CH 45

Shi Yunnan had just sent Luo Lingsheng off after breakfast when he received a WeChat message from Lu Zhao’an—

The other party invited him to the Yuan Jade Design Studio at 3:00 p.m., saying that there was something very important to announce.

Shi Yunnan calculated the time a little, and happily agreed.

He had just finished the design draft of the first edition, and he needed to discuss the details with Lu Zhao’an and the polishing master of the jade factory.

Shi Yunnan arrived at Yuan Design Studio at 2:45 p.m. at Linglong Market. He was just about to take the elevator upstairs when he heard a request from the door, “Hey! Please wait!“

Shi Yunnan recognized the owner of the voice and pressed the “open door” button immediately.

At the same time, Yuan Rui sidled in, “Thank…”

He met Shi Yunnan’s familiar face, and half-heartedly said the word “thank you” with an inexplicable blush on his face.

Shi Yunnan said, “Yuan Rui, why are you shy?”

“Nonsense! How can I be shy?” Yuan Rui denied it.

Then he stammered, “That, that night on the rooftop of the hotel, I, I’ve troubled you.”

“I don’t mind.”

“But someone suddenly dirty my clothes like a crybaby, it’s tens of thousands,” Shi Yunnan teased.

“I’ll pay you back!” Yuan Rui responded quickly, and suddenly remembered something embarrassing to add, “When I get paid, I’ll definitely save the money to pay you back as soon as possible.”

The two can be regarded as “no fight, no acquaintance.” After getting along so many times, Yuan Rui’s inherent bad impression of Shi Yunnan has disappeared. On the contrary, he felt that the other party was a pretty good person.

It’s a pity that the relationship between Xie Keyue and Shi Yunnan wasn’t good, otherwise Yuan Rui really wanted to become friends with him.

Shi Yunnan pressed the elevator floor button, “Did Master Yuan agree to let you participate in the jade design?”

“Yes.”

Yuan Rui responded, and his eyes showed a rare glint of excitement and satisfaction.

Last night, Yuan Puguang and Yuan Rui, the father and son, reached an unprecedented reconciliation, and the other party agreed to let him participate in the Yuan Jade Design Work.

However, in order to prevent Yuan Rui from fooling around again, Yuan Puguang still froze his bank card and asked him to only use his “hard work” in exchange for wages.

Yuan Puguang, who had always scolded himself for being useless, finally gave him other jobs besides jade carving, and it was the jade design he had chosen before!

Therefore, Yuan Rui agreed to this condition without a second thought.

He was so excited that he couldn’t sleep all night. After learning that the meeting was going to be held at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, he hurriedly rushed to the vicinity and waited after a casual meal at noon.

In order not to let others see his excitement, Yuan Rui deliberately waited until just now before stepping into the building where Yuan Jade Studio was located, only to meet Shi Yunnan.

Shi Yunnan pretended not to see his excitement, but it was difficult to refrain from teasing him, “Young Master Yuan, fighting.”

“Of, of course.”

Yuan Rui was afraid that he would be exposed, so he coughed twice deliberately.

The elevator door opened in response to the sound.

Lu Zhao’an rented the whole floor as an independent jade design studio. As soon as he got out of the elevator, he could see the office lobby inside the transparent glass.

Seeing Lu Zhao’an’s tall and slender figure, Yuan Rui subconsciously paused, “Shi Yunnan.”

“What’s wrong?” Shi Yunnan, who was walking in front, turned around and asked.

Yuan Rui glanced at Lu Zhao’an again from the corner of his eye, and then covered his mouth, “I was drunk that day and said a lot of things. Can you… help me keep it secret? At least don’t let my family know.“

Yuan Rui approached him and begged in a rare soft voice, “Please consider that I owe you a favor. I will pay back next time!“

Shi Yunnan was keenly aware of what had happened, and raised his eyebrows, “Don’t worry. I don’t like to get involved in other people’s businesses. I already forgot what you said that night.“

The second half of the sentence was obviously deliberately said to Yuan Rui.

Yuan Rui breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Thank you.”

