Gu Cheng sat on the edge of the bed with a bag of ice in his hand, waiting for his assistant to walk out into the hallway. As soon as the door swung shut, he moved the bag of ice from his head onto his lap, sucking in his breath as the cold hit his throbbing nether region. Not once in 26 years had anyone dared to strike him in that region, and he had not had any idea how much it would hurt. It did, so much so that when the lamp hit his head, he had not even registered that pain, only that he was on the floor and the door was opening in front of him as the woman ran away.
Pulling himself upright by sheer willpower he was on his feet when his assistant and guards knocked on the door a minute later, his face hidden in the dark room as he called for them to find the woman who just left. After the guards were gone, the next order was to find whomever spiked his drink and determine if it was the same woman. Mo Ye, his assistant took in the shattered lamp on the ground from the open door, as well as the way that his boss was slowly moving his head and ordered both a new lamp and some ice brought up before leaving the room to find out who dared to make a move on his boss.
As the pain below faded into numbness, Gu Cheng leaned against the bed post and groaned with relief. His fingertips brushed his lip, and something heated passed through his eyes. No matter what he told his assistant, he knew that the woman in his room had not been the same one who drugged him. The pain and the numbing of the ice had done a lot to dispel some of the heat of the drugs, and he found that he could think clearly once more. There was dirt on his hand and suit front from where he grabbed her and pressed her against himself. Her lips had tasted of mint, mouthwash, and something sweet, followed by the harsh taste of metal. He pulled his fingers away and saw the blood he rubbed off.
"I hurt her," he murmured to himself. There was an unpleasant feeling in his chest, but he buried it deep. It was her fault for being in his room without his permission. He stood up and walked to the bathroom to scrub his lips of any trace of the woman who dared to take his first kiss.
***
"Sir, the person who ordered your drink to be spiked was Ms. Amanda. She hired a staff member to slip it in. The waiter has been detained. What would you like me to do about Ms. Amanda?" Mo Ye reported the next day, waiting patiently for orders in front of the broad desk on the top floor of Shooting Star Entertainment. In his head, Mo Ye sneered at the young woman. Her distinct looks thanks to her mixed background had made her an easy recruit for the modeling division but she made the mistake that so many of the women in the city did and set her eyes at the top of the ladder. Perhaps she thought that being found in bed with the boss would make her the future Mrs. Gu, but Mo Ye thought it more likely that she would just disappear for touching the boss without his permission.
"Cancel her contract and find someone else to replace her with all of her scheduled shoots. Alert the lawyers and the PR department. Make sure she understands the consequences if she talks." Gu Cheng did not show any emotion on his face as he turned the page on the proposal in front of him. The only reason he recognized the name of the voluptuous model was that she had been 'accidentally' running into him for weeks around the building, even going so far as to try and touch his arm in the elevator the week before...
"Yes, sir," Mo Ye responded as he made a note on his phone. "There is no trace of the woman who escaped from your room -"
The air grew colder, and he hurried to change his words. "Of the woman who ran from your room. We were able to track her down the stairs and out an emergency exit to the alley that runs to the service road behind the hotel. Several delivery people saw someone run toward the street, but after that, it was too crowded on the sidewalks to tell where she went next. We are canvasing the area and checking traffic cameras, but as of right now, she has disappeared."
Gu Cheng set down his papers and tapped his finger on his desk. Behind him, windows stretched from wall to wall, overlooking the west side of City C, the view going all the way to the ocean in the distance. There were other buildings that were taller or more stately than this one, but none so recognizable to the common person on the street. He was not looking out at the view, at the moment,but staring at the outwardly calm man before him. "You have told me what you don't know."
"Right. The lab examined the used towels in the bathroom and found the soil to be a mix of agricultural soil and volcanic ash." The order to examine every little thing, even the towel found in the bathroom hamper, had stopped Mo Ye for a moment. He shivered as he imagined how angry his boss must be to go to such lengths.
"Volcanic ash? Where would one find enough of that to be covered in it?" The finger paused a centimeter above the smooth walnut desktop.
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Mo Ye paused for a moment at the intent expression on his boss's face. "The only place to acquire that much casually is the site of an eruption. The most recent eruption with enough magnitude to cover someone with that much ash was four days ago on one of the Hawaiian islands. Other than that, it is possible that some may have been found in some private collector's home, but that would not explain the soil. The scientists found traces of plant matter in it that they dated back to a hundred years ago. What they can tell us is that the woman was on a farm that was covered with the ash from a volcanic eruption a century ago as recently as the same day that she was in the hotel room. Nobody can come up with any location that matches."
