FG Tower
"Yang Mi, give her some coffee," Lily said without moving her eyes away from Tang Lingyun.
"I prefer tea, Gorreana-Broken Leaf Black Tea please," Tang Lingyun said, her tone as gentle as her smiling face. When she noticed that Yang Mi did not move an inch, she immediately continued. "I can understand if you don't have this kind of tea. It is a little bit expensive and rare, after all. I will take black coffee with two cubes of sugar, please."
However, Lily just continued to stare at Tang Lingyun as her right hand tapped the tabletop.
"I…" Tang Lingyun awkwardly said, "I didn't mean to offend you. I am just used to the Gorreana-Broken Leaf Black Tea that your father brought me from Europe. I… apologize." In response, Lily scoffed before she turned her head to Yang Mi.
"Get her the Gorreana-Broken Leaf Black Tea. Bring the tea set as well; my stepmother will steep the tea herself. And don't forget my coffee. No sugar or milk," she said in one go, a smile visible on her face as she looked at Yang Mi. She turned her gaze back to the woman in front of her. "Why do you look shocked? Most of my employees are Europeans, so they prefer to drink the same tea as you. So I tend to stock a lot. If you want, I could give you a dozen or two."
"I… no… I was just surprised. That's all." Tang Lingyun immediately hid the shock on her face. In fact, she had never tasted this kind of tea. She just thought of the idea to embarrass Lily by demanding the expensive tea. According to her information, a pound of this tea would cost almost a thousand US dollars. What kind of person would provide her employees with tea that was worth that much? However, when she thought about Lily's explanation, Tang Lingyun calmed down. Lily and her employees were indeed from Europe, and this type of tea was made in Europe, it was only right that they were familiar with it.
"Hmmm…" Lily nodded, still staring at Tang Lingyun intently.
"It is very difficult to get an appointment with you. I never knew that…"
"It's just the two of us, Tang Lingyun. We can stop pretending," Lily interrupted her. "Why are you here?" she asked before she rose from her seat and turned her back against Tang Lingyun.
"I want the properties you inherited in Mainland China," Tang Lingyun blurted meekly. "But I have convinced your father to compensate you. With the current status that you have, I'm sure they mean nothing to you."
"And what are you planning to compensate me with?" she asked without facing Tang Lingyun.
"Money! We are going to buy those properties back. All of them are rightfully your fathers, so it is only just that he gets them back."
Lily's scoff after Tang Lingyun's words made the latter irritated. "Please stop disrespecting me. I am still your step-mother."
"Ex step-mother," Lily corrected as she turned around to watch Yang Mi bring in the tea set with various kinds of teas placed in small square plates for Tang Lingyun. "Go ahead Ex Step-mother, indulge yourself." She gestured at Tang Lingyun to start.
In response, Tang Lingyun just stared at the tea set for a while before gently brewing her tea. "So? Are you going to agree to my simple request?" She asked while pouring the hot water into her cup of tea.
"No," Lily replied before sipping her coffee. This made Tang Lingyun stop and lift her head to look at Lily.
"Why?"
"No particular reason." Lily shrugged.
"These properties are extremely important to your father. How could you decline my offer?"
"How could I not?" she countered before taking another sip of the coffee. "Can you even afford it?"
"You- The Qin Family might not be as rich as you, but we are not poor either! I know that you heard about the company's struggle in the past few years, but that has already been solved, and the company is doing fine now. You should stop underestimating us!" Tang Lingyun blurted, anger seemingly clouding her vision. This was the thing she hated the most, being underestimated by someone whom she used to underestimate before.
"Oh?" Lily raised an eyebrow. "So… how much are we talking about?"
"Is everything about money to you Jinghua? How about…" Tang Lingyun's words were interrupted when Lily suddenly held her hand up in front of Tang Lingyun's face.
"You came here and talked about buying my properties then you tell me that all I think about is money. Tang Lingyun… are you perhaps, delusional?" Lily asked, mockery apparent in her eyes.
"You-"
"What? Are you going to use your famous family speech again?" Lily let out a sarcastic laugh. "You wanted to buy something and refused to talk about money. What kind of logic is this?"
Tang Lingyun stared at Lily in disbelief. The veins in her temples were bulging, threatening to burst at any time from trying to control the amount of rage she felt towards the other woman. She clenched her fist before forcing down the blood in her throat. Then she hastily drank the tea that had been steeping for more than two minutes.
"How was the tea?" Lily asked. "Is it comparable to what my father brought from Europe?"
"Y-Yes… Of course," Tang Lingyun forced herself to answer. How could she let Lily know that she was about to lose control at any moment? Wouldn't that only give Lily, the satisfaction she was looking for? Tang Lingyun would never allow that to happen. Never!
"Hmmm…" Lily nodded before she looked at Yang Mi, who was standing next to Tang Lingyun. "Why don't you give Tang Lingyun the right Broken Leaf Black Tea? Since she's old, her eyes may not be that good, so she ended up picking the wrong tea to steep."
Lily's statement instantly made Tang Lingyun's face lose all color. No amount of makeup could hide the fact that she had become as pale as a paper. It was as if a bucket of cold water had been poured on her. Then a scarlet blush started to spread down her neck. With anger and embarrassment consuming her, Tang Lingyun rose from her seat. How could she not know that Lily purposely made her choose the wrong tea?
"You bitch!" she glared at Lily. The gentleness in her eyes was gone and it was replaced with pure hatred. Lily had purposely given her choices to get her confused. She wanted her to pick up the wrong tea to make it seem obvious that she had never tasted the Broken Leaf Black Tea, which she had asked for! How could Lily play her like that? "How dare you embarrass me like that? You are so disrespectful and scheming!"
"Hm? Embarrass? What do you mean? Broken Leaf Black Tea is always served with Peppermint, Lucia Lima and other teas to make it taste better. Did you perhaps forget about it? Or…" Lily raised an eyebrow at Tang Lingyun. "Are you totally clueless as you have never tasted that tea before?" Lily's lips then lifted into a gentle smile, innocence can be seen plastered on her face. It was as if, Lily was really clueless of what she had done.