67 THE FIRST OF MANY THINGS (1/2)

The night before, while Yun Peng sat up in bed with his laptop seating on his lap, Xiao Maiguo had lay down with his face to the door and his back to the former. What had initially started as a temper tantrum had grown into a day, then two days, and now, almost a week of giving Yun Peng the silent treatment.

At first, Yun Peng had cared. Or perhaps, he had pretended to. He had apologized with a bouquet of roses. Unaffected, Xiao Maiguo had walked out on him and his perfumed bouquet. After the first day, Yun Peng had started to act like he didn't notice Xiao Maiguo.

Xiao Maiguo had gotten pissed and had decided to punish him. He had deliberately fired a couple of staffs from Yun Peng's department to give him a hard time. His plan had backfired as Yun Peng—according to him—used the excuse of a lot of workload to stay away from home. To Xiao Maiguo's annoyance, went to work in the early hours of morning and returned very late.

On this particular morning, when Xiao Maiguo had woken up to Yun Peng's absence, he was immediately thrown into a foul mood. He had started to long for Yun Peng's presence. He wanted to kiss him and wrap his arms around his neck. He wanted Yun Peng to drive him to work.

Xiao Maiguo reluctantly dragged himself to the bathroom. Inside, he stared at the little mirror that hung above his bathroom sink. His eyes were sunken and had dark circles underneath them. Like he hadn't been sleeping well. Although he made a mental note to cover the circles under his eyes with some makeup, he didn't follow through. He was too worn-out and frankly didn't care much.

Xiao Maiguo's mood spiralled further downwards when he arrived at his office and noticed his secretary wasn't at her table. He didn't really care if she was late; all that mattered was that she was absent and there was no-one to get him coffee. He looked on her table, which was quite messy, grabbed a pen and paper and boldly wrote the words, 'You're Fired' on it.

After grabbing his cup of coffee by himself, he entered his office and was immediately transfixed to the spot in which he was standing. The figure of a well-dressed, blonde-haired man was standing by a wall, looking down at the city through its clear, clean glass.

The man was seemingly entranced by the view of the city as he failed to realize the presence of someone else in the office.

Staring at the man's attractively broad shoulders, Xiao Maiguo cleared his throat, then asked, ”Can I help you?”

The man turned his head to the left, as if to look at Xiao Maiguo. But his movement was ever so slight that even the side profile of his face wasn't visible. In a deep voice that sounded like music, he replied in English, ”Only you can help me now.”

Xiao Maiguo immediately recognized the voice and accent. This person. It couldn't be...

Ben turned around slowly. With a coy smile on his face, he shook his head and asked, ”You really didn't think you could run away from me, right?”

”How... How did you find me?” Xiao Maiguo asked, his surprise evident.

”Fairly simple, actually.” Ben said and walked towards the office table. He seated himself on Xiao Maiguo's chair and continued. ”This app on my phone can read people's true caller ID and it showed me your real name. I copied the result into Baidu and found more information about you than I had dreamed.”

Xiao Maiguo shook his head in dismay. This Ben had to be psychotic.

Ben proceeded to tell Xiao Maiguo everything he had learnt about him. ”You're a third-generation heir to the Xiao Dongyuan group of companies. The company was founded by your grandfather, taken over by your father and will be taken over by your elder brother in the future.”

Xiao Maiguo frowned. ”Who let you in here?”

Ben stood up and pointed a finger at Xiao Maiguo. ”I meant to talk to you about that. For a company as big as this, the security here is quite lousy. Your door was just open. Like, anyone can just walk in here.”

Xiao Maiguo rolled his eyes. If he could fire his secretary again, he really would. He hadn't noticed how negligent she was until today. ”That wasn't what I meant. I meant, who let you into the premises? You aren't given access unless you show your ID.”

”Oh! I showed my ID. No-one refuses me access whenever and wherever I show my ID.” Ben walked towards Xiao Maiguo and handed him his ID card.

Xiao Maiguo inspected the ID card, then gave Ben a suspicious glare. ”You. You aren't really Benjamin Daylight, are you?”

”No, I am.” Ben snickered cockily. ”I am the owner of the Daylight Global Freelance Platform; the biggest freelance platform in the world. How can anyone deny me access into any building? I could want anything?”

Talking to Ben had taken Xiao Maiguo's mind off Yun Peng and improved his mood a bit. He sighed, then asked. ”What do you want?”

”To go on a date with you, of course. But first, you have to unblock my number.” Ben said, then traced a finger along Xiao Maiguo's cheeks.

Xiao Maiguo recoiled from Ben's finger. He walked to his table and sat on its edge. ”I'm not going on a date with you. I'm in a committed relationship and I'm not going to compromise that for anything.”