Chapter 21 Are You Willing to Be Furnace Ashes?

On Monday morning, Paopao rushed to the meeting room with a thick stack of documents. When she passed Jian Zhen's row, she tiptoed to take a look but didn't see her. She wondered to herself, "Jian Zhen is known in the group for not being enthusiastic about meetings. Could she be skipping work on purpose again?"

But she was one of the main characters at today's morning meeting. Just as she was thinking about whether to make a call to ask where she was, she squeezed through the meeting room door and found that Jian Zhen was already sitting comfortably in a chair against the wall.

"Sister Xiaozhen, you scared me to death! I thought you weren't here." Bubble put down her documents, went over and sat down next to her, and whispered, "What are you looking at?"

"Director Yang's newly revised storyboard." Jian Zhen chewed her gum, closed the drawing paper in her hand, and put it aside.

"Is this the final episode?" Bubble glanced at the title and remarked, "Sister Da Mei has been working really hard lately!"

"Hmm." Jian Zhen glanced at her. A storm was brewing, but Bubble was completely oblivious. It was hard to say whether to call her stupid or just plain silly...

Bubble leaned closer to Jian Zhen's face, scrutinizing her carefully for several seconds before concluding with relief, "Sister Zhen, you had a good rest over the weekend, right?"

"What?" Jian Zhen's sarcastic thoughts were interrupted by such direct concern, and she was stunned for half a second.

"You look much better than last week, which is a relief! You have no idea, but I heard that many colleagues who were locked in the Miracle Room suffered from insomnia and their mental state worsened after they came out due to excessive stress, to the point that they had to see a doctor!"

Jian Zhen opened her mouth, not knowing what to say. She thought of that Saturday afternoon when she slept for five hours in Xu Weisheng's car, and afterwards Xu Weisheng complained that inhaling isoflurane was nothing special.

"Isn't it all your fault for setting the air conditioner too high?" Jian Zhen said angrily.

"What's your rush? Being able to sleep is a blessing." Xu Weisheng was quite puzzled. Jian Zhen was not usually someone who couldn't take a joke. Could it be that she was just grumpy when she woke up?

"Don't worry about it!" Jian Zhen pulled up the down jacket covering her chest, the hat covering her face, her ears still red.

How embarrassing! She actually slept in someone's car and had a wet dream about being entangled with him, whispering sweet nothings and caressing him tenderly in her dream. When she woke up, she found him right next to her, playing on his phone and doing his daily game activity. At that moment, she really wanted to kick Xu Weisheng out of the car. What a vixen!

"Maybe people with big hearts like Sister Xiaozhen are also physically fit!" Bubble gave her a thumbs up in praise.

Jian Zhen gave a vague "ah" and changed the subject, saying, "Lao Le is back from his business trip?"

"Okay! Teacher Le is downstairs buying coffee." Just as Bubble finished speaking, Lao Le came in with a cup of coffee. Her hair had been cut a little shorter, and she was wearing a charcoal gray shirt and black suit pants, looking more capable than usual.

Jian Zhen narrowed her eyes, taking in every familiar face in the conference room. She put her chewing gum to her tongue, slowly blew a bubble, and leaned back leisurely, thinking to herself, "This is just the beginning of the show."

At the start of the meeting, Yang Damei, as usual, cued everyone in charge of production. Everyone systematically reviewed the progress. As the project started, the original completion date was pushed back one after another like dominoes. Although it has not affected the broadcast of the program yet, the time buffer is visibly getting smaller and smaller.

This means that if any mishap occurs in the process, it could lead to a broadcast accident. The originally ample working time has been suddenly compressed, increasing the work pressure in all aspects. Although this phenomenon is common in the animation industry, it is rare for a show like "Mystery Valley" to stumble so badly right from the start. What will happen next?

The atmosphere in the meeting room was gloomy. Bubble anxiously looked around and found that everyone was muttering to themselves. If you listened carefully, you could tell that they were calculating their own deadlines and progress. Under such pressure, no one even paid attention to the new cafeteria rules announced by Ms. Han from the general affairs department.

