:: Soon ::

We have just finished a meeting at the client's site. Mr Abdur is happy with our technical support services and is pleased to extend the duration of our contract from three months to a year. I have also proposed some security upgrades to the company's firewall, and he says with a beam on his face that he will consider my proposal.

I am thinking of how we may celebrate our victory when Dewey informs me of the impending interviews at the office this afternoon. With the smug look on his face, I know I am in for a surprise. I clearly remember the stack of curriculum vitae on the desk that I have gone through one night, and that Xiaoxian and Shan Hanyu are among the candidates for the internship. Apart from interns, Dewey is also hiring for a few vacancies, a joint decision between the two of us.

Mila, with her former experience as a hiring manager, is responsible for filtering out the best candidates. She has already completed the first round of interviews this morning. Once we get back to the office, she will let us know the outcome on the shortlisted candidates for the internship and her recommendation.

I am confident that one of the candidates that were filtered out for the interviews had to be Shan Hanyu, given his individual qualities in accounting and working with digits, one of my weaknesses. Though I detest Shan Hanyu, I do realise that in this life and my previous life, Shan Hanyu has always been a fast learner and intelligent individual.

The only thing the previous Shan Hanyu lacked was proper anticipation and judgment, and his tendencies to make risky investment decisions. In this life, it was too early for me to determine if he would make the same mistakes that he did before.

Work is work, and I should not take my issues with Shan Hanyu into accord.

..................…

In a magnificent castle-like mansion, a man with murderous aura lounged on a high chair. The walls of the mansion are painted a dull grey and a few lifelike hanging paintings look lonely on the almost-empty walls. Men scurried around the area like rats, while some others rushed into the room to serve the man with porcelain plates of fruit.

It was said that the young master of the house had a humongous appetite for anything sweet. Grapes, peaches, dark plums, and the sweetest of fruits - all nicely sliced for his consumption were arranged in these plates.

Cullen Fu was probably not what he appeared to be in front of everybody. He had invested time and effort in building the image he wanted others to believe. Yet, the true Cullen Fu was a mystery.

"Bring her in," he whispered in a deep voice to his trusted assistant, Silas. As a young boy, Silas was handpicked among a group of specially trained agents, he was loyal to Cullen only and was willing to die for him. He was a man of a few words, but adept in quick moves that could decapitate a foe within seconds. He and Cullen had a relationship built on trust and a connection.

Silas nodded silently and left the room. Not long after, the door opened and a young woman in a gag and with her hands bound behind her was shoved into the room. Silas took his place beside Cullen, looking calm and unemotional.

"So, the spy has infiltrated the Fu mansion," Cullen laughed menacingly. The woman struggled but was unable to break free from her bonds. On a closer look, she has dressed very appropriately for a spy - a black leather dress and noiseless flats that also allowed her to climb in. Cullen did not see the need to question how she got in, albeit his high-security measures. Once there was a will, there was a way.

As with the previous spies that were sent by his previous enemies to seduce or harm him, Cullen did not have to interrogate them to obtain the information he needed. Simply because he was Cullen, and nothing in the world could escape his eyes.

Like with Shengyi, the girl today had somewhat striking eyes. However, Cullen considered that she could not hold a candle to Shengyi in terms of looks or figure. Shengyi was not like the other women he had met, and she had a character of her own. As beautiful as the spy today was, she was nothing to him. But maybe, he would have a use for her in the future.

The girl shuddered as Cullen decreased the distance between them, forcing her into a corner. Her chest throbbed as fear and panic consumed her. She would have not been afraid of death normally, but this time, her fear was distinct. Something about Cullen's dark aura threatened and devastated her.

Cullen easily seized her chin and coerced her to look into his eyes. Instilling fear into his victims was one of his secret abilities, but what the spy was about to experience tonight was far from just that.

The loud pattering of raindrops on the glass panes of the mansion encompassed the shrill screams from the girl, inaudible by any person in the vicinity. With one last scream, the girl plummeted onto the cold marble floor of the mansion, unconscious.

Silas lifted the limp body of the girl and removed her from the room.

"Let her live," Cullen said before his assistant left the room. "We will have a use for her in future."

Silas understood what he had to do.

Watching the midnight rain outside his window, Cullen said aloud, as if speaking to someone next to him, "Soon. Very Soon."

These were words that would sound unique to someone else that he held dear in his heart, and yet she wasn't aware of his existence.

Turning to the notebook computer on his bedside table, he powered it on to reveal a webpage that he was browsing the night before.

"Today, 11th November 2011, marks a new milestone for Shengyi Corporation as a contract is signed with Ramani Industries. Mr Abdur, CEO of Ramani Industries, says he looks forward to working with Shengyi Corporation as they have given him 'something other providers have failed to give him'..."

In just nine months, Shengyi Corporation had obtained a significant number of accolades in recognition for their excellent delivery and after-sales services. The span of a year was about to come to an end soon, but was Cullen closer to achieving what he wanted?

It felt like almost years since he had last seen Shengyi, but the last words he had heard from her, telling him to stop, had made him understand a bit about her. Perhaps the only way he could get closer to her was to persevere. And perseverance was not one of his best qualities.

She likely didn't understand. In her mind, she cared too much about the threat that Fu Technologies posed to her Shengyi Corporation, but how could he make her feel differently about him?

For a man like Cullen Fu who every woman desired but was unable to get, there had to be one Lu Shengyi - a woman who would do all she could to resist him and push him away. Nevertheless, this was the part about her that made her stand out in his heart - because she was not like the others.

There was ample time. One day, she would fall for him, he was sure. He would be patient and watch her from afar and see for himself how long she could go on being uninterested in him. Because one day, he knew he could change everything she thought about him. In the end, nobody, not even Lu Shengyi could escape his dangerous clutches.

Shengyi, Shengyi.

He breathed her name as he inhaled and exhaled, smiling silently in the darkness of his room. It was all too profound for her to fathom right now. But in time, everything should clarify itself.

And eventually, she would come to be that woman that he would not be able to leave behind. He had discarded and ignored many women, from celebrities to his business associates and lastly, the entrepreneur who thought she could wrap him around her finger. Well, she thought wrong.

Each of these women did not seem to have a lasting presence in his heart, although, at one point, they did serve as solace to his needs and desires.

He felt no remorse for their broken hearts - and in some cases, this was remedied with the riches he didn't care much for. Except for the woman who had created a scene just outside the Registry, most of the women considered the end of their relationship an amicable separation.

With Shengyi, he wanted something different altogether. He wished for her to take him on a journey to discover what she enjoyed and disliked in life, but like in those slow levelling-up games, to get the attention someone like her was what gamers called a 'long grind'.

As he knew, it was only a matter of time.

Soon, the opportunity would arise.