Naruto let out a deep sigh as he placed his bottom on the chair of his desk. Last night hardly to be called one of his worst night, but still, he went through it not very well. It's not about getting injured because helping Lin Kun, but his daughter sudden change in att.i.tude that blew his mind out.

He tried to speak with her or at least baited her to speak with him on several occasion but she shrugged him off with either short ambiguous answer or just went radio silent. For example, when Naruto asked whether she was hungry or thirsty, she replied him with "maybe" which confused him, then he tried to ask her "what she's mean by that?" she replied with "figure it out."

So, he bought a cup of noodle and another cup for her, but by the time it was ready, she gave it a glance and retorted with "did I say I'm hungry?" then completely ignored it, leaving him no choice but to eat it himself, and that makes him eating two cups of noodle. Not that he complaining.

Only in the morning when Auntie w.a.n.g came, she melted this ice fortress of her but only let the middle age woman in and still kept him behind the wall.

Naruto let out another sigh again. It's true when they said woman's heart was hard to predict like a sailor tried to predict a movement of wind. At least he found it easier dealing with wind than a woman.

He met Liu Mingyu at Yu Lei's entrance this morning, but she acted like a chicken saw a fox, scramble away the first chance she got.

He sighed yet again.

"That's strike three."

Naruto startled, he looked to his right and found Zhang Cai stared at him while leaning her body on his desk. She wore a sleeveless suit with b.u.t.terfly necktie on her s.h.i.+rt. Her purse still hanged on her right shoulder, a proof that she just arrived.

"You sounds like an old man lamenting about hipster," Zhang Cai raised a snack like stick on her hand and put it inside her mouth, then she left it hanging there.

"Sister Cai, morning..." Naruto scratched his cheek while gave her a half-hearted smile.

Zhang Cai ignored his greeting and continued staring at him, she moved the snack into the corner of her mouth and said: "What's troubling you?"

Naruto's eyes avoided her gaze as if he tried to dodge the topic, he glanced back at her with a real smile, "How's you're morning?"

"It's fine, everything's normal until I saw a duck stuck in the mud," she played with her hair.

"That's weird, are you living in a swamp? Or somewhere around a swamp?" Naruto raised his eyebrow.

"Why the h.e.l.l this is have anything to do with a swamp?" She frowned.

"Well, you mentioning a duck, also a mud, I thought you live there."

"Who's living in a swamp?!" Her body flushed, the stick on her mouth almost fell, "it's a metaphor you idiot, it means I see you having a trouble!"

"Ah..." Naruto felt like he should dig a hole and put his head inside, "I'm sorry for not having a mood for that, also, I'm fine, thanks for worrying."

"I'm not worried, I'm nosy," she broke the stick on her mouth and chewed the half inside her mouth.

The corner of his mouth twitched, he felt she ought to pester him if he kept dodging, he took a deep breath and bitterly said: "My wife giving me this... cold-shoulder att.i.tude since last night."

"Wow, marital problem, this is juicy!" Zhang Cai eyes shone and small flame ignited within those pair of violet eyes.

Naruto glared at her, then shook his head, "The thing is, I don't know why she just acted like that out of nowhere..."

"No smoke without fire, it's impossible for her to act without cause, unless your wife has multiple personality disorder, though that also considered as a cause," Zhang Cai said while putting the rest of the stick into her mouth.

"I don't know about the disorder, and I couldn't think off any other possibilities."

"Maybe she caught you cheating."

"Huh?" Naruto eyebrows tensed, Ruoxi knows about Jiang Wei? But, even so, our marriage is not even real in the first place, we respected each other privacy and not bound to one another. Also, instead acting like a jealous wife, she should tease me all about it. Believe it or not, Ruoxi has an inborn prankster in her. Last Sunday, she put a lot of pepper inside his coffee, making him literally spouting fire for thirty minutes.

He scratched his head in frustration, he asked about this later with her, perhaps she did know about Jiang Wei.

"Thank you, Sister Cai, I think I found the problem," Naruto grinned brightly

"Well, I just mention it randomly, no need for grat.i.tude or such," despite what she said, her nose turned a little higher, then she widened her eyes to their limit, "wait, is that mean you really cheating?!"

"Ssshh..." Naruto covered her mouth with one hand, he glanced left and right, "it's not like that.."

"Mmpphh," she tried to brush his hand but to no avail.

Naruto frowned, to be honest, he's not really clear, was his relations.h.i.+p with Jiang Wei considered as cheating? But he's not really attached with Ruoxi, there is no string between them whatsoever. In the eye of the public, maybe he's cheating, but in reality, it wasn't right?

