The whole room was set up in classical European style with an enormous round table placed in the center. Visually it gave the impression of walking into the world of 'King Arthur' and his 'Knights of the Round Table'. Around the table sat two dozen men, all dressed formally in ties and suits; all the seats were full, all except for one. It was just around the appointed time, Mr. Wu burst into the room, beads of sweat gleaming on his forehead.

"I am very sorry that I am late." Mr. Wu gulped as all the eyes turned to him. Words met with silence, he cowered as a tall lean figure stood up and spoke:

"There is no need to apologize, you are on time." Mr. Di said.

"Mr. Di it's an honor to meet you. You are much younger then I heard." Mr. Wu smiled shaking Mr. Di hand.

"No, the honor is mine. Please have a seat." Mr. Di smiled, gesturing Mr. Wu politely to a seat across from himself.

Born in China, 25 years old Di Guo-Jun was given the title 'Dragon' and is the current Chairman of Tian-Tan Enterprise; a multibillion real estate company that is spread out across the globe, and is currently ranked one of the world's top 500 industries. Not only are his achievements and age shocking, but even more striking is his appearance. Company owners who have tons and tons of money usually spend it on food, drugs, women...etc. But compared to them Mr. Di was like a saint: his body fit and lean, shiny black hair, fearsome brown eyes and overall very handsome appearance. He never did any drugs in his life; in fact he ran a campaign and established treatment camp for drug users in North America, though it has not achieved success on a large scale. As for women, there were some rumours about him having affairs, which he all denied and there wasn't sufficient evidence but he still is a bachelor, 30 years old and unmarried to this day.

"Forgive me for being so blunt; shall we drive straight into business?"

"Of course." Mr. Wu answered with courtesy.

"Thank you." Mr. Di said as he set both of his hand forward onto the table, then wiggled his fingers as if he was shuffling an invisible deck of cards, a deck that he cannot lose with.

"From what I have seen from the database, yesterday you purchased ten million dollars worth of stocks, am I correct, Mr. Wu?"

"Yes." Mr. Wu replied.

"I have no interest in your intention of buying such quantities, but what I am interested is your actions..."

"...Sorry I don't quite catch your meaning." Mr. Wu whimpered.

"No worries, I will explain it to you in a fairly simple way. My stocks are in decline, and my experts predict that they will go into further decline over the course of the next three months. Your company, Sunflower Machinery Ltd. hasn't gone into the market, nor does it look like you are going to push it into the market any time soon. But when you do, your market value will go up by an astronomical amount. So it's certainly irrational to use your company money to purchase any stocks before it goes into market. And that can only mean you used your own money to purchase my stocks, am I right?"

"Yes." Mr. Wu looked like a desperate mouse cornered by a group of cats.

"And from what I know the entire value of your company. Not market value, together is barely hundred million dollars...do you know what this means? It means that this is your entire company wealth, not your own personally wealth..." Mr. Di paused for a moment, as Mr. Wu looked up at him in fear.

"But I have to admit, this is some fancy way to launder money, or perhaps the creative way of black mailing...but then there's the problem of the CIA, they like to stick their nose everywhere. And with a hundred million dollar purchase in one day they will be all over you like flies! And I am willing to bet ten billion that more than half of that money was borrowed from the bank and believe me regardless of the investment plan you are going with, the interest alone is enough to bankrupt you. Do you even understand what you are doing? And do you know how much inconvenience that your purchase will bring to my company? DO YOU UNDERSTAND!" Mr. Di slammed both his hands on his table, and at this point, Mr. Wu didn't even dare to breathe and his face even paled snow by comparison.

"But I am willing to offer you a choice. Your company Sunflower compound bricks Ltd. has a bright future; my experts predict your company will continue to grow larger and larger throughout the next decade and will excel during war times. But because of this little incident, now with the CIA crawling everywhere, your only future is with me. So now given the circumstances...my experts predict your company will have a market value of a billion dollars as soon as it hits the market, but since it never will, I will buy your entire company from you, all your man power, machinery, shares, technology, everything! Right here right now, for a total of two hundred million. So what do you think about this deal?"

This was war, a war not fought with guns, planes or missiles, but rather one fought with paper, pen, money and power. Mr. Wu was like a helpless little soldier right in the center of an atomic strike, and his only chance of survival was to sign a treaty with God himself, a treaty that seemed too good to be true.

Mr. Wu looked like he was about to open his mouth to say something, but in the end he decided to keep his mouth shut; because the next words he would say would make all the difference in the world or no difference at all.

"Don't worry we can give you all the time in the world to consider about the deal, but remember, the CIA might think otherwise."

"...even if I wanted to sell you my company this instant, there would still be loads of legal documents we would have to go through, and there has to be conferences held between my own company's shareholders, this whole process a could take months, perhaps even a year!" Mr. Wu said standing up so quickly that it made people think if he was sitting on a knife edge.

"Don't worry; I have already contacted all your shareholders. And they have all agreed to this deal. They have already sold all their shares to my company, and your employees have been notified that your company under my name will receive double the income and double the yearly bonus. And I have already hired a team of the world's finest lawyers, and let's say I have some connections...This entire process will only take a month at most."

