In the darkness, the gaze, like a net or gauze, like hooks or entanglements, possessed a tangible power.
Chi Cheng felt a tightness in his throat from her gaze. Shi Ling appeared to be aloof and indifferent, but when it came to flirting, she was ruthless and far from her reserved and aloof demeanor.
From the side, Shi Ling could clearly see the movement of his Adam's apple.
Chi Cheng cursed under his breath and was about to pretend to tug at his collar when Shi Ling turned around and walked away.
**
Having learned her lesson from last time, Shi Ling, despite never having seen the true face of an exhibitionist, has recently been leaving the library immediately after group meetings and returning to her dorm to continue working on her computer.
Unlike before, I no longer study until after 10 pm.
By this week, with the Christmas tree in front of the library set up and the snowflake decorations for the business school put up, everyone was busy and in a frenzy during the last week before the holidays.
Shi Ling, for example, spends almost all her days in the library, either working on her personal papers or attending group meetings.
Even someone like Fang Ze, who rarely opens a book, has been knocking on Shi Ling's door almost every night these past few days, asking Shi Ling to help him find financial statements, calculate ratios, and so on, claiming he's trying to curry favor with the academic superstar.
Everyone is rushing to meet deadlines. Shi Ling's progress is ahead of Fang Ze's, so I'll take a look for him if it doesn't take too much time.
The week before the final holiday is jokingly referred to as "Deadline Week" because everyone faces deadlines for at least three assignments during this week.
Especially for their major, there is a financial modeling test on Tuesdays, which is completed online in one day and accounts for 20% of the final grade.
Individual assignments for Accounting are due on Thursday, and group assignments for Derivatives are due on Friday.
It was already crazy enough, and then Hook came along to cause trouble on top of the business plan assignment.
Hook couldn't attend the previous group meetings. So they made a poster that was due before the holiday and accounted for 10% of the grade. Since they had finished theirs, Hook did the presentation. The work was divided among the group members, and no one fussed over it.
Before the "deadline week" even arrived, Hook arranged a meeting with them on the weekend.
Everyone thought that since the entrepreneurship plan course was the last one to be submitted, there would still be time to do it during the holidays.
Chi Cheng has been frantically rushing to finish his assignments these past two weeks, and then Hook showed up at the meetings, dragging his feet the previous times, and now he's causing trouble again this week, leaving Chi Cheng furious.
However, when it came time for the meeting, Chi Cheng still put his arm around his shoulder to show their intimacy, since if the group fell out, everyone's score would be affected.
Unexpectedly, after Hook sat down, he apologized to everyone.
He said he would go back to the United States as soon as he got a break, and wanted to catch up on the progress this week to finish and submit his group assignment.
Chi Cheng frowned and told him that he could definitely wait until he returned from the holiday to hand it in.
Hook shrugged and said he applied to study at Copenhagen Business School next semester. The school starts early there, so he'll basically be going to Denmark after Christmas in the US.
There really wasn't enough time to do it with them.
The group of people, who had been rushing to meet deadlines, looked unwell and remained silent for a long time after hearing his words.
Hook had obviously finished his other assignments in the past few weeks, which explains why he hadn't been holding group meetings with them. Now he's asking them to squeeze in the last week of the "deadline week" to frantically finish their startup assignments with him. Nobody's going to feel good about that.
Hook kept saying that it absolutely had to be finished this week.
“We can work on our assignments together in the library for two days. Working together will be much more efficient. If we finish early, everyone can enjoy Christmas in peace. I also heard that some other groups have already finished.”
Chi Cheng got angry and retorted, "You can apply to the professor to switch to another group."
Hook was naturally unhappy. Changing groups now would be tantamount to kicking him out of the game. Besides, he had already submitted the poster that accounted for 10% of the score, and he definitely wouldn't get that score if he changed groups.
Hook emphasized, "We are a team."
Chi Cheng leaned back, staring at him. "You know we're a team. You never showed up for meetings before, and now you're asking us to follow your schedule. Do you respect our wishes?"
Chi Cheng looked around.
The intention was to ask what the others thought.
Ajit is always a peacemaker. Perhaps because their major doesn't have that much homework, seeing the tense atmosphere in the conversation between Chi Cheng and Hook, he stepped in to mediate.
He said in a tactful tone, "How about we try first, and if we can't finish, we can all compile the results online during the holiday?"
Chi Cheng was unhappy. The group had different roles, and Hook declined the meeting several times, so he naturally got the easy job.
However, Chi Cheng and Shi Ling need to quantify everything to predict the financial statements for the entire plan over the next 3-5 years, including specific purchase quantities, customer number forecasts, and so on.
Even if you've already done some work, you can imagine how many sleepless days it would take to finish it all within this week.
Christine didn't say anything, but judging from her attitude, she wasn't very satisfied with Hook's unpredictable way of speaking.
Having made up his mind, Chi Cheng said "So" in a steady tone, intending to retort to Hook.
Shi Ling had already spoken up, "Let's finish it this week."
Shi Ling added, "But Hook must participate, and we have a lot of tasks in Finance, so they must help us share the burden."
