When Shen Qingzhu finished his last sentence, the temperature in the conference room seemed to drop slightly.
The people present exchanged glances and whispered among themselves. After a moment, one of them spoke:
"Acting Director Shen, please give us some more time to discuss this properly."
"No problem." Shen Qingzhu closed the file before him. "Let's take a ten-minute break first, then proceed with the seventh show-of-hands vote."
As soon as he finished speaking, Shen Qingzhu rose and pushed the door open to leave.
The sounds of debate and argument resumed within the conference room, but he seemed not to hear them. He walked straight to the side of the corridor, took a cigarette from his pocket and lit it, then gazed at the gray, hazy sky in the distance as he slowly exhaled a cloud of smoke...
"Brother Qing Zhu, this is already the sixth time... Have they still not reached a consensus?" Wu Quan walked to his side and asked with a frown.
"Mm."
"You and Brother Qi Ye discussed this plan for so long before finalizing it. How did so many problems suddenly crop up once it reached them?" Wu Quan narrowed his eyes. "Maybe they simply don't understand what Great Xia is about to face... If Destiny Monk were here, he'd probably have already..."
"They view the issue from a different position than we do. It's only natural that there would be disagreements." Shen Qingzhu flicked the ash from his cigarette and spoke calmly. "Wu Quan, we can turn our anger into strength and use it to cut down our enemies... but we cannot treat them that way.
If we cannot even reconcile the conflicts within Great Xia, what right do we have to fight the Cthulhu Mythos?"
Wu Quan stared at Shen Qingzhu's calm profile