Tumultuous, Thunderous Skies

Lips tightly pursed, Xiao Moli nodded, and the scowl on his face gradually disappeared.

The lead designer secretly made a gesture of wiping nonexistent sweat from his forehead.

In the meantime, An Ziqi had completed her presentation on stage and walked off.

"Mr. James, this way please."

Xiao Moli rose to his feet and walked out.

Full of anticipation, James excitedly followed him.

An Ziqi had just entered the backstage when a bunch of junior jewelry designers and event stylists immediately confronted her and reprimanded her.

"An Ziqi, who gave you the permission to change our makeup and styling concept? Who do you think you are?"

"Do you realize how much time we, as a team, had spent to prepare for this launch? How much blood, sweat, and tears had gone into it? Now, it is totally ruined, single-handedly by you!"

"If you have a death wish, be our guest, but don't take us down with you."

…

The bunch of them did not hold back, hurling abuse at An Ziqi and calling her all kinds of names.

The trainer quickly came forward to explain. "I know An Ziqi. She would not do something like this on a whim. I'm sure there is a reason behind this incident."

"All she wanted was to stand out. What other reason could there be? People these days are just shameless, using any means to make a name for themselves," one of the designers sneered.

"I think that you might have been sent here by a competing jeweler to cause mischief to this launch!"

...

Standing away from the abusive crowd, Lin Kelan watched from a distance, proud of her deed.

'Huh, An Ziqi. I thought you had a powerful backer? Where is he now? Even her backer would not be able to help now that the people she had offended were from Huanyu.'

Seeing that the bunch of people were getting more and more out of line with their criticism of An Ziqi, Xia Tianxing could not hold back any longer and stepped forward, intending to speak up for An Ziqi.

However, shaking her head, An Ziqi pulled her back and stopped her from doing so.

Shooting a glance at Lin Kelan who was watching from a distance, An Ziqi turned to look at the group of people and said, "I will pay for the dress, just tell me how much. And if the launch organizer wants someone to shoulder responsibility for what happened, they can come to me."

Whatever it was, since the matter had come to this state, she would not evade responsibility if she were to be held liable.

"Oh, wow! You have the nerve! The clothes that you guys are wearing are all limited editions flown in specially for this event. Can you afford it? You have ruined our launch. When Mr. Xiao comes down on us, would you be able to shoulder the blame?" the designer persisted sternly, continuing with her interrogation.

"If she cannot shoulder the blame, would you do it?"

They heard a voice that chilled to the bone.

"Xiao…Mr. Xiao…," The designer squeaked, barely audible.

Everyone backstage stopped talking immediately and turned anxiously to look toward the entrance.

Even Xia Tianxing gave in to her curiosity and turned her head to look.

Confused, An Ziqi frowned.

'Oh, that voice. Why did it sound so familiar?'

It sounded like a voice that she had heard on a daily basis.

She had always had a high threshold for very stressful situations. Surely, this little incident was not harrowing enough to drive her into a state of hallucination.

Curious, she turned around.

When she saw the person standing in front of her, An Ziqi realized fully the meaning of the phrase 'tumultuous, thunderous skies'.

Xiao Moli? Mr. Xiao?

So that was why the guy had turned green last night.

The same family name... Also young and capable...

Why didn't she put two and two together?

She was now on the verge of tears, cursing her own stupidity.

Wait, what happened last night?

What had she done last night?

In front of Xiao Moli, she had adored him, praising him to high heaven and back. She had also mentioned that he was every woman's object of sexual fantasy.

Oh, no! She prayed for the heavens to open a hole in the ground so that she could sink deep into it!

An Ziqi watched as Xiao Moli walked toward her, getting closer and closer. Subconsciously, she lifted her legs, poised to run away.