Chapter One (Part 1)

An Xiao Li slammed the brakes.

An Xiao Li took a closer look at the car she crashed into, it was fancy compared to her QQ car that was an old car. Her body tensed, she looked at the fancy sports car’s driver and doom and gloom was written on her face.

After the collision An Xiao Li’s old car and the sports car stopped close together. She saw the young man in the pa.s.senger seat clearly. What stood out was his expensive pair of gla.s.ses and the icy stare he gave her.

The cold air pa.s.sed through An Xiao Li’s car windshield and through her bones. Her whole body was frozen and her mouth chattered. Suddenly the sports car reversed, halted and the driver’s door was opened.

The driver that stepped out of the sports car was another young man, it was hard to read his mood but compared to the other young man in the pa.s.senger seat the driver was less intimidating.

The driver opened An Xiao Li’s car and bent his head. ‘Miss are you ok?’

An Xiao Li’s mouth was too numb and she couldn’t open her mouth to answer the driver’s question.

‘h.e.l.lo? Miss are you ok? Are you hurt anywhere?’ the driver asked.

The driver creased his forehead then he leaned into An Xiao Li’s car and unbuckled her seatbelt.

An Xiao Li was in a daze but when she saw the driver wanted to lift her out of her car she snapped out of her daze. She decided to pretend she was still shock to let the driver carry her outside.

The sports car pa.s.senger seat opened at the same moment the driver unbuckled An Xiao Li’s seatbelt. Suddenly the sky turned grey and the air temperature dropped below zero. An Xiao Li was having a beautiful daydream and she was the female lead in a romance novel waiting for her male lead to rescue her. Too bad her reality was a nightmare where the villain kidnapped the female lead. The driver who was gentle and about to lift her was pulled away from her car by the villainous young man in the gla.s.ses. The villain bent his head like a fallen ice glacier and gave her a wicked smile.

Many years later when An Xiao Li remembered the day her old car crashed into the sports car, she found out that it wasn’t only the villain who smiled but fate smiled too.

‘Miss, we were driving straight and you crashed into our car, the person one hundred percent responsible is you miss,’ the ice glacier said.

An Xiao Li in that moment felt that her fate was too wicked like the ice glacier’s wicked smile.

An Xiao Li secretly gripped her hands ready to drive off. She summoned innocent eyes to look back at the ice glacier because she didn’t want to be a homeless pauper that was why she needed to get to her interview. ‘Oh? I’m really sorry. Can you gentlemen give me more room so we can discuss it properly after I reverse my car?’

The ice glacier used an index finger to push the bridge of his gla.s.ses up, he forced a smile and stepped back from her car. ‘Ok.’

The moment the ice glacier stood back, An Xiao Li slammed her door, gripped the steering wheel and reversed. She braked beside the Versace LP640 car. ‘13x.x.xx.x.xx.x.x, call me after the car’s fixed, I’ll compensate for the damages. I need to go somewhere important. Bye.’

An Xiao Li felt she was a good person. She was sincere about giving the two young handsome men compensation. The catch was… they needed to be able to hear her number that she recited fast as a machine gun. Besides if they could afford the sports car then they weren’t paupers like her.

The gentle driver Li Wei Ran secretly glanced at Chen Yu Bai for the twelfth time.

‘What?’ Chen Yu Bai asked.

‘Your car… is it the same car you ordered six months ago and it was flown here yesterday?’ Li Wei Ran asked.

‘Um,’ Chen Yu Bai said.

‘Third brother! Are you expecting me to replace your car?’ Li Wei Ran asked.

‘No need,’ Chen Yu Bai said.

‘You gave me a scare… then why did you let her go?’ Li Wei Ran asked.

‘Why wouldn’t I let her go?’ Chen Yu Bai asked.

‘Even if you don’t need her to pay you back, you can’t let her scam you like you’re an idiot,’ Li Wei Ran said.

‘She didn’t lie. She gave her real number and she did have somewhere she needed to be,’ Chen Yu Bai explained. He folded the doc.u.ment he was holding. ‘She’s going to an IT company I’m familiar with for an interview.’

Li Wei Ran raised an eyebrow but didn’t need to ask anything else. His third brother looked like a hunter stalking his prey.

