61 Rejected!

Flick!

The lighter in Jin Longwen's hand lit up, searing the tip of his cigarette. As he took a drag from it, he let out a puff of smoke into the air. All the while, his pair of sharp eyes remained unmoved from the man sitting diagonally from him.

The foreigner was dressed in a formal attire with light blue shirt and navy suit. A plain black tie dangling loosely around his collar. He had his legs crossed and his hands were joined atop his lap. From time to time, he would fix the position of his eyeglasses.

Judging from his appearance, the stranger appeared to be a businessman or at least a man of status. He seemed to be waiting patiently for Jin Longwen to make his move but, although it wasn't obvious on the surface, the gaps between his fingers were already sweating bullets. His heart was beating loudly contradicting his placid expression.

Meanwhile, Jin Longwen himself was leisurely lounging around on the leather couch inside the private room seemingly distracted, albeit his eyes lingering on the other party. In fact, what he was actually looking at was the floor to ceiling window behind the stranger.

Akiyama Hiroto sighed in helplessness when he saw his close friend looking all depressed and absentminded. But, at the same, his curiosity was piqued because there was little to nothing in this life that could drive Jin Longwen to this state.

From all the time Hiroto knew of his friend, Jin had always been aloof and appeared disinterested towards everything. If there was ever something capable of pulling his interest, it wouldn't even last for more than a week before he eventually ditched it.

But even then, Jin Longwen would never be as affected as this. He would do it without feeling much emotion. Regardless, Hiroto knew his friend was fond of something if he came back to it more than twice.

Nevertheless, something would be better than nothing in Hiroto's opinion because over time, he began to worry about Jin.

Despite being alive, this friend of his didn't seem to be living it. Jin would just go about his daily activity with a nonchalance manner and to make it worse, it consisted of the exact same pattern every single day.

Waking up at 7 a.m. sharp which then followed by a morning exercise. Afterwards, he would cook his own breakfast and savored it while reading a book. When he was done with the dishes, he would spend the rest of his day doing paperworks which Hiroto requested him to look over.

In some days where he finished his work early, he would proceed to enjoy the rest of the evening by driving around the city before coming home with a bag of grocery.

And then after dinner, he would usually watch a movie or just about anything that came into his flat screen. Basically, he didn't care what he was watching because by the end of the day, this was just something he did to pass time and truth to be told, most of the time his mind was somewhere else.

When it was all said and done, to end his day, he would enjoy a glass of wine before turning in at 10 p.m. or the latest at midnight.

It was the same cycle every single day and honestly, Hiroto was amazed that Jin hadn't lost his mind yet after doing this for a full seven years.

If it were not for him and Mo Xianglei forcing Jin to hang out with them or to take care of some things occasionally, Jin Longwen would probably end up as the most boring and anti-social human in this whole planet. He was already one step away from being a full-fledge loner or the fancy term would be an introvert.

Unfortunately now, even spending time outside like this could no longer attract Jin's attention. He was daydreaming by himself and being totally unhelpful to the current situation.

Hiroto sighed for the second time around as he watched his friend staring into space. He had no choice but to nudge his friend.

"Jin," he called in a low voice.

Fortunately, it wasn't hard to shake a sensitive man like Jin Longwen back to his focus as he quickly snapped out of his daydream.

But, the first word that came out of his mouth surprised the client and his assistant, as well as Hiroto.

"No." He flat out rejected the offer.

"Why?" Hiroto asked him in whisper. "That was a good amount of money."

However, Jin Longwen remained quiet to his question. Hiroto on the other hand furrowed his eyebrows.

Considering the misfortune that had suddenly befallen their residential project in city B, Hiroto thought the investment money that the client had offered just now was quite good.

They were already in the middle of construction so it would be a wise move for them to accept this offer although it was still below what they had stated in the proposal. It was logical since no one would be able to whip out a large amount of money in such a short time.

Only a couple of local international branch would be capable of doing so and the client in front of them belonged to quite a well-known company which was based in Europe. Hence, the difference in currency enabled them to fulfill three quarters of the amount they originally wanted.

"I wonder what could be the reason behind your rejection, Mr. Jin?" The foreigner asked with his broken Mandarin.

Jin Longwen took another drag of the cigarette without moving his eyes from the client.

"What do you mean why?" He returned the other party's question with another question.

"Well, why did you reject the offer?" The client tried to be more specific this time.

Jin Longwen raised his eyebrow in mockery. "Are you dumb? Of course, I'll reject it since it's not the amount that I wanted."

The client inhaled deeply as he tried to calm himself. He needed to get his hand on this deal in order to impress the big boss from the headquarter. Hence, breaking a light laugh to lessen the tension, he tried to bargain once again.

"But, Mr. Jin, I've already explained it to you why I cannot agree to the amount that you have stated in the proposal. It's not that I don't have the money. It's just the cost would have make sense before this problem occurred, however after the mess and with all the casualties, the project simply doesn't have the same value as previously."

Though unfortunate, Hiroto's head was itching to nod in agreement to what the client had said. But, seeing his friend remained steadfast, Hiroto decided to stop himself from doing so in order to support Jin.

Meanwhile, Jin Longwen was twirling the cigarette with his fingers as his eyes studied the floor. A lazy smile decorating his face.

"Doesn't have the same value, huh?" Jin Longwen chuckled.

When the client met Jin Longwen's eyes once again, all of the sudden his heart seemed to have stopped and his blood ran cold. It was as if he was staring at the eyes of the Death itself.

However, nothing beat Jin Longwen's next question as it drove the final blow to the client's heart causing his breath to scatter in disarray.

"Tell me, Mr. Lucas, how did you know there were casualties?"