42 Chapter Forty-One (Two chapters combined)

◎Li Yingqiao, do you have to be so formal with me?◎

The afternoon meeting proceeded with great difficulty.

The people from T factory kept glancing at Li Yingqiao, speechless for a few moments, wanting to ask if she thought it necessary for them to continue talking. But Li Yingqiao stubbornly insisted.

Digital transformation is an essential step for a scenic spot. Their immediate priority is to launch the mini-program and implement the most basic digital functions such as scenic spot navigation and ticket reservations. However, the communication process has been a bit troublesome.

Gao Dian, having joined temporarily and having no experience with the influencer economy, was completely bewildered. He frequently glanced at Li Yingqiao, trying to deduce from her expression what kind of gibberish she was speaking.

But this childhood friend, who wasn't exactly known for her good temper, had long since mastered the art of keeping her emotions hidden. Even if the sky were to fall, she would remain calm and composed, sitting there with a Mona Lisa-like smile on her face. Seeing his bewildered expression, she gave him a reassuring look and continued chatting earnestly with her friend.

Gao Dian reluctantly looked away. To be honest, people from these big companies just don't like to speak like normal people.

They're the ones who should be playing the ape-men in the scenic area, what are they mumbling about?

Pan Xiaoliang also felt the same way. Under the pressure of Qiao Nalisha's intimidation, he couldn't just give up. So he had no choice but to boldly ask questions in the work group where he had recruited the apes, using the jargon he didn't understand from big companies. In the past six months, the staff turnover at the scenic spot had been sparse, and there were only two permanent employees, him and Wu Juan. They couldn't even create a group chat. It wasn't until the ape team was established that the scenic spot had its first group chat.

"There are only a few ways to conduct cultural tourism now. If you could convince your local cultural tourism bureau chief to dance like a girl group member, you might actually attract some traffic. However, nowadays, every scenic spot is building its own core IP and trying to achieve a closed loop in GMV," the other party suggested.

Pan Xiaoliang glanced thoughtfully at a particularly striking beauty today, and silently typed in the group chat.

Pan Xiaoliang: "What is GMV closed loop? I don't understand."

Li Yingqiao looked at the message that popped up in the group chat, picked up her phone and patiently replied: "It means getting your money into my pocket, and continuously and willingly letting it into my pocket."

Monetizing traffic?

Pan Xiaoliang looked up, understood, and looked at the people from T factory with confidence.

The person from T Factory smiled slightly at him and continued, "We can start building the KOC matrix first. We still need to penetrate the lower-tier markets. Once you have a core IP, you also need your own hook products. You can create an online cultural and creative mall through the mini-program, such as the ape-man merchandise. We can bring these together later."

Pan Xiaoliang lowered his head: "What is KOC? I only know KFC. And what is a hook? It's not what I'm thinking, is it? I don't sell hooks."

Gao Dian sent a meme that said, "Then we've agreed that if you don't sell, I won't sell either."

Pure-hearted dung beetle Bengchacha replied: "KOC matrix is ​​just ordinary people's accounts on various platforms. For example, your uncles and distant cousins ​​have all created social media accounts to post videos about your eating, drinking, defecating, and sleeping from various angles. The hook is your selling point."

Pan Xiaoliang: "...Damn. Beautiful lady, that's a bit too much."

Gao Dian then sent a meme of someone with their lower body wrapped in a bath towel and saying "Smi-ma-lou".

“By the way, we still need a lightweight empowerment team to improve the ROI of information communication and ensure that the granularity is aligned,” the other party finally decided.

Pan Xiaoliang then sent the same sentence to the group chat verbatim: "What is this now?"

This time, Li Yingqiao didn't reply. Just as she was about to see the people from T factory out of the conference room, the other person turned around and glanced at her before smiling and saying, "You really don't plan to go back to Convey? I ran into General Manager Zhang at the industry summit the other day. When he heard that I was coming to Fengtan to see you, he specifically stopped me at the end of the meeting and asked me to convey his hope that you would remove him from the blacklist first."

The person from T factory was Hu Wen, which was a big favor; Li Yingqiao hadn't expected Hu Wen to come in person. The Rainbow Youli project was the digital upgrade her team did, and everyone regretted how it turned out; even Convey's stock price was affected.

Li Yingqiao was desperate and had no one to turn to, so she finally begged Hu Wen for help, but it was too late. Hu Wen was helpless; she didn't have enough authority. Convey's contingency plan could only minimize the losses, but it crossed Li Yingqiao's bottom line, which led to her falling out with Zhang Zongxie.

