The Price of a Cheap House

Ethan pulled his hand out of her grip without raising his voice.

"Miss, we have already chosen Ms. Lane's studio. We are not considering you."

Crystal jabbed a finger at me.

"You're new to this town. You don't know. Annie Lane is a swindler.

"Ask anyone. Half this town has been ripped off by her."

Ethan did not move.

"Our renovation budget is set. We have reviewed Ms. Lane's portfolio. We are satisfied, and we trust her."

The portfolio. He must have meant the posts I had been putting up online. They had been getting quite a bit of attention.

Crystal opened her mouth to continue. I took the contract out of her hand.

"You slandered me in front of the villagers before, wasn't that enough? Now you're coming to my door to steal my business? Leave now, or I call the police."

She shot back, "How am I stealing business? I'm just telling the truth."

I ignored her, picked up a pen, and signed my name.

Ethan nodded, satisfied.

"I'll send over the school's measurements and requirements within the next two days. If anything's unclear, feel free to reach out."

Crystal, seeing the deal fall through, grew angry.

"What's the big deal? I have fifteen renovation projects lined up. I can barely keep up!"

She stormed out.

Two days later, the construction team my mother arranged arrived. They were some of the more experienced designers from the company, working with me on-site.

When the villagers saw the uniforms with Carter Renovations printed on them, they were stunned.

"Isn't that the well-known company from the city?"

"Yeah, I see them on TV all the time!"

"I don't know much, but my son said they're a listed company!"

"But… why are they all working with Annie Lane?"

Crystal sneered.

"She must have hired them herself. You don't know this, she charged that school five hundred thousand!

"If she doesn't make it look decent, she'll lose everything!"

Just as she finished speaking, the assistant who came with the team spotted me and called out warmly.

"Ms. Lane, Mr. Carter has been asking about you!"

That one line, Ms. Lane, Mr. Carter, sent a ripple through the crowd.

"She called her Ms. Lane? President Carter… that's the CEO of Carter Renovations, right?"

The assistant rolled her eyes slightly and raised her voice.

"She's the daughter of Carter Renovations. You really didn't know?"

Mrs. Walters froze, stammering.

"What? How… how is that possible?"

"Such a big company! How could the renovation cost only eighty thousand? You must all be working together to fool us!"

"Annie Lane! Tell us the truth—did you hire people to act this out?"

I let out a cold laugh.

"What? Do you want me to prove who I am?

"The reason I offered low prices before was because this is my hometown. I didn't want to forget where I came from."

The other villagers fell silent, regret flashing across their faces.

With a company like that, the quality would have been guaranteed.

However, now, it was too late.

Just then, Mrs. Walters's son, Wesley, came running over, shouting, "Something's wrong! Something's wrong! We're in trouble!"