New chapter!
Thanks for all the support!
x
“He’s back!”
“Finally. We’ve been waiting for days. Now we can start mass production.”
The moment Adrian returned to Umbrella, party poppers cracked through the air.
The whole company broke into celebration.
Every eye turned toward him.
They all knew what his return meant.
It had worked.
HIV/AIDS had been conquered.
The treatment they produced would spread across the world.
In the middle of the noise, every face was bright with happiness, excitement, and pride.
“Quiet, quiet!” Dr.
Hart shouted, just as excited as the rest of them.
“Who made it possible for Umbrella to develop a cure for HIV/AIDS?”
“Mr. Cross!”
Dr.
Hart carried real weight inside the company.
Whether in the laboratory or on the production floor, he was a familiar presence.
When he spoke, people answered.
“Then should we let Mr. Cross say a few words?”
“That’s right. Mr. Cross, say something!”
“Mr. Cross, say something!”
Surrounded by employees, Adrian did not put on any false modesty.
He stepped onto the low wall by Umbrella’s main entrance.
The easy movement, the tailored suit, and his clean, sharp looks immediately stirred another wave of excitement.
“I just realized Mr. Cross is seriously handsome.”
“Nope. My heart cannot handle this.”
Even Evelyn, standing nearby, looked a little flustered.
After spending so much time with him lately, something in the way she saw Adrian had quietly changed.
Adrian raised a hand, and the scene quickly fell silent.
Almost everyone stared at him with admiration.
“Today is a day Umbrella will remember.”
“The success of the HIV/AIDS cure is only Umbrella’s first step toward becoming a global pharmaceutical giant.”
“Next comes the second step. Then the third.”
“Step by step, we’ll climb to the top of this industry.”
“We will become the Umbrella standing over the world.”
“Are you willing to stand with me and push Umbrella to the very top?”
In only a few sentences, he drew every employee into his rhythm.
They shouted back until their throats were raw.
“Yes!”
The single word seemed to shake the air.
“You have all worked hard this past month. Once the first batch of treatments is sold, every employee will receive one month’s salary as a bonus.”
The response exploded again.
Dreams could move employees for a little while.
Cash moved them better.
Adrian had not been president for long, but he understood one thing very well: money was the fuel that made passion burn.
Ideals had to stand on enough practical benefit to matter.
Only real rewards could make people willingly work that hard for someone else.
The short speech, plus real money and a shared ambition, left every employee visibly fired up.
After the speech ended, he sent everyone back to their posts.
Adrian and Evelyn returned to his office.
“Mr. Cross, the complete physical data for all twenty volunteers has been uploaded to the company website,” Evelyn reported briskly from across his desk.
After receiving the full data from the hospital that morning, she had sent it back to the company.
The website team had uploaded it during the day.
“Good. I know.” Adrian leaned back in his chair, looking almost lazy.
Evelyn seemed to have grown used to that casual attitude toward work.
“Then what do we do next?”
“Wait.”
“Wait?”
Adrian clicked his tongue and smiled.
“The media at the hospital has already started moving. Soon, the news will spread everywhere. Our next job is to produce as much treatment as possible and let the story keep building.”
The HIV/AIDS cure would have no shortage of buyers.
More than forty million people around the world were living with the disease, and that number was still rising.
But this was not the best moment to sell yet.
He needed the momentum to build a little longer.
He wanted to use this storm to make sure the entire world knew Umbrella existed.
“More than twenty companies have already contacted us,” Evelyn said, flipping through the files.
“They want to discuss cooperation, financing, and acquisition.”
“What kind of cooperation? Reject any financing or acquisition offers outright.”
Adrian stretched in his chair.
“Even Johnson & Johnson submitted a $1.5 billion acquisition proposal.”
Evelyn raised an eyebrow and handed the letter to him with a strange little smile.
“I would not sell for fifteen billion,” Adrian said with a laugh.
“And they offer $1.5 billion? They can dream.”
He did not even look at the proposal before tossing it into the trash can beside him.
x x x