NCCnovel Chapter 316 The Cat's Acting Skills
Chapter 316 The Cat's Acting Skills
Six o'clock in the evening.
Peace Hotel, suite on the eighth floor.
Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the twilight over the Huangpu River gradually changed from gray-blue to deep purple. The outline of Pudong on the opposite bank had already melted into the night, leaving only a few scattered lights, like crumbs carelessly scattered on a black velvet cloth.
Satsuki sat at her desk. Three documents lay on the table, each with a note clipped to its upper right corner with a red paperclip.
Endo stood opposite the desk. His legal representative sat on the sofa, a blank shorthand notebook open on his lap, the pen tip hovering above the paper.
"First," Satsuki pointed to the first document, "the equipment in the Yokohama Port bonded yard—a complete set of stamping, injection molding, and precision machine tools from five factories. All must be loaded onto ships and shipped to Shenhai before October 15th. The shipping schedule cannot be delayed."
Endo wrote this down in his notebook. He drew a line under "October 15th" with his pen.
"Second." The finger moved to the second document. "A twelve-person engineering advance team will be drawn from SA Construction. Four geological engineers, three surveyors, and five site managers. They will move into plot B-07 next Monday to begin full-scale geological drilling. The borehole spacing will not exceed thirty meters, and the depth will reach -25 meters. I need a complete stratigraphic profile."
The lawyer's pen flew across the shorthand notebook.
"third."
Satsuki pushed the third document to the center of the table. It was a handwritten organizational diagram—several boxes connected by arrows, with "BVI" at the top, "HK" in the middle, and "PRC" at the bottom.
"Contact Itakura. Register 'S.A. Industrial (Shanghai) Limited' through a shell company in Hong Kong. The legal representative should be a Chinese person holding a foreign passport. Itakura should find a clean businessman in Hong Kong with no political background. The company secretary should be a licensed organization in Hong Kong."
She tapped the "HK" box on the architecture diagram with her index finger.
"Saionji's name does not appear on any floor."
Endo closed the notebook.
"clear."
He didn't ask any further questions.
Satsuki gathered the three documents together, stacked them, and handed them to the legal department. The legal department took them, stuffed them into the encrypted compartment of their briefcase, zipped it up, and turned on the combination lock.
"That's all." Satsuki leaned back in her chair. "We're leaving for the airport at seven tomorrow morning."
Everyone stood up, bowed, and left the room.
The moment the door closed behind her, Satsuki leaned back in her chair.
It's like someone pulled a switch.
However, it only lasted for three seconds.
She stretched. She raised both arms overhead, interlaced her fingers, and flipped her wrists, making a series of very fine "clicking" sounds from her knuckles. Then she lowered her arms and rested them on the armrests of the chair.
Endo stood on the other side of the conference table. He was still holding the ballpoint pen he had used to mark the contract terms, the cap off and the nib pointing upwards.
He watched as Satsuki stretched out her body, a faint smile appearing on his lips.
The young lady's performance today—he glanced at the Seiko watch on his wrist—was two hours and fourteen minutes. Almost an hour shorter than the one in Tokyo.
Improved.
Satsuki rested her elbows on the table, ran her fingers through her hair, and casually pressed her fingertips against her scalp a couple of times.
Seriously, I'm almost an adult now, right? I'm starting to say things like "I don't like the smell, the noise, or the big ships, I want to see yachts" more and more naturally. Is that a kind of regression?
Well... at least her acting skills haven't declined.
As she pulled her hand out of her hair, her fingertips brushed against the pearl hairpin on her right side. She took the hairpin off and placed it on the table. Her long, black hair, now free, cascaded down her shoulders.
Endo put the cap back on the water-based pen.
"The tea's gone cold," he said.
Satsuki glanced down at the white porcelain teacup in front of her. The Silver Needle tea in the cup had been steeped for the fourth time, its color pale, with a thin film of precipitate forming on the surface after cooling.
"Um."
She picked up the cup and took a sip of the herbal tea.
It's bitter.
But it doesn't matter. The instant coffee I drank when I was working overtime on Wall Street until 3 a.m. in my past life was ten times worse than this. Drinking that stuff made my whole esophagus protest.
She placed the teacup back on the table and tapped the rim of the cup lightly with her fingertip.
"Endo, do you think Director Chen will be able to sleep well tonight?"
Endo put the water-based pen into his breast pocket and casually adjusted the orientation of the pen barrel.
"Given Director Chen's personality, he'll probably be sitting in his office until the wee hours of the morning."
"Just as I expected." Satsuki tilted her head, her tone carrying a hint of something that was hard to define—a mixture of sympathy and smugness. "Wasn't that line about the heartland of four hundred million people a bit too much of a blow?"
Endo replied with extremely subtle words: "The effect... is very thorough."
