cheek.

“Maybe next time don’t let other people pick your partner for you?” Sena added. 

Elia groaned miserably, “I messed up, not doing it a second-time boss. Those stupid dating parties? Never again.”

“And if you did it again,” Katya rolled her eyes, “Be sure to lend me that bat okay?”

Elia widened her eyes in mock horror, “What, you’re going to help me beat up garbage exes?” 

“No, I’m going to beat you. You suffered the first time, you’re still doing it the second time?” 

Everybody looked at the duo and burst out laughing.  

Rui, one of their openly gay agents pointed the warehouse, “We definitely have to go there next time. The taste is to-die-for.”

“Rui’s right, let’s go there and watch Elia cry her heart out, while we eat. I'm sure it will increase the flavour,” Sena said savagely.

Elia jumped to hug her arm, “Boss, why? I didn’t know you hated me this much.”  

“The sooner you get over it, the better,” she said matter-of-factly. Then the topic shifted to her unknowingly. 

“Boss, what tastes better Michelin star or no Michelin star restaurant?” Jue asked curiously. Everyone knows that their boss, aside from earning money of her own, is also from an obscure wealthy family. Those kinds you don’t usually see on TV and live in an enormous house complete with a stiff old butler— or at least that’s what everybody thought.

Whilst somewhere on the other side of the planet, the Erde family’s faithful old butler sneezed. 

Sena bobbed her head up and spit the chicken feet, “As long as my tongue likes it and my stomach accepts it. Doesn’t matter but for now, it’s no Michelin for me.” 

What’s the use of fancy dinner if it doesn’t connect to your senses giving you happiness and contentment you expect? 

But everyone thought: aren’t you afraid your tender stomach gets upset? Her mother must be crying in the afterlife seeing her baby eat offals on the streets. 

“I’m usually broke I wouldn’t even see meat for more than a month,” Katya said ingratiatingly putting the grilled pork belly on Sena’s plate. “From now on I’ll hang around with Boss.” 

Jue licked his lips looking at the jiggling piece of fat, “Boss do you want another assistant? I promise I’ll work hard.”

They know she already has one but still in the process of training April. 

“I only accept women,” Sena said. 

“Hehe, you don’t know this but I look good in a skirt too.” 

Katya gave him an incredulous look. Bruh, you’re selling your dignity for food?        

 

“Good evening Miss Sena. Barbecue?” Patrick greeted as soon as she crossed the entrance. 

She beamed. “Yes.”

Returning from her happy Friday night, Sena hummed a tune while walking into the spacious lobby lounge of Paragon. On her way to the lift, she saw several uniformed people pushing cartloads of boxes into the building's freight elevator on the inconspicuous left corridor.

New neighbour? 

She chuckled lightly. What neighbour? She could barely even see the person living next door considering there are only two units on their floor. What more of the others? 

Sena smiled at the two people manning the concierge and pressed the key to her floor completely forgetting about what she saw. On her way into her unit Linda called. 

“Sena baby, how are you? I heard about the deal with Emerald Drive. Don’t feel bad sweetie, we still have others if not that one.” 

“I’m not sad, I'm happy they took it away from our hands,” she said.

Linda groaned.

“It’s true, believe me, they won’t be happy for too long,” she said meaningfully. 

Linda realized something from her cheerful voice and light acceptance of things that she is now aware of how their competitors work to press them. 

“That’s good then. Just ignore those noisy people and continue with what you’re doing. I heard you won two deals for our newbies, you’re amazing.” 

Sena entered her password and went inside. “I noticed those two are very capable of handling those listings that is why I decided on them, I hope you don’t mind I did not include your intern.”  

“Shush, it’s your call. Besides, Niko still has her things to do.”

“I promise that Emerald Drive will be the last thing Hollyhock will steal from us. Whatever they owe us, I will return it manifolds.”

Linda couldn’t help laughing. “You can really hold a grudge. By the way, we will be returning tomorrow afternoon. Will you be a dear and come meet us at the airport?”

“You don't have to ask.” 

Sena’s mouth curved into a smile. She just has the perfect wedding gift for the two of them tomorrow. She knew they would return Saturday so she purposefully told Asha and Zhang Min Sunday instead. Sophie may not appear right away but she knows she would wait hours under the scorching heat just to see Leo. 

When she entered the door, April already turned off the computer in the study to heat the soup in the kitchen. The smells of spices floated out chasing her dizziness away.  

“It’s late and you’re still reviewing?” Sena opened the sliding doors and went to the balcony to sit. 

April followed with a bowl of steaming soup on a tray. “The teacher said we will be having an exam on Monday. I’m a little nervous.”

“It’s alright, your quizes had good scores,” Sena told her while putting the bowl on the coffee table. She looked at the city lights blinking back at them and stretched lazily. “It looks like we finally have a neighbour.”  

April nodded, she noticed when housekeeping came this afternoon to clean. This apartment tower has very few residents. Neighbours were hard to see especially from the 62nd level upwards which are duplexes. Aside from that, each floor only has two enormous units. 

