C12 Chapter 12

After breakfast, Qin Yaochen did what he always did—dropped her off at Qingyue first, then drove himself to work.

The moment Su Jiyue walked into her studio, she saw Cai sitting there with a long face, glaring at her computer like she wanted to bite it.

“What’s with you?” Su Jiyue asked, giving Cai a light tap on the head.

“Ms. Jiyue, don’t you think Great Qin’s is messed up?” Cai blurted out, clearly fuming. “Fine, they want to buy us out—but now they won’t even let us expand. What’s that supposed to mean?”

Su Jiyue froze. “What do you mean Great Qin’s won’t let us expand?”

“Yeah. I talked to Assistant Jin yesterday,” Cai said, cheeks puffed in frustration. “He told me Qingyue is under Great Qin’s now, so anything like that has to go through headquarters. Before he left, I sent the application over. And this morning, first thing, I got their reply—they rejected our expansion request!”

Su Jiyue’s chest tightened. Her gut told her this had something to do with Qin Yaochen, but he hadn’t mentioned any of it yesterday, which made it even harder to read.

She quickly stepped up to Cai’s computer and read the email from Great Qin’s, her brow knitting deeper with every line.

They weren’t outright forbidding expansion—they just believed the cost and risk were too high, so they wouldn’t provide any support.

“Cai, when does our hiring and expansion plan start?”

“Next week. Everything’s already set,” Cai said. “Didn’t we agree in the last meeting that everyone would start packing up their stuff this week? We’re supposed to move into the new office area next Monday.”

“When is Great Qin’s acquisition money supposed to come through?”

“I don’t know,” Cai admitted, dropping her gaze. “Assistant Jin said the tax authorities have been doing audits lately, so the funds can’t be released for now.”

The new office space was designed by Su Jiyue herself, in a location Cai picked out. Right now they were only a ten-person team, planning to expand to fifty, and all the early-stage prep work was already done. Before the acquisition, the money in their account was theirs to use as needed. But after they were bought out by Great Qin’s, every expense had to go through headquarters—and that was a problem.

“What are we supposed to do, Ms. Jiyue? You want all ten of us crammed into that little courtyard?” Cai said, pulling a face, but looking at Su Jiyue with a flicker of hope.

Seeing her like that, Su Jiyue pressed her lips together. “How about this—we stop waiting on Great Qin’s process. I’ll go to the bank and take out a loan. We’ll get this handled one way or another. We’ve already mapped everything out. There’s no reason to quit over a small setback.”

Cai looked like she might actually jump out of her seat. “Ms. Jiyue, you’re incredible! Let’s see Great Qin’s keep acting like they own the world now!”

Su Jiyue couldn’t help laughing at her excitement. “Back to work. I’m going to call the bank.”

Once she was back in her own office, the exhaustion hit her like a weight, like she was about to buckle under it. She’d sounded confident in front of Cai and the others, but the truth was, she’d never dealt with a bank before—she had no idea how getting a loan even worked.

She rummaged through her drawer and found a business card from a bank president she’d met last month. After thinking it over, she finally dialed the number.

“You smell like her perfume...” The tacky ringtone caught her so off guard that Su Jiyue thought she’d called the wrong number. She pulled the phone away from her ear and double-checked, still confused—then the call connected.

“Hello, who’s this?” The bank president’s voice came through.

“Uh... President Li, hello. This is Su Jiyue from Qingyue Yuanlin Studio. I’m not sure if you remember me?” Maybe because she was asking for a favor, her voice came out softer than she meant it to.

“Miss Su, of course I remember you. What made you think of me all of a sudden—what can I do for you?” President Li asked with a hearty laugh on the other end.

“It’s like this, President Li. Our company is getting ready to expand, but we’re a little short on funds. We’d like to apply for a loan with your bank. How about we meet in person to talk it over?”

“Sure. Making things easier for a beautiful woman is part of my job. I know a pretty good private kitchen spot—would I have the honor of treating you to dinner, Miss Su?”

“No problem, no problem. Then… let’s meet at seven tonight. President Li, could you send me the restaurant’s address?” Su Jiyue agreed quickly.

After she hung up, Su Jiyue leaned back in her chair and stared off into space for a long while. She texted Qin Yaochen to say she had something to take care of that evening and would be home late, then called the villa on the south side of town and had them bring her car over.

Su Jiyue had heard President Li was a bit of a womanizer, but for the sake of her studio, she still decided to go to dinner with him alone.

Besides, if things really went sideways, she’d make her identity clear. She refused to believe anyone in City H would dare lay a hand on her.