"Miss Ruby! Miss Ruby! What was your reason for suddenly deciding to reveal yourself to the public?"
Flashes of cameras were strong enough to blind one's eyes, but the woman dressed in a bold red colored dress in midst of all the attention walked with strong and confident strides as bodyguards dressed in black worked hard to make way for her. Not to even mention the number of fans chasing closely behind the paparazzi.
It was breathtaking, as everything felt like nothing but only that woman in red existed at that moment. Only she existed under that spotlight, what a scene that was to witness.
"Miss Luhui, I got your sundae,"
Standing by the walls, was another young woman. Nothing much to her but the silly smile lingering on her lips as she observed the crowd like it was some theatre play.
Hearing her name being called out she turned to look over her shoulders. She saw her secretary walking over to her with a cup of the said sundae in his hand, his glasses being fogged up from all the running and huffing with his mask on.
Humming in glee, Luhui took the sundae cup and immediately started devouring it down as fast as possible.
"I was going to ask her for an autograph but she seems busy" The secretary deadpanned how serious the statement was. "I honestly don't think you can push through all those people to get that autograph either."
Luhui looked back with an offended expression on her face. "Still wonder why I'm kind enough to keep you here." Roughly pushing her empty cup toward the secretary, Luhui walked away toward the parking lot huffing.
Shaking his head with disappointment, the secretary pushed his thick-lensed glasses higher up on his nose bridge. Glancing down, only then did he notice that he got sundae smeared over his fresh new suit, most likely when Luhui pushed the cup to him.
"You got your sundae all over my new suit, Miss Luhui!" whined the man. Trying to wipe the smears off his suit, he hurriedly followed after toward the parking lot.
"So what? Buy a new one and the problem will be solved!"
Sitting in the backseat of the luxurious-looking car, Luhui pulled out her tablet from the bag on the leather seats beside her. News notification glaring straight at her from the glowing screen, almost as if it is waiting for Luhui to click on it.
'ANONYMOUS AUTHOR VIVIAN RUBY'S FACE REVEAL?' Was the title. It was dark inside the car, dark enough that the light from the tablet screen was enough to reflect on the mocking smile on Luhui's face.
"Miss "lady in red" would've revealed herself already if that's what she wanted, paparazzi these days really have nothing to do huh, going after a mere anonymous author this time." Shaking her head, Luhui popped a small candy into her mouth.
"Her books are really popular these days, and she's often on social media too. Those alone might be enough to make her popular with the public. After all, people do wonder about what the author of their favorite book looks like don't they?" The secretary said as he settled into the driver's seat.
"Besides, aren't you also on your way to "create your masterpiece" like Vivian Ruby as you said?" The secretary looked at Luhui with a smile but only received an eye roll from the said lady.
Luhui watched as the secretary started the car, she turned her head again to lean on the car window. "I'll be taking a nap, don't wake me up unless there's something important." The secretary glanced at the young woman in the backseat from the rearview as she went into a nap in no time.
In a blink of an eye, almost two hours passed and they made it to the airport without too much traffic. "Miss Luhui, we're here." The said girl has immediately been pulled away from her slumber when she felt the sensation of someone touching her arm.
Flinching, Luhui pushed off the hand on her arm as she groggily looked around at her surroundings. "We're here? Where?" She asked half asleep as she attempted to pick her things up and strumbled out of the car.
"We've arrived at the airport already Miss Luhui, don't tell me you slept your entire brain away?" The secretary said as he watched the young woman in front of him getting her things ready. "Ah yes, the flight to city B. Yes, a genius like me can't forget such an event, I just needed some reminders."
A moment of silence went between the two, completely still as none of them took it upon themselves to start speaking first.
"I'll just double-check if I got everything with me"
"Yeah do that, I'll get the suitcases down from the back of the car."
The two rushed away from each other just like that.
┈┈・┈┈
Good day passengers. This is the pre-boarding announcement for flight 38F from city A to city B. We are now inviting those passengers with...
Glancing up at the sound of their flight being announced, the secretary turned to the female sitting a few seats away on his right. "We'll be boarding soon, let's get up Miss Luhui." Watching the said young lady wordlessly raising up from her seat without him needing to pamper her like some princess as usual, the secretary was quite surprising to see Xu Luhui out of everyone be this obedient all of a sudden.
Settling into their designated seats on the airplane, Luhui pulled out a sleep mask.
The secretary assumed that she was rather just tired than obedient. The secretary pushed his thick glasses further up his nose bridge.
