(5 days after the world almost ended – Lekym Technologies' topmost floor's meeting room.)
Inside the meeting room, a big dark wooden table with several comfortable chairs could be seen.
Seated on those chairs were people of several races. All of them had a more serious expression and were discussing about the current issue: the CEO/ president's death.
Without their CEO, although they can take a hold of the company, they wouldn't be able to have it for much longer.
The Lekym Technologies is a big technological company in Hong Kong, and as such, when it comes to projects in any area, they are almost aways involved either directly or as a supplier of technologies, equipment and tools.
They had taken a big project two months ago and this was by far the most important project of the company since succeeding in this would give them a good boost in their reputation.
Now, the problem came from the fact that the deal, the official contract for this project was signed under the CEO's name and no one else. This means that the contract was signed with the individual who owned the Lekym technologies and not the company in itself.
In short, they would need a new CEO and a good amount of good luck for the ones who offered the project to accept to sign a new contract.
This is why everyone in the meeting room is tense.
They are currently trying to decide who is going to be the CEO.
Most of the members who are voicing their opinions are shareholders who think they can hit a jackpot by becoming the new CEO.
While on the other hand there are the board directors who either worry about the company or outright want to usurp the seat of CEO for themselves.
While all of this was happening, only one person was calm as a lake in a day without breeze.
At the opposite seat of the main one, Hai was leisurely drinking tea in a small ceramic cup without handle.
"We have to think about the future of the company-"
"Bullshit! You just want to take the money to yourself-"
"Shut up your brat-"
"You old man-"
"Mind your manners when talking with me, brat-"
"And what are you gonna do, old hag-"
*MURMURS*
*MURMURS*
The meeting was a mess.
People shouting at each other.
Others were murmuring between themselves.
The meeting wasn't going anywhere.
*SIGH*
Sighing to himself, Hai questioned what is going through inside their heads.
If you want something, isn't it better to execute plans and act with a clear head?
Why is everyone behaving themselves as first-timers?
Everyone in this meeting has years of experience, yet nobody has taken a hold of the discussion and 20 minutes have already passed since this "meeting" started.
Putting his cup down, Hai supported his elbows on the table and his chin on the back of his hands.
"Ladies and gentlemen." It wasn't a loud voice, nor a rage-filled one, but just a soothing, calm and confident voice that everyone heard.
The noise inside the room seemed to cease and everyone turned to look at Hai.
Hai smiled slightly and proceeded.
"Now, now, we have been doing this charade we call a 'meeting' for over 20 minutes. Since we are going nowhere, how about we organize things before proceeding?"
Everyone kept looking at Hai until a seductive tiger woman spoke.
"And why would we hear you, young master Jin? Oh! I apologize, it's Hai now, isn't?" She spoke with a small smile.
Some of the members in the room secretly smirked and some blatantly smiled while looking at him with disdain.
Hai looked at the woman and kept his relaxed smile.
1 second.
2 seconds.
3 seconds.
After three seconds of calmly looking into the woman's eyes with his relaxed posture, he finally opened his mouth.
"It's Mr. Hai for you, miss Ling. I would like to remember the ladies and gentlemen here that everyone present in this room is either a shareholder or a board director. Respect is in order when talking with every and anyone in here. However, apologies accepted miss Ling." He spoke while shifting his gaze off here in the end and looking at every member in the room.
The mocking mood inside the room vanished as fast as it came.
No one could argue back with what Hai said as he stated facts and things that everyone should already know. Should anyone voice something against his words, they would indirectly imply that anyone's authority is less than theirs, and basically make an enemy out of everyone in here.
Seeing as the room was silent, Hai clapped his hands happily.
"Now that you fair madams and you fine sirs have calmed down, how about we organize our messy agenda?"
Everyone unconsciously nodded.
Hai smiled seeing this.
"First things first, put the project aside. How is the company right now?" He asked while glancing at the board directors.
The board directors took the hint and looked between themselves before nodding.
An old man opened his mouth.
"As of right now, the company is still fine. Although we took a hit in our reputation due to the CEO's wrong doings and the extremists attitudes, we are still in a good light in the masses' eyes. We just look like a good company under the wrong person." He said before falling silent.
