Work Prophet
Chapter 643 - 16: Drinking Horse by the Pond

Chapter 643: Chapter 16: Drinking Horse by the Pond

The hosts for the annual meeting were a pair of twin girls, who appeared to be only sixteen or seventeen years old but were surprisingly tall, both standing over 1.75 meters.

Dressed in cheongsams and high heels, and with completely identical faces, they immediately captured everyone’s attention upon appearing.

"Welcome everyone to Red Leaf Manor, to attend the company’s annual meeting," said the girl in the black cheongsam as she started speaking.

"This year’s annual meeting is hosted by Mr. Qin, and although you may come from different departments or countries, your presence here tonight undoubtedly indicates that you have all made outstanding contributions to the company over the past year.

"The company’s healthy development could not have happened without your efforts," continued the girl in the white cheongsam. "Mr. Qin knows that your time is very valuable and to thank everyone for taking time out of your busy schedules to come to this dinner, tonight we have also prepared some modest gifts."

"Before the annual meeting officially starts, we will distribute sixteen gifts.

As she spoke, she opened the cabinet next to her and took out the item at the very bottom.

"The first gift is the ’Traveler Prototype IV Backpack,’ which can reduce the weight of the items inside by 60%, a 10% improvement over the Prototype III Backpack. It’s still in development.

"Mass production won’t start for at least another year, so right now it’s truly one of a kind, and I believe our colleagues in the sales department will like it."

Upon hearing this, Li Yu was indeed somewhat tempted. The effect of the item seemed rather ordinary, but it was extremely practical for Cross-plane Travelers who are limited to carrying only 5kg each time they arrived.

Li Yu had already gotten a ’Traveler Exclusive III Backpack’ before, which allowed him to carry about an extra 2.5kg.

It might not seem obvious once or twice, but over time, it would become a huge advantage.

This piece of equipment was eventually won by a young lady from the accounting department.

Watching the symbols that appeared on the giant TV and comparing them to her phone, she took her time confirming that she was indeed the winner, then went up to the stage to claim her prize in high spirits.

"Ah, lucky you, winning a prize right from the start," Hephaestus said with envy, "Why don’t I ever have that kind of luck?"

"Do you want that bag too?" asked Li Yu. "For you, there’s not much difference between the IV and the III model, right?"

"Of course not for my own use; she won’t use it for herself either," said the handsome mixed-race man, nodding towards the winning female accountant. "That backpack is designed for employees like you in the sales department.

"There are definitely quite a few people interested in it, which means, in other words, it can be sold for a good amount of money as soon as you flip it."

Li Yu glanced at Shi Yitong, who indeed looked eager to try.

By then, the twin sisters had started to introduce the second gift, which seemed quite appropriate for the evening’s theme.

It was a wireless vacuum cleaner that often appeared at annual meetings, named ’Sui Xinxi.’

However, its function was not the same as a regular vacuum cleaner; it could suck up items within a ten-meter radius directly into the trash can behind it, as if transporting them by magic.

The subsequent gifts included a little turtle that could play any popular song, a violin that argued back, a magical potion that when poured could instantly accelerate the growth of plants, and a prize of two million dollars...

Li Yu didn’t win any of these items, and neither did Shi Yitong or Hephaestus; they spent the whole time watching and sharing others’ joy.

When the last prize had been claimed, the handsome mixed-race man consoled himself by saying, "No worries, there should be two more rounds, and the big prizes are still to come."

Li Yu calculated that there were sixteen prizes per draw, totaling forty-eight prizes after three rounds, and with roughly one hundred and thirty guests attending that evening, the odds of winning were about one in three, not a very optimistic figure.

After the first lottery round, the waiters began to serve the dishes. They pushed the food carts to the edge of the tables, which were filled with various types of traditional Chinese delicacies.

These included Wensi tofu, Lion’s head meatballs, Peking duck, poached cabbage in water, Longjing shrimp, squirrel fish, and hot and sour Myxocyprinus asiaticus egg soup...

Li Yu had eaten something before arriving to tide him over, but he couldn’t help but drool over these dishes.

Shi Yitong was also very satisfied with the food in front of him, "The last time I went to London for the annual meeting, they actually fobbed us off with fried fish and salads."

"Can’t be," Hephaestus said while rolling up some Peking duck, "at least there should have been some foie gras."

"There was supposed to be, but it was reportedly canceled due to protests from animal rights activists."

"Ha, that’s not surprising."

Li Yu then looked towards the empty table at the front, "What about the directors, aren’t they eating with us?"

Shi Yitong glanced at his watch, "They should be coming down by now; perhaps there’s still some matter they are attending to."

While he was speaking, the living room door suddenly got pushed open from the outside.

The sound of a horse neighed in everyone’s ears, followed by a pure white pony with not a single spot of any other color slowly stepping inside.

Riding on its back was a muscular man with a high nose bridge and blond hair and blue eyes, a typical Gaulish facial feature, wearing a bicorne on his head.

The horse, which had clearly been traveling for a while, was still breathing heavily after entering and went straight to the pool in the center of the living room to drink.

The man on its back seemed to also enjoy the shocked looks from everyone and remained seated on the horse for a while before jumping down.

He scanned the room and his gaze finally fell on Shi Yitong, his eyes lighting up as he handed the reins to a nearby waiter and instructed, "Take good care of Marengo."

After saying this, he walked over.

Shi Yitong couldn’t help but roll his eyes, "That guy... really thinks he’s Napoleon."

"Who is he?" asked Li Yu.

"Bernard, one of the five directors of the company, possibly the silliest one," Shi Yitong replied, "He always likes to seek attention, doing absurd things like this to draw everyone’s attention."

"And there’s a rumor that he really likes to hit on female employees," added Hephaestus, "You better be careful."

"I can take care of myself," said Shi Yitong, "Even directors must adhere to the company’s rules and regulations, Bernard can’t force me to do anything."

While they were talking, Bernard had already approached Shi Yitong, bowing slightly, "Have we met before, beautiful lady?"

Before Shi Yitong could respond, he shook his head, "No, no, that’s not right. If I had met you before, I definitely wouldn’t have forgotten."