Chapter 74: Don't forget to attend the evening reception

Without Xia Xi speaking up, Pei Yichuan kept producing evidence, driving Jiang Tian into a dead end with no way out.

"Manager Jiang, do you have anything else to say?" Xia Xi asked calmly.

Calling him "Manager Jiang" at this moment carried a sarcastic tone.

One million, plus a promotion and raise—it was indeed tempting, but he never thought, making a deal with a tiger—could there be a good outcome?

The evidence lay before him; no amount of quibbling would help. Jiang Tian stood there like a statue, knowing he was done. The company would pursue his responsibility, Zhang Wanli wouldn't back him, and once his deeds got out, the whole circle wouldn't tolerate him.

Jiang Tian felt despair and at the same time a surge of hatred. He glared hatefully at Xia Xi; any former goodwill was gone.

Only resentment and anger remained.

Xia Xi frowned, thinking this person was utterly baffling. She could understand his anger at being exposed, but what did it have to do with her? Why was he glaring at her with such deep resentment? Before she could finish the thought, Jiang Tian lashed out like a smashed pot: "It's all your fault!"

Xia Xi: "???"

Others were also bewildered: what does this have to do with Xia Xi?

Jiang Tian pushed all the blame onto Xia Xi: "Don't you really see that I like you? I've shown interest repeatedly, but you ignored me—either you're tangled with Lofty Heaven Capital's Manager Tang, or with Xu Clan Group's General Manager Xu. Bottom line, it's because they're rich! Your ability to connect with them is your talent, but do you really think you can marry them? In the end, you'll be the one who loses. At marriageable age, you'll only marry a man of similar status. I want to be richer and higher‑status—not for you to see me! It's because you're always dangling in front of me, leading me on, that I've made mistakes—it's all your fault!"

With this blame‑shifting skill, even a master chef would have to bow down.

Xia Xi laughed in exasperation; she thought the guy from her last blind date was odd enough, but an even odder one was right beside her.

As Liang Yuan would put it, this is a textbook "privileged‑male".

Before Xia Xi could retort, someone reacted even faster and burst out laughing: "Your speech almost lost me. A mud‑loach splashed with seawater, and you actually think you're seafood? It's your own greed for wealth, colluding with rival companies, stealing your own firm's plans—poor character, ruined morals. Finding no excuse, you dump the blame on women. Look around—who with a sane mind would believe you? Hilarious."

Gao Ge unleashed a torrent of words without pausing for breath.

Xia Xi stared, stunned; looking back, she realized she had previously held back when arguing with her.

The others didn't take Jiang Tian's words seriously, treating him like a joke.

"You secretly like someone, they don't like you back and ignore you, and that's called 'leading you on'? Listen to yourself—does that even make sense?"

"If that's how you see it, then from now on any mistake I make will be blamed on the person I like, and I'll bear no fault."

"And you're always flashing before my eyes, yet those gorgeous women never lack suitors—whereas you're constantly hovering in front of them. Please get your facts straight, stop reversing right and wrong; we've all seen it."

"What kind of person betrays the company and still wants to walk away clean? Fortunately, everyone here has sense and will judge."

Jiang Tian was surrounded and accused; one mouth couldn't oppose several, he could no longer hold his ground, and his face turned as foul as if he'd fallen into a sewer.

Xia Xi spoke coldly: "The evidence is there; the company will certainly pursue your responsibility. I hope you won't be so foolish as to use me as an excuse to dodge blame."

She had long seen through his little thoughts—he'd asked her out to eat more than once, and his gaze wasn't pure—but her refusal was clear. Aside from unavoidable work contact, she'd never had any private interaction with him.

I don't know where he got the nerve to claim she was leading him on.

Absolutely ridiculous.

"The Xu Clan side is still investigating—remember to organize the evidence and send them an email. Don't they need solid proof?" Xia Xi said to Pei Yichuan beside her.

Pei Yichuan: "Okay." After Xia Xi left, it took a long while before Jiang Tian finally figured out where the problem lay—the phone call Zhang Wanli had made to him.

Why would Zhang Wanli call him and angrily accuse him of fraud on the phone? Surely someone had told him something.

It was Xia Xi.

It was all a setup by Xia Xi—she made Zhang Wanli think he was an undercover agent, deliberately giving Present Cypress a fake plan. To prove himself, he told the truth, which Pei Yichuan had secretly recorded on a phone he'd hidden in Jiang Tian's office beforehand, becoming the direct evidence for his conviction. Pei Yichuan had earlier come to the office looking for him, then claimed his phone had been dropped, and later produced the recording—what's not clear? His phone wasn't accidentally dropped; it was intentional.

He was utterly defeated.

Xia Xi—this woman—looks gentle and easygoing, but in action she's decisive and ruthless, leaving no loose ends.

*Having settled the Jiang Tian matter, Xia Xi took the team members who hadn't yet eaten lunch to the restaurant beside the office building, where they continued to complain about Jiang Tian.

"Amazing—I've never met someone like this in all my years."

"When he said that, I really doubted I understood Chinese. It felt like, 'Huh? What gibberish is he spouting?'"

"Hahaha, I've always thought he was weird, shamelessly weird."

Xia Xi didn't join the discussion; her appetite was average, she just ordered a salad, picking at it with a fork, spearing a halved cherry tomato and popping it into her mouth while listening to them complain.

Gao Ge glanced at her, assuming she was in a bad mood, and gave the others a look: "Don't bring that person up—it kills the appetite."

"Right, changing the subject… What are you wearing to the evening reception? I'm still attending my first event like this—hosted by the Xu Clan Group, it sounds high‑end."

"I went to the mall last night, picked out a pretty dress, spent two thousand bucks—it hurt. I've already brought it to the company, planning to change after work."

"Hey, why didn't you call me to go shopping last night?"

The conversation shifted to the evening reception, but Xia Xi remained unenthusiastic, staying silent.

Gao Ge cut into her steak, then spoke to comfort her: "Don't let that scumbag affect your mood—we won't form a bad opinion of you just because of a few remarks from him. I used to have a slight misunderstanding about you, thinking you got in through connections… so I'd often target you."

"Uh, I'm not affected by the Jiang Tian thing." Xia Xi shoved a forkful of bitter greens into her mouth, somewhat amused—how could his illogical words possibly affect her?

"Then why do you look unhappy?"

"Oh, I was wondering if I could skip the evening reception."

"……

After lunch, the group walked back and ran into Lu Mingji, who had returned from an errand, in the office lobby. He pointed at Xia Xi and said, "Fancy running into you—just a reminder: don't forget to attend the evening reception. Vice General Manager Wang of the Xu Clan said they'd like to discuss the design proposal further with you; yesterday they were pressed for time and he had some ideas he couldn't get to."

Xia Xi's expression was blank.

She had just been thinking, while eating, about what excuse to use to dodge the reception—saying she was sick, or that her two kids had been called in by the school, requiring her to go to the kindergarten.

Now none of those excuses work.

Vice General Manager Wang: "You think I said that? It was General Manager Xu! Xu Er knows Xi Xi will make excuses to get out of it—O(∩_∩)O haha~ (End of chapter)