He never expects his relations.h.i.+p to be this complicated. He definitely has to talk about this with Ruoxi.

"Mmmpphh!" Zhang Cai hit his hand that held her mouth. Her face already flushed red.

Naruto startled and dropped his hand in the instant.

"Puaah!" She gasped for breath, "are you trying to kill me?!"

"Sorry..." Naruto scratched his cheek and let out an awkward smile.

Zhang Cai glared at him, her mouth started chirping, "Look, don't worry, even though I know your secret, I will not be exposing them to anyone, I get it, man needed to release, like a lot, maybe your wife is not enough, thus you search for others, I reminded you, this kind of behavior-"

Naruto unable to bear her rambling, and quickly cut her talk, "Sister Cai, I think you got the wrong idea, I did have interaction with some woman and I think my wife misunderstand our relations.h.i.+p."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Zhang Cai stared at him with squinty eyes, he ignored it by turning his body away from her, he booted up his computer, "Now if you excuse me, Sister Cai, I must prepare the doc.u.ment for our partners.h.i.+p with Ice Snow Corp."

She pouted but remembered she also has some work to do, she decided to drop this, besides, she found it hard to believe a man like Naruto dared to play behind his wife back.

Naruto let out a breath of relieve when she finally took off. The computer finished booting and he started working on a new proposal since the previous one he brought just a random snitch from the old material since the allowed time kinda too limited. Of course, he's not built it from the sc.r.a.pe, the company provided templates for many purposes, such as employee a.s.sessment for Human Resource, the balance sheet for Finance, and of course, partners.h.i.+p proposal for Public Relation. They all stored in the company database and very easy to be accessed by any employee.

He filled the necessary information with no problem but eventually stuck with the partners.h.i.+p detailed including benefit share and working mechanism. He thought that in term of fairness, Equal share met the most requirement, of course, that without including raw material cost, manufacturing expenses, design cost, workers payroll, and such. The opposite company demanded increasing their share up to 10 percentage which Mo Qianni told him not to agree, at most they allowed the raise only to 5.

Naruto frowned for a quite long before he settled in 55-45 with decreasing use in jewelry. He finished the rest of the paperwork, and copy it to his flash drive, provided by the company. He sent his doc.u.ment to the printer's center through the department's intranet, and since the time still early, no one using it aside from him.

He rose from his seat and strolled to the printer's center.

"Hey, do you know what happen yesterday?"

On the way there, his ears caught the conversation between his colleague.

"Yeah, I read it in Yu Lei's web forum, apparently, someone from our company has been murdered."

"Wah, it's terrible, someone said the killer use his hand to punch the victim and send him flying across the street, then crashes to Emperor's boutique."

"Is that even possible? Was the killer close relative to Usagi Tsukino?"

"Get out, you think this is Sailor Moon?"

"Ehehe, just a thought."

"And you know what? By the time police arrive there, both the killer and the victim already gone!"

"What? So the killer took the victim's body along?"

"No, no! The boutique's owner claimed she saw a man walked out from the building, she presumes it was the killer, and he walked out without carrying anything."

"Are you saying he ate the victim's body?!"

"What's wrong with you, did I say anything resembling that?"

"Sorry, watch to many zombie flick."

"What I'm trying to say is, the victim's body never found in that boutique, even when the police thoroughly search the entire building."

"Woah, it's so mysterious..."

Naruto chuckled, before he left the building, he put a memory manipulation technique on the boutique's owner, making her forget anything about him. It's bothersome if she reported he walked out fine after getting attacked for the first time by Fenris, it will be better if they thought he just disappears.

"By the way, do you know how the victim's looks like?"

"The forum said it's a male, 23 years old... ish, and blonde hair."

"Blonde? Isn't Naruto has blonde hair?"

*Whuuush*

Naruto strode his legs on the floor and left the area with a cold sweat on his head.

He arrived in the printer's center, Naruto opened the door and saw two big machines placed close to each other. These machines have a multifunction feature, it can be acted as a printer, photocopier, scanner, and fax machine. The difference between them, one has multi-color and the other just black-white. He approached the right machine and pressed the start b.u.t.ton. In order to avoid waste of paper, the company set the machine to manual printing, this also gave the employee a chance to re-evaluate their work before printed them out.

The machine beeped and started working their magic, Naruto took a seat in the room and wait in front of the machine's output.

Three minutes pa.s.sed, paper per paper came out, stacked to one another, while he waits in bored, the door toward the room opened and revealed a woman in a white s.h.i.+rt with a red tie and knee-length black skirt. Her unique hair with purple streaks flown in respond to the air-conditioning from the room, it's like a grain of grapes in botany garden beside The Tamil's lake.

