Chapter 323 No Friendship Without a Fight
Perhaps not wanting Jiang Si to see her make a fool of herself, Chris deliberately picked a fight.
"Didn't you leave? What are you still doing here?"
Jiang Si found her strange, closed the notebook, and asked a question slowly.
Is there a rule that prevents me from being here?
Chris was furious. "This is an embassy. Unauthorized personnel are not allowed to wander around here!"
"This is indeed the embassy district."
Jiang Si looked at her and said in a neither humble nor arrogant tone, "But ultimately, this is Chinese territory. As a Chinese citizen, what's wrong with me walking on my own land?"
She paused, then added, "Don't forget, this design project was initiated by you."
In other words, she is working now.
What reason did Chris have to question her about these things?
Chris was clearly aware of this as well.
She wanted to refute it, but after racking her brains, she couldn't find any points to refute.
After a long while, Chris suddenly sat down on the wooden chair next to her, looking deflated.
"Do you always talk in such an infuriating way?"
"We'll see." Jiang Si's legs were starting to ache after standing for so long.
So I sat down next to her and said, “We Chinese have a saying: ‘It is impolite not to reciprocate.’”
"I don't understand," Chris replied in a muffled voice.
"It basically means, how you treat me is how I will treat you."
After Jiang Si finished speaking, she glanced at her and said, "You're not exactly friendly to me either, are you?"
Chris remained silent for a moment.
Just when Jiang Si thought she wouldn't answer, she turned her head and looked over.
"I like him, you should be able to tell, right?"
Jiang Si said, "Anyone with eyes can see that."
"Then do you know who he likes?"
"It doesn't matter. Who he likes is his freedom, just like how you like him is your freedom."
"But he doesn't like me." As she finished speaking, Chris's tears fell in a steady stream.
At first, it was just quiet sobbing.
Perhaps the more she thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt, or perhaps she had been suppressing her feelings for too long.
Later, she started to wail loudly.
Jiang Si was at a loss for words.
She's not very good at comforting people.
And she never imagined that the person she would be comforting would be Chris.
After all, neither of their meetings had been very harmonious.
After hesitating for a moment, Jiang Si took out a new handkerchief from her bag. "Don't cry."
Chris took the handkerchief and was about to say, "I didn't expect you to be such a kind person."
Jiang Si's voice rang out, "Quickly wipe your tears, otherwise if others see them, they'll think I'm bullying you."
Chris froze on her face as she wiped away her tears.
"You're really something, you have such a sharp tongue."
"Likewise."
Jiang Si smiled when she saw her like this.
There's a saying in China: "Three-legged toads are hard to find, but two-legged men are plentiful."
“You’re not bad yourself, there’s really no need to hang yourself on Chi Heng.”
Chris's father had also advised her on this point.
But she wouldn't listen at all, stubbornly insisting, "There are many good men in the world, but there's only one Chi Heng! He's a one-of-a-kind man in the world!"
She returned the same words to Jiang Si.
Jiang Si remained noncommittal.
“But do you know what?” She paused, glanced at Chris, and said seriously, “There is only one Chi Heng, but there is only one Chris in the world.”
Chris was stunned for a moment.
It took her a long time to come to her senses.
Yes, her family background, education, appearance... no matter which country she's in, she's not lacking in qualifications.
Why is she so fixated on someone who doesn't like her?
She even took her anger out on others because of him.
Why are you comforting me?
As if remembering something, Chris looked at Jiang Si with confusion, "Before, in front of so many people, I said things about you... I was so rude to you..."
"But I didn't lose out, did I?"
After saying that it's better to resolve conflicts than to create them, Jiang Si spoke seriously.
"Your liking him is between you two. I don't want to get involved, and I can't get involved anyway. I just hope you don't drag me into it."
"Whether you believe it or not, Chi Heng and I will only ever be ordinary friends, nothing more."
Having said all that needed to be said, Jiang Si glanced at the time on her wrist. "It's getting late, I should go back."
