"Li Da Zhan?!" Chen Rou Jiao having goosebumps upon seeing the man in front of him. Her mouth half opened and her almond eyes widened as if she seeing ghost.
Li Da Zhan had the same expression as her. But he tried to control how shocked he was. Knowing the girl he kept wanting to see was here. Standing so close to him, in fact was facing him right now. Although her body languages and her reaction was not very welcoming.
He heard from Yu Yao about the evil chief manager. Her scary personality. However, when President Zhang told him a few minutes ago, on their way to this dining room, about the same chief manager who managed to save Flamingo Ltd. from it doom. Li Da Zhan believe no such evil person capable to save other than herself. But he never thought the chief manager was the Chen Rou Jiao.
Li Da Zhan pushed himself to smile. They were in such awkward situation right now, plus their farewell was not pleasant enough to be reminisced so a small gesture might ease the tense between them.
"Long time no see, Miss Chen Rou Jiao."
Chen Rou Jiao hesitated at first but she acted calm in frontof Presdient Zhang and CEO Zhang. She nodded once. "Mn."
"So. You two knew each other?" President Zhang asked after noticed the casual interaction between them. He knew nothing that they were in awkward circumstance.
Chen Rou Jiao quickly turned her head to the president who was a bit taller than her. In the room with taller young men, President Zhang's height was considerable bearable for her.
"Er.. we.."
"We went to the same college years ago." Li Da Zhan immediately answered the question. Chen Rou Jiao shot a glare at Li Da Zhan, wondering he dare to said like that?
"Is he wanted to mock me?" she heart whispered.
"Aaa... no wonder. No wonder." President Zhang nodded. "Must be nice to meet the old friends." he said calmly.
"We were not so close actually. Only meet him few times. After all, we take different course." Chen Rou Jiao spontaneously reacted before Li Da Zhan dare to interfere again and talked nonsense.
In her memory, other than meeting through the various charity they both participated during the college days, there was nothing connecting them. Well other than the painful moments happened between them, they absolutely not close enough to be even friends.
She looked at Li Da Zhan again. That man seems not opposed it, as the matter of fact, he nodded. So she was hope they were in the same page only for this time.
President Zhang snorted. "No need to be so overreact, Miss Chen. I am glad you two knew each other. So there won't be any problem to work together in the future." President Zhang gave assured her.
"Working with each.. other?" She blink.
"Of course. What is the point of his presence here if not for you to work together?" President Zhang loked at his son. Zhang Ren Hao's poker face confused him. "Ren Hao didn't tell you about this?"
Chen Rou Jiao looked dumbfounded. She wanted to slap herself right now. How come she got so distracted till she forgot the main point of coming here.
"He did tell me, sir. I am at fault here."
Pesident Zhang shook his head. "Are you too carried away by meeting him, until you forget everything?" he snorted.
Chen Rou Jiao looked unbelievable at the old president, wanted to replied to that, her mouth was ready to deny the unrooted accusation but her voice was like stucked at her throat.
She did thinking about the past, about Li Da Zhan, but there's no way she would admit that. If she did, that man in front of her would think she hadn't move on and will mocked her. At last, she just grinned shyly, then lowered her gazed.
"Yes Mr. Li. This the owner of Flamingo Ltd.. My son, Zhang Ren Hao." He gestures his palm to his son, then turned to him, "Ren Hao,.."
"No need to intorduce him anymore, I get it." CEO Zhang said coldly. He gazed upon Li Da Zhan, smile slightly while streached ou this hands.
Li Da Zhan shaking hands with CEO Zhang.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Li."
"Yes. Nice to meet you too, Mr. Zhang." They released each other hands.
"Let's have a seat everyone." President Zhang offered to them due to the fact they already stood there for some times now. The other three obeyed.
Li Da Zhan took his place, while Chen Rou Jiao sat on his left, with a chair in between them. CEO Zhang comfortably sat acrossed her, with his father.
