The promised fifteen minutes, turned to twenty, and then to thirty. Before they knew it, the discussion turned to an hour, and not even one person in the room wanted to leave.
It was first started as very tense. But slowly, Shao Yan got the rhythm going and started to lead the meeting pace. After close to two hours, the other partic.i.p.ants in the room were already exhausted, except for Shao Yan and Risa.
Risa leaned back to her chair, crossing her arms in front of her and then she slowly nodded. "Hm. Still need a lot of improvement. But I think this is good enough. We can wrap this up now," she turned to her team members who were sitting to her right. "Make a copy of the final report, and start to study the material." And then she turned back to Shao Yan.
"I have scheduled a meeting with your team tomorrow. But after this discussion, I think we can cancel that. Let"s meet again next week once you finalized the report and added all the inputs we discussed just now."
After she finished saying that, Risa got up from her chair, and started to walk to the exit. But she remembered something, and then she turned around again. "Good job," and then she turned back around and resumed her walk.
When Shao Yan heard the soft click of the closed meeting room door, she exhaled a relief. Fan jie and Wenhai who had been sitting on an edge and holding their breath anxiously throughout the meeting, gradually slouched back, and relaxed.
"THAT WOMAN!" Fan jie raised her voice slightly, before Shao Yan quickly gave her a look, and then swiftly turned to look at the meeting door to check if Risa had heard that. Fan jie raised both hands to quickly cover her mouth; her eyes went big and round and were also staring at the door.
After all of them made sure that Risa did not hear her exclaim just now, Fan jie continued again, "Xiao Yan~ That undoubtedly is the longest torture of my life." She spread out her forearm to Shao Yan, "Look at this, all my hairs had been standing out like this for the past two hours. I"m so stressed out." Her lament drew laughs from the five or so people in the meeting room.
Wenhai smiled at her helplessly. He patted Fan jie on her back slowly and rubbed her shoulder to calm her down, "It"s okay, it has ended. See how capable our team lead is. We received a "good enough" from the Iron Lady. I think we should pat ourselves at the back for doing such a good job," he said while chuckling at himself.
Shao Yan shook her head and also smiled. In the meeting just now, she might sounded full of confidence, but that was solely because Shao Yan kept thinking about how to be a good leader in front of her team.
She kept chanting inside her mind "Do not back down" all the while she defended her case in front of Risa. The discussion with Risa was definitely challenging for her. She slowly commented, "Actually, I hold a deep respect for her."
Once her words fell, all of her teammates turned to look at Shao Yan with shocked eyes, sending messages of "Are you crazy?" through their piercing gazes.
She let out a soft chuckle, and softly sighed. Shao Yan pursed her smiling lips and tilted her head to side, trying to come up with better words, "Let"s see. What I meant was. All of you must have also agree that Risa Yamaguchi is a very smart woman. Look at just now. All of her feedback are correct. We did not even think of that."
She scanned her eyes around the room, "All of us have been working on this deck for weeks; and yet Risa was able to see through the holes in the plan in five minutes. We still have so much learning to do now. Her level is definitely way above all of us combined." Shao Yan said dejectedly.
Once she stepped out of the meeting room, Risa briskly walked to the direction of the elevator lobby. She was about to say something, when she heard a soft exclaim came out of the meeting room. She paused her steps and turned her head slightly.
She thought, she heard someone said "That woman" loudly? Risa slowly looked down at her feet, and chuckled. "She has some good friends protecting her," Risa thought inwardly. And then she resumed her walk while still smiling.
Once she reached the elevator lobby, she lifted her wrist to glance at the time. Risa turned to face her team members, while saying, "All of you can go back to your desk first. I still have to make some phone calls." And then she turned around, and went to the outdoor garden.
The office building had allocated a small outdoor garden on each floor to bring fresh air for their tenants. The purpose was not only to give excuse for the tenants to take small breaks, but also to encourage social meetup. Some floors actually had a mini pond with fish and some benches to sit down. Other floors only equipped with benches and some floors did not even have anything to sit on.
Risa pushed the gla.s.s door open, and stepped out. The weather was slightly windy today, but it was still comfortable to stand outside without having to feel too cold. She found an empty bench, and sat down. She looked around and found that she was alone, so she quickly unlocked her phone and selected a number on her speed dial contact.
The call was picked up right away.
"En. It"s me," she paused while listening to the other person to reply. "En. I have met her and I totally pushed her limit just now. I think she may even hate me a little," Risa let out a sad chuckle and then she paused again while listening.
"Yes, I am meeting him soon. I will let you know how it goes. Please remember to take care of your health. The weather is getting cold, don"t get sick."