Chapter 173: Not Appropriate

When she returned to the exhibition hall once more, Yang Yi had already regained her composure.

At Director Li's signal, the design bidding presentation continued.

As one architectural firm after another presented and explained their designs, Yang Yi gradually sensed something faintly familiar.

The estate designed by DESTROY Architectural Firm from Xincheng carried a strong artistic air; the villa was hidden among the mountains and wilderness, blending Western classical style with the native scenery of Lingxi Mountain, and many design elements were also influenced by classical Xia Kingdom gardens.

Pine-Cypress Architectural Design Group from Ao Kingdom took an unorthodox approach—their villa design aimed at Gothic style, adding many lavish, intricate decorations within dark, oppressive spaces, with the estate's overall style emphasizing a natural, gloomy aesthetic.

Lika Group and Badanma Group, both from Hong Island of Xia Kingdom, each brought out their own strengths—both were Chinese garden style, except one was filled with the gentle charm of Jiangnan water towns, the other with the vast openness of the North.

……

These designs all seemed to carry a familiar flavor. Yang Yi slowly recalled that during her university years, she seemed to have registered an account on Petal Net, used for saving pictures she liked—natural scenery from various places, home designs, paintings, and so on.

Among them were Chinese gardens and European castles. Back then she had been captivated by Edgar Allan Poe and was a bit obsessed with dark Gothic architecture, and she also favored the atmosphere of art galleries.

"…We are committed to creating a home like an art museum…"

The design currently being presented was GMP from De Kingdom. Their villa design combined classical and artistic elements—the villa contained a massive library, the dome used an arched design painted with murals, and the reception hall could not only serve for resting and receiving guests but also doubled as an art exhibition space.

Yang Yi smiled, suddenly understanding why so many people liked climbing higher. This feeling of being courted by all sides, of everyone doing their utmost to cater to her tastes—it really did feel rather satisfying.

Suddenly, her brow furrowed slightly, and she hurriedly sent Feng Liancheng a message: "Are you sure all my private information has been wiped clean?"

Feng Liancheng's reply came quickly: "I could have sworn to you before, but now I'm a little less sure. Ever since you returned from the Other Realm, no matter how deeply your online information is hidden, someone will dig it up; no matter how cleanly we erase it, someone will try to piece it back together bit by bit. In cybersecurity, defense is always harder than attack. We're doing our best."

"Erase it! Erase all of it! If you can't erase it, I suspect I'll personally destroy the entire internet! I don't want to die of social shame!" Yang Yi jabbed at the screen with her finger, her composed expression cracking a little.

She had to leave a clean name in this world!

She didn't want anyone to know what random things she used to browse at midnight, she didn't want anyone to know those strange URLs in her browsing history, and she certainly didn't want anyone to know her bizarre search records!

Feng Liancheng's reply was only three characters: "Hahaha"

"Hah your head!" Before Yang Yi could send it, Feng Liancheng sent another new message:

"I want to confirm—is your talk about destroying the internet a joke or serious? I was gloating at first, but then I remembered you can actually do it, and now I feel terrible all over!"

Only then did Yang Yi realize she no longer even had the right to vent in anger—given her current position, people wouldn't take her joke as merely a joke.

For a moment, she felt a vague listlessness in her heart.

"Just angry words." After a while, she replied.

The next to present was a domestic company that had risen to fame in the past two years—Guantao Architectural Design—but was not well known internationally.

What they presented was also very simple: no estate, the entire five hundred mu of planned land was given over to natural scenery—no villa, no artistic air, not even a trace of human civilization.

The "villa" was merely a cave hollowed out from a cliff face on the Lingxi Mountain Range, with lush trees growing along its sides, completely concealing the cave entrance.

Inside the cave were stone tables and stone stools; a mountain stream flowed in and out, simple stone beds were carved into the inner walls, and the only sign of human presence was a fireplace.

In just two short minutes, the presentation was over. The representative stepped down looking a little uneasy—apparently he himself had doubts about this design.

The audience below still thought this was the prelude, only to find it was actually the finale.

In an instant, a buzz of voices rose throughout the hall.

This design was excessively simple—so simple one couldn't even call it a design. The planned land was a full five hundred mu, only a little smaller than the entire urban area of the capital; two hundred billion was being invested—this was such a grand project that no amount of luxury would be excessive.

Each architectural firm had gauged Yang Yi's taste accurately—she didn't care for obvious luxury, but they had, through various artworks, pushed understated luxury and hidden depth to the max, each design lofty and refined, untainted by the mundane world.

But this design was so simple that it couldn't even spend five hundred thousand—no, couldn't even spend three hundred thousand.

Yang Yi lowered her gaze, lost in thought.

The presentation continued amid the buzz, and by noon all the designs had finally been shown in full.

Yang Yi chose GMP from De Kingdom's design. She figured this was the most expensive one; that art-museum-like villa could display many artworks, would let more people cater to her tastes, and would also make it easier to display her "private indulgences"—some pretentiously cultured little hobbies could add a touch of "humanity" to her.

After declining the dinner invitations from the officials of the First Bureau of Construction, Yang Yi went straight back to her dormitory. She still had to assist with work at the Interstellar Immigration Department in the afternoon, and with only a little rest at noon, she wanted to be alone.

Just as she stepped through the dormitory door, she received a message from Chen Chen Huanyue: "You didn't like that design?"

Yang Yi replied politely: "Thank you for remembering. I liked it very much. But it's not appropriate."

Not appropriate for what? Not appropriate for her current status? Or…was it not appropriate for the two of them now?

At the headquarters of Lihao Group, the 49th floor had only one office—the President's Office.

The towering building offered an unobstructed view outside the window. Chen Chen Huanyue stood by the floor-to-ceiling window holding his phone, nearly frozen into a statue.

After several minutes, a new message saved him, pulling him out of his frozen state.

"Are you in the capital? Shall we meet tonight?"

He felt like he could jump for joy, but immediately suppressed the thought. Reining in his wildly pounding heart, he replied in a steady tone: "Alright, what time are you free? I'll come pick you up."

"Eight in the evening. Wait for me at the entrance of the Awakening Bureau."