Chapter 417 Career Line
Xing Kexin received her phone that day and returned to China the next day. Zhou Xiao also learned the subsequent outcome of the incident from her brief account.
"Sister Xiaoxiao, I'm so sorry. It might take a little while for us to arrange the styling," Xing Kexin's voice on the other end was lower than usual. Zhou Xiao felt as if the high spirits and longing he had heard from her yesterday had vanished completely in that moment.
After Xing Kexin and her team had a dispute with the warehouse worker of AL yesterday, Jin Lian, the person in charge of the Chinese version of "Graceful Her", directly ended the cooperation when he learned the whole story.
Mark Gardner, the employee who snatched Xing Kexin's phone, later defended himself by claiming he had no idea the company had rented the "small warehouse" to the Chinese staff of Graceful Her. He simply discovered someone who didn't belong to his company during a routine warehouse patrol.
Mark Gardner claimed that he acted impulsively in the heat of the moment to protect AL's interests. However, colleagues at the warehouse who declined to be named reported that this man was a regular troublemaker.
Jin Lian's reason for ending the partnership was simple. During discussions between the two parties, the other party's attitude was rather perfunctory. They even pointed the finger at Xing Kexin, arguing that she hadn't informed the warehouse staff ahead of time.
This disrespectful behavior towards partners made Jin Lian decide not to cooperate even though the Chinese version of "Graceful Her" was still very fond of AL2026 Spring/Summer show styles.
…
Inside AL's temporary meeting room.
An elderly gentleman, dressed in a distinctly British style, leaned lazily against his chair, seemingly boneless. His expression was relaxed, his eyelids drooping. After glancing at the people across from him, he slowly spoke, "If this lady had communicated well with our staff earlier, this blunder wouldn't have happened!"
The Chinese woman opposite smiled faintly and said calmly, "Sir, have you confirmed Mark Gardner's clock-in time?"
“…”
Silence began to spread across the "negotiating table," and everything seemed to become slightly awkward and ridiculous because of this sentence. Since the Chinese man on the other side said this, it must be that the other party had some kind of leverage over that annoying little guy.
Xing Kexin was sitting next to the woman who had spoken. She had returned to the photo album on her phone, and there was a record of Mark Gardner's lateness today.
Xing Kexin and her colleagues all saved this photo. After the conflict, someone secretly sent it via the AirDrop function on their phone, giving them strong evidence of the "communication."
In fact, when Xing Kexin and her companions arrived at the warehouse, they were introduced to the staff that day by their supervisor. The reason why Mark Gardner didn't recognize Xing Kexin in the warehouse was that when they met, he was still on his way to work.
Perhaps there were people in the warehouse who had long been dissatisfied with Mark Gardner, or perhaps they couldn't bear to see Xing Kexin being wrongly accused of a bad reputation. In short, everyone was very grateful for this silent support and help.
They dared to say that. In another room, Mark Gardner, crouching at the doorway being questioned, naturally turned grim. He was the one who knew best whether he was late today. His already harsh expression became even more uncomfortable because of this question.
AL can tolerate employees' occasional tardiness and early departures, but integrity is extremely important, especially for warehouse staff. If the other party hadn't spoken with such confidence and seemed to have evidence to back them up, they would have been protecting their employees from the start.
A considerable number of AL's senior management did not care about Xing Kexin and her team, but they had ambitions for China's vast market. This was one of the reasons why AL initially agreed to cooperate with the Chinese version of "Graceful Her".
However, the top management wanted to use this opportunity to pressure them again so as to gain the upper hand in future cooperation. Therefore, their attitude was quite bad from the beginning.
When Xing Kexin saw someone jogging in and whispering something to the AL executives, she mistakenly thought they were trying to get Mark Gardner to apologize to her. But she hadn't expected that today she'd truly witnessed what it meant to be so shameless as to not even care about one's dignity.
"Oh! It's just a small matter! We..." Before the elderly person opposite could finish her words, Xing Kexin saw the tour leader stand up. After seeing her wave to them, although they were still a little confused, they all followed the tour leader back to the hotel and began to pack their luggage according to his instructions.
Perhaps it was because their attitude was too resolute, the people on the opposite side could only watch them leave AL's warehouse in surprise, but no one dared to stop them.
Xing Kexin was still a little conflicted. She looked at the team leader's expression and finally, after the two of them got into the same car, she hesitated for several minutes before speaking, "Sister, are we... not cooperating with AL anymore?"
"Boss Jin said earlier," the team leader's expression wasn't too good, but when he noticed Xing Kexin was still blaming herself, he smiled and said, "When we're out, we don't cause trouble, but we're not afraid of it either!"
“…”
With the collaboration falling through, Graceful Her's top priority was naturally to launch a backup plan and find new runway pieces to pair with the collection. However, this meant they were already on a tight schedule.
In fact, the main reason why "Graceful Her" has been looking for show models for this shoot is to echo the first Olympiad e-sports.
Zhou Xiao thought for a moment, and when he sensed that Xing Kexin on the other end of the line was still immersed in the atmosphere of loss, he carefully asked, "I wonder if you have considered PZ?"
"PZ?" Xing Kexin was stunned. If they were filming actresses in the industry, they would definitely apply to major luxury brands. But applying for high-end fashion shows for ordinary people would still be embarrassing, no matter how shameless one is!
"Sister Xiaoxiao, do you have any connections?" But face was not worth mentioning to Xing Kexin. After accurately tasting the information in Zhou Xiao's words, she took decisive action.
Even though President Jin comforted her afterwards, as the central figure in the incident, Xing Kexin felt quite uneasy about canceling the cooperation with AL and wanted to do her best to make amends.
