Chris had always snubbed Freya and treated her with disdain. But seeing her appearance right now, he could not even bring himself to snub her.

Freya stood up and stomped into the bathroom angrily. Before she closed the door, she told Chris, "Answer the door when the delivery gets here."

"Mm," Chris said. She closed and locked the door. Looking into the mirror, she noticed how swollen her eyes were. After a bout of self-mocking, she came to a resolve and began to salvage a semblance of her appearance by applying some of her skincare products. After that, she drew herself a bath and slid into the bathtub.

Half an hour later, a knock was heard on the bathroom door. Following the knock, Chris's voice sounded. "Freya, I don't have cash on me. Where's your purse?"

"You can find some cash in the leftmost drawer of the TV cabinet."

Chris opened the small drawer and saw a litter of cash and coins in it. He did not even have to ask her to know that Freya had no idea how much money contained in the drawer.

After paying for the delivery, Chris took the food into the dining room. She had ordered four different dishes with a well-balanced proportion between meat and vegetables. There were also two bowls of carrot beef soup, which looked absolutely tantalizing and gave out an enticing aroma.

Well, at least Freya would never screw up when it came to food.

He laid out the bowls and chopsticks on the table. "Freya, how much longer are you going to take?"

"I'm done!"

Freya emerged from the bathroom. It appeared that she had just finished soaking in the bath and was now casually dressed in a pale blue loungewear. Her long, curly tresses were tied together haphazardly with a black rubber band. Her face was free of any makeup. Right now, she was a complete contrast to her usual glowing and glamorous self. Still, her beautiful face looked totally lush and creamy, as if the creaminess of her skin could drip off her face if he reached out to touch her. She looked like a typical 24-year-old woman, full of youthful energy and vigor.

Chris could not help but do a double-take.

"What, starting to think that I look like your wife?" Freya asked smugly.

Chris answered her comment with a cold sneer. He tore open the packaging of the chopsticks and handed a pair to her.

Freya took the chopsticks with a confused look on her face. "What was that laugh supposed to mean, hm?"

Chris did not have the mood to discuss the topic any further. He took a sip of soup. "Where do you plan to go this afternoon?" he asked.

"Nowhere. I'm going to stay home and catch up on sleep!" Freya said. "I have to do a photo shoot for Vogue tomorrow," Freya on. "My manager will strangle me to death if she saw me right now."

"If you sleep during the afternoon, will you be able to sleep at night?" Chris said, mocking her intelligence.

"Hm, guess that's kinda true," Freya thought. If she was unable to fall asleep tonight, she would look even more terrible tomorrow.

She bit her lip hesitantly. "Chris, what are you suggesting?"

"Come with me to the company after brunch," Chris said. "I need you to translate a document for me. It's written in Japanese." Freya was fluent in quite a number of foreign languages. Aside from English, the Japanese language was another language that she excelled in; she could totally become a corporate translator if she chose to.

"What happen to your company's translator?" Freya asked curiously.

"Took a sick leave," Chris said. "I need that document tomorrow."

"Why should I help you?" Freya said, sneering inwardly. "It'll look like I'm there just because you asked. What about my pride and dignity?"

"You owed me a favor. I brought you home this morning, remember?" Chris stared at her. "If it weren't for me, you'd probably wake up in Brian's garage today."

Freya smiled. "But aren't you forgetting something? If you ask me to be your translator, don't you think you'll be giving your employees the wrong idea about us?"

A smirk tugged at the corner of Chris's lips. "They would most probably think that you're the one who kept pestering me to give you a job."

"fuck you!" Freya was enraged, this time for real. "Chris, can you not act like such a profiteer for once in your life?! I'm warning you. If I see Maya, I'll tell her that you and I had spent the night together. Hell, I'll tell her that we had spent the morning together too!"

Chris picked up a napkin and wiped his mouth. It was like he did not have a single care in the world. "You can tell her whatever you want. Hurry up. We'll leave in fifteen minutes."

"Weird. He really doesn't seem all that worried about what Maya will think," Freya thought. "But isn't Maya his girlfriend? If I act like a scheming bitch and deliberately cause a misunderstanding between him and Maya, shouldn't he be strangling me by now and warning me not to mess around with his woman?"

Damn. The imposing, overbearing heroes portrayed in those 8 o'clock soap operas were outright lies!

"Fine, whatever! I'll go!" Freya set down her chopsticks with a loud smack. "If you yourself aren't afraid, what's there for me to be worry about?"

She returned to her bedroom to get changed. She put on light makeup too. When she came out, she realized that Chris had changed into a business suit as well. Unable to keep her curiosity at bay, she asked, "Don't tell me you brought a change of clothes yesterday for the match."

"Nope," Chris said as he adjusted his necktie. "Jack brought it here just now."

Ka-Boom! Freya felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck her right where she stood.

Jack was Chris's assistant. He was also the one whom Freya was most familiar with among Chris's numerous employees. Apparently, she was familiar enough with Jack for him to know her address. If Chris had asked Jack to send a change of clothes to her apartment...

"Oh, damn!" Freya sagged to the floor and heaved a sigh. "This time, there's no way I can avoid suspicion now, not even if I dive straight into the Yellow River."

"Isn't this what you want before?" Chris was far more composed compared to her. He pulled her to her feet and said, "Let's go."

...

Everbridge Group.

After he had brought Chris a change of clothes, Jack returned to the company. By the time he got there, he was still in a puzzled state. That was when he ran into the vice manager.

As Chris's special assistant, Jack was always calm and composed. He would always be able to keep a cool head regardless of the kind of situation that was thrown at him. That was why it was rare to see him in such a confused state. "Special Assistant Chen, what's the matter with you?" asked the vice manager.

