Zaria grimaced but then silently admonished herself. "If he can help me get some things from my phone, then I will shamelessly accept his help."
"Do you really dislike him so much? He didn't tell me how you two met. Was he that horrible?"
She thought about it for a moment as they got into the car. "Someone was trying to trick him at an event, and I ended up in the middle of it by complete accident. It was not his fault, just like it wasn't really his fault that I ended up hurt. Some people just rub you wrong, though, you know? Like you are near each other and the first instinct is to fight with them."
Chiu Leong smiled as he pulled away from the curb. Her description very closely matched what he suspected his friend was feeling. He had never seen Gu Cheng so bothered by someone. If it was business related, he would not be upset by the person. He would simply crush them and move on. As for friends...Chiu Leong would be shocked if he was not the only friend Gu Cheng spoke with. Even though he was several years younger, they had played together as children and spent time at each other's homes. They had known each other for a long time. "That happens when two personalities are very strong. You either become enemies or incredibly close."
"I don't know how long I will be in C City before I leave. It could be a week, it could be a year. I don't want to bother anyone. I am not trying to be anyone's enemy." Zaria felt a chill deep inside, and she wrapped her arms around herself as well as she could. The painkillers were working fine, but smacking her cast into things, even her own body, was still uncomfortable.
Her mind drifted as she gazed out the window. A cast would need to be taken off, eventually, and she wondered what would happen if the pendant was ready before that happened. Would it just stay charged and ready forever? Or would she activate it by rolling over on it? Should she stop sleeping with it around her neck just in case? It would be awful to end up in a lake again, worse if she was asleep when it happened.
Chiu Leong watched her from the corner of his eye. Several times over the last couple of hours, he had tried to find out why she was stranded, but she would not go into details. There was heavy weariness in her eyes. He pressed his lips together to keep from asking her again. His instincts told him that she was not dangerous, and if she didn't want to talk about her past, then he wouldn't press.
They drove slowly through the busy streets. The streets were always busy in the center of the city. Cars crept along, stopping, starting, merging, turning. Chiu Leong kept his eyes in front of him and both hands on the wheel to be safe. "You are saying that you may leave in a week, or you may leave in a year. I can understand not wanting to bother anyone if you are only going to be here a few days, but have you considered that you might not be bothering people? And what if you are here for a year? Could you really live out of a tent for that long?"
"The good thing about a tent is that it won't cost me anything to stay there. Mrs Wang is helping me by letting me work at the shop. Where else could I earn money without even an ID card?" She puffed out her cheeks as she exhaled. Her mind was still on the pendant, and she was not paying attention to her words.
"You are working without papers? Are you saying you don't even have an ID? What happened to you to bring you here without even that, Miss Joseph?"
Zaria turned her head to look at him when she heard the worry in his voice. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. But my wallet was left behind, so no, I don't have anything at all. And I can't order new things online because where I lived is not in the system. It will be fine."
"No, Miss Joseph, not only could you get in trouble for working without papers, but Mrs Wang could be severely fined as well. I am surprised she would take such a chance for someone she didn't know." He clicked on the turn signal before cautiously turning onto a ramp that led to an underground garage. Above the garage, a building towered so far over them that it looked like it might be shrouded in clouds.
"I didn't know that," Zaria whispered. While she no longer felt full, she could feel her stomach moving uneasily. "I don't want her to get in trouble. I won't go back there, then."
She closed her eyes and tried to remember exactly how much she had already spent and how much she had left. With the water filter and replacement filters, she could survive for a while without bottled water, but she would still need some rations, as well as things like menstruation supplies. Receiving her period while in the volcano universe had been horrid, and her trusty work apron was sacrificed to make cloths to keep from ruining her clothes. She did not want to be in a situation like that again.
She was staring at her fingers, ticking things off of her mental list when she realized that Chiu Leong was talking to her. She looked up and saw that they were parked and the car was already turned off. She blinked at him owlishly. "I'm sorry, I was thinking and didn't hear you."
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"I said that maybe Gu Cheng could help. He might be able to help get you new papers if you ask him. Fate must have connected you to us for a reason. You should let us help if we can." He smiled gently at her and alighted from the car.
Zaria sat for a moment, thinking about what he said. She didn't believe in fate. She hadn't believed in magic, either, but sometimes things happened that could change a person's mind. The door next to her opened, and she looked up in surprise.He leaned forward to help her with her seatbelt again, but she twisted around and undid it herself. "Sorry, I was distracted again."
