A Spoonful of Sugar: Don't Beg for Love
Chapter 68

Chapter 68

Benji and Rickard exchanged gazes, and the former immediately opened the door.

Rickard strode forward, only to replace that there were already four bodyguards standing in the private room, and the person sitting in the power player seat was sipping tea leisurely with her back facing him.

The anger of being played the last two times erupted at this moment, and Rickard's tone sounded sarcastic. "Glad to meet you, Ms. Lane. I thought you weren't planning to show up again today, but you actually arrived earlier than me."

"Are you mad, Mr. Duval?"

A woman's teasing voice sounded from behind the seat, and Rickard, who was just about to sit down, was shocked.

'This voice... It sounds so familiar!'

"You..."

"What's wrong? We haven't met each other only for a few years, and you already don't recognize me?"

Hesper turned around all of a sudden, and the first few things that caught Rickard's attention were her scarlet lips, dark black hair, full- blown makeup, and her imposing demeanor, which by itself would already be enough to make others not dare to underestimate her.

Rickard seemed to hear his heart skip a beat. He stared blankly at the person in front of him, and it took him quite some time to even react to what he saw.

"It's you."

"Is it so surprising to you, Mr. Duval? Or do you think that I'm

someone who only deserves to be trampled by you people and would never get an opportunity to turn my life around?"

Rickard ignored her sarcasm, stepped forward, and grabbed her by the arm. "Since you've come back, why didn't you tell me? You even tried to play tricks on me? What's with the man from yesterday? And how did you become the new person in charge of Lane Holdings?"

"Mr. Duval, that's a lot of questions to ask someone at once. Which one do you want me to answer first?" Hesper curled her lips upward, gave off a smirk, and pushed him away while he was still in a daze, just like how he treated her in the past.

She then continued with a sarcastic tone. "Mr. Duval, this is a

negotiation and I represent Lane Holdings in this meeting, so please show me your professionalism. Otherwise, I'll really start to wonder whether the famous Duval Group is just all talk."

Rickard had experienced countless weird and difficult situations, so he managed to calm himself down soon after the initial shock.

He sat down across from Hesper without uttering any other nonsense, but his gaze was still locked on her. "Alright, Ms. Lane, since you want to talk about business first, let's start."

Hesper pretended not to see his gaze, opened the proposal that Duval Group had submitted to them earlier, tapped on one of the lines with her fountain pen, and pointed out the problem concisely.

"This quotation is too high and the materials that you plan to use are so cheap, it won't reflect the grandiose design that a president's office should have, and it won't match the overall style of the whole building too.

"And below this floor, the creativity that your party showcases here is fine, but the design is quite complicated and it would take too long to complete.

"And this..."

She pointed out several problems in one go, all of which were well-founded and not random and aimless.

Rickard stared at this scene quietly; it was difficult for him to imagine that the submissive woman in the past whose only objective was to please him would have such a resolute and stern side.

If he had not known about her past, Rickard would have thought that she was a professional elite of Lane Holdings.

"Mr. Duval." Seeing that he had been staring at her for a long time, Hesper could not help but stop speaking, and a faint hint of

impatience could be seen through her indifferent gaze. "I think what I said just minutes ago should be clear enough for you. I need to see the professionalism of your company. If you continue to be this distracted, I can't guarantee that we can take the collaboration between our companies another step forward."

"Understood," the man replied calmly.

Hesper gave off an irritated scoff, leaned back in the chair languidly, and folded her arms. "Since you understand it, you must've come up. with a solution already? Why not present them to me now?" She purposely waited to see him embarrass himself here.

'It's next to impossible for him to come up with a more well-rounded plan by himself in such a short time, not to mention that he clearly wasn't paying attention just now.'

But who knew, Rickard did not look like he was troubled at all. He then calmly placed another proposal on the desktop and pushed it to the opposite end of the desk.

"The solutions you're looking for are all listed in this proposal."

Hesper skimmed through the proposal suspiciously, and the

expression on her face, which looked unconcerned at first, became

serious gradually.

All the new designs were actually aiming at resolving the questions she just raised.