In the sports car Chen Yu Bai looked out the window and leisurely adjusted his gla.s.ses.

It was the start of spring and everything was sprouting like An Xiao Li’s heart.

‘Miss An?’ an interviewer asked.

‘Ah?’ An Xiao Li asked. She snapped out of her daze and nodded with the interviewer. ‘Oh, I was listening.’

The IT company An Xiao Li applied for was the best IT company in the district. When she sent her resume she thought she had no chance to get an interview but felt lucky the moment the IT company’s HR called her to arrange an interview.

But… An Xiao Li graduated from an IT college, she felt being interviewed to be the executive’s secretary didn’t seem to match her qualifications. She wanted unlimited access to their computer systems.

‘Miss An, I asked you if you wanted to work for our company?’ the interviewer said. He felt that she was an ordinary candidate and had slow reactions. He didn’t understand why the new CEO requested her to be the new CEO’s secretary.

‘Of course I want to work here,’ An Xiao Li said. She gritted her teeth, it wasn’t what she was hoping for but she didn’t want to be homeless. ‘Can I ask when will I start work as an official employee?’

‘Tomorrow,’ the interviewer said. He sighed. He explained the work induction process to her and paused. ‘Miss An…’

An Xiao Li blissfully smiled at the interviewer. ‘Yes?’

The interviewer gulped down his tactless question and let out a fake laugh. ‘Ha ha, it’s nothing. I wanted to say that I hope in the future we’ll work well together.’

An Xiao Li’s first week of working pa.s.sed quickly and by the weekend she plopped herself on Qin Sang’s sofa and munched on potato chips as she recounted the joy of working at the best IT company in the district.

‘There’s something clogging your brain,’ Qin Sang said. She was typing on the keyboard and didn’t bother looking at her dummy best friend. ‘Your Miss Chen, if she finds out you’re working as a secretary I wouldn’t be surprised if she pulled your hair back to her house.’

The Miss Chen that Qin Sang meant was An Xiao Li’s wicked mum.

An Xiao Li tripled the force she used for munching the pitiful potato chips. ‘But I can’t find another job. Sang Sang, why is it all the other IT companies rejected me?’

An Xiao Li felt disgruntled, after all she graduated from a famous IT college.

Qin Sang sighed. ‘That’s because those IT companies have good insight when they look at a person.’

‘If they have such good insight then why didn’t they hire me?’ An Xiao Li asked.

‘It’s because of their good sight that they didn’t hire a dummy,’ Qin Sang explained.

‘Qin-Sang!’ An Xiao Li said and her eyes widened in protest.

Qin Sang stopped typing, lifted her head and laughed out of the blue. ‘An Xiao Li, my intuition is telling me to warn you. The CEO you’re about to serve has grudges against you that can’t be resolved easily.’

An Xiao Li cried out her frustration and threw the chip packet onto the floor. She crossed her arms in front of her chest. ‘Hey, are you writing a shady scene?’

Qin Sang smiled wickedly and didn’t refute her dummy best friend’s a.s.sumption. There was a speck of amber in her eyes that shone beautifully and mysteriously under the living room’s soft orange lighting.

An Xiao Li’s whole body shivered. ‘Qin Sang, right now you look like a wicked witch.’

An Xiao Li wanted to modify her comment, Qin Sang didn’t just look like a wicked witch, Qin Sang was a wicked witch.

At work An Xiao Li’s body shook more than when she was in the same living room as the wicked witch, she wanted to keep herself invisible in the work crowd.

‘Welcome CEO Chen,’ an old man greeted. He was the same old man who interviewed An Xiao Li. The old man’s beer belly shivered at CEO Chen’s intimidating aura. He winked at An Xiao Li to signal her to quickly greet her new boss.

Someone behind An Xiao Li pushed her forward. She quickly presented the bouquet of flowers to her new boss. ‘Welcome…’ She wanted to properly introduce herself to her new boss but that person disappeared before she even said her name.

An Xiao Li’s lower body was stiff including her hands that held the bouquet of flowers – the ice glacier didn’t bother to glance at her once and left her stranded in front of her co-workers.

