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.

safe so they don't have time to call you. That, or the connection might just be too busy because everyone's doing the same thing.

I'm sure they'll

cleared her throat when she approached the huddled crowd, and all of them quickly grew quiet and looked at

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

employees would be safer if they weren't at work, and they wouldn't even be able to focus

in the distance,

of them smiled and

Qin!" "You're seriously the best

God! No, thank you, Boss! I was just worrying about the disgruntling commute home. You're a

be impossible to ride it home in such a

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

found that if she didn't hurry herself, she'd be trapped within the rush hour. She grabbed her things quickly back in her office and

was so strong and cold, and

hailed a taxi hurriedly and rushed towards the Garden Villa without much delay. It suddenly came to her that she forgot to close the windows this morning. She had to get

the windows. Right at this moment, the rain drummed on

reached for the remote and

Different from 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 herself deep in the soft sofa with her arms across her

outside, rattling her windows from the strong

to think about Rufus. If only he were here, she

chest and he would've caressed her face tenderly. She would be safe in his arms and that would

it was only her fantasy or daydreaming. All she had at the

window beside her, Cassandra saw the two flower planted in the yard. Her heart dropped to

fragile under the strength of the

were blown away, she would never forgive herself

them. However, once she opened the door, the

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

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

up into a warm embrace. Cassandra screamed in the rain until she saw Rufus's wrathful face in front of her. A warm current of

Rufus kicked the door open, walked in and closed the

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

both emotions at the same

to the rain? Rufus looked at her, glaring as he checked her face for any sign of guilt. Cassandra merely looked back, eyes glistening and

anything else. Despite shivering in damp clothes, she felt incredibly warm inside.