Li Yingqiao didn't speak, but smiled and led the way for her, accompanied by Hu Wen's group of subordinates, escorting her all the way to the bottom of the scenic area building. Hu Wen knew her too well, so after calling the driver, she also suppressed her smile, lit a cigarette, and waited, saying:

"Are you really not planning to go back to Beijing? You need to think this through. Even if you win the bet, it will be hard for you to stay in this industry. Besides, many companies at that summit were asking about your plans after you left. Obviously, no one thinks it's your fault. Even if there are some negative comments, they're only temporary. It's because you were too high-profile a couple of years ago and offended so many people for Zhang Zongxie."

“Sister Hu, I’ve prepared for the worst since I came back. At worst, I’ll be ruined.” Li Yingqiao raised her hand to shield her eyes from the direct sunlight and laughed. “After so many years in the Convey brand department, I’ve lowered my bottom line time and time again. If I back down again this time, my mentors will probably regret sending me to a prestigious university.”

Hu Wen knew that she had a mentor named Liang Mei in Fengtan, who had been teaching in the mountains for the past few years. Li Yingqiao had complicated feelings for her. Every time she mentioned this person, she would look like a kitten that had done something wrong, and keep scratching her paws with her head down.

Hu Wen asked, "I haven't seen her since I came back?"

"No." Li Yingqiao gazed at the distant mountain ridge, the wind almost scattering her voice. "She's in G Province."

"Still teaching in a rural area?"

"Um."

Hu Wen stopped talking, silently finished her cigarette, and stubbed it out. "Alright, I originally came here to meet your mentor. Since that's the case, I'll be going now. I hope to see you again in Beijing next winter. I still have the wine you left at my house last time. My husband said you kept meowing when you were drunk. I told him he must be dreaming. How could a PR whiz like meow like a cat?"

Li Yingqiao had absolutely no recollection: "...I really don't remember. Was my brother-in-law frightened?"

“It doesn’t matter,” Hu Wen laughed when she saw Hu Wen’s blank expression, realizing that Hu Wen had really forgotten. “He said you’re quite cute.”

"Sis, I'm starting to panic when you say that. I don't have any feelings for your husband."

Hu Wen sighed, "Joe, you don't understand married women, especially married career women."

"Huh?" She was genuinely bewildered, blinking at her with an eager look of curiosity.

"You know what it means to be helpless when a man is completely devoted to you?" Hu Wen glanced at her and said, "When your career is booming and you're climbing higher and higher, when you realize you can face a wider world and there are a bunch of young and fresh bodies around you. But your husband at home is getting uglier and uglier every day, and he's becoming more and more devoted to you. You can't even find any reason to cheat on him."

...What new knowledge! As Li Yingqiao clicked her tongue in amazement, Hu Wen laughed heartily, patted her shoulder, got into the car, and said, "I'm leaving. Wish me luck."

Li Yingqiao quickly realized what was happening and smiled as she watched her leave. When she returned to her office, she saw the message Pan Xiaoliang had sent, but someone had already replied.

321: "It means 'Let's create a group chat'."

Gao Dian posted a classic "respect" meme.

Pan Xiaoliang didn't reply. Wu Juan, on the other hand, replied, asking if everyone was in a meeting.

Li Yingqiao ushered Pan Xiaoliang into her office and tossed him the afternoon's materials. "Sister Hu will create a group chat later. They'll be following up on this project. If you don't understand what they're saying, just Google it yourself. Don't post it in the group, and don't pretend to be clueless and not reply at all. Neither Sister Hu nor Yu Jinyang has the time or obligation to teach you these things. Can't you even say thank you?"

Pan Xiaoliang clicked his tongue.

Li Yingqiao raised an eyebrow: "Tsk, what?"

Pan Xiaoliang resigned himself to his fate, knowing that a higher-ranking official could have absolute power. "Understood."

After leaving the office, Pan Xiaoliang thought resentfully, "That Tulip definitely has a crush on me; she even called me into her office just for this." Thinking this, he actually started to feel a little distracted, so he took out his phone and tagged 321 in the group chat: "Oh, thanks." [Grinning face]

321 didn't reply again. He was about to pick up his phone when Zheng Miaojia impatiently told him not to move, which stopped him in his tracks.

