My Boss Dies Again

Chapter 4 Negotiation

When Toni arrived at the station and walked through the security check, she looked up to see Gina standing there.

Gina had changed into a thin smoky-gray wind coat with a pair of refined glasses. She rolled up her sleeves, revealing her beautiful forearms. She looked quiet and beautiful, which was completely different from her keen-witted and vigorous complexion in the office.

Gina stood there quietly, holding her suitcase with one hand and the other in the pocket, looking around with some confusion in her eyes.

"Miss Bailey." Toni walked forward and called to her.

Gina turned her gaze to her and nodded after a moment of recognition, returning to her previous bright expression. "You've brought your ID card, right? Go and get the tickets from check-in counter number 14. I'll be waiting for you there."

Not many people travel on non-holiday weekdays, which meant they had their tickets checked and boarded the train quicker than normal.

It only took three hours to get to City B, and the carriage was half empty the whole way. Gina was rather tall, so she put her suitcase on the luggage rack without difficulty. Toni had stuffed all her baggage and cosmetics in her suitcase, which made it quite heavy. In addition, as she was half a head shorter than Gina, she could only struggle to lift it into the overhead compartment. Just as she resolved to push her suitcase to the front of the carriage, Gina grasped it and placed it on the rack with ease.

"Miss Smith, weren't you an athlete before? Seems like you haven't done any physical training for a long time." Gina pushed her glasses back with two fingers and smiled at her.

"Yeah, thank you," Toni answered her casually and sat down in the front seat.

"My colleagues have mentioned it twice before. Miss Smith, what sport did you play before?" Sitting behind Toni, Gina leaned forward slightly, asking her with great interest.

"Archery," Toni answered while picking up a magazine.

"Archery? That's pretty awesome. I actually have an outdoor sports group. Miss Smith, are you interested in joining and hanging out together? "

Just as Toni was about to refuse politely, Gina spoke again before she had the chance, "There's an event next week. I'll let you know at the time."

Toni was bad at dealing with people person like Gina. She wasn't very good at refusing people face to face. She figured Gina was just saying and wouldn't actually remember the invitation. After all, they had been enemies for many years, so it was only natural for them to avoid each other. Who would deliberately put themselves in an awkward situation like that?

But...

Thinking about the business trip that Gina had arranged, Toni felt confused again. Who would be willing to stay with someone they didn't like?

Toni's gaze fell on the magazine, but she didn't flip through it at all.

Gina had just won the new position, which was a good time to make a big show of her strength, so perhaps it made sense to come up with a business trip like this.

A faint sneer appeared on Toni's face when she thought about it.

They didn't communicate with each other during the entire journey. It was really cold when they arrived in City B. Toni was still trembling in the wind despite wearing a thick coat, while Gina was obviously wearing a thin shirt more suitable for early autumn. However, she seemed to be able to handle the cold. She found the exit and asked Toni to go downstairs with her.

The branch manager and driver had been waiting for them in the parking lot, and Gina found the car by taking directions from the manager over the phone. It was late when the manager took them to their hotel to check-in, and neither of them had eaten dinner yet.

"Don't arrange dinner for us." Gina said to Mr. Jacobs, the branch manager, "We're going to meet up with Mr. Cook in the evening. The restaurant has already been booked. You can help us book a karaoke room."

Standing to one side, Toni gave Gina a suspicious look.

Seeing that Toni was confused, Gina said, "Mr. Cook only enjoys singing and drinking, so we have no choice but to drink and sing with him if we want to do business with him. If we don't make him happy, he won't place any orders with us."

Toni didn't say anything in front of Mr. Jacobs, but when he left, she asked, "Why do we need to do this? This is the marketing department's concern."

Gina didn't expect Toni to say that, and she answered, "Mr. Cook won't talk with the people in the marketing department. He wanted Miss Hill to come, but Miss Hill couldn't. She has high blood pressure she can't travel a lot after her waist surgery. It took her a long time to convince Mr. Cook to meet us today."

Gina's comments showed that she truly cared about Charlotte, which reminded Toni of the ambiguous gossip that she'd heard before.

Gina turned to face Toni directly, consoling her by saying, "Miss Smith, you've been in charge of planning and haven't really dealt with our business partners before. But it doesn't matter, because I'm from the marketing department. Just follow me tonight, and I'll do all the singing and drinking. I promise you won't feel uncomfortable." Gina then smiled tenderly and said, "But... if I end up drinking too much, Miss Smith, please help me get back to the hotel."

Mr. Cook was over fifty years old and didn't look like a successful entrepreneur at all. He asked someone to bring them some alcohol as soon as they entered the box. As he sat down, he offered cigarettes to both Gina and Toni. Mr. Jacobs hurriedly greeted him and explained that the two ladies don't smoke, so Mr. Cook gave the cigarettes to him instead.

Both Mr. Jacobs and Gina were particularly good at observing people's speech, behavior, and social cues. Mr. Jacobs smoked and drank with Mr. Cook, while Gina sang hit songs one after another. The whole scene reminded Mr. Cook of his befuddled life and made him drink while slapping his thighs, wiping away his tears after drinking. From his first love to his second marriage, Mr. Cook would not let go of Mr. Jacob's hand. Mr. Jacobs became a little bit drunk. He'd been doing business with different clients for many years, so he insisted on stammering something business related to Mr. Cook. It turned out that Mr. Cook could drink like a fish, so he couldn't get drunk even after drinking a whole bunch of red wine, spirits, and yellow rice wine at the same time. He wasn't happy that they wanted him to place an order before he had drunk and sang enough.