The Villain Saves The Male Lead

Back in Cosmopolis, Fang missed Ren and the three furballs like a phantom limb. He realised how gracious Ren had been to leave Snow, Smoke and Shadow with him when he'd gone off to sulk and later, run off to Sand Country to avoid Fang after their temporary break up. The emotional support Fang had received from the three little furballs had kept him sane, he realised now. He couldn't imagine how Ren had managed all by himself. No wonder he'd been so fragile and vulnerable...

Fang's heart ached. Suddenly, he felt really and grateful that their three little fur babies had insisted on staying with Ren this week. He and Ren spoke on video call every day ever since they reconciled, and Ren was visibly better now. Gone were the dark bags under his eyes and the unhealthy pallor of his skin. Fang knew that since Ren had to feed the furballs, his own meals, too, would automatically be taken care of, because those three would rebel if Ren skipped a meal. And they'd complain to Fang as well, and then Fang would have to scold Ren to pacify the three babies.

It was quite convenient. Fang decided that if Ren showed a tendency to skip his meals again in his absence, he'd set the furballs on him.

Thinking about Ren, Fang wanted to see him again. He missed Ren...and now that a school trip was being scheduled for next month, Fang was worried that he'd be able to spend even less time with Ren than usual. He'd enquired indirectly if he could opt out of the school trip - but learnt that it was unfortunately mandatory. And unlike most schools which had a two or three days trip, this high class school had an annual school trip of two weeks!

It made Fang quite annoyed. He didn't want to spend two weeks in some random place with his school mates! He wanted to be with Ren!

A nefarious thought suddenly struck Fang and he immediately called his class representative.

"Where is the school trip supposed to be?" he asked.

"I'm not sure yet," she replied. "I think the teachers are considering either Cloud Nation or Ray Country."

Fang frowned. "Wasn't the trip last year to Ray Country?" he asked.

"Yes, and we had a great experience," she replied. "We even got to see a top international company and a government office."

Fang smirked, the idea taking concrete shape in his mind. He hung up the phone and called Pax. And then he made another call to a new acquaintance, which lasted almost an hour.

Fang was very pleased with the end result of his efforts.

The next morning, Fang sat in front of the teachers committee that was in charge of planning the details of the school trip and made a proposal that was so lucrative that the teachers could hardly believe it!

"Are you certain, Fang?" the headmaster asked excitedly. "Will they really grant us access?"

"I spoke to the minister last evening," Fang said demurely. "Since Ren is working very closely with them right now, we have a good relationship. He said that while they wouldn't let school children access these facilities normally, he would allow us to go just this once."

"And we'll also be able to tour Sirocco's new office?" another teacher asked eagerly.

"Of course," Fang said. "I've already discussed with Ren's assistant; they would be happy to show us around. We'll even have the chance to see the initial stages of a big development project and speak to the core teams."

"But isn't Sand Country quite expensive?" another teacher protested.

"I recently had a chance to work with their tourism department," Fang said. "They are promoting desert tourism at the moment, and they're ready to offer us a significant discount for a big group on accomodation as well as travel charges."

He handed the print of an email to the headmaster, whose eyes went wide in shock.

"That's wonderful!" the headmaster cried. "We have a wonderful opportunity this time, thanks to Fang's efforts and CEO Ren's support! We must not miss it! In fact, with these costs, we can make it a trip of three weeks to Sand Country! It's a big nation with lots of things to see, and I'm certain that the children will enjoy it very much."

"We'll need to get visas for everyone," another teacher pointed out.

"The tourism department of Sand Country will help us process the visas in a batch," Fang said. "I'm visiting Sand Country this weekend, so I can help you coordinate with them."

That knocked down the last protest to the ground. But Fang wasn't done yet. He had one last super weapon in his arsenal, which he brought out as the final master stroke.

"I also have a video of their latest tourism promotional video," Fang said. "They just released this a couple of days ago."

And then Fang showed them the best video recoded by Snow, Smoke and Shadow - and he could see the hearts and stars pouring out of the teachers' eyes. Their little furballs were really too cute to resist, and the edited footage was so enticing that even the hardest of hearts would be reduced to a pool of melted chocolate when they saw it! A never seen before treat like this - not to mention that these were the precious fur babies of the great CEO Ren and his outstanding significant other Fang - naturally left no one in a position to disagree with Fang!

The video sealed the deal for Fang. The very same day, the teachers committee announced that the destination for this year's school trip was going to be Sand Country, and that it would be a three weeks trip instead of a regular two weeks one. The details would be circulated soon enough, since Fang had already sent out introductory emails on behalf of the school and connected the relevant people.

When Fang called Ren that evening, he wore a triumphant smile on his face.. "Guess what I did today?" he asked Ren.