Ms. Han: "...The restroom on the west side of the ninth floor is closed for maintenance today. Colleagues who need to use the restroom, please go to the end of the east corridor... The printer version has been updated, and the operation instructions will be sent to everyone's email address at 9:00 AM... If there are no other questions, this morning meeting is now over—"

"Wait a moment, I'm sorry, Xiao Han, please have a seat. I have something to announce to everyone, it will take five minutes, I apologize." Yang Damei stood up, and the sound of chairs being dragged in the conference room stopped abruptly. Some colleagues who were about to leave plopped back down and looked at Director Yang blankly.

"Here's the thing, due to personal reasons, I'm going to officially leave the 'Mystery Valley' project team after the 6th episode airs, and at the same time leave Qili, the big family where I've worked for 15 years. I will be handing over my work to Lao Le. I'm very grateful for everyone's hard work during this time, and I hope that everyone will fully support and cooperate with Lao Le's work in the future. I'm really looking forward to the day when I can see the finale of 'Mystery Valley' as a viewer."

As Yang Damei spoke, she always wore a kind smile. She was the oldest, and even though her temper was so gentle that it bordered on weak, no one in this conference room could deny that she was a pillar of strength. Now that the pillar of strength was leaving, the little sea creatures realized what was happening and immediately erupted into chaos.

"Big Sister Mei, why?! Where are you going?" This was Cici, an animator who was always impulsive.

“You’re the director, the project isn’t finished yet, how can you just leave like that!” This is Feifei, the colorist with a strong sense of order.

"Give it to Lauler? Are you crazy?" Another executive director scoffed, speaking clearly in a loud voice, "I think this project is doomed. It's a dead end anyway. Why don't we all disband today and get it over with, so we don't have to suffer the endless troubles later?"

These words were too harsh. Jian Zhen subconsciously glanced at Lao Le, who was quite patient, acting as if it were none of his business, and took a sip of his coffee.

"What did you say—" Bubble, standing beside her, was furious and ready to jump up to help the misunderstood Lao Le, but Jian Zhen pressed her back down by pressing her down on her leg.

"Shh!" Jian Zhen turned her head and whispered to her.

Sure enough, faced with a barrage of questions in the office, Yang Damei responded first to the criticism of Lao Le: "Giving the position of director to Lao Le was a solution I proposed to the production committee a week ago. It went through the proper review and voting process, so there is no need for anyone to comment on this point."

"Director Yang, are you really sure you trust her?" It was the same executive director from before.

“I can entrust my life to her.” The two looked at each other, and Yang Damei said firmly.

Lao Le put down his coffee, raised his face, and looked at Yang Damei thoughtfully. The latter then answered a few more questions, roughly about "whether she will come back in the future" and "whether she will still work in the related industry."

Anyone with eyes can see that Director Yang is doing his best to appease everyone. In the adult world, if there are no interests or family ties, a breakup is likely to be a permanent separation. But before a breakup, everyone is used to asking for a self-deceiving promise, knowing it's useless, just to offer some comfort.

Yang Damei's comforting words had an effect. The meeting room gradually cooled down from a boiling state with large bubbles to a quiet state with small bubbles. No matter how unwilling everyone was, they could only accept reality.

"Meeting adjourned." These were the first words that Lao Le said as she stood in front of everyone, acting as the director. Her work style was pragmatic and serious, without any hesitation or ambiguity.

Although no one verbally agreed, their actions spoke louder than words; they all got up and left the meeting room, returning to their respective work stations. Among them were many who walked briskly and looked radiant—it was clear that not everyone within the project team was opposed to this handover of positions, which was quite reasonable; in times of crisis, groups always rely more on authority.

The mystery that Jian Zhen had been guessing for so long was finally solved, and she felt somewhat relieved. She used to feel that she owed Yang Damei a favor, but now that she knew that Yang Damei's help was not just for the sake of helping others, she felt much more at ease. However, when she turned her head and looked at Paopao, she saw that the girl was sobbing with her head down.

"Are you alright?" Jian Zhen found it amusing, patted her shoulder and said softly, "Don't you love your teacher Jia Le the most?"

Bubble shook her head, holding back her tears, unable to speak.

"What a sweet and emotional girl." Jian Zhen patted her head. "You can cry in the meeting room. I'm going back to catch up on 27cut, otherwise I'll be the one crying then."

Cut 27 is a key scene in the first minor climax of the "Mystery Valley" storyline. Jian Zhen finished drawing at nine o'clock at night. After a day of hunching over her desk, her neck and muscles were protesting. She put down her pen, slowly straightened up, and heard her joints cracking. At that moment, Bubble appeared behind her like a ghost: "Sister Zhen~"

"Ah!" Jian Zhen was startled and nearly twisted her neck as she turned around: "What? You're still here?"

