183 Under Hui's tutelage

"Ah, sea green is definitely your colour. You are a vision in that dress, Jia Li," Eric remarked languidly.

Unlike the other days, she had decided to wear a formal knee length dress this morning. A well fitted white jacket and a pair of sensible heels completed her outfit. She had ditched her severe hair bun along with the customary formal shirt and pants.

She smiled at Eric, grateful for steering the attention away from the book in her hands which is where her boss's attention seemed to be stuck at. But she decided to bite the bullet instead of trying to dodge it.

"I… had borrowed this books few days ago, Mr. Ying. I am sorry, I shouldn't have taken it without your permission," she apologised in a low voice.

"What do you think is the author trying to convey through the narrative?" he asked suddenly.

Jia Li was shocked into silence. She had hardly heard his voice ever since coming to London and that too in form of a full sentence. After a few seconds, his question registered in her head but by then, he seemed to have lost interest in it.

Determined to not let go of this opportunity, she replied in a clear loud voice, "he wants to impress upon the fact that China has the undue advantage when it comes to Rare Earth and when the time comes, it can hold the world hostage because of it."

Hui looked up at her with hooded eyes, "And is that true?"

She shook her head, "No. China did try to do this sometime ago, but at that time other countries started exploring the presence of these elements elsewhere and they were partially successful."

Hui seemed to absorb this for a full minute. Jia Li wasn't sure if she should stand there and await more questions or should she excuse herself. Just then, Ying Hui got up and walked towards his extensive bookcase. Pulling out one, he came to her and handed it over.

"Try this one next," he said in a dismissive tone.

Jia Li bowed slightly to express her thanks and walked out. She sat down at her seat with a thump. She couldn't believe that she had managed to answer the questions and had earned some sort of approval from her recluse boss.

Eric's mouth was agape. He had NEVER seen Hui conduct such a conversation with any of his employees during his five years' tenure with this company.

"Shut your mouth. You resemble a dying fish," Hui told him acerbically when he came to sit back down on his seat.

"You…you…I can't believe that you didn't reprimand her for taking one of your prized possessions without your permission. To top it, you gave her another one in return. Are you well today?" he couldn't stop himself from asking.

Hui gave him a death stare.

"Are you sure that you are in the right field of work? It seems to me that you have a hidden desire to act and it keeps surfacing in the form of bad, over the top reactions to non-issues," Hui told him.

"OMG! There is definitely something wrong with you today. Not only have we been speaking on a non-work related topic for the past five minutes, you also tried injecting humour in that conversation. Of course, it was a poor attempt, but I applaud you for trying your hand at it," Eric jousted with him.

"I was being sarcastic, not funny. Never mind. Can we focus on the issues regarding the upcoming press meet now?" he said.

An hour later, both Eric and Jia Li were standing outside the office's main door, awaiting the arrival of their clients. After the fiasco in Shanghai, Eric wanted to minimise the interaction between Hui and them.

"Are you nervous?" he asked Jia Li, who was wringing her hands surreptitiously.

She looked at him ruefully and replied, "your eyes don't miss much, do they?"

At her indirect admission, he grinned and said, "You'll be fine. I am pretty confident that you will handle the interaction smoothly. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about the man sitting inside the office."

"He can't be that bad. I am sure he realises the importance and prestige attached to this," she countered.

Eric gave a short bark of laugh.

"Do you know what he said to me before I got out of his cabin? He asked me if he should bring up the topic of why had they threatened him with a travel ban earlier and what had made them change their mind later to agree to work with him," Eric said.

"And when I told him that it would only embarrass them, maybe even irk them, he told me that one shouldn't be embarrassed to accept their mistakes," Eric shook his head in exasperation.