Both parties looked surprised and they stared into each other eyes, Naruto noticed, even though she and Zhang Cai's iris seemed similar, but she closer to amethyst while Zhang Cai closer to violet.

Naruto recovered first, he smiled, "Sister Mingyu, good morning."

Liu Mingyu startled and she turned her head down while red crept into her face, "Morning."

"Do you want to use the printer? I'm sorry I use it first, wait for a while, Ok?"

Liu Mingyu nodded but refused to raise her face to meet him. They both went silent in a somehow awkward atmosphere, Naruto felt awkward because of she without wind or ice, acted like a shy student from freshmen year. After a while, he realized she has been standing on her feet while he sat on a chair, cursing himself, he stood and said: "Sister Mingyu I'm sorry for being rude, please, sit here."

Surprisingly, she shook her head, "I'm fine, please just ignore me."

Naruto eyebrows furrowed, why she asked him to ignore her? Did he actually do something wrong?

"Sister Mingyu, what happened? You have been acting weird since this morning, moreover, you as if trying to avoid me."

"Nothing's wrong, I just... I just hope... you no longer pay attention to me."

"Huh?" His body shook and eyes widened in disbelieve. His mind failed to comprehend the meaning of the word she just said.

"Why?" Naruto frowned with his eyebrows drew a little.

Liu Mingyu seemed unable to say anything or come up with a good reason, looking at Naruto 's angry and hurt face, she somehow felt uncomfortable, "I think I'm just going to wait in my desk." She turned around in a swift and about to open the room's door.

"Sister Mingyu, wait!" Naruto's hand stretched out and grabbed her arm, at first he just wants to stop her from her track, but he underestimated her momentum, she also not steady on her feet, thus she lost her balance and almost fell.

Naruto caught her in time and forced to take a step backward, sadly, he forgot about the chair behind him, his leg hit the chair causing him to stumble, normally, it's easy for him to regain his foothold, but he failed to antic.i.p.ate Liu Mingyu body that still taxing on him, thus they both fell to the ground.

*Thud!*

The fall, of course, gave them no injury, it's impossible for his body to take a hurt from falling in this short height, and she's fine because the land she fell on supported by a meat mattress.

They both slowly opened their eyes and widened them as soon as they realized what happened, their body stuck together without a single s.p.a.ce between them, while he felt her soft body pounced on him and smelt her fragrance natural scent mixed with intoxicating perfume she used, she also felt his firm body that radiating a warm she hated to part with and his vanilla perfume that soaked her sense of smell.

They won't be so surprised if that's the only thing that happened, their eyes lined up to each other without any difference in height, and their lips... touched.

The world as if ceased to function and the time as if hated to s.h.i.+ft, when their lips relished the mild and tender meat of their partner. Her lips texture resemblance that pink marshmallow, it made him wanted to touch and put it between his lips for eternity. His lips were thick and wide as a wine taste jerky, it's intoxicating yet mysterious.

They want to separate, oh they very much want to, yet every time their mind yelled out the order, their body said otherwise. The kiss felt so wrong yet so right.

At first, it's only a light touched, like a baby peck. But they slowly savored it and the kiss deepened as it becomes intense.

Naruto moved his hands to her back, one pressed her hips and another pressed her torso, her body stuck closer to him until the bulge on her front like a balloon ready to burst out.

"mmh... mm... hamuu"

Their lips sandwiched each other as if they tried to swallow a rare edible food. Liu Mingyu both hands placed on his chest, it supposed to push her away from him, but instead, it caressed his chest, feeling his hard and firm muscle underneath that charming suit. They slowly went up to his face, they stopped at his cheeks, feeling his smooth face as it gets warmer.

Naruto stopped battling his lips, he caught her under lip and started sucking on it. She let out a protested moan but somehow enjoyed his aggression, he sucked until her eyes became moist and her cheek flushed red. Her breathing was as hot as a stove and it heaved.

Naruto's hand which on her hips, slowly make their way forward, it reached into her plentiful bottom and gave it a squeeze.

"Ah!"

Her gaping mouth moaned and created a perfect opportunity for him, he dashed his tongue and struck her little lamb. Like a lion lunged into a pack of sheep, he wrecked her moist cavern and plundered her liquid like a robber. Her eyes blurred in ecstasy and her body's temperature as if can melt a giant iceberg.

At this point, they crazy enough not to care about their whereabouts. Naruto turned Liu Mingyu to his right and hovered above her. He placed his knee between her legs and started attacking her neck. His thick lips nimble on the soft and warm skin even gave it a small suction. She grasped his hair while panting in joy.

