茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

“After Zhang Qian said those words, Xiang Kun immediately started to introspect:

Did he unintentionally use “Emotional Assimilation”?

No, he didn’t!

Did he unintentionally use any abilities that could affect the mind or mood?

No, not at all!

Ever since he had unintentionally used ‘Emotional Assimilation” in Chongyun Village and significantly affected the deputy village chief, Liu Caifu, Xiang Kun had been extremely cautious about this kind of situation. He consciously restrained his emotions to avoid any uncontrollable effects.

After Director Lin and Assistant Chen left, Zhang Qian immediately asked: “Do you have that paper with you from last time?”

Xiang Kun was confused: “Shouldn’t we be discussing the project issue we just talked about?”

“As long as you tell me how you did that trick with the A4 paper last time, I can make Director Lin stay and sign a contract with you tomorrow.” Zhang Qian said as she stared at him.

“Wait, are you trusting such a big project with me? And I’m not even based in Pengcheng!” Xiang Kun reminded, “For such professional matters, I think you should let the professionals decide.”

Zhang Qian laughed: “Why do I feel like you are more afraid of the project getting messed up than I am? Your idea is clear enough, just like constructing a building. You provide the blueprint and build the foundation, and then we get a construction team to build the rest.”

She tapped lightly on the table with her finger and continued: “I know Director Lin’s judgement. Since he values you, your abilities should be capable enough. Plus, before you came, he told me a little bit about you, and how you had performed at his classmate’s company for seven years. But I didn’t expect the person his was talking about to be you…”

“But Director Lin may not agree with the terms I proposed.” Xiang Kun said.

“He might not, but I will.” Zhang Qian paused for a brief moment, then smiled: “If I understand correctly, with this approach, the cost should be lower than other methods, right?”

Xiang Kun frowned: “That’s not certain. It depends on the development time, the collaborating team we would find later, and there are also maintenance issues for the future.”

“That’s fine. We can just find you when the time comes, you are not running away.”

“But I’m not in Pengcheng.”

“With today’s technology, even surgeries can be performed remotely, let alone software development?” Zhang Qian said, unconcerned.

Xiang Kun began to understand that for this project, she mainly wanted two things: to save costs and to speed up the process. As for how the final result turned out, she didn’t seem to care.

There might be deeper reasons for this, but Xiang Kun didn’t know, nor did he want to know; it didn’t matter to him anyway.

“Since that’s the case, then I have no issue.” If someone was willing to pay him to try, why would he reject it? At the contract signing, he would clarify his working conditions and methods, if they disagreed, there wouldn’t be a contract at all.

Yet Zhang Qian returned to the original topic: “But you have to tell me first how you did that magic trick with the A/+ paper at the bar last time?”

“Nope.” Xiang Kun answered without hesitation.

Through collecting data on Zhang Qian’s physical reactions, Xiang Kun found that she seemed much more interested in the thing with the paper than the project itself.

Zhang Qian suggested: “Or you could just perform it again, right here. What props do you need? Shall I ask the waiter to bring some paper?”

“I can’t perform it. It only works with my paper.” Xiang Kun said regretfully:

“Unfortunately, my paper has ‘left’, so you can’t see its ‘performance’ anymore.”

Of course, Zhang Qian didn’t believe this, and jokingly said: ‘Why are you being so petty? I’m offering you such a big business deal, just asking you to perform a small magic trick. You’ve performed it before, haven’t you? Isn’t the saying that the client is ‘daddy’?”

Xiang Kun shrugged: “It’s not that I don’t want to, I just can’t. I really can’t perform it now. If you feel that we can’t cooperate because of this, then there’s nothing I can do. I’m not a magician after all.”

Zhang Qian looked at him with a scrutinizing gaze for a moment and then asked: ‘You’ve had fight training, haven’t you?”

“No.” Xiang Kun answered without hesitation again. However, he instantly reached a conclusion in his mind: She must have seen that online clip of the three bald guys comparing video footage, and knew that it was him in the previous viral video where he was drop-kicking a thug.

Sure enough, Zhang Qian instantly pulled out her mobile phone, found a video, and played it for him: “This person is you, right? You dared to directly kick a knife-wielding thug and then knock him down with one punch. Are you telling me you’ve never trained before?”

Xiang Kun glanced at the video quality and recalled Zhang Qian’s gestures as she looked for the video on her phone, and also her phone’s app arrangement which he had glimpsed earlier, concluding that she must’ve found the video in her WeChat chat history. Therefore, it’s likely she discussed this video with someone on WeChat before.

“At the moment, my brain just heated up, I didn’t think too much. Afterwards, I was scared.” Xiang Kun didn’t deny that he was the person in the video. If Zhang Qian could confirm that it was him, she must have seen the analysis of his cooking video online. Therefore, denying it was pointless.

