America: I came here to study, not to show mercy.

Chapter 254 Catherine Arrives Without Asking
"what are you saying?"

Li Xiaoen suddenly felt a little dazed. He couldn't remember any of his beautiful female friends still on the East Coast, let alone someone who knew his studio address and came to visit him.

With some doubts in mind, Li Xiaoen patted Haskell on the shoulder. Seeing that there was still some coffee left over from Haskell's purchase, he decided not to take his own and instead grabbed a cup and headed towards the office.

The door opened, and the interior was completely different from the office I remembered. The large table and several chairs were gone, replaced by a huge desk at the far end.

A large monitor is placed in the center, surrounded by upright file boxes and all kinds of office supplies. Even against one wall, there are several sofas and coffee tables, making it look like a proper office.

The crisp sound of a mouse click came from behind the desk. Li Xiaoen stepped closer and saw the charming yet slightly intellectual head hidden behind the large monitor. He immediately slumped his shoulders.

"Oh, you've come?"

Looking up at the young man, Catherine nodded in greeting, then immediately turned back to the computer.

He glanced down at it and saw various red and green lines, clearly the stock market interface. Li Xiaoen leaned back on the table and casually placed his coffee on it.

"Judging from your posture, anyone who didn't know better would think this is your office."

"Do you want to cooperate with me?"

Looking up, Catherine's eyes were filled with expectation.

Li Xiaoen did not answer, but silently looked at the other person.

"..."

Blinking her big eyes twice, Li Xiaoen wondered if the woman was trying to be cute. Just as he was starting to have doubts, Catherine nonchalantly looked back at the computer screen.

"Playing dumb won't work."

Li Xiaoen sighed softly, "I'll have someone come tomorrow to move all these things away and restore everything to its original state."

"why?"

Catherine quickly looked up, glaring at him indignantly. "This is a style I chose after a long time of searching."

"Hey, do you want to hear what you're saying?"

Li Xiaoen laughed in exasperation, "You really think this is your office?"

Upon hearing this, Catherine immediately composed herself.

"Please don't look at me like that; this is your own doing."

Li Xiaoen remained unmoved, saying, "Don't think that just because you're pretty you can make decisions on your own and that others will accommodate you."

Is this a heartless rejection or a compliment?
Why am I not annoyed at all when I hear this?
Catherine was puzzled. She knew she had been taken advantage of by the young man's praise, so she rolled her eyes at him.

"Fine, consider the things in this office as my payment for revealing high-value news to you."

"Did Sophie tell you about the church scandal in Aurora?"

Li Xiaoen raised his eyebrows.

"more than……"

Catherine suddenly gave a gentle and beautiful smile, "And there's the scandal involving Paladin Arms Company."

"..."

"If you insist on treating your guess as a certain reality, I won't stop you."

His attempt to test Li Xiaoen was seen through, and he was tested in return. Li Xiaoen remained unfazed and shrugged nonchalantly.

"I will remain highly suspicious of you until I have seen the person who sent me the email in person."

"And one more thing."

Too lazy to argue with this woman, Li Xiaoen brought up another topic, "If you want to repay someone, decorating this office is understandable, but what's the meaning of buying coffee for your colleagues in the studio?"

This time, and the last time, it was all done without his consent or even his knowledge. He had every reason to suspect that this woman would do the same thing again in the future.

"I'll improve the working environment of your studio and increase harmony among the employees."

Catherine answered with her eyes wide open.

"You're so smart, I don't believe you don't know what this means."

Li Xiaoen took a deep breath and gave him a helpless look.

I am the emperor, Shen Wansan, you should reward the three armies on my behalf?
Even though he knew it wasn't in the best interests of his colleagues, he was in a position of organization and leadership for the entire team and had to consider the impact of such a thing on the team.

"Okay, I won't do it again."

Catherine pursed her lips and nodded helplessly.

"That's fine. I don't know what kind of work you do, but you have so much free time to come here?"

With a wave of his hand, Li Xiaoen turned and left.

Catherine glared at the departing young man's back with dissatisfaction before letting out a soft snort, turning her gaze back to the screen, and casually picking up the coffee next to her to take a sip.

The weight in her hand was different from before. She first frowned in confusion, looked down, and after a moment's thought, suddenly opened her eyes wide and put it back as if avoiding a snake, leaning back slightly.

How could such a blunder have happened?
With a mix of emotions on her face, Catherine was determined to rinse her mouth immediately. Her gaze returned to the screen, and she quickly resumed her work, completely forgetting about her original plan.

