Shen Yan was still silently reciting her speech as she walked into the meeting room.
Meng Gulan patted her arm and said, “It’s okay, Xiao Shen, don’t be nervous.”
Jian Hong also agreed, “Yeah, it’s just a few of us.
Just pretend we’re in the office.”
Shen Yan took a deep breath.
“Okay!”
“Good luck!”
“Let’s get started,” Zhou Xing said after everyone had found their seats.
Hearing Zhou Xing speak, Shen Yan stopped silently reading her speech.
She lifted her head and happened to meet Zhou Xing’s gaze.
Shen Yan: …
She was so nervous today that she forgot to pick a corner seat and ended up sitting directly across from Zhou Xing.
So now, whenever she looked up, she would meet his eyes.
This went completely against her usual meeting strategy choosing an inconspicuous seat in a corner.
As expected, when people are nervous, they make mistakes.
Shen Yan quickly lowered her head, avoiding Zhou Xing’s gaze.
It was like when she was in school and feared making eye contact with the teacher, worrying they would call on her to answer a question.
She was afraid that Zhou Xing would ask her to speak first.
Zhou Xing noticed her reaction, the corners of his lips slightly lifted, and then he turned his attention to Cheng Rong, who was sitting to his left.
“Teacher Cheng, why don’t you start?”
Hearing Zhou Xing call on someone else, Shen Yan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
She still had Meng Gulan between her and Cheng Rong, giving her a bit more time to mentally prepare.
Cheng Rong cleared his throat.
“Alright, I’ll keep it simple.
Last week, our fleet had a total of 44 trips.
The department that used the most cars was the finance department, with 12 trips, mainly to Yinzhou and the tax bureau…”
Shen Yan didn’t expect Teacher Cheng, who looked like a rough and casual person, to be so meticulous in his work.
Not only did he love drinking milk tea, but he also analyzed vehicle usage data so thoroughly.
Listening to him speak, she felt like if he set up a model, he could achieve complete digital control over the fleet.
It sounded incredibly professional.
The second to speak was Meng Gulan, who sat between Shen Yan and Cheng Rong.
Meng Jie was truly Meng Jie she didn’t even have a script.
She effortlessly delivered various official phrases.
“…Effectively coordinating meeting arrangements and optimizing the efficiency of conference room usage across the group…”
Shen Yan thought for a moment.
Wasn’t this just the job of approving other departments’ meeting room applications?
How did she make it sound so impressive?
She had thought she had learned a lot from Meng Jie and Jian Jie over the past few weeks, but apparently, she had only scratched the surface.
Before she could finish feeling amazed, Meng Jie had already wrapped up her speech.
“Xiao Shen, you’re up next.”
Shen Yan: …
Why was she daydreaming at such a critical moment?
“Uh… I…”
Hearing Zhou Xing call her name, Shen Yan instinctively looked up and once again met his gaze.
Her mind immediately went blank.
Zhou Xing noticed and encouraged her, “Don’t be nervous, take your time.”
Shen Yan closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath.
She could even hear her own heartbeat “thump, thump, thump” pounding strongly.
Jian Hong, noticing her hesitation, also reassured her.
“Xiao Shen, look, it’s just us here.
Just talk like you normally do.”
Shen Yan: “…Alright.”
She reminded herself that she had managed to report directly to Director Fan before.
And no matter how intimidating these colleagues were, they were nothing compared to Fan Mingxu’s commanding presence.
She could do this!
She lowered her head, picked up her pen, and began reading from her speech, word by word.
Since she had practiced it countless times, she could almost recite it from memory.
So, she read it fluently, and because it was so smooth, her speed was extremely fast.
The 600-word speech was finished in less than a minute and a half.
“That’s all for my report on last week’s work and this week’s plan.”
As soon as she finished the last word, she felt sweat forming on her forehead.
Finally, the tension inside her eased slightly.
Zhou Xing looked at her and commented, “It was good, but your pace was a bit fast, and your voice was slightly shaky.
With more practice, it will get better.”