If nothing else, just based on his understanding of Shi Yunnan two or three times, his words can be completely trusted.

Shi Yunnan hooked his lips with a funny smile. He found that this guy, Yuan Rui, liked to say “thank-you” to him more and more. He was completely different from their first meeting; he was almost like a model civilized person.

“Alright, let’s go in.”

Shi Yunnan said these words and entered the studio first.

Yuan Rui stayed in the same place for a few seconds and saw Lu Zhao’an and other designers in the studio through the glass. This was the first time he was full of enthusiasm since he gave up jade carving.

See!

It turned out he still had a chance to be involved in his own family’s business, and still had a chance to be side by side with that person.

Yuan Rui suppressed the smile at the corner of his mouth and stepped into the design studio with a serious look.

…

In addition to inviting Shi Yunnan and Yuan to collaborate on the design, Lu Zhao’an also invited six other designers, three men and three women, half of whom were young, up-and-coming designers, and the other half were experienced designers.

This was the first time Shi Yunnan had met with other design colleagues. In addition to being polite, they also carried secret gazes.

Seeing Yuan Rui, who arrived at the studio on time, Lu Zhao’an breathed a sigh of relief before he opened his mouth as the “leader”, “Since everyone is here, why don’t we take a seat in the conference room?”

“I have three announcements to make today, but they shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.”

“Okay,” “no problem.”

Shi Yunnan heard other people’s responses and silently followed them at the end. He actually doesn’t like dealing with a bunch of strangers, except when necessary. As soon as he entered the conference room, he heard Lu Zhao’an’s voice, “Mr. Shi, why don’t you sit here?”

Lu Zhao’an was referring to the second seat in the conference room.

It was just an ordinary position, but in the eyes of other designers, it represented the “second best seat” in the design studio.

Yang Sen, one of the designers, had just pulled the second chair when he heard these words. He kept his face calm and took half a step back to give way to Shi Yunnan, “Please.”

Soon, Yang Sen sat in the vacant seat nearby while looking at Shi Yunnan’s unfamiliar face in a low-key manner.

He had been in the jade design circle for fifteen years, and had never heard of the name “Shi Yunnan” before.

Compared with others, Yang Sen should be the leader of Yuan Jade Studio in terms of seniority and actual performance.

Yet, with Lu Zhao’an in charge, he was replaced by a little-known Shi Yunnan. It was false to say that there was no dissatisfaction.

Shi Yunnan pretended not to see Yang Sen’s scrutiny and just took it easy. After all, he was not lacking in strength.

Lu Zhao’an wasn’t one to make polite speeches. After a simple opening remark and the introduction of the designers’ names, he immediately cut to the chase.

“Today, I mainly want to announce three important things on behalf of the Yuan family—”

“Although there is a lot of freedom in the contract signed by Yuan and everyone here, when all is said and done, there must be a chief designer to facilitate the occasional communication between everyone after the studio is opened.“

When the crowd heard this, they nodded.

“This is the first point.” Lu Zhao’an aimed his gaze at Shi Yunnan and calmly spoke up, “The Yuan family decided to let Mr. Shi Yunnan temporarily take over this position. Mr. Shi and everyone present, what do you think?“

Shi Yunnan raised his eyebrows in surprise. Until half a minute ago, he didn’t even know that Lu Zhao’an and the Yuan family had such thoughts.

Before Shi Yunnan, the person in question, could make a statement, the other six designers present quietly discussed among themselves.

In the end, it was Yang Sen who spoke on behalf of the group, “Please forgive my ignorance. I wonder what Mr. Shi’s previous masterpieces are? Do you have any contacts in the jade circle or auction houses? “

The Yuan jade design takes two routes—

One was the new, popularized route, and the other was the luxury, high-end route.

The former relied on online and offline shop promotion, while the latter relied more on auction houses or distinguished personages’ connections to sell.

Shi Yunnan smiled slightly and said, “I have lived abroad before, and mostly engaged in diamond jewelry design. Speaking of domestic masterpieces, I’m sorry, but there really are none for the time being.“

His tone was neither arrogant nor humble, inviting more questions from the onlookers.

