Ice and Fire

Five years later...

The city had changed considerably. Stephen drove his car to the cemetery situated in the suburbs, with a bunch of flowers. As he got off the car, he saw John standing in front of Emily's tomb, with his assistant standing beside him.

Stephen walked up to them.

Seeing that Stephen had also come there to visit Emily, John turned to his assistant, "Wait for me in the car."

"Okay, sir." The assistant followed his instructions immediately, turned around and left.

Stephen approached Emily's tomb and placed the flowers he brought in front of her tombstone. Her photo had discoloured, turning yellow under the sun but Stephen did not care too much for that.

"You come here to visit her too", commented John.

"Yes", Stephen nodded and turned to John, "how you doing these days?"

"Fine, as always. How are you?" John replied politely, just the way he would to his best friend.

"Always the same, " Stephen answered monotonously.

John paused for a short while, and then continued to ask with concern, "My uncle... did he do anything to you recently?"

John clearly remembered that Jackson had been instigated against Stephen five years ago. For some unexplainable reasons, Jackson had been opposing Stephen, no matter what he did, giving him no chance to exhibit his abilities so much so that Stephen only managed to run a bar now, and in that too, the business was not doing good.

Taking a deep breath, Stephen questioned, "Who can stop him from doing whatever he wants?"

Stephen did not want to say too much to John. Though their relationship was not so frigid, John was still Jackson's nephew, and during the past years, Jackson had been doing all those things to him just out of spite for Cherry's leaving him. He had endured Jackson for a long time, only because he cared a lot for Cherry. He was willing to tolerate everything for her, regarding her as someone who made all the efforts worth it.

John couldn't help but tap Stephen on his shoulder, "That's what my uncle is like. You should have seen it long ago. Maybe, this will change when he looks back at what he has done."

Stephen knew that John comforted him out of kindness, so he made a wry smile towards John, "That's okay. How would I be called a man if I cannot deal with this kind of frustration?"

These words made both Stephen and John laugh together.

"Do you come here to visit Emily?" Stephen asked.

John nodded, turning his gaze to the Emily's paling photograph, "Yes, now that Cherry has left this city, I should take the responsibility of visiting Emily on her behalf. Their relationship, while they were together, was too good to describe in words. It is an honest truth that Emily holds a special place in Cherry's heart."

was a dedicated person,

a while in front of the tombstone, Stephen and

John asked Stephen suddenly, "Do you intend to take part in the Future

The Future Project was the biggest business trade that ever happened in the city. And

" John said. He had been merely planning the project on the side but it had already been a hot topic

expectations", said Stephen. Although with no sign of success to speak for, Stephen

to say, "It seems that uncle is pitching for this project

was

you heard of the JS Group? Its chief executive is

and at loss of words. It felt ridiculous that he did not even know who the chief

over the country. However, its chief executive had never ever showed up in public. That is why most

that JS Group's

raised at the family residence and had lived overseas for

"the original JS Group was established after she came back, has

engrossed in thinking

but if I understand correctly, the controlling shareholder behind

astonished Stephen even more. "Why are you so sure about that?"

a brand and spread it all over the country in only five years; no one, except my uncle." Finishing his sentence, John realised he was still removed from the actual truth. So he added, "Actually, scratch that, he

came round. During the five years, JS Group was getting more and more famous. So, John's conjecture was also reasonable.

a little bit of thinking, "So you are saying that the JS Group is competing for

he would

it up? That would be against his very nature...

of JS building. In the plush office space, Selina was marking documents, as well as listening to

remarked, "Now I know everything. What you should do next is to schedule the high-level meeting, go to the airport to receive the negotiator coming from the US and bring me the financial?sheet of last month before

spoke in unison. Sharing a quick glance with each other, the four secretaries immediately assigning their respective tasks.

her secretaries to be highly

" came a curt order as Selina immersed herself back to marking

and

she heard her secretary knocking at the door and asked

"Miss Selina,

were coming, answered, "Okay, I know. Now you can get off of work. Tell the security?guards that no one

She knew that the order was clear. No one

the secretary left, Selina saw Jackson and Derek