Although everyone had their own thoughts they wanted to voice out, everyone looked back at Hai.
This is the result of a psychological trick. By making himself calm and confident, taking an insult and solving the conflict in a more pacific manner, then organizing the meeting that wasn't going anywhere, everyone subconsciously started to see Hai as the one directing this meeting.
Hai also knew about it since he proposedly did it all.
"Now, how are we faring in the stock market?" He asked while picking a small teapot and pouring more tea in his cup.
This time, a shareholder, an elf man with platinum hair opened his mouth.
"Currently, our actions have fallen quite a bit due to the CEO's wrongdoings being leaked but our specialists calculated that in two months we should be back at our previous price considering that we do nothing to improve our image."
"Hum…" Hai took a sip of his tea and looked outside the window deep in thought.
Everyone waited for him to speak.
"Now, we have this situation in our hands. Let's first decide about what to do in the situations which don't require us to have a CEO. Then, we will lastly decide on this matter." At his words, everyone agreed.
They have already seen how it went when they tried to take care of the CEO's matter and it didn't go anywhere, hence they thought it would be better to solve all the other problems and then come back to this one later.
The meeting went on for 20 more minutes and everyone had come to general agreements as to what they would do. Now, all that is left is to take care of who is going to be the new CEO.
Everyone that were previously calm turned more nervous when this matter came up.
As pacific as it has been in the last 20 minutes, they know that it's now that the true bloodbath is going to happen.
"Okay, ladies and gentlemen, let's us start the most waited matter of today: who is going to be the new CEO."
Everyone further tensed up when Hai mentioned it but they did nothing else except for look at him.
At this point, nobody could argue about Hai's leadership skills and his posture when dealing with business, hence they let him be the mediator.
This is also something Hai proposedly influenced them in thinking.
"Now for us to st-" When Hai was going to explain how they would conduct this part, he was suddenly interrupted by the door being rudely opened up.
He turned to the side with a calm expression despite being interrupted and saw the newcomers.
A beautiful woman with orange hair, green eyes and a seductive body tightly clad into a red qipao entered followed by a man and another girl.
The other girl has chestnut hair until her shoulders, big blue eyes and a body that has too much in the breasts and ass department, one might confuse her with a succubus.
Lastly, the man has bright crimson hair, blue eyes, a handsome face married with an arrogant smirk, a good building and the air around him screams "wild".
They are respectively Bai Xue, Ye Zhen and Ye Chen.
The protagonist, his sister and a member of his harem.
'It was too peaceful those days for it to be true.' Hai thought while looking at the newcomers, or more specifically, Ye Chen barging in the room and inviting himself in.
He then arrived before the tiger woman who mocked Hai and with a smile on his face, said:
"Miss Ling, I heard you needed help with the company."
His voice sounded arrogant, overbearing and prideful.
Miss Ling looked at Ye Chen and her gaze seemed a bit relieved.
"Ye Chen, your mother really raised you well." She said while her gaze seemed a bit heated.
'…'
Meanwhile, Hai was looking at it and questioning how much does the protagonist's aura makes one's IQ diminish.
'What the hell?'
No, like, seriously. Were in a meeting here. Where is the seriousness?
Hai held in a sigh but didn't show anything on his face.
*COUGH*
With a low cough, the mood between the protagonist and miss Ling was broken and they looked at the one who coughed.
When Ye Chen saw Hai seated in this meeting room, his face showed a brief look of surprise before turning into disdain.
"Bastard, what are you doing here?" He asked with annoyance that his moment was interrupted by no other than some dog.
The Ye Zhen and Bai Xue also looked at him and the latter showed a disgusted expression while the former just showed mild displeasure.
"I don't own you any explanation. Now, could you please retire yourself? We're in the middle of a serious meeting. If you wish to talk to miss Ling, you can take her out if it's urgent. Otherwise, please excuse yourself." Hai wasn't bothered in the least with how he was treated.
Ye Chen's gaze that was previously annoyed, now turned into a full-blown anger one.
Hai looked at this and couldn't help but shake his head inwardly. He never understood why the world's will made the protagonist too prideful and arrogant that he can't even take a "no" without taking his anger on someone or swearing to humiliate that person back.
Somethings are really beyond human's comprehension.
