Viktor's eyes twitched as he said, "Do you know that all these years, my monthly expenses barely crossed 100 dollars? I doubt even five-star hotels charge this much! I knew businesswomen were quite sly but didn't know you too became like that."
Taya smirked, "You were living in a god knows what kind of scrubland, and I already heard from Eva what kind of 'house' you were living in. So it isn't a surprise that you managed to live on with just one hundred dollars a month. But this is a city, a very developed city at that. So even these five-star hotels you mentioned charge way higher than what they did decades ago if you didn't know."
"Besides, I am offering you a full package. You get free meals as long as you eat from here, a maid to look after your needs and wash your underwear and whatnot. You don't want to imagine how much these five stars or whatever-star hotels charge extra for all these."
Viktor, however, continued to give her a disgruntled look. However, inwardly, he couldn't stop beaming, thinking that things were going exactly how he wanted to.
"Okay, fine. I will bring it down to 1500 dollars. And that's—"
"1000, and we have a deal!" Viktor said in an insistent tone, making Taya let out a snort.
She took a deep breath and said, "Okay. Since you are doing me a favor, let's settle at that." However, she found it surprising that the usually laid-back Viktor was willing to do part-time jobs to earn 1000 bucks just so that he can keep feeding on her blood.
She didn't know if she should feel flattered or worried. But then the idea of him earning money by doing normal jobs seemed fun, so she went along with it.
"But you can't use your powers to bully people to give you money. I guess I almost left a loophole for you, didn't I?" Taya said with a smug smile.
"Damn, you got me," Viktor said with a defeated sigh and continued, "Still, I accept it. I won't go back on my word."
'Heh, Little Taya you are too young to play these games with me,' Viktor inwardly smirked, not at all feeling worried about her rules.
Taya smiled seeing that she was able to stop him from getting money the easy way. However, somewhere in her mind she felt that her additional 'rule' wasn't going to affect what Viktor had planned at all and that he was up to something. This feeling stemmed from her experience of knowing him for all these years.
But she couldn't put out any further rules since she had basically already made too many restrictions and was afraid if he might come up with a counter condition. After all, this wasn't the first time she was playing such games with Viktor and the most frustrating part was she never won a challenge.
So this time, she was quite confident to win for the first time.
"Heh, you purposefully raised the bar to 2000 dollars since you knew I would try to bargain, didn't you?" Viktor asked with a pinched expression.
"Well, it's all thanks to knowing you for all these years," Taya said as her lips curved.
She continued, "Now it's time for me to tell you some instructions that you have to follow to monitor my daughter."
"What instructions? I can manage her, don't worry," Viktor said with a wave of his hand.
Taya clicked her tongue and said, "No, you don't understand. Youngsters these days are way different compared to my times. She is ughh...I can't explain it...you will understand once you see for yourself."
Seeing Taya rubbing her temples with a stressful expression, Viktor wondered how even a woman like her who is managing one of the most powerful conglomerates in the world finds it tough to manage a girl.
He had already come across many types of women and didn't find it particularly hard to manage them.
Seeing Viktor's confused expression, she explained, "If you act smart with her or too intelligent, she will shut you out and try to stay away from you since she would be afraid of you catching onto anything fishy she does, especially when she is going to consider you as her cousin brother."
"Just like most kids today, she hates somebody invading her so-called 'privacy' when in fact, I only wanted to know what she is up to since she had barely become an adult. But since you know how to fool people well, I am confident of entrusting you with this task."
Viktor scratched his cheek, "Well, you didn't have to put it like that. I don't fool people. I just use the power of speech and expression. Anyways, what do you want me to be then?"
Taya straightforwardly replied, "I want you to play the innocent virgin yet cute cousin brother."
Viktor's jaw almost dropped, "Wait, what??"
"You heard me right," Taya said with a smile.
"All these characteristics you mentioned...you know that I am completely opposite of all of them. And you expect a bad boy like me to play such a role?" Viktor could hardly believe such a role play.
It was not that he had not tried something similar to it before, but he had no idea how long he would have to continue this act.
"That's the only way you could make her let down her guard near you. You only have to worry about the acting part. We will make sure to trim you up and make your appearance fit the role you are going to play," Taya said with a professional pose.
Viktor still found it laughable and amusing, but since he found it a bit interesting, he said, "Okay. Still, to think that you have thought this ahead even before finding me. So you want me to be her guardian while playing the fool. Alright, it does sound fun, to be quite honest."
"I take it that your daughter must have grown up into a beauty like you, eh?" Viktor asked casually.
Taya wrinkled her brows and pointed her finger at him as she said slowly, "Don't hold any thoughts about her. She is off-limits, and you shouldn't try anything remotely to seduce her as you did to me. She might be smart in many ways, but when it comes to men like you, she doesn't have any experience, so she could be easily fooled."
Seeing how protective Taya was appearing, Viktor waved his hands and said indignantly, "Hey, hey. You seduced me, period. And honestly, I didn't even think anything like that until you said this. Besides, I am the perfect man a woman could ask for."
Taya was about to say something in protest when Viktor continued, "But...anyway, you have nothing to worry about. I will treat her like a cousin, and besides, she wouldn't harbor any thoughts towards me when she believes me to be her cousin, a naive one at that. I doubt she would be into such men, or is she?"
"That is not something you need to know."
"Sigh, you seem to like limiting my options. Making your daughter off-limits, I can understand, but why that sexy agent as well? She seems lonely, and I am sure she—"
"She does not need your company. I am sure of it," Taya interjected with a fake smile.
She then said with a softened expression, "But all jokes aside, I am wholeheartedly thankful to you for coming here. I mean, I wasn't even sure whether you would come considering what happened, and even no matter what happens between us, I, as the head of this family, will always be grateful to you and always be there for you whenever you need me."
Viktor inwardly felt happy to see that her true self hadn't really changed and said casually, "You know there is no need for all that between us. I came here because the same goes for me as well. Your late mother, Dina, and your father really took good care of me and helped me get accustomed to this strange world. So what I set out to do as a favor in return turned out to be something I wanted to do."
Taya softly smiled as she lowered her gaze, feeling that she might have worried too much about some things.
Viktor saw through her thoughts and said, "And don't worry. I don't have any hard feelings against you, though. I wonder if you still have some against me, haha."
Taya pinched her lips and said in an evasive tone, "I don't have any if you don't have."
Viktor only shook his head with a smile of amusement.
She continued as she got up, "Well then. It's time I introduced you to your personal maid who will be taking care of all your needs here."