175: Chapter 175 It's him!

Lu Manqi pushed the card case forward another half-inch. Her slender finger tapped lightly on the matte black surface of the box before she gracefully withdrew it, resting her fingertips together on her lap with impeccable poise.

"The single transfer limit for the Black Gold Card is one hundred million, with a daily cumulative limit not exceeding five hundred million. This should cover virtually any large-scale fund mobilization needs."

She spoke at a measured pace, reciting every benefit clearly. Her gaze remained fixed on Jiang Chen's face, as if confirming he was listening, or perhaps waiting for him to say something more.

"Cross-border remittances enjoy the bank's most favorable exchange rates, and you can directly access VIP lounges at all partner airports worldwide with this card, no reservation required. Additionally, the one-on-one private consultant service is already bound to my employee ID. You can contact me directly twenty-four hours a day for any needs you may have."

When she said "twenty-four hours," her tone remained professional, but the end of the phrase lingered for a split second, as if she had quietly left a door slightly ajar within those words.

Jiang Chen nodded and casually swept the card case into a drawer, his expression as calm as ever. "Alright, I understand."

Lu Manqi waited for two seconds. Only after the faint, lingering anticipation in the air had completely dissipated did she unhurriedly rise from the guest chair.

She smoothed out a non-existent wrinkle in her skirt and took a gold-embossed envelope from her lambskin handbag, presenting it to Jiang Chen with both hands.

"Inside is the benefits manual and my business card. I've handwritten my private number on the back of the card. Please keep it safe."

She deliberately avoided saying "office extension" or "contact during working hours," instead keeping the words "private number" extremely soft and gentle. They landed like a feather on the desk—leaving no trace, yet impossible to ignore.

Standing to the side, Shen Xi took all of this in.

Her face still wore that impeccable professional smile, but her eyes flickered slightly the moment Lu Manqi handed over the envelope.

Delivering the card in person, handwriting a private number, twenty-four-hour exclusive service—this series of moves was executed seamlessly. To any onlooker, it didn't look like a simple business trip.

But Shen Xi said nothing. She merely took a small, subtle step forward, stopping exactly where she could have intercepted the envelope for Jiang Chen.

However, Jiang Chen had already reached out and taken it. He set it down casually on the desk without opening it or sparing it a second glance.

Lu Manqi's gaze lingered on the envelope for less than a second before shifting away, the smile on her face never wavering.

She knew the boundaries all too well.

For a first meeting, being able to personally put her private number into the other party's hands was already a perfect result.

One step more would be crossing the line.

"Then I won't disturb Mr. Jiang any further."

She gave a slight bow, her eyes resting on Jiang Chen's face for one final, brief moment before she turned and walked toward the door at a steady pace.

As she passed Shen Xi, she nodded politely with a gentle yet distant smile—like a glass of water at the perfect temperature, neither scalding nor cold.

Shen Xi returned the smile with a curve that looked as if it had been measured with a ruler.

The two women brushed past each other silently at the office door. A faint current of electricity flickered and vanished, instantly scattered by the draft in the hallway.

The sound of high heels grew distant. Shen Xi stood in place until the sound completely vanished toward the elevators, then she walked unhurriedly to the door and gently closed it.

She turned around and glanced at Jiang Chen, seeing that he had already lowered his head to look at his phone. The gold-embossed envelope still lay quietly on the desk, as if it had never been noticed.

Shen Xi said nothing. She simply walked back to her workstation, sat down, and opened her computer, her fingers resting on the keyboard.

Two lines of nonsensical gibberish popped up on the screen.

She looked down and realized she had typed: Lu Manqi, Jiangcheng Bank Private Wealth Management Department.

Expressionlessly, she held down the delete key, clearing the line completely as if it had never existed.

Lu Manqi walked out of the Chenxing Capital office building's main entrance. The autumn sunlight rushed toward her, falling warmly onto her exquisite makeup.

She wasn't in a hurry to hail a cab. Instead, she stood on the steps outside the revolving door for a moment, taking her phone from her handbag and swiping the screen as if checking messages.

In reality, she wasn't looking at anything.

She was just waiting for her heartbeat to settle down.

Lu Manqi had seen too many wealthy people.

In her three years at the private bank, the combined net worth of the clients she handled was a figure an ordinary person couldn't reach in several lifetimes.

Among them were white-haired entrepreneurs, pot-bellied mine owners, shrewd and sophisticated investors, and spendthrift second-generation heirs.

Without exception, they had all shown varying degrees of interest in her face.

Some were subtly testing the waters, some were blatant, and some even handed over room cards tucked inside business cards at cocktail parties.

She had gracefully fended them all off.

Not because she was aloof.

But because she felt it wasn't worth it.

Those people's money was their money.

What did it have to do with her?

Even if she married into such wealth, she would be nothing more than a high-end housekeeper, serving a man she didn't love, enduring his wrinkles, belly, and terrible temper in exchange for a long-term meal ticket.

Lu Manqi wouldn't take that deal.

She wanted someone who truly made her heart skip a beat.

He had to be handsome, and he had to be rich.

