Chapter 276 Never Overplay Your Confidence

Chapter 276 Never Overplay Your Confidence

Sidney was still putting on his wounded act, but when he saw how things turned out, he couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out laughing.

"Michael, you really shouldn't be so confident. Maybe you can compete with me in other areas, but when it comes to Alice, I'm way more important than you."

Alice looked at his smug expression and didn't bother arguing. She just went along with it.

"Sure, sure. Can we go now?"

Michael looked genuinely hurt. He stepped forward and caught Alice's wrist, his voice full of complaint. "Why are you leaving with him? What did I do wrong? What made you unhappy?"

Alice gave him a long, deliberate look, her gaze sliding from his face down the length of his body. "Sorry, Michael. I want to get a decent night's sleep tonight. Otherwise I won't be able to handle what's coming next."

Michael's jaw tightened. "Just because of that, you're completely ignoring me now?"

Sidney stood off to the side, clearly enjoying himself, eyebrows raised. "Do you even understand what 'too much of a good thing' means?"

Seeing him kick a man while he was down, Michael's expression darkened. He started dragging out Sidney's past.

"Yeah, I can't compare to you. You're so smooth with women — never let a single one slip by. You've been through dozens of them and you still have the nerve to call yourself innocent."

Sidney's grin vanished immediately. His face fell, and he rushed to explain. "Those were all for show, you understand? Alice, let's go."

Michael could only stand there and watch as Alice was pulled away by him, completely powerless to stop it.

With a dark expression, he got back in his car and slammed the door. Still unwilling to let it go, he immediately sent Alice a message.

Alice replied quickly: [Dream on]

In the car, Sidney was in high spirits, humming under his breath, completely at ease.

"Alice, you really did me a favor. Finally let me win against him for once. You have no idea how insufferable he usually is."

"Yeah. After we finish this last thing here, we can take a break for a while. Let's put in some overtime tonight. Those instruments you designed before have been produced, but there are still some errors in the gear data that need you to adjust."

Only then did Sidney catch on to Alice's real intention. "So you just wanted me to help you work overtime."

"We're going together. The factory we're heading to — I've already set up a time with the owner."

Sidney let out a long sigh. "Fine. At least seeing Michael get shut down today made it worth it."

He was still complaining, but his hands were honest, obediently steering the car toward the location Alice had given him.

Alice looked down at her phone, replying to Michael's messages.

He'd somehow found a crying cat emoji. Looking at her screen, Alice couldn't help but smile.

She'd originally thought Michael was just gentle on the surface but strong-willed underneath. She didn't expect he had this clingy side too.

Michael: [Alice, come back. We won't have sex tonight. I'll just hold you while we sleep. I've been so busy for so many days — don't you want to reward me?]

Looking at those words, Alice didn't trust his self-control for a second.

Alice: [First throw away all those toys of yours. Otherwise, let's not meet at night anymore.]

She remembered a message from Zoey she'd gotten an hour ago.

Zoey said Michael had a package that accidentally got delivered to the villa.

She'd happened to be playing there and signed for it, only to discover it was a box of various sex toys Michael had ordered online.

Zoey had immediately sent over photos.

Seeing Alice's message, Michael didn't react at first. Then, thinking about what had happened today, he quickly checked his order and realized he'd put in the wrong address, and it already showed as signed for.

He immediately understood what had happened. His expression turned sour, and he could only reluctantly reply: [Really won't try them?]

Alice's fingers moved quickly across the keyboard, typing out a response: [If you want to try them, try them yourself.]

There was a long silence on the other end. Just when Alice thought he'd finally given up, Michael sent another message: [That works too.]

Alice went completely still.

She knew very well that a man who'd gained sexual experience was a completely different creature from before.

Michael could now say almost anything.

Seeing she hadn't replied, Michael quickly added: [If you like it, I can use them.]

Looking at that eager line of text, Alice suddenly thought about how those toys were actually used. She couldn't help but clear her throat, her face heating up a little.

Alice: [Busy now. We'll talk about it after everything's resolved.]

Sidney kept glancing her way. "Who are you texting? Why do you look like you're in heat?"

Caught, Alice felt a little embarrassed and immediately changed the subject, her tone a little too stiff.

"The people at the factory are a bit proud. Don't take it personally later."

"A factory that gets to work with a research institute — how could they not be proud?"

Sidney could tell she didn't want to keep going with this, so he didn't push it.

After driving for about an hour, just as they were about to leave the city limits, they finally saw the factory in the suburbs.

The entire building was white, with very strict security at the entrance.

Alice's car was inspected and only allowed through after confirmation.

Only then did Sidney truly understand what she'd meant earlier by "a bit proud."

To get a state-secret facility like this to help manufacture instruments — of course the people inside would have their own sense of superiority.

"Alice, what kind of connections do you have to be able to make instruments here?"

When he'd wanted to produce electronic instruments before, he'd also tried to connect with this factory.

But the people here had been completely indifferent to him. Even when he was willing to pay an extremely high price, it had been useless.

He never expected that the team he'd always dreamed of working with, Alice had secured so easily.

"I met them while doing research before. Their boss used the results of my work, so he agreed that whenever I have a need in the future, I can come directly to use the equipment here."

Alice said it casually.

Sidney clutched his chest, feeling like he was about to laugh from sheer frustration. Of course that's how it was.

After getting out of the car, they put on cleanroom suits before being allowed to enter the production workshop.

Inside were almost all PhD graduates — the top people in this field.

A somewhat young-looking guy saw Alice coming and immediately walked over quickly to greet her. "Alice, you're finally here. The blueprints you gave me are really detailed and solid, but our precision here keeps falling short of your required standards. We had to trouble you to make the trip yourself."

The young guy was a bit shy, even scratching his head awkwardly as he spoke.

Sidney watched from the side, feeling completely stonewalled. He couldn't sense any of the so-called "aloofness."

This person was clearly acting like a loyal puppy in front of Alice.

Alice glanced at the blueprints in her hand, then handed them to Sidney. "Anson, you work with him first. I'm going to visit Zephyr. It's been over half a year since we last saw each other."

Anson nodded eagerly. "Okay, go ahead. I'll do the coordination with him first."

After taking a few steps, Alice still felt uneasy and turned back, looking between the two of them. "You two better play nice."

Sidney thought she was talking to him, since Anson looked quite a bit younger.

"Relax. I'm not a monster. I'm not about to pick on the new guy."