When Endo used the word "fully," it was essentially equivalent to "the other person's expression changed three times."
Satsuki's lips curled up slightly.
She stood up, holding the empty teacup, and walked to the window of the conference room.
The Huangpu River is visible outside the window.
On the river at dusk, the whistle of a barge drifted from afar. One note was long, the other short. The lingering sound echoed for a long time in the damp air before dissipating.
The opposite bank is Pudong. Vast expanses of darkness, swallowed by twilight.
Satsuki placed the empty teacup on the windowsill. Her blurry silhouette was reflected in the glass, along with the thin white strip of light from the fluorescent tube in the conference room behind her.
The ballast of the light bulb has a problem; every few seconds it makes a very faint "click," like someone flicking a plastic shell with their fingernail.
Seriously... even the fluorescent light tubes are made in China.
However, things will be different three years later.
Endo walked to the coffee table. The stainless steel electric kettle was reheated, and the heating plate at the bottom glowed with an orange-red light. He pulled out the sealed bag from a side compartment of his briefcase—a bag of Shizuoka sencha tea brought from Tokyo.
The water boiled. Steam billowed from the spout. Endo dropped the tea bag into the cup, and the pale green tea infused with a subtle, bitter herbal aroma characteristic of Shizuoka.
He brought the teacup back and placed it on the windowsill.
Satsuki reached out and cupped the cup.
The heat seeped into her palm through the porcelain surface. She lowered her head and blew on the rising steam. The mist on the surface of the tea was blown away, then gathered again.
She took a small sip.
The astringency of Shizuoka sencha dissipates at the back of the tongue. It's very bitter. But it's a unique kind of bitterness.
Hmm, this is so much better than the previous cup of Baihao Yinzhen. Although Baihao Yinzhen is a good tea, serving it to guests after it's been brewed four times is indeed a bit impolite. However, considering the conditions here, I can't be too demanding.
She held a teacup and leaned against the edge of the window frame.
Endo.
"Yes."
"Before signing the formal contract tomorrow, recalculate the budget for the foundation pile project. Director Chen isn't stupid; he must have his own estimate. If the figures are too far off, he'll be unhappy."
"clear."
Satsuki took a second sip of tea.
"Also, have the legal department polish the wording of 'right of priority negotiation' again." Her eyes were still fixed on the dark Pudong outside the window. "These twelve words are the most valuable part of the entire contract. The wording needs to be vague enough that their legal department can't find any fault with it, but it also needs to be clear enough that no one can bypass us at the auction table three years later."
"Yes," Endo said. "I'll change it when I get back to the hotel tonight."
Satsuki nodded.
On the river outside the window, the lights of the barge had already faded into the distance, leaving only a faint trail of light shimmering on the water before being swallowed by the twilight.
Endo stood three steps behind her. He had already neatly arranged all the contract texts and placed them in his briefcase. The brass clasp clicked shut with a crisp "snap."
"Young Miss," Endo's voice came from behind, "the car is waiting downstairs. On the way back to the hotel, would you like to stop by the City God Temple?"
Satsuki turned around.
Endo's face still held that composed and steady expression. But in the eyes behind his glasses, she read something extremely subtle, something that didn't belong to the role of "Executive Director."
It's like someone who has been by your side for a long time only offers the "reward" option after confirming that you are in a good mood today.
That old fox.
Satsuki finished the last sip of tea in her cup and placed the empty cup on the windowsill.
"Crab roe xiaolongbao," she said.
Endo waits.
"Director Chen said that the Nanxiang Steamed Bun Shop at the City God Temple has crab roe xiaolongbao (soup dumplings). Take a small bite and slurp up the soup first." She gestured a "bite" motion in the air with her finger, "It sounds delicious."
She turned and walked toward the door. Her steps were light and quick. Her brown ballet shoes made almost no sound on the carpet, only the hem of her skirt swayed gently with each step.
He stopped briefly as he passed Endo.
"But Endo."
"Yes."
"If that crab roe xiaolongbao isn't as delicious as Director Chen said—" Satsuki looked up at him, her brow furrowed slightly, her tone serious. "I'll change tomorrow's land price from 32,000 to 28,000. Let him feel the pinch."
Endo paused for half a second.
He looked at Satsuki.
His brow was furrowed, but the corners of his mouth were upturned. Like a cat that had stolen some cream and was now pretending to be innocent.
Back in New York, he had the same expression when he threatened to make the RTC wait an extra 48 hours because he hadn't finished his steak.
And then she really made them wait for forty-eight hours.
Endo switched the briefcase to his left hand and opened the conference room door with his right.
"I will convey this to Director Chen truthfully. However, if things really change, I think Director Chen's reaction will be more than just a 'touch'."
He smiled too.
The sound of their footsteps gradually faded into the empty corridor.
The fluorescent light tube clicked again.
And then no one heard it anymore.