Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
On the way from the airport to downtown of Hai City, Ji Nuan looked at the roadside buildings and found them familiar occasionally. It had been more than three years since she left, but nothing seemed to have changed in Hai City.
It was like she never left.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to send you back to your residence?” Mr. Vinse sat in the car, looking at Ji Nuan, who was quietly looking out of the window.
“Yes, I’ll go back to work first.”
“The new office building you moved to three years ago is now the old one. The new office building is not in the center of the city but on the west side of the city. It is far away from where you used to live. Are you going to change housing?”
Ji Nuan did want to move when she came back. She didn’t answer but looked out of the window and said after a moment, “I’m not sure yet. Let’s see how things go.”
“Please feel free to call me if you need a helping hand.”
“You helped me a lot when I was in London. Now I have come back to Hai City, where I have a lot of friends and relatives. I don’t want to bother you. Now there are only a few chores to deal with, and my colleagues will handle them for me. I don’t need much help. Thanks.”
Mr. Vinse didn’t insist. Seeing Ji Nuan thin-clad and the temperature in the car was too cold, he told the driver, “Turn up the air-conditioner.”
His secretary in the passenger seat quickly turned up the air conditioner.
But Ji Nuan just took a look at time as if she had not heard anything and was not concerned. “It’ll take at least forty minutes from here to the west side of the city. It’s too far from your company. I can get off here.”
“It’s okay. I’ll get you there first.”
Seeing he insist, Ji Nuan simply stopped talking, closed her eyes, and leaned back in her chair, not participating in any topic.
—-
When the car reached the west end of the city, the Mercedes Benz stopped at the gate of the office building of Hai City’s MN Group China brand.
Mr. Vinse was about to wake Ji Nuan up, but before his hand touched her, Ji Nuan opened her eyes.
The woman in the red dress seemed to have slept for forty minutes, but as soon as she opened her eyes, Mr. Vinse could see that she had not slept at all.
“We’ve arrived.”
“Thank you.’
Ji Nuan was about to get out of the car when Mr. Vinse suddenly caught her hand and placed a velvet box in it.
Ji Nuan looked silently at the velvet box in her hand, then up at him. “What’s this?”
“It’s a homecoming gift for you.”
Ji Nuan gave a faint smile but didn’t even open the box and put it back in his hand. “Thank you for your kindness, but I can’t accept the gift.”
“It’s just a bracelet.” Mr. Vinse looked at her clean, white wrist. “You haven’t worn any jewelry these years. It’s just a bracelet. It’s nothing special. What, don’t you dare take it?”
“Sorry, I can’t accept it. If it was a shell bracelet you bought with a few bucks on some beach vacation, I might have accepted it as a souvenir, but this is too expensive, and I shouldn’t accept it.”
She didn’t even need to open the box. The small logo on the box showed that it was a top jewelry brand. A random piece of silver or crystal jewelry from this brand could cost hundreds of thousands of yuan. Even if they were both rich and it was just a simple gift, it was not something she could accept freely.
As Ji Nuan refused the gift resolutely, Mr. Vinse didn’t insist. He put the box on the chair with a faint smile. “Okay, I won’t force you to take it. If you don’t like it, I won’t buy you gifts anymore.”
Ji Nuan knew that Mr. Vinse was pursuing her. Usually, she would not allow a man who wanted to chase her to stay around for too long or become her friend.
Just as Xia Tian said, although she seemed to have changed a lot, the proud, inapproachable personality of hers when she was still a teenager was still in her bones. She had little tolerance to men who she didn’t like. She would push away all the pursuers like garbage and left them no chance.
Mr. Vinse, however, was so sensible, gentlemanly, and respectful of her and would never do anything to embarrass her.
Over time, this man had been around for a long time and had indeed helped her a few times in London, so she couldn’t give him the cold shoulder.
Was he already her friend? Sort of.
At this time, Ji Nuan’s cell phone rang. “Sorry, I’m getting a call.”
He did not speak, got out of the car while she answered the phone, and asked his secretary to take out her suitcase. After Ji Nuan hung up, he opened the door for her in a very gentlemanly way and said with a smile, “Miss Ji, please.”
Ji Nuan put the phone back in her bag, politely nodded to Mr. Vinse, and got out of the car, declining his offer to escort her into the building.
After their car drove away, Ji Nuan walked into the office building with her suitcase. Although she has not been in Hai City in recent years, the security guards and staff soon recognized that she was the president of MN Group. She went in unimpeded and no one dared to stop her.
As soon as she entered, however, she saw two big, fat men making a big noise at the front desk, throwing things and smashing cups. Standing at the front desk, two receptionists were making phone calls nervously.
Ji Nuan only glanced at them from a distance and heard one of the men, who was smashing something, shouted, “Tell your manager to come out! How did a piece of land that we bid for first become yours overnight?! Is it just because your MN Group develops well in the domestic real estate industry these years that you even dare to snatch our Heng Cheng’s land?! How dare you!”
“Sir, gentlemen, take it easy. This building is so high. It takes some time to get down from the upstairs office by elevator. Besides, last time you had seen in the tender meeting that our Vice-CEO Xia has been pregnant. It will take her some time to go downstairs. Please don’t break things…”
The receptionist put down the phone and looked at the two tall men in fear. She didn’t dare to stop them and could only speak to them carefully, lest they should break anything else.
“She is pregnant, so what? Just because she is a pregnant woman, she can snatch our land?! The net profit of that piece of land has been taken by you! Do you know who our boss is? How dare you snatch our company’s land? That’s ridiculous! Do you really think you can monopolize Hai City’s real estate industry?”
With these words, one of the men raised his foot and kicked hard on the marble front desk, making a huge noise!