A Graduation Gift novel Chapter 229

The clock that hung on the wall of the hospital room tickled 7 o' clock, and it was a cold evening. The spring rain kept falling outside while Cassandra was busy with peeling an apple for Rufus. Enticed by the look of the fresh fruits, she added some oranges and bananas, placed them on a plate and handed it to Rufus.

"Can you help me eat these fruits?"

Rufus popped out a request as he lovingly looked at her.

Hesitant at first, Cassandra opened her mouth to refuse but was held silent on second thought. After all, he was a patient and she should take care of him. Carefully, she cut the fruits into smaller pieces with her fruit knife, picked a small piece and lifted it gently to his mouth.

"No, I want you to feed me using your mouth!" Rufus blurted a silly request and refused to take the apple on the toothpick.

With an intimidating expression in his eyes, Rufus smiled a little and looked at Cassandra.

"Alright, I bet you don't want to eat any fruit for now!"

With a heavy hand, Cassandra put the fruit plate on the table and decided not to bear with him again. The more she yearned to him, the eager he was in teasing her.

'What a greedy man you are, Rufus, ' Cassandra cursed silently.

Seeing that she was pissed off, Rufus reached out for her hands to give her a hug. But Cassandra was so annoyed that she didn't want any body contact with him. She struggled with all her might to free herself from Rufus's grasp. When all of a sudden, Rufus let out an alarming gasp, "Ouch! My leg!"

Showing a miserable expression on his face, Rufus knitted his eyebrows and puckered his lips. Cassandra relaxed her body and stopped struggling in his arms. She held her breath because she was so nervous at what might cause the pain in Rufus.

Rufus chuckled silently and heaved a sigh of content. Realizing that he was joking with her, Cassandra stared at him with eyes in a huff.

"Why are you staring at me that way, my little frog?"

Feeling silly like a child, Rufus lifted the corner of his mouth and cracked a charming smile at her. He was trying to calm her down using his charm. But for Cassandra, his efforts were futile and his words still sounded ironic.

"Hmm, to see where you can go, big fly!" Cassandra contradicted immediately.

Still annoyed by his prank, Cassandra kept fixing her stony stare at Rufus, blaming him for his unreasonableness and unusual behavior. She stayed with him almost twenty-four hours a day; because of his injuries, Cassandra couldn't leave him alone and had to do everything he asked her to do.

These past few days, she was always late to work in the morning and left her office early in the afternoon. With her performance, she believed that her image of being an excellent boss had been ruined. Despite all these, she didn't regret a thing, because Rufus was more important than anything else.

"Well, the big fly wants meat…"

Carelessly, Rufus never minded what she said. He gazed at her bare neck and ran his eyes down her chest.

"No way!" Cassandra shouted straightaway.

Her cheeks turned crimson red as she put her hands around her neck hurriedly and glared at him as if her eyesight was burning.

It was ridiculous of him to run his eyes like that when he was still lying on the sickbed because of his broken leg.

Their sweet fight, however, was disturbed when they heard a knock on the door. Cassandra jumped out of his arms in a shock and straightened her clothes promptly.

On the other hand, Rufus just lay comfortably on the bed and didn't move a bit.

"Come in," he shouted towards the door.

Straightening his back, he lifted his head a little to have a clear view of the visitor.

Victor came in with his usual poker face and walked directly to Rufus, not minding Cassandra as if she was invisible.

"Mr. Luo, because of Mr. Tang's incapability, we've missed many projects that were supposed to be in the bag. The worst was that the Dawn Star Group got them all. The entire board of directors was shaken and they're waiting for you to take over, expecting that we can fight back."

Although Victor was emotionless when he was reporting to Rufus, there was an air of disdain in his eyes.

Being a veteran in the business, Rufus was not surprised by this news—he had foreseen it in advance.

"I've reminded them that the Dawn Star Group would make some big movements and that they needed to get ready, but it seems that things are not developing as expected."

Realizing that the worst things he expected did happen to the company, Rufus raised his eyebrow and spoke with an expression of understanding.

All this time, Rufus knew Lionel's ability in terms of running a company—he lacked strategy. The Tang Group was more dead than alive under his management while the Dawn Star Group had grown up bigger and stronger. Arthur needed to establish his own credibility by suppressing the development of the Tang Group. However, Lionel himself had not realized it and didn't take any precautions.

"Do you have any suggestion to the board, Mr. Luo?" Victor asked firmly.

Still stiff and emotionless as he naturally was, Victor looked at Rufus and waited for his instructions.

"Tell them to wait for me. I'll go to the company tomorrow and have a meeting with them..."

Hardly before Rufus finished his words, Cassandra interrupted him and strongly objected his decision.

"No, you won't. You can't even walk normally and you need at least a month to recover. You're not going anywhere!"

Looking at the plaster cast on his leg worriedly, she glanced at him unpleasantly and gave him an alarming expression.