-22- Surprise

Lu Kai showed Dorasi Wanfeng's 56 sketches. After several days of intense meetings, they finalized the design for the new Sparrow collection. Considering the Minnie Prize was a European award, Dorasi settled on the "Renaissance" theme, selecting symbols representing European culture: the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Galileo's telescope, Dante's Divine Comedy, and the knights of Don Quixote, among others, to incorporate into the Sparrow designs. To expedite the design process, Lu Kai assigned Tomato and Evening Breeze each a Sparrow design. While Lu Kai said they would create a preliminary draft and then hand it over to Sparrow, he was actually planning to use Tomato and Evening Breeze's designs as the final draft, giving Dorasi a day or two to revise at most. The studio was bustling with activity, and many problems were masked. For example: Almost a week later, Tomato belatedly asked, "Wait, when did Jinghuan move into the office?" Lu Kai casually replied, "Just the last one, two, three, five, six, seven, eight days." Tomato didn't dwell on the question, but Sister Zou was hard to fool. Ever since she'd helped Lu Kai and Zhao Jinghuan out that day, Sister Zou's attitude toward Zhao Jinghuan had become cold and distant. Zhao Jinghuan tried to explain that Lu Kai was simply moving her, but Sister Zou replied indifferently, "You don't have to talk to me about this. I don't care." The matter between Zhao Jinghuan and Lu Kai hadn't been fully clarified, but the work still needed to be done. While Dorasi was busy designing in the studio, Sister Zou and Zhao Jinghuan raced against time to find a suitable factory. Zhao Jinghuan had assumed that finding a factory meant searching online for ads or relying on connections, but Sister Zou had directly called the High-Tech Zone's investment promotion office to inquire about any newly established trendy toy factories. The woman at the investment promotion office was enthusiastic and professional. After adding Ms. Zou on WeChat, she sent her a long list of factories. That's how Ms. Zou and Zhao Jinghuan found Boss Chen's new factory. Boss Chen, a talkative northerner, had already introduced himself to everyone on the phone before they'd even met. He explained how he'd been in Dongguan for ten years and had opened a factory in Shipai Town, the "trendy toy capital," but faced too many competitors there and struggled to speak Cantonese. Despite the government's many incentives, he was still squeezed out. Boss Chen's daughter had been admitted to study here, but after graduation, she couldn't find a suitable job. He heard that the local high-tech zone was also developing a supporting ecosystem for trendy toys, offering interest-free loans and tax exemptions for university students starting their own businesses. He immediately returned north to help his daughter...

Lu Kai showed Dorasi all 56 of Wanfeng's sketches. They met day and night for several days and decided on the design for the new series of Little Freckles. Considering that the Minnie Award was a European award, Dorasi finally decided on the "Renaissance" as the theme and selected several symbols that could represent European culture: the Sistine Chapel ceiling painting, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Galileo's telescope, Dante's Divine Comedy, Don Quixote's knights, etc., and incorporated them into the design of Little Freckles.

In order to speed up the production of the drawings, Lu Kai asked Tomato and Evening Breeze to each take charge of a design of Little Freckles. Lu Kai said that he would let them make a preliminary version first and then give it to Little Freckles for revision. In fact, what he was thinking in his heart was to use the designs of Tomato and Evening Breeze as the final version, and give Dorasi at most one or two days to revise them.

The studio was so busy that many problems were hidden. For example, almost a week later, Tomato suddenly realized and asked:

"Wait, when did Jinghuan move into the office?"

Lu Kai answered randomly: "Just the first one, two, three, five, six, seven, eight days."

Tomato didn't dwell on this issue too much, but Sister Zou was hard to fool. Ever since she helped Lu Kai and Zhao Jinghuan out that day, Sister Zou's attitude towards Zhao Jinghuan had become cold and distant again. Zhao Jinghuan tried to explain to Sister Zou that Lu Kai was just moving for her, but Sister Zou responded indifferently, "You don't have to talk to me about this. I don't care."

