25 Refusing to Buy the Bill

Even though the underground storage unit was emitting eerie vibes, An Qi was completely unaffected. She even casually greeted her colleagues along the way.

However, the people here were not very friendly to her. In fact, they treated An Qi as though she was invisible. It was like she did not exist at all.

It's okay. Take it easy. They're just jealous!

An Qi reassured herself in her mind, while she inhaled a few deep breaths of cool air. She had goosebumps all over.

At that moment, An Qi's cell phone rang. She was surprised when she saw that the call was from Dong Manman.

She answered the phone immediately. "Dong Manman! It's only been half a day! Did you miss me already?"

At the other end of the phone, Dong Manman replied bluntly, "I just wanted to call you to see if you're still alive."

Dong Manman then asked, "Your old man didn't give you any trouble, did he?"

An Qi was touched by her concern, as she knew how difficult it was for Dong Manman to even mention her father. After all, the fire at the Manman's factory was what had caused her parents' deaths, and the only person who had witnessed the whole thing was An Qi's father, An Shi Jie.

"No, why would he have caused me any trouble?" An Qi answered her quickly, as she didn't want to talk about it anymore.

She did not wish to cause Dong Manman any more pain. So, she also decided that she would never mention Gu Xiaonan or anything regarding the mother-daughter pair in the future.

"That's good," Dong Manman said.

"Well, you didn't just call me to ask me about how I'm doing back at home, did you?" An Qi changed the topic smoothly.

"Hmph, even if you were to die at the An family home, I'd only go to your funeral to take little An Yufei away!" Dong Manman continued to dig at An Qi with all her might.

From the other end of the phone, An Qi could imagine Dong Manman narrowing and rolling her eyes. "Get straight to the point!" An Qi said.

She watched as several workers walked past her, all of them looking at her with questioning eyes. This made her very unhappy, and she took her anger out on Dong Manman.

She really felt like lashing out at the people staring at her, but unfortunately, this was the Leng Group, and An Qi's identity no longer allowed her to be as free as she had been in Paris. Thus, she could not let her temper run wild here.

"Oh, you haven't seen my dream lover yet! That's why you're acting like this. Listen, I'll see you at Strolling Through Tokyo at 7:30 tonight. You're dead meat if you don't show up!" As soon as Dong Manman finished speaking, she hung up the phone in a hurry, not even giving An Qi time to reply.

"Hey!" An Qi yelled into her phone, but there was nothing on the other end but a dial tone.

"Hmph!" An Qi pouted as she out away her cell phone and kicked at a pebble with her foot.

The stone clicked and clacked along the concrete pavement of the reservoir until it rolled to a stop before someone's feet. Normally, if someone dared to kick a stone at Sheng Jie's feet, he'd scold or beat that person! But, seeing as the other person was An Qi, the woman in Boss Leng's heart, he could do no such thing.

So, he could only lean over and flick the stone away, then pull out his handkerchief from his suit pocket and gently wipe away the marks on his shoes.

"Mr. Sheng, I'm really sorry. An Qi walked over to Sheng Jie, lowered her eyes, and apologized.

Sheng Jie had been sent by Leng Yuchen, and the brooch on his suit was actually a miniature video recorder, which was transmitting video and audio recordings to Leng Yuchen's computer in real time. Hence, when faced with An Qi's embarrassment, Sheng Jie was at a loss for how to respond.

"Mr. Sheng?" An Qi saw that he had been stunned into silence for a long time, so she had no choice but to wave her hands in front of Sheng Jie's, which brought him back to reality.

"Ah? Oh, it's okay. Don't worry about it." Sheng Jie looked down at his crocodile skin shoes, which had cost him half a month's salary, and pretended that his heart was not bleeding.

However, the sharp-eyed An Qi could see the special features of those shoes at a glance. After all, she was the best friend of the famous domestic designer Dong Manman and the missus of HaiRui Fashion! So, she naturally knew a little about accessories and shoes.

"Your shoes were very expensive, right?" An Qi asked, frowning as she pointed to a small scuffed part on one of shoes, which had clearly been caused by her kicking the stone.

"It's okay. I'll just have it fixed." Sheng Jie retracted his foot from her gaze and continued to talk to An Qi in a strange posture, which was similar to that of a flamingo standing on one leg!

Upon hearing him say that he didn't mind, An Qi then shifted her eyes from the shoes to look directly into Sheng Jie's eyes. She then said sincerely, "Anyway, it's my fault for bringing my emotions into the workplace, Mr. Sheng. If you don't mind, I'd like to invite you to lunch one day. Could you take that as payment for your shoe repair?"

Sheng Jie's heart was refusing her adamantly on the inside, but he said, "You're too polite. Don't worry. I can go through the reimbursement process at work for compensation."

But, after thinking about it for another moment, he then added, "Now that you've mentioned it, I might seem unfriendly if I don't agree to your request. But, would you mind if I bring a few more people with me? They are all my colleagues from the Leng Group, which means that you could also use that time to get acquainted with a few other people here."

As soon as he said that, Sheng Jie realized his snafu and rolled in eyes in frustration, while thinking...

Oh no, she didn't say that she was a newcomer! Why am I so flustered?

On the upper levels, Leng Yuchen was so nervous that he clenched his jaw and gripped the computer screen unconsciously. He was steaming on the inside… That fool!

Then Leng Yuchen smashed the keyboard in anger! If An Qi found out, that fellow would have to pack up his bags and roll off to Africa! Fortunately, An Qi was a bit muddleheaded, so she was not aware of any strangeness in Sheng Jie's words.

"Okay." An Qi agreed, but quickly added, "But you have to be sure and tell me ahead of time, as I refuse to pay for it if you're simply trying to make exorbitant demands! and get a free lunch for your buddies!"