Chapter 5

"What a joke!"

Mrs. Smith slammed the documents onto the table.

"It's just the Hayes Group! What's so great about it?!"

"Brittany!"

She called out towards the door.

Brittany scampered in like an obedient puppy.

"Mrs. Smith, you called?"

Mrs. Smith pointed at the phone number of the Hayes Group's Director of Procurement on the document.

"Call it now! Put it on speaker! Let certain conceited people hear that without her, Hayes's money will still hit our company's account!"

Brittany pulled out her latest iPhone and dialed the number.

The conference room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"Beep—beep—"

The call connected.

"Who is this?" A cold, crisp female voice came through.

Brittany immediately put on a sickly sweet, high-pitched voice.

"Hello, are you Director Wang of the Hayes Group? This is Brittany, the new manager for the fifty-million-dollar distribution project~"

There was three seconds of silence on the other end.

"My name isn't Wang, it's Zhao. You don't even know the name of your point person?"

Brittany's face stiffened, and she looked to Mrs. Smith for help.

Mrs. Smith snatched the phone and shouted into the microphone:

"Director Zhao, is it? I'm Mrs. Smith, the owner of your supplier company! The fifty-million-dollar contract has been signed, and the first payment of twenty million must be transferred today!"

Her tone wasn't like someone chasing a payment; it was more like a gangster collecting protection money in a back alley.

Director Davies on the other end let out a cold laugh.

"Mrs. Smith? I don't care who you are. According to Article Seven of the contract, before payment, you need to submit the underlying architecture authorization for the core A.I. chip, and it must be personally signed and confirmed by Ms. Miller."

"Where is the authorization?"

Mrs. Smith froze, turning to glare at me. "What authorization? Why don't I know about this?"

I shrugged, saying nothing.

Mrs. Smith could only grit her teeth and shout into the phone, "What authorization? The contract is signed, just send the money! Luna Miller has been fired, and Brittany will manage the project from now on!"

As soon as she said that, the air pressure on the other end of the line instantly dropped to freezing.

"Fired?"

Director Davies's voice turned completely cold.

"Your company unilaterally replacing the core technical liaison and failing to provide the authorization constitutes a fundamental breach of contract."

"Payment processing is immediately terminated. Our legal department will send you a termination letter within the hour."

"Beep—"

The call was ruthlessly disconnected.

The busy signal echoed in the conference room, like a loud slap across Mrs. Smith's face.