2020

The interior of the restaurant was decorated in a traditional way with lantern-designed lights hanging from the ceiling. The walls, windows as well the floor of the restaurant had a wooden texture while the tables were covered with red cloth adding a traditional feel to the customers.

It was lunchtime and Zhang Mei Xiang, the CEO of 23 years of Zhang Company was sitting in the traditional Chinese restaurant while her business partner who was the director of a famous Japanese skin-care company was explaining the advantages of investing in their new product.

Zhang Mei Xiang occasionally put the food into her mouth while she observed the person who was explaining about their new product. The director was explaining to her as if he memorized every single word before coming for the meeting. While explaining whenever her eyes met with his, he kept looking down avoiding her gaze as if he was afraid of facing her questions. This irritated the young CEO. While discussing things, she preferred to talk straight forward. But that person kept repeating the same words over again and again.

He kept saying that they used herbal items for their products and the feedback of their users was very well. The workers of their company were very happy with their treatment and wages. He kept saying that they always tested the products before selling them to markets.

Though the director was giving an explanation of every single detail of the new product, Zhang Mei Xiang seemed to show no interest in his explanation. In fact, she already made up her mind not to invest in the skin-care company. She never trusted the skin-care companies and that too those who used herbal things as she believed that a single flaw can made her entangled in a scandal and the media won't leave that opportunity.

Zhang Mei Xiang didn't reject the meeting as she believed that it would be improper to reject before talking about the matter. After listening to the explanation for a long time, Zhang Mei Xiang decided to speak.

"Mr. Sheng, I am sorry but I won't invest in your product." Zhang Mei Xiang said politely.

"But Miss, our company is one of the best skin-care companies." The director tried to change the young CEO's decision.

A faint smile appeared on her lips and she called her secretary who was standing outside the room. As the secretary appeared in the room, Zhang Mei Xiang spread her hand making a gesture of asking something and the secretary gave her a file. Taking the file, she handed it to the director.

The director looked at her confusingly and opened the file. As he turned over a few pages, his eyes widened and he started sweating. He looked at the young CEO with a kind of fear in his eyes.

"Do you still want me to invest in your product?" Zhang Mei Xiang asked him mockingly while a smug smile appeared on her lips.

Actually, that file contained about the complaints of users and workers of the skin-care company. They were suing the company for the ill-treatment, abuse, etc. There were side effects for their products and some of the complaints that the skin rashes became terrible.

"H-how did you find it?" The director's voice trembled.

"I have my own ways." Zhang Mei Xiang said leaving her seat. "Let me give you an advice. Next time while talking about business with other companies, make sure to put more effort to hide your dark secrets."

Her lips curved upwards forming a half-moon smile. She glanced at the director for last time and walked out through the door, followed by her secretary.

"Miss Zhang, why didn't you send those files to media?" Her secretary asked her.

"I don't like to meddle in other's business." The young CEO replied checking a file. "Ji Ling, are there any complaints from our employees?" She lifted her head waiting for the response.

"No, Miss." The secretary replied. "Everyone is happy."

"Great!" The CEO smiled.

Soon they reached the company and Zhang Mei Xiang went inside her office while Ji Ling took his seat outside the CEO's office. Luckily she didn't have meetings for the rest of the day. So she kept on checking various files.

It was about 8 pm when she completed her work and went to her apartment. Zhang Mei Xiang lived alone in her apartment. Her mother died when she was young while her father died a few years ago after she became the CEO of the company. She was a cheerful girl when she was young but after the death of her parents, she faced the harsh side of the world and decided to change herself into the cold person by building invisible cold walls around herself.

After dinner, she lazily dragged her body to her bedroom and let it fall on the feather-soft bed. She opened the windows allowing the chilly wind to flow freely. There was a smell of blossoming flowers, a sweetness and an unusual calmness in the weather. The moon shone gently, illuminating the entire night sky with its gentle aura.

Zhang Mei Xiang kept staring at the shining moon while a faint smile appeared on her lips, reminiscing her childhood when she used to enjoy the calm nights with her parents. Soon her eyelids became heavy and she fell asleep.

Suddenly after some time, Zhang Mei Xiang woke up with a jerk while beads of sweat formed on her forehead and she was breathing heavily. She looked at her surroundings and sighed with relief finding herself on her bed.

Zhang Mei Xiang always had a bad dream that became a nightmare for her. Whenever she drifted into a deep sleep, she dreamt of a brutal battlefield with stains of blood everywhere while innumerable dead bodies laid on the ground. A young man who was supposed to be the general of the big army fought gallantly with a barbaric general. He struggled to protect the entire army from the barbaric tribe. She could see how ruthlessly the soldiers were killed while the general tried to protect his army. She always felt a type of unknown feeling, a type of attraction in the dream as if the dream was predicting something.

But what added more to her agony was, from the past week that dream became a nightmare for her. Whenever she had a nap, the dream would haunt her. As a result, her sleep got badly disturbed and she overworked herself to avoid dreaming such a dream.

As she again dreamt of the dream, she understood that she couldn't sleep again. So she got down from her bed and stretched her hand for the water bottle. After drinking some water, she felt her body relaxed.

Normally Zhang Mei Xiang used to do her work but that day she was too tired to do anything. So she lazily slid inside her blanket and stared blankly at the ceiling.

Suddenly calm weather changed into a violent storm. The wind gushed into her room making the papers that were kept on the bedside stand fly and fall down. She quickly got up and closed the windows. No sooner she did so than the light started to flicker and in the next moment power surge occurred and the darkness invaded her entire room.

Zhang Mei Xiang hated the storms for some reason which was unknown to her. The darkness made her feel suffocated. She quickly crawled into her bed and curled up, closing her eyes tightly. Soon the sleep conquered her.

She opened her eyes when she felt the 'bed' under her was somehow wet and soft. She at once sat with a jerk when she realized that she wasn't at her home anymore, but she was lying on the ground while a stream flowed beside her.

The first question that came to her mind was 'where was she?'

Word count: 1314

It finally hit 2000 words milestone😊
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1. Sorry for typing mistakes.

2. English isn't my first language, so please compromise

I wrote this chapter inspired by Dedsyl author