Shu Mei stood up and continued in a tone that was not so friendly, "First, my task group has always had a large workload. You not only didn't increase the number of my members but reduced our members. Now you want to move our deadline forward, how do you expect us to do that?"
The three other people nodded in agreement.
"That's right, we have less people but you want us to produce faster results. Who could possibly do that?"
"Miss Xia, we also think this order is a bit illogical, can you please change it?"
Since they were all disciplined military men and women, they didn't dare to go against Xinghe's orders too harshly and openly.
Xinghe said softly, "I think the request is entirely reasonable. I've studied what each of you is capable of and I fully believe that this task can be accomplished before tomorrow night."
"You've studied us? You've only been here for two days; how can you possibly know what each of us can do so well and so soon?" Shu Mei was starting to lose it. "Miss Xia, we do not accept this arrangement. I think the original arrangement was a lot better."
"The old arrangement is not bad, but we're in a critical period. We have to push ourselves or there will never be improvement."
"We've been pushing ourselves! There is no holiday and every day we're working overtime!" Shu Mei retorted. She was not Xinghe's biggest fan from day one and now she only hated her even more. With Shu Mei leading the way, others started agreeing.
Everyone thought Xinghe's arrangement was unfair. Not only Shu Mei's task force had their workload increased, everyone else did too. Only those task groups that required special skills had an increase in members.
Furthermore, they'd doubted Xinghe's capability from the beginning and were dissatisfied with her sudden appearance. At that time, their resentment burst into the open.
Xinghe was unfazed facing the room's rejection of her, while Shu Mei was having the time of her life.
She gave a smile and advised Xinghe kindly, "Miss Xia, you're new here so you wouldn't understand our work. If the task could be completed earlier, we would skip eating and sleeping to rush it to completion, but the thing is, this is mission impossible."
"Are you skipping eating and sleeping?" Xinghe suddenly asked in return.
Shu Mei was stunned…
Xinghe scanned everyone there. "Are the rest of you not eating and sleeping to do your job as well? If you have not, then don't tell me the task is impossible! Plus, my arrangement wouldn't even force you guys to such a level. I've arranged everyone with their team mission and I need them to be completed on time. If there's any complaints, you can refer to your leader or the Major. I'm just here to mind my business and do my job!"
With that, Xinghe turned to leave. She didn't want to waste time explaining herself, because she knew it wouldn't have worked. No one would believe her without a trial by fire. Therefore, she decided to do things the hard and fast way.
After Xinghe assigned the tasks, she left the rest to Gu Li. Gu Li chose to cooperate with her and used his power to squelch all the voices of dissatisfaction.
"Sister Mei, the woman really thinks she's something else," the quintessential lackey that followed Shu Mei grumbled to her.
Shu Mei laughed condescendingly. "But of course, she has a unique background after all."
Her voice was purposely loud so almost everyone heard her.
"Unique background? Do you know who she is?" someone immediately asked.
A disgruntled Shu Mei said suggestively, "Of course I do. After all, she has such a long history with the Xi family…"