She always thought the apartments she saw on TV and magazines were most beautiful but compared to Aiguelle’s Paragon Residence, those rather looked ordinary compared to its scale, view and interior design. 

April suddenly wondered, just how wealthy is her boss? She doesn’t have a single bodyguard, not even a driver. What if something happens? Maybe she needs to study self-defence aside from being an assistant. A thin layer of sweat covered her forehead despite the howling cool wind. 

With the soup to warm her belly, Sena quickly felt sleepy. She waved April goodnight and climbed up the stairs to her room. 

Outside, their new neighbour’s moving company is still busy arranging all the things needed for the place. Thanks to the excellent soundproofing, their sleep wasn't disturbed by all that banging, pulling and drilling.

As early as 6:00 am, Sena woke up and donned her sportswear to hit the ten-acre forest park near their building. She could have used the residence’s fitness area but exercising with her scarce neighbours felt bleak so she decided against it. 

It’s good to be back. 

Hollyhock Brokerage. They have an old score to settle. A cold mirthless smile pulled at her lips when she thought of the bait she threw. Sure enough, as soon as they sniffed at something tasty they snapped their jaws. 

Outside a sleek black Audi A8 crawled towards the driveway just as Sena exited. The person reading a newspaper inside happened to raise his head and caught sight of the beauty in grey activewear. 

Her hair in ponytail flying, the small decadent face is bright and those lips pulled into a mischievous smile. He thought it was stunning but couldn’t help thinking it was a bit creepy as well. It was as though the pretty girl was carefully sharpening her machete and was preparing to chop someone up. 

Whoever that poor fellow is, he better start running.

 

On the plane, Linda leaned on Leo’s shoulder while flipping through the menu for their breakfast. She wasn’t hungry and the food didn’t rouse her appetite either but Leo wanted her to eat something at least.

“Orange juice and chicken sandwich will do,” she said to the flight attendant waiting on the side. 

She had been there standing like a sentry with her hawk-like gaze hovering over her husband’s face. Linda felt funny, it doesn't matter if the guy is married as long as shameless women think it’s alright to look they will even breach the most basic etiquette. 

“Do you want more blankets?” Leo asked her when her cold fingers poked his collar bones. 

She looked up to him brushing her lips to his jaw purposefully. “No need, you’re the most comfortable heater there is.”

A rumble of laughter from his chest echoed to her ears. Leo adjusted his left arm circling it on her shoulders and kissed her forehead. “Little sticky rice, we’re still on the plane. Please have mercy.”

“What? I wasn’t doing anything.” she pouted feigning innocence. 

Heh, as if! Leo wanted to complain. Those twin mountains were delectably squished on his chest. The poor little things were asking for help, they couldn’t breathe. His eyes were glued to milky white mounds when the attendant came again with the tray. The couple did not even look at her.

“Is there anything--”

“That’s all, you may close the curtain,” Leo ordered monotonously.

The attendant frowned and bit her lip. CEO Tang looks cold on the outside but the woman was lucky to be pampered by him. Why can’t it be her? She felt even bitter when he used a hard tone when speaking to her. Was he mad because she disturbed them? He even wanted to close the curtain! 

From inside she heard the giggle of his companion. Linda’s sexy voice sounded annoying to her ears. Doesn’t that woman have an ounce of dignity? 

If it were her, she would act more modest than press up with him like a slut. Irritated, the FA rolled her eyes and walked away.

“Love, don’t you find Sophie’s behaviour at the banquet weird?” Linda asked.

Leo scratched the underside of her smooth chin. “Her? I know she had always been odd but I did not expect she would do something to Sena right at the celebration.”

“So you did notice.”

“How could I not? Ever since Sena started hanging out with their lot she started acting strangely. I have no proof of it but my gut tells me it is not something nice. The good thing is that Sena seems to have awoken from that daze on her own. Truth be told it’s hard to convince that kid sometimes.”

Leo kneaded the side of his temple. Just imagining having a verbal spar with Sena gives him a load of headache. By god, she is the most mule-headed creature he met, much worse than his grandfather. And because of this first-hand experience, in the near future, Leo is much calmer and more adept into handling his own daughter’s fit. 

“Sophie, she seems to like you.” Linda said looking at her beautifully manicured nails. 

“Is my little rice cake alarmed?”

Linda pinched his arm. 

“Aw, aw, alright…” he groaned. Then he sighed, “I’m not blind. What she wanted to do with Sena is clear to me. Her whole family had been under the delusion of latching onto our line just because grandfather looks at old sentiments, if not me there is still Chang’an. If she dares move again, then her family can only pack up and leave this city or else,”  

Linda nodded. As a woman, she is very sensitive to those who have ill-designs for her husband. Sophie’s gaze was blatantly obvious for the three of them. She would warmly gaze at Leo with all her heart while she would look at her as if she had stolen something precious she owns. As for Sena? The audacious woman would look at their baby as though she wasn’t much more than a pebble. How laughable. 

By two in the afternoon their plane finally arrived at the capital’s airport. Sena and April had been waiting for them at the cafe in the arrival area.