The stubborn her

lacking creativity

The bidding process unfolded rapidly.

Since the day she last saw Zhou Xingjin, Shen Zhitong had been liaising with the heads of the tea shop's affiliated brands.

She breathed a sigh of relief at this arrangement.

The first round of bidding meetings was held at Ansha Group's headquarters.

Zhou Xingjin was said to be on a business trip in another city and did not attend.

Chen Rui felt disappointed not to see Zhou Xingjin at the meeting. The proposal prepared by the team wasn't bad, and they managed to pass the first round of competition with several international 4A companies. However, based on the feedback from the meeting, there were still some major issues with the proposal, so the second round might not be as easy.

A few days later, Chen Rui "coincidentally" encountered Zhou Xingjin's Maybach in the underground parking lot of the mall. He eagerly approached and greeted him.

As the underground parking lot was not a work area and it was not office hours, Zhou Xingjin didn't appreciate this rudeness, though he managed to maintain a calm and polite demeanor. "Mr. Zhou, long time no see!"

Zhou Xingjin nodded at him. "Mr. Chen."

Chen Rui leaned closer to his car window and smiled. "Our proposal passed the first round."

"Congratulations," Zhou Xingjin said.

Chen Rui's gaze quickly scanned the surroundings of the parking lot to ensure there was no one around. He chuckled softly and said, "I've assigned Shen Zhitong to follow up on the proposal. I hope Mr. Zhou can take Shen Zhitong's face into consideration for the second round of bidding..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but his meaning was clear to everyone.

Zhou Xingjin, however, seemed puzzled. "I don't understand what you mean."

"Huh? Aren't you because of Shen Zhitong..."

"I do know Shen Zhitong, but only on a casual basis." Zhou Xingjin looked directly at him.

Chen Rui's mind raced as he quickly realized his mistake.

He immediately slapped his forehead and apologized, "Oh, I misunderstood. I'm really sorry, please don't take it to heart."

Zhou Xingjin's gaze fell back to the car window, and he said coldly:

"Before giving opportunities to your team, I personally visited Blue Heart. Some of the previous cases you handled were effective, and the core members of your team seemed reliable, so I gave Blue Heart the opportunity. However, this decision had nothing to do with any specific individuals."

He emphasized each word: "Before making any promises, I need to see how your team performs in the next round. I can't guarantee anything to you."

"Sorry, I have something to attend to." After saying these words, Zhou Xingjin nodded slightly to him and slowly closed the car window.

"You're busy, you're busy!" Chen Rui watched as his car slowly drove out of the parking lot, his gaze following the car until it disappeared from the end of the parking lot. He wiped his forehead with his hand and felt his palm covered in cold sweat.

He felt strange and began to reflect on his own ability to gauge people's intentions.

... Could it really be that he was overthinking? Was Shen Zhitong just an ordinary friend to Zhou Xingjin?

Chen Rui was puzzled.

---

Ellen returned from maternity leave. During the project revision stage, they encountered a bottleneck in terms of creativity.

As Friday approached the end of the workday, Shen Zhitong had just left the meeting room when Potato called her from behind.

"Shen Zhitong, could you please go and ask the client if they have any other internal information they can share?"

Shen Zhitong nodded. "Okay."

"We are collaborating with Ansha for the first time, and we're not as familiar with them as our other competitors. This requires you to put in some effort and build a good relationship with them."

Shen Zhitong expressed her understanding.