A Graduation Gift

Cold sweats were running down Cassandra's forehead. She didn't know what to do considering that she was the center of attraction and everyone was staring at her. She stood awkwardly alone on the rostrum with her face as pale as the bare walls. Obviously, there was something wrong with her.

Arthur knitted his eyebrows in confusion and anxiously leaned back in his chair.

"What's going on with her?" he tilted his head to his assistant and asked.

His assistant, however, just shrugged his shoulder because he had no idea what was happening. Judging from their previous experiences in doing businesses with the Tang Group, they had witnessed what Cassandra was capable of and they dared not to underestimate her.

They had come and prepared for whatever Cassandra had in store for them, but now it seemed that it was the other way around. Something wrong was happening to her.

Rufus sensed the oddity in the way Cassandra held the flash disk on her clenched fist. He stood up without any hesitation, walked to the organizers and whispered something to them.

He was planning to ask them to give Cassandra another thirty minutes. That would buy Leo some time to go back and fetch a backup copy. He was surprised when Cassandra had braced herself and snapped back right away.

She waved up the flash disk for everyone to see and slowly explained her tight spot.

"It seemed that my flash disk has decided to leave me hanging alone, and it's not good timing," she spoke in no hurry as she shrugged her shoulders with a helpless expression on her face.

Everyone present in the room smiled at her frankness.

"The reason I bought this flash disk was that it got the coolest, most attractive, and had the most unique appearance amongst all the products of the same brand, but it turned out that it didn't serve its purpose. It has a nice appearance but of little use," she continued.

The room was filled with laughter.

Rufus straightened his back and fixed his eyes on Cassandra interestingly.

He was curious about what she would say next.

Then, she changed the topic.

"When I was a little girl, I thought that the most important thing in a certain design was an attractive appearance, but the longer I worked in this industry and the more I learned, the better I understand that the final purpose of design is practicality. The utility should not be sacrificed on behalf of beauty," she narrated emotionally.

The audience she was speaking to was a group of experts when it came to design and architecture. Thus everyone seemed to get the implication of her statement as they nodded their heads in approval.

They had seen the designs of both Tang Group and Dawn Star Group in the past. The former was conservative and practical while the latter focused on the novel appearance. To cover up the unexpected emergency brought about by her broken flash disk, Cassandra compared and contrasted the two design plans taking the example of her own experience.

In the next few minutes, she briefly introduced her design and the reasons behind such a proposal.

small incident earlier, all the

gave Leo another flash disk and he handed it to Cassandra immediately. Finally, all the attendees were able to view a concrete example of the

wonderful experience for them to see with their own eyes the things they heard slowly unfolding in front of them. They had been impressed by her description, and the pictures gave them another visual shock. They praised

back on his chair when he realized that there was no need for him to help her out. Cassandra's wit saved her and perfectly solved the crisis. Her misfortune turned out

he thought about the promise she made to him yesterday. He felt elated and

discuss things and the results would be announced several days later. However, judging from the way they

ran to Cassandra and gave her a bear hug after

Cassandra! You're the best!" she

her on the back while

the myriad expressions in his eyes, and it was filled

hit by a sudden inspiration when her eyes met Rufus'. Then she gathered up all her strength and started from her broken flash disk,

turned out to be perfect. Almost everyone in the room recognized her efforts. All went well and

flash disk. It was made from a brand known for quality, but she wondered how could it failed to work only several days after she had

Cassandra and fixed them on Cloris.

ladies' room before Cassandra's presentation. She looked tense and was gripping something in her hands.

sweet, little sister stole her flash disk from her, she must

his time, Rufus walked towards them. Cassandra let go of her sister and reached out her hand to Rufus in

give her a hug just like Cloris did in front of so many people. The shaking hands

reached out her hand, and he just went with the flow and

gave her

take it to the engineers to see if they can restore the data

asked her in a voice loud enough for Cloris to hear. He

big occasion. So to make it up with what I have done, a good friend of mine is skilled at data restoring. Please give

hearing her words. He was sure that Cloris had stealthily taken Cassandra's disk away and replaced it with another disk that was not working. She was scared that Rufus would learn the truth and was eager to take the disk with her. However, Cloris didn't know that her voice was quivering as she spoke, totally

Cloris and placed her hand over her

it's improper for you to

to face

whether it can be restored or not. I'll just keep the disk as a souvenir, and this

data at all, and he had already confirmed what he needed to know. It made no difference if Cassandra wanted to keep

was immersed in his thoughts till he noticed that Cloris took a deep breath of relief after hearing that Cassandra wouldn't give it

bright as before. She had no idea that a storm was on its way to shake her firm

when Arthur stopped in front of

want to show you my appreciation. Congratulations!" he