Zheng Miaojia was still wearing a linen dress and GM sunglasses perched on her forehead. She lazily propped her chin up, her tablet resting on her lap, skillfully sketching Yu Jinyang's features with a few quick strokes. She would occasionally glance at him, then casually lower her head again, saying:

"Meow, let me tell you, from childhood to adulthood, your face has never lost. It wasn't so exaggerated when you were little, but now it looks really handsome. The key is, how come I never noticed that you looked so aggressive before? No wonder Qiaoqiao used to beat you up. She had a pretty forward-thinking eye. The visual impact of drawing you as a comic book is indeed particularly strong."

Yu Jinyang's neck was sore, and when she wasn't looking, he couldn't help but secretly tilt his head back and stretch his neck. That day, Gao Dian showed him Zheng Miaojia's Xiaohongshu account, which was full of pictures of naked men with abs that made people's blood boil, and the comment section was full of hissing and laughing.

When Zheng Miaojia proposed developing a comic IP for Xiaohuacheng, he and Gao Dian exchanged a glance and almost simultaneously said no. Upon seeing their firm stance, Zheng Miaojia's eyes immediately welled up with tears.

Gao Dian was completely dumbfounded. Zheng Miaojia had always been quiet and gentle since childhood. She and Li Yingqiao were different; one was cold on the outside but warm on the inside, and the other was warm on the outside but cold on the inside. But neither of these women showed their vulnerable side in front of them, let alone cried.

Gao Dian nudged Yu Jinyang's arm, but Yu Jinyang had no choice. He called Li Yingqiao, but she hung up immediately, only sending him a message: "In a meeting, I'll get back to you later."

Then she never replied to him again. Yu Jinyang had no choice but to soften his tone and make a three-point agreement with Zheng Miaojia: she could not draw abs, she could not draw nudes, and she could not draw any sexually suggestive images.

The next second, Zheng Miaojia took out eye drops from her bag, put two drops into her eyes, and agreed with satisfaction.

Halfway through the drawing, at Zheng Miaojia's request, Yu Jinyang changed his pose again, asking to show his smooth and strong jawline. Since he couldn't draw his abs, he could only focus on a close-up of his face.

He turned around and asked, "What has Li Yingqiao been busy with lately?"

"I'm so busy. I'm helping Xiaohua City build a digital team platform, but Pan Xiaoliang doesn't know anything about it. Qiaoqiao also has to oversee the post-production of Ape Man. Besides, she's had dinner parties every night these past few days, and she's drunk so much she's thrown up. She finally managed to secure a travel agency's booking. I don't know if she has any parties tonight, but I've made an appointment with her to draw portraits later."

"How do you know so much? Does she report her schedule to you every day?" Yu Jinyang couldn't help but ask.

Zheng Miaojia glanced at him: "Yeah, Qiaoqiao is super clingy, you didn't know that? We often talk on the phone all night long."

Yu Jinyang didn't find it strange that the two girlfriends were talking on the phone all night, so she didn't press the matter. She just looked at Zheng Miaojia and asked, "Did she tell you why she suddenly came back this time?"

Zheng Miaojia suddenly looked up and stared directly at him: "What do you want to ask?"

Yu Jinyang turned his head slightly away, and Zheng Miaojia shouted again in a sharp tone: "Don't move! Don't say I didn't warn you if you draw it badly."

He was forced to turn his head back to look directly at her, and Zheng Miaojia instructed him again, "Lift your chin. Yes, the lighting is just right, wow, you look incredibly handsome from this angle. Okay, continue."

He sighed, "Never mind. You haven't finished drawing yet?"

Zheng Miaojia, now wearing sunglasses, peered through the gap and asked, "Is there something you need?"

"I need to go with Zhong Su to check out a venue."

"What venue? If you two aren't looking at wedding venues, you're not leaving today."

“…Zheng Miaojia, what’s going on in your head?” Yu Jinyang leaned back in his chair, tilted his head back and laughed helplessly. “The ice cream cone amusement park construction team is about to start, and we’re going to go check on some details of the design drawings.”

The amusement park wasn't big, just basic infrastructure. Zhong Su designed a super-large, super-dreamy carousel for Ice Cream Cone, but Ice Cream Cone hadn't seen it yet. Yu Jinyang planned to go and scout out the site first, then go back and discuss it with Ice Cream Cone.

Zheng Miaojia sped up her writing, "Ah? Why didn't you say so earlier? I had arranged for Qiaoqiao to come over and draw for me later."

Yu Jinyang suddenly stopped laughing: "Where did you come from?"

“This is it,” Zheng Miaojia said matter-of-factly. “Your studio. I was going to visit her at the scenic spot, but Qiaoqiao said she hadn’t been to your studio since she came back, so she said she would come and visit while she was at it.”

