Orchidia Beauty.
Work was still extremely busy. Long Jinjing needed to start calculating everyone's year-end bonuses. Although the company was very young, Iris decreed that everyone was entitled to the bonus regardless of whether they had been hired since the start or for only a few days. Of course, those who had been working at the company longer would have bigger bonuses than those who had only been hired recently. The bonus would also increase depending on the position.
As executives, Long Jinjing and Chen Fei were entitled to the highest bonuses. Chen Fei already demanded hers long ago with no reservations.
"I work my ass off for this company so I deserve a high bonus," her best friend had told her and Iris.
As for Long Jinjing, although she wasn't as vocal as Chen Fei, she was also looking forward to her year-end bonus. She had to save lots of money for her wedding ceremony with Lu Zihao, childcare expenses, and of course, their child's college tuition.
Lu Zihao was an heir and didn't lack money but she didn't want to be a kept woman who depended on her husband's income to raise their family. She also wanted to contribute to their expenses.
Besides, she wasn't sure if the money Lu Zihao planned on spending on their family was earned through legal or illegal means. Now that this thought entered her mind, she realized that she cared about the source of his money. She didn't want to use any money that was acquired from criminal activities.
She paused working on her desk as she mulled over this issue. This was important. She was glad that she thought about it before marrying the man. If she only became bothered about this matter after their marriage, then it might cause a big argument between the two of them. It wouldn't be good, especially since she was on a mission to make him fall in love with her.
"What should I do?" she murmured.
Then she remembered something. She didn't know about the specific details but Iris mentioned before that she and Jin Liwei signed a comprehensive prenuptial agreement. It stuck to her mind because she heard that it was Lu Zihao who insisted on the couple signing an extra-strict prenuptial agreement.
As someone who was very prudent when it came to money, Long Jinjing already thought that it should be a given for her to sign a prenuptial agreement with her groom. However, at the back of her mind, she still worried that her insistence for a prenuptial agreement would put a dent on her relationship with her fiancé.
What if her fiancé thought that she was being too stuck-up, or worse, looked down on him? What if her fiancé thought that she didn't trust his loyalty to her?
These were the kinds of concern that she had back then. The kind of man that she imagined herself marrying before was someone simple and normal. Although she was an illegitimate child, she was still the daughter of Long Tengfei. Therefore, she was expected to inherit a fortune in the future. She always thought that she would be the richer one in a marriage. This was why she already made up her mind to protect her finances in case of a divorce.
Now, however, it appeared that she was wrong. Her husband-to-be was wealthier than her. Even without relying on his own current sources of income, legal or otherwise, Lu Zihao was a true heir on a similar level as Jin Liwei. Her paltry inheritance couldn't possibly compare to the fortune that he was set to inherit in the future. Regardless of whether Lu Zihao would inherit Grandpa Lu's shares in Jin Corporation or not, her groom would still be many times wealthier than her.
She sighed and leaned back on her chair while staring at the numbers on her computer screen but not really seeing them. Her earlier joy from her successful proposal had now waned and was replaced by several worries regarding her marriage with Lu Zihao.
With Lu Zihao, she wasn't worried about offending him for bringing up a prenuptial agreement. On the contrary, she expected that he would bring it up himself if she didn't since he was the one to insist on it for Iris and Jin Liwei's marriage.
"The issue about the source of his money when contributing to our family expenses should be added to the prenuptial agreement. I won't accept it if it didn't come through legal means."
She bit her lower lip and became anxious. She felt a little afraid of broaching this subject with Lu Zihao.
"No, I have to tell him. There has to be some ground rules during our marriage. I just can't accept everything because I love him. If something makes me uncomfortable, I have to tell him before I start resenting him."
She loved the man and was willing to turn a blind eye on his secret criminal activities but that didn't mean that she approved of what he was doing. She didn't even think about stopping him because it was obvious from his eyes that he was hell-bent in keeping Shadow Winds and whatever goal he had for creating the criminal group in the first place.
It went against her moral values but she wouldn't rob him of his passion—if what he was doing could really be called a passion.
However, she couldn't promise that her thoughts wouldn't change in the future. She might decide that enough was enough and force Lu Zihao to stop. How would he react?
"Don't think too far ahead, Jinjing. Solve your problems one at a time."
Taking a few deep breaths, she cleared her mind and focused on her happiness from being engaged with the man she loved and being pregnant with his child. Then she forced herself to concentrate on her work.
There was a brief knock on the door. It opened before she could react. Chen Fei walked inside and treated Long Jinjing's office like her own.
Her best friend sighed and plopped down on the sofa. "What a busy day! Have you finished calculating my bonus yet? Come on, Jing. Tell me how much I'm going to get to cheer me up."
"Sorry, COO Chen. That's confidential information." Long Jinjing smiled before turning off her computer monitor.. "Just wait for the deposit to arrive in your bank account."
