Mr And Mrs Huo

Chapter 20

One had to say Yan Hui had an animal-like instinct, but it wouldn't be so easy for him to weasel his way out of this one.

Yu Yuan, leaning back in her seat with her legs crossed, thought of how it all came to this point.

She knew Lustrous was greedy, and they would stretch their hands to the competition designs of Bejeweled whether or not they needed it. Since Lustrous loved to steal, she would be a nice person and give them something befitting to steal.

Yu Yuan also guessed that the person behind the whole operation would be cautious. She had to make stealing those designs look difficult so they would be reassured using it.

First, she had Li Na reduce the number of designers working on the designs for the competition. The selected few had to be trusted and vetted.

The designers that were considered suspicious weren't allowed to participate. And the designers who participated were forbidden from leaking any piece of information.

The completed design drafts weren't kept at Bejeweled, but Yu Yuan provided something for the thief to steal. She brought a fake design draft that would be hidden in a secret safe at Li Na's office.

No one knew where the secret safe was except the owner, but they had to let the thief know somehow.

This part was easy because the thief would definitely be searching for clues about where the design drafts were kept. All they had to do was drop hints here and there for whoever was watching and observing.

Whenever the designers mentioned the draft, Li Na's eyes would inadvertently shift to the direction of her office. She reduced the frequency of staff visits to her office. And the furniture next to where the safe was located showed signs of being moved frequently. Normal people wouldn't notice these things. Only the thief would.

Once the thief knew the draft was hidden in the safe, the next thing was the password to open the safe. They couldn't let the thief coincidentally find the password to the safe. Because then, the thief would suspect that things had been too easy. That would cause their plan to fail.

Instead, Li Na got hired a new security guard called Jiang Bo. Jiang Bo was a middle-aged man. His job was to convince the staff of Bejeweled that he knew someone who could crack a safe.

To the staff at Bejeweled, Jiang Bo's identity was that of a man who once lived in the underground community of City A. They also thought he was an honest man who didn't want to live a life of crime hence his job as a security guard.

Although he might not live a life of crime, he knew many people from the underground who had skills that could be easily used with bad intentions. A skill like safe cracking.

A few weeks after Jiang Bo was hired, someone approached him. It was Tan Lin.

Tan Lin had been on alert, trying to find a way to get her hands on the design draft. Getting that draft would pave the way for her success in the jewelry design industry. But she knew it wasn't going to be easy.

She managed to discover where the draft was hidden after many weeks of observation, but she wasn't counting on finding the password in the same manner. Li Na wouldn't be stupid enough to leave something like that lying someplace she could easily find it.

Tan Lin decided to make use of a safe cracker. Just as Tan Lin was wracking her brain on how to find someone, she heard of the new security guard. She heard that he knew people who could get things done.

The problem was that Jiang Bo looked like an honest man who wouldn't help her if he knew her true purpose. She needed a good reason. It was better if the reason could draw sympathy.

Tan Lin approached Jiang Bo with a good story in hand. She claimed that her parents were dead and her maternal aunt raised her. But her aunt was a greedy person who barely raised her well.

Everything her parents left her had been hijacked by her aunt, but there was something she wasn't willing to let go of. It was the butterfly pendant her mom always wore when she was alive. Her mother had promised to gift her this necklace, but her aunt confiscated it after her mother's death.

This pendant was very important to her, so she had to get it back. But it was hidden in a safe. With tears, she had desperately pleaded for Jiang Bo to find a skilled, safe cracker for her.

Jiang Bo reluctantly agreed and introduced her to one. It was just that behind Jiang Bo's back, the job turned from cracking her aunt's safe to cracking the safe at Li Na's office.

Shi You was the safe cracker she was introduced to. After hearing about the job, Shi You charged an extremely high price. He assured her that this was the lowest anyone in his profession would charge for this type of job.

Tan Lin had no one to seek confirmation from, so she gritted her teeth and sold off many of her designer items to pay him.

Not long after, Jiang Bo resigned. He had found a better job, but it required him to relocate to a very far place. Tan Lin was happy.

Jiang Bo was a hidden threat that had just been removed. Everything was going very well. Tan Lin was too excited about her future dreams to think anything might be wrong.

With Tan Lin's help, the safe-cracker was able to gain access to Li Na's office to crack the safe. Once Tan Lin laid her eye on the draft, she was stunned and very excited. This draft was the key to her success.

Tan Lin had been a spy for Yan Hui for a while now. She wasn't satisfied with her position at Bejeweled, and Yan Hui had promised her a key position at Lustrous. This draft would ensure that the promise was fulfilled.

Unfortunately for Tan Lin, she never knew it was a trap until that jewelry piece made its way to the stage.

Fang Zhifei was first stunned, then ecstatic. The necklace before him was superb. As he moved closer to examine the necklace, he was even more stunned. Whoever designed this was a unique talent. Knowing that such talent existed among the designers of Country A made him very happy.

Fang Zhifei never expected that this surprise would come. The smile on Fang Zhifei's face widened, and he kept commenting, "Good, good, good."

Most of the judges agreed with this comment. They could see how intricate this design was. The details were flawless, and it was obvious that the amount of effort and patience put into designing this necklace was enormous.

The females in the audience were almost drooling at the sight of this beautiful necklace. It was hard to imagine a piece better than this.

The next contestant was already disadvantaged because surpassing this would be difficult. There were even members of the audience who believed this was the winning piece.

The designers from Bejeweled were intimidated. One of them voiced their worries, "Do we even stand a chance against Lustrous? Everyone is smitten by their jewelry piece. Some people probably think Lustrous will win this competition. Even I think so."

Song Ye assured him, "This necklace is very beautiful but I still think we stand a chance. Our submission piece won't lose out when compared to this. It might even surpass it."

It was at this moment Tan Lin finally noticed that something was wrong. She turned to Song Ye and asked, "Doesn't this look familiar to you?"

Song Ye was puzzled. "I haven't seen it or anything similar to it before."

Tan Lin sharply turned to examine the other designers that participated in creating the jewelry Bejeweled submitted. There wasn't even a sign of recognition in their eyes, much less anger or indignation.

Tan Lin felt like she had been thrown into an ice cellar and cold sweats began to form on her brows. Did she pick up the wrong draft?

By now, even Tan Lin could tell she had fallen for a trap. If the draft she picked wasn't the one Bejeweled designed, then who designed it?

Not far from her, Li Na, who had been examining her expressions, sneered. This was just the beginning.

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Author's Note
It's chapter 20 already. 🥳🥳
How time flies.