-10- Method
"I told you, this is a ship that could sink at any moment." Sister Zou's words stung Zhao Jinghuan's heart, leaving her feeling breathless all night. However, when she told Ji Anya about these things, Ji Anya felt that her reaction was unnecessary and forced: "Isn't it like this in small companies? They work well today, and suddenly it's bankrupt tomorrow. It's just a 2,500 salary, so what can you lose?" Zhao Jinghuan blushed at her words, as if her empathy was sympathetic to the capitalists. But then she suddenly thought: "Oh, yes, my revenge hasn't even begun yet!" If Dorasi were to leave with Little Freckles at this moment, Zhao Jinghuan would feel a bit like "reincarnated as A Dou, but Zhuge Liang's experience card expires tomorrow morning." At this thought, she felt that her sadness was fully justified. While picking up her order from Carrefour that evening, Zhao Jinghuan spotted a newly opened, well-decorated, and popular matcha cake shop on the B1 floor. She suddenly remembered that she'd asked Lu Kai about Zou's preferences and heard she was a matcha fan. So Zhao Jinghuan asked the popular online rider at the station for two "expert coupons," splurged on them, and bought two discounted matcha cakes. The next morning, she brought them to the studio to "share" with Zou. Zou, clearly unprepared for such an early start, paused for a moment before her surprise faded and her expression settled into a stern expression. Zou refused Zhao Jinghuan's "bribe" at all costs. But when Zhao Jinghuan, rebuffed, left pitifully and returned to her workstation, she softened her heart. After a moment's hesitation, she finally spoke to Zhao Jinghuan across the aisle, "Bao'er, I'm not picking on you. I just..." Zhao Jinghuan straightened her drooping neck, and before she could finish, she approached with another grin, clutching the matcha cakes. This time, Sister Zou couldn't hold back her stern expression anymore. Instead, she felt a little embarrassed. She called out to Lu Kai and Wan Feng, who had also arrived at the studio early and were at their wits' end, and told them Jing Huan had bought cake for everyone to share. Lu Kai walked over, took a look, and with just three words, exposed Sister Zou: "Hmph, matcha." Zhao Jing Huan waved Lu Kai away. Sister Zou blushed as she took her first bite and then asked Zhao Jing Huan what she wanted. Zhao Jing Huan said it was nothing more than wanting to know more about Dorasi. "I asked Lu Kai and the others, but they didn't say anything useful." "Useful?" Sister Zou frowned, saying she didn't have any useful information. "Although I've worked with Dorasi for three or four years, she's always been a solitary person, and she speaks...
"I told you this is a ship that could sink at any moment."
Sister Zou’s words stung Zhao Jinghuan’s heart, making her feel a little breathless all night.
However, when she told Ji Anya about these things, Ji Anya felt that her reaction was a bit unnecessary and a bit forced. "Isn't it like this in small companies? They work well today, and suddenly fail tomorrow. It's only 2500 yuan a month, so what can you lose?"
Zhao Jinghuan blushed a little when she said this, as if her empathy was due to sympathy with the capitalists, but then she suddenly thought: "Oh, yes, my revenge hasn't even begun yet!"
If Dorasi were to leave with Little Freckles at this time, Zhao Jinghuan would feel a bit like "reincarnated as Adou but Zhuge's experience card will expire tomorrow morning". When she thought of this, she felt that her sadness was justified.
When Zhao Jinghuan went to Carrefour to pick up her order in the evening, she saw a new matcha cake shop on the B1 floor that was well-decorated and doing good business. She suddenly remembered that when she asked Lu Kai about Sister Zou's preferences, she heard that she was a matcha lover. So Zhao Jinghuan asked the internet celebrity rider at the station for two "expert coupons" and spent a huge amount of money to buy two discounted matcha cakes. She brought them to the studio early the next morning to "share" with Sister Zou.
Sister Zou obviously didn't expect that getting up early for work would trigger the "being fed" plot. She was stunned for a moment before she put away her surprise and put on a stern face again.
Sister Zou said she didn't want any "bribe" from Zhao Jinghuan, but when Zhao Jinghuan left pitifully after being rejected and returned to her workstation, she felt a little soft-hearted. After hesitating for a while, she finally said to Zhao Jinghuan across the aisle: "Baoer, I'm not targeting you, I just..."
Zhao Jinghuan straightened her drooping neck, and without waiting for her to finish, she came over with a matcha cake in her arms, smiling.