Hearing the word “practice,” Shen Yan felt utterly defeated.
Jian Hong secretly gave her a thumbs-up from the side.
Shen Yan was touched her colleagues were truly the best people in the world.
Next up was Jian Hong.
Before the meeting, Jian Hong had told Shen Yan to “just say whatever comes to mind,” and she really meant it.
Her speech was straightforward she listed her current tasks, briefly mentioned their progress, and was done.
Zhou Xing nodded and began his closing remarks.
“Alright, I have a general understanding of everyone’s work.
As you may have heard, the Link project has now become a national priority.
President Lu himself is overseeing it, so I’ve been busy with that these past few days.
Going forward, Jian Jie and Xiao Shen, you will also be involved in this project.”
Shen Yan really wanted to ask, “Do I have to?”
But after a month of working here, she had realized that every time she thought something was beyond her ability, she still had to do it anyway.
And somehow, she managed.
Seeing that neither Shen Yan nor Jian Hong objected, Zhou Xing continued.
“Since the three of us will be focused on the Link project, Meng Jie, I’ll need you to take on more responsibilities here.”
“Alright, that’s it.
Meeting adjourned.”
And just like that, the first weekly meeting of the Lu Group’s General Office concluded.
On the way back to the office, Zhou Xing walked beside Shen Yan and said, “Xiao Shen, take your time.”
Shen Yan was puzzled.
Take her time with what?
But before she could ask, Zhou Xing had already quickened his pace and walked ahead.
He was truly busy he had only squeezed in time to hold this weekly meeting.
As soon as they got back to the office, Zhou Xing grabbed his laptop and left again.
“Xiao Shen, you did great today.
If you keep speaking like this in meetings, there’s no problem at all,” Meng Gulan encouraged her.
Shen Yan still felt hesitant.
“But I was really nervous today, and it was only because I knew everyone here.”
Meng Gulan seemed thoughtful.
“Does that mean we should invite Teacher Wang and Teacher Lu next time?”
Shen Yan: “Huh?”
Meng Gulan: “Nothing.
By the way, have you written the meeting report yet?”
Shen Yan looked confused.
“What meeting report?”
Meng Gulan returned to her desk and sent Shen Yan the reports from the past few months.
“After every monthly meeting, we write a report and post it on the internal network.
Just follow my format and fill in the summaries and plans.”
This kind of writing task was something Shen Yan could handle, so she quickly agreed.
“Okay.”
As she worked on the report, she thought about discussing something with Zhou Xing.
Maybe she could request to handle all the writing tasks in the future and avoid any speaking responsibilities.
What was that phrase again?
“Managing up.”
She needed to manage Zhou Xing better and stop him from assigning her tasks that made her uncomfortable.
Before she could “manage” Zhou Xing, the second weekly meeting of Lu Group’s General Office arrived right on schedule.
And it was scheduled for Monday morning.
This made Shen Yan hate Mondays even more.
All weekend, whenever she had free time, she practiced reading her speech.
She wanted to slow her speech down for the next meeting.
By Sunday night, Shen Yan felt doomed.
She had fallen into the trap of work.
Was she really spending her weekends practicing for a work meeting?
Zhou Xing had truly learned from Director Fan’s management philosophy.
By notifying them on Friday about a Monday morning meeting, he was essentially making her use her weekend to prepare!
But she had no choice.
Without extra practice, she couldn’t relax.
She had even studied Meng Jie’s past speeches, learning how to make simple things sound impressive.
For example, when summarizing the group’s monthly reports, she wrote:
“Establishing a unified strategic vision across the organization and coordinating all departments’ summaries and plans.”
But using too many fancy phrases made the speech harder to read, so she had to practice more.
When she stepped into the meeting room and saw that Teacher Wang and Teacher Lu were present, she was glad she had prepared.
She kept her head down the entire meeting.
When Zhou Xing finally called on her, she didn’t look up.
If she didn’t see them, she could pretend they weren’t there.
She hurriedly read her report.
She felt that this time, her voice was less shaky.
That was progress, right?