Chapter 198: Chapter 126: Being Handsome Pays Off

"That girl from the Rockefeller Family?" Li Wei handed her a Gatorade. "Here, your energy drink."

"Open it for me," Anya wriggled in Li Wei’s embrace. "I’m so limp, I don’t have any strength."

Li Wei effortlessly twisted the cap off with just two fingers. For some reason, the sight of this made Anya’s face flush red again.

She quickly looked down at the chat window on her laptop screen. The messages she had sent Tiffany were still unread, even though her profile showed she was online.

"That’s right," she said, taking a sip of the drink. "It’s been two days... This shouldn’t be happening. My deadline is the day after tomorrow. If I don’t get it from her soon, I won’t make it."

"Why don’t you give her a call?" Li Wei said. "If you have trouble asking, I’ll do it."

"It’s fine," Anya said, taking her phone out of her bag. "I’ll ask her myself."

Out of the corner of his eye, Li Wei caught a glimpse inside Anya’s bag and saw the pitch-black grip of a gun flash for an instant in an inner compartment.

He didn’t feel any sense of danger. On the contrary, he felt even more reassured.

After the phone rang several times, Tiffany’s drunken voice came through. The blaring music of a DJ in the car made it hard to hear her.

"Hello?" she yelled. "Who is this? How did you get my number?"

’Suka Bulie!’

’I’ve been waiting for that file for two days, and you’re out clubbing and drinking on a weekend in broad daylight?’

"Tiffany Rockefeller, it’s me, Anna," Anya said, taking a deep breath. "I wanted to ask about the revised plans—"

"Who?" Tiffany slurred. "Speak up, I can’t hear you!"

Anya glanced at Li Wei and repeated herself, this time much louder.

"Oh, that thing," Tiffany yelled into the phone. "Sorry, sweetie, my uncle went to Switzerland for a ski trip recently. I can’t reach him. How about I ask him for you in a couple of days?"

Li Wei, listening on the side, didn’t believe a word of it.

’How can you be on a ski trip and be unreachable for two whole days? And from her tone, it’s obvious this Tiffany Rockefeller couldn’t care less about Anya’s request.’

"A couple of days will be too late," Anya said, suppressing her rage. "Can you please send it to me today?"

"N-no... HIC... can’t do it, sweetie," Tiffany said. It sounded like she was chugging another drink. The roar of an engine came through the phone. "It’s nighttime in Switzerland. I’ll ask for you tomorrow."

"Don’t bother," Anya said. "Have fun." With that, she hung up the phone.

"Hit a snag?" Li Wei asked. "Want me to contact someone for you?"

"No!" Anya shook her head stubbornly. "I have to do this on my own."

After saying that, she paused, then looked up at Li Wei. "At least let me try to handle it myself this time."

"So what’s your plan?" Li Wei scratched his head. "Download the files from the New York City Government’s public website and then mark them up point by point?"

"Looks like that’s my only option for now," Anya said. "But the timing should work out. If I cut back on sleep a bit, I should be able to finish."

She scrambled off the bed and gave Li Wei a quick kiss.

"I have to head back now," she said reluctantly, cupping Li Wei’s face in her hands. "I’ll be back after I turn in the files."

Li Wei didn’t say anything, simply walking Anya down to the underground garage and watching her drive away from Battery City Park.

’But how could he just let her struggle on her own? What if she really failed?’

"Coach Tony?" Li Wei dialed the number for the head coach of the Yale University football team. "Are you free to grab a bite to eat sometime?"

After setting up a meeting with Head Coach Tony, Li Wei called the Director of Public Relations for the New York Giants.

"Mr. Smith," he said, "sorry to bother you... but I was wondering, are you free this evening?"

...

In a high-end American steakhouse in Manhattan.

"So, that’s the situation," Li Wei said. "I’m more than happy to help make this happen. After all, I’m about to start at Yale University, and I’m also a member of the Giants. I think that if we could establish a long-term, official collaborative mechanism between a top Ivy League school and a premier NFL franchise, it would be a win-win for both sides."

Li Wei cut into a medium bone-in tomahawk, the knife gliding smoothly through the meat as juices gushed out.

He could now easily put away a 1.5-kilogram tomahawk steak and all the fixings in one sitting.

He paused, his gaze sweeping over Smith and Tony’s faces, before adding meaningfully, "Of course, a high-profile, interdisciplinary collaboration like this involves a great deal of coordination and would naturally require a dedicated budget."

Smith’s and Tony’s ears perked up at the same time.

"Besides venue and promotional fees, I think it’s absolutely necessary to establish some expert consulting fees and special organizational stipends," Li Wei said, "to reward the individuals who put in the hard work to make this partnership happen."

As the PR director for a team worth billions of USD, Smith was a sharp operator and understood instantly.

The Giants’ annual PR and community budget was already more than they could spend, and they were always struggling to find legitimate ways to use it all.

’Organizing an event like this would be a win on all fronts. It would be great for their image, and it had practical benefits. They could just hire a third-party company to manage the accounts, and how that ’consulting fee’ moved around? That would be his call to make.’

’Coach Tony’s heart began to race. Yale University had money, sure, but that was the Board of Trustees’ money. It had little to do with a coach on a fixed salary and bonuses. But a commercial project endorsed by the NFL? The potential for perks in something like that was immense—and with Li Wei heading it, everything would be legitimate and above board. No one would be able to find fault.’