An Xiao Li’s female co-workers that witnessed her being snubbed were all dressed up glamorously that day hoping to catch their new CEO’s eye. At first those women were dissatisfied that the ordinary An Xiao Li got to present the bouquet of flowers to their CEO. But after seeing An Xiao Li frozen with the bouquet of flowers hanging in mid-air those women were satisfied An Xiao Li was publicly rejected by their CEO. Some of those women offered An Xiao Li insincere comforting words. ‘It’s rumoured that Mr Chen junior is a cold person. Don’t take his rejection to heart, he didn’t accept the flowers from you because he hates you.’

An Xiao Li gave her co-workers a stiff smile. Inside her heart she was crying out to the heavens – ‘heaven please be merciful and don’t let the ice glacier recognise me as the one that crashed the sports car.’

‘An Xiao Li, pour me a cup of coffee and bring it into my office,’ Chen Yu Bai ordered through the intercom.

An Xiao Li put down the computer accessories she was probing and rushed to pour the ice glacier a cup of coffee.

Inside the ice glacier’s office, An Xiao Li saw him reading reports at his work desk. He sat with his back to the window and the sunlight made his crisp white shirt glow. If she wasn’t scared for her life then she would have been able to appreciate how handsome the ice glacier looked whilst reading the reports.

An Xiao Li kept her head down and walked toward the ice glacier whilst silently praying that he didn’t recognise her.

An Xiao Li felt lucky that the ice glacier only glanced once at her before dismissing her. ‘Put the cup of coffee down and you can leave.’

An Xiao Li made her escape and walked to the door but the door slammed into her nose.

Li Wei Ran entered his third brother’s office and looked at third brother’s secretary. She was rubbing her nose but he felt she looked familiar like he met her somewhere before.

Li Wei Ran scratched his head and tried to remember who third brother’s secretary was. ‘Miss…’

‘Don’t you know how to knock on a door before entering?’ Chen Yu Bai asked coldly.

‘Ah…’ Li Wei Ran uttered out of surprise.

Li Wei Ran thought his third brother was usually not human but it was unlike third brother to make a big deal about entering third brother’s office unannounced.

Then Li Wei Ran connected his third brother’s unusual behaviour and the appearance of third brother’s secretary. ‘Oh…’ He pointed at his third brother’s secretary, he recognised she was the same girl who crashed the sports car.

‘Oh, you’re…’ An Xiao Li said but stopped mid-sentence. She recovered her EQ and remembered she was inside the ice glacier’s office and couldn’t reveal she was the person who crashed the sports car. ‘I was granted permission to leave.’ She held her bleeding nose and walked out the door.

The moment the door closed, Li Wei Ran wanted to confirm his suspicion. ‘It’s her, the girl that crashed into your sports car.’

Chen Yu Bai laughed coldly and it made Li Wei Ran’s legs turn to jelly. As Li Wei Ran feared he was going to pay for hurting his third brother’s prey. Third brother rolled up his sleeves, stood and stepped toward him.

‘Spare me… someone help me…’ Li Wei Ran cried out pitifully.

‘Bam! Bam bam! Bam…’ the sounds of a remorseful third brother being severely clobbered.

‘Ah! A a! Ah!’ mysterious cries were heard from the new CEO’s office.

Outside the office of doom, An Xiao Li quietly thought to herself that of course Li Wei Ran was the gentle and handsome driver, he was someone who was unforgettable after one look at him.

After the mysterious cries from the ice glacier’s office, the gentle and handsome driver stepped outside. There were pitiful bruises on his chin but he seemed more awake then he was when An Xiao Li saw him entering the ice glacier’s office.

The gentle and handsome driver checked out An Xiao Li from head to toe. ‘Miss are you fixing the computer?’

An Xiao Li secretly rolled her eyes and looked up at the annoying gentle and handsome driver. ‘No, I’m not.’

‘It’s obvious you’re fixing the computer,’ Li Wei Ran said.

‘If you knew I was fixing the computer then why did you ask me?’ An Xiao Li scolded to revenge her nose.

Li Wei Ran’s teasing mood was spoiled and he rubbed his swollen chin. He checked that his third brother’s office door was closed properly and leaned closer to An Xiao Li. ‘You and your boss… what stage are you two up to?’

An Xiao Li almost dropped the LCD screen that she was holding. She took a deep breath and was about to add another bruise to the former gentle and handsome driver’s chin but the intercom turned on.