His fingers fiddled with her trouser b.u.t.ton.

"Tap!* *Tap!* *Tap!*

"Is someone in there?"

Out of nowhere, a sound of knocking came from the room's door. This interruption woke them up from their euphoria, causing a small panic appeared in their expression. Naruto got up and immediately went to the door, he wiped the evidence of their affair on his lips and opened the door.

A sight of worried Zhang Cai entered his vision.

"Ah... Sister Cai, what's wrong?" Naruto said while slightly smiled.

"Naruto? I thought it was Mingyu in here," surprised flashed across her eyes.

"Ah, Sister Mingyu indeed came here before, but she already left."

"She left?" Zhang Cai frowned, "where the h.e.l.l she goes?"

"Bathroom?"

"Oh!" She turned her right hand into a fist and pat her left palm, "I have not checked there!" She turned around and prepared to leave. Naruto about to let out a relieved breath but she stopped and faced him again.

"Naruto your body is quite red, are you ok?" She looked at him with concern in her eyes.

Naruto startled, cold sweat poured from his head, "I'm fine, thanks for asking."

"Are you sure? Look you even sweating" She strolled forward and about to check his forehead.

"No, no, no! I'm fine, really! It's the room's air conditioner having some trouble," he couldn't let her get closer, afraid if she smelled Liu Mingyu perfume on him or worse, caught a glimpse of her inside.

"Really?" Zhang Cai raised her eyebrow.

"Yeah! Sister Cai you better hurry, or you miss her."

"Oh, yeah, see you later," she turned around and left for real.

Naruto sighed, now after his conscious return, he knew he'll screw this time. Not only they engage in heavy makeout session, they even almost go at it in the printer's center, which was in the office, the most exciting yet dangerous place to engross in that kind of activity. He also knew his relations.h.i.+p with Liu Mingyu will never be the same again, no people will make out and still friend like before. Well, except they kinda that type of friend from the beginning.

If she wanted him to become her boyfriend, he will not have any scruple with it, he learned his mistake from his past and promised not going to fell in the same hole again.

He twisted his body and prepared to say something,

"Pa!"

A palm came into contact with his right cheek, his face slightly turned to the left and that's the only thing it does, no bruises or even a mark.

Liu Mingyu glared at him with tears spilled from the corner of her eyes, a clear and recognizable hatred reflected on her eyes, her face flushed red, her hair messy, and her chest heaved.

"How could you..."

"How could you..."

"How could you..."

Her lips s.h.i.+vered, the mark of their last duel still visible on her lips.

"I..." he felt a little loss for any word since the situation farfetched from what he expected.

"I thought you are a different kind of man," she closed her eyes, her hand clenched, "but you just the same with them, a bunch of disgusting perverts."

"Sister Mingyu, I..."

"Do not call me that!" She said with a slightly loud tone, "I'm not your sister, and you're not my brother!"

Naruto sighed and refused to say anything again, he felt everything he says will just fell into deaf ears.

"Move away."

Naruto slid his body to his left and opened a pa.s.sage for her to pa.s.s. She strode forward without any slight of hesitation.

"Sorry," Naruto said with closed eyes, her body s.h.i.+vered a bit before she continued onward.

After a while she left, Naruto leaned against the wall, he looked at the lights in the room, "I'm totally screwed."

Naruto returned to his desk with a doc.u.ment in his hand, he picked up a blue colored thin cardboard and put the doc.u.ment inside it. He dropped the file rather harshly to his desk, his face filled with grim and sorrow.

The image of Liu Mingyu's hatred face still playing inside his mind, at that moment, he felt rather disgusted to himself, he wished he can ride a DeLorean and drove back several hours ago, then beat his own self.

He rather took another curse again than seeing her betrayed face.

Naruto shook his head and patted his cheek, there's no use of whine and regret, everything already happened, if this is mean, his relations.h.i.+p with Liu Mingyu reached a dead end, then so be it.

Took a deep breath, Naruto picked the phone's handled by his desk and punched the number on the pads in a certain order.

"h.e.l.lo, Ice Snow Corporation, may I help you?"

"Hi, I'm Mr. Naruto, can you patch me up with Ms. Wanqiu?"

"Sure, wait a moment."

"This is Wanqiu Xia, how are you, Mr. Naruto?"

"I'm fine, thanks for asking, I hope you fine too?"

"Hehe, better than yesterday, so, have you reach the conclusion?"

"Yeah, what time do you think we can meet?"

"Great, how about an hour from now?"

"Perfect, can't wait to meet you."

"Oh, you tease, I'll be waiting."

