Silent and Calculating

After the incident with Bai Lan, Li Yue immediately started her job in Mo Li's office. The meeting that she had scheduled with the mayor's wife was postponed. Of course, Mo Li denied any involvement in this matter and insisted that his aunt must be extremely busy. In the end, Li Yue could only shake her head and pray that Mo Li would soon realized that this is useless.

"Tea?" Mo Li asked Li Yue who was doing sketches for his wall. Mo Li wanted something that would make his office give off the ambiance of a forest or his home.

"What kind of tea do you have?" she asked.

"Your favorite."

She frowned. "How do you know my favorite tea?" She never drank Chamomile tea in front of this man before. 

"I asked around."

"…" It was still early in the morning and Mo Li was already starting to give her the most unbelievable reason that he could come up with. Can he at least think of another reason? Why must he lie? She just nodded and let out a sigh inwardly. This Mo Li is really…. making her speechless.

After a few minutes, a freshly steeped tea was given to her. For some reason, Li Yue was not even surprised to know that the man knew the specific brand that she always drinks when she was abroad. She knew that this brand was not available in this country. This was also a rare brand that was only made by a single clan in the northern part of another country.

Did Mo Li asked his people to buy tea from the clan overnight? She eyed him while sipping her tea. Actually, that assumption does not sound impossible when it comes to Mo Li. "How was your sister?" 

"Step. She is my step sister and she is fine. A therapist is helping her."

Li Yue's lips thinned. She wanted to asked why Mo Li didn't kill Bai Lan. For some reason, this question had been in her mind since last night— a question that made her start to question even herself. Why was she thinking of killing people? It's not like Bai Lan hurt her or killed her family.

Because of such thoughts, Li Yue ended up sleeping around three in the morning. Thus, she woke up around ten in the morning after Mo Li called her for the sixth time.

"That's good." Li Yue nodded. "This is the initial sketch for the mural. What do you think?" 

"Beautiful."

"If you need anything you can— "

"Nope. Nothing." Mo Li said while smiling at her. "Do whatever you want."

"Oh. Then I will give you the final sketch tomorrow," said Li Yue before she finished her tea. Not long after, she bid him goodbye and went back to her hotel to sleep.

…..

When Li Yue left, an unfathomable glint immediately flashed in Mo Li's eyes. It wasn't even thirty seconds since Li Yue left the office and Mo Li's assistant was already running towards him. "Speak." Mo Li said, his face didn't show any signs of the smile that he had earlier. 

"President. We can't find any signs that Miss Li encountered something sinister during her stay abroad. She was always at home or her studio. She didn't have enemies and didn't even interact with a lot of people."

"Are you sure?" Mo Li asked. Until now, he couldn't forget what Li Yue did yesterday. When Li Yue told her that she wanted to talk to Bai Lan alone, Mo Li gave her one condition. He wanted to make sure that she is safe. So… he wanted to listen to the conversation using a camera, like a livestream. To his surprise, Li Yue didn't decline his request. 

This was enough to make Mo Li happy. However, what he saw during the conversation was enough to make dampened his mood. He saw a side of Li Yue that he never saw before. He saw a side of her that was unknown to him and his research!

The Li Yue that talked to Bai Lan was not the stupid Li Yue! It was not the simpleton woman who just nodded at his words! It wasn't the weak woman that needed protection. What happened? How did he miss this in his research? Until now, Mo Li could not understand how can the simple Li Yue show such a sinister expression in her eyes. 

Mo Li knew that showing such expressions, using such words to manipulate someone was not something that a dumb person can do. It was something that was a product of experience, of years of scheming. So, he asked his people to dig more into Li Yue's life abroad. After a night of reading Li Yue's files over and over again, Mo Li discovered that Li Yue is not as dumb as she acted in front of everyone.

In fact, he discovered that the woman was quite cunning. She actually released rumors about herself to create some hype and increase her clients. Not only this, Li Yue also had a way of talking to her clients and scheming against her rivals. She was too silent, too calculating that no one noticed any discrepancies in the way she dealt with a rival.

No one noticed how the rival's clients would suddenly ask more questions, or how sudden problems would arise in the renovations. No one noticed how Li Yue rarely showed herself in front of the clients but all people in the construction industry knew her face. No one would question why a client would suddenly back out from a deal with Li Yue's rival when it was the best deal that they could really get.

In the end, Mo Li concluded that Li Yue is another fox hiding in the sheep's clothing. Now that he thought about it, the incident that ruined their classmate Lu Xinyi's reputation was also showing signs that it was done by Li Yue.

"Yes President." His assistant answered him.

"So… are you telling me that she is doing those things… just for profit?" he couldn't help but ask himself.