"Wait a minute," Chris suddenly called out to her, "Are you free at noon?"
Jiang Si stopped in her tracks. "Is there something you need?"
“Yes.” Chris stood up as well. “Today is my birthday. I was planning to confess my feelings to him in public, but he just clearly rejected me.”
"So, you want to invite me to dinner?" Jiang Si was as blunt as ever.
Chris was used to this. "Yes, I've already paid. It would be such a waste not to eat it."
After saying that, she looked over and asked, "Would you like to have lunch with me?"
Jiang Si didn't know what was wrong with her.
Upon hearing this, he nodded in agreement without even thinking.
Unsurprisingly, when the two arrived at the restaurant, they attracted a lot of scrutinizing glances.
Many people witnessed the scene that day when the two almost lost face.
I thought that if these two met, they would at least never speak to each other again, if not fight to the death.
Who would have thought that they could actually sit together and eat peacefully!
What surprised them even more was that after the meal, Chris even took Jiang Si to the embassy gate.
When Chi Heng received the news and rushed over.
From afar, they could see Jiang Si take something out of her bag and hand it to Chris.
It was a fountain pen.
She just bought it a few days ago and hasn't used it yet.
"Is this a gift for me?" Chris was quite surprised.
"Um."
Jiang Si nodded. She had eaten a meal, so she couldn't just leave without showing any appreciation.
Happy birthday to you, and may our friendship blossom from a chance encounter.
"Thank you, thank you so much." Chris said sincerely. "What happened last time was my fault. I shouldn't have taken my anger out on you, and I especially shouldn't have said those things about you in public."
Chris's apology last time was not from the heart.
But this time, she meant it.
Jiang Si understood, but she didn't expect that Chris's attitude towards her would become noticeably better after this meeting.
When she has free time on weekends, she will take the initiative to invite Jiang Si to dinner or tea.
Whenever Jiang Si went to the embassy district to coordinate work, she would warmly welcome her.
Even Chi Heng was surprised, "You and Chris have become friends?"
Jiang Si thought for a moment, "I guess so."
Chi Heng didn't inquire too much about these matters, and instead asked about another thing.
"By the way, how's the thing you mentioned last time going?"
Jiang Si told the truth, "It didn't go very smoothly."
She had already told Chi Heng about the three people on the list when she came last time.
The Design Management Department has the authority to approve applications, while the Materials Supply Department is responsible for material allocation.
Vice Minister Xu is in charge of finance and the work of the Infrastructure Planning Department.
Jiang Si's first attempt was to probe the Design Management Department.
The method of probing is also very simple.
When she was revising the design, she deliberately mislabeled two data points, and as a result, the design was rejected by the management department on the same day.
Because of this, Director Ming of the Management Department even had a special talk with her.
They were clearly worried.
I reminded her more than once that she must be careful when revising design drawings in the future!
Absolutely no mistakes can be made.
As for the acting director of the materials supply department, there's no need to test him.
A batch of steel bars had been defective and had already been delivered to the construction site, but the acting director still sent someone to notify her and Director Yang immediately.
"That leaves only Vice Minister Xu."
Chi Heng had dealt with this person quite a few times. When he first met him, he felt that this person was very experienced in dealing with people and things.
Moderate but not mediocre.
“That’s right.” Jiang Si felt the same way.
However, after spending some time with him, she couldn't find any flaws in Vice Minister Xu.
Jiang Si originally wanted to take this opportunity to see who was the most suspicious.
After testing her, she became even more confused.
"To be honest, I still don't know which of the three of them is the mole."
"Don't worry, they won't wait forever. They'll slip up sooner or later," Chi Heng said.
Jiang Si nodded.
At the time, she didn't think much about it.
She knew that Chi Heng was only saying that to comfort her.
No one expected that this would happen so sooner than anticipated.
The next day, as soon as Jiang Si arrived at work, someone came looking for her—
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