Chapter 52: Have You Been Poisoned Mute?

Close her eyes, she silently repeated in her heart several times, "He is the client, not my ex-boyfriend," and Xia Xi became much calmer, her attitude friendly enough to rival Taobao customer service.

Xia Xi: "Mr. Xu, you can tell me your ideas on WeChat; if typing is inconvenient, a voice call works too."

Probably stunned by her words, the other side didn't send a single word for a long time.

So you don't want to chat anymore? Fine.

Xia Xi was about to close the WeChat chat window when a video call suddenly came in; her hand holding the mouse trembled, she steadied herself, and clicked "Reject".

She said voice call, not video call. Does Xu Yanfeng not know how to read?

Xu Yanfeng: "?"

Xu Yanfeng: "Why didn't you answer?"

Xia Xi still maintained respect for the client: "Sorry, it's not convenient for a video call now."

It's not that it's inconvenient; the real reason is she doesn't want to face Xu Yanfeng—clearly a voice call would suffice, there's no need to see each other's faces.

Xu Yanfeng, as a fallback, switched to making a voice call.

Xia Xi took a deep breath, slowly exhaled, pressed the answer key, and spoke in a formal tone, mixing in no personal feelings: "Mr. Xu, what ideas would you like to add? Please speak."

Xu Yanfeng: "..."

He thought he was talking to an AI, listening to that mechanical voice—even the AI had more emotion than this woman.

After a long silence with no one speaking, Xia Xi checked the network—full signal, not disconnected—and said, "Mr. Xu? Mr. Xu? Mr. Xu, are you there?"

Constantly saying "Mr. Xu," Mr. Xu indicated he was getting a stomachache from hearing it so much.

"Xia Xi, you're really interesting—there's no one else here, pretending not to be familiar doesn't make you look smart? Can't you be more straightforward? Did you feed your old thick-skinnedness to the dogs?"

Xu Yanfeng, the moment he spoke, tore apart Xia Xi's pretended facade without mercy, leaving her no room to maneuver.

Even an extrovert like Xia Xi was made to blush by his words; right now she's extremely glad she didn't agree to a video call earlier, otherwise she'd have nowhere to hide.

Xu Yanfeng knows how to embarrass people.

Xia Xi now has a strong feeling that this project won't go smoothly.

The project has been full of scheming from the start; how could it possibly follow her expectations?

Xia Xi rested her elbows on the desk, palms supporting her forehead, repeatedly comforting herself, thinking of it as just dealing with a difficult client—she'd encountered all sorts of odd clients before. Compared to those, Xu Yanfeng's level is nothing.

She had also encountered the type who, after a few serious sentences, launches into dirty talk…

Xu Yanfeng: "Xia Xi, have you been poisoned mute?"

Hearing that, Xia Xi even couldn't help but smirk—being retorted a couple of times is nothing, it's much more pleasant than dirty talk, especially since his voice is nice to listen to.

She laughed here, while Xu Yanfeng on the other end grew somewhat annoyed: "Are you listening? What does not speaking mean? Are you feeling guilty?"

"I'm listening." Xia Xi gave a low cough, "Let me explain—I'm not pretending to be unfamiliar; last time at the villa I made it clear to you, this is my job, I'll carry it out conscientiously. I hope that during work we can maintain a client-contractor relationship. Besides that, there's nothing else between us. Could you avoid talking about non-work matters?"

"OK, client and contractor, right." Xu Yanfeng, following her line, made a request as the client: "Last time it seemed we only talked about interior renovation ideas for the villa; regarding the front yard, I also have some opinions. I said we should meet and discuss in detail, but you refused. Is this your work attitude?"

Xia Xi: "..."

How did we circle back to square one again? This meeting is unavoidable, right?

Xia Xi wouldn't yield easily; she gritted her teeth and summoned a hundred and twenty percent of patience: "Like this, I've already finished the villa's floor plan on my end—you just need to say where in the front yard you'd like to add what facilities, and I'll mark it directly."

Xu Yanfeng himself is from the Architecture Department—doesn't he understand?!

