As soon as An Ning finished speaking, Mr. Zhang Sr. quickly added, "You don’t count."

"Why not?"

An Ning pressed, "I only drew the blueprints."

"You silly girl. Once you finish your blueprints, you know your part is done. You just have to manage your own responsibilities. But some people—"

"AHEM, AHEM, AHEM... AHEM, AHEM, AHEM..."

Jin Zheng, the director of the machinery factory, walked in through the cafeteria entrance and nearly coughed up a lung.

Although Mr. Zhang Sr. was displeased, he knew he had to show some respect. He couldn’t just storm off and curse them out.

He shot An Ning a look telling her to stay calm, then stood up and offered a reluctant greeting to the newcomers.

"Well, if it isn’t An Ning! Glad you had time to come by today."

Director Jin was also fond of An Ning. He was particularly impressed by her blueprints, which he found stunning.

Director Jin’s familiar tone made the man from Beijing standing beside him feel somewhat ignored.

"And these two are?"

With his back to the man who had asked, Director Jin gave a very subtle eye-roll before turning around with a beaming smile. "This is Director Li from the textile factory, and this is An Ning."

"And this," he continued, "is Jiang Dongcheng, a leader from Beijing."

They all exchanged brief greetings. The man, Jiang Dongcheng, was about forty years old and wore a pair of gold-rimmed glasses that gave him a very scholarly appearance.

"Hello, Director Li."

And with that, the greeting was over. He completely ignored An Ning.

Mr. Zhang Sr. was about to protest, but Director Li discreetly pressed the back of his hand under the table.

An Ning, who had been eating, paused and greeted Director Jin politely.

"Hello, Director Jin."

Having said her piece, An Ning sat back down.

She might not have understood the complexities of social etiquette, but she understood fairness.

If someone didn’t greet her, they were a stranger as far as she was concerned, and she certainly wasn’t going to greet them.

Everyone present except for Jiang Dongcheng—the other three—felt a secret thrill of satisfaction.

As for Jiang Dongcheng, he just looked at An Ning and shook his head with the condescending air of an elder chiding a child.

"So young, and yet your manners still need a lot of work."

An Ning, who had just sat down, fixed her piercing gaze on Jiang Dongcheng.

"So old, and yet you seem to have learned no manners at all."

This was the first time Jiang Dongcheng had been talked to this way. No, that wasn’t right, it wasn’t the first time. He did have that rebellious son of his.

Regardless, he was rarely treated with such disrespect.

"Director Jin, does your machinery factory have some sort of problem with us from Beijing?"

Director Jin, having been put on the spot, plastered his most brilliant smile across his face.

"What makes you say that? We’ve brought out the very best dishes our cafeteria has to offer."

Jiang Dongcheng gave a silent sneer. Putting on a magnanimous air, he said, "Let’s just leave it at that. She’s only a child."

"Master Zhang, I’m here to see you."

Changing the subject, Jiang Dongcheng casually produced a blueprint with a show of nonchalance and handed it to Mr. Zhang Sr.

Although Zhang Qihua disliked the man, he still opened the blueprint, spreading it out on the table for a look.

"What am I supposed to be looking at?"

Mr. Zhang Sr. was a master craftsman; he knew how a machine worked the moment he laid hands on it. But as for blueprints, some parts he could understand, and others he couldn’t.

He could understand An Ning’s blueprints; they were drawn with perfect clarity.

But this one might as well have been written in hieroglyphics. Mr. Zhang Sr. couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

Jiang Dongcheng immediately found an opportunity to feel important again. Filled with a sense of superiority, he walked over to Zhang Qihua’s side. With one finger, he began to hold forth as if he were master of all he surveyed.

"This is a bulldozer I designed myself, primarily for use in construction. You see, here—"

"That’s wrong."

An Ning’s words cut Jiang Dongcheng off. He turned to her with a mocking look on his face.

"Little girl, have you even graduated from high school? Have you been to college? Do you have any idea what machinery even is?"

An Ning was also looking displeased now. ’This meal is turning into a real headache,’ she thought.

She looked up, set down her chopsticks, and placed them neatly beside her plate.

"I haven’t been to high school, nor have I been to college. A machine is anything that saves human labor."

An Ning pointed to a unit of measurement on the schematic. "This unit of measurement is wrong. A miss is as good as a mile. In mechanical engineering, you can’t be off by even a single millimeter."

"Your design is predicated on a calculation error. Therefore, your schematic is invalid."

An Ning’s tone was so confident that it made Mr. Zhang Sr. stare intently at the blueprint, desperately searching for evidence to support her claim.

"Yes, yes, An Ning’s right! I don’t understand the rest of it, but this internal component can’t be ten centimeters. That’s way too big!"

Mr. Zhang Sr. snapped his head up. An Ning wasn’t just smart.

’This girl is something else! She found the problem with a single glance. So precise... a genius among geniuses!’

Mr. Zhang Sr. concealed his excitement, his face a neutral mask as he watched Jiang Dongcheng, who, after his initial disbelief, was now scrutinizing the blueprint himself.

Jiang Dongcheng reviewed the entire thing. He really had made a mistake.

He had used the wrong unit of measurement at the very beginning of his calculations.

"It seems I did make a small error. It’s nothing that can’t be fixed with a quick adjustment."

Jiang Dongcheng didn’t think it was a big deal. He looked at An Ning and said in a patronizing tone, "Getting lucky and spotting an error with a unit of measurement that even a grade-schooler would recognize doesn’t mean you understand this field. A child like you still has a lot to learn."

An Ning smiled.

It was a brilliant smile.

’Someone’s verbally attacking me. How can I possibly forget what my teacher taught me?’

"Someone who can’t even get a unit of measurement right—one that a grade-schooler would know—and who dismisses their mistake as just ’a small error,’ will never get very far in the field of science."

"And your schematic is definitive proof of that."

The tension in the air was suddenly thick enough to cut with a knife.

Although An Ning wasn’t as tall as Jiang Dongcheng, her presence completely overshadowed his.

Jiang Dongcheng was rendered speechless by her rebuttal. Flustered and angry, all he could manage was, "What does a little brat like you know!"

"I don’t know much, that’s true. Just a tiny bit more than you."

An Ning was still smiling. Having delivered her final line, she sat down, completely unfazed, and went back to eating her meal.

With her calm command of the situation, it was obvious at a glance who had won and who had lost.

"Director Jin, is this how you treat your guests?!"

"Huh?" Director Jin immediately feigned ignorance. "Well, she doesn’t work for our factory! I’m hardly in a position to tell her off, so my hands are tied."

Director Jin looked at Jiang Dongcheng with a troubled expression. Jiang Dongcheng snatched the blueprint off the table, looking as if he wished he had long sleeves to flick in anger. With a cold snort, he stormed away.

Mr. Zhang Sr. shot him a sidelong glance. "Director, is that going to be a problem?"

"It’s fine. He can’t affect me."

Director Jin sat down confidently, his expression melting into a warm smile as he looked at An Ning.

"Have you had enough to eat? Want some more? I can have the chef whip up another couple of dishes for you." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"No, thank you. I’m full."

An Ning finished the last bite of her steamed bun and set down her chopsticks once more. As for what had just transpired, it was already in the past.

"Director Jin, was there something you needed me for?"