Chapter 439
Silence hung heavy in the air of the meeting room. Upon witnessing such a reaction from everybody
else, Heather gave them a faint smile that immediately thawed out the chilly look on her face. Lighting
up the enclosed space in everybody’s heart, her smile was as bright as the sun. It was so enticing that
those people could hardly avert their gaze from her.
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“Allow me to start by introducing myself. My name is Heather Langston. Heather, otherwise known as
Calluna vulgaris, derived its name from the Greek word ‘kallunein’, which means to beautify, or sweep
clean. Incidentally, I came with the intention to improve things by purging those that are unnecessary.”
As she spoke, she nced at the two people. All eight of her team members present in the room knew
what she meant to imply during her self introduction.
“When I was studying in Italy, I had been managing the Langston Group’s branchpany in Europe.
Today is my first day in the headquarters of Langston Group. To be frank, the headquarters is no match
for the branchpany. As you would have already known, Langston Group is currently focused on its
operations in Europe.” Heather’s straightforward attitude was almost nerve wracking, especially for
ke’s subordinates.
The bbergasted look on their faces elicited from her a satisfied smile. “This is also why Director
ke has been travelling to Europe. However, as a family who have our roots in Bradfort City, of
course the Langstons would like to improve our century-oldpany.” The ups and downs in Heather’s
words left them hanging. It was as if they were on a roller-coaster ride, and Heather might surprise
them with anything at the next instant.
“I have a doctorate in economics in which I achieved outstanding performances in both its theoretical
and practical aspects.” The look she wore when she was nonchntly praising herself was somewhat
adorable.
By then, ke’s subordinates smiled awkwardly when they realized Heather shouldn’t be trifled with.
Instead of them giving her a hard time in the future, it was likely that the opposite would be true, as she
was obviously not a pushover. Although they already heard of Heather’s various deeds, it wasn’t until
they had met her in person that they knew the rumors weren’t, in fact, an exaggeration.
“I dislike it when people give me trouble, and my orders must be carried out with perfection. If I
delegate a task to you, it’s because I believe you will be able to aplish it, so make sure that you do
not half-arse it.” Heather swept her eyes across the room. She wasn’t kidding at all, as she had always
been exceptionally strict when it came to her employee’s performance.
There was utter silence in the room when everybody was mulling over what Heather just told them.
Every line she said hit home, so nobody dared take her lightly. It was apparent that it would be an uphill
climb from then on.
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“Who’s next?” Heather arched her brow while gazing at Bilbo. Since she was obviously cueing him,
Bilbo offered to go next. Following the format which she used, he introduced himself in a
straightforward manner to show his support toward her.
Heather was satisfied by his introduction. After that, everybody introduced themselves in their own
unique ways. Throughout the process, she was happy that she was able to know more about her team
members.
“Next on, let us cut to the chase.” Forty minutes had passed by then. From the looks of it, all eight of
them acknowledged that the first meeting would take a long time. However, Heather gave them a task
after giving them a brief exnation using the PPT that she had made just now.
“You shoulde up with your own opinions regarding the project. Tomorrow, each of you will be
handing me a proposal about this. Nobody is to discuss this among yourselves.” She had a stoic look
on her face that left them feeling all strung up. “It’s just like how lecturers don’t like to receive two
simr theses. When this happens to be the case, my lecturer would have the students rewrite them.”
She was smirking when she spoke, and her words sounded threatening.
“By the way, I mean it when I say I want all eight of your proposals tomorrow. Even if your proposal got
rejected, you will still be required to hand in another one that would satisfy me by tomorrow.” She gave
them an ultimatum, as she was adamant that the team should think hard about the project, and that
everybody should contribute to the project instead of constantly relying on other people’s wisdom.
To her, thepany had no need for employees who would make no contribution toward thepany.
In that regard, she was even more merciless than ke. Although Langston Group was a distinguished
When she was managing the branchpany in Europe, she hadid off quite a number of
employees. After all, it wasn’t a good thing to have too many people holding a simr position. Having
too many employees would only lead to office politics that would affect their performance. Instead of
having that, she would rather offer a higher sry to one person so that he could do his best while on
the job. Eight people was a little excessive for the team. From her point of view, four or five would be
enough, so she wouldn’t hesitate to kick whoever that didn’t perform well out of the team.
When the meeting was over, everybody felt relieved, as Heather had given them quite a lot of pressure.
Bilbo was even feeling fortunate that he had epted her offer earlier, or else she wouldn’t have let
him off the hook that easily.
They had a two hour lunch break after that, so they were actually working for only six hours per day.
Langston Group was rxed in that regard, which was another reason people fought to get into the
do while working there.
Nheless, as a family that had a reputation to keep up, the Langstons wouldn’t allow the
headquarters of theirpany to look too shoddy, so they made sure to have as many employees as
otherpanies.
