Chapter 67

The person in charge of the Xu Clan Group was in the hotel, named Wang Xiao, under forty, a Deputy General Manager.

Unable to act rashly, Lu Mingji, after some effort, obtained Deputy General Manager Wang's contact details, placed a call, and briefly explained the situation on the phone. Lu Mingji, after all being the boss of a company, personally involved in this matter, could already convey its seriousness. Deputy General Manager Wang was willing to give face, agreeing to meet him for a detailed talk.

Lu Mingji hung up the phone, exchanged a glance with Xia Xi, and said, "Let's go; Deputy General Manager Wang is in the meeting room on the sixteenth floor."

Xia Xi appeared calm on the surface, but actually had no confidence inside.

The Xu Clan is such a large company, its authority is firmly in place; it would probably be hard to change the rules.

No matter what, we must make an effort before drawing a conclusion. Xia Xi gave an affirmative hum and followed him into the elevator.

The elevator was empty; Lu Mingji asked her, "Do you have any suspects?"

Xia Xi shook her head, having no clue at all: "As soon as the incident happened, I observed the team members' expressions; they were all surprised and angry, with no one acting as if they had known the result beforehand. I don't know whether that person hid it too well or there is some other hidden factor."

Lu Mingji: "Are you sure it's a team member? Could it not be that Present Cypress obtained it through other means?"

"The possibility is small." Xia Xi said, "This project, from the discussion stage onward, only we few have been in contact with it, and it has been kept confidential externally. Even you, the boss, may not be clear about what the final design draft looks like."

Lu Mingji gave a faint smile and nodded: "Indeed."

"Present Cypress's Zhang Wanli came to me yesterday, explicitly asking me to join them, saying the terms were up to me; I refused him, and when I left I didn't even give him face."

"There's such a thing?"

"Mm. So I suspect he couldn't achieve his goal here, so he turned to look for someone else."

The elevator reached the sixteenth floor; the two exited one after another and headed to the meeting room where Deputy General Manager Wang was.

Besides him, there were several senior members of the Xu Clan present, whom we had seen before at the bidding site.

Lu Mingji shook hands with Wang Xiao and introduced himself: "I am Lu Mingji, boss of Broad and Elegant Design." He pointed to Xia Xi beside him and said, "This is our lead designer, Xia Xi. Sorry to bother you at noon."

"No problem; we happen to be discussing the design proposal submitted this morning." Wang Xiao gestured for them to sit.

Lu Mingji, without waiting for the other party to ask, immediately expanded on the details not mentioned in the phone call: "Present Cypress's design proposal is exactly the same as ours at Broad and Elegant; this is absolutely no coincidence. We have the original draft and can provide the full design process to prove that this proposal was created by Broad and Elegant and has nothing to do with Present Cypress; they must have used some unknown method to plagiarize our proposal."

"We understand, but General Manager Lu, you should know that everything requires evidence; we cannot simply take your word for it and jump to a conclusion." Before Deputy General Manager Wang could speak, a senior executive beside him spoke up.

Lu Mingji was taken aback, his tone suddenly urgent: "Can't the original draft and design process serve as evidence? You could also ask Present Cypress for their original draft to see if they can produce it. If they cannot, that would at least indirectly prove the proposal is not theirs."

The several senior executives exchanged glances, finally turning their attention to Wang Xiao, the main person in charge of this bidding.

Wang Xiao is young, yet able to sit in this position, so he must not be simple; indeed, he appeared amiable, but his words carried a tone of passing the buck: "Boss Lu, we only look at the final design proposal; we have no authority to require participating design firms to submit original drafts. We can investigate, provided you furnish stronger evidence."

Lu Mingji was momentarily speechless.

If they had evidence in hand, they wouldn't need to say all this; they would simply produce the evidence and demand that Present Cypress be expelled!

Xia Xi added: "When the Xu Clan decided to hold an open bidding, the publicity they released emphasized fairness and justice. Although this incident has nothing to do with the Xu Clan, if the vote results come out and Present Cypress wins, and the Xu Clan cooperates with them, our Broad and Elegant will certainly sue Present Cypress; then the Xu Clan cannot escape involvement. Even if the Xu Clan does not cooperate with Present Cypress, once a lawsuit is filed, as the organizer the Xu Clan would still be implicated even without liability. It would be better to cooperate with our investigation; spreading word of the Xu Clan's name would also sound good. What do you think, Deputy General Manager Wang?"

