Take My Breath Away

"What do 999 stars mean?" Matthew asked.

The two female employees looked at each other and one of them explained, "It's like giving someone 999 roses, but 999 hand-made stars mean more. It's a personal gift to the one you love."

Owen, who had come downstairs, happened to overhear Matthew talking to the two women. "Where did you buy these colorful plastic tubes for folding stars?" he asked.

The two employees became more and more confused, but they honestly answered his questions anyway. "I can't remember, exactly. Still, these plastic straws are pretty cheap. You can find them all over the place."

Hearing this, Matthew took out his wallet, pulled out a wad of bills and handed it to the girl on the right. "Buy me a thousand pieces. I want them on my desk by tomorrow, just before your shift starts."

He found the best way to punish the naughty gal who called him "Matthew Xitala."

The girl stared at the stack of crisp hundreds he held in shock. It must be at least a few grand, at least. "No, I—"

"Not enough?"

As he asked, Matthew dipped his hand in his wallet once more. The woman waved her hand and tried to calm herself down. "No, Mr. Huo. It's not that expensive. I can buy tons of straws for a buck. It's my honor to buy something for you. I'll have it on your desk tomorrow morning."

Matthew took a look at the money in his hand, and then handed a thousand dollars to her. "Better use my cash. I'd never ask you to use your own money on something like this. Take it, and keep the change."

Unable to refuse, the woman took the money and said, "Thank you, Mr. Huo."

"Thanks for your help." Matthew tucked his wallet in his back pocket and left, leaving the two female employees stunned. It took them a while to process what just happened.

They couldn't help but wonder if Matthew was going to fold stars himself and then give them to someone.

As soon as Matthew arrived at the door to the office of the financial manager, his phone began to vibrate in his pocket. He didn't intend to answer it, because what he was going to do was very important.

But when he saw the caller's ID was the principal from Erica's school, he turned around and slid the answer key at once. "Hello, Mr. Zheng."

"Hello, Mr. Huo. I hope I'm not interrupting your work, but Mrs. Huo...caused trouble at school."

Matthew felt a headache coming on as he listened to the other man.

Meanwhile, Erica and Hyatt had bought a box of fish balls from a street vendor near the school. While they were eating, she got a call from Matthew. "Hi, what's up?"

"Come to my office now!"

"Now? That important, huh?" Erica was confused. Did Matthew know that she was already done with class for the day?

"Yes!"

"Okay, on my way."

After bidding Hyatt farewell, she flagged down a taxi and got in. She told the driver to head to the offices of ZL Group.

Before she left the school, she also bought a cup of hot and sour rice noodles from one of the vending machines. The smell hit Matthew's nostrils before he even stepped in his office. He wrinkled his nose.

He stopped in his tracks and called Paige over. "What's that smell?"

Paige walked into the office and saw the girl sitting in Matthew's chair, eating hot and sour rice noodles.

When she saw Paige come in, Erica greeted her with a smile, "Hello, Ms. Shen."

Paige chuckled. "Mrs. Huo," she said in reply.

Walking out of the office, Paige told Matthew honestly, "Mr. Huo, your wife is eating something in your office."

Sighing silently, Matthew nodded and said, "I see." Then he walked into the office.

Sure enough!

Erica was scooping noodles into her mouth using a pair of disposable chopsticks. When she saw him, she waved at him and said, "I'm here!"

Frowning, Matthew wasn't sure he wanted to get any closer to her. "What are you eating?" he asked.

"Funny you should ask..." Really, she bought the noodle cup for him, but after a few minutes of waiting, she got hungry. So she took the lid off and dug in. She felt sheepish with his eyes on her.

In silence, Matthew turned and opened all the windows to let some fresh air in.

Erica picked up some rice noodles with her chopsticks and offered it to him. "Want a taste? It's nom and spicy!"

"No!" he refused decisively. It smelled weird to him.

"Your loss. More for me, I guess. I like it a lot!" She continued to munch on the spicy rice noodles.

Matthew threw the documents in his hands onto the desk and sat down on the sofa, making sure to keep a healthy distance from the pungent smell. He got right down to business. "Did you make trouble at school?"

"What? I don't know that I'd call it trouble. How'd you find out?" The girl took out a sheet of tissue and wiped her nose. Then she threw it into the trash can and continued to eat.

Matthew stared at her. She didn't seem to feel bad about what she did. "Why would you bring poisonous spiders to school?"

Erica was nonplussed for a moment and then smiled. "There are no poisonous spiders. I just caught two ordinary spiders in your garden. I was afraid that they'd scare you if they got inside. I was planning to throw them into a garden far away from your villa..." However, after she came out of the villa, she forgot to throw them away and took the box of spiders to school with her by accident.

She didn't expect those spiders to come in handy. She felt so happy when she scared the girls who had badmouthed her.

"Hold on, slow down. Who did you say was going to be frightened by the spiders?" Matthew thought he must have misheard.

Erica swallowed a mouthful of rice noodles and wiped the oil from her lips. "You. I was afraid the spiders would frighten you. After all, you've mostly lived in the big city. You've never seen bugs like that, have you?"

Matthew's lips twitched. He thought he must be masochistic. Why else did he marry Erica then, if not to piss him off?

In the past, Matthew had gotten trained by Wesley in wilderness survival. This went on for three years, once a month. He replied in a strained voice, because she was trying his patience. "First of all, spiders are not 'bugs, ' they're arachnids. Secondly, your dad and I lived in the wilderness for a week. We only had three days worth of food, and had to figure how to find more. Know how old you were then?"

'Well...' No one knew better than Erica how cruel this training was. She had once gone there with her father and brother, but she ate the last of their rations. She woke up hungry the next morning, and was in agony from having to wait for her next meal.

At lunchtime, Gifford placed a spit-roasted snake in front of her as if he were presenting her with a precious treasure. Erica ran away from there as fast as she could.

Wesley couldn't catch up with her.

She figured that going camping like that was ridiculous. Could they just train there on the army base? Why did they have to go into the woods and eat those frogs and snakes, anyway? They even dug up grubs and trapped insects. Ew! She might like looking at them, but she never thought of popping them in her mouth.

She looked suspiciously at the thin man. "So did you get through it?"

Matthew looked into her eyes and said, "Of course. As long as I set my mind to it, there's nothing I can't do."

Erica took another bite of the rice noodles. She found it more and more interesting to chat with Matthew sometimes. "Now that you're among the richest men in the world, what else do you want to do besides earning more money?"

"Sleep with you."

"Ahem, ahem, ahem!" Erica was choked by the soup. She couldn't help but cough a few times as the soup was hot with pepper, and she sucked it down the wrong pipe.

While coughing, she reached out her hand to Matthew. "Water... Help!" she said, hoarsely.

Matthew fetched a glass of warm water for Erica and handed it to her. "That was dumb. What did you do that for?"

Erica felt like she was going to explode. She had no mood to argue with him. She drank a glass of warm water. She felt better, but it still hurt to breathe.

She used the tissues one by one, and the trash can was almost full.

Matthew took another glass of water and set it beside her. He patted her back gently and said, "Sorry, it's my fault."

"What?" She stared at him with her big tearful eyes.

Matthew explained, "I shouldn't have tried to talk to you while you were eating. I'll pay more attention next time."

"That's not the point..." She paused as she coughed again. "The point is that I... Ahem, ahem, ahem... God, I can't catch my breath!" She didn't want to die yet!

Truth was, she often chatted with others at mealtime, but they never discussed sex. That was pretty taboo, and he offered that suggestion out of the blue.

"You'll be okay," Matthew said with certainty. He figured she was too stubborn to die.