That was one of the aspects that annoyed Heather, and she couldn’t understand ke’s reasons for
not changing what happened either. She acknowledged his capabilities and ambition, but he was a bit
of a wild card, for she never knew what he was up to.
Heather didn’t have a lot of power over thepany, so all she could do at that point was focus on
the future anyway, so she decided to focus on her ownpany instead.
Actually, she hadplicated feelings toward Langston Group, which perhaps stemmed from her
anger toward itsckadaisical policies. Unfortunately, she would never inherit thepany, and ke
would never do as she wished either.
When she got back to her office, she saw one unread message in her phone that she left on the table.
When she opened it, she realized it was a message from Matthias. A genuine smile crept onto her
face; she never expected to see Matthias behave so childishly, for the message he sent read, ‘You
never ept my friend requests on social media. I won’t do this a fourth time.’
After logging into her Facebook ount that didn’t have a lot of friends to begin with, she epted
Matthias’ friend request in resignation after checking it out. She would be tied to him for a long time in
the future after all. Then, she massaged the back of her neck. The hectic work schedule in the morning
gave her a stiff neck. Right after she epted Matthias’ friend request, he immediately sent her a few
messages.
‘Let’s have lunch together. I have already arrived at the lobby of yourpany.’ The rest of the
message consisted of emojis. Judging from that, he seemed bored. In fact, he might have a lot of time
on his hands, which made her wonder if there wasn’t a lot of work in Locke Group.
‘Why don’t youe up to fetch me?’ She had signed a contract with Matthias, so it meant that they
were—ording to the terms—a couple. Thus, she figured doing something couples would do wouldn’t
seem out of ce.
‘Alright, my darling.’ Matthias even added a smiley emoji at the end of his text.
Why does he sound like a big boy? Heather thought in resignation, but she figured she would get used
to the bizarreness of it in no time.
However, there were a lot of coincidences in the world. Right before lunch, ke came for Heather.
“Let me show you to the staff canteen.” There was a brilliant smile on his face.
In Langston Group, only the higher-ups and the Langstons themselves were entitled to a private dining
room. Therefore, the fact that ke wanted to bring her to the staff canteen was a humiliation in itself.
Not only was he doing it in her face, but he was also effectively showing the staff Heather’s status in
thepany.
When she was thinking of a way to respond to that, there was a knock on the door. Both of the
Langstons nced in the direction of the door to see Matthias standing by it. Heather’s eyes lit up as
soon as she saw him. He sure got here in time! she thought. “Come on in.” She made a deliberate
effort to show affection toward Matthias.
“Heather, can we leave now?” Matthias also responded to her endearingly. Although Heather wasn’t
quite used to it, she didn’t let it show. By that point, ke was dumbfounded as he turned to look at
both of them. He had no idea how the two sworn enemies became so close to each other.
“Two more minutes. Just wait for a moment.” Heather checked her watch. Then, she exined to
ke, “Matthias came to fetch me, as we will be celebrating my first day at work during lunch.” By that,
she was implying that she wouldn’t be going to the staff canteen with ke.
When ke nced at Matthias, thetter nodded with a smile. “That’s right. Her first day at work in
Langston Group is an asion that is worth a celebration. Why don’t youe with us, ke?”
Matthias was being all affectionate even toward ke.
Annoyed by that, Heather red at Matthias. He went overboard with that. Even though we’re a
couple, we only started dating for a while. With how he’s behaving, he’s making it seem like I’m
determined to marry him.
“What’s going on with you two?” ke pointed at the both of them in confusion.
“ke, haven’t you been trying to introduce Matthias to me? You should feel happy for us now that
we’ve naturally gotten together.” Heather sounded nonchnt as she witnessed the multiple
expressions that alternated on ke’s face.
“Yeah. I appreciate that you have put in some good words for me.” Matthias went along with it. Since
he was tied together with Heather, he would undoubtedly side with her in public.
“So are you two a couple now?” ke was still in disbelief. The fact that his wish hade true came
as a surprise to him. Yet, something felt decidedly off about it. After all, what he wanted wasn’t for
Matthias to be protective over Heather. It would be unfair if the heavens were to give her a boyfriend
who loved her. ke was actually aiming to have them wear each other out.
“Yup! I hope you can keep this a secret. After all the drama that took ce between us, we would like
to keep our rtionship out of public sight.” With how sincere Heather sounded, no one would know
that she was only faking it.
On the other hand, Matthias also added, “That’s right. Our rtionship should be kept a secret for the
time being. When the timees, we will make it public.” By saying that, he was indirectly telling ke
to keep things to himself.
Irked that his n had backfired unexpectedly, ke wore a discontented expression, but he was still
feigning a cheerful attitude as he said, “If that is the case, well… Congrattions! You are a great
match for each other. I will not be spreading this, so you have nothing to worry about. Make sure to
rejoice in your rtionship.”
ke managed to fake his way through that. Just like that, the three of them were all wearing masks in
each other’s presence.