Shen Yan made the decision to hold a weekly meeting in the afternoon, and the notification was sent out in the evening.
When Shen Yan saw the message in the department’s work group chat, she had already taken a shower and was lying in bed, ready to sleep.
She saw that Zhou Xing had tagged everyone in the group and initially thought that he was working too hard, still sending work messages so late at night.
To show her great support for her superior, she immediately clicked into the group chat.
Then, she saw
Zhou Xing: @Everyone, we will have a weekly meeting tomorrow afternoon.
You can prepare your speaking points in the morning.
Just briefly summarize last week’s work and outline the plans for this week.
Shen Yan: ???
Was she seeing things?
Or was she dreaming?
Unwilling to believe it, she rubbed her eyes and reopened WeChat.
The message content remained unchanged.
Shen Yan: …
She really wanted to ask what Zhou Xing was thinking.
He was too busy to even attend the group’s executive meeting, yet he suddenly wanted to hold a department meeting?
Did he really have the time for this?
As if he had heard Shen Yan’s thoughts, Zhou Xing sent another message:
“Keep the reports brief.
We’ll have a short meeting and try to finish within half an hour.”
Shen Yan really wanted to thank him.
After this message, Jian Hong and Meng Gulan quickly responded one after another with “Received.”
Shen Yan: …
She thought for sure that Jian Hong and Meng Gulan would complain loudly about this decision and openly rebel against Zhou Xing.
Yet, Jian Hong was actually the first one to reply “Received.”
Shen Yan had no choice.
She was the only one left in the department who hadn’t replied yet.
Looking at all the animated stickers enthusiastically acknowledging the message, she reluctantly picked a cute sticker and sent a “Received” response.
Staring at the cheerful responses on the screen, Shen Yan’s mood was the complete opposite.
She had actually felt bad for Zhou Xing earlier, thinking he was working too hard.
Turns out, feeling sorry for a man only brings misfortune.
She had actually dared to feel bad for her own boss.
And now, she was paying for it.
She was furious.
Shen Yan had already been lying in bed, but now she was tossing and turning, unable to sleep.
Worried about her speech for the meeting tomorrow, she sat up, grabbed her phone, and opened the notes app to start drafting it.
She was even angrier now she was voluntarily working overtime at home.
She was fuming inside, yet still typing diligently.
Zhou Xing said not to make it too long, so two to three minutes should be enough.
Based on her past experience writing speeches, four to five hundred words should be enough for that duration.
However, considering that she might get nervous and speak too fast, she decided to write six hundred words just in case.
After a lot of deleting and rewriting, she finally had a version she was somewhat satisfied with.
Tomorrow’s meeting would Mr. Lu and Mr. Wang be there?
Since they were field staff, they were rarely in the office, and Shen Yan wasn’t very familiar with them.
If they were present, she might be even more nervous.
If they weren’t, and it was just Jian, Meng, Cheng, and Zhou Xing, she felt like she wouldn’t be as nervous.
After all, they were familiar faces.
If it really came down to it, she could just hand them her notes to read.
Thinking this way, Shen Yan felt a little more at ease.
She saved her notes and prepared to go to sleep.
Maybe because she was too anxious about speaking at the meeting tomorrow, Shen Yan had a nightmare.
She dreamed that Zhou Xing forced her to put pebbles in her mouth and give a speech at the entrance of their village back home.
All the elderly villagers gathered to watch.
Shen Yan stood behind a small podium, looking at the crowd surrounding her, and she was furious.
She argued with Zhou Xing, saying she didn’t have a speech impediment why did she have to put pebbles in her mouth?
Had they even been washed?
Were they disinfected?!
But Zhou Xing ignored her protests, insisting that she had to speak at the village entrance for three days and three nights straight.
If she refused, he would dock her salary.
Jian Hong and the others were on the side, cheering her on.
…
When Shen Yan woke up in the morning, she was drenched in cold sweat.
What kind of ridiculous dream was that?
And why had her brain in the dream been so off?
The issue wasn’t the pebbles the issue was why she had to give a speech at the village entrance!
Could she take a sick day today to avoid the meeting?
She spent half the morning thinking about what excuse she could use to call out without being rejected.
Moving houses?
A family emergency?
A hospital visit?
She couldn’t possibly take another cold shower just to get sick…
But then, a worse thought hit her if this was called a “weekly” meeting, did that mean they would have to do this every week?
Oh no.
Did this mean she would have to go through this every single week?
There was no way she could take a cold shower every time.
So even if she dodged this week, she couldn’t escape next week, or the week after that.
Unless she quit.
Shen Yan sighed in defeat and got up for work.
Still, she couldn’t understand why they suddenly had to hold weekly meetings.
Did they need something to write about?
Was this just an unexpected wave of “productivity culture”?
Zhou Xing was already so busy with the Link project was this really necessary?
Shen Yan felt heavy the entire way to work, even when she was buying her breakfast sandwich.
By chance, she ran into Yu Xinnian, who was also getting his sandwich.
Noticing her sour expression, he asked, “What’s wrong? You don’t look so good.
Did you stay up late?”
Shen Yan hesitated.
Would saying she was upset about a weekly meeting make her sound like a bad person?
But she decided to say it anyway who cares.
After hearing her complaint, Yu Xinnian laughed.
“I thought it was something serious.
We have to write weekly reports.”
Shen Yan countered, “Writing and speaking are two different things.”
Yu Xinnian took their sandwiches from the cashier and handed one to Shen Yan as they walked.
“True, but with weekly meetings, if the boss is too busy, sometimes they get canceled.
But weekly reports you have to write them every time, even if the boss doesn’t read them.”
Shen Yan: “So you think meetings are better than reports?”
Yu Xinnian picked up on the deeper meaning behind her words.
“So, you guys didn’t have meetings or reports before?”
Shen Yan: “Nope.
We only had Zhou Xing.”
“Pfft”
Yu Xinnian burst out laughing.
“What kind of lame joke is that?”
Even Shen Yan felt her own joke was kind of bad and pouted.
But after chatting, she felt a little better.
When she got to work, she transferred her notes to the computer, formatted them, and printed them out.
Jian Hong happened to see and gasped, “Xiao Shen, you’re this prepared?”
Shen Yan was nearly in tears.
Afraid Jian would think she was trying to outdo everyone, she quickly explained, “I had no choice I’m worried I’ll freeze up and not be able to speak.”
Jian Hong thought she was joking.
“Come on, it’s just us.
Just talk like we always do.”
Shen Yan shook her head.
“As long as it’s a formal setting, I get nervous.
If it’s bad, my voice shakes.
If it’s worse, I can’t talk at all.”
Jian Hong was shocked.
“Have you seen a doctor about this?”
Shen Yan: “No, it doesn’t really affect my daily life.”
Just… her job.
That afternoon, when Zhou Xing strode into the office to gather them for the meeting, Shen Yan’s heart rate spiked again.
Her only thought:
Maybe instead of taking a public speaking class, she should’ve gone to the hospital for anxiety meds.