Shi Yunnan didn’t think the position of “Chief Designer” was that important.

After all, the person responsible only needed to come forward when there were problems with the designs. The cooperation agreements signed by all the designers present were equal.

“Mr. Shi is too modest. Lou’s appearance design is quite famous in the circle.” Lu Zhao’an added a sentence for Shi Yunnan.

Of course, about Shi Yunnan’s true wealthy identity, he did not deliberately disclose it to outsiders.

Once Lu Zhao’an added that sentence, Yang Sen and the other designers subsided a little.

After all, Lou’s design involving jade beads had attracted a wave of popularity a while ago, and even caused many of those in the same industries to follow suit.

As jade designers, they had obviously heard of it.

But Shi Yunnan looks so young, a successful design is at most good luck! How can it represent his full strength?

This is too sloppy!

The other six designers didn’t quite agree, but they wanted to appear as good guys with good tempers, so none of them were willing to be the first to speak out against it.

Lu Zhao’an continued to ask, “Mr. Shi, what do you think?”

Shi Yunnan could feel the secret “contempt” gathered from the surroundings and suddenly thought that this position is free anyway, so why not take it?

He slightly hooked his lips, “Thank you everyone. I can accept it.”

Shi Yunnan never denied that he had bad bones inside him—

The more others show dissatisfaction or malice towards him, the more he has to secretly fight for a win or loss.

What’s the saying? He just likes to see those who can’t stand him also unable to fight him.

As soon as his voice fell, there was a loud support in the conference room—

“I have no opinion!”

Everyone looked towards the source of the sound, only to find that Yuan Rui, who was sitting at the end, made a sound excitedly.

Yuan Rui met Shi Yunan’s gaze and half-heartedly applauded to show his sincerity, completely ignoring the doubts and displeasure in the eyes of the other designers.

He only knew Shi Yunnan as the designer of the whole audience. From the level of familiarity, he would definitely choose the other party!

“Mr. Lu, who is this?” Another young designer asked.

Lu Zhao’an replied, “This is the second thing I want to tell you. From today, Yuan Rui will take over my position and become the core person in charge of Yuan Jade Design Studio.“

This is the result that he and Yuan Puguang negotiated unanimously.

As soon as everyone heard Yuan Rui’s surname, they understood the identity of the other party, and they immediately had no opinion.

“Please rest assured that the content of the contract signed before remains the same. You are responsible for providing the design draft, and Yuan is responsible for providing the materials and processing. The subsequent profits will be divided according to the contract.“

“Both Yuan Rui and I are responsible for all matters after the design. It won’t affect your design performance.“

“Of course, I still hope that all of your designs abide by this standard line of originality. In addition, if you encounter any unnecessary troubles in the future, the Yuan family and Mr. Shi will come forward to solve them for you.“

When Yang Sen and the others heard this, they had to acquiesce to the first two points. After all, this “design business” is really not a loss for them.

Among all the crowd, only Shi Yunnan noticed something was wrong. His eyes were swept over with doubt, “Mr. Lu, did you just say that Yuan Rui would take your position? Instead of assisting?“

“Then what about you?“

Following this question, the audience unconsciously reacted.

Yuan Rui, who was sitting at the end, was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously aimed his gaze at Lu Zhao’an in the main seat.

Lu Zhao’an was silent for a moment, then calmly said, “This is the third thing I want to say. From now on, I will withdraw from Yuan Jade Studio as well as Yuan management. I hope everyone can abide by the previous agreement and work hand in hand with the Yuan family.“

“…..”

For a while, everyone was silent.

Shi Yunnan glanced at Yuan Rui at the end, and saw the smile on the corner of his mouth freeze instantly.

Shi Yunnan turned his gaze back to Lu Zhao’an’s face again, and realized within two seconds—

That explains why, in the original novel of his dream, no matter how well Yuan Rui and Xie Keyue did in the field of jade design and sales, Lu Zhao’an never appeared.

It turned out that before everything officially started, Lu Zhao’an chose to quit voluntarily?