Chapter 30
Chapter 30
Just as the team leader started reporting their situations, Alice, who sat in front of the computer, started typing speedily. Once he saw this, he trailed off mid-sentence.
“Keep going.” Alice continued without looking up, yet the meaning behind her words couldn’t be more obvious.
The team leader was really perplexed at this moment. Who exactly is this beautiful woman? And what’s her purpose here? Frankly speaking, her typing speed is breakneck. By the looks of it, she types at least 8,000 words per hour. Can she even hear my report while typing so fast? That’s not how task- switching works. So does she take us for fools? Is she toying with us?
When he arrived at that conclusion, he once again looked at Irvin for help.
“Just listen to her. Keep reporting the details.” Irvin had already given up and honestly couldn’t be bothered with whatever was happening right now. His state of mind was in shambles due to his stolen proposal. I was the one who invited her upstairs with me just now. I guess we just have to make do with what we’re able to come up with now and give her what she asks. It’s not like we have anything else to lose at this point.
Hence, the team leader could only brace himself and continued his report.
As he was currently standing right next to her, he couldn’t help but sneak a peek at Alice’s computer screen to see what she was up to while reporting their situation.
After just a glance, he quickly realized that she was writing the business proposal for the Eastburgh Design Project. Is Mr. Thorne seeking someone else’s help to rewrite the proposal? But how can that be?
Since he was entirely focused on giving a detailed summarization of their current situation, he couldn’t pay close attention to what Alice had written. Instead, he simply thought that this whole thing was absurd. Seeking help from such a young woman? She really is here to troll us, isn’t she?
Also, because he was distracted by such thoughts, he gradually slowed his speed as he spoke.
On the other hand, Alice didn’t hesitate to interrupt him after listening to a few essential points. “The budgeted cost is at least 10% higher than required, while the expected income is almost 3% lower than desired. The design concept is acceptable, but the design proposal has no unique ideas. Overall, the proposal is impressive yet impractical.”
While she gave her comments, her typing speed still showed no sign of slowing down at all.
The team leader immediately sneered upon hearing her remark, “Tch! What do you know about writing a proposal? Do you know how to conduct planning? It took us a month to make the most accurate assessment and detailed calculations to come up with this data. Yet, you’re saying that the budgeted cost is 10% higher than required? Do you know what I think? I think you are either bonkers or purposely here to cause trouble. Mr. Thorne, you seek her—”
“Stop talking.” Irvin immediately cut him off. He had finally come out of his funk and no longer paraded around the indifferent attitude of using Alice as a last resort to salvage a desperate situation.
At this moment, he stared unblinkingly at the computer in front of Alice and read through the contents of her document.
Her typing speed was far too rapid, and he feared that he couldn’t comprehend her words if he were the slightest bit distracted by the outside world. Only 25 minutes have passed, yet this woman in front of me has written almost half of the proposal!
As for how he was able to ascertain that she had written almost half of the proposal? That was because he had been working on this project himself. Thus, he knew all the ins and outs of this whole shindig. This woman has already written half of it in 25 minutes. Furthermore, the content of the proposal she wrote is simple yet precise at a glance. In addition, she only needs a few dozen words to come up with a clear description of the content that we need to describe in hundreds of words. What’s more impressive is that those few crucial points mentioned in our original proposal immediately caught one’s attention through the new proposal written by this woman. It’s that kind of certainty that this proposal is able to completely go above and beyond someone’s expectations.
At this moment, Irvin felt as if he was in a dream. He felt like he was floating with the clouds and could barely differentiate between fantasy and reality.
In the meantime, the team leader noticed Irvin’s dazed state and began to look seriously at the proposal written by Alice. Likewise, several other staff members also gathered around her.
At this moment, the more Irvin perused the proposal, the more surprised he was. Just like that, the amazement within himself grew with each passing sentence.
Meanwhile, several other staff members were so shocked that their eyeballs were about to pop out of their sockets, and some were gaping.
The team leader, who had ridiculed Alice moments ago, felt utterly embarrassed for his words. If only there were a time machine, he would definitely slap himself before insulting her.
Irvin’s phone rang a few times, which caused him to snap back to reality. He was so stunned that he felt that he needed a good dose of alcohol for this world to make sense again.
Nevertheless, he gripped his phone tightly and saw that Ethan had pinged him in the group chat.
‘Do you want to investigate this matter? If you want, I’ll ask someone to collect evidence for you.’ Ethan had enough power to investigate this. Right now, it seemed like Irvin definitely wouldn’t be able to obtain the deal for the Eastburgh Design Project since his proposal was stolen. Even so, Ethan wouldn’t allow his close friend to suffer from such a loss.
‘Boss…’
‘Boss…’
‘Boss…’
‘Boss…’
As Irvin was so ecstatic at this moment that he didn’t know what to reply. He could only repeatedly type the word ‘Boss’ in the group chat to express his excitement.
He had so much to say, yet he didn’t know where to start.
‘Get to the point.’ Ethan couldn’t stand such a mushy atmosphere.
‘Irvin, are you summoning spirits? Are you so dejected that you can’t even type a proper sentence? Fine. Stop typing ‘boss’. It’s okay if we can’t obtain the deal for the Eastburgh Design Project. There will be other opportunities in the future anyway. Although we can’t help you solve this crisis, we will get even with them one by one after the bidding ends. We won’t spare a single one of them. I have just contacted the lawyer. Just give me the green light, and I’ll get the party started.’ Chris, too, popped up in the chatroom and expressed his opinion.
After that, Derek replied, ‘Spit it out, Irvin.’
Tyler joined in too. ‘What did he say?’
Even the youngest member, Benjamin, followed suit and typed. ‘Yeah. Get straight to the point.’
…
Although the group’s chat room was quiet earlier, the case of theft was far from over. They could give up the deal for the Eastburgh Design Project, but they definitely couldn’t allow the people who bullied their close friend go so easily. In their minds, they most certainly would do everything in their power to get even with these people.
‘Thank you very much, buddies! Of course, we must investigate this matter. I will never spare those b*stards.’ Irvin should have been very worked up when he saw his close friends showing him their support in the group chat, but for some reason, he felt that his mood stabilizing
‘Buddies, there’s something that I want to tell you guys. You guys are never going to believe it. I’m telling you… It’s so surreal that I’m still in disbelief even after I saw it with my own two eyes.’
‘Judging from your rather enthusiastic text, you seem to be in a good mood. What’s the matter? Did Ivan get his *ss kicked?’ Chris replied jokingly. However, if the person who bullied Irvin really turned out to be Ivan Thorne, Irvin’s elder brother, they couldn’t rule out the possibility of such an incident taking place.
‘Tch! His affairs are none of my business!’ The relationship between Irvin and Ivan had always been terrible. To date, the animosity between them had reached the point where they hated each other’s guts.
Despite Ivan oppressing him with all his might, Irvin presently felt that all of that was nothing.
‘I’m hereby telling all of you that I’m definitely going to win the bid for the Eastburgh Design Project. There’s no way I can lose. This project is mine for the taking. All the other participants can eat my dust.
But, of course, none of them would stand a fighting chance against me.’ His smug attitude at present was the complete opposite of how discouraged he was prior to this. Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.
‘What’s going on? Wasn’t your proposal stolen?’
‘Yeah. You were so demoralized and on the brink of having a mental breakdown before. So why are you so energetic now? What the hell happened?’
‘Did you solve the crisis with your proposal?’ Now that Tyler had started managing his family’s business, he had a clear insight into these things. ‘No f*cking way! How did you solve it? Have you written a new proposal? But that’s even more inconceivable, right?’