The matter between Zhao Jinghuan and Lu Kai hadn't been fully clarified, but work still needed to be done. While Dorasi was busy designing in the studio, Zou Jie and Zhao Jinghuan raced against time to find a suitable factory. Zhao Jinghuan had assumed that finding a factory meant searching online for ads or relying on connections, but Zou Jie had unexpectedly called the High-Tech Zone's investment promotion office to inquire about any newly established trendy toy factories.

The young lady from the investment promotion office was enthusiastic and professional. After adding Ms. Zou on WeChat, she sent her a large list of factories. That's how Ms. Zou and Zhao Jinghuan found Boss Chen's new factory.

Boss Chen is a very talkative northerner. Before we even met, he introduced himself in every detail on the phone. He said that he had been living in the south for ten years and had set up a factory in Shipai Town, Dongguan, the "trendy play capital". However, there were too many competitors there, and he did not speak Cantonese well. Although the government had provided many policies, he was still squeezed out.

Boss Chen's daughter came here to study, but couldn't find a suitable job after graduation. He heard that the high-tech zone here was also developing ecological supporting facilities for trendy toys, and that college students could start their own businesses with interest-free loans and tax exemption policies. So he immediately returned to the north and opened a new toy factory for his daughter.

Zhao Jinghuan, who also graduated and couldn't find a job, felt mixed emotions after hearing this.

Boss Chen's new factory had just been opened for a year and a half. It was at the stage where it had all the experience and equipment, but it hadn't yet accumulated enough customers. Not only could he give them the right schedule, but his prices were also more competitive than Boss Zhou's, which made Zhao Jinghuan couldn't help but exclaim how lucky she was.

Of course, they weren't about to make a hasty decision based on a few phone calls. Having some initial interest, Zou and Zhao Jinghuan made several trips to Boss Chen's factory. Strangely enough, the "ultimate reason" that convinced them to go with Boss Chen wasn't the factory's comprehensive facilities, its independent mold shop, or its rigorous management. It was the batch after batch of new Mr. Huzi (a brand name) products they saw in the packaging workshop during their second on-site visit.

It is true that we meet each other everywhere in life.

Boss Chen was unaware of the feud between Zhao Jinghuan and Mr. Hu Zi, so he praised Mr. Hu Zi heavily in front of Zhao Jinghuan, saying that he had a good eye for talent and felt that Mr. Hu Zi's product would be a big hit the first time he saw it. In order to establish a long-term cooperation, he even gave him a discount.

Zhao Jinghuan was so angry that he made a bold statement on the spot: "After our studio's Little Freckles is released, it will sell a hundred times, ten thousand times more than Mr. Hu Zi!"

Zhao Jinghuan was full of confidence, but when she returned from the factory, she saw Dorasi standing on a small stool, her face red, cursing fiercely:

"I told you not to use this pink like this! You have to use 13-1520, not 18-2133! 13-1520 is Moebius, 18-2133 is Hayao Miyazaki!"

Lu Kai and the others had never seen Dorasi so angry before, and they were all dumbfounded for a moment. What happened next caught them off guard - Dorasi took over all the designs of Freckles alone. He drove everyone out of the studio and ordered them not to come back to the studio to disturb her until he finished the designs of the entire Freckles series.

Only Zhao Jinghuan, who lived in the studio, received some kind of pardon. She took on the tasks assigned by Lu Kai and others, taking charge of Dorasi's three meals a day, and... ensuring that Dorasi did not die suddenly.

Zhao Jinghuan couldn't cook, but her nearly year-long experience as a delivery driver had made her intimately familiar with the nearby takeout restaurants. She knew which ones were clean and which ones were nutritious. Lu Kai didn't skimp on this, and with ample funds, Zhao Jinghuan easily prepared three balanced and delicious meals for Dorasi. However, preventing Dorasi's sudden death proved a bit more challenging. Initially, she connected Dorasi's sports watch to her phone. Whenever Dorasi's heart rate exceeded 120 for a prolonged period, she would force him to take a nap. After three days of this, Zhao Jinghuan simply summed up the sleep records on the watch and discovered that Dorasi had slept less than four hours in total over the three days. This was a bit like "I have a date with the god of death", so Zhao Jinghuan didn't care about his heart rate. During the day, Dorasi could rest if he wanted to, and fight hard if he wanted to. But at twelve o'clock in the evening, Zhao Jinghuan would rush out, carry Dorasi, who was struggling and shouting "Humble subject, how dare you disobey the will of the goddess", back to the bedroom, and put him to sleep on the bed.

