“Call the police, and don’t let him leave the premises!”

  Shen Qingyan seemed to be perpetually smiling, but her response was harsh and swift, and she acted decisively. Her inscrutable and unpredictable nature made her someone to reckon with, and it was never wise to take such a person lightly.

  “Yes, Miss Shen.”

  The tall woman responded and promptly made the call to the police from her handphone.

  Guan Tong was ashen-faced, and he plopped on the floor, trembling—he had just dug a pit to start a fire and then jumped into it.

  “Hold on!”

  Xiao Luo called out to the tall lady as he strode toward her. When she looked up at him, he suddenly seized her phone and canceled the call before handing it back. Guan Tong and he had been university classmates, and he couldn’t just watch as his friend wallowed neck-deep in trouble. Xiao Luo then turned around to Shen Qingyan and said, “Miss Shen, he didn’t intend to trouble your organization. I think there’s no need to make such a big fuss over it.”

  Shen Qingyan raised her eyebrows and sat down once again. She began playing with her pen as she asked, “Do you know him?”

  “Yes,” Xiao Luo answered.

  “What’s your relationship?”

  “A classmate and a friend.”

  “Oohhhh…… I see.”

  Shen Qingyan nodded, dragging her voice slyly as she raised a corner of her mouth to form a mocking smile.

  Xiao Luo had said certain things that she couldn’t agree with, and he even dared to grab the phone from her assistant. Now was her opportunity to strike back, and she relished the chance.

  She smiled playfully and said, “So, you want me to let him go?”

  Xiao Luo didn’t answer but only gave her a slight nod.

  “Very well then, if you can impress me and land the sales consultant job, I will not hold him accountable,” Shen Qingyan said.

  Xiao Luo frowned as things just got more complicated. His plan to merely go through the motions had now gone awry, and this sudden turn of events had caught him off-guard.

  Guan Tong jumped off the floor and ran to Xiao Luo, holding his hands with a woeful look. “Xiao Luo, please help me, you must help me, although my parents have some money, it’s certainly much less than 5 million. If I’m required to pay the compensation, my family will lose everything we have,” he pleaded in tears. This time, he had indeed gone overboard and gotten himself into quite a predicament. Shen Qingyan didn’t look like the type to forgive, and she sounded dead serious.

  \r \r \r

  “I’ll try my best.”

  Xiao Luo tried to console his friend though he didn’t quite know what he should do. It was only a while ago that he had thought how cool Guan Tong’s little ruse was, but now, he was somewhat speechless with how things had turned out.

  Then, something else occurred to him. If Su Li could set an interview for him at Huayao Corporation, she could very well arrange for more interviews with other companies. For every day he didn’t have a job, he would know no peace. Perhaps it wasn’t such a bad idea to land the sales consultant job here after all, and it did seem there wouldn’t be much for him to do anyway.

  Shen Qingyan was enjoying every moment of watching Xiao Luo grapple with the situation and found it thoroughly amusing. She had decided to teach him a good lesson for daring to look down on her company, or her surname wasn’t Shen, she told herself.

  She coughed dryly and said, “You don’t need to try your best, Xiao Luo. As far as I’m concerned, you don’t qualify. This job is not for you.”

  “Well, I think it is,” Xiao Luo said, shaking his head and giving her a wry smile.

  “Oh? Do you think you have some special qualities that could impress me and land you the job?” Shen Qingyan sneered as she took a sip of tea.

  Xiao Luo didn’t respond to her, but nodded his head, looking smug.

  Shen Qingyan was amused. “You are pretty confident about yourself, aren’t you? I want to know where your confidence came from?” she said.

  “From her.”

  “Her?”

  Xiao Luo said, “Yes, her. Before I came, she would’ve already spoken to you about it, and you’ve probably promised her that no matter how bad my performance turned out to be, you’ll make an exception and hire me. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have personally conducted this interview, am I right?” He spoke matter-of-factly, neither humbly nor overbearingly.

  As soon as Xiao Luo uttered those words, both the tall woman and Guan Tong looked at him in total shock. They immediately realized that there was more to this man than met the eye, and his status suddenly took on a whole new level.

