Chapter 20 No One Can Lay A Finger On Her

• Pfft!
• Douglas and his team burst out laughing upon hearing Emmanuel. Sophie, in particular, struggled hard to hold back her laughter as she kindly reminded, “Mr. Kirsch, there's no need for a report. Your team made no sales at all today.”
• Emmanuel gave her a cold-eye stare. “I wasn't talking to you.”
• Emmanuel's domineering aura rippled across the room like a deadly hurricane, so much so that none of the employees dared say a word. In fact, none of them dared breathe loudly. They stared at Emmanuel blankly with apparent fear on their faces, and even Douglas signaled Sophie to be quiet.
• “There's nothing to say. There are zero sales,” Eleanor mumbled.
• “Get up and report,” Emmanuel insisted softly. “The core value as a salesperson is to respect other people. Since they reported their sales, we should do the same for them. Am I clear?”
• Eleanor stood up unwillingly, saying, “Our team scored nothing today.”
• If it were not for Emmanuel's deterrent attitude earlier, Sophie would have made fun of Eleanor, but at that moment, no one present dared to even smile.
• Seeing this, Eleanor stole a peek at Emmanuel.
• They must be really scared of him. One glance from him is enough to silence and oppress these veterans.
• After a moment of silence, Emmanuel looked at the watch on his wrist. We still have five more minutes to go.
• “Everyone can get off work in five minutes. Those on my team, please stay back for a meeting. Are you fine with this arrangement, Mr. Swanson?”
• Douglas did a nonchalant gesture with his hand. “Well, I suppose those on my team would appreciate it if we could sit in. We would also love to learn from your experience, Mr. Kirsch.”
• That was just an excuse, for Douglas had figured that Emmanuel would find it embarrassing to criticize the twenty-over rookies on his team in front of outsiders, so Douglas requested to stay for some entertainment. To him, being unable to sell a single product after a whole day was sheer incompetence, but Emmanuel disregarded him.
• Instead, he addressed his team gently, “I'm aware that everyone's not in a good mood today, but I still have to say this. In work and life alike, we need to understand that we shouldn't give up until the final moment. Our team indeed sold nothing till this point, but we still have five more minutes before the day ends. So, today, I'm using the last five minutes we have to illustrate a lesson for all of you: press on to the end, for a miracle might knock on your door the next second.”
• The whole conference room fell into silence after Emmanuel's speech. Everyone directed their attention to him, among whom Sophie and her team looked particularly disdainful.
• They were waiting to see how Emmanuel could turn the tide in the last stretch of the race.
• As for Eleanor, she shook her head subtly as she looked at the clock on the wall.
• We only have four more minutes. It's too late to do anything now.
• Creak!
• Suddenly, the conference room's door opened. A woman in a suit with a contract in her hand was standing outside.
• Sophie's face lit up in excitement, and she hurried over to the woman.
• “Ms. Long! You must be here to sign a contract with me!”
• Yvette Long was the secretary of Southspell Corporation's CEO. When she heard Sophie's words, she shook her head and corrected, “I'm sorry. I'm looking for Mr. Kirsch, not you.”
• “What?” Sophie frowned, looking at Douglas and Shane, confused.
• Douglas was agitated when he heard that. “Ms. Long, we clearly struck a deal with Mr. Hamilton. This deal should be ours, so why are you giving the contract to Emmanuel? There must be a mistake!”
• “It's not, unfortunately. The CEO sent me here to deliver the contract to Mr. Kirsch. As for Mr. Hamilton, he was fired ten minutes ago. I believe I don't have to delve into the reason for his dismissal, Mr. Swanson. He accepted what he was not supposed to and made promises he could not live up to.”
• With that said, the secretary placed the contract before Emmanuel politely, saying, “Please sign here, Mr. Kirsch.”
• Emmanuel nodded and glanced at the contract before passing it to Eleanor.
• “This is my gift to the team. Eleanor will ratify it, and the dividend will be shared among the members.”
• This deal is worth twenty million! Did he just say the dividend will be distributed among everyone?
• The whole team was dumbstruck, for the bonus amounted to more than six hundred thousand. They could not believe Emmanuel was giving it away so freely.
• He's way too generous!
• Eleanor signed the contract under everyone's anticipative stares.
• She would not turn down Emmanuel's offer unless she wanted to risk her colleagues' wrath.
• Yet, she was still surprised that Emmanuel just gifted her the contract.
• Is he not afraid that I'll meet the eighty-million sales target?
• “We look forward to working with you, Mr. Kirsch,” Yvette announced with a faint smile.
• With that said, she took the contract and left.
• The whole room resumed silence after her departure, with only a few heavy breathings audible.
• Douglas and his team were fuming, for they could only watch the fruits of their hard work being harvested by their competitors.
• Douglas, Shane, and Sophie were especially exasperated because the deal that they had gone through all the trouble to attain ended up in Emmanuel's hands.
• They had no idea how that man managed to steal the deal from them.
• “Mr. Kirsch, don't you think this is too much?” Douglas finally uttered, trying to suppress his rage.
• Emmanuel curved his lips into a smile. “Mr. Swanson, I agree that this might not be the most decent thing to do, but I did it so you know that our team can also win a deal without even lifting a finger. Despite sitting and doing nothing, businesses and wealth came looking for us. On the contrary, you guys toiled laboriously under the sun the whole day, but still failed in the end.”
• Emmanuel's words fell like a heavy hammer.
• Feeling spirited and emboldened, everyone on Emmanuel's team jumped up and cheered.
• What Emmanuel said was so satisfying that even Eleanor, who was sitting on the chair, clenched her fists in glee as she fixed her gaze on the man.
• He's clearly going out of his way to defend us. That's so cool.
• “I think that's enough,” Emmanuel noted, gesturing at the employees to sit back down. Then, he turned toward Sophie with a smile, asking, “Sophie, do you still remember the lesson I taught my team just now?”
• Sophie thought hard and finally answered, “Respect each other, and do to others what you want them to do to you.”
• “Okay!”
• Emmanuel snapped his fingers in contentment before speaking to Tiffany.
• “Tiffany, slap her twice. We're doing to them what they did to us. I mean, we're returning the favor two-fold.”
• Slap!
• Before anyone could react, Tiffany had already stood up and hit Sophie in the face.
• As someone who bore grudges, Tiffany readily slapped Sophie when she had the chance.
• Since Emmanuel had given her the green light, she had no qualms about exacting revenge.
• Instantly, everyone on Douglas' team sprang forward and closed in on Tiffany when Sophie was slapped.
• The whole situation escalated when the hostile lot got ready for a fight, but just as they encircled Tiffany, Emmanuel narrowed his eyes and scanned the group.
• “I would like to see who dares to lay a finger on her.”