Water and Fire~Chapter 50.2: Gaining Presence

 

Chapter 50.2: Gaining Presence

The three of them took a sip of their wine together. With that sip of wine, Chu Qianmiao felt like a superfluous figure.

Li Tang took a gentle sip. After setting down her glass, she smiled faintly, looked at Chu Qianmiao, and asked Tan Shen, "Who is this?"

Chu Qianmiao tried to be more graceful and said with a smile, "Hello, Chu Qianmiao."

Li Tang raised her glass to her: "Li Tang." After a pause, she curled her lips. "You are very beautiful."

For the first time, Chu Qianmiao felt like being complimented was actually a challenge. It was the feeling of being condescendingly scrutinized and judged as beautiful. It made her feel like she'd lost if her return compliment wasn't impressive enough.

She reacted quickly, immediately replying, "Thank you for your good taste."

Li Tang raised an eyebrow at that. She turned and smiled, then asked Tan Shen, "Is she your girlfriend?" While waiting for the answer, she turned and calmly observed Ren Yan's expression.

Before Tan Shen could rant, Chu Qianmiao smiled and answered, "I'm his junior, not his girlfriend."

Li Tang saw Ren Yan's slightly tense brow relax.

She couldn't help but frown.

Tan Shen immediately retorted that Chu Qianmiao's answer was inaccurate: "Her answer is too one-sided. To be precise, she's my ex-girlfriend." He smiled like a demon, looked at Li Tang, then at Ren Yan, and said, "I'm working tirelessly to remove the word 'ex'."

Li Tang swirled her red wine glass, chuckled, and then said to Chu Qianmiao, "He and I were classmates when we were studying abroad, so I know him well. He's very talented, in every way. You'd be very happy to be his girlfriend." She raised an eyebrow.

Ren Yan swirled his red wine glass, and somehow, with too much force, the wine spilled from the rim, splashing onto his hand.

Li Tang quickly put down the glass and looked around to see if there were any tissues on the tables nearby.

Before they could find it, they heard Chu Qianmiao say to Ren Yan, "Senior, here!"

Chu Qianmiao had a tissue in her pocket. She pulled out a heart seal and handed it to Ren Yan.

Ren Yan took it and said thank you.

Li Tang looked at them, raised an eyebrow, and asked, "Do you know each other?"

Chu Qianmiao smiled and replied, "What a coincidence! I'm still his junior this time."

Tan Shen added, "Miao is working on an IPO project with Senior Ren. Senior is a brokerage firm, and Miao is a lawyer."

Li Tang smiled and said, "Then you'll learn a lot from Ren."

Chu Qianmiao noticed that Li Tang's way of addressing Ren Yan had changed.

Several people came over with glasses of wine, each of them looking like an industry elite.

They greeted Ren Yan, Tan Shen, and Li Tang, seeming to know each other well.

At first, they spoke in Chinese, discussing big projects, large sums of money, and major institutions.

Someone asked Tan Shen, "I have a real estate project that requires 5 billion yuan in funding, and it's expected to grow to 15 billion yuan in three years. Are you interested?"

Tan Shen said, "Let's talk about it in detail at my office later. If it's feasible, I'll recommend it to my boss."

Someone else said, "A villa development has opened on the North Fourth Ring Road. Anyone interested?"

Li Tang said, "We can go check it out together this weekend." She looked at Chu Qianmiao and asked, "Want to go together this weekend?"

Chu Qianmiao wanted to just say, "I don't have the money, thank you."

But Ren Yan spoke first: "She has to work overtime with me this weekend."

Chu Qianmiao wanted to thank Ren Yan's entire family, eighteen generations of relatives. Seriously, she really did.

Li Tang smiled and turned to chat with the others about buying a car.

As the group chatted, they began to speak English.

Chu Qianmiao stayed by, smiling. Tan Shen was very considerate of her, bringing her several soft drinks and snacks to keep her occupied and from feeling awkward.

Ren Yan kept answering the English questions in Chinese. She had a vague feeling that Ren Yan didn't want her to be embarrassed and was silently trying to help her shift the conversation from English to Chinese.

Tan Shen initially communicated with them in Chinese, but gradually, Li Tang took over.

This was Li Tang's moment of eloquence, speaking fluent English to discuss projects with the visitors. As soon as the topic of that project came up, Tan Shen was drawn in and started speaking English too. He and Li Tang were both at Eagle Capital, competing on different project teams. They both wanted to secure a project from a female boss named Cheng Silin, but the artistic boss was a strong personality and wouldn't easily meet with just anyone. So far, both Tan Shen and Li Tang had been turned down by Cheng Silin.

Someone in their conversation was jokingly suggesting that Tan Shen offer his male beauty, saying that if he was willing to sacrifice himself, the female boss would definitely offer him the project.

Tan Shen spoke to them in English, saying, "Be careful, I have someone with me!"

They glanced at Chu Qianmiao.

Li Tang smiled faintly and said, "It seems she didn't understand what we were saying, so don't be afraid, Shen."

The others started grinning mischievously. Ren Yan spoke up, telling them, "Gentlemen, please be careful with your manners around girls, okay?"

Tan Shen also raised his hand to pat the grinning men.

Ren Yan turned to Li Tang and said something in English, "Quietly." He said, "You don't have to be like that."

Li Tang's icy aura softened, and she bit her lip.

The group then turned to talk about their former overseas schoolmate, Louis, who had returned to China and was working as a futures broker.

Ren Yan turned to Chu Qianmiao and lowered his voice, "They didn't say anything extreme. Don't overthink it."

The group was talking about someone named Louis who'd recently been unlucky, having received an administrative penalty for making false statements.

Chu Qianmiao smiled, taking a bite of cake and winking at Ren Yan.

Ren Yan's eyes flickered as he saw her playful expression. Then he saw Chu Qianmiao put down her fork, a charming smile on her face, her mouth full of fluent English.

—That said, that guy named Louis was truly unlucky. Futures brokerage firms are rarely penalized for false statements. They're the least penalized among intermediaries like securities firms, law firms, accounting firms, and appraisal agencies. In the past ten years, they've only been penalized three times: twice for submitting false documents and once for falsifying or altering data.

After she finished speaking, everyone's eyes were fixed on her. She could sense a few particularly burning gazes: Ren Yan's, Tan Shen's, and Li Tang's.

Someone quickly snapped out of it and asked, "Hello, what's your name?"

Chu Qianmiao smiled: "Chu Qianmiao, Xinfeng Law Firm, attorney."

The man, with a look of surprise, said, "Lawyer Chu is incredibly knowledgeable about financial case law. Amazing!"

After a pause, he smiled and asked, "Can I exchange business cards?"

Chu Qianmiao smiled and replied, "Of course, it's my pleasure."

She handed out a stack of business cards and received another. Just now, she had been brought in by Tan Shen, a subordinate of his. Now, she had earned her own sense of presence.

She saw Li Tang staring at her, intently.