  As much as she tried to suppress it, Shen Qingyan’s expression changed instantly. If she had a word to describe him, it would be—despicable! How could he even imply that Su Li had spoken to her? What kind of a man was he to even say such a thing?

  Xiao Luo continued, “You and she are the best of friends, and you will do whatever you can to help her. Undoubtedly, I am to be one of your company’s sales consultants. Miss Shen, I don’t think there’s a need to continue this charade, what do you say?”

  “Marche à l’ombre! (Walk in the shade!)”

  Shen Qingyan jumped to her feet, pounding the table and rebuked Xiao Luo in French, angrily pointing her finger at him. She had alluded to Xiao Luo not to get too cocky and to stay out of the limelight. She couldn’t contain herself and had never known such a shameless man before.

  Playing on her phrase, Xiao Luo replied in French, “Je suis désolé, il n’y a pas d’arbres ici (I’m sorry, there are no trees here!)”

  Huh?”

  Shen Qingyan was taken aback as she didn’t expect that Xiao Luo could speak French.

  Not to be outdone, she continued speaking in French, “It is regrettable when a man lacks knowledge and knows not self-restraint, and you, Sir, fit the description of such a miserable man.”

  “I know not if I can be considered to be such a miserable man, but I do know that I’m a person who loves to think. Honoré de Balzac once said that ‘men of thought believe in a divine providence,’ therefore I’d surmise that a person who can think is a person with limitless strength,” Xiao Luo responded.

  Shen Qingyan was stunned after hearing Xiao Luo’s articulate riposte in French. She had studied for more than two years to have acquired such proficiency in the French language, yet, Xiao Luo, a country bumpkin as far as she knew, had just conversed with her like he was a native speaker.

  She wouldn’t have been so surprised if he had just spoken English, but French? Was French the foreign language that he studied during university?

  Shen Qingyan refused to accept defeat. She uttered in Russian, “пошелнахуй, сыншлюхи!”

  Xiao Luo’s eyebrows furrowed deeply because the sentence meant: f**k you, son of a wh*re.

  He thought that it was unbecoming of a woman of culture to utter such that such obscenities.

  “Miss Shen, please respect yourself,” Xiao Luo responded in fluent Russian.

  What, he knows Russian as well?!

  Shen Qingyan was speechless. She was already surprised that Xiao Luo could speak French, but now, she was aghast that he knew what she had said in Russian. Exactly who was this man?

  Shen Qingyan blushed a bright crimson, and as strong-minded as she was, right now, all she wanted to do was find a hole and stick her head in it. Fortunately, only Xiao Luo understood what she had said, and that was a slight relief.

  The tall lady and Guan Tong were dumbfounded. Although they could not understand the banter between Xiao Luo and Shen Qingyan, they knew enough to recognize that two foreign languages had been spoken, and the speakers both seemed very fluent in them; even their accent sounded like foreigners.

  Guan Tong gawked as he wondered how much more talents Xiao Luo still had hidden in the closet.

  CLAP…… CLAP…… CLAP

  Shen Qingyan stood up and applauded, looking at Xiao Luo with admiration. “A talent…… what a talent, I’ve wholly misjudged you!”

  Oh no, that’s the same thing she said to me!

  Guan Tong’s heart thumped rapidly.

  As he had expected, Shen Qingyan’s tone changed, and she said, “However, even though you’re very talented in languages, you still did not impress me.”

  “At times, it pays to humble oneself, for bountiful is the inheritance of the meek. Hence, never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you,” Xiao Luo replied, this time he spoke in the Queen’s English.

  Shen Qingyan was startled as she immediately knew that Xiao Luo was referring to Su Li. Xiao Luo was insinuating that if she went overboard, he would no longer play along, and she would be hard-pressed to answer to Su Li.

  What a shameless guy!

  Shen Qingyan was exasperated and once again felt a tightness to her chest. Xiao Luo had run circles around her leaving her no room to articulate a suitable response.

  BAM!

  Suddenly, the office door swung open loudly, jolting everyone in the room, except Xiao Luo. ……