Flash Marriage: Slow Down Mister novel Chapter 63

The meal was spent in such an eerie atmosphere.

Darren was in a bad mood, so he left soon afterwards with Ashlee.

Clara dutifully drank up the bird's nest before leaving with Horace.

Russell was in a great mood and said he was going for a walk after the meal, so he walked them both to the door.

Horace's wheelchair slid into the car first, and Clara was about to follow, but Russell suddenly pulled her back.

"Clara," Russell said with a mysterious look, "you did well yesterday. But I'm telling you, as someone who's been there, the chances of hitting it in one go are too small, so remember to work hard when you get back."

Clara froze for a moment before realising what Russell was talking about and blushed again.

Oh really.

One grandfather, one grandson, both so thick-skinned!

Clara hurriedly got into the car after a couple of random responses.

The Kirkland family's party had passed without a hitch.

In the next few days, the deadline for printing the new issue of Clara's magazine publishing company was approaching, and the whole company was busy.

Even Darren had no time to give Clara a hard time; he was busy with the magazine.

Since the failure of its last deal with Queensvale, the company had been in a bit of a financial crisis, the biggest since its inception. Luckily, the second interview with Horace was just in time to hit a new sales record so they could get over the hump.

But the money gap was there, and Horace could save them once, but not twice. For this new magazine issue, everyone is again scratching their heads about what to put out.

This time Diane Kirby was very motivated and went to interview a substandard food processing plant herself, using a spy camera to recorded a lot of inside stories.

There has been much attention on food safety in the country recently, and the consensus was that the subject could cause a stir, so everyone worked together overnight just to gut this dodgy factory.

As part of the company, Clara was not in charge of the story, but she worked overtime too.

At midnight that night, Clara was still in her office working on the layout when Diane suddenly came up to her and dropped a file on her desk, "Clara, this is my record of the workers in this factory, many of whom don't have the relevant technical licences so that you can give me a count."

Clara was already busy with typesetting and suddenly saw this and frowned, "Diane, I'm a bit rushed. Can you do your count?"

"What do you mean?" Diane started as if she had heard a joke, "Do you know how busy I am! You have to understand that I did this interview all by myself! I'm already busy just sorting out the interview, and you're asking me to sort out all these chores myself?"

Clara frowned, "But I'm too busy here too. Why don't you…"

Before she could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by Diane impatiently, "Clara, I know you have someone to back you up, but don't be so arrogant. Do you want to take it for granted at the magazine publishing company just because you have the editor-in-chief to help you?"

Diane's voice was very sharp and deliberately raised her pitch when she said this; everyone in the company immediately looked over.

Clara's face went cold.

She took a deep breath, took the papers Diane gave her without any haste and said indifferently, "Okay, I'll sort it out for you."

A look of triumph appeared on Diane's face, and she was just about to make a couple of foolish remarks, but then Clara spoke up again without haste.

"But please, also, don't think you're a benefactor to the company just because you did an interview; after all, this is only the first manuscript you've been responsible for in the two years you've been with the magazine."

Clara's words were mean, but they were also accurate.

She and Diane had joined the magazine simultaneously, and she'd been able to handle a separate manuscript all by herself a year ago, but Diane had always just done odd jobs like proofreading.

"You..." Diane didn't expect Clara to turn on her suddenly. She blanched, but when she heard many people laughing around her, she couldn't help gritting her teeth and storming away in anger.

As soon as Diane left, Sarah slid her chair over and gave Clara a thumbs up, "Clara, that's cool! I've been so upset with Diane the last few days, just doing an interview, and her tail's up in the air."

Clara smiled noncommittally and just started working on the file Diane had given her.

As she did, she couldn't help but frown.

This factory was shady, employing people from rural areas outside the city who knew nothing and were just working machines for them.

She hesitated and couldn't help asking, "What will happen to these workers after we expose this factory?"

"All of them will lose their jobs." Sarah shrugged, "I'm in charge of investigating the factory's financial situation. They've recently taken on a lot of big orders, and they're having trouble keeping up with the money. They seem to have been in arrears for a long time, and if we expose them, I guess all these orders will go down the drain, and these workers will not even have to think about their wages."

Clara's heart was not in the right place to hear this. But she knew it would be irresponsible for consumers to allow food made in such shady factories to be distributed in the market, so she couldn't say anything more but continued to sort out the information.

It was around 11 o'clock when Clara felt her stomach pumping a little.

She rubbed her stomach and frowned.

She had a poor stomach, and the slightest hunger made it hurt. Today, she had eaten a few biscuits for dinner to work overtime, and now she was having trouble holding on.

But the shop downstairs was also closed at this hour, so she had to walk to the pantry to see what was in the fridge.

But there were too many people working late today, and others had long since eaten the snacks in the fridge, so Clara had to warm up some milk to warm her stomach.

She was taking a small sip of the milk when she suddenly heard a footstep behind her.

She turned her head and saw the last person she expected to see.

Darren.

Darren had a bento in his hand, apparently coming to the microwave in the pantry to reheat it, but he hadn't expected to run into Clara, and he froze for a moment.

Clara's face turned cold instantly, and she turned her head to leave, but Darren called out.

"Clara!"

Clara didn't stop and continued to walk out the door, but suddenly her wrist was grabbed, and she was forced to stop, turning around to see Darren's angry face.

"Clara Selman." Darren's face sank slightly, "I'm calling you. Didn't you hear me?"