Before we knew it, it was early winter, and the capital city welcomed its first snowfall of the year.
The snow fell heavily, and as far as the eye could see, everything was covered in white frost.
This weekend, Jiang Xia and Lin Yanwan stayed in a rented apartment, enjoying hot coffee and the unique heating of the North.
Even though the outside world was still covered in snow, they were wearing only a single layer of clothing.
"Once the snow stops, we'll build a snowman!" Lin Yanwan leaned out the window, looking at the thick layer of snow covering the neighborhood.
"Okay, should we build a male snowman or a female snowman?" Jiang Xia asked with a smile.
"Hmph, I'm not piling them up anymore!"
Lin Yanwan pouted slightly. So what if she hadn't had a child with him? She was so resentful, bringing up having children in everything.
Jiang Xia took a sip of coffee, put down his pen, got up and walked to the window, then slowly hugged her slender waist from behind.
These days are clearly the perfect time to have a baby.
Lin Yanwan glanced down at his restless little hands resting on her stomach, and she knew perfectly well what he was thinking.
"Baby, let's invite our godmother to have hot pot tonight," Jiang Xia said softly.
"Okay." She nodded gently. "Should we call someone else?"
"No need, it's just the four of us."
The two hugged each other tenderly for a while before reluctantly separating and going back to their own business.
Over the past month, Qitian Animation has been fully on track, and the recording studio has been renovated and officially put into use.
The entire team is progressing smoothly according to the schedule, and at the current pace, the production of the third season of Tom and Jerry should be completed by the end of the month.
The visuals in the third season have seen a significant improvement in both precision and quality. Once it airs, it will likely break previous records again, thanks to the popularity built up by the first two seasons.
Jiang Xia's current focus is mainly on Slam Dunk, and he only occasionally draws storyboards for Tom and Jerry. Even so, he has already completed more than half of the storyboards for the fifth season.
This is only because he usually has to spend some of his time training Wang Ming's directing skills; otherwise, the storyboard for the sixth season would probably already be almost finished.
Now all that's missing is Lao Wang to take over his responsibilities so he can further expand the company team and develop the Slam Dunk project.
However, I need to discuss this matter with Li Weiya tonight.
As for Lin Yanwan, she is now in charge of the company's finances and also does voice acting part-time. Even though the company has hired a professional small wind band, which has greatly improved the efficiency of the music production, she is still required to cooperate with the music supervisor in the voice acting production.
Before we knew it, the snow outside had lessened considerably.
Jiang Xia twisted his neck, looked at his wife who was writing lyrics for the Slam Dunk theme song, and smiled slightly, "Shall we build a snowman?"
"Okay." Lin Yanwan smiled.
"Then you have to wear a scarf, gloves, thermal underwear, and a down jacket, otherwise I won't take you." Jiang Xia pinched her little cheek.
"Okay, you should go change your clothes too."
Lin Yanwan pouted and kissed him, then got up and went back to her room.
Jiang Xia pursed his lips, savoring the sweetness of love, his gaze slowly falling on her desk, where a complete set of lyrics with sheet music was displayed—
I Want to Shout "I Love You"
A warmth filled his heart, and he suddenly felt an urge to hug and kiss her ten or eight times.
Lin Yanwan secretly opened the door a crack and saw that he had discovered the lyrics she had left behind. She chuckled and then gently closed the door again.
A few minutes later, she dressed and walked out of the bedroom, only to see Jiang Xia still staring at the lyrics.
Why haven't you changed your clothes yet?
He waved the lyrics in his hand and laughed, "Waiting for you to loudly proclaim your love for me."
"Hmph, I won't tell."
"Then sing it for me?"
"Okay!" Lin Yanwan smiled, her eyes crinkling.
Soon after, two snowmen appeared in the snow in the neighborhood, one with the number 10 written on its chest and the other with the number 11 written on its chest.
On this day, a girl shouted to a boy, "Darling, I love you!"
◇
As night fell, the two walked hand in hand toward the long-established mutton hot pot restaurant they had agreed to meet.
Not long after, Li Weiya and Wang Ming arrived.
"Ah Xia, Yan Wan, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."
"No, we just arrived a little while ago." Jiang Xia brushed the snow off Li Weiya and said with a smile, "Godmother, it's cold today, you're not dressed warmly enough."
"It's alright, the office is heated, it's not cold," Li Weiya said with a smile as she sat down.
"Is Amin also working overtime at the company today?"
Wang Ming nodded. "I still have some of the manuscripts I haven't finished. The main reason is that the atmosphere at the company is better than in the dormitory, so I can finish them faster."
After the group sat down, the waiter began serving the dishes.
Jiang Xia poured all the mutton into the pot, and while it was cooking, he handed the second half of the Slam Dunk script to Li Weiya.
“Godmother, I plan to hire another batch of people to expand the studio in December,” Jiang Xia said slowly.
"You're planning to make a Slam Dunk series?" Li Weiya frowned slightly. She had read part of the script and some of the storyboards drawn by Jiang Xia.
To be fair, it is indeed an excellent animation project, but it lacks the wow factor that Tom and Jerry gave her.
Moreover, basketball-themed animation excludes a large portion of the audience who don't like basketball from the very beginning. In other words, even if Slam Dunk is well-drawn, its viewership may not be as high as Tom and Jerry.
At the very least, she wasn't interested in Slam Dunk and couldn't understand the thrill of a bunch of people fighting for one ball.
"Yes, the preliminary work is almost complete. Now all we need is a team to work with before we can officially begin producing Slam Dunk," Jiang Xia nodded.
"Ah Xia, I still think it's a bit too radical. Although this inspirational basketball story is great, the market determines the ratings. Are you really not going to reconsider? The resources we invested in the early stages may not be recouped for a long time."
"Godmother, actually that's the last thing I need to worry about. I'm making animation now just to make money. I won't make animation if it doesn't make money."
Jiang Xia chuckled. The original comic had sold over 100 million copies, and now that he was directly reproducing it as an anime, it would definitely cause a trend in the world.
Who knows, by then, online forums will be filled with the meme "Coach, I want to play basketball".
Seeing his confident expression, Li Weiya was helpless; after all, he was the boss of the company.
"Since you insist, fine, I'll help you recruit people. However, you promised me before that you wouldn't slow down the progress of Tom and Jerry no matter what."
"Amin, did you hear that? I'm talking to you. Hurry up and grow up to take the burden off my shoulders."
Wang Ming rolled his eyes at him without saying a word.
He's only been training for less than two months; it's still early days.
(End of this chapter)
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