Shi Ling turned the computer screen a little closer to Chi Cheng.
Chi Cheng saw that she had typed a line of text, which lay alone on the white Word document.
"He's even less likely to do it by Christmas."
Chi Cheng understood what Shi Ling meant. Indeed, given Hook's track record, he would probably drag things out even more after returning to the United States. Then, with the time difference, communication would be difficult. It would be better for everyone to finish this together this week and summarize the results.
When Chi Cheng saw that she had spoken, he swallowed the words that were about to come out, changed his words, and was ultimately somewhat unwilling.
The tone also carried a warning, a stern rebuke to Hook: "That's it then. I hope you really consider us a team. If we don't finish, it'll be embarrassing for everyone."
Hook responded readily, taking the simpler financial statement to work on.
The group agreed to catch up on the progress in the next few days and summarize everything together on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Shi Ling took the financial modeling exam alone in her dorm, while Chi Cheng and Fang Ze did it with a group of other people. They helped each other and finally finished.
On Wednesday, Ajit had booked a small meeting room in advance, and they sent everything they had made to his email so they could review it together.
When Chi Cheng received the part that Hook had made, he quickly glanced at it and immediately sensed something was wrong.
Shi Ling looked at it carefully; she had already highlighted the questionable data in red on the computer.
Upon closer inspection, almost half of the computer screen is red, which is clearly not a matter of poor workmanship. The Hook section is obviously fabricated and done perfunctorily.
Shi Ling asked Hook what data he had derived for this part.
Hook answered casually, based on our entire business plan.
Shi Ling knew that criticizing him was useless. The others were reviewing the rest of the document, which covered the entire business plan, personnel arrangements, operating model, and so on.
She remained silent, typing and revising on the computer all by herself.
After everything else was compiled, Shi Ling was still working on this table.
Chi Cheng stood behind her and glanced at her. She was almost finished calculating, but he didn't offer to help her.
Several people still haven't filled out the final contribution value form. Some assignments require submitting group meeting attendance and individual contribution information to ensure fairness in group contributions.
In groups with a large number of Chinese members, it doesn't matter how much or how little each person does; the final score is based on equal average.
Ajit made a rough note and then turned the computer around for everyone to see.
Chi Cheng glanced at it and immediately deleted the financial statement section created by Hook.
Hook immediately became furious, "Why did you delete this part?"
He picked up the computer and saw that there were meeting minutes; they had held six meetings, and he had attended three of them.
Ajit may act as a peacemaker, but this is still fair and just, since everyone's actions are clearly documented.
As for the specific contributions, because Hook rarely attends team meetings, he is assigned only trivial tasks, and Chi Cheng directly deleted his contributions to the financial statements, so the actual record of his contributions seems very thin and weak.
Everyone knows that each person's score is directly linked to their individual contribution.
Hook glared angrily at Chi Cheng.
Seeing that Shi Ling was still typing, Chi Cheng said in Chinese, "Wait a minute."
She turned the form she was revising towards everyone, saying, "Take a look for yourself."
Shi Ling was clearly annoyed by the revisions to his expression, and surprisingly, she responded to Chi Cheng's words.
However, her tone was calm, and you couldn't tell she was very angry. "But almost everything you did was wrong. You might as well not have done anything at all."
Chi Cheng looked regretful. "So, I'm very sorry, but I don't think you deserve this contribution."
Hook took a deep breath and changed the subject, saying that he always checked in with them on the progress after each meeting in the group chat, and asked if he could add the meeting minutes to the record.
Chi Cheng still answered firmly, "NO."
Hook emphasized his previous contribution to the poster presentation, and Chi Cheng clearly told him that the 10% score from that presentation had already been calculated, and this time it was only the score for the business plan.
After much persuasion, Hook went to Ajit and Christine for help.
Ajit hesitated.
Hook seized the opportunity and spoke aggressively to Ajit.
“I did do the financial statement part. Those two are just finance majors who think they're so great and look down on what I did. You need to add that part to my report.”
Hook's face darkened considerably, and he started cursing again, saying that this wasn't his original major, but they forced him to do this part.
He was aggressive, but Ajit had little temper and just nodded a few times.
Christine clearly disapproved of his attitude and spoke up to support Chi Cheng.
Hook was somewhat overwhelmed by Christine and Chi Cheng's presence.
He talked for a long time, but they didn't seem inclined to change it.
He stood up and slammed his fist on the table.
Hook stole Ajit's computer and modified the meeting attendance records and contributions himself.
Chi Cheng sneered, "You're wasting your time. This form needs to be signed by five people before it can be submitted."
Hook pressed Enter and saved.
When it comes to his own interests, he will fight for every inch of land.
He started using foul language, repeatedly hurling insults like "fucking," "Ching Chong," and "bitch" at Chi Cheng and Christine.
Chi Cheng retorted a few times, firmly disagreeing with his decision to change that part.
Hook made a harsh statement, saying that if things went wrong, he would go to the professor, since he clearly did this part, and if he wasn't credited, no one else would get away with it either.
After saying that, he slammed the door and left, pointing at them one by one with his hand.
"You wait."