The day of the bidding arrived as scheduled. Everything seemed to go as planned until Lionel discovered something awry.
When he inserted his flash drive to upload his presentation, a notification appeared saying that there were no files that could be found. Confused, he removed and plugged it in again. The same message window appeared. All his files were gone!
Of course, this was no time to troubleshoot. Anxiously, he walked down the stage, found his secretary, and asked her to fetch a backup disk. To his surprise, it also failed to read anything.
Several minutes passed and Lionel still could not begin his presentation. The audience began to murmur and the project director frowned in dismay.
Beads of sweat started to form in Lionel's forehead. Embarrassed, he mumbled an apology to the awaiting public. He felt like an ant in a hot pot.
'What happened to my flash drive?' he wondered. He remembered checking it in the computer yesterday and not encountering any issue. How could he have anticipated something like this to happen at such a critical moment? What was more, what was he to do to fix this?
Suddenly, he remembered that the same thing happened to Cassandra at another bidding. Still, she managed to push through with her presentation. Lionel doubted he could pull off the same stunt.
Left with no other choice, however, he had to make do. Without his notes, he started his presentation. Stumbling over his words once in a while, he soon finished presenting all the pieces of information he could remember. Nervously, he scanned his audience and spotted the project director's face. He did not seem pleased. Then and there, Lionel knew he was done.
As he was stepping down the stage, he met eyes with Arthur who was now about to present next.
"Thank you, Mr. Tang, for making this easier for me,"
he said in a low voice with a smirk on his face. This made Lionel as enraged as he was embarrassed.
Out of words, he stared at Arthur who then responded with a meaningful smile.
Restraining himself, Lionel continued to proceed to his seat. His secretary could not seem to look at him, possibly scared of his reprimand. Nervously, she sat, half expecting her boss to scold her anytime.
Arthur delivered his presentation smoothly and confidently. It was a stark contrast to Lionel's awkward and seemingly unprepared performance.
It was clear that the Dawn Star Group would win the bid. Realizing this, Lionel decided that he no longer had business staying. Void of hope, he left even before the bidding finished.
presenting. Satisfaction filled him when he saw his opponent accepting defeat. He would
Now, all he
Group did not stand
up. Looking at
revenge. Now, Lionel could
was doomed to lose
to go. He couldn't go to the office as he was not ready to face his colleagues after the mess
parents were counting on him to win the bidding. After what happened, he did not know how he would even begin to tell
down on
about how his proud mother humbled herself and begged for the
something to do with the accident? It seemed impossible for the flash
out the disk and examined it. The thought gave him
damaged the disk to make him a laughing stock at
that were true, then that would make Cassandra a very evil person that deserved to be punished. Lionel decided that it was best to look into his suspicions. He did not want to jump into conclusions without due diligence.
expert on computers
surprise, his friend reported that it had a virus that deleted all its
His friend
really hate you! Do you still remember where you got
of processing his thoughts, he instructed his friend, "Don't tell anyone about this.
one was supposed to know that he knew about the sabotage, so he wanted to be clear
Lionel drove to the Garden Villa. He knocked at the gate forcefully and shouted, "Cassandra! Get out! Come here,
peeked out, unhappy with the scene
was clearly enraged. Yet, Cassandra had no idea what was
should open the door or not. She no longer
her under his roof. Realizing that, she decided to open the gate
behavior from you. Playing tricks behind my back? I never expected you to go so low! You can refuse to help me, sure. That's your choice. But making sure I was embarrassed at the
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W5f4ps6OUPX4nkPO1beYCxjifRHJJMuru0jiDwGx+TmfQjXtcBY5VQUi18zeuoRXayIDveBZ0Fk40PloIb1yatyT/LA8NNGCt7aFB3LtDAIbgxaIVewirYwQemvwAMvbj8dHuOqYaDGhVLkbvxL/3juhm93ayfKUztgZKzjsUBaKFPXe/I7dy3V28TM7AmhE5Wu3f9oKqtliSn09zvImquVU+RgTYMSXX3VpXZTPvI+1VRXx2JdLwB2VQsi8aCq1Bmmdk9PQUOOr
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