-30- Prelude

"I'm going to work for Mr. Hu." Zhao Jinghuan didn't explain further, but Lu Kai could still guess that this was Hu Mingyuan's precondition for giving up his HEC spot. But why did Hu Mingyuan make such a request? Zhao Jinghuan was undoubtedly a good employee, but she wasn't a designer like Dorasi. Lu Kai didn't believe Hu Mingyuan's company needed a novice salesperson, no matter how talented she was. He poached Zhao Jinghuan, clearly not out of necessity. Lu Kai hesitated to make outlandish assumptions, but he did it anyway. After a wild guess, he consoled himself by thinking that boys are just like that. When they like a girl, they feel like everyone in the world is their rival. So, it must be his own fault. At this thought, Lu Kai was momentarily surprised. "I... I like Zhao Jinghuan?" Or what else? Lu Kai didn't want Zhao Jinghuan to leave, but he also understood that attending HEC might be their only chance. Whether he wanted help in this way or not, he had to accept it. Lu Kai could only console Zhao Jinghuan with his words, "It's...it's fine. We've been to Hu Mingyuan's company, and it's much more formal than ours. Working there is a good choice." He said that, but when Zhao Jinghuan nodded, he felt jealous again and added, "But it may not have the same growth potential as our studio." Zhao Jinghuan smiled helplessly. As for the others in the studio, upon learning that Zhao Jinghuan had "signed a body contract" in exchange for a spot in HEC, they felt ashamed and sad. Zhao Jinghuan understood their feelings, so when she resigned, she took the initiative to move out of the studio. Even though Lu Kai repeatedly insisted that she should continue living in the studio even if she didn't work there, "Even if we're not colleagues, we're still friends," Zhao Jinghuan said. "Because we're friends, we should move out." After all, her presence was a deliberate reminder of how they had secured the spot in Block 2C. Zhao Jinghuan hadn't found a suitable apartment within her budget, but fortunately, Ji Anya's dormitory wasn't far from Hu Mingyuan's company, so she temporarily moved in. Since it was a temporary stay, many of her belongings were left at the studio. Lu Kai was quite satisfied with this outcome; after all, Zhao Jinghuan had left many of her belongings behind, so it wasn't like she'd completely moved out. After Fanqie contacted the HEC organizers, Zhao Jinghuan also received a contract from Hu Mingyuan. The contract stipulated that she must work at Hu Mingyuan's company for a full year, or she would have to pay a 100,000 yuan penalty...

"I'm going to work for Mr. Beard."

Zhao Jinghuan did not give any further explanation, but Lu Kai could still guess that this was the premise for Hu Mingyuan to give up his HEC quota.

But why did Hu Mingyuan make such a request?

There is no doubt that Zhao Jinghuan is a good employee, but she is not a designer like Dorasi after all. Lu Kai does not think that Hu Mingyuan's company will lack a novice business person, no matter how outstanding Zhao Jinghuan is.

It was obviously not a business requirement that led him to poach Zhao Jinghuan.

Lu Kai didn't want to make such a strange assumption, but he did it anyway. After making a wild guess, he consoled himself by thinking that boys are just like that. When they like a girl, they feel like everyone in the world is their rival. So, it must be his own fault.

When he thought of this, Lu Kai was a little surprised.

"I...I like Zhao Jinghuan?"

What else?

Lu Kai was reluctant to let Zhao Jinghuan leave, but he also understood that joining HEC might be their only chance. Whether he was willing to get help in this way or not, he had to accept it.

So Lu Kai could only comfort himself with the tone that comforted Zhao Jinghuan: "It's... it's good. We went to Hu Mingyuan's company and saw that their company is much more formal than ours. Working there is a good choice."

That was what he said, but when Zhao Jinghuan nodded in agreement, he became jealous again and added, "But it may not have the growth potential of our studio." This made Zhao Jinghuan smile helplessly.

As for the others in the studio, upon learning that Zhao Jinghuan had "signed a contract" to obtain a spot at HEC, they felt ashamed and sad. Zhao Jinghuan understood their feelings, so when she resigned, she also took the initiative to move out of the studio. This was despite Lu Kai's repeated insistence that she should continue living in the studio even if she didn't work there.

"Even if we're not colleagues, we're still friends."

Zhao Jinghuan said: "Because we are friends, we have to move out."

After all, her presence was like a deliberate reminder of how they had secured their place in the HEC.

Zhao Jinghuan hadn't been able to find a suitable apartment within her budget, but luckily, Ji Anya's dorm wasn't far from Hu Mingyuan's company, so she settled in temporarily. Since it was a temporary stay, she left many of her belongings at the studio. Lu Kai was quite satisfied with the outcome; after all, Zhao Jinghuan had left behind quite a few of her belongings, so it wasn't like she'd completely moved out.

After Fanqie contacted the organizer of HEC, Zhao Jinghuan also received the contract from Hu Mingyuan.

The contract stipulated that she had to work in Hu Mingyuan's company for a full year, otherwise she would have to pay a penalty of 100,000 yuan.

Hu Mingyuan's explanation for this was that the 100,000 yuan penalty was just a constraint.

"Don't think too much. I don't need your 100,000 yuan."

According to Hu Mingyuan, he just wanted Zhao Jinghuan to work under him for a while, so that he could be considered to have taken care of his ex-girlfriend, and his friends would no longer say such nasty things as he was heartless and ungrateful for letting his ex-girlfriend work as a delivery boy.