Although Zhou Xiao could borrow the show pieces directly from PZ, the stylist responsible for the shoot was not from her studio, and the subsequent storage and transportation was also a big problem.
Under this premise, Zhou Xiao did not take on too much responsibility. He first briefly mentioned to Pan Zijin the possibility of her collaboration with Jin Gu from "Graceful Her" and then pushed Xing Kexin's business card to him.
Zhou Xiao didn't know what they talked about specifically, but on the fourth day, he received a copy of the filming schedule from Xing Kexin, along with an emoji of someone kneeling and bowing.
…
Accompanied by their team leader, Shi Bin, Su Wenjun arrived at Zhou Xiao's studio in Shanghai's Huashang District. Setting aside the interior of the photography studio, the scenery alone was enough to make the two of them feel the vibrant energy of summer.
After signing his information with the guard and scanning his face, Su Wenjun finally saw the stunning scenery displayed to outsiders after the iron gate of the photography base was opened.
"Hey! Isn't that fountain the background of Jiang Xinyuan's shooting?" Shi Bin, who was standing next to him, couldn't contain his excitement and patted Su Wenjun's forearm when he saw the fountain.
On the eve of the shoot, when Shi Bin learned from his contact at Graceful Her that Zhou Xiao would be the photographer for Su Wenjun's shoot, he searched online with a sense of familiarity. After seeing a seemingly endless stream of information on his browser page, Shi Bin understood why Zhou Xiao's name was so familiar.
At the end of last month, the sponsor designed a new uniform for the team in preparation for the Olympics. During the photo shoot, the photographer and his assistant who were responsible for taking the official photos kept discussing Zhou Xiao.
As the team leader, Shi Bin naturally stepped forward and chatted with him for a few words. Then he used the photographer's assistant's phone to look at the itinerary map that Zhou Xiao had taken for the four artists of Shengyao Entertainment.
While highlighting and amplifying the characters' charm, the masterful level of detail maximizes the recognition of the four artists. After seeing the photos taken by Zhou Xiao, Shi Bin was interested in searching for their older photos and was impressed by the incredible skills of this master.
But no matter how hard he tried, he could never have imagined that one day, he would bring Su Wenjun to Zhou Xiao's studio to film "Graceful Her." Perhaps he had thought about it, but at least not now.
After a brief moment of surprise, Shi Bin spent the night sharing the photos he had collected with Su Wenjun. It was truly amazing; before he started searching, he had never imagined Zhou Xiao had so many fans!
On a Weibo account, in a super topic called "Zhou Xiao," everything is neatly organized by fans. As for the portfolio, it's guaranteed to please everyone! There are even fans of Ding Congrong and others who spontaneously create threads in the super topic, slowly editing in the images that the studio has released.
Shi Bin had been lurking for a day and had wanted to join the fan group after hearing about it. However, due to the strict review process, the management said there was no need to join the group, so he just peeked at the pictures like everyone else.
Just by looking at it, he already has a lot of pictures in his album. He even took a look at the black and white photos that NINE STAR took for XS perfume. Now he has the poses for the next official photos!
Because Zhou Xiao was about to film Su Wenjun, Shi Bin was eagerly anticipating the final film. If it turned out well, the team's sponsorship fees might even increase. As for Su Wenjun's personal value, it was among the best in the industry.
Su Wenjun turned her head and glanced at the slightly shorter team leader's excited expression, which aroused her curiosity. However, despite feeling a bit nervous, she also felt a surge of anticipation for today's shoot.
"The proposal sent includes a fountain." Su Wenjun's eyes lingered on the stone fountain in the center of the courtyard. The July sun blazed brightly, and the gurgling water contrasted beautifully with the surrounding flowers and trees. The crisp, crackling sound of water droplets hitting the surface suddenly reminded one that summer had truly arrived.
"We..." Shi Bin was about to speak when he saw a figure waving at them at the corner.
"He should be Teacher Zhou Xiao's assistant, right?" Su Wenjun withdrew his gaze from the fountain and looked at the man like Shi Bin, and asked with a little confusion.
Shu Nan's green hair fluttered wildly in the wind. She subconsciously put her hands up to protect her hair. Standing in the shade of the tree, she waved at the two people who were looking at her, "Are you here to film 'Graceful Her'? Come with me!"
"Okay, okay." Shi Bin subconsciously stood on tiptoe, waved over there and responded loudly.
By the time the two followed Shu Nan into the photography building, they had already exchanged names and were chatting quite enthusiastically. Shi Bin was naturally very happy that the other party had some knowledge of esports, unlike the photography assistant he had met last time, who looked reluctant to give their team members a chance.
The assistant's reaction also reflected the photographer's attitude to a certain extent, although Shi Bin had to admit that there were a group of boys in his team who were not good-looking and could not produce good films.
However, the girls, led by Su Wenjun, were his pride. Not only were they skilled, but most importantly, even when they didn't want to livestream, they still completed their monthly livestreaming assignments ahead of schedule, sparing him any worries. Unlike the boys, Shi Bin typically planned all-night livestreaming sessions for them at the end of each month.
Shu Nan was not a photography assistant, but that didn't stop her from volunteering to help. As she led Shi Bin and Su Wenjun into the studio, she looked them over openly.
Su Wenjun was especially impressive. Even though Shu Nan was only a moderately skilled gamer, he had heard of his fame within the industry. Not to mention that he was leading a team to compete in the first Olympic Games for esports. He was truly a god-level figure!
Standing at the studio door, Shu Nan took the initiative to push open the heavy door. Just this push was like opening up another dimension for the two of them.
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