More punctual than Cinderella's pumpkin carriage.

Zhao Jinghuan originally expected that this "temporary mommy" task would last at least two to three weeks. However, on the ninth night, when she went downstairs to get takeout, she saw Dorasi with dark circles under his eyes sitting in front of the computer, his hands off the drawing board and keyboard, staring blankly at the screen in front of him.

Zhao Jinghuan thought Dorasi was sleepy and didn't respond when she called out to her. She walked behind Dorasi and saw a design for "Don Quixote" on the computer screen. In the design, Freckles was riding a pink rocking horse, wearing a princess dress with a windmill pattern on the skirt. On her head was a silver knight's half-helmet with a windmill on top. In her hand, the spear had no spikes, but instead a red rose bud.

At this time, Dorasi turned his head, with two big dark circles under his eyes, and looked at Zhao Jinghuan expressionlessly: "I'm done."

Zhao Jinghuan patted her shoulder to show encouragement and asked her how many she had completed.

Dorasi said, "The last one."

Nine days, seven designs.

Doraxi gave Zhao Jinghuan two thumbs up: "I'm super strong."

…………

The next day, Lu Kai and his team came to work happily. After confirming that there were no problems with the design drawings of the new series, Sister Zou and Zhao Jinghuan went to meet with Mr. Chen, the boss of the new factory, and confirmed an order of 30,000 pieces for each style.

The total value of the contract is RMB 3,135,000.

It was a number that kept Lu Kai awake for three days before he finally made up his mind to make the first payment.

After that, it was all factory work: proofing, mold making, and production. Zhao Jinghuan thought the studio would be idle again, but it turned out to be completely different. Sister Zou took her to explore channels in advance, write promotional copy, and even asked PR to contact vertical bloggers for quotes.

More than two months passed in a flash. During this time, Wanfeng fell ill, suffering from a cold that wouldn't go away. Finally, he developed a high fever, forcing Lu Kai to send him home to rest for almost a week. It was only then that Zhao Jinghuan discovered that during the days she was Dorasi's mother, Wanfeng had secretly come downstairs to the studio every evening and sat there for most of the day, only leaving quietly after the lights were turned off. He'd also caught a cold during those days.

On the day Wanfeng finished his vacation, Lu Kai did not come to work. However, during his lunch break at noon, he suddenly called Zhao Jinghuan and mysteriously asked Zhao Jinghuan to meet him at Wanda.

Ever since he was accidentally trapped in the house by Tomato and the others last time, Lu Kai discovered that Zhao Jinghuan had secretly taken photos of him, and a strange ambiguity has arisen between the two of them, although they are clearly not in a secret relationship. Guilty as they are, they avoid any communication in front of other people, and they don't even dare to make eye contact.

After hanging up the phone, Zhao Jinghuan sneaked out on a tram, her head full of strange fantasies about this "underground meeting". On the first floor of Wanda Plaza, after the two met, Lu Kai still hadn't finished his suspense. He waved to Zhao Jinghuan and asked her to follow him.

The joyful yet shy expression on Lu Kai's face almost made Zhao Jinghuan think he was preparing some kind of confession. This made Zhao Jinghuan panic. She didn't deny her feelings for Lu Kai, but she also felt that their relationship hadn't reached the point where it could go further.

Fortunately, in the end, Lu Kai did not confess his feelings.

But Zhao Jinghuan still saw something that made her happier than roses all over the ground.

——In the Cool Toys store, on the shelf facing the door, there is a new series of blind boxes from Little Freckles: Literary Spirit.

The Sistine Chapel ceiling, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Galileo’s telescope, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Don Quixote’s knights…

Lu Kai said, "We secretly inspected the goods and sent them to the distribution channel. This is your first time completing the production of a series of trendy toys, and we wanted to give you a surprise."

…………

It is now August 2nd, and there is only one week left before the Mini Awards are announced.