The CEO’s Substitute Lover

Eddison was true to his word. Right after getting off the plane, Eddison asked the driver whom the company has arranged for, to pick them up and to take their luggage back to the hotel and leave it there, then he took her to enjoy the beautiful night view of Beijing.

“Are you hungry, I’ll take you to Quan De Ju!” Eddison missed it.

“Quan De Ju?” Octavia Gills said somewhat expectantly. She felt a little ashamed, with her being a foreigner and not having experienced the capital of this mysterious country.

Since he was not expecting Octavia Gills to be here with him, Eddison patiently introduced her to the place.

“A hundred years of fire has forged the reputation of Quan De Ju, it’s the world’s most famous restaurant. It’s not just the roast duck restaurant, but all the famous restaurants as well, and there is no other restaurant in the Beijing that is more famous than Quan De Ju. The old restaurant in Qianmen is not only a place to eat roast duck, but also a tourist attraction. Upstairs, there is an old-fashioned elegant dining room with 30 tables, and an Imperial Room for foreign heads of state, of which there have been countless visits since the liberation. Guests can use a brush dipped in sugar and syrup to write inscriptions on the duck, and the inscriptions are so vivid after roasting that they add a new dimension to roast duck culture. What do you think? Come and have a look and try it with me right away!” Eddison, who seemed to know this side of the restaurant well, made Octavia nod her head in envy and admiration. Her fatigue vanished, as she anticipated this experience!

After a long night of adventures, Eddison returned to the hotel with a sleeping Octavia Gills on his back. He laid her down on the bed and tucked her in, looking at her sleeping face, so plain and light that it always gave him a particularly pleasant feeling. He reached out and caressed his cheek and slowly slid his hand over her lips, he could not resist kissing her on the forehead and left that room in a hurry, afraid that he would not be able to restrain his desire for her, afraid of frightening her, he was sure that one day, she would be his woman!

Octavia Gills slept quite peacefully that night, with just a hint of missing Tredan.

The next morning, after taking Octavia Gills to breakfast, Eddison got busy with work and arrived at the site of the project she had signed with the Grand Property Company, where Woodrow, the head of the Grand Property Company, was approaching them. After shaking hands with Eddison and greeting him, he was surprised to see Octavia Gills with him, and realized that Eddison was worried that Octavia Gills, who was wearing high heels, would not be able to walk easily and had been holding her hand. She withdrew her hand in a panic, diverted her attention and went up to Woodrow and said, “President Cruise, this is the status of our Group Davi investment! Our General Manager would now like to go through your side of the quotation sheet for materials and the total list of materials purchased!”

Woodrow, always a private man, didn’t show anything like a hint of personal friendship into the equation either, letting his assistant take all the information Octavia Gills had to give, before leading Eddison towards the site’s building.

“The preliminary works are almost complete and the basic processes for the later works have been finalized. There’s just one…” Woodrow elaborated while pointing to the plans and explaining them in detail.

After two or three days of busy work, Octavia Gills was very anxious to go back, but also very scared to go back. Looking at the phone in her hand, she opened the Facebook conversation with Tredan, who had not messaged her since that day, not a word, not a single word!

“What are you thinking about?” Eddison sat down with two glasses of juice, and pushing one towards Octavia Gills before taking out a bottle of Stomach Crusty from his trouser pocket and handing it to her.

“General Manager, what is this…?” Octavia Gills looked quizzically at Eddison, who was dressed in a svelte but stylish outfit.

“Yesterday, I noticed that you kept spacing out, like having symptoms of flatulence. This is a must-have remedy I always carry with me. Many symptoms are cured after one or two doses. You’re a girl, take care of your health! You don’t have to worry about any side effects, this stomach crust is safe that even pregnant women can take it, you don’t have to worry about me poisoning you!” Eddison was still as funny as ever; he was able to dispel her embarrassment and make her comfortable with him like a good friend.

“General Manager, thank you!” Octavia Gills said from the bottom of her heart to Eddison, who in her mind was a wonderful modern-day warm-hearted man.

“Don’t tell me thank you, just give me your life if you really want to thank me!” The truthfulness of the words coming from Eddison’s mouth still surprised Octavia Gills, who choked on her juice and coughed lightly.

“Look at you, your heart is so weak! By the way, don’t keep calling me GM from now on, it makes me feel like I’m under a spell, just call me Eddison when it’s just the two of us!” Eddison hinted at Octavia Gills again, but when she heard Eddison’s name, Octavia Gills vomited and rushed into the toilet, leaving a still confused Eddison behind.

No. Is the name Eddison that disgusting?

Octavia Gills is relieved to have escaped into the restroom. How could he, the managing director of Group Davi, have fallen for her, who was average in looks, average in education and even poorer in family? Maybe he really was such a warm-hearted guy, yes, or else why were there so many rich princesses chasing after him every day? She was lucky she wasn’t interested in him, otherwise she would have fallen for him without so much as leaving a single crumb!

