A Graduation Gift novel Chapter 152

Cassandra was starting to get busy as the new year starts.

First order of business was to go to the North District office of Qin Group to end the current lease for the office space. She then started to dismiss employees with recurring poor performances. Last, she had a meeting with the hard-working people of the company.

"Currently, our finances at Qin Group are not looking very good. But, I believe we can turn this around. With you guys who remain, you are the new backbone. And I know you will drive this company to a new and brighter future. I hope each and everyone of you take this opportunity and work harder. I promise, your hardwork will be generously rewarded."

The staff she retained did not have a lot of experience, but Cassandra preferred their youthful energy and good work ethic.

However, finding a new office space was proving to be a different challenge. It was difficult nowadays to find a good office location at an affordable price.

Although Cassandra was a local of G City, she had stayed with the Tang Group as a designer ever since she graduated. She knew very little people outside of the organization. Where could she start to look for someone who could help her?

After coming out of another real estate agency without closing a deal, she felt like giving up already. None of them could offer her any reasonably priced office spaces. She started worrying that she would never find the right one.

She was only starting and already found herself facing with such a huge obstacle. It was disheartening the young entrepreneur.

But she couldn't give up. She knew that. So Cassandra looked at her notes to see which agency to visit next. This one was not far from where she was now so she walked towards their office.

Although it was spring now, the wind was still cold.

This was the last agency on her list. If they still couldn't come to terms for an office, she would have to go back to the drawing board and do more research.

Surprisingly, she was offered a really good deal at one of the city's most luxurious office buildings.

It was spacious and bright on the third floor of the office building, but even more surprising was that the price was affordable.

Cassandra immediately signed the lease. After getting the key, she looked at the empty office and planned how to arrange the departments for the future.

Suddenly she heard a loud commotion downstairs. Cassandra looked through the window and saw a large group of reporters and cameramen by the flower beds surrounding a woman.

People kept pushing over each other in an attempt to interview this woman. 'What a scene!' Cassandra thought to herself. She couldn't help herself but watch the rare scene unfold before her.

Although she was too far away to hear anything, the woman in the middle of all the chaos actually looked familiar to Cassandra.

The reporters kept taking pictures and seemed to want to get closer inside the building, but it just got more and more crowded.

Suddenly, a couple of people came out of the office building wearing similar red vests, probably staff of some company in the building. They squeezed through the crowd to stop the reporters and escorted the woman into the building safely.

The guards would not let any of the reporters enter the office building. Scattering around near the entrance, the reporters seemed prepared to wait there for a long time.

Cassandra stuck her tongue out and thought, 'Being a celebrity could not be easy! Reporters and cameramen following you wherever you go. There is no privacy.'

She then took one more look around the office space and felt ready to go purchase office supplies. Then, her first job since taking over Qin Group was going to start—decorating the company she now owned.

Cassandra was in a much better mood now after finding the perfect office space. She felt relieved and was ready to leave the building. Since the elevator would not be coming for a while, she decided to take the stairs instead.

As soon as she opened the fire door to the staircase, Cassandra heard a woman arguing with someone.

"Are you kidding me? There was supposed to be one leading lady, me! Why there are two now? Don't take me for an idiot! This was not mentioned anywhere in the contract!"

The woman's voice sounded very angry. She paused for a few seconds to catch her breath and then erupted in another fit of rage.

"Don't give me that! You may have made me into a star but I am not a talentless bimbo with no brains. Don't you dare compare me to that girl!"

Listening to the argument, Cassandra realized that the woman was talking to someone on the phone. She hesitated, unsure of whether to take the stairs or not.

If she continued down the stairs, the woman would surely find out she was listening and probably accuse her of eavesdropping. She thought for a few seconds before deciding to go back and wait for the elevator instead.

Just before Cassandra was able to close the fire door, the woman's words caught her attention once again.

"I'm Lyndsy Su, a mega star! Just because I'm easy to talk to doesn't mean you can take advantage of me, OK? If you do not get rid of her character I'll tear up this contract and leave the company!"

Cassandra felt a bit shocked. 'This woman is Lyndsy?' she thought to herself in disbelief.

She remembered looking through the window and thinking the woman looked familiar. It was Lyndsy all along!

Cassandra didn't recognize Lyndsy right away because she wasn't a huge fan of celebrities and gossips.

In a way, these two were old acquaintances. Rufus asked Lyndsy before to give the dress to Cassandra at Michelle's auction event, and this dress turned out to be the key for Courtney to open up.

Well... It seemed like Lyndsy had been sidelined in her new movie. No wonder she was so angry.

Cassandra stood there in a daze and forgot to close the door slowly. It got away from her grip and the door slammed shut making a loud bang.

"Who's there!" cried a startled Lyndsy.

She didn't expect anyone to climb up the stairs.

"Oh, ah, it's me..."

Knowing that there was no use in hiding anymore, Cassandra pushed the door open and showed herself by the staircase.

"Cassandra? Is that really you? What are you doing here?"

Lyndsy was having the phone call by the window of the landing between the third and the fourth floors. There was a look of surprise on her face upon seeing Cassandra by the fire door.

"The new office I chose for my dad's company is here on the third floor."

Cassandra looked at her with a smile on her face as she admired Lyndsy's best actress level charisma.

Lyndsy nodded. Yet she still looked like her head is filled with different thoughts.

"You seem to be... in trouble?"

Cassandra asked boldly.

Stunned by her frankness, Lyndsy realized that Cassandra must have heard what she just said, so she nodded in silent agreement.

"Every job has their own challenges that are hidden from others. Like you, a designer whose work got plagiarized. You must know how I feel."

Lyndsy's comparison of their problems surprised Cassandra. She thought that she was hired by Rufus merely as an actress. She did not expect Lyndsy to know about her problems.

"Was your role snatched away from you?"

Cassandra asked as she was a little curious. She had heard about these skeletons in the closet in showbiz.

"Well, not exactly like that, but more or less."

Lyndsy walked down the stairs and stood in front of Cassandra, still looking frustrated.

"I had top billing in my next movie. It was written in the contract. Then there was this other actress who had a supporting role but somehow through whatever tricks, she got the script rewritten and now has as many lines as I have! I hate sneaky bitches like this!"

Cassandra had an idea about Lyndsy's rise to fame. Her acting skills had always been superb and she had been in a lot of big-name directors' films. She would also get top billing in all of them and each one soared at the box office.

Basically, having Lyndsy as the face of a movie was a guarantee of the box office. Why would anyone try to offend her?

"Didn't your agency set everything up for you?"

Cassandra asked in deep wonderment. Generally speaking, the agency should be very protective of a big star like Lyndsy and should have negotiated with the film producers about a matter like this.

Unexpectedly, Lyndsy snorted while rolling her eyes.

"It was the agency that actually pursued a script rewrite. They just signed this new actress and probably wanted to give her a start. But how dared they use me as a stepping stone! If They had discussed it with me when I signed the contract, I would not be as angry as I am now!"

Hearing her words, Cassandra realized that Lyndsy was very straight forward and would probably offend a lot of people because of that. Could the agency considered her as a difficult star to manage so they were looking for a fresh, new star?

"By the way, I want to get out right now. Would you know if this building has any hidden exits or a backdoor perhaps? Since the news that there would be two heroines in this film broke out already, I have been followed everywhere by those damned reporters downstairs!"

The problem was that this was Cassandra's first time in the building as well! She wouldn't know where the other exits were.

But those reporters were really persistent. They were still waiting downstairs and showed no signs of any intention to leave.

Cassandra looked at Lyndsy and suddenly got an idea. She grabbed Lyndsy's hand and said, "Quick, come with me!"