The weather was horrible by the time they arrived in city B. Grey sky, rain, wind, you name it.
"What a terrible weather..."
The secretary didn't bother looking up from his phone. Towards where Luhui has been staring for the last minute. The enormous glass window of the airport, shielding the people inside from the terrible weather like dolls inside a toy house.
"It is indeed, let's keep going. We should be effective with the time we have to spend here in this city. There's loads of work by Xu corporation waiting for us when we get back." Tearing her gaze away from the glass windows, Luhui followed after the secretary with an empty head.
┈┈・┈┈
A messy bedhead popped out underneath the white comforter with a big yawn. After arriving at the hotel they booked the night before, Luhui barely slipped into some comfortable clothing before passing out on her bed.
Good sleep indeed.
Barely blinking one eye open, dark brown eyes looked at the beautiful sun outside the hotel room window. Finally, it was a peaceful morning where one can wake up naturally. Instead of a menacing alarm clock in the wee hours of the morning, it was surely enough to bring a sleepy smile to Luhui's face.
Just as she was retreating under the warm comforters, the phone that was abandoned on the nightstand started ringing.
Luhui popped her head out of the comforters again, albeit with a nasty glare this time.
"What?"
"Good thing that you have woken up, Miss Luhui." It was the secretary again.
"Yes, alright, bye."
"Hey wait-"
The line went quiet as the girl hung up on the call. A moment of silence went by before a groan was heard in the room as she got out of bed.
┈┈・┈┈
The breakfast went by quite fast, other than that was just Luhui moving from one cafe to another and zoning out on each with an empty notebook and pen right in front of her. Cat cafe, dog cafe, anime cafe, it was all been there done that for her.
Time would never have felt this long for Luhui if it wasn't for the fact that she is not swarmed by work but only out her for a break.
From fiddling with the laces of her cream-colored blouse, smoothing out the wrinkles of her tan-colored long skirt, to carefully checking on her curled hair. Luhui checked her appearance again from the reflection on the glass window of the fifth cafe she was currently in. Successfully achieving the look of a grandmother, no doubt the sassy kind that is not afraid to call one out for their bullshit.
It was almost like a blur, as a man dressed in dark clothes rushed to sit down on the seat in front of her. Luhui raised her eyebrows as she blinked slowly in surprise. It felt like a very forcible way to bring surprise into her life.
"Talk with me, quick." His gruff voice rather sounded like he drank cement for coffee in the morning. Nonetheless, Luhui complied with his request.
"Well hello to you too, Batwan wannabe? How's your day going?" A playful smile appeared on Luhui's face.
"Can't you act more natural?" If his glare could kill, Luhui would've been six feet deep in her grave right now. Luhui laughed in glee. "What do you mean? Do you want me to act like everyone here in the cafe? Commenting on how beautiful the weather is today? Then you might have come to the wrong person."
Snatching her stuff from the table, Luhui was stopped when she felt a hand on her wrist. Looking back at grumpy personified of a man with an all-knowing smile, Luhui sat back down in her seat again.
"So...." Luhui watched as the man tried to start a conversation. Judging by his appearance, he had messy black hair, fading bruise on the corner of his lips and left cheekbone, dirt on his shirt with the only good thing being his decently good-looking face that has a chance for a higher visual rating if he has the time to shave.
But judging by the deep dark circles under his eyes that made him look like a panda was clearly screaming out to Luhui that keeping a clean appearance was the last thing on his mind.
"Name?"
"Chris Avans."
Luhui deadpanned. "Don't f*ck with me, I watch western media." The man hummed in amusement. "Your name then?"
"Yor Vorger." The man's eyes held many unspoken words of judgment. But Luhui got it.
"Agent X Family, I enjoy anime."
Luhui nodded in agreement. "Xu Luhui." The man leaned back into the chair. "Zhang Yifan."
A moment of silence appeared between the two, but it didn't feel like suffocating despite feeling awkward sitting with a stranger. Just enjoying the midday sun in silence.
"In your two o'clock direction outside of the cafe, do you see a man with a black shirt and blue jacket?" Luhui stared at Yifan for a moment before looking outside from the glass window, searching for the person Yifan described.
"No. But there is a man in all black, wearing baseball cap talking to someone on the phone who keeps staring in our direction."
Yifan cursed under his breath. "Alright, let's just keep talking." Luhui nodded. "Alright, so what do you think about pineapple on pizza?"
"What the flip-"
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