He watched his boss's face closely. As usual, there was no change in expression besides the slight tightening of his brow. Gu Cheng thought for a moment before asking, "As filthy as she must have been, no hotel staff report seeing anything? She said she was allowed to use the room. Someone must have let her in."
"Nobody remembered seeing her at all, even with threats or offers of payment. Security cameras in the hallway show nobody entering that room the entire day before you were shown into the room. And there was no sign of tampering with the footage." He waited for the response to come with bated breath.
For several minutes, there was silence as the two men looked at each other. Then, in a cold, mocking tone, "So you are saying that she just appeared there after rolling around on an old farm covered in volcanic ash, and that she disappeared once she left the building. Are you telling me that she was a ghost?"
"No, sir. I am telling you what has been discovered and verified. We will find her. She is not a ghost." Mo Ye felt a chill go down his spine. Admitting failure was never easy, but there was really nothing more he could do at the moment!
"Fine. I want to hear something by tomorrow." Gu Cheng picked his proposal back up and flipped another page. "And find whomever okayed this proposal to be forwarded to me. They need to be retrained. This is a mess."
There was no news for several days, until someone called from the hotel. A young woman stated that their coworker saw someone at her grandmother's shop that matched the limited description. The woman was staying with her grandmother and working for her after saving the old woman from a purse snatcher the same night of the hotel incident. It was less than six kilometers away, close enough to make it worth investigating. Mo Ye went personally as soon as he was told and took photos with his phone from outside the shop of the serious looking young woman folding clothing. He sent the pictures to CEO Gu and barely a second passed before his phone was ringing. Mo Ye answered the call quickly.
"Where are you?" the cold voice asked him through the phone.
"I am outside a shop owned by a Wang Xiang . She took in someone who saved her from a purse snatcher and is giving her a place to sleep and letting the girl work in her shop to pay for the room and board. The girl's name is Joseph Zaria, and she appears to have become stranded in City C recently. There is no more information as to why." Mo Ye peeked in the shop again, but the girl appeared to have gone into the back room for something.
"Alright, return to the office," the voice said before hanging up.
Mo Ye looked in the shop once more as he placed his phone back in his pocket, then shrugged and got back in his car.
The next day, Mo Ye was called into the boss's office along with the CEO's personal secretary before he had even had a chance to put his coffee onto the desk in his little office next door. They were given orders to recruit the young woman for whatever entertainment division she wanted to work in. He did not give an explanation, but Mo Ye assumed it was a way to pay her off for her ordeal that night. Despite her mysterious circumstances, she had been an innocent bystander, and CEO Gu was not a heartless person even though he looked frozen like ice. He and Liu Wen drove together to the little clothing shop, parking on the street just out of direct view of the front window.
"But I don't know anything about recruiting and managing someone," Liu Wen protested, straightening her collar as she removed her seat belt.
"You don't have to actually manage her," Mo Ye responded patiently. "Just tell her that she is beautiful and she would make a great model and you want to make her one. Or tell her that her voice is pretty and she would make a great singer. Something. She can decide what division she wants to work in, and she will be assigned a manager to fit what is needed. Just make sure that she takes the card."
"What if she doesn't want to be in entertainment?" she asked politely.
"She is a pretty young woman, why wouldn't she want to be famous? Wait, that is her..."
They watched as a young woman no older than 20 years appeared from around the corner of the shop. She looked around, confused for a moment, clutching an envelope in her slim hands. The envelope was then folded and slid into the back pocket of her tight jeans, the light blue top pulled down again to cover her hips. Liu Wen hurriedly got out of the car, straightening her blazer and stepping forward as she was approached by the girl. Several minutes later, she got back in the car, confused.
"She doesn't want to be in entertainment, she said," Liu Wen told him, looking in the side mirror at the girl walking away. "I think... I think she just threw the card away!"
"Did she say anything else?" Mo Ye asked, starting the car after she put her seat belt back on.
"She asked me how to get to the beach," Liu Wen replied helplessly. "Maybe I came on too strong? She really was very pretty, I am sure even she knows she could really be a model." She thought back enviously to that rounded backside, shifting in her seat on her own rather flat one.