When She Stops Being Dramatic

Jiang Zishi’s eyes lit up as he, too, grasped the brilliance of the auction idea.

He was quite experienced at reading people and knew that the combination of the investment group’s curiosity and the wealthy families’ love for flowers in the Capital City was more than enough to make an auction a success.

The pair was already lost in a wonderful daydream of a multi-win scenario: saving face, currying favor with their connections, and turning a quick profit on the resale.

Chi Yun’er lowered her gaze, asking softly in feigned confusion, "Did I ever say I don’t like flowers?"

"Since you’ve already spent the money, if you can’t bear to part with them, just say so. Why go through all that pretense just now?"

Jiang Zishi froze.

But the assistant beside him quickly interjected in broken Mandarin, "Ma’am, it’s one thing to run a business and quote exorbitant prices. But our Young Master, out of consideration for your past, didn’t haggle and even took a loss to buy these for a huge sum."

"Don’t push your luck. If there’s a bouquet you like, just keep it. Our Young Master never said he was giving *all* of them to you."

Chi Yun’er shrugged and nodded. Saying nothing more, she simply held out her hand again. "Payment for the goods!"

Jiang Zishi winced as he wrote out a check for one million Pounds.

Claiming she was afraid of being scammed, Chi Yun’er made a special trip to the post office to cash the check into RMB. Only then did she instruct her staff to load all the flowers onto a truck and have them delivered to the hotel.

She even took the responsibility of writing out five full pages of detailed care instructions for the plants.

"I must say, Comrade Chi Yun’er, now that you’ve closed such a big deal, are you just going to wash your hands of the matter?" Bian Yumin said with a light laugh. "We’re planning to sell these flowers. If you leave them in the care of laymen like us, they’ll probably wilt in a day or two."

"That’s just not acceptable, no matter where you shop."

"So, Comrade Chi Yun’er, would it be possible to hire you to look after them for a few days?"

"Rest assured, we’ll pay you well. We certainly won’t ask you to work for free."

Jiang Zishi’s heart leaped. A certain phrase popped into his head: ’Proximity breeds opportunity!’

He couldn’t resist squeezing Bian Yumin’s hand, nodding with a smile. "Ten thousand a day. How does that sound?"

Chi Yun’er stared at the pair as if they were a couple of fools.

They might as well have hung a sign on their faces that read: ’Loaded and clueless, come rip me off!’

"Alright," Chi Yun’er agreed with a nod, "but my shop can’t be left short-staffed."

Jiang Zishi looked at her, his eyes filled with contempt. ’What an airheaded beauty,’ he thought. ’It’s like she’s never seen real money before, only knows how to ask for more.’ "Twenty thousand," he said. "Besides my business, your little shop would be lucky to make seventy or eighty in a day, wouldn’t it?"

Chi Yun’er didn’t bother to argue. Her shop was busy from morning till night with a constant stream of orders. Daily revenue was already in the hundreds, and even higher on holidays.

"Payment first," she said, lazily holding out her hand once more.

The sweat on Manager Wang’s brow hadn’t stopped trickling down, and the staff with him were all staring, wide-eyed.

’So it’s true that good looks can pay the bills. In just a short while, the flower shop owner has pocketed over a million Pounds—that’s more than eight million RMB...’

’Isn’t that enough money to crush a person to death?’

’They wished they could be the ones drowning in it!’

Jiang Zishi sneered. "Pay her for ten days."

With another two hundred thousand in hand, Chi Yun’er marveled inwardly. ’Mr. Guan must have paid the shop a visit today.’

After leaving the address, Jiang Zishi and his entourage finally departed.

Jiang Yihua, drenched in sweat, rushed over in his car. The moment he saw Chi Yun’er, he looked her up and down. "Jiang Zishi was here?"

Chi Yun’er chuckled and nodded, not at all surprised that he had figured out it was Jiang Zishi from just a few scraps of information in a neighbor’s phone call.

Her eyes crinkled into sparkling crescents as she smiled, and she animatedly recounted the recent events, gesturing wildly.

"Jiang Zishi’s obsession with face is getting worse and worse. Tsk, tsk. Over a million Pounds, just like that. If his father found out, he’d probably be angry enough to cough up blood and die on the spot, wouldn’t he?"

No fortune, no matter how vast, could survive being squandered by such a ruinous son.

Jiang Yihua breathed a small sigh of relief and chuckled. "He finally gets his chance to return home in splendor. You have to let him put on a brave front, don’t you?"

"He’s planning to hold an auction?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Chi Yun’er nodded. "I have good ears. I heard Bian Yumin giving Jiang Zishi the idea."

"Their asking us to keep caring for the flowers must be in preparation for that auction, right?"

Jiang Yihua gently rubbed her hand. "Do you want to hold an auction, too?"

"Mhm," Chi Yun’er’s eyes sparkled. "Brother Hua, you still know me best."

"But I was thinking... it would be best to have the organization sponsor a large-scale flower festival or auction. This is a golden opportunity. We can’t let Jiang Zishi be the one to snatch it up."