Take My Breath Away

Erica turned on the tap and began to wash her hands. "We are in the same dorm. There's no need to be so formal with me," she told her roommate.

After having a noon break, they went for their afternoon class, which, as per schedule, was theory of photography and styling. Somehow, Erica managed to get through the class without falling asleep.

After that, she walked out of the teaching building with Hyatt. Just as they were passing a corner, they heard a group of girls whispering something among themselves.

Erica was not interested in it at first, but she accidentally heard them mention the names of Phoebe and Matthew. That piqued her interest.

Immediately, she stopped Hyatt who was about to turn the corner and said, "Shush! Wait a moment!"

The two leaned against the other wall and nonchalantly began to eavesdrop on the girls' discussion. From what they could make out, there were three girls in the group.

The first one was saying, "Of course I know. I know Phoebe very well. I know that she is the woman in Matthew's heart."

The second one exclaimed, "Really? Tell us more!"

The first one continued, "Matthew and Phoebe have been in love for several years now. However, Erica Li, the Miss Troublemaker who gave birth to an illegitimate child, intervened in their relationship. Colonel Li then sought out Mr. Carlos Huo and asked permission to engage their children in wedlock. It is already common knowledge that Colonel Li and Mr. Carlos Huo have been good friends since before their children were born. How could the former CEO refuse his best friend's request? So he agreed to the marriage. After finding that out, Phoebe had a big fight with Matthew and then married his best friend instead."

The third girl chimed in, "Wow, I heard rumors but never expected that it would be such a twisted story! I think Phoebe married Matthew's best friend on purpose just to get revenge on him."

The second one agreed, "I think so as well. Is it true that Phoebe is pregnant?"

The first one could then be seen shaking her head. "I don't know. I'll ask her and tell you when I find out."

Then the second one said, "Let's go now. And we should stay away from that Miss Troublemaker in the future. Hey, what's that on your head? Oh god! It's a spider! There is a spider on your head—"

"W-what? Where?" The first girl was so frightened when she heard that she stepped back suddenly and lost her balance in the process. She fell down and judging by her pained groan, also managed to sprain her ankle while doing so.

The third girl screamed, "Ah—Miss Troublemaker... Why are you here?"

The first girl was still screaming in horror since the spider had climbed over her head by now. Her screams attracted many people's attention.

Erica was holding a black box in her hand. The box was open. She tilted it slightly to reveal something inside. "Look! I have a black widow spider here. Would you like to have a taste of it? No, no. Scratch that—I wonder if the spider would like a taste of you!"

There was indeed a dark, black, sinister looking spider in the box, and they could see it crawling inside. It looked creepy even from a distance.

"Ah!" The third girl's face turned pale. She turned around and was about to run away, but Erica grabbed her clothes and asked, "Are we running away now?"

The girl trembled and began to apologize profusely, "Look! I'm sorry, I didn't say anything. Please let me go!"

In the confusion, the second one also tried to slip away, but Erica suddenly put the box right in front of her. "Ah!" A louder scream rang out.

Erica let go of the third girl, scratched her own ear carelessly and asked in a helpless manner, "Why are you screaming? I didn't do anything to you."

'You didn't do anything to us?' The girls were all shocked. The first girl was still weak from the shock of spraining her ankle; she couldn't even stand up from the ground and looked highly embarrassed.

When she had felt that the spider crawling on her head had now climbed onto her face, she had been so frightened that she had closed her eyes and cried loudly, "Help!"

And to make it worse, when Erica had tried to pinch the spider on her face, she had happened to see that her victim seemed to have...wet her pants.

'Is she such a coward?' Erica thought.

Holding back her laughter, she put the spider back into the box leisurely, and then looked at the three girls. As if oblivious of the surrounding onlookers, she warned them, "You dare speak ill of me behind my back again, and I'll show you what fear feels like! And if you don't want to be bitten by this little black widow here, run three laps on the playground. Now!"

Anyone with common sense knew that if someone was bitten by a black widow spider, he would at the very least, be paralyzed if they didn't die!

The two crying girls nodded immediately. "Okay, we'll run!"

Just as everyone thought the matter was going to be resolved easily, Erica suddenly stopped them. "Wait!"

Under their frightened and confused eyes, she added, "You have to shout 'I'm a pig' while you are running."

The two girls were furious now. It was obvious that Erica was bullying them. Things had gone beyond revenge now!

The second girl plucked up her courage and stammered, "Erica, don't... You're going too far!"

"Well, if you don't want to do that, how about I tell you the effects of a black widow spider's bite. It's rather interesting! See first of all, the venom of the spider will spread from the wound to your entire body. You wouldn't notice anything and then your body will begin to tremble; finally, you will go into heart failure, your muscles will die and you will end up in the ICU. Oh also, for the rest of your life, you will have to depend on glucose for nutrition. Best case scenario, you die! Hey, I haven't finished yet. Why are you going so fast?"

Within just a few seconds, the second and third girls had already run off towards the playground, leaving behind only the first poor girl who was still unable to move. She had twisted her ankle and could not run. Even standing still was not an option for her.

Erica didn't want to talk to her anymore, but she had to say something to end this vendetta. "Alright then! You dare talk about me behind my back again, and this little poisonous spider will be on your face!!"

The girl nodded incessantly, "I...I will never do something like that again."

Satisfied with her revenge, Erica left with Hyatt, who was, by this time, used to such scenes.

While passing by the frightened girl, Hyatt also gave her a sympathetic look, as if saying, 'So many people in the world, and you had to go and provoke Miss Troublemaker?

Where do you think her title of "Miss Troublemaker" comes from? This is the same person who has been giving Colonel Li a headache for more than 20 years now. How ordinary would that person be?'

At ZL Group

Matthew walked out of his office holding some documents and told Owen, "I am going to the financial department first. Remember to bring the data with you later."

"Yes, Mr. Huo."

Matthew entered the elevator with two documents in his hands.

When he reached the financial department, he discovered two employees in the secretary division whose heads were lowered and they were doing something under the table.

He took a couple of steps forward and saw that the two women were engaged in origami. They were constantly folding a straw shaped thing back and forth in their hands.

Some of the work had been finished and Matthew saw that they were making colorful stars.

"What are you doing?" He spoke so suddenly that the two employees, who were completely engrossed in their work, got startled severely.

When they turned around and saw that it was the CEO of the company himself, their faces turned pale. The straws in their hands fell to the ground. They quickly stood up from their chairs and said, "Mr.... Mr. Huo!"

Matthew picked up a long and slender plastic tube from the ground and looked at it for a long time. But he couldn't figure out what it was.

One of the employees apologized, "I'm so sorry, Mr. Huo. We understand that this was wrong. But we've already finished our work for today... We shouldn't do this at office hours. Mr. Huo, sorry..."

"What's this?"

Matthew interrupted their apology and his question left them dumbfounded. After a while, the other one told him in a low voice, "This is the plastic tube for folding stars, sir."

"Why are you making plastic stars?"

The employee blushed. "Tomorrow is my boyfriend's birthday. I want to give these to him."

Matthew asked, "How many stars do you want to make?"

"999."