Noreen nced left and right, making sure there was no one else nearby. Once she was certain Henry was talking to her, she pulled out her phone, found a video, and yed it at full volume in response to him.

“Are you okay? Are you okay? Are you okay?” The voice from her phone echoed loudly.

Henry’s expression soured; his opinion of Noreen dropped even lower.

Noreen, for her part, couldn’t have cared less what he thought. As soon as she’d had her say, she tapped her card and left without a backward nce.

Not far away, Healy–dragged into a blind date against his will–caught the entire exchange. The moment Henry started giving Noreen a hard time, Healy’s instinct had been to step in and defend her. But before he could do anything, Noreen had already handled it herself.

Her approach was… unconventional. But honestly, it was hrious.

If he hadn’t been stuck in his own awkward date, Healy would’ve gone over to say hello to her.

His date, noticing the smile that wouldn’t leave his face, took it as a good sign. She tried to keep the conversation going, but Healy ended the meal early and apologized to her.

She looked genuinely confused. “Can I ask why?”

She knew she was attractive, and her family background wasn’t bad either.

Healy paused, and at that moment, a certain face shed vividly in his mind.

He gave her a straightforward answer: “I’m attracted to people with a sense of humor.”

Meanwhile, when Henry returned to the private dining room, his expression was noticeably sour.

Inside, Bianca‘ was chatting with Ethan. She looked up when Henry walked in. “What took you so long?”

“Got held up,” Henry replied, not interested in borating.

Bianca didn’t press. Instead, she turned to discuss the results of Ethan’s conversation with her.

Ethan reassured her, “Don’t worry about Scott. Even if he teams up with Winrich, he won’t make much of a ssh. The only reason I ever respected him was because we were ssmates back in college–I even gave him a small stake out of courtesy. But now he acts like he’s running TechVenture.” fn7e4a Original content can be found at find?novel/fn7e4a

Bianca’s expression was calm. “I’m not worried about Scott or Winrich. What I don’t get is why Noreen keeps going head–to–head with me on every project.”

“I focus on Al, so does she. I bid for the Port Redevelopment Project, she goes after it, too. Now I want tounch a game, and she’s jumping into gaming as well. She’s always trailing in my footsteps.”

Henry took a sip of tea beforementing with disdain, “That’s typical copycat behavior you see in the business world back home. Thepetition is cutthroat, and everyone’s chasing quick profits without any regard for innovation or originality. This kind of following–the–crowd gets you nowhere in

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the long run—it’s got no staying power.”

Bianca, still on the topic, brought up Noreen’s background. “She got some investment experience working with Seth, but she’s just not up to par. Her education’s pretty basic, and that caps her potential.”

Henry asked, “What’s her degree?”

“Just a regr bachelor’s.”

Hearing that, Henry understood immediately. No wonder Noreen was always copying others and resorting to questionable methods to snatch projects. She was the worst kind of yer in the industry–the kind Henry despised most.

He already disliked Noreen; now he found her utterly contemptible.

After the meal, the trio went their separate ways. Out in the parking lot, Ethan spotted Scott, still driving that battered old Volkswagen.

It matched Scott perfectly: shabby and down on his luck.

The car had seen better days–today, it wouldn’t even start. Scott was hunched over, fiddling with wires to try and jump the engine when Ethan rapped on his window.

Scott looked up, his brow furrowing in annoyance the moment he saw who it was.

But Ethan, never one to read the room, leaned casually on the window and taunted him, “Still driving this heap, huh? Scott, how do you keep ending up further behind? Or did you forget why your ex dumped you in the first ce?”

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