This time, Sister Zou could no longer maintain her cold expression and instead felt a little embarrassed. She called out to Lu Kai and Wan Feng, who had also arrived at the studio early to perform and were at a loss, and said that Jing Huan had bought cakes to share with everyone.
Lu Kai walked over and took a look, then exposed Sister Zou with just three words:
"Hmph, Matcha."
Zhao Jinghuan waved her hand and asked Lu Kai to go away. Sister Zou took the first bite with a red face, and then asked Zhao Jinghuan if she had anything to ask of her.
Zhao Jinghuan said there was nothing else he wanted to know, he just wanted to know more about Dorasi.
"I asked Lu Kai and the others, but they couldn't come up with anything useful."
"Useful?" Sister Zou frowned, saying she didn't have any useful information. "Although I've worked with Dorasi for three or four years, she's always been a loner, and her speech is a bit... a bit hard to understand."
Lu Kai interrupted: "That's because she's afraid of you."
Zhao Jinghuan had heard Lu Kai mention before that when Dorasi got nervous, his speech became a little strange. She asked Sister Zou what exactly was so "difficult to understand." Sister Zou thought for a moment and said, "It's hard to describe. It's just a little bit two-dimensional? Maybe..."
Sister Zou pointed at Lu Kai and said, "Try to imitate me." Lu Kai shook his head and said, "I tried it that day, but I couldn't learn it well. You try it." Then he looked at Sister Zou expectantly.
Sister Zou gave a wry smile and said to Zhao Jinghuan, who looked confused, "You'll know when you meet her."
Zhao Jinghuan had no choice but to skip this topic and ask Sister Zou instead: "How did you and Dorasi know each other? Are you classmates?"
Sister Zou shook her head and said, "Wanfeng and Lu Kai were college roommates. Tomato and I... Tomato and Lu Kai met when we participated in a trendy toy design competition. As for Dorasi, according to Lu Kai, it's more like we picked him up..."
Zou explained, "The second month after Waikiki opened, we coincided with the HEC exhibition that year. At that time, the studio hadn't yet decided on a main product, and Tomato, a big fan of exhibitions, suggested we go to HEC as a group. HEC in those years wasn't as strict as it is today. Pre-exhibition requirements required a ton of documents, but basically, anyone could rent a booth as long as they paid."
"That year, Dorasi got herself a booth in the corner to promote her work 'Freckles.' Others who exhibited there brought their families with them, and even small studios had three or four people. Dorasi's booth was just hers, without even a poster. She was dressed in a Gothic outfit, and her makeup was smudged from tears. When people walked by her, it was hard to see it as a booth, more like…"
Sister Zou thought for a moment, "It's more like a trap. It's Lu Kai, for example. He's not very smart. He thought Dorasi's place was a rest area, so he stupidly sat down next to Dorasi and started charging his phone..."
Whether Lu Kai's brain was working well or not was another matter, but his ears were quite good. He had already headed back into the room with his water cup, but when he heard Sister Zou mention him, he turned back and said, "That looks like a rest area! There are even two bottles of Yakult on the table!"
"That's Dorasi's own water, and you unscrewed it for him. It made him so angry that he cried!"
Lu Kai straightened his neck and said stubbornly, "She was crying because the movers couldn't enter the exhibition hall! And didn't Wanfeng give her money?"
"What's wrong with paying? That's their own water! Do you think they're a small vendor?" Sister Zou rolled her eyes at Lu Kai and continued, "It was only when Wanfeng saw 'Little Freckles' on the table and asked a few more questions that I realized she was also here for the exhibition."
Lu Kaifang put down his water cup, pulled his small stool and sat over, looking like a well-behaved boy who came to listen to a story. When he heard Sister Zou mention Wanfeng, he quickly pointed at Wanfeng by the window and said, "Oh, yes, Wanfeng also asked Dorasi which booth he bought 'Little Freckles' from! Why don't you talk about him!" He hinted that he was not the only one who was stupid.
Sister Zou waved her hand, silencing Lu Kai. "Yes, Wanfeng really likes 'Little Freckles'. So even though Dorasi's speech was strange, after a while of chatting in our own languages, we finally figured out that Dorasi was the designer of 'Little Freckles'."
Lu Kai patted his chest and said that he figured it out himself.
