Chapter 397: Miss Wu? A Pleasure to Meet You!

Chapter 397: Miss Wu? A Pleasure to Meet You!

Li Ruobing turned her head. A tall, thin, balding man in his forties stood there in a suit and leather shoes, and beside him was an elegantly made-up woman of about forty.

They looked every inch a wealthy middle-aged couple.

Of course Li Ruobing knew them.

The man was Xie Fenghui, owner of Donghai Aofeng Color Printing & Packaging Group and one of Huancai Fashion’s business partners. At present, roughly two-thirds of the paper outer packaging for Huancai Fashion’s entire cosmetics range was supplied by Aofeng Group.

“What a coincidence, Boss Li! Hahaha! I’ve been meaning to pay you a visit lately, and here you are…” Xie Fenghui hurried over, brimming with enthusiasm.

Li Ruobing stood.

“Boss Xie. What a coincidence… Mrs. Xie…” She shook Xie Fenghui’s hand, then Mrs. Xie’s, and they exchanged nods.

They were old acquaintances. They had known one another for several years.

After a few rounds of pleasantries, Xie Fenghui steered the conversation toward business.

He was, in truth, a little eager.

“…Boss Li, about Huancai’s partnership with Jinfu… Look, we’ve worked together for so many years now… They say there’s no better day than the one that finds you, and since we’ve run into each other today, why don’t we talk? You know the quality of Aofeng’s products, Boss Li, and…”

The moment he opened his mouth, Li Ruobing knew what he was after.

The supply of paper outer packaging for the Huancai–Jinfu joint project.

He wanted in.

Every product needed paper packaging on the outside, and cosmetics were no exception.

The Huancai–Jinfu partnership had been settled in a hurry.

Li Ruobing and Su Qingying had hashed it out over dinner on the twentieth, the evening Wu Chen got back from Modu, and then announced it at the banquet following Jinfu’s new-product launch on the twenty-third.

Strictly speaking, though, the collaboration was still only at the project-establishment stage.

They were still negotiating.

A great many details had yet to be pinned down.

As one of Huancai Fashion’s partners, Xie Fenghui had naturally been at the banquet on the evening of the twenty-third. He had been itching to talk to Li Ruobing ever since, but the right opportunity had never come.

Li Ruobing knew exactly what he wanted: the outer-packaging order for the luxury line Huancai and Jinfu had only just launched as a project.

And that order, in itself, wouldn’t make much money.

Set against the money already flowing between Huancai Fashion and Aofeng Group, the profit from packaging the luxury line might not even amount to small change.

It was a luxury line, after all. It was never meant to move in volume, and no one could expect big sales figures. For Huancai Fashion and Jinfu Group, the real point of the collaboration was to raise their brand positioning and broaden their brand image.

There was hardly any money in it.

Yet Xie Fenghui was still remarkably keen.

Li Ruobing understood why.

It was all because of Jinfu Group.

The luxury line’s paper outer packaging, from its overall design to its printed artwork, would have to share a unified style with the product’s inner packaging, meaning the bottle design.

In other words, if Xie Fenghui landed this deal, he wouldn’t just be working with Huancai. He would be working closely with Jinfu Group as well.

That was the key.

One deal led to another.

Once he had that first collaboration with Jinfu Group, the possibilities were wide open.

If Jinfu took a liking to Aofeng after the first job and later handed it a big batch of packaging orders, that alone… would be enough to lift Aofeng Group to a whole new level.

“Boss Xie, now isn’t really a good time. I’m treating guests to lunch, so it wouldn’t be right to talk business with you…” Li Ruobing cut him off with a professional smile. “Why don’t we do it another day? We’ll set a time and go over it properly.”

“Right, right, right. Another day, then.” Xie Fenghui agreed at once.

He didn’t dare press. If he made a nuisance of himself, he would lose his chance entirely.

As he spoke, his eyes slid past Li Ruobing to the two girls across the table, both complete strangers to him.

Students, obviously.

He hadn’t meant to pay them any attention. But Li Ruobing had just said she was treating guests to lunch.

Anyone Li Ruobing treated to a meal could hardly be ordinary.

“Boss Li, I haven’t had the pleasure. These two young ladies are…?” Xie Fenghui asked, all smiles, gesturing toward Wu Jiao and Chen Xue as though it were the most casual question in the world.

“Wu Chen’s younger sister, Wu Jiao,” Li Ruobing said simply. “And her classmate, Chen Xue.”

Xie Fenghui’s eyes lit up.

