Something to get busy with
“I hate it whenever she comes to our store to buy fabrics, she’s always trying to find trouble with me” Alana groaned with a pout, making Lily chuckle at her cuteness. Realising what she had said, Alana covered her mouth and gave Lily an apologetic look.
“I don’t mean to say bad things about your friend” she apologized and Lily waved her off. “She’s not my friend, she’s a classmate that I don’t have a choice but to mingle with” Lily explained with a frown.
“Oh, is that so? You must be careful with her, she always looks down on people with lower status than she is! Hmph! I would have had it worse if she had come with her friends today, bunches of unreasonable ladies!” She cussed.
“I will be careful. Anyway, I need your help with something” Lily said with a serious tone. “What is it you want? I will help you as best as I can!” Alana guaranteed with her hands placed on her chest proudly.
“I want you to work with me in my new company as a seamstress” Lily offered expectantly. Hearing her words, Alana sat down opposite her with a complicated expression.
“This… this might be a little difficult” she voiced hesitantly. “Why?” “It’s difficult to explain but I don’t want to cause you trouble” she sighed heavily. “I can’t work out the family” she added and Lily nodded in understanding.
“Is it because of the main family?” She probed and Alana’s eyes widened in surprise before chuckling awkwardly. “The matters of our family are probably a joke to outsiders because they don’t want to wrong the main family daughter, they suppress the side family talented daughter” she tutted with a sad expression.
“I would really love to help you, Miss Lily, but my involvement with you will only bring you problems” she stated truthfully. “They are scared if I go to work for outsiders, then people will find out that the main daughter isn’t as talented and that would bring shame to the family’s name, so they won’t allow me to work outside. I’m even forced to take another major in the university just to hide it” she explained dejectedly.
Lily pressed her lips into a thin line, feeling angered on Alana’s behalf. Having grown up in the upper class herself as Victoria, she knows how the family dynamics go and knows it’s not always as simple as it looks, but according to the system, Alana would be an asset to her.
Knowing that she wasn’t about to give up easily. “You can work with me underneath, you don’t have to let them know. Our corporation is going to be when you are back in school and away from their gazes, how about that?” She offered.
“Is there a way to hide it? If there is, I would be glad to work with you!” She agreed immediately, having been assured that no one would find out. Other people don’t offer her a job after knowing she’s the daughter of the side family which has been a source of unvented anger to her but now, with such hope, she’d be a fool not to take it.
*****
“Young Master Mark! There seems to be a malfunction in the program installed on the new device used for testing” Isaac reported hastily as Mark entered into his office to resume work. “Is that so?” He asked calmly, his expression flat without giving away the hint of what he was thinking.
“Was it there during the last testing phase?” He asked and Isaac shook his head, he stepped forward and placed the documents containing the data analysis for both phases of the test on the table.
“Mark picked them up and read through them without a change in expression. He had been expecting it, he knew his cousin wouldn’t just sit still while he completed another project under his nose, and the firewall Sinful had provided him allowed him to know if their system had been messed with, so he saw all these coming.
He closed the file and handed it back to Isaac. “Did anyone recently join your team?” Mark asked curiously. “No, the sales department recommended someone to join our team for the main time so they could have insight on the product, but we declined their recommendation and told them to come to you,” Isaac explained.
“Do you think someone tampered with the programme from outside?” He asked as he realised the meaning behind Mark’s question. Thinking about it he realised that that could be the only explanation for the sudden malfunction of the programme that was running smoothly before.
“Most likely” Mark replied casually with a slight curve of his lips. “You can continue with the testing and ignore the malfunctioning, the main program that will be used will be sent in shortly and we won’t have a delay in the release date” he instructed, putting Isaac’s worried heart at ease.
‘The boss must have predicted that the other party would do something, he really is the boss’ he praised in his heart.
“Then we will continue, don’t worry, we won’t alert the other party and we will look for ways to fix the malfunction” he explained and left. Mark turned on his system and logged into the dark lord chamber site, he went straight to Sinful’s profile to check if there was an update from the other person only to realise they weren’t online.
“For someone with their level of skill, their involvement with the hacker’s world is minimal” he muttered and went to the job listing phase, he wasn’t a hacker so his badge was different from the hacker’s badge. His badge allows him to employ hackers but he can’t be employed.
He had decided to give Frederick something to get busy with, seeing that the other person was always in his business. While he was out socializing with some business partners the night before, he heard some rumours about the Hudson family who is also involved in Frederick’s business.
They had always been publicly known as Frederick’s men and now that their stock was down by a bit, why not give them a hand and chop it in half? He navigated through the side until he got to a profile he wanted.
Vengeful was the name and they had a red badge on their profile, clicking on it, he sent a short and precise message.
Alpha: I have a job for you.
Vengeful: This one that you came to look for me directly on the site, Young Master Mark, is the job huge?
Mark rolled his eyes at the greedy emoticon the other had sent. Vengeful is one of Mark’s real-life acquaintances and he had been the one who introduced Mark to the Dark Lord’s chamber.
When Mark had work that needed to be done fast and smoothly, he gave them to Vengeful, the issue with the firewall had originally been given to him but he couldn’t solve it which was why Mark had posted it publicly.
Vengeful: Hey! I heard you got the firewall issue solved, can you introduce me to the master who helped you? I can learn one or two things from them.
Alpha: No, I don’t want to introduce you two.Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.
Vengeful: Tch, Young Master Mark is as sting with experts as always. What do you want in exchange for a meeting?
Alpha: It’s not that I don’t want to, but you will look down on them too much because they are only on level grey and black on your site!
Vengeful: You look down on me too much! I am best familiar with the behaviour of our kind, you don’t have to worry about me embarrassing you in front of them! I won’t, so introduce me already!
Alpha: Okay! I will ask them, as for the job I have for you!
Vengeful: Let’s hear it, I need money a lot these days, so I’m taking any job that comes my way!
Alpha: I asked you to help me keep your eyes on the Hudson group, how is it?
Vengeful: Oh I did! But the rumours about their daughter aren’t my doing. I was waiting for a go-ahead from you. Did the news spoil your plan? Should we erase them?
Alpha: No, you don’t have to. Just release the news about the second daughter’s gambling addict biological father and also about Mrs Hudson’s underground dealings. I’m trying to cut off Fredrick’s cash flow.
Vengeful: Consider it done, but apart from you, has Frederick offended someone lately? Someone else seems to be on his tail.
Alpha: I’m not so sure, will they interfere with us?
Vengeful: Of course not! They are just a mere black-level hacker, how could they interfere? But Young Master Mark, if you cut off Fredrick’s cash flow at this time, the real estate project will fall into rival hands, wouldn’t that affect your company?
Alpha: It won’t affect me and Frederick can use this opportunity to fall out with the old man. It’s a win-win for me.
Vengeful: My name looks better on you than it does on me. I will do your job, send the money and don’t forget to introduce me to that Master!