Hehe, was it fun to joke around?

With the master she had chosen herself, what could she do? When he joked, Xia Xiaolan had to accept it with a smile.

She had to acknowledge her oversight as an apprentice:

“How could I let you pay? I’ll cover your membership fees from now on.”

“No need. I’m a consultant, and the Society pays me an annual consulting fee that more than covers the membership dues.”

Yes, with your capabilities, you deserve to be proud.

While the resolution with AIA and Mond Dawson remained uncertain, through this incident, Xia Xiaolan became the youngest member of the Chinese Architectural Society.

This wasn’t just Mao Kangshan and Ning Yanfan forcing a decision – her capabilities spoke for themselves. Apart from not having graduated yet, she was fully qualified to join the Chinese Architectural Society. Why wait until other architectural associations recruited her and then regret it?

They had been maintaining their dignity before, but the AIA incident gave the Society a way to step down.

-It wasn’t because they were afraid of the “Mao Cannon” that they admitted Xia Xiaolan early; they were supporting student Xia Xiaolan!

Yes, that was it.

And so Xia Xiaolan became a member of the Chinese Architectural Society.

At this point, it had only been one day since she received Kissinger’s call.

While keeping this matter in mind, she didn’t let it interfere with arranging work.

March 20th, next Friday, was the launch date for ‘Luohu Tiancheng’. Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t be able to arrive until the afternoon at the earliest, so she needed to arrange work in advance.

Yuli thought President Xia was quite composed.

Xia Xiaolan smiled wryly, “When others try to mess with me, isn’t their goal to make me anxious and upset? If I lost my composure, that would be letting the enemy succeed. At times like these, we especially can’t let anger affect us. I’ll work when I should work, study when I should study, and not let my life rhythm be disrupted.”

Lose sleep and appetite over what others did?

Unless it involved someone very close to her.

What were Lisa and Mond to her? Xia Xiaolan had no emotional connection with them.

This wasn’t an insurmountable obstacle.

Besides, so many people were helping her.

…

When Xu Zhongyi learned of her plan to design the museum independently, he immediately showed his support through action.

The 20 mu of cultural land couldn’t be changed.

But he added 1 million yuan to the budget.

What level of support was this?

From a budget of 1 million to 2 million yuan, Xia Xiaolan would have much more room for creativity in designing this museum!

Xu Zhongyi and Xu Changle knew, so Tina naturally found out too.

When she mentioned this to Ji Jiangyuan, her tone was quite surprised, “The theater renovation plan was indeed Xia Xiaolan’s work, how could they cancel her evaluation qualification for such a reason!”

Tina was somewhat involved in this matter too.

She had been present when Xia Xiaolan delivered the proposal to Mrs. Wilson’s house. Initially, Mrs. Wilson had doubts, thinking the style was too young and not quite suitable for Broadway’s character.

“Then Xia Xiaolan mentioned she had distributed 5,000 survey questionnaires and suggested Aunt Cynthia make the theater a place that young people would aspire to visit. Eventually, Aunt Cynthia accepted her proposal.”

Tina remembered this too clearly.

Though she still had significant issues with Xia Xiaolan, she acknowledged her professional capabilities.

“There was no Lisa then, it was Xia Xiaolan and Matthew who went together!”

How could a chief designer not go and send two interns to meet a major client instead? GMP wasn’t that unprofessional.

Ji Jiangyuan held back his laughter, “I thought you disliked her.”

“I do dislike her!”

This week, Tina truly experienced Grandmother Yu’s abilities. Maintaining a face seemed more difficult than nurturing a genuine grandmother-granddaughter relationship. In a really close relationship, Tina could act spoiled… but with this face-saving relationship, she couldn’t.

Grandmother Yu had praised Xia Xiaolan’s excellence more than a hundred times.

Tina understood the underlying meaning in her words clearly – if Grandmother Yu really had a long-lost granddaughter, how much the old lady wished that granddaughter would be someone like Xia Xiaolan.

With Xia Xiaolan as the comparison group that Grandmother Yu praised daily, Tina developed deep self-doubt.

Was she really that inferior to Xia Xiaolan?

No, impossible.

Xia Xiaolan was only three years older than her.

When Xia Xiaolan was 19, she couldn’t have been that impressive.

In Tina’s eyes, Xia Xiaolan was just “someone else’s perfect child” – how could she possibly like her?

Ji Jiangyuan didn’t expose her contradiction, instead praising her:

“Tina, this is why I’m willing to be friends with you. You have a most beautiful quality – you always tell the truth. Whether we like someone or not isn’t important; at least we don’t deny all their merits just because we dislike them. I heard Xiaolan plans to sue Lisa, GMP New York’s former employee. When it goes to court, they’ll need you to testify. Would you agree?”

She should… agree, right?

Ji Jiangyuan had already grasped the key to getting along with Tina, this stubborn mule. She pouted and complained:

“My time is precious too! Running back and forth between America and China for court appearances – she must reimburse my travel expenses!”

Ji Jiangyuan held back his laughter.

What did travel expenses matter to Tina? She was just being difficult.

Tina looked at the documents on Ji Jiangyuan’s desk:

“Ji Jiangyuan, could you help me with something?”

“Hmm? Tell me.”

“I want an internship opportunity… I know Harold will stay in China for over two months. Could I be his assistant?”

Ji Jiangyuan frowned: “Why do you suddenly have this idea?”

Tina becoming Harold’s assistant?

Impossible.

Ji Jiangyuan wasn’t worried about Tina being mistreated; Harold would never agree.

Even though Tina was a Columbia University student, truthfully, how many people working beside American tycoons like Harold weren’t graduates of prestigious schools?

For Tina to become Harold’s assistant, completing her Columbia degree was just the basic requirement.

Setting aside personal connections, Columbia graduates would still compete with Harvard and Yale graduates – Ji Jiangyuan himself wasn’t even an assistant. He was a specially appointed employee for the golf project in China. His success in this position wasn’t due to being a Huaqing Business School student, but Harold’s recognition.

It was George who initially recommended him to Harold, giving Ji Jiangyuan the chance to prove himself.

Meanwhile, Harold considered that Ji Jiangyuan was Tang Hongen’s son. Foreign businesses weren’t omnipotent; they also needed to coordinate with local government. Although so far, they hadn’t asked Ji Jiangyuan to use any connections, if something happened, Harold’s side hoped Ji Jiangyuan would serve as a good “lubricant”!

Tina said she came to China to relax.

Now she said she wanted to be Harold’s assistant. Ji Jiangyuan couldn’t help but overthink.

His expression wasn’t particularly stern, but Tina inexplicably felt nervous and hurried to explain:

“I just don’t want to keep hearing them praise how good Xia Xiaolan is. If she could start from scratch before turning 20, shouldn’t I be able to do something too?”