“Are you alright?”
Jasper glanced at Celine, who was sitting in his living room, in the midst of enjoying some snacks with milk. He then asked her this in a suspicious tone.
Although Celine looked exactly the same as she did usually, Jasper felt that something was wrong.
“I’m good,” Celine said, casting an odd glance at him. She then lowered her head to look at herself. “Is there something wrong?” She asked.
Jasper sat down and opened a bottle of beverage for himself. “Has everything been resolved?” He asked.
“Everything has been resolved,” Celine said in a relaxed tone. “Are you forgetting who I am? Is there anything that I can’t deal with? Do you really think that I’ve gained nothing from working at Colossal Investments all these years? I have plenty of connections, alright?” She added.
“You make it seem easy,” Jasper said. He narrowed his eyes at her as he did not believe a single word that she was saying.
The more indifferently Celine behaved, the more he certain he felt that the issue this time was serious.
Although he had never worked at Colossal Investments before, Jasper had been a veteran in the financial circle in his past life. He had seen all sorts of workplace battles.
Furthermore, he was managing a bunch of people under him in his current lifetime.
Jasper knew very well that one could be wiped out at any moment as people in the company schemed and plotted against each other.
It was a battlefield where smoking barrels could not be seen.
This was especially true for top investment banks like Colossal Investments, as they already had in place a complete ecosystem nestled within the company. Such working environments were terrifyingly cruel.
There were plenty of power struggles constantly occurring within the company.
“If you can’t do it, you can just give up. I’ve told you that we’ll still be friends. When it comes to Colossal Investments, I can always change working partners. There’s no need to give in to their demands,” Jasper said.
Celine pinned a long, meaningful gaze upon Jasper. “I’ve put in a lot of effort and work into this. I’ve put almost all that I have into this project, and now you’re saying that you want to change your working partner? I won’t agree,” she said.
“Alright, alright,” Jasper chuckled. “Since you’re giving me a 20% commission, I won’t let you down,” he said.
“Also, I heard that you fired your secretary.” Jasper asked casually.
“I’ve fired her,” Celine said nonchalantly. It was as if he was talking about something insignificant. “She is no longer qualified for her current position, so she has no choice but to leave,” she added.
“Your personal secretary wasn’t qualified for the position, and you only just realized it now? You’re only tackling this issue now?” Jasper asked.
Celine stared at Jasper. “Why are you asking so many questions today?” She questioned.
“Was she going against you or me?” Jasper asked her another question, blatantly ignoring Celine’s evident distaste.
Celine huffed and threw a chip into her mouth. “She was going against the both of us,” she said.
“Was it William?” Jasper asked.
“You’re quite a smart one,” Celine praised him.
“If she only went against you, I wouldn’t have been able to guess it. There are 8000 to 10000 employees in Colossal Investments, and the only people I know there are you and William. Therefore, if she was going against me as well, he had to be the one behind it,” Jasper said in a calm tone.
“Why? Are you unhappy about it? Do you want to go challenge him as well?” Celine asked him cheerily.
“If the opportunity arises, I won’t let him go so easily,” Jasper replied.
Although Jasper did not care much about the internal power struggles taking place within Colossal Investments, nor did he care about working together with them, someone that wanted to defeat him would be a danger to him sooner or later. This was especially true if it was someone holding a high-ranking position like William, the president of the Terra regional branch.
“Alright, I’m full now. I’m going back,” Celine said as she stood up and brushed off the crumbs of food from her hands.
“I’ll be busy with work the next few days due to the heavy workload. I still need to organize the entire process of your listing, so I have an afternoon flight back to Harbor City.”
Jasper got up and replied, “Since the listing of Sena has been confirmed, I need to make some arrangements as well.”
“In that case, we’ll both be busy with our own work,” Celine said with a smile as she walked in front of Jasper.
“Will you miss me?”
“I won’t miss a married woman,” Jasper said with a rigid expression on his face.
Noticing the frown forming on Celine’s brows, Jasper spoke again. “But I’ll miss my friend,” he said.
“You know exactly what to say,” Celine said happily. She waved her hand and said, “Also, don’t call me a married woman. We simply staged a wedding and received a foreign marriage certificate that isn’t recognized in Somerland. That’s it, there’s nothing else going on between the two of us.”
“Are you hinting that I can try becoming the third party in your relationship?”
Jasper chuckled. After knowing her for some time, Jasper knew that she could take a joke like that.
Celine rolled her eyes at Jasper. “You can try. It’s easy to win my heart,” she said.
“I could never move your heart,” Jasper said as he stared at Celine’s imposing figure.
“Tsk, what a man,” Celine pouted in distaste as she walked toward the door.
She opened the door and stood by the exit. Then, she suddenly turned around and smiled radiantly at the sight of Jasper watching her leave. “In that case, see you in New York?” She asked.
“See you in New York.”
…
Celine left just like that. She did not look back.
She did not even ask Jasper to send her to the airport.
She called a taxi to the airport on her own.
Noticing that she had checked out and left, Jasper felt slightly somber.
“Please be careful, Jasper,” Julian, who was beside Jasper, blurted out suddenly.
“You little rascal. You rarely say anything, but your words never fail to make me uncomfortable.”
Jasper glared at Jasper. “Why should I be careful? There’s nothing going on between the both of us,” he said.
“I don’t know about that, but from a man’s perspective, if Ms. Schuler and Ms. Law are both beautiful flowers with contrasting styles, Ms. Celine Maynard is a wildflower that men simply cannot get out of their minds. It’s addictive,” he said.
“Furthermore, she’s a married woman. How exciting is that? A man will surely have fantasies, right?”
Jasper stared at Julian in shock. “F*ck, what have you been doing these days? The way you speak has levelled up greatly,” he said.
…
After bickering with Julian, Jasper no longer felt downcast about Celine’s departure for Harbor City. He then called Jack Tanner over.
“Jack, are you interested in going to New York with me to ring the bells?”
Jasper’s words caused Jack to fell a surge of excitement.
“Has the deal been completed? Didn’t you previously mention that there were some problems with it?” Jack asked in surprise.
Jasper could not hide his plans of listing Sena from Jack, who was in charge of the company. In fact, the both of them had negotiated and decided on many of the strategies that they would be imposing during this period.
Jack looked forward to Sena’s listing as well. For any professional manager out there, getting listed would be the highlight of their careers.
“Everything has been resolved,” Jasper chuckled.
“We’ve now officially started the countdown to the listing. We are yet to decide on a specific date, so you’ll need to carry out the relevant preparations. The company must not face any problems during this period.
“When the company gets listed, it will definitely benefit the employees. You should also design a reward scheme. After all, good things should be shared.”