*Bip*

Naruto put down the handle, he pick up the file, flash drive, and their company costume design, looking at the design, it made him remembered Liu Mingyu again since she's the one who lends him this, Naruto sighed and put them all inside his briefcase. He grabbed it and put it under his armpit. He looked around to check if he forgot anything, then he nodded before turned around and left.

In the bathroom, PR floor.

Liu Mingyu sat on the toilet in one of the booths, tears flowed from her eyes, created a large stain on her black skirt. Her hand failed to stop even a second from wiping the bead of waters on her face. Paper by paper of toilet wasted on her side and scattered on the booth's ground.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry"

Several minutes later.

When Naruto arrived at Ice Snow Corporation, he noticed a lot of truck going in and out of the building, a big trademark painted at the side part of the trucks, it's flowers arranged in a circular formation with a piece of rose on the middle.

"Hey, it's you again," the fatty security from before showed with a cheeky smile.

"Yeah, since our company will be in partners.h.i.+p later, we'll meet quite a lot," Naruto replied with a big grin.

"Cool! you seem an Ok guy," he laughed till his body shook all over.

Naruto nodded, then he looked at the busy going truck, he said without looking at the fatty: "Company's anniversary?"

"Nah, it's young master Chen try to court our CEO."

"Oh, he must be pretty rich."

"Bro, you have no idea, The Chen Family is one of the famous family in Zhong Hai, their a.s.set worth billions!" The fatty shook his head, "even our company didn't have that much."

Naruto nodded, he pretty much ignorance about these families, not that he cares about them.

"Alright, I think I should head inside now, see you later," Naruto smiled and strolled past the gate.

"Good luck, bro!" The fatty waved his hand.

Naruto arrived at the lobby and saw Wanqiu Xia stood beside the front desk. There were 4 other persons with her; the previous lady and three unfamiliar men.

"Hey beauty, how about having a lunch with us?"

"Yeah, we treat you in the most expensive restaurant."

"They also have karaoke and such."

These three man has height around 178 cm, st.u.r.dy body, and fearsome face. From their stature, it seems they used to work out a lot, those biceps inside their tight black T-s.h.i.+rt almost broke out from their s.h.i.+rt.

Wanqiu Xia looked irritated as her charming face frowned with disgust, she just wanted to wait for Naruto thus especially coming here early, after all, they about to agree on partners.h.i.+p, so it's normal for her to welcome his arrival.

Then from the entrance, a young man in white Armani suit strutted his way in. His face with high nose line, clean-shaven surface, sharp eyes, and Caesar haircut charmed most of the female employee including the front desk lady. Behind him, four people followed in line, they wore a black t-s.h.i.+rt and daunting face.

One of them followed this young man to the elevator, while the rest waited on the first, the moment the elevator's gate shut, these people scrambled away and started flirting with the females here. Although they yet crossed the line, this still made a lot of employees felt depressed and escaped quickly toward their work floor.

After many unsuccessful attempt, these people finally walked toward the front desk and started hitting on Wanqiu Xia, in truth, they already set their eyes on her, but pretend blind eyes because they want to show off first.

"Sorry I'm waiting for someone, please leave," she said with a fixed face.

These men didn't bother with her att.i.tude, they say conquering one cold woman, worth thousands of flattery women.

"Come on pretty, whoever you waiting for is not worth your attention."

"Yeah, you need men that can protect you and keep you safe."

"I mean check out our stature, who can even compare with us, haha!"

Their mouth started spouting impolite word without restraint as if they no longer hide their intention.

"Beauty, I know someone like you need a vigorous man to sate your hunger,"

"Yeah, check out that curves, big things need big tools to handle."

"I mean the three of us can perform many things that other men can't do, haha!"

Wanqiu Xia felt anger rose within her, these men truly dirty and uncultivated, how can they speak such a word in a public area like this?

When she readied to explode, another man voice came from the entrance direction.

"Ms. Wanqiu have you been waiting long?"

The tone was gentle yet as clear as bell ringing. Wanqiu Xia amber colored eyes brightened, she strode pa.s.sing these grunts and approached the young man.

His hair shone like a sun in the darkest sky, his calm temperament express nothing could faze him even if calamity swooped the entire city, a small curved on his lips told people he's coming for shaking their hands not crus.h.i.+ng them.

"Please, how can be long, as if we just closed our call," she smiled charmingly

"Ms. Wanqiu really knows how to please a customer, you embarra.s.sed me," Naruto scrubbed the back of his head.

"Oh, you jest..." she giggled, "then, please this way Mr. Naruto."

Naruto nodded and about to walk side by side with her.

"Boy, wait for a second..."