The first door Cassandra led her to was one of the available guest rooms in the villa.
Unlike the other parts of the house where they lived, the guest room seemed like any neutral room except for the gold framed bed and 50 inch television. The next few were similar.
One door however led to Cassandra's practice room where a black piano with gems — sapphires and emeralds — decorating it and spelling her name was placed in a corner facing the only window in the room — a floor to ceiling one.
Cassandra led her up to the next floor where her room was supposed to be. As they moved on, Cassandra kept on chattering about herself and her life — the awards she had won, her being a campus belle, her latest buys. She was very much bragging at the point but Wendy has to pretend that she was very interested, letting a little bit of envy show in her eyes.
Upon opening a good coloured door, she was greeted byan extravagantly decorated room with a huge golden chandelier above a princess bed with white duvet And five fluffy looking pillows on the bed.
"I'll come get your when it's time for lunch", she smilingly patted Wendy lightly on her shoulder before walking away.
As soon as the door was shut, the smile slipped off of Wendy's face. Her heart beat wildly in her heart as she clenched her fists to hold back The urge to give every single one of them a thrashing — not because she didn't want to but because she knew that she wasn't capable of doing so yet.
A whole week, she had to stay here, and she was going to make good use of it to take petty revenge.
Before long, it was time for lunch, and Cassandra was back, enthusiastic as ever. They descended the stairs until they were back on the ground floor. Walking straight to a large golden door that opened to a dining hall.
There was a huge golden chandelier in the centre of the room above a long glass dining table with gold gilded edges. There were six chairs on each of the long sides and one on each of the shorter sides — yet another gesture that displayed how extravagant they were considering that they were a family of only three.
They were soon seated with *Wendy's father* at one of the heads of the table, *his wife* at his right, Cassandra at his left and Wendy seated beside Cassandra — which in any normal family would've been rude considering that Wendy was older.
The maids soon came laden with various dishes, both Western and local.
The table was soon filled — the lavish display was as if they feared she would not see everything well. Such displays to one who had gone through heaven and helm were nothing short of overly elaborate , exuding an air of nouveau riche.
There was white rice, lo mein, chicken soup, mashed yam, dim sums as well as steak, grilled corn, there was even some low grade caviar.
Some of the maids remained behind to assist with dishes that were out of reach. Wendy could feel eyes on her as she dishes some lo main and dim sums and had a grilled corn.
"Have some of the steak and caviar as well", Cassandra nudged. Smiling shyly while lowering her head, Wendy muttered that she was fine with what she had and didn't want anymore but in the ears of everyone else, she sounded like a typical bumpkin who hadn't seen much of the world and was pretending she had.
Stifling her laugh Cassandra tried again recommending them and praising the taste to the next level.
At this moment, Wendy heard a faint 'ding' in her mind as a new quest appeared — a main quest.
She has just learnt days prior that she had two classes of tasks and that the reading tasks — which she had almost competed — was a side quest.
[New quest: Gain 10 trust points of one of the following people
A. Cassandra Xie
B. Mary Zhen
C. Charles Xie
D. Steve Lin
E. Unavailable
Mission completion reward: 30 points ]
Without any hesitation she picked 'A. Cassandra Xie ' and immediately directed a big smile at the girl seated next to her already laying the foundation of her plans.
Later after the lunch, holding her phone and talking on it to a friend, Wendy exclaimed about how she had earned five thousand US dollars after she invested only 200 Dalc (her country's currency) from her earnings. And about how she plans on reinvesting everything else to get more money before she would spend it.
Cassandra stood nearby with doubt flickering in her eyes. Just before the call ember she moved to leave and immediately she did she did not notice Wendy looking in her direction and smiling brightly.
From a different angle, you'd realise that her phone screen has been dark all along
'Step one: Planting a seed in your heart. Complete'