Zhao Jinghuan didn't believe a single word of this statement. She knew Hu Mingyuan just wanted revenge, but he hadn't figured out a suitable method to retaliate against Zhao Jinghuan without appearing too despicable.

That's why he decided to keep Zhao Jinghuan by his side for the time being.

However, even though she knew she was walking into a tiger's mouth, she still had to sign the contract. Fortunately, Sister Zou had consulted a lawyer for her, and this compensation clause was definitely invalid.

After the 19th century, slavery no longer had a legal basis.

“But the contract still has to be signed.”

Zhao Jinghuan had anticipated Hu Mingyuan's willingness to prepare her for any and all adversities. However, even after joining the company, she never encountered any difficulties from Hu Mingyuan. He had hired an experienced employee to mentor her, but he had since ignored her. When they occasionally bumped into each other on their way to and from work, they'd simply exchange a casual nod and a greeting. It was as if he'd hired Zhao Jinghuan solely to silence his friends.

Compared to the flatter structure of Waikiki, Mr. Hu's company structure is more complex, requiring more administrative work, and overtime is inevitable. After Zhao Jinghuan left Waikiki, Lu Kai would chat with her on WeChat every day. The first few days he would ask her how she was adapting, but the next few days he would just make small talk. The forced topics he brought up included, but were not limited to:

“When will this surge in gold prices end?”

"Will there be any results from the investigation into the 4+4 incident?"

and, “Does this dog look like a tomato?”

At the beginning, Zhao Jinghuan would answer every question and reply every message, but as the joint event between Mr. Hu and Wanda was approaching, the company was extremely busy, and the new employee Zhao Jinghuan was no exception. Gradually, she had no time to pay attention to Lu Kai's awkward chat.

Zhao Jinghuan didn't really think much of it, thinking it was just meaningless small talk, and she could just reply when she remembered (though she always put it off and forgot). Lu Kai, who couldn't wait for a reply, was anxious and worried. His mind was full of small dramas, flipping through their chat history, wondering where he had said something wrong and thus "fallen out of favor."

He even used his computer to make comparison cards during working hours to analyze his strengths and weaknesses compared to Hu Mingyuan.

In Hu Mingyuan's column, there was only a solitary sentence: "He was Zhao Jinghuan's college classmate."

In his own column, he wrote: "Cheerful and optimistic, mature and focused, honest and trustworthy, fair skin, emotionally stable..."

I could have written more, but Sister Zou found me halfway through and gave me a severe scolding.

"Everyone's busy as hell, what are you doing here? And you're so mature and focused. A kid who graduated from junior high school wouldn't do something like this."

After receiving such a harsh rebuke, he added under his name: "Knowing people and making good use of them, and following good advice readily."

"Lu Kai, are you done yet?"

Seeing that Sister Zou was about to explode, he had to give up this unfinished comparison. Although he had not yet listed the shortcomings of the two, just looking at the number of advantages, Lu Kai felt that he should have won by a lot.

The HEC, scheduled for late September, went ahead as planned. Waikiki Studio secured a spot at the last minute, completing the contract process. Because they were filling in for Mr. Hu, they had to stick with the layout Hu Mingyuan had submitted in advance. While the color scheme and illustrations could be tweaked, the display cases, including the basic placement of the foam partitions, remained unchanged.

In addition, what gave them a headache was that the original booth was built with a 1.6-meter-tall Mr. Beard doll as the visual center, but they did not have enough time to find a factory to make a similar small freckle to replace it.

Fortunately, Tomato had another idea. He bought a Christmas tree online to replace the original Mr. Beard, and hung blind boxes of Freckles on the tree.

As for the mid-September exhibition, why a Christmas tree should be set up is left to the imagination of the players participating in the exhibition.

Tomato made the layout of the booth, prepared the materials, and also asked a company to create a small program for scanning codes to buy. Then he said that in recent years, the relatively successful booths have all had etiquette ladies dressed coolly. Sister Zou has a bad temper, and Dorasi looks like a minor. In the end, Lu Kai was chosen to wear women's clothing.

The night before the exhibition, they brought their workers in to set up the venue. Tomato was incredibly attentive, even nitpicky, and repeatedly stressed that if the placement of the exhibits shifted even an inch, the visual impact of the entire venue would be devastating. Throughout the night, he engaged in countless arguments with the workers, who thought he was too much of a chore.

By 11 o'clock that evening, with an hour left before the exhibition hall was cleared, they finally set up Freckles' booth.

The workers left cursing, and Zou Jie, Tomato, and the others didn't stay long, saying they needed to go back and recharge their batteries for tomorrow's fierce battle. Lu Kai, however, didn't rush to leave. After everyone had left, he stared at the decorated booth and couldn't help but imagine how he would explain Tomato's design's movement patterns and visual focal points to Zhao Jinghuan if she were here, highlighting his expertise and knowledge.

His enjoyment ended with Zhao Jinghuan clapping and praising him for his impressive performance, but Zhao Jinghuan wasn't there, which made him feel a little disappointed. Lu Kai suddenly thought that Zhao Jinghuan must also want to know the details of the on-site layout as soon as possible, so he took out his phone, took a photo of the booth, and sent it to Zhao Jinghuan.

But Zhao Jinghuan didn't reply the whole night.

"Maybe he fell asleep." Lu Kai thought so after checking his phone sixteen times in half an hour.

Author's Note

Yaunai

author

05-23

There's only one week left in the second leg! The HEC exhibition is about to begin! Time for the final battle! Go, go, go!!!