Chapter 257: Gwen Morgan Makes Her Move
"Sigh, Miss Morgan, life is so hard. What do you even call this mess!"
Gwen Morgan advised him, "I, for one, recognize your professional abilities. Just don’t let anyone walk all over you and steal your credit. When this charity project ends and it’s time for media interviews, you’ll have a chance to score a major victory in front of all the department heads."
"President Miller, for the most part, your destiny is in your own hands. It all depends on whether you seize the opportunity."
President Miller understood what she meant.
But at the same time, he didn’t quite understand.
He and Gwen Morgan were merely nodding acquaintances. She was on a whole other level, so there was no reason for her to befriend him. Their work never overlapped, aside from the occasional assembly or repair of office equipment.
’Why did she suddenly decide to talk to me today, and say so much?’
"You’re right, Miss Morgan. Thank you for the reminder. But there’s something I’m not sure if I should ask..."
Gwen Morgan knew what he was going to ask. "You want to know why I’m suddenly telling you all this, right?"
"I’ve always been a straightforward person. I don’t like to beat around the bush, which is why I can’t stand those ’green tea’ types who use underhanded methods to climb the ladder."
"She’s unlucky to have run into me. I can’t just stand by and watch her climb the corporate ladder, bringing her corrupting influence into the Vaughn Group. So... you get what I mean, right?"
"Yes, yes, I get it."
Now that she’d put it that way, Miller understood.
"Don’t you worry, Miss Morgan. I will absolutely not give her the chance to bring that corrupting influence into the Vaughn Group."
"I’ll keep an eye on this matter. I’ll be counting on you, President Miller."
When Ryan returned after a cup of coffee, he noticed his desk had been touched.
"Who was just at my desk?"
"It was Miss Morgan. It looked like she needed you for something, but you didn’t come back after a little while, so she left."
Ryan didn’t think much of it.
After all, Gwen Morgan came to ask him about President Vaughn’s schedule at least once a day. He was used to it.
The next day, Cecelia Archer arrived on time at the Vaughn Group building to meet up with everyone and boarded the business van heading to Windmount.
Ryan had assigned this mission to the engineering department. The entire department was participating, for a total of thirteen people, including Cecelia Archer.
The team was usually responsible for repairing office equipment, circuits, computers, and all sorts of other technical odd jobs at the company. They were all a bunch of guys, and aside from Miller, they were quite happy to see Cecelia.
"I thought doing charity work in the mountains would be a chore, but I didn’t expect them to send us such a young and beautiful female leader! Call us shallow, but this turned out to be a sweet deal. It’s a pleasure to meet you, President Linden!"
Cecelia had been working for many years and had her fair share of interactions with male colleagues. She could tell the difference between lecherous teasing and someone just speaking their mind.
This group of low-level tech employees wasn’t that complicated.
"Don’t celebrate too early. I may have the title of ’leader,’ but I’m actually here to handle logistics. I don’t know the first thing about the technical side of things. The most I can do is cook, do laundry, and run errands for everyone. When we get to our destination and you find out I’m not as capable as you, please go easy on me."
"Hey, you look so delicate, like you’ve never done manual labor in your life. How could we let you do hard work with us? It’s great that you’re handling logistics. Don’t worry, we won’t say a thing! Besides, you’re the leader, so it’s not like we’d dare to say anything anyway."
"Thank you all for being so considerate. I heard the conditions in the mountains are tough, so yesterday I went to the supermarket and bought a whole suitcase of beef, lamb, and pork. I’ll make you all something delicious when we get there."
"So that’s why you brought two huge suitcases! I thought they were full of clothes, like you were going to a fashion show, but it’s all food. Looks like we’re in for a treat."
It was a long journey to Windmount. Along the way, everyone gathered around Cecelia, chatting about this and that.
Seeing how everyone supported and liked her, Miller could barely contain his anger.
’Green tea! She’s like a fish in water with a bunch of men—a classic sign of a repeat offender!’
’She might be able to fool these inexperienced young guys, but if she thinks she can walk all over me, she’s dreaming!’
After driving for more than six hours, the van finally exited the highway. They drove along a national road, entered the county seat, where Cecelia treated everyone to a hearty lunch, and then continued down a bumpy country road until they reached a small town.
They asked around and learned that the village they were headed to support was still over thirty li away.
The town’s residents told them the van couldn’t go any further. The road into Windmount was extremely narrow and steep. With all the equipment they had, they probably wouldn’t make it there today.
"Then how do the local residents get their supplies back home?"
"On motorcycles."
A resident patted an old-fashioned diesel motorcycle next to him.
"This kind, the manual ones where you have to shift gears and hit the gas, have enough power for the mountain roads. But you don’t have any, and you probably don’t know how to ride them, do you? You all look like fresh meat from the big city. What made you want to come to Windmount?"
Miller was getting extremely irritated.
They had brought so much equipment, filling up two whole vans. What were they going to do if they couldn’t transport it?
’We’ll have to figure something out tomorrow.’
’I wonder if there are even any hotels in this godforsaken place.’
He asked around. As expected, there were none.
He immediately gave an order: drive back to the county seat. They would stay in the county seat for the night and deal with going up the mountain tomorrow.
But Cecelia disagreed.
It was only 3 p.m. A mere thirty-something li, no matter how difficult the road, would take two hours at most by motorcycle.
They had to go up the mountain sooner or later, so why waste a night?
With a dozen or so people, staying in a hotel and eating out would add a lot to their expenses for every day they were delayed.
She was the project leader. It was her duty to manage their time efficiently and be frugal with their resources.
The others didn’t have any objections. They had been sitting in the van all day and hadn’t done anything anyway. If they were going up the mountain, they might as well just go. The girl wasn’t afraid, so why should they be?
With everyone’s support, Cecelia went to talk to the residents about renting motorcycles.
When Miller saw that no one was listening to him and were instead following the lead of a little slip of a girl, he completely lost his temper.
"What does she know? She’s just a wet-behind-the-ears little brat, giving clueless orders, and you all just go along with it! If something happens, can any of you take responsibility?"
"Let me tell you, the equipment is limited and very expensive. If you break anything, you’ll be responsible for it yourselves. I’m washing my hands of this!"
Everyone looked at each other, stunned. They hadn’t expected Miller to have such a problem with Cecelia.
Just as they were wondering what to do, Cecelia returned, having successfully negotiated a price with the residents.
"We’ll store the equipment at his house for now and not take it with us. Let’s just take our personal luggage and get the team settled in first. As for the rest, we’ll deal with it tomorrow when I arrange for an excavator to repair the road. Come on, let’s get moving."
’President Linden is so smart. Why didn’t we think of storing the equipment here first?’
The problem was solved just like that. Everyone glanced at the needlessly worried Miller with a hint of mockery.
Miller’s face was as dark as iron.
"You think staying at a hotel is too expensive, but renting motorcycles is free? With this many people, one bike each, how much is that going to cost in total?"
Cecelia: "It’s 30 per person, but I negotiated a group discount to 260 total. President Miller, this is an unavoidable expense. Even if we stayed here overnight, we couldn’t make everyone walk up the mountain tomorrow. We’d still have to spend the money... What’s wrong, President Miller? Are you unhappy with my arrangements?"