After sitting down in his seat in the office area, Li Xiaoen had just finished looking at the progress of the studio's projects over the past few days when Evan, who had just left, walked in with a middle-aged man who was clearly of Indian descent and had fair skin.

“Sean, this is Sharma from India, who was my partner in my previous startup team.”

As he introduced the product, Evan's eyes shone with anticipation. "Sharma's family has some resources that can help promote our products. They've always been in charge of public relations and marketing for my startup team."

"Hello, I'm Li Xiaoen."

With a questionable expression in his mind, Li Xiaoen smiled and nodded, shook hands with him, and gestured to the conference room on the side, "It's quiet here, let's talk over here."

Sharma and Evan exchanged a glance and nodded with smiles.

Just then, after gesturing to the two of them, Li Xiaoen took three extra cups of coffee that had been packed earlier and brought them over.

Should we consider hiring a young and beautiful woman to be in charge of etiquette and special reception?
The moment the thought crossed his mind, Li Xiaoen immediately shook his head and rejected it—if Su Feier were to suddenly come to the studio and see such a scene, he would only be making himself uncomfortable.

We'll have to wait until the studio is a bit bigger. Then, we won't need his ideas; the business will naturally create those positions as it grows.

With that thought in mind, Li Xiaoen pushed open the door and entered, placing two cups of coffee in front of the two people sitting on the same side, while he sat on the other side.

"Is there something we can do together since you came all this way?"

After taking a sip of coffee, Li Xiaoen got straight to the point, glancing at Ai Wen and the other person.

They first looked at each other, then smiled and chuckled.

"Sean, I recommend Sharma to you. She can handle the publicity and marketing for our studio!"

Evan didn't beat around the bush and nodded solemnly as he spoke.

"Oh?"

Li Xiaoen raised an eyebrow, feigning surprise. "Is there anything special to say?"

……

It was nothing more than politely boasting about his background and achievements. Unfortunately, after Li Xiaoen spoke a few times and mentioned their experiences of failing in their entrepreneurial ventures, the entire meeting ended hastily at noon.

"I will think about it."

Li Xiaoen greeted them with a smile and walked out of the conference room with the two of them. Just then, they bumped into Catherine coming out of her office, which made Sharma, whose face had darkened slightly, suddenly widen her eyes.

"Sean, this beautiful lady is..."

Sharma's gaze, fixed intently on Catherine, intensified. She turned to Sean Lee, smiling and gesturing for him to come over.

"This is... my friend."

After a moment of contemplation, Li Xiaoen carefully chose his words to reply.

"Friends?"

A bright smile immediately spread across Sharma's face, and she warmly extended her hand. "Hello, I'm Sharma, Sean's friend. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Looking down, Catherine didn't extend her hand, but shook her head and said calmly, "I'm sorry, I don't have the habit of shaking hands with strange men."

“Oh, I understand…” Sharma suddenly realized, and without a second thought, she smiled and turned to look at Li Xiaoen and Evan, and even the other colleagues who were taking a short lunch break in the office area. “Thank you all for your hospitality this morning. How about I treat you all to lunch today?”

Upon hearing this, the others in the studio immediately echoed loudly. Seeing this, Sharma then laughed and looked at Sean Lee and Catherine, "Everyone's gone, why don't you come along too?"

Li Xiaoen had no other choice but to nod in agreement.

"And... what about this beautiful lady?"

Sharma made no attempt to hide her feelings and immediately turned to look at Catherine.

With a strange smile on her face, Catherine crossed her arms and gave the helpless-looking young man a mischievous look before nodding slightly.

"That would be troublesome."

"Ha ha……"

Only then did Sharma burst into laughter and warmly invite everyone to go outside.

"You didn't need to come along."

Catherine didn't want to drive, so she naturally sat in the passenger seat of Sean Lee's Aston Martin, looking around curiously at the interior decorations, when she heard the young man's warning.

Sharma's intentions are obvious to anyone with eyes to see. With such a purposeful invitation from the other party, even with many other people involved, there will inevitably be entanglements during and after the event.

Even though Li Xiaoen knew that with Catherine's cunning and family background, she could easily get rid of these troubles and even teach the other party a lesson.

"what happened?"

Turning around, Catherine looked at Sean Lee with amusement. "Are you jealous because the guy pursuing you is so charming that he's attracting other suitors?"

"No."

While driving, Li Xiaoen's face darkened. "Although we rarely get along well, I still consider you a friend, and naturally I can't bear to see my friend suffer like this."

"And what do you mean by pursuing me?"

