Falling in Love With A One-Night Stand

539 Playing It By Ear

The collapsed construction site was close to several universities. So, it might endanger the university town and surrounding towns. In response to the collapse, Carousel Group planned to hold a press conference to address the public. At the same time, they wanted to publicize the plans for future development to reassure the residents. Therefore, Carousel Group held a press conference in Cliatin the following afternoon.

Before the conference began, Anna came to encourage Matthew in the hotel lounge. Originally, Wayne refused to come, but Anna persuaded him to do so.

In a hurry, Maria handed a stack of papers to Matthew and said, "These are the questions that the journalists will ask here. I've written appropriate responses to each question, so you can just answer them according to it."

Matthew took a quick glance at the script before tossing it aside. "Thanks, but that's not necessary," He said.

"Mr. Wright..." Maria made an attempt to persuade him. To her surprise, Matthew motioned with his hand that she didn't need to say anything else. Confused, Maria cast a glance at Wayne, who sat next to her. Then Wayne nodded in approval and told her to leave Matthew alone.

Later, after Matthew went to the stage, Maria said to Anna and Wayne "Shall I let the driver drive you to the airport? You may miss your flight if you don't leave now."

Extremely nervous, Anna said with a frown, "I still want to stay here with Matthew. Never mind; I can change my tickets." Hearing her response,

Maria froze for a moment before walking away. 538 Playing It By Ear

"Don't worry, Matthew will take care of everything," Wayne said, taking Anna's hand.

At the conference, Matthew sat on stage in his suit while reporters were photographing him. They took pictures of him so quickly that he didn't even have time to blink.

Then one of the reporters began asking questions, "Mr. McCarthy, how does the Carousel Group intend to deal with this collapse?"

"We will strictly adhere to the engineering plan. In fact, this building had a foundation and internal structure deterioration issues before we took it over. As a result, we will not make the next planned changes to it until these issues are resolved," With composure, Matthew answered the question logically and coherently.

"The person in charge is said to have fled after the incident happened.

Is this because he committed an illegal act, Mr. McCarthy?"

"No. In fact, we signed a contract before making the deal and we didn't do anything illegal."

Maria had prepared a script with all the questions the reporters might ask. However, after a while, out of her expectations, all of the reporters on the scene began to murmur as if they weren't satisfied with Matthew's answers.

Then a reporter abruptly stood up and said, "I heard one of your group's car brands was having issues with many of its products. Did it happen because of a break in your capital chain?"

Stunned, Anna stood up right away backstage. She said, "Those cars? Why do they want to know about that? What does it have to do with the collapsed building?" After rereading the manuscript and ensuring she didn't miss anything, Anna asked Wayne, who was next to her, "What's going on here, Wayne?" 538 Playing It By Ear

Shaking his head, Wayne frowned and sighed, saying, '-Ten minutes ago, there was news exposing that one of the car brands of Carousel Group's had defects, and the court filing note was also made public. This incident sparked a huge uproar on the Internet."

"Then what should we do? Can Matthew handle it himself? If he can't, we have to do something to help him," Anna asked, her voice trembling. Meanwhile, Maria had also just learned the news. She frowned, not knowing what to say.

As Matthew tapped the microphone twice and pushed the speech into his hand., the meeting room gradually became quieter. The next second, what he said amazed Anna, Wayne and Maria, "After we received the feedback that showed one of our car brands had flaws, we immediately recalled all of the vehicles in this batch and compensated the owners. Whether the quality of these cars is truly defective stil remains unknown, so we will examine and study them further to verify it later."

"But since you have recalled these vehicles, so you have complete control over the findings. What if you lie to the public about the actual result of the testing?" One of the reporters asked sharply. "Rest assured. A third-party agency will fully supervise the entire process. So, it's impossible for us to falsify the result," Matthew calmly answered calmly.

Seeing how Matthew was good at playing it by ear, Anna finally felt relieved. And the heavy stone on her chest finally dropped

"Shall we leave now?" Wayne asked, taking her hand in his.

"Where to?" Still immersed in the amazement that Matthew brought her, Anna was a bit confused as to what Wayne was talking about.

Then Wayne displayed the news on his phone to Anna. "Let's go home. You don't need to worry about Matthew. See, just as I told you 538 Playing It By Ear before; the kid is a natural. He can handle the crisis excellently. And I'm sure he can handle everything on his own in the future. And now, I need to go back to the headquarters and deal with the situation."