Seeing that Xu Yanfeng saw she wasn't budging, he just went ahead and honestly stated his idea. Xia Xi took a pencil from the pen holder, roughly marked it on the drawing, then refined it. After they finished talking, she tossed the pencil back: "If there's nothing else, I'm hanging up."

"Wait." Afraid that even a second later the call would really be cut off, Xu Yanfeng's tone sounded somewhat urgent.

But when he stopped her, he didn't know what to say.

Xia Xi tidied the drawings on the desk and asked, "Anything else?"

Xu Yanfeng fell silent; just then someone knocked on the door on Xia Xi's side. She told the person on the phone "Just a moment," went to open the door, and outside was Lu Mingji. She raised her eyebrows slightly: "Something up?"

Lu Mingji glanced inside: "Busy?"

"Almost done."

"Then I'll come in to wait; I have something to talk to you about."

Xia Xi nodded, stepped back to let him in, pointed to the sofa to indicate he should sit, then returned to her desk and sat down, the voice call still connected, and asked again: "Any other points to add?"

"Not for now." Xu Yanfeng said slowly, "No need to show me the floor plan etc.; wait until you produce the final renderings, then we'll talk—no rush, take your time."

He had pretty much figured her out—seeing her in person is harder than climbing to heaven; no matter what tactics he uses, she can deflect a thousand pounds with four ounces, and still leave no fault to find.

He has plenty of time; he can wait six years, so a few days don't matter.

Once the renderings are out, Xia Xi will proactively meet him— as a designer she needs to present her design results to the client and give an explanation.

Xia Xi: "... Okay."

After the other end hung up, Xia Xi's mind was still a bit dazed—how did he suddenly become so easy to talk to? When Xu Yanfeng uttered those words, Lu Mingji, sitting on the sofa flipping through a book, recognized the man's voice on the call; having interacted with Xu Yanfeng a couple of times, she was still quite familiar with his voice.

"You're discussing work with Xu Yanfeng?!"

He had just heard Xu Yanfeng mention the floor plan, renderings, and such.

Xia Xi picked up her cup, took a big gulp of water, and sighed, "This is a long story, but simply put, I've been screwed over."

Lu Mingji's face showed doubt.

Although the company isn't big, it has taken on many projects big and small; as the boss, he can't oversee every project, so he doesn't know what Xia Xi is busy with.

Xia Xi then recounted the whole process: from Mr. Guan coming to consult about renovating a wedding home, to after signing the contract the homeowner suddenly turned into Xu Yanfeng.

Lu Mingji listened and fell silent, completely forgetting why he'd come to find Xia Xi to say something.

After a long while, he half-laughed: "I never expected the heir of such a conglomerate, to achieve his goal, would be……" He couldn't find the right word, paused two seconds, then finally said two words: "Despicable."

Last time at the restaurant, Xu Yanfeng said he had a private project wanting to collaborate with Broad and Elegant, which made him wary—who would have thought that despite all precautions, Xu Yanfeng still found a loophole.

Xia Xi strongly agreed with his assessment of Xu Yanfeng: "He's pretty despicable. The key is the contract's signed; backing out would incur a seven-figure penalty. I weighed it and ultimately chose to compromise."

"So… has he been making things difficult for you?"

Xia Xi shrugged: "You just heard—he told me to take my time, not rushing to see the plan; from another angle, isn't that a considerate client?"

Her tone was playful, Lu Mingji chuckled along, but what he really wanted to ask was whether Xu Yanfeng had been giving her a hard time in other areas, for example, personal matters.

"Right, what do you need from me?" Xia Xi sat down on the single sofa nearby.

Lu Mingji straightened his expression, staring at Xia Xi's face.

Xu Yanfeng was so insistent with her, appearing determined to pester her to the end; how should he say what comes next?

Lu Mingji remained silent for a long time, his gaze deep, making Xia Xi start to feel uneasy: "What on earth is it? You're making me nervous."

O(∩_∩)O Haha~ Guess what it is, hint: related to Xu Er. (End of chapter)