Li Xiaoen glanced at him sideways and said, "My relationship with Su Feier is already public. Are you still going to pretend?"

"Ha ha……"

Upon hearing this, Catherine covered her red lips and chuckled, neither confirming nor refuting, which made Sean Lee frown slightly.

"wrong……"

Suddenly realizing something, Li Xiaoen exclaimed, "You did this on purpose, didn't you? You deliberately sent out ambiguous signals that you were pursuing me, making me keep guessing, so that I would pay more attention to you, and even fall in love with you?"

"Wow……"

Catherine clapped softly, "Sean, you're so smart, you couldn't hide this from me."

Catherine's exclamation of praise elicited no response from the young man, but she didn't mind, chuckling as she looked ahead at the car.

"Given that you are good-looking, if you express your feelings of attraction to the other person, you can often attract their attention. With more attention comes more emotions and thoughts. This is the psychology of love."

She spoke eloquently, then suddenly sighed.

"What a pity, I couldn't succeed with you. Although it was my first time, I still think I'm very beautiful."

As soon as he finished speaking, the car fell silent, with only the faint roar of the engine echoing in the background.

Looking straight ahead, but still noticing Catherine's intense gaze out of the corner of his eye, Li Xiaoen hesitated for a moment before speaking.

"Is this one of your measures?"

From that moment on, the entire car fell into a deathly silence.

Li Xiaoen didn't react. He reached out and played music to the control panel. Just as he was about to pull his hand back, two hands reached out from the side and grabbed his hand tightly, pulling him away.

Startled and holding her breath, Li Xiaoen turned her head to look. Just as she was about to speak, she saw Catherine grab her hand and pull it down, pressing it against the fair flesh of her thigh under her tight dress.

"How about this..."

Looking up and meeting the young man's astonished gaze, Catherine felt a great sense of relief and asked with a smile, "How do you feel? How are you feeling?"

"Although you've been pretending to be serious, I've been observing you all along."

Catherine looked up and gave her a disdainful look. "Sean, you keep glancing at my thighs..."

"..."

The skin was supple and smooth to the touch, and the cool temperature made it irresistible. Li Xiaoen had already turned around to look at the front of the car, and at this moment he couldn't help but take a deep breath.

"Whether I look at them or not, the flowers are blooming, and the scenery is so beautiful. If I don't appreciate it, I'll seem to lack appreciation for beauty."

"So you think you're right?"

The heat of the young man's hand on her thigh made her feel unexpectedly hot. Catherine took a deep breath, feeling slightly uncomfortable, and looked at him with an ambiguous expression.

“Catherine, do you know? I love summer…”

With one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the other person's slightly plump thigh as they sat down, Li Xiaoen said with a leisurely smile, "That was a season when girls dressed lightly, a season for looking at legs."

"Oh, so this is your quirk..."

Nodding seriously, Catherine took her phone out of her bag. "I'm going to tell Sophie, including what you said before..."

"Hey……"

Li Xiaoen quickly turned his head to look at her, "Catherine, you're always reporting to Sophie. Is this how you play the game?"

Anyone who didn't know better would think that he had put his hand on the other person's thigh.

While secretly thinking to himself, Li Xiaoen didn't say it outright, but he believed that the other party was smart enough to understand.

"Promise me something."

Catherine pursed her lips into a smile.

"..."

Do American girls all like this style?
Li Xiaoen was puzzled. "What is it?"

"No matter how big your studio grows in the future, at least reserve an office for me. Also, when you need funding, you must consider me first."

"Aren't these two separate things?"

Li Xiaoen's vision went black. "I promise you the first thing."

An office—the size and location weren't specified—was a very flexible condition that wasn't a problem for him at all.

"I'd better tell Sophie."

Catherine sat back down and picked up her phone again.

Is this how you threaten people?

Li Xiaoen was both amused and exasperated. "Okay, okay, I promise you, alright?"

"Well, it's a pleasure to work with you."

She immediately put down her phone, took the young man's hand from her lap, and shook it casually.

"I'm sorry, I'm not happy."

Rolling her eyes, Li Xiaoen withdrew her hand and glanced over there unintentionally, just in time to see the phone on the other person's fair thigh, the screen displaying a black background with red and green lines.

"..."

"Oh, I've been discovered."

Even so, Catherine showed no embarrassment or panic, and calmly picked up her phone again, which made Sean Lee's eyes narrow slightly.

Snapped.

A loud bang came from inside the car, and Catherine immediately cried out in pain.

"Sean!"

"This is a return gift..."

(End of this chapter)