A Vengeful Ex-Wife

James nodded in agreement. "Then you should go see Norman Shen!"

Since she had come to James for help, Maria didn't want to go away empty-handed. "How about I lend you some money, or you lend me some money? Let's take down Qin Group together. What do you say?" However, James remained unmoved by her suggestion.

He was also trying his best not to laugh. She offered to lend him money? Why would he need to borrow money to acquire a company? He was James Xi. He wondered if Maria were pulling his leg. "Leave! Now!" James gave her an ultimatum.

Maria was a little annoyed. Why did this guy have to be so difficult? She was just worried it might be too hard for her to acquire Qin Group alone. She wanted some help.

Why would she even be here otherwise?

He didn't agree to her business plan last time, and now he shot down her idea about acquiring a company together. "So we're done here? I can't get you to agree to anything."

"Well, we're not quite done." He was not that stingy.

Hearing his words, Maria's face softened.

"What would you like at the charity auction? Make a bid and I'll honor it. Anything," he said seriously. Maria rolled her eyes at him. She didn't know that James thought of her like that. Did he believe she was his mistress? "I don't want any jewelry! And I don't want any antiques either!" Maria said, and stamped her foot.

She had read the auction brochure ahead of time. There were several things there, including jewelry, porcelain, famous paintings, and handcraft works. She was not interested in any of them. "What do you want, then? HL Group? Gee, I'll get on that right away," he mocked.

Maria glared at him. "Why not? Aren't you a man of your word?" If James did that, she'd take over in a heartbeat. Worst case scenario, HL Group would go bankrupt. What else would she be afraid of? James sighed helplessly. He wondered if this woman would remember the lessons he taught her. It had been just a few days, but she'd already forgotten how she begged him for mercy. Maria approached, bent down, and wrapped her arms around his neck. Acting like a spoiled child, she begged, "James Xi, if you agree to my suggestion, I will sleep with you again." The man sneered, "If you have time to waste on things like that, maybe you should work on your stamina."

Maria opened her mouth but couldn't utter a word.

James was a hardcore jackass! "Nice. Maybe you want to kick a puppy next?" Maria let go of him and grabbed his hand tightly. She squeezed it tighter and tighter. "You'd better pray the tables never turn! Otherwise..." If that happened, she would definitely ask him to kneel and show her some respect.

However, she was too scared to finish her threat. She bit back her words as she didn't have guts to say them. "I'll make your life a living hell!" She could say that. She let go of his hand.

James glanced at her indifferently and made a comment. "You are so naive!"

Maria was choked by anger. She hated his insults.

She stood there, fuming, glaring at him for a time. Maria couldn't see any way to turn this around. James continued reading his documents, ignoring her gaze. Finally, her eyes fell on the gray mug on his desk. She took out the lipstick and applied a layer of it on her lips. Then she picked it up and drank a mouthful of water under the man's threatening glare.

The lipstick on the grey mug was obvious. James' eyes were full of disgust.

That was his exclusive mug for water. Nobody else used it. He knew Maria was doing her best to sicken him.

Maria put the mug back in its original spot, and held his hand, preventing him from throwing the mug in the trash. She looked into the man's eyes. "Go ahead. Throw it away. I'll go find Alina and mess with her so much you'll have to hear her complain all day long."

After saying that, she snorted coldly and walked towards the door.

When she reached the door, she opened it and raised her voice. "Lorenzo, Mr. Xi wants to see you!"

An obedient Lorenzo appeared at the door. He nodded to Maria politely and entered the entered the CEO's office. "Mr. Xi, you wanted to see me?"

James looked as if he wanted to eat her alive. Maria gave Lorenzo an order. "His mug is dirty. Go wash it." Of course, Lorenzo wouldn't listen to her. As a special assistant of the CEO, he had never done a thing like that before. It was below his pay grade. Maria didn't care. This was deliberately calculated to mess with him. If he refused, it might indicate that he wasn't willing to do anything for James. That meant less brownie points.

Thinking of that, Lorenzo summoned up his courage and said, "Okay. I'll ask-"

Maria chimed in quickly, "Who are you going to ask? You don't normally wash your boss's mug? What's the matter with you?"

Lorenzo wished he could sew Maria's lips shut. He gritted his teeth and said, "Fine. I'll go wash it right now.

Watching Maria for a few minutes, James finally knew what she was trying to show him.

So he didn't stop her this time, because he also wanted to know whether Lorenzo was loyal to him, or if he secretly worked for Alina and Judy.

Lorenzo picked up the mug and left. Maria snorted at James again and left the HL Group.

As soon as she got in the car, she called Colby. "Hello, Mr. Zheng. It's me, Maria. I just left HL Group."

Colby knew that already.

He had eyes of his own in HL Group.

"I asked James. He doesn't know much about Fosun Entertainment Group. After all, the company has just risen in H City. He hasn't taken the time to look into it yet." Maria leaned back in her seat and looked out of the window blankly.

What Maria said was true. Fosun Entertainment Group was a little-known in the past. Colby, too, didn't pay attention to the company until recently.

"I see. Maria, thanks for your hard work. You can bid on whatever you want at the charity auction. Don't worry about the price. I've got you on this one." As soon as Colby came back from P City, he was off on another business trip. So he couldn't attend YL Group's charity auction.

Maria's expression didn't change, but her tone was full of joy. "Thank you, my dearest Mr. Zheng. If you need anything else, just ask." She didn't even care about the auction. She didn't care what James or Colby offered her. But it was useful to her to make Colby think she was incredibly grateful.

"One more thing: HM Group has a project that we're having a problem with. We can't seem to make the client happy. Go see Mr. Qi and I'll ask him to hand over the work to you. I hope you can take over and sort things out."

"Thank you so much, Mr. Zheng, but I know what I'm capable of. And I'm not sure I'm up to it. If you give me something important like that, I'm afraid that..." Maria sounded hesitant.

"It doesn't matter. Give it a shot. There's no harm done if you fail." Colby comforted her, making her the last attempt to sort out the tough client.

"All right! I'm not busy with anything right now. I'll call Mr. Qi right now." In fact, Maria was extremely busy. When she went to see James just now, it was no exaggeration to say that she had made time in her busy schedule.

"All right. Bye!" Colby hung up.

YL Group's charity auction was held in a hotel run by the group. The guests attending the auction were there fishing for fame and credit. Of course, there were also some people who were really kind-hearted and wanted to make some contribution to charity, people like James.

HL Group had been taking on social responsibilities all year round. Each year, it invested hundreds of millions of dollars in charity without expecting any return.

Maria made her long wavy hair straight, applied flaming red lipstick and donned a burgundy-red evening dress. She was incomparably beautiful.

The moment she showed up, her imposing manner and beauty suppressed everyone. Many people had been fawning all over Alina earlier, but they all fell silent after seeing Maria.

This was exactly what Maria wanted. Alina was the most famous celebrity in H City and her popularity had hit a new high. After all, she was part of the Tang family-old money to be sure-and she was going to be engaged to James soon.

S.