She pulled a wad of pesos from her wallet, unsure how much to pay.

She initially thought the coffee beans wouldn't be particularly expensive, but from Ji Feng's words, she learned that the shop was actually quite famous, and since she bought so many, it must have been quite a sum.

So she simply took out all the pesos from her wallet.

I figured if it wasn't enough, I could just pay part of it in Chinese currency, but then I'd have to trouble the shop owner to take it to the bank and exchange it for their Chinese pesos.

"She just said she's giving it to you as a small gift."

Song Mai refused without hesitation.

"How can that be? I'm already very touched by this grandma's kindness. How can I really accept her gift? Besides, she's only doing this because of you. We should still pay her what she owes."

As she spoke, she placed all the money in her hand on the counter.

Ji Fenghe looked at her, and his gaze towards her changed slightly.

Finally, he took half of the money from the stack she had put down and put it back into her hand.

"There's not as much as you think, let's go."

Since he said so, Song Mai stuffed half the money back into her wallet and left the store with Ji Fenghe.

The location of this restaurant was indeed remote. By the time Song Mai and Ji Feng found a decent-looking restaurant after leaving this restaurant, it was already dinner time.

Ji Feng said he was hungry, but he wasn't actually that hungry. It was Song Mai who was truly hungry.

She barely ate anything at noon and had traveled so far to buy coffee; after several hours, she was starving.

Even the Western food, which she had never been interested in, tasted much better to her than usual.

Song Mai ate ravenously, barely exchanging more than a few words with Ji Feng.

In contrast to her questionable eating habits, Ji Fenghe's was elegant and graceful.

However, he is good-looking, so even if he eats in an exaggerated way, it probably won't look bad.

Just as the two finished their meal, Lu Xun called to ask Ji Feng when he would be returning to the hotel.

Upon learning that he was with Song Mai, he was asked to inquire about Song Mai as well.

The two originally planned to go back after dinner, and Song Mai didn't have the energy to continue shopping.

She was carrying a large bag of coffee beans and called the waiter to pay the bill. The waiter, dressed in a black suit and bow tie, walked over very politely.

"Your table has already paid the bill."

Song Mai was taken aback and subconsciously looked at Ji Fenghe.

The man was straightening his clothes; his gray suit jacket was slightly wrinkled from the effort.

"Manager Ji, this meal was supposed to be on me, why are you..."

He had readily agreed to let her treat him in the afternoon.

After adjusting his coat, Ji Feng stood up.

"I don't have the habit of letting girls treat me to meals. Let's go. I guess Lu Xun has something important to say, otherwise he wouldn't have called to ask."

"but……"

Song Mai wanted to continue, but she thought that even so, she shouldn't let him treat her to a meal.

What's going on here?

She was the one who offered to treat him to dinner to thank him, but now not only has she not repaid the favor, it's become him treating her.

However, Ji Fenghe interrupted her as soon as she opened her mouth.

"It's just a meal, don't worry about it."

But how could Song Mai not take it to heart?

She disliked owing favors to others the most, and she secretly resolved to find a chance to repay them.

When the two returned to the hotel, everyone else had already arrived, except for the two of them. When the others saw that they had returned together, they exchanged glances, each with a meaningful look in their eyes.

Li Li from the marketing department immediately joked:

"I was wondering why we encountered so many language problems when we went for a city walk this afternoon. It turns out that neither of our two translators were here."

Others echoed this sentiment.

"Yes, neither of them were there at the same time. Where did they go? It turns out they went out together."

"Are you shopping together or on a date?"

"Two Spanish translators would have a very smooth date in Spain."

Song Mai never expected that just because she came back with Ji Feng, they would make such a big deal out of it.

She quickly explained, "It's not what you think. We just happened to run into each other while buying coffee beans, so we came back together."

Even Lu Xun joined in the commotion this time:

"Is it really that simple? I called you a while ago and you were having dinner together. It doesn't seem like it was as simple as you bumped into each other while buying coffee beans and came back together, right?"

When the others heard that Lu Xun had said this, and that they had also heard that the two of them had eaten together, they immediately started to tease him even more enthusiastically.

"I knew it! Why did Manager Ji join our project team at the last minute? Was he worried that a newcomer might make a mistake and affect the project, or was he worried about the person himself?"

"I was wondering why it was just the few of us having dinner together; turns out they had other great places to go."

The group got more and more excited as they talked, and it seemed that they were trying to force a connection between two people who had nothing to do with each other.

Song Mai tried to explain several times, but her words were ignored by everyone.

Ji Fenghe, on the other hand, sat on the sofa, a gentle smile in his eyes, lost in thought, neither denying nor explaining.

Song Mai was so anxious that she almost asked him directly why he didn't explain.

The girl from the legal department, unable to bear it any longer, came to Song Mai's rescue:

"You men never stop joking. With your mouths, you could talk a dead person back to life. They're from the same department, so they're bound to know each other. What's wrong with running into each other outside and having a meal together? Does he have to eat with us?"

Lu Xun's comment just now was merely a casual remark made in response to everyone's joking and teasing; it didn't have any real meaning.

Seeing that Song Mai was extremely anxious, and that no one intended to stop them, everyone cleared their throats and said...

"Alright, enough with the jokes, don't go too far. We're all colleagues, and we should look out for each other when we're out and about. Things didn't go smoothly today, and everyone's feeling down. I hope we can encourage each other and not get discouraged. You guys were really good at stirring things up, though. You were quite the smooth talkers just now. Tomorrow, go and battle that Basque guy, and don't suffer the same fate as today."

As expected, the group, who had been full of energy just moments before, immediately turned somber when the topic of negotiations with the Basques came up.

Everyone was upset about what happened today, which is why Lu Xun didn't stop them from making a joke earlier. He even chimed in, saying it was just a joke to lighten the mood.

The jokes just went a little too far.

Everyone composed themselves and apologized to Song Mai.