Chapter 37: He Gave Me Couple Cufflinks
Half an hour later, Fu Yue and Ji Hanmo were sitting in a private box at the hotel’s Chinese restaurant.
Both had changed into the new clothes sent by Monica.
One had to admit that Monica’s aesthetic was on point.
Ji Hanmo wore a pure black shirt and suit. The tie was a dark-patterned navy blue; upon close inspection, one could see extremely faint gold threads woven into it.
His cuffs featured platinum bases with sapphire cufflinks.
Fu Yue wore a white silk shirt paired with a dark burgundy tie. His cufflinks were rose gold with rubies.
Fu Yue naturally didn’t know about Monica’s hidden schemes regarding “Black and White matching” or the “Red and blue have been a pair since time immemorial” trope.
Sitting there, the two of them looked like a menswear double-page advertisement torn straight from a fashion magazine.
Brilliantly heroic and perfectly in sync.
Exquisite Cantonese morning tea was laid out on the table; the Har Gow (shrimp dumplings) were translucent, and the chicken feet were soft and flavorful.
But Fu Yue found the food somewhat tasteless.
Earlier, he had questioned Ji Hanmo about why he appeared in his bed.
Ji Hanmo explained to him in a flat tone:
“You had a fever last night. I stayed because I was afraid it would recur. In the latter half of the night, I got sleepy, so I lay down for a bit.”
His words were impossible to find fault with.
Fu Yue thought to himself that it was indeed true.
Someone had stayed out of kindness to take care of a patient; he couldn’t force the man to sit in a chair all night in a stiff suit.
And… looking back, he was the one who “started it” this morning.
Fu Yue’s self-justification was that it was simply an appreciation for beauty.
“Thank you for your care,” Fu Yue finally whispered his thanks.
“You’re welcome.” Ji Hanmo accepted it with a clear conscience.
As if seeing through the thousand-and-one thoughts in Fu Yue’s mind, he changed the subject, immediately moving the conversation away from the intimacy of last night.
“Fu Yue, for the sake of your health, I’m giving you a week off.”
Upon hearing about a vacation, Fu Yue’s eyes lit up.
After thinking about it, he asked seemingly casually, “Chairman Ji, is this leave paid?”
“Of course.”
“Then the contract term…”
What Fu Yue was thinking was that after the vacation, he could return to his status as a free man.
But unfortunately, Ji Hanmo had long anticipated his thoughts: “The contract term will, naturally, be extended accordingly.”
The corners of Fu Yue’s mouth slumped.
“Ah, then forget it!” Fu Yue just wanted to finish the job early and get off work. “I’m fine. I can go to work today.”
Ji Hanmo looked up. “Are you sure? Have you forgotten about fainting yesterday?”
“I’m really fine.” Fu Yue held up three fingers in a swearing gesture.
Ji Hanmo stared at him for a long time.
“Chairman Ji, I am absolutely sure I’m fine now.”
Ji Hanmo let out a slight sigh. “There’s no urgent business for the project these next two days. Don’t work overtime.”
After saying that, he tapped his fingers on the table. “In a couple of days, there will be a preliminary intention negotiation meeting for the South City Smart Medical Community project.”
Hearing this, Fu Yue immediately entered work mode.
“It’s for the partners initially screened by the Ji Group.” Ji Hanmo picked up a piece of golden cake for Fu Yue. “At that time, you will represent the Ji Group.”
“Chairman Ji, is that appropriate?” Fu Yue said hurriedly.
He was just the designer of the project’s top-level architecture and the definer of the smart solutions. In terms of qualifications, he could indeed sit in the bidding and voting seats.
However, representing the entire Ji Group was an overstep.
“What are you afraid of?” Ji Hanmo let out a chuckle.
“This is just a negotiation meeting. We just need to weed out a few companies that don’t look right.” Ji Hanmo gave Fu Yue some reassurance. “The final bidding won’t happen for a long while.”
Fu Yue breathed a sigh of relief.
“Don’t look right?” He caught that phrase.
“Yes.” Ji Hanmo nodded. “Don’t worry about their backgrounds or quotes. You just need to pick out the ones you don’t like among all the participants and tell them to get lost.”
This… wasn’t this power a bit too much?
The life-and-death power of the preliminary screening.
This was… a bit too casual, wasn’t it?
Breakfast was almost over. Ji Hanmo wiped the corners of his mouth with a napkin. “Fu Yue, I trust your eye. Someone who looks right to you likely won’t be too bad in terms of ability and character.”
Fu Yue fell silent.
After finishing breakfast and heading to the hotel entrance, a Rolls-Royce was already parked quietly by the driveway.
The driver came over to open the door, and Fu Yue got in.
Although he had emphasized last night that he wanted to maintain physical distance from Ji Hanmo…
It was deep winter; there was no need to make things hard on himself by choosing to walk to the company. Fu Yue wasn’t the type of person to suffer for no reason.
—
That day, Fu Yue’s office was unexpectedly peaceful.
Perhaps Ji Hanmo had put out a word.
The department heads who usually wanted to run to his office eight times a day seemed to have collectively vanished; no one came to disturb him.
Fu Yue was happy for the peace, as it allowed him to fully immerse himself in the massive and complex system architecture design.
Knock, knock.
Near afternoon tea time, the glass door of the office was lightly knocked.
The visitor wore an exquisite light gray suit with a bird-shaped tie clip pinned to a beige tie.
It was Chen Bai.
He was carrying a stack of documents and a small bag. His entire being radiated high spirits.
His originally delicate face looked as if it had been carefully nurtured, adding a few more moving touches of brilliance.
“Young Master Fu, sorry for the intrusion.”
Chen Bai placed the stack of documents on the desk. “These are the confidential materials just exchanged from the Pei Medical Group; you need to look them over.”
After finishing the official business, his gaze landed on Fu Yue, and his tone became sincere and grateful: “Also… about the love letter thing, I’m really sorry for the trouble.”
After saying that, he took an exquisite box out of the handbag he brought.
“Linye… oh, President Ji said he wants to thank you.”
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