A Graduation Gift novel Chapter 165

Mr. Wang finally stood up, design plan in his hands. He nodded to Cassandra with a satisfied smile on his face, his curious expression now long gone.

"Ms. Qin, I believe that your company's success will be beyond expectation. You have the ball at your feet! Please accept my congratulations in advance!" he smiled sincerely.

Cassandra's sheer confidence dispelled whatever doubt he had before. He looked at her approvingly before turning to leave her office.

Cassandra thanked him eagerly and promised to not let him down.

Once he was out of earshot, she squealed in delight for successfully nailing down the business transaction.

Her happiness was short-lived, however, when it finally dawned on her how exhausted she had been. Since she was the operator of the group, her mother was unable to help and her sister was too young to understand, she had to do most of the work herself. But no matter how frustrated she was, Cassandra knew it was all worth it. Her father must have felt the same when he started the group. She smiled to herself.

Although she had won several grand design prizes before, Cassandra promised Lionel that she wouldn't work on designing in the next two years, which somehow restricted her to gather a larger clientele for her company.

Most of the cases they undertook were similar that of Mr. Wang, and many clients came to her for the sake of her previous works. She quietly hoped that the group could provide them with some brilliant works in order to establish a long term cooperation relationship. Facts speak louder than words. However, if she was just able to design again, she knew she could have gathered a larger network of prospective customers.

A loud clap of thunder broke her from her thoughts as she suddenly felt her feet quake beneath her. She got dizzy as she noticed the glass windows rumbling.

Cassandra knew it wasn't vertigo, but she couldn't figure out what it was. She closed her eyes until the shaking subsided.

As if on cue, her phone beeped to alert her of the news. She quickly took her phone out to check.

It said that a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck A city. The alerts updated her every other minute. The earthquake and the thunder shower triggered several landslides and there were still unconfirmed reports on casualties. The earthquake was strong enough to affect the surrounding cities.

G City wasn't very close to A City, but citizens there also felt the strong vibration.

Taking several deep breaths, Cassandra slowly stood up from her chair despite her dizziness.

When she opened the door to leave her office, the hallway was in utter chaos. Her employees were all scattered outside, discussing the earthquake.

"It was so scary! I saw the ripples in my mug and thought that I shook the desk by accident!" a female employee said.

Her voice was trembling and shaky.

"My uncle and his family are in A City. I tried calling them but I still couldn't reach them! I'm so worried," another employee cried out.

She was about to burst into tears and some of her colleagues gathered around to comfort her.

"Don't worry. They must just be busy ensuring they're safe so they don't have time to call you. That, or the connection might just be too busy because everyone's doing the same thing. Just try again later!"

"She's right! Don't worry. I'm sure they'll contact you once they're safe!"

Cassandra cleared her throat when she approached the huddled crowd, and all of them quickly grew quiet and looked at her.

"Let's all call it a day! The weather report says it's also going to rain soon. Please be careful, and make sure that all of you message me as soon as you're home," she said.

She knew it was the right thing to do. Primarily, her employees would be safer if they weren't at work, and they wouldn't even be able to focus since they were all too worried. That, and she also had to go home.

She glanced outside to look at the dark clouds forming in the distance, before looking back at her employees earnestly.

They were incredibly surprised by her words. All of them smiled and sighed in relief, thanking her eagerly.

"Thank you so much, Manager Qin!" "You're seriously the best boss I've ever seen!"

"Thank God! No, thank you, Boss! I was just worrying about the disgruntling commute home. You're a lifesaver!"

"I rode my electrical bicycle here today, and it'll be impossible to ride it home in such a stormy weather. I'd better hurry up before the storm comes! See you tomorrow, my sweet boss!"

The employees' praises kept on coming as they piled their things together and left one by one.

Cassandra looked at her watch and found that if she didn't hurry herself, she'd be trapped within the rush hour. She grabbed her things quickly back in her office and ran to the exit.

Upon leaving the main entrace, the wind almost blew her away. The gust was so strong and cold, and the fog had started to form in the city.

Cassandra hailed a taxi hurriedly and rushed towards the Garden Villa without much delay. It suddenly came to her that she forgot to close the windows this morning. She had to get home as fast as she could otherwise it would the house upside down.

When she arrived, Cassandra dashed to her door and hurriedly closed the windows. Right at this moment, the rain drummed on the window pane heavily.

Cassandra sighed heavily before going to her room to change. Once she was done, she dumped her damp clothes in the dryer and walked to the living room to collapse on the sofa. She reached for the remote and turned on the TV. Just as expected, the news was broadcasting the severity of the earthquake and the storm. Her stomach knotted at the horrific scenes caused by the earthquake in the news.

It was getting darker and darker outside. Different from the wind inland, the storm from coastal cities was blustering around the house, together with the thunder, the rain and the lightning flashing across the sky. Fears were raised up in Cassandra's heart and she buried herself deep in the soft sofa with her arms across her chest.