“Tredan, Tredan!” said Lilian Drye, who had joined Tredan at the Japanese restaurant for dinner. He was impervious to what Lilian Drye was saying at the moment as he kept thinking that it was already the third day, and in those three days, Octavia Gills hadn’t sent him any messages or called, what was she doing? How could she not take him seriously at all? He was getting more and more angry at the thought when Lilian Drye called back to his out-of-body soul.

“Oh, where were you?” Tredan’s absent-mindedness always made Lilian Drye feel that something was wrong. Since she had used her woman’s intuition to judge Tredan after her return this time, it always felt as if he was not as attentive to her as he used to be, and rather seemed cold. Does he have another woman? No, it couldn’t be, Lilian Drye refused to think of this, the five-year-old is so important to him, so she was irreplaceable. To be on the safe side, she was ready to ask her father to step in and finalize their marriage.

“Tredan, my dad was in the study talking to your dad all afternoon yesterday. Do you know what they were talking about?” Lilian Drye, who had been carefully made up, whispered with a hint of flirtatiousness from her body to Tredan’s, “They were secretly talking about you and me getting married?” With a happy smile on her face, Lilian Drye took Tredan’s hand and continued affectionately, “Tredan, I’m so happy that I’m not going anywhere when I got back to my country this time, during that time, I realized how lonely I was in a city without you and how hard it was to miss you. You are very, very important to me.”

“Lilian!” said Tredan as he took her hand and patted the back of it, “Eat up, you won’t feel good again when the food gets cold!”

“Tredan!” Lilian Drye said with a touch of anger in his petulance and not being satisfied with Tredan’s evasion. But he will marry her! If the Drye and Davi families did not marry, Tredan’s status and position would be threatened and compromised. His bride could only be her.

Octavia Gills stood at the door of the old Group Davi house and hesitated, knowing that Tredan was home. She pushed the door open slowly with her suitcase in tow and went inside. When she got to the bedroom, she saw that he wasn’t home? Where was he then? What was he doing at the moment? Suddenly she heard the sound of a car pulling up to the door and turning off the engine, and Octavia Gills, unable to hide her delight, ran out onto the balcony to look down! Only to see the image of him embracing Lilian again.

“Tredan, since our dads are starting to talk about our marriage, let’s stay together, I want you to sleep with me tonight, what do you say, Tredan?”

“Good girl, baby, we’ve got a long day ahead of us, I’ve got a very important project tomorrow and I need to get the paperwork done tonight, I’ll be unmotivated to work with you here! Be good!” In the end, Lilian Drye was tricked and coaxed into getting into the car and brought back home by the driver. As Tredan was about to open the door, he noticed that it was ajar, she was back, and when he looked up, he saw Octavia Gills standing in the balcony, already in tears, and they looked at each other for a long time, without saying a word, Tredan ran to Octavia Gills and took her into his arms.

She’d just heard the word ‘marriage.’ Were they getting married? Had he thought of her for a single moment during her absence? Why? Why did her heart ache so much, Ms. Lilian and Tredan are going to get married after all, hadn’t she known that from the start? Wasn’t it clear from the start that this would happen to her? Hadn’t she been promised that she would have it all before? How could she be so, so ungrateful? Octavia Gills, in tears, had become a tearful figure in Tredan’s arms. She subconsciously tried to break away from his embrace, she should never desire this man again. Tredan was furious when he saw Octavia Gills trying to get away from him. He took Octavia Gills’ body in his hands, cupped her tear-stained face in his hands and kissed her hard. He kissed and nibbled at her pale neck, and giving her punishing kiss, leaving Tredan’s mark on her.

“Am I just Lilian Drye’s stand-in lover?” Octavia Gills asked with a bit of poignant sadness in her heart as she stroked Tredan’s face.

Tredan’s face turned instantly dulled as he disgruntledly mooned his index finger to poke at Octavia Gills’ pointed chin, his muffled voice so creepy.

“Have you forgotten who you are? You need to remember who you are! That Lilian Drye’s place is irreplaceable, and that you, on the other hand, are just a stand-in for her when she leaves the country. Understand?”

The resounding words seemed to stab Octavia Gills to the bone and bleed out! It was she who should not have forgotten who she was. She was only a stand-in, and now that Ms. Lilian herself had returned to him, she should not remain here. She should go back to her own place.

Octavia Gills went to the hospital early in the morning, to see her brother, and in the meantime, asked the hospital about Gar Gills’ medical bill.

“Sister, what’s wrong with you? How come I haven’t seen you smile a single time since you sat down? Is something bothering you?” Looking at the distraught Octavia Gills, Gar Gills always felt that his sister must be unhappy about something.

“You’re wrong, you’ve finally taken a turn for the better after years of illness, what could I possibly have to be unhappy about! I’m thinking that when you’re fully recovered, we’ll be able to live together as a family every day, and when you are discharged from the hospital, we’ll go to Japan!” Octavia Gills replied as though she had already planned it. However, she thought that when Gar Gills recovered and Lilian Drye and Tredan got married, she should leave Group Davi and go back to her comic book world.