"Sir, people, and representatives from various local organizations were picketing outside our company.  Some media were covering the event as well.  They were criticizing the way we handle business and how it affects the environment.  Those rallyists had taken from the grave the buried incident of the oil spill in the South from years back, equipped with statistics of death in the affected island over the years from its aftermath.  What should we do, Sir?"

 "What else?  Dispel the crowd.  Utilize our security teams wisely."

"But if we turn them away, some would fight back and our security will have to use force.  It will certainly be ugly.  With media coverage, it wouldn't be beneficial to us at all.  That's even more negative press."

s.h.i.+ Fan Hai thumped his fist intensely on his tabletop.  "I don't care how you do it as long as you do it.  You are getting paid immensely by this company to mitigate just the type of incidents.  If you don't have the skill, then the company must haven wasting its resources on you."

"Deliver results within an hour.  Don't you dare worsen it even further."

"Now, all you, scram!"

He thumped his desk with his palm this time.  His visitors frantically left his office one by one.

He stood up and gazed outside the window.

'I always have to clean up Father's mess.  What did I come to gain in return?'

'I'm going to lose all these after all.'

'I have to save myself.'

'No one's going to do that for me.'

 In the afternoon, he received quite an unexpected visitor.  It was none other than the president of Xue s.h.i.+pping himself, Xue Minhe.

"It was supposed to be between the Contract Appraisal Department and Xue s.h.i.+pping's representative, but the Xue young master decided last minute to join… so… I'm here to notify you, as well, Sir, and ask if you would want to join the meeting too."  s.h.i.+ Fan Hai's secretary briefed him about the situation.

He clenched his fists together at his sides, but his face wore this lopsided, playful grin.  His eyes drooped dangerously because, well, he was provoked alright.

"I will join the meeting.  I cannot allow my people to be looked down in my own turf."

s.h.i.+ Fan Hai's secretary gulped anxiously.  Never had the Xue young master and president joined any of the contract appraisal meetings before.  There should have been a problem.

At the conference room, all people stood up in respect as s.h.i.+ Fan Hai came in, except for the Xue young master. He remained slouched on the couch, one leg crossed over to the other, and hands occupied by the saucer and cup filled with hot jasmine tea.  He took a sip nonchalantly as if there's no commotion around him.

AS s.h.i.+ Fan Hai settled, Xue Minhe bluntly declared. "I'm here to terminate the contract between the companies for good."

"!!!"

The team under s.h.i.+ Corporation blanched, and uttered restrained gasps of horror.

It wasn't a secret internally that their company was weakening its market share, and had been on the losing end for months.  This partners.h.i.+p was what built s.h.i.+ Corporation over the years, and centuries, even.  Without it, for sure, s.h.i.+ Corporation will crumble.

"Why all of a sudden?"  s.h.i.+ Fan Hai retorted with such a distorted face.

The Xue young master broodingly gazed out of the floor-to-ceiling window and took another sip of his jasmine tea.  "How's the picket going outside your company?  Is it eventful yet?" 

"Don't change the topic!" s.h.i.+ Fan Hai roared.

 "Oh, I didn't.  Let's just say because of the issue your company is entangled in, Xue s.h.i.+pping has come to a decision to cut ties with s.h.i.+ Corporation for good.  Our company does not work with corporations with questionable morale."

"Questionable morale?  The oil spill incident from years ago happened when s.h.i.+ Corporation and Xue s.h.i.+pping still have a strong partners.h.i.+p.  You're just being a coward now and trying to escape being dragged down into the issue.  After all, we have been using your s.h.i.+ps all these years.  That oil spill in the southern seas must have been because of one of the Xue s.h.i.+pping s.h.i.+ps!  Come to think of it!  We are only being implicated here!"

Xue Minhe's lips curved up slightly around the corners.  He raised his index finger to stop the blabbering s.h.i.+ young master.

"I've already looked into it, which you should have done first before you point fingers and pa.s.s the blame.  Guess what I found out?  The incident of the oil spill did not involve any of the Xue s.h.i.+pping vessels.  It was one of those very rare instances when your stubborn management chose to act out of our partners.h.i.+p and hired a third-party commissioned vessel."

"I dug deeper and would you guess what I even found out?"

"Stop beating around the bush, you fool!" s.h.i.+ Fan Hai was getting worked up.  He felt absolutely insulted that he was being mocked inside his office, and by this fellow who used to be too naïve during their younger years.  He used to do all the taunting.

  "Well, to put it simply, I guess your management hired another commissioned vessel to execute some acts of pilferage.  That's the main reason for the oil spill.  Otherwise, a simple oil spill would not be possible - that is, at the very least, under Xue s.h.i.+pping's loading or discharging operations, not even when the vessel is in transit."

"It's simply too unfortunate that this act of pilferage which should have been under secrecy was exposed through this major oil spill.  To save your faces, you buried the whole issue with money, never caring about the aftermath of that incident nor getting involved in correcting it."

At this point, the Xue young master's voice had been climactically increasing both in pitch and intensity.

"No one would have cared about the consequences all these years, of what died, who lost its livelihood, and what changed because of that.  n.o.body cared enough to monitor how many deaths had been tallied because of that incident."

"Thanks to the more personal fateful, lifechanging circ.u.mstance you've instigated to me some seven years ago, I have discovered the consequences of that oil spill."

Xue Minhe had regained his cool.  He smiled provokingly. 

"Those who are responsible should pay the price."

"That's only fair.  It's not even enough to bring back the lives of those who departed and the health of those who incurred sickness because of it."

"I just did, didn't I?"  The Xue young master reb.u.t.ted.

s.h.i.+ Fan Hai clenched his teeth.  He wanted to beat this guy into a pulp right now, but couldn't.    

"Well then, I've said my piece.  Our legal departments should settle the paperwork."  Xue Minhe stood up and left, Butler Lee, and a parade of legal representatives following his tracks.