Tsk, that act only lasts three seconds.
At 11:00 a.m., Luman parked on time in the parking space next to the main entrance of Yunhe Entertainment.
Before getting out of the car, Jiang Songhe glanced through the rear window at the two beaming doormen at the entrance, then at the faces of people jostling and rubbing against each other in the second-floor window. He silently pulled his hand out from between Jonathan's fingers and got out of the car first.
Producer Lin Duole and publicity team leader Feng Siyu approached from the left and right, their hands behind their backs. Jiang Songhe, who had switched to a cold-faced mode, gave Lin Duole a rather serious look, and Lin Duole immediately made a gesture as if zipping up his mouth.
Jiang Songhe casually greeted the staff while tapping lightly on the car window twice, signaling Jonathan to get out from this side.
The car door clicked open, and Lin Duole and Feng Siyu, who were reporting to their boss that "the large conference room is ready" just a second ago, both stared wide-eyed the next.
The top of their silver hair had barely peeked out from the top of the car door when the two men simultaneously lowered their heads, each pulling out a black umbrella from behind and untying the straps. Their black boots landed with two loud thuds, and Jiang Songhe was instantly transformed into a large-bellied crow flapping its wings.
"..." Such a big fuss, are you afraid people won't know that your company has brought a top celebrity?
“Wow, so sweet.” Jonathan, who was heavily pregnant, seemed unfazed by the sound, though she spoke very softly. “But I’ll do it myself, thank you.”
"How can that be?!" Lin and Feng said in unison.
"The umbrella is actually... a bit low."
"Oh, sorry Janus!" The black wing root suddenly rose, making Jiang Songhe's chin bounce up.
Jiang Songhe sighed heavily, parted the two blood-dripping umbrella edges with one hand to make way for the driver's car door, and lifted one of the umbrella ribs from the inside with the other hand, and instructed in a low voice: "I'll do it, you guys go upstairs and prepare, give him the other one."
Wasin got out of the driver's seat, returned the car keys to Jiang Songhe, and reached out to take the umbrella.
"Received..." Lin Feng said somewhat sullenly after being sent away by his boss. He handed the umbrella to Vasin, then stepped out of the large belly and entered the main entrance, looking back every few steps.
"The kids in your company are quite cute," Jonathan said with a bright smile as he straightened up, stood next to Jiang Songhe.
Jiang Songhe twirled the umbrella handle, gripped it, and raised the canopy just high enough to cover Jonathan's face. He nodded towards the door with his chin and said, "Please excuse my poor manners."
Jonah tilted his head and raised one corner of his mouth, as if he were amused and amused by Jiang Songhe's etiquette.
The conspicuous sight of the large-bellied crows was not suitable for lingering in public places for too long. Jiang Songhe pulled the umbrella closer, nudged Jonathan's back with her shoulder, and urged him in a low voice, "Be good."
“Received.” Jonathan shrugged and spread his hands, mimicking her tone, “President Jiang.”
...
The three of them went upstairs to the automatic door on the second floor. Jiang Songhe glanced at the gleaming glass of the door, admiring the professionalism of the cleaning lady, Sister Zheng, for a few seconds. Then he put his umbrella in the storage bin by the door, signaled Vasin to do the same, and then opened the door by scanning his face.
The corridor floor was so clean it reflected light, and the sound of shoes stepping on it was exceptionally crisp.
Looking around, there was no one there. The three of them did not encounter a large welcoming procession. Jiang Songhe was surprised, but he also praised Yunhe's employees for their dedication and orderly work for a few seconds. Then he began to introduce the company's facilities to Jonathan.
The corridor runs straight to the end of the office area on the entire floor. The walls are covered with stills, posters, and photos of Jiang Songyun from age four to sixteen, as if it were a bridge of time.
The first image shows Jiang Songyun's role in his first drama, a young scholar in ancient costume. As a first-time actor, he naturally wasn't the go-to child double for award-winning actors; he was just a guest star. Even in this retouched and enlarged version, the image quality isn't as clear as others.
Jonathan was so amazed by the first picture that he couldn't move. He laughed and praised how cute she was, saying that she was completely unrecognizable compared to the tall and handsome Song Yun now.
Jiang Songhe hadn't taken the time to look at these photos properly for a while, so she couldn't help but reminisce about the past.
At first, he smiled and agreed, occasionally sharing some funny stories from back then, until Jonathan unconsciously intertwined his fingers with his and looked at each other, sighing, "It's like seeing you when you were four years old."
He felt a chill run down his spine. He looked up at the surveillance camera diagonally above him and heard the amplified, crystal-clear echoes of laughter and conversation in the corridor. He immediately realized that his interaction with Jonathan was too intimate and that he had lingered in one place for too long.
So he spread his five fingers, pulled his hand away, and carefully put it behind his back to prevent a recurrence.
Jonathan looked at his hand hanging in mid-air, then at Jiang Songhe who was looking away. His smile froze on his face. His thin lips opened and closed a few times, then he quickly put on a nonchalant smile.
"When did Song Yun take the next picture?" Jonathan put his hands in his back pockets and walked past Jiang Songhe to the next still.
"Also four years old, this play is a children's comedy..." Jiang Songhe still answered questions, but his tone was much calmer.
They quickly looked at the first few paintings upon entering, and as they passed the reception desk, they finally saw real people. There were two seats at the reception desk; Sister Zheng sat in the corner, further inside, while Administrative Assistant Liu sat in the easily visible spot.