‘Li Wei Ran, within in three seconds make yourself disappear!’ Chen Yu Bai ordered.

A cold air pa.s.sed An Xiao Li’s desk before she calmed down, the former gentle and handsome driver was nowhere to be seen.

In the evening, at a bar.

Qin Song was licking the ice in his mouth provocatively that caused the beauty next to him blush and he winked to tease her more.

After Qin Song was done playing around, he checked out the girl that Li Wei Ran was pointing at. ‘She’s the one that crashed the Versace LP640? It can’t be her.’

Qin Song squinted his eyes to take another look at the girl that Li Wei Ran pointed at again. ‘Impossible. A girl who can crash into third brother’s car and got away scot-free has to be at least an otherworldly beauty.’

‘Take a look at my bruises. Third brother personally gave them to me just because I opened his office door and b.u.mped into her a little bit,’ Li Wei Ran said and pointed at his pitiful chin.

Out of the six Liang’s sworn brothers, Li Wei Ran and Qin Song were the youngest. Li Wei Ran was fifth brother and Qin Song was sixth brother. Out of their four oldest sworn brothers, it wasn’t their first brother Liang Fei Fang that they feared most but it was their third brother Chen Yu Bai. If they offended their first brother at the most they’d be given a beating but if they offended their non-human third brother – Chen Yu Bai never personally used his fists to reprimand them but he’d use a customised method to make them feel dying wasn’t as bad as living.

By deduction if Chen Yu Bai broke his normal behaviour and personally used his fists on one of his sworn brothers it proved that the ordinary girl was ‘really special’ to him.

Qin Song curiously probed Li Wei Ran’s swollen chin. ‘Is it your real chin or fake?’

Li Wei Ran didn’t hesitate to slap Qin Song’s hand away. ‘Third brother asked that we keep an eye on her, he’s on his way.’ He texted back to his third brother and put his phone back in his pocket.

Qin Song was happy to follow his third brother’s order, he stood and made his way onto the dance floor. He stayed close to An Xiao Li and her friend.

An Xiao Li was celebrating the final day of her work probation and was excited that the following day she was a full time employee at her workplace.

An Xiao Li struggled for four years at her IT college and felt proud she secured a job at the best IT company in the district. The thought of receiving her first salary made her giddy. She wanted to put money in front of Miss Chen and proclaim – ‘Mum, I received my salary and this is your allowance to spend for the month.’

Each time An Xiao Li’s mum gave her an allowance, she thought her mum must have given her the same look she wore whilst thinking about giving her mum an allowance.

An Xiao Li snapped out of her daze and didn’t see the handsome men around them. She spoke loudly in Qin Sang’s ear. ‘Sang Sang, what happened to the handsome men? I can’t see them on the dance floor.’

Sang Sang didn’t bother looking at An Xiao Li. Sang Sang was too busy dancing with a man.

An Xiao Li felt it was strange that the handsome men who were circling Sang Sang before were standing at a distance from the dance floor looking at Sang Sang with regret. The dance floor was packed but people gave Sang Sang and the man with Sang Sang plenty of breathing s.p.a.ce to dance.

An Xiao Li focused on the man dancing with Sang Sang – it was the former gentle and handsome driver that was kicked out of the ice glacier’s office in the afternoon, Li Wei Ran!

An Xiao Li stepped closer to Li Wei Ran and because the dance floor was noisy she was given the golden opportunity to scream into his ear, it made her nose happy. ‘What-a-coincidence!’

Li Wei Ran felt his ear drums were broken. On the outside third brother’s girl looked ordinary but why did she own such powerful vocal cords?

Li Wei Ran led Qin Song, third brother’s girl and her friend into a quiet private room to spare himself from booking an appointment to see an ENT doctor.

‘This is my best friend, Sang Sang,’ An Xiao Li introduced in a less deafening voice.

Li Wei Ran smiled gently at Qin Sang and lifted his gla.s.s to toast her. Qin Sang was charmed and smiled back at him.

‘I’m Li Wei Ran,’ Li Wei Ran introduced himself. He sipped the wine in his gla.s.s before he introduced his cousin. ‘This is Qin Song.’