"Okay then. Before the dishes arrived, you three can talked about the project first. As I told CEO Zhang before, Mr. Li has a resort project at the beach here. More about it, you two can ask Mr. Li."
Chen Rou Jiao nodded with President Zhang opening. She had to be professional this time. Let's the past stayed aside, her career should be the priorities right now. So she took out her tablet, moved her body, to face Li Da Zhan.
"I heard the original interior designer ran away with the money you paid him. Is it true?"
The sarcastic question came from CEO Zhang's mouth. Thanks to his ignorant behaviour, never thinking about others' feelings, President Zhang and Chen Rou Jiao stupefied with the news. Meanwhile Li Da Zhan just sneered helplessly. Chen Rou Jiao also froze in her place, click her tongue looking at her boss's behaviour.
"Well, words travelled fast nowadays." Li Da Zhan scoffed weakly hearing that. It was true, but he did not mention it to President Zhang or Chairman Bai before. For him, saying it out loud just like humiliated his pride.
CEO Zhang sneered. He leaned to the chair, hands clasped together on the table. "Well, those things are very common in this field."
President Zhang shocked. He elaned forward, with worried expression all over his face. "Why you did not tell me earlier? We can do something about that."
Li Da Zhan turned to the old president, a weak and awkward smile on his pale face, "I already take action to track him down, no need to worry about that, President Zhang."
Hearing that, President Zhang could calm himself. "Good then."
Chen Rou Jiao took a glance towards Li Da Zhan. The sight of sadness and acceptance on his face after what had happened to him was new for her. She always knew him by the way he hate her, wanted to destroy her life, but this kind of expression made him kind of a new person she never met - and she had mixed feelings between pity of him and did not care anything about the person who gave her pain for so long.
"No matter what, my team can do our best to help you, Mr. Li." CEO Zhang immediately reprimand his words earlier with a promise.
At first, they talked simple details about Li Da Zhan's project. Where the location of each rooms, the space of the rooms, and the theme. Each of them played an important role to create the perfect design. Every single details was taken into count no matter how lame the demand was. CEO Zhang and Chen Rou Jiao took turns to ask those questions without overshadowed each other. Every information, Chen Rou Jiao jotted it down on her tablet, for future used.
As a prepared client, as he had went through all these process all the time, Li Da Zhan answered each questions calmly. He showed the design of the room in his tablet to Chen Rou Jiao and CEO Zhang.
Li Da Zhan glad he was introduced with Flamingo Ltd. Not just the dedication they gave, also their hospitality was on another level. He was almost lost hope because of the designing incident, and the rumors he heard from Yu Yao.
Their meeting finished at the time their lunch arrived. Chen Rou Jiao put aside her tablet to give space for the variety dishes ordered by President Zhang. They started to dig in while chattering.
"How long you will stay in City B?" President Zhang asked to Li Da Zhan.
"Only for today. But I will came here again when CEO Zhang and Miss Chen wanted to visit the site."
"I get it." President Zhang nodded twice. He saw Chen Rou Jiao enjoyed the dishes happily. He smirked with the cute reaction.
"Each a lot, 'kay, Miss Chen?"
Chen Rou Jiao nodded politely. She took another slice of fry fish with spicy oil into her bowl and ate it with rice. The fragrance of the delicacy made her smiled happily while eating it.
Li Da Zhan also happy watching her eating until he didn't touch his food at all. She was so beautiful in his eyes- and he only realised now. She of course had change to more elegance then the lively girl she once was, however, in his eyes, Chen Rou Jiao was the best. He thought about what Yu Yao told him.
Is it true Chen Rou Jiao was the evil person? With that kind of look?
"No way." he whispered to himself. Though he did noticed something off about her but it was not shocking at all. Years and experiences, change people, so did he. So did Chen Rou Jiao.
Only when Chen Rou Jiao spotted him watching her, he quickly looked away, focus on his meal, before their eyes met.
Unbeknown by Li Da Zhan, his actions was caught red-handed by CEO Zhang who apparently watched everything right from the start. He smirked but no one knew what the young CEO had in mind.