A Graduation Gift

Mr. Wang finally stood up, design plan in his hands. He nodded to Cassandra with a satisfied smile on his face, his curious expression now long gone.

"Ms. Qin, I believe that your company's success will be beyond expectation. You have the ball at your feet! Please accept my congratulations in advance!" he smiled sincerely.

Cassandra's sheer confidence dispelled whatever doubt he had before. He looked at her approvingly before turning to leave her office.

Cassandra thanked him eagerly and promised to not let him down.

Once he was out of earshot, she squealed in delight for successfully nailing down the business transaction.

Her happiness was short-lived, however, when it finally dawned on her how exhausted she had been. Since she was the operator of the group, her mother was unable to help and her sister was too young to understand, she had to do most of the work herself. But no matter how frustrated she was, Cassandra knew it was all worth it. Her father must have felt the same when he started the group. She smiled to herself.

Although she had won several grand design prizes before, Cassandra promised Lionel that she wouldn't work on designing in the next two years, which somehow restricted her to gather a larger clientele for her company.

Most of the cases they undertook were similar that of Mr. Wang, and many clients came to her for the sake of her previous works. She quietly hoped that the group could provide them with some brilliant works in order to establish a long term cooperation relationship. Facts speak louder than words. However, if she was just able to design again, she knew she could have gathered a larger network of prospective customers.

A loud clap of thunder broke her from her thoughts as she suddenly felt her feet quake beneath her. She got dizzy as she noticed the glass windows rumbling.

Cassandra knew it wasn't vertigo, but she couldn't figure out what it was. She closed her eyes until the shaking subsided.

As if on cue, her phone beeped to alert her of the news. She quickly took her phone out to check.

It said that a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck A city. The alerts updated her every other minute. The earthquake and the thunder shower triggered several landslides and there were still unconfirmed reports on casualties. The earthquake was strong enough to affect the surrounding cities.

G City wasn't very close to A City, but citizens there also felt the strong vibration.

Taking several deep breaths, Cassandra slowly stood up from her chair despite her dizziness.

When she opened the door to leave her office, the hallway was in utter chaos. Her employees were all scattered outside, discussing the earthquake.

"It was so scary! I saw the ripples in my mug and thought that I shook the desk by accident!" a female employee said.

Her voice was trembling and shaky.

"My uncle and his family are in A City. I tried calling them but I still couldn't reach them! I'm so worried," another employee cried out.

She was about to burst into tears and some of her colleagues gathered around to comfort her.

That, or the connection might just be too busy because everyone's doing the same thing. Just

worry. I'm sure they'll contact you once

throat when she approached the huddled crowd, and all of them quickly grew quiet

weather report says it's also going to rain soon. Please be careful, and make sure that all of you message me as soon as you're home,"

work, and they wouldn't even be able to focus since they

glanced outside to look at the dark clouds forming in the distance, before looking back at her employees earnestly.

by her words. All of them

much, Manager Qin!" "You're seriously the best boss I've

was just worrying about the disgruntling commute home. You're a

here today, and it'll be impossible to ride it home in such a

praises kept on coming as they piled their things together and left

herself, she'd be trapped within the

wind almost blew her away. The gust was so strong and cold, and the fog had started to form in

suddenly came to her that she forgot to close the windows this morning. She had to get home as fast as she could otherwise it would the house upside

her door and hurriedly closed the windows. Right at this moment, the rain drummed on the window pane heavily.

reached for the remote and turned

the wind inland, the storm from coastal cities was blustering around the house, together with the thunder, the rain and the lightning flashing across the sky. Fears were raised up in Cassandra's heart and she buried

alone in such a huge house, which seemed emptier than usual. The violent thunderstorm was roaring louder outside, rattling her windows from the strong gusts of wind. To her, it sort of

think about Rufus. If only he were here,

could burrow her entire body into his chest and he would've caressed her face tenderly. She would

or daydreaming. All she had at

the window beside her, Cassandra saw the two flower planted

but under the heavy rain, they were bound to die. The poor plants were incredibly fragile under the strength of the storm.

her, and if they were blown away, she would never forgive herself for

protect them. However, once she opened

made her way to the plants. Each step she took, the wind fought back, as if it were trying to prevent her from getting to the plants. When she made it, she quickly spread her oversize raincoat and secured around the bottom with some heavy rocks, covering the flowers. Seeing the plants now safe and sheltered,

stones hitting on her shoulders. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew up and she choked, coughing

suddenly felt someone approach her from behind. And the next second she was lifted up into a warm embrace. Cassandra screamed in the rain until she saw Rufus's wrathful face in

open, walked in and closed the wuthering outside behind them. Then he turned to the

hell were you doing outside? It is raging storm outside, for God's sake! You'll get sick standing in the middle

Only Cassandra could trigger both emotions at

thinking exposing herself to the rain? Rufus looked at her, glaring as he checked her face for

else. Despite shivering in damp clothes, she felt incredibly warm inside. She knew that Rufus cared for her and that he was just too worried for