She admitted she was greedy, but so what?

That way, even if she really ended up as a high-end housekeeper, any anger would vanish the moment she looked at that handsome face.

So, from the first moment she saw Jiang Chen, three words surfaced in her mind—It's him.

In this afternoon's sunlight, she truly felt those three words.

Jiang Chen was much younger than she had imagined, far more handsome, and his aura was significantly more steady and reserved than any client she had ever met.

That composure wasn't an act; it was in his bones—the kind of thing that settles after being in a high position for a long time and seeing great storms.

When he leaned back in his chair and casually said "Thank you for your hard work," his tone was as nonchalant as if he were speaking to the air, yet Lu Manqi felt her ears burn for a moment.

More importantly, there was that female assistant by his side.

Shen Xi.

The way she looked at her was very interesting.

That subtle wariness, that posture of clearly caring but pretending to be indifferent—Lu Manqi was all too familiar with it.

She had seen it countless times in socialite circles, at high-end galas, and in the gazes of wealthy wives scrutinizing young female secretaries.

If the female assistant's reaction was at this level, then it meant...

There wasn't yet a woman in the true sense of the word by Jiang Chen's side.

At least, not a woman she didn't dare to challenge.

The corners of Lu Manqi's lips slowly curled up, a shimmering light appearing in her peach-blossom eyes.

She stepped down the stairs in her stiletto heels, raised her hand to hail a taxi, bent down to sit in the back seat, and gave the driver the address of the bank's headquarters.

As the car joined the flow of traffic, she leaned back against the seat, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the metal clasp of her handbag, her mind already racing.

She had finished the first step.

Appearing before him, leaving a perfect first impression, and then disappearing gracefully without a single unnecessary word.

She knew a man like Jiang Chen was used to women throwing themselves at him. A woman who was too proactive would be automatically categorized as an "object not worth the effort to deal with," so she absolutely could not rush.

But waiting was never Lu Manqi's style.

She wouldn't wait foolishly; she would use the waiting time to complete all the necessary homework.

Upon returning to the bank, she didn't go to her office but went straight to the archives of the Private Wealth Management Department.

As she passed the workstation area, several familiar colleagues greeted her. She nodded back with a smile but didn't stop her pace.

She swiped her access card over the sensor, and the archive door clicked open.

She pushed the door open, closed it behind her, sat down at the computer, and used her internal permissions to pull up Jiang Chen's client profile.

There wasn't much information on the screen, or rather, there wouldn't be much information the bank could possess in the first place.

She saw his account opening date, initial capital verification records, a summary of transactions from the past six months, and the record of that hundred-million-plus deposit that triggered the system to upgrade him to a Black Gold Card.

As for everything else...

She had already done her homework before going today; there was no longer any need to look at it.

What she was truly looking for wouldn't be in the regular archives at all.

Lu Manqi closed the system interface and leaned back in her chair, her fingertips lightly tapping the desk as she began to arrange her pieces.

She needed to find out about his social circle.

Who he associated with, which occasions he attended, and whether he had regular private gatherings.

She needed to figure out his lifestyle habits.

Which restaurants he usually ate at, which gym he worked out in, and whether he stayed at the company or went out on weekends.

More importantly, she needed to know his relationship status.

Not just the word "unmarried" on his profile, but whether there were actually other women around him, and what exactly his relationship was with that Shen Xi.

These were tasks that required patience and couldn't be rushed, but Lu Manqi was confident she could do them well.

She never lacked connections in the financial world. As long as she was willing, a name passed from her lips could bring back an entire network of relationships within three days at most.

That evening, she made her first call.

The person on the other end was a connection broker she had met at a private bank gala. He specialized in bridging gaps for high-end clients and held social intelligence for the entire upper class of Jiangcheng.

After the call connected, she didn't mention Jiang Chen's name directly. She only said she had recently taken on a new client and wanted to do some background research to provide more precise service in the future.

This reason was perfectly normal in the financial circle, and the other party readily agreed.

After hanging up, Lu Manqi stood before the floor-to-ceiling window of her apartment, looking at the night view of Jiangcheng with a faint smile on her lips.

The glass reflected her image.

Exquisite features, a perfect figure, and a heart full of ambition and confidence.

For this moment, she had maneuvered among dozens of less-than-satisfactory suitors for far too long, rejecting countless room cards, hints, and empty promises of "you won't regret following me."

She wasn't against marriage; she was just waiting for a prey worthy of her.

Now, the prey had appeared.

Lu Manqi flipped her phone over on the table. Her fingertip slowly traced the rim of her glass as her peach-blossom eyes narrowed slightly, like a leopard that had finally locked onto its target—languid yet dangerous.

She would take it step by step, without haste or agitation, but every chess piece had to be placed precisely.

Meanwhile, in the Chenxing Capital office, Jiang Chen was still flipping through project proposals, the coffee by his hand already cold.

The gold-embossed envelope on the desk had never been opened, lying quietly among the stacks of documents like a seed casually scattered, silently waiting for the right moment to sprout.

And he was completely unaware.

Or rather, he couldn't be bothered to care.