At nine o’clock in the morning, Li Qiao sat at her desk, listlessly propping her chin in her hands as she stared at the office before her.
She had already read the employee handbook three times, but Shang Yu still hadn’t arrived.
Li Qiao lazily covered her eyelids, considering whether or not to send him a WeChat message to ask.
However, the moment she picked up her phone, a call happened to come through.
Li Qiao, seeing who was calling, stood up and walked toward the pantry, "Hello, big brother."
On normal days, Li Jun rarely called Li Qiao.
Unless... there was something.
Li Qiao leisurely made her way to the pantry, leaning against the Glazed Pavilion, and to the inquiry on the phone, she replied with a warm smile, "I’ve been interning outside recently, I only come home in the evening."
Li Jun was slightly surprised, rubbing his temples, "Why did you suddenly go out for an internship, was it arranged by the research institute where you were?"
"No," Li Qiao flashed a glance, not willing to elaborate and changed the subject directly, "Did you need something, big brother?"
Li Jun sighed, not dwelling on why Li Qiao had run off to intern, but instead spoke with a heavy tone, "It’s nothing big, just... I remember you have a Leica 0-series camera in your possession, right?"
Li Qiao thought for a moment, nodded nonchalantly, "Hmm, indeed, I have one. It’s in the collection room, what’s up?"
As soon as she finished speaking, Li Jun’s breathing became hurried, "Qiaoqiao, can you take out that camera for your big brother to use?"
"Sure, what do you need it for?" Li Qiao casually picked up a teacup from the Glazed Pavilion and fondled it, "That camera was made last century, if you’re going to take pictures with it, the results probably won’t be as good as modern SLRs."
At most, it has some collector’s value since there are only 25 in the world.
She had anonymously bid for it at the Venus Auction last year, for less than ten million.
At this moment, Li Jun paused, then explained with some difficulty, "It’s not for taking pictures. A few days ago, South Sea Machinery Holdings lost some important development parts, precision bearings for vintage cameras.
And... all the designs for that part have been stolen, so we might need that 0-series camera as a reference to redesign it."
Upon hearing this, Li Qiao raised an eyebrow, "Is it Qiu Huan’s mechanical factory?"
"Right, you know that Machinery Holdings has always been a major taxpayer for South Sea. He just happened to be here for tea, and he mentioned it.
The precision components he lost have been in design for over a year before the initial model was realized.
The original design concept was inspired by the 0-series vintage cameras, and there has been no progress on the case of the missing components for several days now.
If this drags on, it could affect Mechanical Industry’s sales performance this year."
Which in turn would affect the tax collection...
Li Jun rambled on with his explanation, but Li Qiao only raised one question, "Why not use the original 0-series camera that provided them with the design concept?"
It’s not that she’s reluctant to part with that highly collectible vintage camera.
It’s just... she didn’t want to give Qiu Huan an easy break.
He was the one behind the troubles she encountered at the police station, and she held a grudge.
At that moment, Li Jun, seated in his executive chair, frowned and said, "According to him, the mechanical engineering team borrowed it from someone else originally.
Unfortunately, that camera was later sent to an auction, and it sold last year.
It was an anonymous sale, as you know, auctions always provide excellent privacy protection for their clients, now they can’t even find the person if they wanted to."
The anonymous bidder Li Qiao: "..."