“Mr. Hoshitani, our flight departs at nine o’clock, which is in half an hour. It is scheduled to land at Itami Airport at ten o’clock sharp. If you need anything during the journey, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
In the driver’s seat, the female secretary wearing a well-tailored dark suit skillfully turned the steering wheel while politely reminding him through the rearview mirror.
This secretary was specially assigned by Rika Kawasaki’s mother—Kawasaki Hana.
Nominally, she was here to assist the “unaccomplished” young lady in familiarizing herself with the company’s affairs, but in reality, she was responsible for supervising Rika’s every move.
Recalling the directive she had received from the president just a week ago, her initial reaction had been one of extreme resistance.
Who didn’t know that the Kawasaki family’s young lady was a notorious good-for-nothing?
Apart from being extravagant and causing trouble, she seemed utterly useless.
She had even prepared herself to submit her resignation at any moment, unwilling to waste her valuable career on this young lady.
However, after just one week of interaction and accompanying her on several business negotiations, her original stereotypes were completely shattered.
Kawasaki Rika was simply a born ruler.
Not only was her learning ability terrifyingly astonishing—she had managed to grasp the complex web of the group’s business in just a few days—but even more frightening was the aura she exuded at the negotiation table.
It wasn’t the awkwardness of a novice, but an aggressive, oppressive force that made her invincible in commercial games.
So, in her report to the president last Friday, she didn’t hold back on the praise and sincerely added at the end:
“Miss Rika… really is very much like you.”
At this moment, Kaoru Hoshitani, sitting in the shadows of the back seat, heard the secretary’s words and merely nodded mechanically.
His gaze remained fixed on the rapidly receding cityscape outside the car window.
A black mask covered most of his face, revealing only a pair of dull, lifeless eyes, like a fish drained of water—despairing and numb.
Soothing classical music flowed within the car, but this elegant atmosphere was completely at odds with Kaoru Hoshitani’s current state of mind.
He felt like a packaged piece of cargo, being transported to an unknown slaughterhouse.
After about twenty minutes, the black sedan smoothly glided into the airport’s exclusive underground parking lot.
The secretary efficiently parked the car, got out, respectfully opened the car door for Kaoru Hoshitani, and then led him through the VIP channel straight to the first-class lounge.
Perhaps because Kaoru’s attire today was too ordinary—a nondescript gray hoodie, a cap pulled low, and a tightly worn mask—he exuded a despondent aura of “stay away.”
In this airport filled with elegantly dressed people, he stood out so incongruously that he didn’t attract any attention from those around him.
He sat down in a corner of the lounge, his body shrinking into the wide armchair, trying to reduce his presence.
Not long after, the boarding announcement sounded.
This was Kaoru Hoshitani’s first time stepping into a first-class cabin in his life.
When the flight attendant smiled and guided him to his seat, seeing the almost luxuriously spacious seat and the exquisite welcome drink in front of him, he didn’t show a hint of surprise.
He just sat down numbly, his eyes sweeping emptily around him.
It was merely a trapped creature’s final instinctive reaction to the decorations of its cage.
For someone in torment, the one-hour flight felt as long as a century, yet it also passed in the blink of an eye.
The plane landed at Osaka Itami Airport.
Kawasaki Rika’s secretary had already made all the arrangements.
She took Kaoru Hoshitani, avoiding the crowded exits, and left directly through an internal passage, getting into a black sedan already waiting in the parking lot.
The car’s engine roared softly as it sped towards the Osaka branch office of the Quansheng Group. The wheels kicked up fallen leaves on the ground, making a rustling sound.
The secretary in the driver’s seat glanced through the rearview mirror at the clearly depressed man in the back.
Just before disembarking, she had received a call from the young lady.
That usually decisive and formidable woman had sounded with a barely detectable trace of anxiety on the other end of the line, repeatedly confirming Kaoru Hoshitani’s arrival time.
“Miss Rika couldn’t come to the airport to pick you up personally, Mr. Hoshitani, because she has an important meeting.”
The secretary carefully chose her words, trying to ease the solidified low pressure in the car.
“But, during work, I often see her take out her phone to look at your photo. She… actually cares about you a lot.”
However, this well-intentioned attempt to improve the atmosphere acted like a lit fuse to a powder keg.
Upon hearing this, a flash of disgust suddenly appeared in Kaoru Hoshitani’s previously lifeless eyes, and he let out a snort full of mockery and anger from deep in his throat.
The secretary was startled by this sudden look. Her hand holding the steering wheel trembled slightly, and she didn’t dare utter another word.
The air in the car instantly dropped to freezing point, leaving only the sound of tires against the road, which seemed especially harsh.
Quansheng Group Osaka Branch, Top Floor President’s Office.
The huge floor-to-ceiling windows offered a panoramic view of Osaka’s cityscape, but Kawasaki Rika, sitting behind the desk, had no mood to appreciate it at the moment.
Knock knock…
Two knocks sounded, unusually clear in the quiet office.
“Come in!”
Originally staring blankly at the dull reports on her computer screen, Kawasaki Rika, upon hearing the sound, seemed to be jolted by electricity. She sprang up from her chair.
She didn’t even have time to smooth the slight wrinkles in her skirt before quickly walking towards the door.
The usual cold, arrogant president’s mask instantly shattered, replaced by an almost fanatical anticipation.
If she weren’t worried about her mother finding out she had abandoned work during office hours, she would have gone to the airport herself to snatch that little man back.