And Wayne analyzed to himself, This time, someone must've deliberately leaked the news about the so-called flaws of our brand's car during the press conference. Clearly, someone is doing this to tarnish our group's reputation and make Matthew panic. And I'm curious as to who the black sheep is.

Following the press conference, Matthew and his staff returned to the hotel. On the way, Maria kept apologizing to Matthew, saying, "Mr. Wright, I'm sorry. This is entirely my fault. I should've predicted the situation and been more prepared. It won't happen again. I'm sorry!"

"It's OK," Matthew said in a flat tone, "By the way, where are my parents?"

"They've arrived at the airport." Matthew nodded and continued, "Come back to Birmingham with me when everything is finished here."

"Why?"

"The international racing competition is about to begin. I want to form a professional racing team with a group of racers."

"Racing competition?" Maria froze for a while and asked.

Nodding firmly, Matthew explained, 'wMy father has acquired several car brands before I took over the group. It took him a lot of effort to acquire those car brands. So, I'm determined not to let my father's efforts go in vain. The annual international racing competition will provide an excellent opportunity for major automobile manufacturers to promote themselves. And many companies invest in racing teams to show off their vehicles to the public. Therefore, I can't miss the chance to clear the name of our group." 538 Playing It By Ear

After his evening shower, Anthony grabbed a Coke from the fridge. Then, his cell phone rang. When Anthony saw the caller ID, he pressed the answer button. "Hello? Mom. What? Hold on, I'm going to call Alicia right now." Then Anthony called Alicia three times, but she didn't answer.

"What's the matter?" Isabella asked as she noticed something was off.

"My cousin Alicia has run away from home. It's not a big deal because she does it all the time. She's most likely hiding out at a friend's house," said Anthony

"How old is your cousin?"

"Fifteen. She's a total troublemaker and often skips classes."

Isabella thought, Fifteen. She's the same age as Tammy.

"My uncle doesn't have any high expectations of her. He just hopes that she could run his tea plantation later. My uncle lives in the mountains. I'll take you to see their tea plantation when I'm on vacation."

"OK," Isabella said with a smile.

ae

Aweek later, Matthew solved the whole thing. Anna went to the airport to see her colleagues off after knowing everything was going well. And Patrick was among the second group of volunteers. Anna told him, "Don't forget to bring your protection. Did you bring any insect repellent?"

Patrick replied, "Yes. Don't worry, Mrs. Wright." He then leaned in close to Anna's ear and said, "I will finish the task you assigned to me and will certainly send you the experimental data as soon as possible." Before Anna could speak, Nancy walked close to them and said, "Anna 538 Playing It By Ear is your supervisor, not your mother, Patrick. Are you done or not? If you don't leave, none of us will be able to board the plane."

"Mrs. Wright is only a few years older than me, so she can't have a son my age," Patrick grumbled.

"Ha! Anna's son is only fifteen, but he's about your height. Am I right, Anna?" Nancy said with a sneer.

"I'm talking about my age! Age!"

Wanting the stop the nonsense, Anna interrupted their conversation. "OK, bye," she said as she patted Patrick's backpack. Patrick then walked away reluctantly.

At the same time, Nancy remained at the end of the line to count the people. She nudged Anna with her elbow, whispering, "Anna, you are amazing. Patrick is so smitten with you!"

"What? Don't be ridiculous!"

"I'm not! It's great that you're not going to Fleosil because it gives you the opportunity to keep him away from you. I was afraid your husband would become envious if Patrick spent too much time with you. Everyone will blame me for this if that happens!"

Anna rolled her eyes and commented, "That's ridiculous! Have you finished counting? I'm afraid you won't make the plane if you don't leave now. You're the team leader? Aren't you supposed to set a good example for your team members?"

"Holy crap!" Nancy exclaimed as she checked her watch for the time. She then tucked the roll call into her pocket and dashed towards the security checkpoint, pulling her suitcase behind her.

Standing still and Anna watched them leave. She turned around and exited the airport hall only after seeing them pass through security. As soon as she turned around, a girl ran into her. "Ouch!" The girl shouted in pain.

When Anna looked up, she noticed a girl sitting on the ground. The girl was cute looking and looked about the same age as Tammy.

"Are you all right?" Anna immediately helped her up.