Woman of Intelligence (Book 2 in the series)

Chapter 20

Riya pointed at her laptop screen. Liang looked shocked when she pointed at him. He was her boyfriend. Sebastian looked at the screen. Liang caught Sebastian's face on his screen. 

"You are dating the owner of The Lotus Flower Hotel?", he asked her and looked at her. 

"Yeah.", she answered. Liang immediately knew what she was up to. A proud smirk appeared on his face. He rested his back on the chair with his arms crossed. He was looking at the screen. 

Sebastian was starting to get slightly jealous. "It can't be. He is in Singapore."

"I also live in Singapore.", she pointed out. 

Liang started laughing at them. Sebastian looked at her. "Seriously?"

"Yes."

"Come on.", he was in denial.

"Now you can't ask me to sleep with you. Plus, you are still not allow to have some fun until this case is solved.", she made it clear to them. 

"Be my bodyguard.", he suggested.

"No! Stop that.", she said immediately. 

Liang was trying to hold his laugh but he could not. He kept his hand by his lips while laughing. Riya forgot that Liang was still on Skype. She looked at him. 

"Baby, tell him that you are boyfriend.", she really hoped that he would say yes. 

Liang raised a brow. "Yes, she is my girlfriend. We have been dating over eight months.", he played his role. 

Eight months ago was the time she and Liang first met. Well, Liang met her first while she was unconscious that night. They officially met when Riya woke up on the third day of being in hospital. Sebastian still did not want to believe her but he left it. If he was going to ask questions, he was going to get the same answer. 

Sebastian looked at Riya. "Okay, I will leave you alone.", he lied a bit.

Riya was surprised by that. "So, what brings you here?", she asked. 

"I just came to see if you are available tomorrow because you need to ask me questions about my case.", he spoke professionally.

"I told you before that I will busy sorting out our office tomorrow. I really don't know what our office is going to be like tomorrow. If it's messy, I don't want you to die of a shock."

Liang loved the way she was speaking in a professional manner. Sebastian had an evil smirk on his face which Liang spotted on the screen. "Fine. Just send me a message when you are available.", Sebastian said. 

"I will.", she answered. 

"I will leave you.", he was being serious.

Riya was so happy that he was did not mess with her any further. He was walking towards the door. He walked out of the room and shut it behind him. Riya went closer to the door to observe. She wanted to make sure that he was not standing by the door to hear her conversation. She could not heard anything so she went back to the sofa. 

"Sorry about that.", she sat on the sofa.

Liang was looking at her with a manly smile. "Not a problem babe, you know how much I'm missing you.", he literally did a kiss gesture.

Riya was looking at him with confusion. "You can stop that now.", she said. 

"He is still standing by the door.", he whispered and he was being serious.

Riya looked the door then back to Liang. "You are joking.", she did not want to believe him. Liang looked at her with an indifferent expression. He was so serious. Riya was starting to believe him a little bit. "Yeah honey, it's so quiet here. I wish you were with me right now.", she started playing her character. 

"Yep. Holding you in my arms, kissing every morning and night. Making dinner together and baking lovely desserts. And going out to explore Singapore. I missing all of that. We should decide which country we should visit."

Riya started laughing and took a bite of her pasta. "When I come back, we can spend most of our holidays together."

Liang laughed sweetly. "You stop now. He is gone.", he said. 

Finally, she could stop acting. That was so difficult. But she still wanted to talk about this whole dating thing. "Wang, do you really think that you and I will ever become more than housemates?", she asked with some hesitation. 

"Maybe. But I want you to finish achieving your dreams before thinking about being in a relationship.", he moved closer to the laptop. He placed his elbow on the table and rested his chin on his hands. 

"I know. But what happens if we do start a relationship? I don't mean now maybe like in a year or so.", she was hesitating again.

"Moods, you mustn't hesitate to ask. I'm glad that you are having this open conversation with me. If we do start with a relationship then everything will remain the same between us. We just be boyfriend and girlfriend."

"Yeah. There is one thing that keeps on bothering me a lot because of my last relationship before I left the make-up industry. Sometimes, I'm finding this case personal."

Liang knew what she was talking about. He remembered the conversation that night she and her friend were having on the call. It had to do with Riya's ex-boyfriend.

"Riya, if there is anything that is bothering you, you can tell me. It will make you feel better if you talk about it.", he was being loving. 

Riya took a deep breath and spoke. "I tell you when it's the right time. All I can tell you that my ex-boyfriend abused me.", she finally said it. 

Liang slightly flinched for the first time. His eyes was filled with shock despite not showing. "What to you mean, physically or mentally?", he asked.

"Both. He was the only who gave me most of the scars on my back."

Now Liang understood why she was always uncomfortable around with men. Being abused made her think that all men were abusive. But Liang could see she was improving because she was comfortable around with him. He looked at the ground first. He took a deep breath and let it out.

"What's his name?", he asked calmly but with some anger. He looked at her. 

"Naveen Perumal.", she answered. 

"He is in the elimination list."

"Yes."

Liang was silent for a moment. Someone would actually give his housemate an emotional scar for the rest of her life. The woman Liang started having feelings for. He remained calm and spoke.

"Moods, when you come back, we will have a proper conversation about this. After Christmas and New Year is over, we will discuss about this. Right now, concentrate on your case. Don't take this case personal. It will make you feel worse, okay."

Riya looked at him. "Okay."

Liang was happy to hear that. His alarm started ringing. "Moods, I need to go for a meeting now. I will talk to you later."

"Okay bye Wang."

"Bye."

Liang hung up the video chat. He closed his laptop and leaned on his chair. He was just looking out of space for a minute. Now everything was making sense to him. Riya became White Jaguar to take revenge for herself and her friends. All those gangsters on her lists were her ex-boyfriend's friends. But she was after the weak gangsters first before she could go to the most dangerous one. But Liang needed to figure out which gangster was more dangerous than Yanwu. Liang did not want to think about it right now. He needed to go for a meeting.