"Good morning, Director Xiu."

"Good morning, Mariko. Are the reports ready?"

"Yes, Director." Tanaka Mariko nodded and opened the door to the office.

Midori browsed through the files, nodding at times.

After she finished signing the doc.u.ments, she handed them back to her secretary.

She expected that Tanaka Mariko would leave after getting the files. However, she noticed that her secretary remained planted near her desk.

"Anything else?" Midori eyed her suspisciously.

"Uhm..." Tanaka Mariko shook her head like a rattle.

Midori sighed. "Say it."

The secretary gulped. "Director, sorry if this could offend you, but I don't intend to be rude. It's just that...I noticed that you have gained some weight. I have a good exercise and diet regimen you can try...if you only want to..." She was doing the itsy bitsy spider hand motion as she spoke due to nervousness.

'Dam**t! How dare this woman call me fat?!' she was ready to scold her in her mind. Midori looked down on her bulky clothes. At least she was mistaken to be fat, rather than her pregnancy revealed.

She sighed deeper to contain her annoyance. "It's none of your business. Never mention something trivial again."

Tanaka Mariko shuddered. Looks like she had offended her boss this time. "Yes, Director. I'm sorry!" She bowed and hurriedly left the office.

Midori pouted as she caressed her belly. She giggled as she felt a kick. It was hard enough to explain to her brother. No one else needs to know...for now.

She suddenly had the urge to pester her husband.

.

Verdan Zhou was presiding over a meeting when his personal phone rang.

Liu Fei Long became fl.u.s.tered and almost emptied all the contents of the CEO's briefcase in searching for the phone.

Mich.e.l.le Park, who had just came back for less than a week, calmy retrieved it in another black purse and swiftly handed it to the CEO.

Dan frowned when he saw the name of the caller. It says 'MXZ' and was clearly his wife.

He raised his hand to gesture for the reporter to stop and took the call outside.

The reporter lost all his fright and momentum at the same time. It has been long since the CEO had taken a call that seemed more important than the company.

Some suspected that it was his fiancée. After all, they had seen their future lady boss visit the CEO's office.

Dan strode all the way to his office, even taking the stairs to avoid ears waiting for gossip.

"Darling, what's up? Is something the matter? Are you alright? How's the baby?" He was so worried that he bombarded his wife with questions. She certainly knew that he is currently at work. At most, if she wanted to tease him, she would send a message.

Though a bit irritated, he heaved a sigh of relief when he heard her giggle.

"Sorry, Darling. Were you in a meeting?"

"What do you expect?" He let her sense annoyance but he never raised his voice towards his wife. It even sounded as if he was about to laugh.

"Gomen ne. It's just that...I miss you a lot." Her voice was sweet and a bit flirtatious.

"I'll see you this weekend, alright?" Dan also misses his wife, but since it was not urgent, he felt that the meeting was important and must proceed.

Just then, someone knocked on an office door.

Dan was glad to hear his wife's next remark.

"Someone's here. Gotta go. Love you!"

"I love you more." Dan heard the beep of hanging up after his words left his mouth.

He was smiling brightly when he came back to the meeting room, much to the surprise of his subordinates.

.

On her end, Midori allowed access to the person behind the door.

"Director, Ms. Jiang is..."

"Midoriiiiiiii!" The high-pitched voice of Jiang Mei Ling echoed inside the office.

"Mei!" Midori's face lit up into a bright smile.

Behind Mei was Lu Shaoting, also walking into the office.

Mei hugged her friend with overflowing enthusiasm. "I've missed you!"

Midori returned the embrace with a big smile.

"Hey, how's your pregnan--"

"Hey! Yeah! You will have a great presentation of your locks in this commercial!" Midori tried to mask her words with her own louder and deeper words as she eyed the secretary who had yet to close the door behind her.

"Hey, what's the big deal?" Mei looked back towards the now shut door.

"The company is still blind. You must keep it a secret!" Midori gestured her finger over her lips.

"Oh...that's so exciting! I need to do that in my next pregnancy!" Mei was whispering but there was excitement in her voice.