The two women, who had long been the face of the company, behaved much more dignifiedly than the two young women, Lin Duole and Feng Siyu, when they met the top star. One was poised and generous, and the other had a kind face. They greeted each other with words and nods, respectively, saying, "Welcome to Yunhe Entertainment."
Jiang Songhe nodded in thanks and continued to lead Jonathan and Vasin inside.
The casual conversation continued intermittently, mainly revolving around Jiang Songyun on the photo wall. When passing by functional areas, Jiang Songhe would seize any opportunity to introduce them.
"This is the restroom, this is the tea room, this is the lounge, this is..." Jiang Songhe said, spreading his hands and pointing to the largest area inside Yunhe. As soon as he turned his head, his expression froze.
Although it was daytime, the scene before him gave him the feeling of being in a dark, sunless cave, staring at a group of bats with glowing pink eyes, even though the still bats were hanging upside down to see people.
In Jiang Songhe's memory, the office area used to be the most active place.
Two years ago, during the filming of "Yan Ge Xing," Jiang Songhe proactively established a seven-person publicity team under her company, headed by Feng Siyu. The team members were all young girls who were more sensitive to the trends and topics in the entertainment industry, with the aim of promoting Jiang Songyun's career transformation after the drama aired.
However, after a year of incubation, the publicity team successfully developed a matrix of several major social media accounts across the Chinese entertainment industry. But Jiang Songyun's personality changed drastically during puberty, which led to his career decline and the publicity team being in the awkward situation of having the skills but not the roles.
Jiang Songhe firmly believes that Jiang Songyun will settle down and return to acting after he comes of age. Besides, the team that has been built with time and money cannot be disbanded so easily.
In order to maintain the value of the publicity team and the confidence of its members, Jiang Songhe agreed a year ago to open up the business permissions of the various matrix accounts held by the publicity team.
To date, the publicity team has a very substantial monthly income. In addition to their basic salaries, Jiang Songhe has instructed the finance department to distribute 30% of the total business revenue as a monthly bonus to each team member.
The purpose of this reward system is to increase the motivation of the publicity team to produce content and to enhance the team's collaborative and cooperative spirit. So far, it's been quite effective, but a side effect is that the girls are constantly brainstorming topics in the office area during work hours.
The seven girls are proficient in all kinds of skills, including shooting, photo editing, and video editing. The production team, which is located in the same office area, inevitably has some small and urgent matters on a daily basis, but it is not so urgent that they need to ask these young ladies for help with the work that is done by outsourcing resources.
Therefore, all members of the production team were tolerant and courteous to the lively atmosphere of the publicity team. If there was work that required a high degree of concentration, they would usually retreat to the meeting rooms of various sizes in different areas.
During their free time or when they needed a mental break, the production team would even join the publicity team in brainstorming sessions, voluntarily becoming the subjects of their brainstorming sessions...
Therefore, the scene before us, whether it is the deathly silence or the orderly arrangement of the employees sitting frozen at their respective workstations, seems extremely abnormal, and so abnormal as to be close to the uncanny valley effect.
"Where is this...?" Seeing that Jiang Songhe hadn't moved for a long time, Jonathan looked around the Bat Cave with its surging pink currents and took the initiative to ask.
Immediately, a series of sounds, similar to gathering energy, echoed inside the cave.
"Oh." Jiang Songhe snapped out of her daze, her forearm turning 120 degrees like a radar pointer (to hide her startled reaction, actually), and continued to introduce the area seriously, "This is the office area."
"The publicity team and the production team are both working here. The reaction recording later will be handled by these two departments."
Jonathan exclaimed "Wow!", pulled a hand out of his back pocket, pushed his sunglasses up to his head, and flashed a charming smile like a top idol at everyone in the office area.
Then, with a flourish of two fingers pushing up his sunglasses, he casually flicked his wrist upwards from his temple: "Hey, cuties~~"
"H~E~Y~~~J~A~N~U~S~~~~~~~~" Judging from their speech and mannerisms, their mental level is no higher than that of a kindergarten senior.
Tsk, as expected, the act only lasts three seconds.
"Uh!" Jiang Songhe cleared his throat, subtly warning the staff to be careful with their words, then said to Jonathan, "My office is at the very back, and the duplex is the producer's office. Both are usually empty and not very lively..."
Jiang Songhe actually had something to hide and didn't really want to create a context in front of everyone, especially in front of the group of people who were currently possessed by the bats from the kindergarten class, to actively invite Jonathan to his office.
For some reason, he irreversibly linked the two completely unrelated ideas in his mind: "Want to come to my office?" and "Want to come upstairs to my house?"
And he was subtly incited by this idea, fearing that once the office door was closed, he would act erratically and do something unseemly to Jonathan in the workplace.
"Do you want to rest for a bit before going to the main conference room, or..." Under the watchful eyes of everyone, there wasn't much room for Jiang Songhe to use a more tactful explanation, to the point that he felt uncomfortable being rushed when he heard his own words.
But once the words are spoken, there's no going back; we can only leave it at that awkwardly for now.
Unexpectedly, Jonathan's smile widened, showing no sign of discomfort: "No need to rest, I can't wait to see Song Yun as an actress~~"
As expected of a top idol, Jiang Songhe thought to herself, but her throat inexplicably tightened.
After Jonathan finished speaking, he turned his face away and looked at the faces that lit up as he scanned them, finally finding Lin Duole. His eyes crinkled into crescents, and he said in a drawn-out tone, "You~yeah~you~~ (You~yes~it's you~) I remember your name is...`Duole`, right?"
"Please take me directly to your main conference room, Doro."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com