“I know there’s a boxing gym around here, if you spar with me, I’ll get Director Lin to sign a contract with you, what do you say? Our weight difference is so substantial, even if you haven’t trained in martial arts before, you shouldn’t be afraid, right?” Zhang Qian added.

Xiang Kun shook his head: “No, I am afraid.”

Zhang Qian leaned back into her chair, folding her arms, her brows slightly furrowed as she observed him: “I find it a little odd, you don’t seem very keen on cooperating either. According to Director Lin, your previous company shut down in July, right? It’s already November now, but it seems you haven’t been looking for a job during this period?”

“I think we have nothing further to discuss. If you want to cooperate, let Director Lin contact me. I will discuss the specific terms with him. Otherwise, let’s forget it.” Saying this, Xiang Kun stood up, ready to leave.

Zhang Qian was slightly surprised by his decisiveness. After hesitating for a while, she asked, ‘Why don’t you tell me how you figured out back at the bar which school Xiao Jie attends, and both our star signs? Even what we had for dinner? Did you investigate us in advance? Don’t tell me it was fortune telling, I don’t believe in that.”

Xiang Kun, who was nearing the door, stopped, turned around and said, “Actually, it’s simple. Because I didn’t deduce or guess, I saw and heard.” “Oh? How so?” Zhang Qian asked, sitting upright.

Xiang Kun of course wouldn’t tell her about his actual “observation” process then. He just said, “Before my friend approached you guys, I overheard you talking about how ‘last month’s birthday party went like this’ and I heard Yang Jie saying ‘you have to come to my birthday party next month’ when I returned from the bathroom. Once I knew your birthday months, it was easy to guess your star signs—a cheerful, sporty girl was likely a Leo and a studious girl probably a Scorpio. Anyway, it wasn’t like if I guessed wrong, I’d lose money…”

Zhang Qian was somewhat taken aback. She didn’t expect that Xiang Kun would glean their birth months during a trip to the restroom. But when she recalled their conversation at that time, it roughly seemed to match. She had talked about her birthday party last month, and after a while, Yang Jie mentioned inviting her to dinner for her birth month. Would she have noticed a bald guy passing by them? Plus, her back was to Xiang Kun and his friends.

“And Yang Jie’s university…”

“Judging by her appearance and dressing style, she looked like a student, but not exactly a freshman, so I guessed she was likely a postgraduate student. At that time, most people in the bar were probably from ** University nearby. Anyway, there’s no penalty if I guess wrong…”

“How could you guess we had hotpot for dinner?”

“You had your dinner at Jiugongge Hotpot on that street, didn’t you?” As Xiang Kun said this, he observed Zhang Qian’s micro-expressions and physical reactions. After obtaining a positive response, he continued, “Actually, we saw you guys when you were having dinner.”

Zhang Qian had a look of realization, indeed, it all made perfect sense now.

Reflecting on the outcome and compiling a comprehensible reasoning process wasn’t difficult, much like how Xiang Kun had previously explained to Yang Jie in the bar how he figured that her male companion was her younger brother.

“Director Lin will contact you tomorrow.” Zhang Qian said at last.

Soon after Xiang Kun left the private room, Zhang Qian picked up her phone and chatted with someone on WeChat for a while, before dialing Yang Jie’s number directly.

“Guess who I just met.” Zhang Qian’s voice was somewhat excited, completely lacking the composure she had earlier in front of her subordinates and Xiang Kun.

“Considering you’re so excited to call me directly, did you meet Lord Voldemort himself?” Yang Jie still carried her teasing tone.

“No, it’s Baldy Xiang Kun!” Without bothering to banter with Yang Jie, Zhang Qian immediately said, “Director Lin found someone here to lead an online project, and when we met him tonight… it turned out to be Xiang Kun!”

Yang Jie was stunned on the other side of the phone. After her chance encounter with Xiang Kun at the bar, they had chatted about him multiple times on WeChat over this period.

From the cooking video that circulated on the internet, to the subsequent photos and kicking video shown to be the same person, they had discussed all of them on WeChat.

And every time, they couldn’t help discussing that A4 paper “magic” trick that Xiang Kun performed at the bar that day, and how he and that chubby guy knew so much about them, even figuring out what they had for dinner.

“What a coincidence, huh?!” Yang Jie couldn’t help but exclaim.

“Indeed, it is a coincidence. But do you know what’s even more of a coincidence?” asked Zhang Qian.

“You’re actually long-lost half-siblings of the same father but different mothers? Oh wait, brother and sister?”

“Stop!” Zhang Qian couldn’t help but roll her eyes, continuing, “Before I met Xiang Kun, when Director Lin was describing this person to me, I had some suspicions. After he left, I confirmed it with my mom on WeChat.. Do you remember what I told you about how, not long before I returned to China, two naughty kids in my uncle’s family nearly got kidnapped by human traffickers?”