A Reprieve VII

Lu Ran chortled a little when he heard Tang Shi's contrived response.

However, his laugh was cut short by a steely glare from Tang Shi, a glare that was equivalent to a deluge of 50 lethal daggers flying at him. Feeling intimidated, Lu Ran swallowed his laughter quickly.

Tang Shi turned his steely gaze to Gu Qingcheng, asking her, "Where's the cooperation agreement?"

Glancing at Su Nianhua, Gu Qingcheng was about to respond when Su Nianhua jumped in and replied, "It's in my car."

"Was I talking to you?" Tang Shi seemed to be saying as he shot a nasty look at Su Nianhua. Then he turned and walked away.

Su Nianhua, Lu Ran, and Gu Qingcheng scrambled to keep up with him.

Now Tang Shi always walked at a very fast pace. Since Gu Qingcheng had sprained her ankle, she could only walk slowly. Just as Su Nianhua and Lu Ran were caught in a dilemma about whether to keep up with Tang Shi or help Gu Qingcheng along, Tang Shi appeared to be slowing down so that they could keep up with him.

When they arrived at the parking garage, Su Nianhua quickly opened his car door, retrieved the cooperation agreement, and handed it to Tang Shi.

Snatching it from him, Tang Shi glanced at Gu Qingcheng and instructed Su Nianhua, "Take her home now."

"Go home?" Gu Qingcheng didn't want to go home.

She had a ton of work to do back at the office. If she left it all until tomorrow, she would be inundated by a huge amount of backed-up work.

Quickly, Gu Qingcheng protested, "The doctor said that I'm all right. In fact, I'm feeling a lot better now already."

"Sheng Tang Enterprises won't collapse without you," Tang Shi responded coldly as he turned to his car which was parked nearby, opened the door, and slid inside. Then he stepped on the accelerator and sped off.

...

Su Nianhua and Lu Ran took Gu Qingcheng home and made it back to Sheng Tang Enterprises just in time for the usual noontime Monday meeting.

During the meeting, Tang Shi was his usual self, listening to the business performance for the previous week, not commenting unless absolutely necessary.

However, when it came to Lu Ran and Su Nianhua's reports, Tang Shi seemed to have been transformed into a different person. He criticized everything in their reports, pointing out numerous faults in both.

At the end of the meeting, Tang Shi threw Su Nianhua's project plan on the table and said, "Nianhua, I want this project plan redone."

After that, Tang Shi looked up at Lu Ran and said, "If, by this afternoon, your creative concept for a primary ecological park is still not good enough, I will send you to a remote village deep in the mountains with no modern amenities. Then you should be able to appreciate what living close to nature really means."

That said, Tang Shi muttered, "Meeting adjourned," picked up his documents, and left the conference room.

After Tang Shi had left the conference room, the atmosphere immediately became alive. Siyue leaned across the table and, without hiding her mirth at having witnessed something amusing, asked Su Nianhua, "Nianhua and Ran, how did you upset our Bro today?"