To Live Again, For the First Time!

Margo fiddled with her phone for a bit before finally sending the other side a message.

Margo: [Hello, good evening, I am Margrete Lenin, the one in charge on this side of the project.]

Diamond Palace Person: [A pleasure to meet you, though I must say, it is still quite early on my side, but good evening to you too. This is my name card, I'll be in your care.]

Margo was a little surprised by this message, it was a little too polite and the other person even spoke as if they were familiar, having the mood to crack a joke.

This made Margo suspect whether he was the real deal or some kind of imposter.

What if Emilin dear was tricked?

As for Abel, from his perspective, it was only right for him to be polite, and if he could, build stronger relations here. 

After all, even if he messaged Master Lin every day, which he would never do for fear of annoying him to death, Master Lin wouldn't give him a second glance, perhaps even blacklisting his number.

Yet here he had finally obtained a chance to solidify his relations with Master Lin.

Master Lin had previously said that this woman, Margrete Lenin, was simply an acquaintance of his disciple, but no matter what, that was simply a little too hard to believe.

After all, would someone of Master Lin's caliber, someone who had never, to this date, asked for a favor from them, go to such lengths for a simple acquaintance?

I think not.

Much less a disciple's acquaintance.

In Abel's mind, the chances of this woman being a simple character were as close to 0 as winning 10, million-dollar lottos in a row.

Anyways, Abel sent Margo his business card.

Making up his mind to at least do this right, after all, he didn't know if he had offended Master Lin with his words at the beginning of the call a bit ago. He should at least try and make some amends.

It was a digital version of the card he would have handed Margo if they were to have met in person.

The design was elegant, yet striking, using simple lines to form a complete and memorable image. The card was predominantly black, with light bluish lines coming in from all sides to finally form a brilliant diamond that couldn't be seen at first.

One might not have noticed at first glance, but when they did notice, it was simply too hard to forget, just like an optical illusion.

Diamond Palace Person: 

[Abel Seth]

[General Manager of the Procurement Department]

[Diamond Palace Main Branch]

Margo was at a loss.

This was, without a doubt, a real business card. The watermark on the [Diamond Palace Main Branch] couldn't be forged nor faked.

But general manager Abel Seth... Abel...Seth.

Margo had thought that they would be pretty lucky getting into contact with a small employee, a supervisor at best, a manager was already pushing it a little, but a general manager?

That never crossed her mind, no matter how much Margo believed in Emilin.

'Wow! Emilin dear is more amazing than I thought.'

However, even after finding out how amazing Emilin was, Margo's initial impression didn't change by much, one or two degrees at most.

There was something else about Emilin that attracted Margo to her, similar to how Emilin attracted those other felines, something other than her personality, her looks, or anything of the sorts.

It was like a natural attraction, attracted to the air around Emilin, maybe her smell, or more likely her aura.

It was somewhat inexplicable, but there were just some people you would look at and naturally have an attraction or repulsion towards, it was nothing physical or romantic. It was more... spiritual.

Similar to people of compatible signs. 

Anyways, Margo didn't idle, since the opportunity came knocking on her door, Margo didn't back down, despite talking to someone that she should really be glad to even be able to contact at this point in time.

Margo: [Then I will be in your care as well. I would like to ask if it would be convenient for me to procure some Siena Silk from your auction house.]

Siena Silk was one level higher than lotus silk, much higher to get, especially in high quantities, but its highlighting point wasn't just its low quantities, but rather its colors.

This was Margo's way of both probing the other side's bottom line as well as procuring some good materials.

On the other side, Abel was unsure of what to do.

Of course, he also realized that he was being probed, after all, it wasn't once or twice that this had happened to him. It was rather something that occurred at a daily basis.

Abel's issue was that he didn't know where his bottom line lied either, and since he didn't know, he asked.

(From Abel's perspective and so his contact is his own number, rather than the name Emilin gave him.)

Abel: [Master Lin, I want to ask you to what extent I am to lend a hand to this acquaintance of your disciple.]

On this matter he was rather straightforward and concise, after all, the other side (Margo) was still waiting for his response.

And right after hitting the send message, he received a response from Emilin not 2 seconds later.

'Does that mean that he is rather quick on his feet when it comes to people he cares about? Then does that mean that there's another reason why he never responds to me?' Abel thought about how the reply was instant.

If it had been some other matter, Master Lin would probably respond a couple of months later with nothing of substance. 

It was to the point that Abel would question whether Master Lin was a monk who was restricted of access to his phone for long periods due to seclusion. 

Master Lin: [As you would treat me.]

Abel: [I see, then I won't bother you any longer.]

Abel immediately switched the screen to go back to her chat with Miss Lenin and Margo was rather shocked by his response.

Margo had taken the time to change Abel's name on her display screen from [Diamond Palace Person] to [GPM of Diamond] with GPM standing for the general procurement manager.

GPM of Diamond: [Please do inform me of the quantity you would like, I'll make sure that you receive it all within the market price.]

What generosity.

With such an impromptu request, if one was in a rush, they may have to pay 3, 4 times the market price, which was already considering friendships and that other whatnot.

The truth was, even if Abel had not agreed to help, which was something that she was very much willing to accept, she would still be able to probe his attitude from his words.

In general, it was rather much easier to reject people through a screen and so it wasn't wrong to say that you would get even more information if done so online, just from the way the other person spoke.

If they had rejected with lines such as 'we currently don't have stock', it'd showed just how far their sincerity went, after all, even if they didn't have stock, for a partner the Diamond Palace put some level of importance with, they would find the wanted product even if they didn't have any at hand

And even if they had to take a loss for it, they would get it within the right time frame.

This much Margo understood.

And if it was responded with even more fluff than simply saying that they didn't have any to sell, then Margo would seriously consider simply not collaborating, no matter how great an auction house they were.

On this point, she was determined. She would rather have a second option that put importance to their collaboration than a first option that had the heart to throw her project away at any moment.

Anyways, if that were the case, she would just go to another auction house and slap the Diamond Palace's face in 3 months' time.

Margo had at least that much confidence in herself.

However, now that the other side had agreed, too many options had to be discounted, which translated to Margo needing time to figure out which ones have opened my that move.

This was a good thing.

They were taking her more seriously than she had thought.

Margo: [Then please get me….]

***

Abel: *Sweating bullets as he reads the list of things Margo is asking him to get for her*

Abel: Is that all? 

Abel: 'As if this isn't enough… why do I have the feeling I'll be getting cramps from too much scrolling?? Can you be more shameless than this? Do you know how long it will take me, aka my subordinates, to get all this?'

Margo: Yes, that will be all. *Calmly with no fluctuations in her voice*

Abel: Then should I be thanking you? ¬_¬

Margo: No need, it's just business.

Abel: *calculating losses* ಠ_ಥ

Margo: I'll buy it all at 10 percent of whatever you pay to procure it.

Abel: ♥‿♥ Happy to do busines—

Emilin (Master Lin): ⚆ _ ⚆ Hm?

Abel: There is no need Miss Lenin, you are our precious business partner, it's our honor to do business with you. You don't have to be polite to us. ಥ_ಥ

Abel: But I should have earned a shameless plug with this work I'm doing right?

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