Ali's wedding reception went by smoothly and made international headlines. He stayed behind for another month with Sofiya to accompany his grandfather before returning to Country Tz.

As for Kyle, he went back home immediately to officially start his duties as the CEO. His father told him to take a rest, but he refused.

In fact, the entire time that he was at Country SA, he was doing work by compiling and re-reading the data about the company. He looked at the talent evaluation data, and the details about each employee in the company.

It was an insane amount of work but he relished it.

It took his mind off Sari ... and the fact that he had one huge matter to settle next year.

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The atmosphere at Smith Industries HQ was lively.

Today, was the day, that the new CEO would be coming to the office.

Everyone was excited for who did not know who Kyle Smith was?

However, not everyone had managed to actually see the legend-in-the-making in the flesh before, so everyone was eager.

His performance in countering Philip and revamping the entire board members was the talk of the town for ages.

It was also used as examples in schools that taught corporate governance, even though they didn't have the details of how Kyle actually achieved it. However, it was a good case study and students were tasked to analyse it and come up with their solutions or approaches.

The more they studied it, the more their respect for him grew.

"He's here! He's here!" squealed the receptionist in excitement.

Those in the lounge lined up in two rows, akin to the way those from Country J greeted their boss. They watched as the car rolled to a stop right in front of the building and the door opened.

When Kyle went out the door, he was greeted with smiling faces which nearly blinded him. He simply took in their enthusiasm and eagerness to butter up to him as a natural thing.

He looked up, the strikingly blue eyes being revealed under those thick, long lashes as his gaze swept across everyone.

Their smiles froze.

They gulped.

They had expected a happy-go-lucky teenager that was on the verge of adulthood but what they got was a domineering young man that exuded power and strength. Even though it seemed like he was only sweeping the area with his eyes, everyone felt that he actually saw everything clearly.

The front door opened and a lady came out.

She was dressed in a simple white blouse with black buttons tucked neatly in a black pencil skirt that reached the knee. She opted to wear flats rather than heels and she stood next to the CEO.

Pushing up her glasses, her eye twitched upon seeing the rows of women staring blatantly at Kyle.

"Popular as ever, I see," Beatrice mumbled under her breath.

"Deal with it," Kyle said as he walked on.

"Not a problem," Beatrice replied, matching his pace.

Looks like there were a lot of things she would need to do to let these people know about Kyle's likes and dislikes about how to act around him.

His father, Patrick, had been the more sociable type and didn't mind these shows of respect. Kyle, however, found it too troublesome and a waste of time. It would be better that they were at their desk, working, rather than greeting him like this.

Also, he didn't like being stared at like some piece of meat.

It's not like before. He had always been stared at, but he would just ignore it and pretend he didn't know anything. Now, however, he just didn't want to bother with it all.

Beatrice's eye twitched as she made mental notes about the various meetings she would have to do. This 'new' Kyle was rather serious and it took Beatrice a bit of time to get used to.

In fact, he kinda reminded her of the old her.

Beatrice figured that it was necessary since he is now a CEO and he had to assert his leadership. Being the happy-go-lucky person that he normally was, may not be suitable in this case.

Still, the change was rather drastic for her.

When Sam had approached her for this position, she had been shocked.

This was Sam's final year at Sakura Academy, so he needed someone to take over his position for a year. Sam told her that she was the only one that he trusted, and was capable enough, to stand by Kyle's side.

Beatrice had been extremely flattered, and she also knew that this was an opportunity of a lifetime.

After two years, she could choose any position in any Smith Industries companies, though Kyle did mention that he would prefer it if she stayed at Smith Industries HQ.

He didn't have many people that he could trust and he wanted to surround himself with all those that he could.

Though it was tempting, Beatrice didn't want to commit herself yet. However, she promised she would give it a shot and think about it seriously.

As it was, seeing all those eyes on her as she walked next to Kyle gave her some idea of the sort of thing Kyle had been under all these years. No wonder he wanted to get rid of this.

Kyle's "100-day plan" as CEO was simple.

Every new CEO needed to formulate a 100-day plan before he started work officially. This was to ensure stability and growth.

In Kyle's case, he actually had a 2-year plan in place and he had started work on it even before he was appointed CEO.

The first, and most important, was the foundation.

He had gotten rid of all of those unworthy and disloyal board members.

Next, he only allowed those that he trusted fully to be in direct contact with him i.e. Beatrice, and his Elite Team.

Now, to reorganise.