As the bodyguards scattered to locate the occupied vehicle, a car drove away hastily at high speed.“Did anyone see it clearly?” Sheng Jiaoyang asked.
“No,” came everyone"s reply.
Sheng Jiaoyang looked at the poor guy on the ground. “We can only ask him now.”
“Let me!” Rita was itching to do it.
After getting surrounded and hearing Rita"s words, the young man shuddered and curled up even tighter.
Rita stepped on the poor guy and asked, “Who sent you here? Who are you going after?”
“Tell me!” She exerted pressure with her leg, and a crack could be heard, followed by a shriek from the poor guy.
The others felt a cold, chilly breeze brush past them. Even Sheng Jiaoyang"s bodyguards were looking at Rita in surprise, after witnessing the amount of strength she had.
Under Rita"s extremely inhuman questioning, the poor guy finally confessed everything he knew about the mastermind. However, all he knew was that the mastermind was actually two women, and their motive was to humiliate an Asian lady.
Lina looked at Sheng Jiaoyang and said, “There"s no need to guess any further. Those two ladies must be the ones who you just played. They definitely hate you, seeing as they have resorted to such means.”
“It"s normal for them to use such means. Otherwise, I wouldn"t have guessed that it was their doing.” Sheng Jiaoyang laughed coldly.
To think that those two ladies used such underhanded methods.
“So they"re not trying to kidnap me. No wonder they didn"t bring in a larger group along and only sent such a small number of people,” Rita commented.
“Rita, you… do people often try to kidnap you?” Paul looked at Rita with a weird expression.
Uh… Rita scratched her head for a while. She turned and blinked at Lina and Sheng Jiaoyang as if she was silently asking them if she should answer truthfully. What if Paul gets scared?
Lina and Sheng Jiaoyang nodded in affirmation. It was always better to come clean on such issues. If Paul didn"t mind, then it would certainly be for the best. Otherwise, it would be better to break up sooner rather than later.
Rita was quite conflicted. She really liked Paul, and she was worried that Paul would leave her because of this. However, she also knew that she couldn"t hide this for much longer. Thus, she looked at Paul and said, “Sweetheart, because of family matters, I am exposed to such dangers. But, it wouldn"t happen so often. I really love you, can you not leave me?”
“No wonder you"re so strong, it"s all because of life circ.u.mstances.” Paul took Rita"s hand, his face filled with worry.
Rita"s face bloomed with happiness, and she pounced towards Paul for a hug.
Paul groaned and hugged Rita back.
The onlookers looked at each other, and Lina lightly pushed Sheng Jiaoyang and asked, “How should we deal with him?”
“What else can we do? We can only let him go.” Sheng Jiaoyang shrugged her shoulders.
Lina looked at the inseparable couple and coughed lightly, “Let"s head to Paul"s workshop.”
Only then did Paul and Rita break away from their hug.
As for the poor guy on the ground, no one was bothered with him.
Paul"s workshop was more like his residence. As soon as they entered, they found themselves in the living room, with a bar top and many wine shelves. Further in was his working area.
“Please make yourself comfortable.” As the host, Paul went behind the bar and asked what drinks everyone would like.
“Why do you have so many drinks here?” Upon seeing the wide variety of alcohol placed on the shelves, Lina asked, unable to suppress her curiosity. When she asked, she even purposefully looked in Rita"s direction. Could it be because of Rita?
“Alcohol is great. It brings me lots of inspiration. When I"m tired or if I have a creative block, I will take some alcohol.” Paul stood behind the bar, concocting drinks.
Rita laid her face full of admiration on the bar top as she watched Paul concoct his drinks.
“We met because of alcohol. He has a very deep understanding of them, and his tolerance is great as well,” Rita said.
Sheng Jiaoyang and Lina"s eyes met. For Rita to compliment his alcohol tolerance, it meant that his tolerance wasn"t at the normal level. Seems like Rita has found the right guy.
“Paul, may I take a look around your workshop?” Sheng Jiaoyang asked.
“Of course, feel free.”
Past an arch hanged with a beaded curtain was a unique workshop. It was shaped like a fan, with transparent gla.s.s on the curved walls. As it was now nightfall, only neon bright lights could be seen; if it was during the day, the whole workshop would be brightly lit even without any lights.
Even Lina liked the workshop when she first saw it.
From the way everything was arranged and laid out, Paul was quite a meticulous person.
There was an unfinished product on the mannequin, and on the table beside it was an opened sketchbook with the mannequin"s design drawn on the very top. There were also some other unfinished designs sketched beneath it.
After flipping through the sketchbook, Sheng Jiaoyang said to Lina, “As Rita mentioned, Paul is an excellent designer. All of his designs have a unique and lingering charm to them.”
Lina raised her brow, and a sparkle shone brightly in her eye, “The fas.h.i.+on industry is still growing and will not be saturated anytime soon.”
