Chapter 18 – A Deceitful Partnership

“Now that it has come to this, you may as well sit back and enjoy it. Who are you performing for? Stop acting reluctant when you know you want it,” the fat man leisurely stalked forward.

Xu Qing Man’s foot throbbed painfully, yet she forced herself to continue running forward. It was then, that she realized that something was not quite right. 

Most of the rooms on this floor were VIP lounges where the rich and powerful gathered. Hence, there were even fewer people on this level. Furthermore, the direction that she was heading led towards the toilet; in other words, it was a dead end. 

Her mind spun rapidly. If she was closed off in a washroom, she would really have no other ways to escape. Due to the urgency of her predicament, she quick-wittedly pushed open the door of a nearby room and hid inside.

“Why are you here?” Xu Qing Man was still in the midst of panicking. She was breathing raggedly when the voice from within the room stunned her. She realized that the voice was a bit familiar. Was that not Gan Yun Ting? Whenever she bumped into him, it always felt like she came across a ghost. But today, it felt like she met an angel!

“Help me! There’s a fatso outside,” she quickly demanded as she dashed towards the sofa, regardless of whether Gan Yun Ting agreed or not. 

Before Gan Yun Ting could say his piece, the door was knocked.

He was reluctant, but he still opened the door, “if you have something to say, spit it out quickly!” 

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“You! You! You… How dare you! Don’t think just because you entered Fourth Master Gan’s private room you are somebody! From the looks of you, you must’ve f*cked a lo-“

“Shut up! No good words are expected to come from a scoundrel’s mouth. Man Man, which company is he from?” Gan Yun Ting interrupted what the fat man had to say.

“Western Models,” Xu Qing Man answered straightaway.

That fat man suddenly had a sense of foreboding. It seemed that Xu Qing Man was Fourth Master Gan’s person. 

He immediately implored, “Fourth Master Gan, I have eyes but failed to recognize Mt Tai. I sincerely apologize if I have offended you. Today’s incident, I’m at fault so I’ll leave now. I hope you can be lenient and spare my company.” 

Gan Yun Ting was about to reply when suddenly something came to mind. The chilling aura that surrounded him disappeared and the corner of his mouth hooked upwards ever so slightly. This expression frightened the fatso even more.

“I can let you go, but just now Man Man said that you took five hundred thousand yuan from her. So as long as you pay it back and apologize, I take it as today never happened.” 

Gan Yun Ting might have voiced that out, but on the inside, he thought, ‘He asked me to spare his company, but he didn’t ask me to spare him.’

“Pfff…” Xu Qing Man nearly could not contain her laughter. From Gan Yun Ting’s perspective, this was to gain something valuable from nothing. But from the fatso’s point of view, this could only be considered as going for wool and coming home shorn. 

Look at how that tubby arrogantly bullied her just now… His pathetic and terrified appearance now placed her in an extremely marvelous mood. Suddenly, she felt that Gan Yun Ting was not that bad afterall. Although he still had a vicious tongue…

“Yeah! Uncle Fatty, I can ignore the fact that you tried to frame me. But you must return the five hundred thousand yuan that you took. Yun Ting gave that to me.” Xu Qing Man flatteringly said as she hooked her arms through Gan Yun Ting’s. Looking so devastated as though she really lost five hundred thousand bucks.

Gan Yun Ting glanced down at the arms that were interlinked with his. At this moment, he felt that Xu Qing Man looked very charming and pleasant. Something shot through his heart, but before he put more thought on it, he shook his head and pulled away from Xu Qing Man.

At the entrance of the room, the fat man’s face got paler and then redder as time trickled by. It was obvious that Gan Yun Ting wanted to teach him a lesson. So no matter how much saliva he wasted, he would not be able to escape this predicament. He could only swallow all his grievances into his stomach. He said with a smile, “I did pick up a card just now. It seems that it belongs to Miss Xu.” 

As he said that, he reached for the card in his pocket. The fat man was unreconciled. It took him so long to finally save this much money and before he could spend it on himself, he had to give it away. He hated himself and regretted his actions. Why did he provoke this little ancestor? If he remembered correctly, there should be slightly more than five hundred thousand in the card. But now it was all gone.

Gan Yun Ting was not courteous either. He had no qualms as he accepted the card. 

