Find a junior sister for Xu Yue Jin?

This time, Xu Yue Jin had guessed wrong.

Initially, Ning Yan Fan hadn’t thought about taking Xia Xiao Lan as a student. He just wanted to guide her out of respect for Grandmother Yu and hoped she could be a friend to Ning Xue.

His daughter-in-law Zhen Wen Xiu’s interference had completely derailed those plans.

While Xia Xiao Lan respected him, she had no intention of currying favor or climbing the social ladder. She was willing to pay a high “consultation fee” but showed no desire to become his student.

Even if she had such thoughts before, Zhen Wen Xiu had ruined that possibility.

Xia Xiao Lan was a contradictory person – while she could be shrewd and calculating, sometimes her pride exceeded that of ordinary people!

For instance, she was very firm in her attitude toward Ji Ya.

And after Zhen Wen Xiu’s harsh words, she simply stopped visiting. If not for the Nan Hai Hotel project, Xia Xiao Lan would never have returned to his studio – the old master was certain of this.

“Junior sister? Forget about it. She’s our client now, modifying the hotel’s decoration plans. She paid 20,000 yuan in advance, so I need you to put your heart into it.”

Xu Yue Jin clicked his tongue.

“Isn’t she Xue’s classmate?”

Were college students so wealthy nowadays? Paying 20,000 just for modifying a plan? Xu Yue Jin often dealt with plan modifications – getting a “thank you” and a pack of cigarettes was considered polite. While they were called architects, less politely they were just “draftsmen” who had to draw whatever others demanded. Some units building houses had leaders with zero professional knowledge who still loved to micromanage them.

Getting paid for modifications?

Unheard of.

One payment meant drawing until the client was satisfied.

Ning Yan Fan caught the subtext in Xu Yue Jin’s words:

“Yes, she’s Xue’s classmate. She’s a very interesting person, always full of surprises. I think her future achievements will surpass Xue’s.”

Xu Yue Jin completely disagreed:

“Professor, you must be joking! I’ve never seen a junior with better talent than Xue, especially since she works harder than those less talented than her. How could— Never mind, I won’t argue. I’ll go meet this Miss Xia myself.”

Xu Yue Jin was very unconvinced. Ning Yan Fan shook his head watching his retreating figure.

Xu Yue Jin’s thinking was simple, like most people, believing that talent plus hard work would lead to success… If it were that simple, the phrase “unrecognized talent” wouldn’t exist.

With Ning Xue’s personality, if she weren’t his granddaughter, who knows how many setbacks she’d face and how many detours she’d need to take before succeeding?

Ning Yan Fan used to think his granddaughter’s single-minded nature was good, but with the Reform and Opening Up, he worried she might suffer for it.

When Xu Yue Jin arrived at the workspace, Xia Xiao Lan and Gong Yang had already started working.

“Senior Xu!”

“Senior, you’re here.”

The room wasn’t just occupied by Xia Xiao Lan and Gong Yang – several assistants Ning Yan Fan had called to help were there too, surrounding Xia Xiao Lan like stars around the moon.

Seeing Xu Yue Jin arrive, they all greeted him.

“Continue your work, don’t mind me. I’ll just listen to your progress.”

Xu Yue Jin disagreed with his teacher’s statement that Xia Xiao Lan might surpass Ning Xue, but unable to contradict his mentor, he decided to assess Xia Xiao Lan’s abilities himself.

Xia Xiao Lan and Gong Yang had to submit their proposal to Dong Feng Holdings by the 17th. Xia Xiao Lan wanted to make good use of this weekend. When Xu Yue Jin said to ignore him, Xia Xiao Lan took him at his word.

She continued discussing the design changes with Gong Yang – they had already talked about the decoration style. Whenever she encountered something she didn’t understand professionally, she would grab anyone available to ask.

These people, having been chosen by Ning Yan Fan, all had solid foundations.

So far, all of Xia Xiao Lan’s questions have been quickly resolved.

After explaining, she let them help while whispering with Gong Yang. Xu Yue Jin watched her casually drawing lines on paper – while not terrible, it was just average undergraduate level – how could this compare to Sister Ning? Ning Xue hadn’t skipped grades because the professor wouldn’t allow it, not because her level was that of a first-year architecture student!

Looking at Xia Xiao Lan again, Xu Yue Jin admitted she might be stronger than most first-year students. But that was it – just better than first-years. Many first-year architecture students hadn’t found their footing yet. It wasn’t until the second or third year that their suitability for architecture became apparent.

Xu Yue Jin couldn’t see any hidden talent in Xia Xiao Lan.

Except for one thing – Xia Xiao Lan was exceptionally good at directing people.

Xu Yue Jin was somewhat surprised. In just this short time, Xia Xiao Lan had figured out everyone’s strengths and organized the work systematically, creating a design draft assembly line in the workspace… she just looked around, asking questions when she didn’t understand something, never doing the work herself.

What kind of talent was that?!

Xu Yue Jin couldn’t figure it out.

While he was puzzling over this, he heard someone enthusiastically shout:

“This is Senior Xu’s specialty, Senior Xu knows this!”

Xia Xiao Lan came over with a smile, called him Senior Xu, and handed him the drawings and tools. Though Xu Yue Jin had children of his own, he still felt nervous with Xia Xiao Lan standing so close.

In a daze, he did whatever Xia Xiao Lan said.

Half a day later, Xu Yue Jin rubbed his wrist, looking at his drawings with satisfaction before his smile froze – he realized he had also been led by the nose by Xia Xiao Lan!

Xia Xiao Lan was unaware of Xu Yue Jin’s thoughts.

To her, having the capability to do more work and distribute tasks reasonably came naturally.

The Nan Hai Hotel had over 300 rooms plus multiple public facilities. It would be fine to let Xia Xiao Lan and Gong Yang draw slowly – even a month wouldn’t be too long. But Dong Feng Holdings only gave her a week. If she didn’t utilize Ning Yan Fan’s studio staff to the fullest, what could she submit to Huo Chen Zhou?

Huo Chen Zhou signed a 4-million-yuan contract with Yuan Hui, explicitly stating it was for a quarter of the project volume, meaning the overall budget was 16 million yuan. Whatever designs Xia Xiao Lan drew, she needed to ensure the revised proposal stayed within this range… exceeding this budget would be fine too, if the Hong Kong shareholders agreed.

16 million yuan for a five-star hotel?

This five-star hotel standard must be China’s rating.

Yet this budget wasn’t high – who could Xia Xiao Lan blame? Professor Ning was used to working for the state, and in China’s economic environment, cost-saving was probably his primary consideration!

Xia Xiao Lan didn’t know Xu Yue Jin had come to ‘evaluate’ her – they were thinking about completely different things.

She wasn’t seeking fame or trying to realize her design dreams through the Nan Hai Hotel’s decoration project. With several hundred thousand yuan in loans invested, she needed to ensure she could make money!

Xu Yue Jin would never observe what he wanted to see. At this moment, Xia Xiao Lan was thinking purely as a businessperson – lofty ideals could wait until she had earned enough money, then her pursuits would surely exceed those of ordinary people!

“We could exceed the budget.”

Xia Xiao Lan muttered to herself. None of these four shareholders lacked money.

The competition between Dong Feng Holdings and Hong Kong Mei Hua wasn’t about whether the decoration budget was a few million more or less. Xia Xiao Lan pondered – Huo Chen Zhou said they’d give Yuan Hui a quarter of the project, a quarter of 16 million was 4 million, but what if the total budget was 20 million, or even 30 million?

She should negotiate another contract with Huo Chen Zhou!