Sister Zou said, "Yes, yes, you're the best." She paused and continued, "Doraxi was still young at the time, and things were a mess. She took a taxi that morning and asked a mover to bring several large boxes of 'Little Freckles'. It turned out that the mover didn't have the tags, so he couldn't enter the exhibition area. He unloaded the goods for her at the back door. She couldn't move them by herself, and she was too embarrassed to ask for help. She cried for a long time. None of us had ever been to an exhibition before, and we happened to have free time those days. We heard that she was alone, so we helped her move the goods in and even did two days of free work for her, just to gain experience in advance."
Lu Kai nodded. It seemed that because Sister Zou had sorted out the "topic" for him, he could tell the story clearly again. "Yes, all of us at Waikiki will be dispatched, with a clear division of labor. Tomato will be responsible for the materials, Wanfeng will be responsible for the explanations, and I will be responsible for attracting customers with my personal charm."
Sister Zou nodded: "Yes, Lu Kai was doing pole dancing to attract customers."
Lu Kai's eyes widened: "Don't talk nonsense, Jing Huan should believe it."
Sister Zou rolled her eyes at him and said, "Tomato is quite impressive. He used his phone to edit the picture, went out for two or three hours, and came back with a finished X display stand."
She suddenly blushed: "Anyway, Tomato is more familiar with the exhibition."
Lu Kai said, "When MOLLY first launched the Big Baby at HEC that year, everyone was attracted by them. It was like a supermarket grabbing eggs. But even so, we still sold more than 200 Little Freckles on site in two days. It's really amazing."
Sister Zou said, "We were actually quite confused at the time. No one had thought about collaborating with Dorasi. When we left, we asked to add each other on WeChat, but Dorasi said WeChat and QQ were the devil's tentacles or something. In the end, we just left our phone number. We thought that was it, a chance encounter, never to be seen again. But then, half a month later, Dorasi showed up on his own, carrying his luggage..."
Lu Kai nodded. "We still don't know how she found us... We didn't leave her an address, and she didn't call us in advance. She just showed up in a flash."
Sister Zou said: "We asked Dorasi how she found it, and we didn't understand what she said. But because it was Dorasi, we also thought that she could find it without any reason. And then..."
Sister Zou looked at the freckles covering half of the wall on the figurine cabinet:
“And then it’s like this.”
They were silent for a moment, and then Sister Zou continued, "Maybe a lot of times, we still take things for granted. We...at least I always thought that we were good friends with Dorasi, but now that I think about it, that idea is quite unreasonable. None of us knows what Dorasi does on a daily basis, what she likes to eat, what dramas she watches, where she's from, what her parents do for a living, and we don't even know how she feels about us..."
Sister Zou turned to look at Lu Kai: "Lu Kai, tell me, why do we think that Dorasi and I are good friends?"
Lu Kai shrugged. He thought for a moment, then pointed to the office door and said, "Maybe it's because of that painting. We may not be together every day, but we are in that painting every day."
Sister Zou smiled bitterly: "Well, it's possible. That painting was drawn by Dorasi."
Several people in the room stared at the door in silence, as if they were recalling what had happened in the past few years. As they stared, the security door suddenly opened and Tomato rushed up panting. He threw his backpack on the table, picked up the water bottle on the table, and began to gulp down the water.
Lu Kai suddenly asked him, "Tomato, should we call Dorasi? Let's just get this out of the way."
Tomato didn't even think about it and just shook his head: "No."
He put down his water cup and said to the others, "I checked, and Little Freckles is not registered with the CPCC."
Sister Zou said with disdain: "Do you think I'm dead? We've been doing this for over four years and have sold seven sets of dozens of freckles. Do you think I haven't registered the copyright for Dorasi?"
Tomato said, "You registered dozens of versions of Freckles, but you didn't register the original 'Freckles'."
Everyone in the room was stunned. Lu Kai turned around and asked Sister Zou, "Really?"
Sister Zou was stunned for a moment: "I...I thought Dorasi registered myself."
Fanqie said, "Doraxi owns the copyright to all the derivative works of Little Freckles, but we can now register the original Little Freckles under Waikiki Studio. This way, even if Dorasi wants to leave, he has to get our consent."
Zhao Jinghuan frowned, wondering if this method was too despicable. She looked up at Sister Zou and found that Sister Zou had returned to her cold and distant expression.
Sister Zou said, "Tell me again, what do you want to do?"
Tomato was completely oblivious to the danger: "We should copyright Freckles."
"As expected of you."
Sister Zou suddenly reached out and pulled out the small stool that Lu Kai was sitting on without any warning.
Lu Kai sat down on the ground, and the stool in Sister Zou's hand flew towards Tomato.
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