143 Better Be Safe Than Sorry

It was Saturday and Lily decided to catch up on some paperwork that had been piling up. It had been a rather busy week.

Last night, Lily ended up not sending another text message to Zhuo Jingren. To her surprise, the latter did not contact her too. Lily didn't think she would get upset about Zhuo Jingren's lack of response but she did. Was it reasonable? No. But this would give her a good reason to tease him a little.

She knew that Zhuo Jingren was returning soon and she was planning to intentionally ignore him the moment when he appears in front of her with his silly smile. She was sure that this would make Zhuo Jingren panic and perhaps this would make him forget about her "I miss you too" text message.

Lily was sure that her plan was foolproof. In fact, she was all prepared to go through with her plan and laugh at his reaction when Zhuo Jingren returns tomorrow. With this in mind, Lily chuckled before she continued working.

After lunch, Lily spent most of her afternoon out and about with Yang Mi. They visited the site of their new headquarters which was currently undergoing renovation. They also went to check the progress of the renovation and construction of the new Harmony Isle.

"President, some news outlets received a tip-off about Tang Wei Dong's history of abusing drugs. Some preliminary articles were released but they are validating the information. The Tang family have also been calling their contacts and trying to find out who could be plotting against them," Yang Mi said as she handed Lily a tablet when their car stopped at the traffic light. The tabs to the mentioned news articles were conveniently opened in the browser.

It was six in the evening and Yang Mi was driving Lily back to Sky City. They were calling it a day. Lily accepted the tablet and immediately started reading some of the articles online.

"Social media can be a scary thing," she uttered. 'That's the power of social media. It has the ability to destroy a person,'' Lily thought to herself, speaking from her own personal experience.

"Have George Arison called you regarding the Tangs?" she asked.

George Arison had been eyeing the criminal network in the Far East for a long time now but it had not been easy to enter the market and grab a share of the pie. Since the Tang family was going down, the criminal groups they have control over in Mainland China and Hong Kong would be up for grabs. Lily immediately thought of giving George the chance to seize it all for himself.

'Loot a burning house.'

Facing internal conflicts and confusion, the Tang family was weakening, making it the best time to attack. And Lily would leave it to George to launch the final attack that would rip the Tang family completely apart.

It wasn't as if George didn't know that Lily was using him against the Tang family while she distanced herself from the attack. But he didn't care because this was a win-win situation and he would benefit in the end. Taking over the Tang family's criminal network was not a bad idea at all.

Of course, Lily would also take measures to ensure that George would come out unscathed from his attack on the Tang family.

"Yes president, he is in Singapore now but he can fly in any moment you tell him to," Yang Mi answered.

Lily just nodded in response before closing her eyes to rest. After a few minutes, the car arrived at Sky City. Lily got out of the car and headed straight into the elevator.

"Are you new here?" A man who was in the elevator with Lily asked. He seemed to be around Lily's age.

"Hmmm…" Lily answered without sparing the man a glance.

"Funny…" the man said, making Lily turned her head to look at him. She couldn't help but to do a double take at the man. This man seemed to be as tall as Zhuo Jingren and he looked... pretty. In fact, she might even believe that this was a woman dressed in a man's clothes.

"I thought we look somewhat alike," the man said while staring intently at Lily. Lily looked blankly at the man and blinked a few times. "Now that you are staring at me like that… I am not sure anymore." He chuckled before he held out his hand to Lily, seemingly wanting to shake her hand. "I am Qin-"

'DING'

"Oh look at that. I should be off now, Miss-someone-who-looks-like-me." The man with the last name Qin gave Lily a laugh and a wink before he strode out of the elevator and hummed a tune that Lily was not familiar with.

Lily kept her eyes on the back of the guy until the elevator door closed, her face full of confusion. Because the elevator had opened just as the guy was introducing himself, she was not able to hear the guy's full name. For some reason, she thought that she had heard him say 'Qin'.

Lily decided not to dwell too much on this as she had a lot of other things on her mind. She would rather use the time to think about her next plans than to think about some random guy who shared a slight resemblance to her.

'DING'

Lily immediately took her key card to tap on the card reader to open the elevator door which had a direct access to their apartment.

Lily walked inside slowly and then she stopped to remove the heels from her feet. Lily loved wearing heels that were at least five inches high to make her look taller. However, vanity came with a price. After a long day of wearing such high heels, Lily's feet hurt and she was also exhausted.

'Maybe I'm getting old,' she chuckled at her own thoughts before the sound of soft piano music reached her ears. She immediately furrowed her brow but her feet automatically led her towards the living room.

Lily tightened her grip on her stilettos that she was still holding in her hand while she slowly put her bag on the floor. Her senses were heightened as she shifted the stilettos around in her hand, making sure to position the sharp ends of her stilettos outward so that she could use them to attack.

However, just before Lily reached the living room, she froze. Wait a minute, what if it was Zhuo Jingren at home and not an intruder? Would an intruder play the piano and alert her of his presence? Wasn't she just overreacting?

'Alright. Time to put on a show,' Lily composed herself. Even though she had convinced herself that it couldn't have been an intruder at home, she still didn't put down the stilettos in her hands. 'Better be safe than sorry,' a thought quickly flashed past in her mind.

Lily was so engrossed in her thoughts that she did not notice that the music had stopped. She naturally did not notice that someone had also sneaked up on her.

"Gotcha!" A pair of strong arms suddenly hugged her from behind, making Lily jumped on her feet. She instinctively used the stilettos in her hands to strike the arm of the person who hugged her.

"Aw… aw… Hey stop. It's me!" Zhuo Jingren said, however his hug did not even loosen a little. Instead he seemed to be using a little more strength to hug her tighter.

"Oh my god!" Lily exclaimed before she threw away her stilettos and moved out of his arms. "Zhuo Jingren! How could you sneak up on me like that!" She glared at him before she noticed his bloodied arm. Her eyes immediately turned gentle before she let out a sigh.

"I'm sorry," Lily uttered, feeling a little guilty for causing him pain. However, to her surprise the latter just smiled at her before pulling her again into a hug.

…

Editor: Swaning