“Now that’s a wise man. Okay, you may leave now. You’d better remember, who you could or could not offend in the future. Keep your eyes open and look carefully.” After he finished speaking, he did not give any face to the fat man and slammed the door in his face. Leaving the fat man alone outside with his disarrayed thoughts.

Xu Qing Man sat back on the sofa. The moment the door closed, she could no longer hold herself back as she hugged her stomach and burst out laughing. 

“Gan… Gan Yun Ting, I… I didn’t expect that you’re also a black-bellied man.” She laughed so hard that she could not articulate her words properly.

“Oh? Wasn’t it learned from Miss Xu?” At that moment, Gan Yun Ting was in an excellent mood too. Previously, he came to drink away his sorrows and had no place to vent. Now, all his anger had dispersed. 

“Then you must not have learned all my quintessence. If it were me, I would have demanded compensation for my psychological trauma too!” Xu Qing Man candidly replied. Such scumbags, to one up him was equivalent to doing a meritorious service for the society.

“Take it,” Gan Yun Ting passed the card to her.

Xu Qing Man was stunned, “why are you giving this to me?” 

“Didn’t you drop it?” Gan Yun Ting asked profoundly.

“Humph. I won’t take the money, just donate it. Let’s take it as contributing to society,” Xu Qing Man knew that Gan Yun Ting wanted to give her the money. But she did not do anything to deserve it, so naturally there was no reason to accept it.

After pondering on it, Gan Yun Ting relented, “alright. So, are you interested in having a drink with me?” 

The two looked at each other and smiled. They started merrily chatting and drinking.

~~~~

Soon the day of the company’s preliminary screening arrived. The theme of Mo Li Xin’s design was The Rising Sun, very different from her Celestial Stars theme. The Celestial Stars series was more mysterious and elegant, while The Rising Sun series was tinged with orange-yellow gradients. The dresses were simple without superfluous designs or embellishments, which imbued people with a sense of regeneration. Mo Li Xin was very satisfied with how the design of these wedding dresses turned out. 

There were four other people competing with her for the competition slot. Mo Li Xin had only seen two of them previously. 

At the current stage, it was only a proposal, the design of the wedding dresses were about done, so the final product had not been created yet.

It was only when Mo Li Xin entered the conference room then did she see the other two new employees; a man and a woman.

As Mo Li Xin was the last to step into the meeting room, everyone’s gazed fell onto her instinctively.

“Sorry I’m late,” Mo Li Xin apologized sincerely. Just before she made her way over to the conference room, she realized that her USB flash drive was faulty. Hence she had to borrow another one to copy the relevant files.

“That’s okay, there’s still ten minutes before we start. We’re all just early!” The male coworker, who Mo Li Xin had never met before, spoke.

“I’m Luo Fan. If you don’t mind, you can call me Brother Luo! We’re part of the same group that entered the company at the same time. Oh! And this is Li Na, she’s also in our batch.” Luo Fan introduced.

Mo Li Xin could tell that he was a straightforward and honest person. Her impression of him was not bad. As for Li Na, who did not even bother to spare her a glance, Mo Li Xin did not care too much about it either.

“Alright, let’s get started! The results of the selection will be announced tomorrow,” Sister Mei informed.

Although Sister Mei was from the PR department, she was also one of the judges. There were also other big shots that were part of the judging committee, but Mo Li Xin did not recognize any of them.

She was the last to present her design. After seeing the works of the others, she had to admit that those that qualified to enter Jui Zi were all talented individuals. 

Even though Mo Li Xin had faith in her work, she was still under pressure. This pressure was not due to her lack of confidence in her design, but in her being unable to present her work to its fullest potential.

Mo Li Xin suppressed her nervousness and introduced her design meticulously. The more she talked, the more natural her pitch became. She managed to smoothly present her work and the audience applauded thunderously at the end. 

Mo Li Xin breathed a sigh of relief, it seemed that the judges were quite satisfied with her work.

“Li Xin, from now on I dub you as my idol! You’re two years younger than me, but so talented. Definitely not inferior to the seniors that I know. The moment I saw the wedding dresses you designed, I wanted to rush outside and grab any man just to get married!” Dai Meng raved the moment they exited the meeting room. She was full of excitement and worship towards Mo Li Xin.

“Everyone’s designs were good too, each has their own merits,” Mo Li Xin said humbly. Still, she believed that there was room for improvement for their designs.

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