You Are As Useless As Your Daughter

Baozhai walked into the restaurant bar and spotted Chunhua easily. The beautiful older woman sat perched at the bar twirling a straw in her drink and checking her phone. Bianca had described the woman when she had called her to get the number, saying that she needed new inspiration for the boutique. Chunhua had said that she couldn't possibly fit her in before the holidays but was happy to meet her for a drink before she went out that night to get a feel for what she wanted Chunhua to do.

"Hello, you must be Chunhua," Baozhai said easily taking the stool beside the woman.

"You must be Baozhai," Chunhua smiled and put her phone away. "I must say I am intrigued by your proposal. May I ask where you heard about my service?"

"My sister-in-law actually," Baozhai said vaguely without lying and pulled a glossy catalogue out of her bag and placed it on the bar top in front of Chunhua and turned to order a drink. "So what do you think?"

"It's hard to judge based just on a catalogue, but it looks like your aiming for a young demographic, but the couture designs are probably a little sophisticated for that age bracket and probably way out of their price range. You could probably double your business by either aiming the range at a slightly older and wealthier clientele or dropping the designers and going for a cheaper but younger look." Chunhua said thoughtfully as she continued to study the catalogue.

"That's your professional opinion is it?" Baozhai said haughtily.

"As I said it's hard to judge from a catalogue but it seems like your aiming for a young nuevo rich demographic we don't really have here. Young executives have money, but this isn't the style they tend to go for. If you were opening this boutique on the coast, you could cash in on the tourists, but here in the heart of the city, I think you have missed the market." Chunhua tried to explain. "Who did you say recommended me to you?"

"My sister-in-law Bianca Donati," Baozhai said acidly. "I should have known better, but I was prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt because Bianca swears by your sense of style. But it seems you're just as useless as your walking fashion faux pas of a daughter."

"Wait what? How do you know Changying?" Chunhua was stunned by the verbal tirade.

"You and your fat brat better stay away from my family. Believe me I will be telling Bianca you're a fraud. So full of shit that you can't even see class when it's right in front of you," she jabbed her finger at the catalogue. "You can keep that maybe your next customer will believe your bullshit."

"Ah, you're Baozhai," Chunhua said finally putting all the pieces together. "You have to play nice with Changying now, and you thought bringing me here just to insult me was an easy way to get at her and be able to deny it, like you did with Chen. You had no intention of taking anything I said seriously, did you, Baozhai."

"Just remember what I said. You will never fit into my family. You will always be just an employee, there to serve your betters. Chen was wrong about one thing, though, you're not white trash you're something worse than white trash." Baozhai was standing over Chunhua and talking with a raised voice.

"Baozhai," a deep male bass rumbled and both women turned and looked up into the stormy face of Robin Medici.

"It seems my timing is impeccable as always, sit down Baozhai and don't you dare move a muscle," he scowled and turned to Chunhua. "I hadn't expected you to be here early, I'd planned to get a drink with my son before our dinner reservation." He kissed her cheek in greeting.

"I thought I was meeting a new client, but it seems that now that she can't bully Changying anymore she is trying to bully me. How do you know Baozhai?" Chunhua asked.

"Our families, I'm her Uncle in the honorary title sort of way," Robin explained.

"I had no idea, why didn't you tell me?" Chunhua asked.

"I didn't know you knew Baozhai," he chuckled. "If I told you the name of every person I was spuriously related to we would be talking forever."

"I told you to sit!" Robin growled in a deep threatening way as Baozhai attempted to stand and leave while he spoke to Chunhua.

"Uncle Robin this is a big misunderstanding. I was just upset about Wang, and I took it out on her. I'm sorry," Baozhai smiled sweetly at Chunhua.

"I'm not Changying. I won't let you get away with doing such horrid things for the sake of the man I love," Chunhua hissed. "You can't walk around threatening people you don't even know and then just say sorry, or deny you had anything to do with it. One day you are going to cross the wrong person and have to pay the price."

"Speak of the devil," Robin answered his phone listening more than speaking. "Ben's there with you? Yep, all good." He put his phone away.

"I'm so sorry, dear, I'm going to have to cancel, there's a family emergency, and I have to go. Why don't you call Wang and Changying and have dinner on me," he said regrettably.

"I'm sure they have plans and honestly after meeting with my last client, I am more than happy to head home and have a quiet evening," Chunhua looked meaningfully at Baozhai.

"We'll walk you out," Robin said taking hold of Baozhai's arm and following Chunhua to the entrance.