"YOU TRASH DARE T-"
"First, this is a private corporation, you can't come and go as you please unless you work here and even then, there will be restrictions. Second, this room is off-limits, no matter who you are. Third, those in this room are shareholders and board directors, and you are none of the two. Fourth, if you can't respect someone that is talking politely with you, don't open your mouth, you are going to do everyone a favor." Hai calmly stated while he used a little bit of his mana to put just enough pressure on Ye Chen to make him falter midst his sentence.
Ye Chen who recovered himself from the uncomfortable feeling, looked up and saw Hai's calm face.
He got even more infuriated with him acting all high and mighty when he was constantly beaten by him.
He seemed to have forgotten how it turned out all the other times he tried to come on top of him. He, Ye Chen isn't one to let himself be stepped on by others.
When he opened his mouth and was going to talk again, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
Looking back, he saw Bai Xue smiling at him.
He stopped the words that were going to leave his mouth and stepped aside.
Bai Xue looked at Hai and she didn't even bother to mask her gaze filled with disgust.
"Hai, what we do here is not your business. We are here for our own purposes and they don't concern you. So, stop acting as if what we do has anything to do with you or as if you're someone's superior here." She stated with a tone filled with pride, arrogance and domineering.
"First, it's Mr. Hai for you, miss Bai. We're not close enough for you to call me by my birth name. Second, your reasons really don't concern me, what concerns me is that you have interrupted a serious meeting for no apparent reason. Third, you have 10 seconds to leave if you don't state your business." Hai was starting to get annoyed with them.
He was literally just having a meeting and the protagonist and his harem come from nowhere, without any clear reason and tries to mess with him.
What the hell is this?
Is his patience being tested?
Bai Xue who heard this stopped for a few seconds and when she recovered, her face started to get red.
Is he talking back to her? He, someone who doesn't have a working brain?
She felt angry. And the most annoying fact was that she didn't understand where her anger exactly come from.
Ye Chen who heard Hai talk back to his woman as if he had moral to teach her manners, felt rage boiling inside him.
Hai meanwhile picked his phone and dialed a number.
"Hello big man! It's Hai from the meeting room at the topmost floor. I would like to require the clean service to pick somethings up here."
Ye Chen who now saw him ignoring their existence finally exploded.
"Listen well, Hai. I'm going to say this once. If you get down on your knees and apologize to my woman, I may let you-" He almost whispered it with how low he was saying those words, but they were cold to the point that some people felt a chill in their spine.
However, it wasn't cold enough.
*FUUSH*
A sudden slight chilly air was felt inside the room.
"Oh yeah, about what I want you guys to pick, it's three blocks of ice, the size of a person. They will be outside the room. Really? Thanks man, have a good day."
Hai hanged up the call and looked at Ye Chen, Bai Xue and Ye Zhen who now are blocks of ice.
"Yeah, it's still ugly." He commented in a light tone devoid of any worry about the well-being of the three inside the ice.
He waved his hands and the blocks of ice slid outside the room, then the door closed itself.
He turned to everyone who was looking at him with a look of shock.
"Well, we're deciding the CEO right?" He said with a small smile.
Everyone who previously wanted the position to themselves, suddenly felt that becoming the CEO of Lekym Technologies became a herculean task.
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A/N: Hello there, I hope you're having a wonderful day!
So, what do you guys think about this chapter? I honestly thought it was a bit tamer than what I intended to do, but I still liked to write this one.
What did yuo guys think about Hai's posture when dealing with business? Was it good, subpar, outright terrible or something else? I would like to know.
About Ye Chen and his harem, don't worry. There is a plausible explanation as to why they behave as braindead persons most of the time. They aren't one dimensional plain characters (maybe they are), they have an actual reason that is involved with the story and will be shown later.
Anyway, I hope you have liked Hai's "screw this, I ain't taking this bullshit" moment.
Don't forget to comment what you thought about this chapter. Either if you liked it or didn't like it, comment. I would like to read and interact with you guys more.
Last thing: Thank you all for those who are supporting this book either with power stones, feedbacks or simply by recommending to other people. I'm happy that you all like what I'm writing for fun.
That's all for today, I thank you all for reading! 🍷😎
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Thank you all for reading and I wish you all a wonderful day.