The studio space isn't large, and Yu Jinyang doesn't usually spend much time there. The space is used efficiently; the finished product display area features wooden toys and figurines he designed himself, including all sorts of oddly shaped items like airplanes, boats, Rubik's Cubes, and many educational toys. For example, there's a complete set of wooden kitchen utensils, a complete set of engineering machinery, and even an entire wall dedicated to wooden toy guns of various models.

Some of them were designed and made by himself later, and most of them were his own collection from childhood to adulthood. This is only a small part of the collection that has sentimental value; the rest are all piled up and buried in dust on the second floor of the house in Xiaohua City. When Yu Renjie's business was at its peak, there was nothing he couldn't make, only things he couldn't imagine. He would do everything he could to find any wooden toy on the market for Yu Jinyang, regardless of whether Yu Jinyang liked it or not. Even some of the special Barbie dolls, when stacked up, were as tall as him at the time.

As soon as Li Yingqiao entered, she was also attracted by the dazzling array of wooden toys on the display cabinet, especially the wall with guns. She stood there for a long time. She knew that Yu Jinyang had many such items at home, but she didn't expect so many. When it comes to spending money, Brother Siyi has to be the best. She picked up a pistol of unknown model and poked it on Yu Jinyang's forehead, saying, "Meow, I didn't know you were so aggressive?"

Yu Jinyang leaned against the table, his gaze not lingering on her, but quickly looking away. He reached out and gathered up the scattered woodworking tools beside her, putting them into his tool bag. Amidst the soft clinking of metal, he looked down at her, but his eyes didn't linger. "So formal today?"

"It's alright," Li Yingqiao glanced at her skirt casually, then returned the compliment politely. In fact, she hadn't even noticed that he was dressed in white and black. "You look very handsome today too. By the way, after Miaojia finishes her painting, I'll treat you to a meal."

He knew she never came unless she needed something; she hadn't mentioned visiting his studio since he returned. Slightly annoyed, he leaned against the table, carefully rolled up the utility knives in his hand with a small sheepskin bundle, and tossed them aside with a dull thud. He didn't realize how much force he'd used. Then he chuckled, a resigned but highly service-oriented smile: "Looking for me? Need something?"

Li Yingqiao gave him a smile that was even more resigned than his own, more service-oriented, fawning and obsequious, “I can say this: if you wanted to devour a whole cow today, I’d go to the slaughterhouse and bring it to you right away.”

Yu Jinyang was even more frightened. "What exactly do you want? I called you a couple of days ago and you hung up and didn't answer. Now you have the nerve to talk back?"

Li Yingqiao suddenly remembered, slapped his forehead, and pointed the wooden gun in his hand at his temple without hesitation: "I really forgot, I was in a meeting when you called me, and then I was entertaining people from the Culture and Tourism Bureau in the evening. I deserve to die."

Yu Jinyang used his fingers to remove the gun tip from her temple. "Let's talk downstairs later. We don't need to eat. I have to go back and keep Ice Cream company."

When Li Yingqiao was about to go out to find Zheng Miaojia to draw, she had already disappeared. A WeChat message lay horizontally on her phone: "I'm exhausted today, I'm not drawing anymore. I'm going to drink with Zhong Su."

Helpless, Li Yingqiao turned to look at Yu Jinyang, who seemed to have expected this. He put his things away, smiled, and went to close the door: "Alright, let's go. There's a food stall by the Fengtan River. It's on me."

"No, I must pay. I really need your help."

Yu Jinyang pressed the elevator button, looked down at her solemnly, and said, "Li Yingqiao, do you have to be so formal with me?"

She insisted, "I will plead guilty with a bundle of thorns on my back."

Yu Jinyang put his hands in his pockets, his eyes fixed on the ever-increasing floor numbers in the elevator, and deliberately said, "What's this 'Jing'? The one for the ski resort or the one for not returning calls?"

“Here we go again. Can’t we just leave this topic alone? It’s like we’ve already moved on,” she said.

"Okay, okay, anyone who mentions it again is a little dog," he said with a smile, raising his hands in surrender.

A moment of silence followed, and the empty corridor fell into an almost frozen stillness.

Even as the elevator doors opened and slowly closed in front of them, someone still asked, unwilling to give up:

"Li Yingqiao, you liked me back then, didn't you?"

[Author's Note]

This is also the second update today, I'm a little late.

Waaaaah, I'm kneeling here handing out red envelopes to everyone.