"Do you know that I went to send President Su a change of clothes just now?" Jack said, grasping the vice manager's arm. Then, Jack unloaded all the suspicion he was feeling to the vice manager. "But do you know where President Su was? He was at Miss Norris's home!"

Not a single hint of surprise could be detected on the vice manager's face. "Oh. I thought you already know. I think President Su and Miss Norris are an item."

"Huh?" Jack was still in a blur. "Where did you hear that from?"

"I saw it!" said the vice manager. "The day before yesterday, I saw President Su buying breakfast for Miss Norris at our apartment's cafeteria. I didn't know where they went last night, but this morning I saw President Su carrying Miss Norris back to her apartment. Will they act so intimately around each other if they aren't an item?"

It took Jack quite a while to process everything. "Man, the rules of the game change so quickly in this world. I mean, he was still giving her the cold shoulder just a few days ago! And now he's suddenly dating her?"

The vice manager patted Jack's shoulder. "Well, just get used to it."

That was how the news that Chris was currently dating Freya made it to the company's grapevines.

Not that Chris did not have girlfriends in the past; he had dated powerful businesswomen, beautiful show hosts, and clear-headed lawyers. Still, the most highly discussed aspect of his personal life involved the one and only woman who had pursued him - Freya.

There were some employees in the company who had long since predicted that Freya would eventually win over their President Su and become their Mrs. President. On the other hand, there were some who thought that things never work out between Chris and Freya.

Now that those two were finally together, one could imagine the ruckus such a news would cause.

Unsurprisingly, Maya found out about the rumour as well.

Ever since Maya was transferred to the Marketing Department, people had been talking behind her back, saying that her plans to seduce Chris had failed. People were mocking and laughing at her behind her back, she knew at least that much. Still, for the sake of remaining by Chris's side, she had silently endured.

Now that there were rumours claiming that Chris was dating Freya, Maya was no longer the subject of other people's teasing. Instead, people were now looking upon her with pity.

Bullshit! They could all shove their pity up their asses!

She would not believe that Chris and Freya were an item unless she saw them with her own eyes!

Of course, there were also rationalists among the employees who shared Maya's view regarding the veracity of the rumor. Unlike others who believed in the rumor, this group had insisted that the lie would eventually crumble on its own. But an hour later, Freya and Chris showed up at the company together.

This time around, it was obviously not the case that Freya had come to him, but it was Chris himself who had brought Freya here instead!

Just like that, the rumors had been verified; Maya nearly broke the pen in her hand.

Freya had a weird feeling the moment she arrived. She had been here many times before, but today... it seemed to her that all the employees were giving her strange looks.

Before this, everyone had always greeted her with the usual "Oh, you're here?". But today, what she got from them were meaningful and pointed smiles, all of which confounded her to no end. There were even some who told her, "Freya, congratulations!"

She was completely befuddled. Was this about the bet she had placed on Germany yesterday? Did they find out that she had won some money from the bet yesterday?

She had no other choice but to smile politely at those greetings and respond with, "Thanks, thanks."

Once they got into the elevator, Freya could no longer hold back her curiosity. She asked Chris, "What's going on with your company's employees? Are you encouraging a new company policy where the employees should 'smile at others strangely'?"

Actually, Chris knew precisely what was going on. Then again, Freya would not understand it even if he told her now. Considering her personality, she would probably run around the entire company just to explain herself if he told her.

Yeah. As if he would allow her to destroy all the effort he had put in to contrive these circumstances.

"You're overthinking," Chris said flatly. "They've always acted like this. You haven't been here for quite a while, so maybe you forgot."

"Is that so?" Freya did not bother to dwell on it any further. "Fine, then. Maybe I am overthinking it."

They entered Chris's office where he gave her a laptop and a folder. Opening the folder and scanning its contents, she noted that the papers contained a lot of confidential information about Everbridge Group. Her heart jumped at what she read and she stared at Chris. "You're giving me access to such an important document? Aren't you afraid that I would spill all your secrets?"

Chris sat down nonchalantly and smiled at her. "Freya, you don't have the guts to do that."

Freya cursed at him. "Slight me again, and I'll reveal this document's contents to your competitors!"

Chris gave her a pointed and cryptic smile. "This time, my competitor is Travis," he said.

For a brief moment, Freya was at a loss for words. When Chris was acting like this, she could not help but feel that there was a deeper meaning when he told her that his competitor was Travis.

"Nah... There's no way it's what I think it means," she thought.

She chuckled. "Oh? What a coincidence."

"It's not a coincidence at all," Chris said. "Everbridge Group and Clark Enterprise had always been competitors. The competition between us this time is inevitable."

"So, this time..." Freya asked hesitatingly. "Who will win?"

Chris answered with his own question. "Who do you hope will win?"

Travis was her good buddy. Chris was the man she loved the most. Freya had no idea whom she wanted as the final victor. She rolled her eyes at Chris. "You know what? I hope for world peace and for everyone to live in prosperity. Satisfied?"

She could not come up with a good answer, so she changed the subject.

Chris did not try to make things difficult for her. "Translate the document," he said. "I'll treat you to dinner tonight."

Freya clicked her tongue. "Now that's more like it."

Her mastery of the Japanese language was by no means inferior to her mastery of English. In fact, her education in the Japanese language was centered around the corporate domain. That was why translating the document did not pose any difficulties at all; she translated two pages with ease.

Chris sat behind his desk and watched her work. The Freya in front of him right now was serious, quiet, and completely devoid of her usual zest and enthusiasm. Although she still looked beautiful, he had to admit that he preferred it more when she was smiling and jumping around.

Perhaps she had been right to choose a career in modelling rather than settling for a monotonous 9-to-5, office job which involved sitting in an air-conditioned room for the whole day.

---------------

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