"I'd like to... invite you for a drink." Poor Bubble, her voice still nasal from crying.

Jian Zhen stared at her for two seconds, then decisively stood up, grabbed her coat from the chair, and said, "Let's go."

The two found a roadside stall near the company, ordered a table full of authentic braised dishes and seafood barbecue, and each had a large bucket of fresh beer next to them. The beer was intoxicating even without getting drunk, and they immediately said with red eyes, "Feifei said this afternoon that she doesn't want to work here anymore, and she wants to resign by next month at the latest."

"How long has Feifei been in Qili?" Jian Zhen asked after taking a big gulp of wine.

"It's been more than three years."

"She's an old woman."

“Actually, it’s not just Feifei, I’ve also heard that Xiaochen, Yixin…” Paopao counted her colleagues’ names on her fingers, then choked up again: “Sister Xiaozhen, do you think our project team will really fall apart one day?”

"I don't know." Jian Zhen wanted to rest her elbows on the table, but then she noticed the oil stains that couldn't be wiped clean and gave up. She leaned back and stared blankly at the barrel of translucent yellow beer in front of her. "Why don't you think about why this group of people would gather at Qili?"

“Because, because—” Bubble tilted her head, puzzled, “Qili is great, a big company, such a high-level platform…”

"Oh?" Jian Zhen raised an eyebrow, staring at her and smiling, "What's so good about it? Bubble, if I may be so bold as to ask, how much do you earn a month?"

"Three, three thousand." Bubble's voice faded.

"Not much, right?" Jian Zhen shook her head and laughed, then said, "You're not married, you don't have any loans, and your parents don't need you to contribute to household expenses. You're a model of someone who's self-sufficient. But what about other people? They might have parents to support and children to take care of. Every morning when they wake up, they have to calculate how much they'll earn and how much they'll spend... Working at Qili is already exhausting enough. Having to worry about survival on top of that is really not worth it. It's understandable that they want to leave."

Bubble comes from a wealthy family and has a naive personality. She chose to come to Qili solely because of her "passion," and naturally assumed that everyone else did too. After hearing Jian Zhen's perspective, it took her a while to react before she spoke: "But everyone loves 'Mystery Valley,' doesn't everyone? How can we just give up on the world we've built with so much effort? Especially veteran employees like Sister Da Mei and Fei Fei, didn't everyone come to Qili with the mindset of burning their youth for a good work? We didn't come here only to find out that it's tiring and doesn't pay well!"

Jian Zhen stared intently at her, her eyes filled with persistent tears. Jian Zhen saw herself reflected in those tears, and suddenly smiled, nodding and saying, "You're right."

Rewind to Saturday afternoon. Before falling asleep in Xu Weisheng's car, she expressed the same confusion to Xu Weisheng: A person who loves money wouldn't wait until their forties to realize the allure of money. Why did Yang Damei leave so suddenly, when you dug her up?

Xu Weisheng countered by asking her, "How many products has Qili produced over the years? What's the quality like?"

Jian Zhen hadn't expected her to ask that, and exclaimed unexpectedly, "Huh?"

"Don't understand?" Xu Weisheng said directly, "Take Lin Sheng as an example. Do you think he has made any progress since joining a big company like Qili? Is his story, his character, and the paintbrush in his hand still alive? Has he shamelessly bowed down to cater to the market?"

His questions grew increasingly harsh, as if he were questioning a non-existent third person in the car. Jian Zhen was completely bewildered, and a surge of anger rose within her: "Alright! If you have a grudge against Qi Li, don't drag Lin Sheng into it, okay!"

The carriage fell silent abruptly. After a long while, Xu Weisheng chuckled softly, "So protective of him."

Chien-Chen turned her face to the window and had to admit that Hsu Wei-Sheng was right. For animators, Qili was like a large assembly line factory. It was only responsible for providing fast food for the audience, not for challenging profound themes or creating classic masterpieces. Countless young people with dreams came here, threw their youth into the furnace, and in the end only got a handful of ashes.

She told Bubble what she had said. After listening, Bubble hesitated for a long time, then looked at her and asked, "Do you want to leave too?"

I'll update later tonight.