Wang Xiao then gave her a proper look: a woman with a gorgeous appearance, her eyes sharp as a blade. At first he didn't understand why General Manager Lu had brought a designer to talk with him, but now he somewhat understood.

"We will definitely investigate; the problem is we currently have no starting point. How about you first send us your proposal, along with the original draft and drawing process, to my email? I'll have someone review it initially, and if we obtain more direct evidence proving Present Cypress plagiarized, we can supplement. Would that work?" Wang Xiao made a concession.

"Okay." Deputy General Manager Wang's concession made Xia Xi see room for negotiation, so she pushed forward with her second demand: "Since our design proposal has been stolen, we cannot possibly go on stage to demonstrate it this afternoon; we can't very well present the same proposal twice, or else everyone will see it, causing a disturbance on site and affecting the subsequent bidding." "What do you mean?" Wang Xiao didn't quite understand.

Xia Xi gave a slight smile, no longer pushy, showing her friendly side: "I hope Deputy General Manager Wang can make an accommodation and switch our Broad and Elegant demonstration order to the last slot tomorrow afternoon."

Tomorrow afternoon is the deadline for the bidding.

Wang Xiao puzzled: "Even if I agreed, wouldn't you still be presenting the same proposal twice? Unless… you have an alternative proposal."

"If we had an alternative proposal, we would have taken it out this afternoon."

Wang Xiao: "……"

After a moment of silence, Wang Xiao said: "Please forgive me for not being able to agree. As you said earlier, the Xu Clan's open bidding emphasizes fairness and justice; the rules should be as they are and not be altered for any individual or team. One must follow the rules in a game, let alone such a large project."

Xia Xi did not give up, continuing to use her silver tongue to persuade him: "Rules must of course be observed. However, merely swapping the demonstration order does not affect other participating companies, does not break the rules, and even reflects the Xu Clan's humanistic concern—why not?"

How did this turn into a matter of humanitarian concern? Deputy General Manager Wang's expression almost cracked.

This Engineer Xia truly combines firmness and flexibility; a moment ago she was threatening, talking about lawsuits and invoking the Xu Clan's reputation, and the next moment she was putting a high hat on people.

After a back-and-forth, Deputy General Manager Wang still held to his decision, invoking the rules to block them: "Sorry, although I am the person in charge of this project, the rules are not set by me; if you really want to make a change, you might try pleading with our General Manager Xu."

Wang Xiao was certain they would not actually go see General Manager Xu Yanfeng in person, so he used him as an excuse.

Indeed, Lu Mingji and Xia Xi exchanged a glance, realizing that further wrangling was useless, and they could only compromise.

Lu Mingji rose to say goodbye: "In that case, we won't disturb your rest any further."

"Take care." Wang Xiao said.

Lu Mingji pushed open the meeting room door, slightly shifted his body to let Xia Xi exit first, then released the handle and followed her. The two entered the elevator, and Xia Xi said: "I had clearly anticipated this outcome beforehand, so why am I still disappointed?"

Lu Mingji comforted her: "Keep a calm mindset; we have already done our best."

Another elevator happened to arrive at the sixteenth floor; Xu Yanfeng stepped out, casually glanced aside, and from the gap of the soon-to-close elevator doors saw the silhouettes of Xia Xi and Lu Mingji standing side by side.

The two were engaged in discussion and did not notice Xu Yanfeng outside; immediately, the elevator doors shut completely.

Xu Yanfeng paused, walked toward the meeting room, pushed the door open, and happened to hear those inside discussing Broad and Elegant and Present Cypress, also mentioning Xia Xi's name, saying she was whatever designer and would be better suited as a negotiation specialist.

Upon seeing Xu Yanfeng, the several senior executives all rose: "General Manager Xu, how did you come over?"

Xu Yanfeng: "Just passing by, I came to check on the bidding progress."

Wang Xiao pulled out a chair, gave up his seat for him to sit, stood at his side, and reported some matters. He did not mention the Broad and Elegant and Present Cypress affair, lest the boss think he was incompetent.

But Xu Yanfeng, contrary to expectation, brought it up himself: "Just now when I entered, how did I hear you discussing Broad and Elegant and Present Cypress? What happened?"

Wang Xiao closed his eyes, thinking, "It's over; how did the boss overhear that."

He gave a dry laugh, his face showing embarrassment; once General Manager Xu asked, it would be impossible to conceal it further, and if he learned about it from others, the situation would not end well. Wang Xiao organized his language and told him the whole story.

(End of chapter)