Sister Ming appeared at her desk.
"Little Ran" She leaned over slightly. "Team Lead had an emergency. Can you cover the presentation today?"
Qinran didn't look up from her screen. "Send me the files."
"Already done" A pause. "Oh ...and prep well. I heard the CEO is attending"
"Okay"
Sister Ming stared at her for a second.
That's it? Just okay? I thought it might be way harder to convince her...
She shook her head and walked away.
—
The conference room was already half full when she arrived.
She set up quietly. Laptop. Clicker. One quick scan of the slides.
Good enough
She looked around the room once — executives, senior staff, people she recognised by face but not name.
Then the doors opened again.
A man entered.
Surrounded by people. Moving the way someone moves when every room adjusts to them.
Murmurs around her: President Mo. President Mo.
Ah... The CEO
She looked back at her slides.
—
"I'll be presenting the current progress of the CRAFT MMORPG project"
Her voice was even. No nerves.
"Core systems are at 87% completion. We'll be moving into alpha testing within the next quarter"
Mo Beichuan stilled.
She's…
His chest tightened.
He couldn't place it. That feeling again — quiet, persistent, like something just out of reach.
I've never seen her before.
"Our primary challenge has been server stability. Current hardware limitations are affecting load capacity for large scale simultaneous players—"
I can't seem to focus.
He set down his pen and leaned forward.
She didn't notice. She was already moving to the next slide, unhurried, like she'd done this a thousand times.
She feels familiar.
"We're currently working on a tiered server solution. Projected launch window — approximately one year"
She clicked to the final slide.
"Questions?"
Silence.
Then the room began to murmur — impressed, nodding.
She waited, expression neutral.
Who is she.
An hour later, the meeting concluded.
Chairs shifted. Conversations resumed.
Mo Beichuan exited with long, steady strides. His secretary followed half a step behind.
"Secretary Fang," he said without looking back, "who was the presenter?"
"The genius game developer from the 7th-floor department. Lin Qinran"
A slight pause.
"I see"
And he walked on.
On the seventh floor, Lin Qinran was already back at her desk.
Presentation filed away. Mind cleared.
Server logs open. Code scrolling.
What would Luoli like for dinner today… dumplings?
Her fingers moved across the keyboard.
"Rework it.... Debug it.... No time like today"