An Xiao Li looked closely at Qin Song who was one of the men dancing around Sang Sang before. Qin Song was handsome too but he was a different cla.s.s to Li Wei Ran and Chen Yu Bai, Qin Song was too handsome that it was criminal.

‘Hi!’ Qin Song greeted and his smile was dazzling.

‘Hi,’ Qin Sang smiled politely but there was sharpness behind her eyes. ‘Mr Wild?’ She directed at Qin Song.

Li Wei Ran and An Xiao Li turned to look at each other and laughed at Qin Song.

Li Wei Ran thought that his third brother’s vision was deadly, third brother picked a rare girl bundled with another rare girl.

Qin Song wasn’t bothered by the jesting at his expense. ‘Sang Sang? What’s your family name?’

Qin Sang was usually a cold person but tonight she drank too much and joked in front of strangers. She noticed Qin Song wasn’t angry and felt she was too harsh on him and compensated him with a sincere smile. ‘Qin, Qin Sang.’

‘Oh? We share the same family name, let’s toast to our family name,’ Qin Song said.

Li Wei Ran thought it was a joke looking at Qin Song the wolf. Qin Song was someone who loved to eat meat but tonight Qin Song acted like a house pet.

Chen Yu Bai quickly arrived to the lively private room at the bar.

At that time An Xiao Li was playing rock-paper-scissors with Li Wei Ran. One of her leg rested on the low table and her powerful vocal cords put on a loud display.

Qin Song was talking to Qin Sang but he was amused by her. She was smiling at him, talking with him but he felt there was a barrier around her that she didn’t let anyone in.

The more Qin Song couldn’t get Qin Sang to put her guard down the more uneasy he felt.

‘Third brother!’ Qin Song greeted when he noticed Chen Yu Bai at the door.

Qin Song glanced at Li Wei Ran and Li Wei Ran smiled slyly.

Chen Yu Bai maintained his indifferent front and gently nodded his head to greet his two youngest sworn brothers.

An Xiao Li was startled, retrieved her unladylike leg and rushed to sit straight. Qin Sang took the opportunity to a.s.sess Chen Yu Bai then Qin Sang turned and gave An Xiao Li a wicked smile that made An Xiao Li’s dormant goose b.u.mps popped up.

The ice glacier sat next to An Xiao Li and it made her awkward. She didn’t dare react to any of Li Wei Ran’s teasing, sat stiffly on the sofa and admired the plate of watermelon.

‘Hey, Xiao Li,’ Li Wei Ran called in a familiar way to provoke his third brother. It worked because he felt Chen Yu Bai’s cold aura was tripled. ‘Your CEO, how does he treat you? If he doesn’t treat you well come and work at my company. I’m also looking for a secretary.’

An Xiao Li glanced at the ice glacier. ‘At the moment I don’t plan to change jobs.’

‘Wow, it’s hard to find such a loyal employee,’ Li Wei Ran teased. He looked at Chen Yu Bai who gripped a wine gla.s.s too tight that veins nearly fell out. He felt his mood lifted, it was Chen Yu Bai’s fault for hitting his chin. He rubbed his swollen chin. ‘What about this, whatever your CEO’s paying you, I’ll raise it by ten? Will that sway your loyalty to me?’

‘Ten times?’ An Xiao Li asked in disbelief.

An Xiao Li multiplied her salary in her head by ten and pictured her wicked mum having a heart attack after receiving a big monthly allowance from her. Her eyes were round and bright as the moon.

‘Twenty times!’ Chen Yu Bai counter-offered coldly.

An Xiao Li didn’t notice the cold aura next to her. Her body felt the opposite after she heard twenty times, it burned up!

‘Let’s go,’ Chen Yu Bai ordered.

Chen Yu Bai grabbed An Xiao Li’s shirt collar and pulled her outside the private room.

‘Ah… Qin Sang!’ An Xiao Li said.

An Xiao Li was worried about the way Qin Song was looking at Qin Sang like a starving wolf.

Chen Yu Bai stopped for a while and a.s.sessed Qin Sang. Both their eyes gleamed and understood – they were kindred spirits, cast from the same mold.

Chen Yu Bai pulled An Xiao Li outside whilst smiling. He realised why such a dummy like Xiao Li wasn’t sold on the black market, it was because there was a wicked witch protecting An Xiao Li.

End of Chapter One (Part 1)