A Billion Dollar Exchange

193 You must be special

''You don't look bad.''

Liling had been standing for almost ten minutes before the lady. She received an email yesterday telling her to come to an office by eight am the next morning.

The sender's name was not in the email, so she figured that maybe it was her manager. Not wanting to disappoint her, she made sure to set her alarm to six am.

The next morning she had hurried over quickly to the office stated in the email, it was just a few minutes to eight am when she arrived.

The door was locked, but immediately it was five minutes to eight, she saw a slender figure walking towards the door. The woman had a strict look on her face and was not smiling at all.

She was putting on a ladies suit with high heels and walking aloofly to the office. Liling, who was just standing in front of the door, made way immediately for the woman to walk past.

The lady did not even acknowledge her presence and just opened the office door and walked in.

The only thing that gave Liling the guts to walk into the office was the fact that the lady had left the office door open; else she would have remained standing outside there.

She entered into the office and slowly closed the door behind her. She remained standing just beside the door until the lady waved her over.

When she approached the office table, she greeted the woman politely but she did not respond. The woman just sat there accessing her. It was not after ten minutes that she finally spoke up.

''Can you turn around?''

The woman asked sternly, and Liling obeyed immediately, not wasting a second.

''Not bad, not bad; sit.''

Liling nervously sat down on one of the seats in front of the lady.?She held her hands together, wanting to appear normal although her heart was beating rapidly.

''Do you intend to model? You have quite a body.''

The lady commented, half smiling.

Liling did not know how to reply the lady. She wasn't sure of how she would react to her answer, so she decided to pick her words wisely.

''Thank you Ma'am, I intend to take things slowly, but it would be a great pleasure to be a model and also a singer.''

She smiled professionally, not wanting to be too informal.

The lady stared at her for a moment then smiled.

''You must be special for him to recommend you to me himself.'' .

She nodded her head briefly and then scribbled something on the paper in front of her.

…recommend you to me himself…is that Liu Wei?

''Do you have any written songs?''

Liling's thoughts were cut short by the lady's question. She nodded quickly and brought out a short notebook from her bag, then handed it over to the lady.

''You write pop, interesting.''

Liling was already feeling excited that the lady was proud of her, but the next sentence threw her off balance.

''Wait… only ten? You have only ten draft work? And you want to sing? Do you know how many draft work a singer should have? At least fifty! Then out of the fifty, you pick the best. The next time we're having this meeting, I need to see at least ten new songs in this notebook, understood?''

Liling nodded frantically, she was surprised by the woman's sudden change of attitude. She was sure that it would be hard to please this woman; she would have to triple her efforts if she wanted to be on her good side.

The lady closed the book and handed it over to Liling. She picked up the pen and wrote something down on the paper. When she was through, she dropped the pen, then looked up at Liling.

''I don't deal with lazy people; you have to work hard, very hard. I heard that you got an award of the best coming artist?''

''Yes Ma'am''

''Good, that's good. This means that the whole world is waiting to see what you can do. As rightly said, to whom much is given, much is expected. You have to be the best and remain the best, Liling. I'll help you, but you have to help yourself.''

She paused as though waiting for Liling's respond. Liling, who did not know what to say, nodded her head.

Our next meeting is on Friday, you must complete the task I gave you before that day and don't be late, you may leave now.

The lady waved her off and opened her laptop. Liling stood up immediately and thanked her, although she knew she was not going to get any response.

As she walked out of her office, Liling continued to wonder how a manager would be so aloof, acting all high and mighty.

To think that she has to compose ten new songs before Friday and it was already Tuesday!

Her thoughts were cut short when her notification tone beeped in her bag. She sighed and took out her phone to see the message.

Beautiful, you did not tie up your hair today? Anyways, you still looked pretty. Hope the meeting with your manager went well?

Liling's legs froze at a spot. She immediately turned around to check if anyone was close to her or looking suspicious, but frustratingly, everyone was going about their business, as though she did not exist.

Her heart began to pound. She remembered the text from yesterday and she quickly checked the numbers and they matched again.

So it was clear that the person who sent the texts was monitoring her. She had overlooked it before, not wanting to read meaning into everything.

Now she was sure that someone was stalking her, she could not just over look it. He even knew that she had left the manager's office!

Liling's hand shook nervously. The only person on her suspect list was the stranger that night, but she could not even remember his face.