You Think You're So Capable
Mr. Wu, the Steward, grew anxious at once. He had sized up Lily Evans over the past few days and quickly defended her, "Mr. Shen, Miss Lily isn’t the kind of person you think. She’s only come to see my young master for urgent business matters. Today, I was the one who asked her to come. Please don’t misunderstand, Mr. Shen."
Shane Shen wasn’t about to listen to Mr. Wu’s explanation. He said, "Go check if Leonard’s awake. I’ll go in and see what tricks this Miss Su is up to!"
With that, he strode purposefully into the main hall where Lily Evans was waiting.
Lily Evans was sipping tea. Hearing footsteps, she assumed Leonard Li had arrived and stood up with a bright smile—only to see a handsome but unfamiliar young man walk in, his demeanor anything but friendly.
Lily paused, gave Shane Shen a polite bow, then sat back down, drinking her tea with perfect composure, not sparing him a single glance.
Shane Shen stared at Lily Evans, noting her striking beauty and refined air—she was every bit as elegant as the socialites in the capital.
He said nothing, just sat across from Lily, watching her. But she remained calm and collected, never once glancing his way, as if he were invisible.
Shane Shen was the first to lose patience. His tone was unfriendly: "So you’re the Miss Su doing some so-called business with Leonard?"
Lily calmly took another sip of tea, thinking to herself that this young master wasn’t as impressive as she’d imagined—he lost his cool so quickly.
After a few more sips, Lily finally looked up, her tone unruffled: "Sorry, my business dealings with Mr. Li are confidential. I can’t share them with outsiders."
"You!" Shane Shen hadn’t expected Lily to push back so firmly. He grew even more annoyed, sneered, and walked over to the desk to write something.
Lily ignored him. Once Shane finished writing, he tossed a sheet of paper in front of her, his tone dripping with sarcasm: "A woman doing business? Bet you can’t even read! Can you make sense of a ledger? Do you even know how business works?"
Lily smiled. Well, looks like someone’s here to cause trouble!
She took the paper and saw it was just a simple math problem about accounting.
"What’s the meaning of this?" Lily glanced at Shane.
"Hmph! You went to all this trouble to get close to Leonard with your business talk. He’s just playing around—found it novel, so you got lucky! If you’re really that capable, solve this math problem and maybe I’ll believe you’re a real businesswoman. Otherwise, you little vixen, get out and don’t come back!" Shane snapped.
Lily took a deep breath. So this guy thought she was just scheming her way into high society?
Why couldn’t a woman do business? Why couldn’t she handle accounting? Fired up, Lily decided she’d show him what she was made of—and give him a lesson he wouldn’t forget!
Without another word, Lily grabbed the paper, walked to the desk, and started writing without hesitation.
She’d thought it would be something tricky, but it was just basic addition and multiplication—nothing a college graduate from the twenty-first century couldn’t handle.
Seriously, even an elementary school kid could ace this. What was he so smug about?
Shane watched Lily write without a moment’s pause, not even bothering with an abacus. He assumed she was just scribbling nonsense, looking down on her all the while.
Lily finished quickly and tossed the paper at Shane: "Here. Don’t bother me with such trivial stuff."
Shane took a look—and was stunned. Lily’s answer was spot-on! How was that possible? Even the old accountant needed an abacus, but she’d solved it in her head!
Lily noticed Shane’s defeated look, smirked, and grabbed another sheet of paper. She wrote out the classic “chickens and rabbits in one cage” problem—a headache for countless elementary school kids—and tossed it over with a cold, proud glance: “Think you’re so clever, young master? Try solving this. If you can’t, don’t ever disrespect me again!”