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

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

was no need for him to help her out. Cassandra's wit saved her and perfectly solved the crisis. Her misfortune turned

made to him yesterday. He felt elated and the cause of it

several days later. However, judging from the way they commended Cassandra, it was no doubt that Tang Group would win the bidding

a bear hug after she

You're the best!" she exclaimed

her on the back while casting a quick

but notice the myriad expressions in his eyes,

Rufus'. Then she gathered up all her

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

quality, but she wondered

averted his eyes away from Cassandra and fixed them on Cloris.

presentation. She looked tense and was gripping something in her hands. Moreover, he heard a weird tinkling

happen if Cassandralearned that her much-loved, sweet, little

time, Rufus walked towards them. Cassandra let go of her sister and reached out her hand to Rufus in an awkward attempt to shake

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

Rufus knew her plan the moment she reached out her hand, and he just went with the flow

her hand a slight but endearing

it to the engineers to see if

her in a voice loud enough for Cloris to hear. He did that on purpose so he could gauge

such a big occasion. So to make it up with what I have done, a

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

and placed her hand over her shoulders.

improper for you

turned to face

and this will serve as an important lesson for me. It'll remind me not to make the same mistakes

about the data at all, and he had already confirmed what he needed to know. It made no difference if

in his thoughts till he noticed that Cloris took a deep breath of relief after hearing that Cassandra

no idea that a storm was on its way to shake her firm ground and the aftershock would

when Arthur stopped in front of Cassandra with his hand extended to congratulate

demonstration was thrilling and impressive, and I want to show you my appreciation. Congratulations!" he exclaimed with