Zhu Yi arrives exactly on time.
He's older than I expected, maybe late fifties, with the specific kind of unhurried confidence that belongs to people who've spent decades being the most technically competent person in any given room. He shakes hands with Elliot first, then me, and his grip is brief and assessing.
"Mr. Li." He glances at the sketches already spread across the table. "First time working with a structural consultant?"
"Yes."
"Good." He sets down his bag. "Then we won't have to unlearn anything."
I'm not entirely sure if that's a compliment.
Peng Hao runs through the session structure quickly, forty minutes of presentation, open review after, and then steps back to let us work. He does this well, I've noticed, the way he creates space without disappearing entirely.
Elliot and I have already arranged the materials. Site plan in the center, load projections to the left, the preliminary canopy sketches I finished last night along the right edge.
