一个误会 Yí ge wùhuì — A Misunderstanding

面子, and the answer that isn't no

面子 — face, standing in the eyes of others — shapes how disagreement gets expressed. A flat refusal costs the other person face, so a no often arrives as 我看看, I'll see, or 有点儿不方便, that's a little inconvenient, or simply as a change of subject. None of these is evasion in the local reading; they are the polite form of the answer. Misunderstandings between Chinese and foreign colleagues start here more often than anywhere else, one side hearing a maybe where the other has said no as plainly as courtesy permits.