Corporate Intrigue

As she left the board meeting, Lili Wang furrowed her brow and cursed under her breath at Zhang Ping. He had advanced in the company at a meteoric pace since starting as an intern in her department, commandeering project after project to carve out a niche of his own and secure praise and promotion outside the normal career channels. And now even as he was ingratiating himself with her supervisors he was skipping meetings or arriving late, blowing off her assignments or altering them according to his own whim. Her patience had run its course.

And so with a ruthlessness that surprised even herself, Lili ordered her secretary to arrange for a meeting that afternoon. It would be their last. His last attempt to circumvent her with the budget office had made him a marked man. She would not tolerate his presence any longer.