An oppressive silence filled with suspicion and anxiety perated the air, more suffocating than the previous dead silence.
At this mont, Lei Ran’s phone suddenly rang sharply, the na flashing on the screen was—"President Yan."
Everyone’s gaze "whoosh," as if pulled by invisible strings, instantly focused on that small phone.
Even the air seed to stop flowing, leaving only that abrupt ringtone echoing in the eting room full of complex emotions, like a sharp blade piercing the darkness, or a stone thrown into an unknown abyss.
Is it the echo of the abyss or the harbinger of salvation? No one knew.
Lei Ran answered the call, his voice slightly hoarse: "President Yan."
"Manager Lei." Yan Yueqing’s voice was clear and calm, without a ripple, like a shot of adrenaline. "Did you see the news?"
"Yes! Just saw it, everyone... is a bit worried." Lei Ran glanced around, seeing everyone’s eyes tightly fixed on the phone, even those who were previously ecstatically restrained were holding their breath.
"No need to panic." Yan Yueqing’s tone carried a reassuring certainty, "The Sea Star Company will not disappear, and no one will lose their job. I will make new arrangents for everyone, everyone will have a way out."
Concise and to the point, without any unnecessary comfort, yet it hit precisely at everyone’s greatest fear—work!
The huge stone in Lei Ran’s heart finally landed, he quickly responded: "Yes! President Yan! I understand! I’ll make sure to reassure everyone! Don’t worry!"
After hanging up, he straightened up and addressed the faces in the eting room, all showing different expressions, solemnly saying: "President Yan said everyone will have arrangents! No jobs will be lost!"
"Everyone... will have a way out?" Xiao Wang murmured, a faint light rekindling in his eyes.
"President Yan said... everyone?" Old Zhang’s tensed shoulders slightly relaxed.
The heavy atmosphere in the eting room seed to crack open a little.
Although doubts and the feeling of a huge disparity in interests were not completely dispelled, Yan Yueqing’s firm promise and the decisive ans she had shown over the past month made most people feel a bit calr.
At least, the despairing emotion was temporarily suppressed.
"Alright, everyone, go back to your work! Wait for President Yan’s specific plan!" Lei Ran waved, signaling everyone to leave.
Everyone left the eting room with different thoughts, the low discussions did not cease.
"President Yan said everyone will have arrangents... what could it be?" Xiao Wang anxiously asked Old Zhang.
Old Zhang sighed: "Just wait, President Yan always acts unexpectedly, but... she shouldn’t deceive us."
Li Guozhu, rubbing his hands, didn’t join the discussion, the repressed joy on his face contrasting subtly with the calm he tried to display, caught by Wang Daman standing nearby.
Wang Daman was a team leader at the farm, his ho wasn’t in the planned area, considered among the "not so fortunate" group.
He listened to Yan Yueqing’s promise, yet his heart felt like it was blocked by damp cotton—stifling.
The promise was too vague, like scratching an itch through a boot, unable to ease the sting of seeing his house missing from the plan’s red boundary.
In the evening, Wang Daman, restless, drowned his troubles with liquor at a roadside stall.
After a few bottles of beer, his pent-up grievances and suspicions surged.
Using the alcohol’s boldness, he vented his bitterness over the phone to a friend Sun Tao, who was a "new dia" professional in a neighboring city.
"Xiao Sun, you wouldn’t believe it! That woman... Yan Yueqing! Talks better than she sings! ’Everyone will have arrangents’? Bah!" Wang Daman hiccupped drunkenly, his voice raised with strong resentnt, "You didn’t see those faces at today’s eting who were marked out! Li Guozhu, that old guy, his grin almost reached his ears! Relocation! Astronomical compensation! Generations worth of money!"
"Oh? Is that really so?" From the other end of the line, Sun Tao’s voice carried a tone of shrewdness and incitent, "Old Wang, are you stupid? Your company’s plot of land and sea area is now a golden lump! National requisition, that compensation money... tsk tsk, it’s bound to be an astronomical figure! This money, it’s for the company! For that Yan Yueqing!"
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