The heavy mahogany office door was pushed open.
The secretary stepped aside, and Kawasaki Rika’s scorching gaze, hot enough to burn, instantly locked onto the figure at the door.
Kaoru Hoshitani stood at the doorway, backlit, making his figure appear somewhat frail.
He seemed very unwilling, his steps dragging as if his feet were filled with lead.
But under the secretary’s silent urging and Kawasaki Rika’s gaze, he could only reluctantly step over the threshold, like a small animal stepping into a trap.
“You may leave. Lock the door. No one is to enter without my orders.”
Kawasaki Rika’s voice was slightly hoarse, carrying suppressed excitement.
Her gaze remained glued to Kaoru Hoshitani until the secretary retreated. With a soft click, the office was completely cut off from all outside noise.
In the vast space, only a man and a woman remained.
A faint scent of perfume filled the air—Kawasaki Rika’s usual scent, aggressively strong, instantly filling Kaoru Hoshitani’s breath.
“What’s wrong? Why the long face?”
Kawasaki Rika took long strides, walking up to Kaoru Hoshitani in a few steps.
She extended her slender, pale hand, fingertips painted with bright red nail polish like some dangerous signal, wanting to touch Kaoru’s pale cheek.
“My little Kazune, aren’t you happy to see me?”
Slap!
Kaoru Hoshitani violently turned his head away, slapping her hand away hard.
The crisp sound echoed in the quiet office.
Kawasaki Rika’s hand froze in mid-air before slowly retracting. Far from being angry, she seemed stirred by some more twisted interest.
She leaned back, her hips resting against the edge of the desk, hands braced behind her, leaning forward to examine the trembling man before her with a condescending posture.
“So disobedient.”
She let out a light laugh, her tone carrying a casual cruelty.
“That useless girlfriend of yours is really pitiful. Clearly working hard overtime on the weekend, struggling for your future, while her boyfriend is out having fun with the other woman.”
This sentence precisely stepped on Kaoru Hoshitani’s most painful nerve.
On the way here, Kaoru had told himself countless times in his heart:
No matter what this yellow-haired woman says or does, don’t pay attention to her, don’t give her any reaction.
But he never expected the woman’s opening words to be a direct breach of his defenses.
“Wasn’t all of this caused by you?!”
Kaoru Hoshitani finally broke.
He jerked his head up, tore off his mask, revealing a face flushed red with anger and humiliation.
He glared fiercely at Kawasaki Rika, his eyes bloodshot, like a cornered beast.
“I went out to avoid you! I never wanted to come here! Now look, Aina doesn’t believe me anymore… You’ve ruined my life!!!”
His voice turned shrill with agitation, his chest heaving violently, fists clenched so tightly his nails almost dug into his palms.
“Kawasaki Rika! I hate you!!! If there’s a next life, I hope I never meet a demon like you!!!”
By the end, he was almost grinding his teeth, each word dripping with bloody hatred.
A deathly silence fell over the office.
The smile on Kawasaki Rika’s face slowly faded.
She silently watched the man before her.
Sunlight from outside the window fell on her profile, outlining her delicate features, but it couldn’t penetrate the abyss-like shadow in her eyes.
Of course, she knew everything Kaoru Hoshitani said was true.
If she hadn’t forcefully, unreasonably barged into his life, plundering everything he had like a robber, he wouldn’t be suffering like this.
He should have been living an ordinary but happy life with that ordinary girl named Aina, not like now—like a bird with clipped wings, screaming in despair before her.
Looking into Kaoru Hoshitani’s hate-filled eyes, Kawasaki Rika’s heart inexplicably twinged with pain.
She didn’t want to see Kaoru Hoshitani in such pain.
Truly didn’t want to.
But… let go?
The moment this thought surfaced, she instantly crushed it.
No, of course she wouldn’t.
If letting go could make him happy, then what was all her scheming for? What about the price she paid to get him?
She was Kawasaki Rika. What she set her eyes on, she never let go of.
Even if it meant destroying him, she would keep him by her side.
After a brief silence, Kawasaki Rika put back on that shameless, confident smile.
She straightened up, step by step closing in on Kaoru Hoshitani until their noses were almost touching.
“As long as you break up and be with me, you won’t suffer anymore.”
Her voice was low and full of temptation, like a siren’s song.
“I’ll make you happier than you’ve ever been before. I have money, power. I can give you the world. Whatever that woman can give you, I can give ten times, a hundred times. What she can’t give you, I can.”
Kawasaki Rika said this, and she truly believed it in her heart.
In her logic, material things could fill any emotional gap. As long as she kept him locked by her side, one day he would get used to it, submit, and… fall in love with her.
And Kaoru Hoshitani had long seen through this yellow-haired woman’s shamelessness.
Looking at this beautiful face so close to his, he only felt a wave of nausea.
He took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the urge to vomit, and spoke word by word, with all his strength:
“In. Your. Dreams!”
These two words, like a block of cold stone, shattered all of Kawasaki Rika’s fantasies.
Kawasaki Rika’s eyes instantly turned cold, a flash of furious, humiliated malice flickering in their depths.
Seeing that the conversation had reached a dead end, verbal attacks seemed ineffective against this stubborn man.
Since the mouth wouldn’t obey, then let the body do the talking.
After all, bodies don’t lie, right?
The corner of her mouth lifted into a meaningful curve.
Her gaze slowly drifted downward, landing on Kaoru Hoshitani’s body, tense with anger, like a hunter appraising prey about to be caught…