Sheng Jiaoyang looked at Lina, “You want to scout Paul?”
“Let"s go and ask him.” Lina pulled Sheng Jiaoyang along as they walked out of the workshop.
By now, Paul had already finished concocting a few drinks, and even Sheng Jiaoyang"s bodyguards each had a gla.s.s.
Paul laughed as he saw them both walking out, “What did you think of my workshop?”
“Awesome.” Sheng Jiaoyang took a gla.s.s from him, “Your works are awesome too.”
“Rita was right, you"re really an excellent designer,” Lina added on.
Paul laughed heartily. After all, the compliments were coming from two industry experts with a taste for fas.h.i.+on. Of course, there was someone else laughing happily as well. That person was Rita.
“Actually, I saw the both of you for the first time much earlier than the wedding. Back in March, during the fas.h.i.+on show to launch RICHAD"s new collection, I watched both of your catwalk performances. Never did I expect that I"ll meet you again at the wedding. My grandmother and George"s grandmother were sisters, and my grandmother had wanted me to meet more people. That"s why she brought me along to attend George"s wedding,” Paul said.
After a brief moment of surprise, Lina smiled, “So, you"re a relative of George"s. We"re considered family, then.”
“Haha, indeed, fate has brought us together,” Rita said happily.
Sheng Jiaoyang caught on to a hint, and she asked Paul, “Are you a designer of RICHAD?”
“No. RICHAD"s Brand Director, Miller, wanted to scout me, and thus he invited me to the show. But I eventually decided on being a freelance designer, and hence I opened my own workshop and got this place.”
“So you"re firm on working here from now on?” Lina asked.
“Yes. But I don"t have many clients. You must have seen the design sketches on my table, apart from the sketch on the very top page, the others were my efforts from the past four months. There weren"t many orders. It was just enough to cover my expenses.”
“You"re doing decently already.” Lina and Sheng Jiaoyang glanced at each other, and continued, “Have you ever thought of coming up with your own label?”
Stunned, Paul replied helplessly, “Creating my own label is easier said than done.”
“You have to try. When I decided that I want to start my own perfume line, I was still a student with nothing to my name. Five years later, my brand had completely rooted itself here,” Lina said.
Paul froze for a while.
“Sweetheart, why don"t you collaborate with Lina? She knows the business environment around here better than you do,” Rita commented.
“Plus, I have the finances.” Lina threw out another bait.
Rita banged on the tabletop and exclaimed, “I can also chip in any amount as an investment!”
A look of hesitation crossed Paul"s face. He was definitely tempted; who wouldn"t want to start their own brand?
“You don"t have to consider too much. Anyway, you don"t have anything else to your name besides this workshop, so why don"t you make the gamble?” Sheng Jiaoyang"s words were a direct hit on Paul"s concerns.
“Alright, I"ll take the risk. I"ve nothing to lose if it fails,” Paul finally relented.
Sheng Jiaoyang and Lina smiled at each other. A great designer had just been scouted, all that was left was to go all out.
“Paul, this drink is quite good. I didn"t expect you to be so good at concocting drinks,” Lina said.
“My family runs a winery, I grew up learning all about them.”
“Speaking of which, Jiaojiao likes to concoct drinks and she"s quite good at it too. You guys can learn from each other.”
“Really?” Paul looked at Sheng Jiaoyang with surprise.
“Yes, sweetheart. I"ve drunk her concoction, it"s comparable with yours. If you"ve nothing to do in the future, you can run a bar together. It"ll definitely work out well.” Rita joined in the conversation.
Lina laughed, “The business will definitely be very popular. If Jiaojiao concocts it personally, just her fans alone will fill the place.”
“Fans?” Paul looked at Sheng Jiaoyang in surprise, “Do you models have lots of fans too?”
“She"s not only a supermodel, but she"s also a huge celebrity. Paul, you have no idea how famous she is in China. She has over tens of millions of fans!” Rita added quickly.
Paul was already looking amazed.
As the four of them chatted and drank, Sheng Jiaoyang showed off some of her skills by concocting some drinks.
Of course, they ended on a happy note.
Sheng Jiaoyang bade farewell to Lina in the car, as she will depart first thing in the morning to look for Shen Zhining.
“Go on, you probably haven"t seen each other for quite a while.”
Sheng Jiaoyang hugged Lina. It was tough to meet each other nowadays. It was no longer possible to see each other daily like they used to.
But there was still plenty of time and opportunities to meet in the future, and they still had to discuss the details of setting up their own fas.h.i.+on label.
The following day, Sheng Jiaoyang boarded the plane for departure.
To surprise Zhining, she didn"t inform him about her schedule this time.
The Shen Corporation"s headquarters was grander and more luxurious when compared to the technology company that Shen Zhining had founded.
When Sheng Jiaoyang was asked if she had any prior appointments at the lobby, she hesitated.
How can I get to Shen Zhining"s office without alerting him?Previous ChapterNext Chapter