Annelise was about to speak up and try again when Zane Patterson, beside her, gently tugged her sleeve.
"Forget it, Annelise," Zane said in Chinese. "Don't make a fool of yourself."
Annelise took a deep breath, swallowed the words that were on the tip of her tongue, and forced a smile at Helena. "Well... sorry to bother you. Goodbye."
With that, she and Zane walked out of the dilapidated office, side by side.
'Starting a business... really is hard.'
'Back when she used to sit in her father's office, looking at reports and listening to presentations, she always thought that doing business was easy.'
'Only now did she realize that behind all that glamour were countless rejections like today, countless humiliating moments of being turned down, and countless times they had to grit their teeth and push through.'
She suddenly felt a new admiration for her grandfather and her father.