Of course he knew who Wu Chen was. Everyone in Donghai’s business circles did. He had even met Wu Chen and spoken with him at the banquet after Huancai’s new-product launch on the twenty-third.

“Mr. Wu’s sister? Then you must be Miss Wu! Hahahaha… Miss Wu, a pleasure, a real pleasure!” Laughing heartily, Xie Fenghui stepped forward and held out his hand to Wu Jiao.

Wu Jiao shot to her feet.

It was practically a reflex.

She was a little flustered. Formal social etiquette, formal social talk, a pleasure of all things… none of it was anything she knew how to handle.

“H-hello.” She copied him and shook his hand.

Xie Fenghui reached into his jacket at once and produced a gold-embossed business card.

“Miss Wu, allow me to introduce myself. Your humble Xie Fenghui. Since this is our first meeting, I do hope you’ll look after me in future…” Holding the card in both hands, he made to present it to her.

Wu Jiao went rigid.

It felt like a scene from a TV drama playing out right in front of her.

A rich man about her father’s age, politely offering her a business card with both hands and saying things like I hope you’ll look after me. What kind of bizarre plot was this?

Even the card looked expensive, gleaming gold. Wu Jiao had no idea whether she should take it, how she was meant to take it, or what on earth she was supposed to say once she had.

Li Ruobing could see how uncomfortable she was. She knew the girl was panicking.

“Boss Xie, Jiaojiao’s still in high school. Don’t scare her,” Li Ruobing said, giving him a look.

The man was far too good at cultivating connections, and far too eager to cultivate them.

“Ah, hahaha…” Xie Fenghui tucked the card away as smoothly as anything, laughing off the faint awkwardness. “Miss Wu really does take after Mr. Wu. Very pretty! Oh? Boss Li, where’s Mr. Wu today?”

“He’s busy,” Li Ruobing said.

A few more pleasantries.

Mrs. Xie chimed in too, smiling sweetly as she praised Wu Jiao’s looks until the girl was quite embarrassed.

Anyone could feel how hard they were flattering her.

Xie Fenghui didn’t dare stay long. That really would have made him a nuisance.

“Well, we won’t keep you, Boss Li. We’ll head on over…”

“Take care, Boss Xie.”

Another handshake, and Xie Fenghui left.

Li Ruobing watched the couple go, then turned back and sat down.

Across from her, Wu Jiao sat too, but she looked bewitched, as though she couldn’t snap out of it. She was completely bewildered.

When Xie Fenghui had first come over and called Li Ruobing “Boss Li,” Wu Jiao had already started wondering just how high up her brother’s girlfriend was. Could she actually own the company?

Before she could even work that out, Xie Fenghui had turned his attention to her.

The handshake, the business card, the compliments… After that whole routine, Wu Jiao was utterly dazed.

Mr. Wu?!

Miss Wu?!

There was nothing wrong with the titles themselves. They were just extremely formal. But the way Xie Fenghui had said them felt like… more than a formality.

Why was he being so polite?!

And your humble Xie Fenghui… wasn’t that an awfully self-deprecating way to talk?

“What’s wrong?” Li Ruobing had noticed something was off.

“N-nothing…” Even as she said it, Wu Jiao hurried on. “Sis, that man just now, who was he?”

“Oh, his company works with ours. He owns Aofeng Color Printing. They make product packaging,” Li Ruobing said with a smile.

“So he must be really rich, right?” Wu Jiao asked.

“Mm. He is.” Li Ruobing nodded.

“How rich?” Wu Jiao asked, curious.

“Maybe… a few hundred million yuan in assets,” Li Ruobing said after a moment’s thought. She couldn’t give a precise figure herself.

“A few hundred million? That rich?” Wu Jiao was stunned.

“Wow!” Chen Xue clapped a hand over her mouth and turned to exchange a look with Wu Jiao. “He’s worth hundreds of millions.”

Wu Jiao was dazed all over again. It made no sense.

Being rich wasn’t what was scary.

But if he was that rich, why had he offered her his business card? Why had he asked her to look after him in future?

Who was supposed to be looking after whom?!

“Sis, are you… a boss too? That cosmetics company you mentioned, is it yours?” Wu Jiao asked.

“Yes. It is.” Li Ruobing nodded.

“So you’re my brother’s boss?” Wu Jiao asked.

Li Ruobing’s smile widened. She found that way of putting it rather funny.

“You could say that.” She smiled.

“Then… how much money do you have?” Wu Jiao asked the ultimate question outright.