Mr. Wu didn't know what to say. He felt like a child, one who thought himself standing at the top of the hill thinking he could see the entire world, but standing next to the tiny hill was a temple of gods that stood higher then tallest mountain and gazed down upon mortals like him as a sport. And as a mortal all he could ever do is ponder the gods. When the gods decide to strike him, there is nothing he can do except then pray that the gods maybe good and merciful. And now Mr. Wu faced a choice, to hold onto his company with the CIA about to burst in on him any moment, or to sacrifice his company, like offering a living sacrifice to the gods and may they spare him out of the kindness of their heart; but then again the gods will always get what they want; in the name of 'fate'. A tool they use to fool mortals into thinking that they have a choice, when the truth is whatever they do, the result is inevitable, because from the very beginning they are in control of everything.

"I...I don't have a choice do I?" Mr. Wu slowly met his eyes. Eyes like glowing red hot ambers, contained, but with the potential to burn everything to the ground. He also reminded Mr. Wu as a power hungry warlord with an eternal thirst for conquest and plunder. The silence stretched on a quick glance around revealed that even Mr. Wu's own man had already begun to sweat and cast his eyes down upon the table, and that's when Mr. Wu realized he made a mistake.

"Life is full of possibilities!" Mr. Di slowly stood up and threw his hands in the air wildly. "Once a choice always a choice. As humans we shouldn't be blinded by the choices we face right now, but rather we should try to get around it, cross over it, even break through it!" Mr. Di threw a straight punch at the air, and would have defiantly badly injured the air if were a living human.

"But staying at the same point and wondering what the consequences will be won't solve anything! There is an English saying: 'What you think is not important, but rather what you do is important. We already have the contract here, now all you have to do is relax, sign the paper, and I can guarantee that your safety will be insured."

"...Very well, allow me to review the contract for a moment." an assistant came up to Mr. Wu and set down the contract before him. Surprisingly the contract was only one page, and Mr. Wu went through the contract several times before drawing his pen. Mr. Wu thought about the wealth he accumulated over the years, the hardships he been through, and all now all of that was going to be taken away by a single piece of paper. All the blood was rushing to his head, the journey of his life now rested on the very end of his pen. His hand flinched, then dropped it on the table. Mr. Wu looked up, his whole body shuddering, they were all looking back at him, but he saw nothing but a column of statue men who long ago filled their hearts with cement. The red hot ambers in Mr. Di eyes had now grown into a savage wild fire, one that could no longer be held back, and was going to keep on burning as long as it pleases.

"Young man..." Mr. Wu spoke with a low voice and everyone around the table pretended not to hear it. All except for Mr. Di; who arched his eye brow in response.

"You are already way ahead of us; we are getting too old for this. But hear me out one last time." Mr. Wu cleared his throat and spoke: "Don't get too far ahead of yourself; you never know when you will trip."

"Thanks old man. I appreciate it." Mr. Di flashed a smile. "Now, allow me to make a quick toast to all!" his eyes scanned the table and he lifted his cup.

"To succession!"

"To succession!" the rest of the room raised their cups in union.

"To succession." Mr. Di raised his cup and gulped down his drink in one breath. Then fell back into his chair again staring at his empty cup thinking:

The threats were pulled out, bribes were offered and the contract is signed; why do I feel like I am still missing something?

***

"This morning around 7:30 a.m. another body was found in the Van Dussen botanic garden. The VPS are still further investigating into the case. In the meantime officers strongly encourage the public to take precautions of their own and report any suspicious behavior. This is Roger Cullman reporting."

"Thank you, Roger. We are now switching over to hear the civilians thoughts on this case, Sir, can you please tell us what do you think about the current serial killer 'on the loose' in Vancouver right now?"

"The last serial killer I heard was in town was a decade ago...honestly I don't know what to say, but there is one thing I can tell you: the cops will bust him eventually and no crimes will go unpunished."

The faces of the people being interviewed were blobbed and their voice changed through a voice adapter. Angelica guessed the first man was in his 60's; solely judging from the way he spoke.

"I am absolutely afraid; I hope the police will bring him to justice soon. Because I don't want my son growing up with a serial killer around."

A women in her 30's with a baby, he guessed.

"OMG, he is so hot! Too bad he's a serial killer!"

"OMG, I was thinking the same thing too!" said another.

Two teenage girls who can't think better for themselves. He thought.

There were several more interviews, but he didn't bother to pay attention to the rest. When the report finished, he turned off the TV, and resumed procrastinating on the couch. So boring...if only something would happen... he thought, staring at the ceiling and blinking out at the sights, then turned and sat up. Just when he was about to fetch the remote control again, his home phone began to rang. With 10 out of 10 laziness, he managed to roll off the couch and drag himself towards the phone. Probably some political survey...so annoying. He thought as he finally picked up the phone, which had been screaming for some time. A familiar yet odd voice came from the other end:

"Angeline; this is Rebecca."

Rebecca Vayne is a RCMP officer, what does she want with me? Especially now? Angeline thought, but no answer came up.

"What is it this time? Didn't I just help you with the Surrey mayor scandal case weeks ago..."

"Listen, this morning we have found another body."

"Yes, I saw it in the news, I don't see how..."

"The body belongs to your previous client Wu-Yue Cheng. Did I pronounce his name correctly?"

"Yes, wait, what? Can you repeat what you just said?"

His brain went for being in the norm, then all of a sudden thrown in the middle of a Hollywood stunt.

"Forget about it, we are still missing an arm and a leg, but we managed to fish out enough of the parts to identify the victim."

"Just hold on a second...what's going on exactly? Tell me!"

"No time to explain bitch. I will break to you the details once you get here, now get your ass moving!"

"But you're in downtown! It will at least take me an hour!"

"IDGAF! Just get your ass here at once!" the call ended.

That's why you are still single... Angeline sighed.