Don’t Be a Kept Man

to say it? It’s not not negotiable.”

“Nevermind.”

Lu Qi was scared of him now, thinking that he really can’t rile up this shameless hooligan.

Huo Ming Cheng had told everyone that he was heading out of the country for business.
In reality he had ordered the services of a private detective to investigate the entire 15 years of Huo Yuan Guang’s life.

It turned out that Huo Yuan Guang had lost his right to inherit the company and was banished outside the country because he had used company funds to buy drugs.
This was discovered by another rival company, and they almost exposed it to the media.
The Huo family had paid quite a few favors and money to hide the news.
But the stocks had fallen quite hard, and it took quite a few years to recover.

Originally their great grandfather had decided to cut him off from the family and secretly sent Huo Yuan Guang straight to the police.
He made Huo Yuan Guang enter a drug rehabilitation center and once he was out, he was banished to America.
This banishment became a period of 15 years.

According to the report from the private detective, Huo Yuan Guang had been very quiet during the years he had been out of the country.
He was reliant on but still lived pretty well with the money their grandfather sent over monthly.
Just doing some gardening and going on walks, very normal activities.

But it was so normal that it made people suspicious……

If Huo Yuan Guang was someone at peace like it said on the report, why would he be back now and trying to find all sorts of ways to get into the company? Why would he use their grandfather’s pity to allow his connections to meet with shareholders of the company in secret?

For Huo Ming Cheng, the ability to sit on this throne of power was not just dependent on being blood related to the family.
For the right to inherit, that’s never enough.
He pondered and pondered and then suddenly opened his eyes and said to his secretary,

“Huang Yi… I believe they have already started construction.
Bring a copy of their accounts to me.
I’m going to verify it.”

The secretary followed his orders as told and returned with the accounting statements.
Huo Ming Cheng carefully looked over the paperwork, verifying it line by line but did not find any problems.
He could only push down his suspicions for now.

Lu Yuan was new to the company and was specified by name by the Huo’s family second son to take care of her.
So Secretary Lee did not give her too many jobs, mostly little things like photocopying paperwork or brewing coffee, and so forth.

Of course Lu Yuan did not forget Lu Qi’s request.
She kept her eye on Huo Yuan Guang, but the other’s position was too high in power, and she did not have a good excuse to be near him.
Almost the entire work day passed by before she saw his face, and it was the kind of meeting where they passed by each other in the hallways while in a hurry.

Lu Yuan took off her glasses, and spaced out in her seat.
Her attractive face in the shine of the bright white office lights gave her an aura of coldness, which somehow made her more entrancing.
Tonight, every department had to work overtime, and at this specific time of night, the supervisor had gone out for dinner.
A male colleague who could not withhold his interest anymore came over to flirt,

“Ah, the new hot girl.
What’s your name? Let’s get to know each other.”

Lu Yuan lifted her eyes, and seeing that it was a colleague in the same floor, smiled politely and nodded her head,

“Hi, I’m Lu Yuan.
Yuan as in fate.”

Seeing that she did not have the intention to shake hands, the other male colleague did not mind and said with a smile,

“I’m Guo Kang.
Worked here for about 6 years now.
If you have anything you don’t understand, you can come ask me.”

Hearing this, Lu Yuan turned to look at him,

“Really?”

And then scooted closer to him in her chair, and lowered her voice, in a tone that meant she didn’t feel mean to trouble him,

“Actually, um, my memory’s not that great.
Today’s my first day, and when I first came here, I heard them say this president Huo and that president Huo, and I’m getting dizzy from this confusion.”

Guo Kang took it in stride, and showed off like he was one of the founding members,

“Oh, and here I thought it was something else.
Well, just remember this.
Our company’s chairman is president Huo.
His uncle, hmm, is the vice chairman.”

He placed heavy emphasis on the word “vice”, and added,

“Oh right, there’s another little president Huo which is the chairman’s younger brother.
But him, he’s still in university.
Doesn’t always come to the company.”

Lu Yuan looked to be deep in thought and was about to say something else when she saw Guo Kang run away like a mouse hiding from a cat, and quickly scooted back to her desk.
She cautiously looked behind her and found that Secretary Lee was standing behind her, for who knows how long.

“There is still 1 hour and 32 minutes before the end of the workday.
This is not the time for you to be chatting.”

The man was dressed in an all black suit, and there were no wrinkles or flyaways from his hair to his shoes.
He was so serious looking that it made his somewhat attractive face turn into a stern rule abiding man.
As the highest ranking secretary of Huo Ming Cheng, his words were definitely loaded with weight.

“I apologize.”

Lu Yuan quickly admitted to her fault, and ducked her head, pretending to organize some files.
It wasn’t until she heard those leather shoes clacking away that she finally let out a sigh of relief.