"Mm. Do you have both phones?" Chiu Leong stood aside for her to exit and closed the door behind her. She nodded and followed him to a bank of elevators.
If fate was real, at least in this universe, then that might explain how so many odd things had happened in just the week that she had been in this world. A good example would be how she was stepping into an elevator that would take her up into the tallest building in the city, one of many owned by the heir of the richest family in the city. Whom she had previously kneed in the testicles and hit over the head with a lamp. Out of all the people in the entire world, why had she ended up in the same room as him? She moved back against the back wall and stayed quiet for the ride up to the lobby.
She did not have to exit when the doors opened. On the other side of the doors stood a face that she was beginning to find far too familiar. At his dark expression, she felt a flutter of anxiety and dropped her eyes to the ground immediately.
"Ah, Gu Cheng! We were just getting out to wait for you! We got here a few minutes early. Who would have thought we would bump into you early as well!" Chiu Leong stepped back so that Gu Cheng and his assistant could enter, gesturing toward the floor buttons. "Which floor should we go to?"
Gu Cheng stepped on to to the elevator, leaning back against the back wall of the elevator and staring down at the silent girl. At the front, she could hear Assistant Mo answer the question, but she was distracted by the feeling of eyes drilling into the top of her head. As the elevator moved upward, the feeling did not fade, and she eventually looked up and gasped, startled out how close they were. "I'm sorry," she apologized to his face that was growing even darker, like a storm cloud passing over. "I didn't realize I was so close, I will move." She shifted farther into the corner and took a deep breath before speaking again.
"Thank you for letting us use your employee," she said politely, dipping her head down and keeping it down. His regard was heavy, and she felt like her shoulders were going to sink to the floor.
"Us?" Gu Cheng spoke his first words since entering the elevator. The temperature seemed to drop by several degrees, and the two men at the front shared a worried look.
"It was Director Chiu who suggested that my data might be able to be saved, I would not have thought of it at all myself." She replied, wondering why he seemed angry with her already. They had not been near each other for more than two minutes this time. Biting her lip, she steeled herself and opened her mouth again, "I am sorry if I was rude to you earlier. It is not a good excuse, but I was hurting and upset, and I was not considering who I was speaking to before the words came out."
"Are you referring to the time at the shop, or the time you called me a pyscho? Or the time you hit me over the head with a lamp?"
At the front, Chiu Leong looked over at them, mouthing 'a lamp' as he watched the girl shrinking under the intense gaze of his friend. Mo Ye closed his eyes and cursed his boss for not just accepting the apology. The two were never going to get together, he was sure, if the boss was going to pick fights any time she wasn't starting them. They could both see her biting her lip hard enough that it looked like it would start bleeding to keep from snapping at him.
"Your pick," she bit out, clenching her hand at her side to keep from popping him one.
"Hmm." He leaned back in the opposite corner and continued staring at her until the elevator dinged, and the doors slid open again. He gallantly gestured for her to follow the other two men and walked out right behind her. He did not notice the small smile that was lifting up the corners of his own lips ever so slightly.
The small group drew a lot of attention as they walked together through the crowded office. Eager eyes followed the two big bosses, and Zaria could hear whispers between the constant greetings.
"Good afternoon, CEO Gu! Good afternoon, Director Chiu!" The latter nodded politely, but the former did not acknowledge them at all. His eyes were trained on the narrow back ahead of him.
He was not sure why he agreed so readily to the usage of his best electronics technician, but he was acknowledging now that it was likely because of the willful woman in front of him. It was obvious that she was biting back so many words when she spoke to him in the elevator. Just as it was obvious that she knew he was staring at her at that moment.
He could see her shoulders were tight, and her hand was opening and closing at her side. He wondered how long she could last without insulting him. A teasing light entered his eyes as he increased his stride so that he was walking only an arm's length behind her. They were almost to the labs at the other end of the open office when she finally snapped, twisting around and bracing herself as she confronted him quietly.
"CEO Gu, if you are injured, then let me get Director Chiu for you. You are too big for me to be carrying on my back."
She whirled back around and hurried to get in step with Chiu Leong, who was coughing violently behind his hand as he tried to hide his laugh. Mo Ye put on his best 'I see nothing' expression and led the way to the door of Lab 3. As for Gu Cheng, he quickly hid his smile behind his own cough and leisurely followed them.