-31- Coke
Although this wasn't the first time Zhao Jinghuan hadn't replied to Lu Kai's message recently, she did see Lu Kai's message last night late at night. Lu Kai and his team were busy with the HEC exhibition, while Zhao Jinghuan was also busy coordinating with Wanda Plaza. They were working on the day's process design and material preparation, and every single item was repeatedly scrutinized and revised. Although Zhao Jinghuan learned a lot in the process, she was also very busy. Last night, she was still in a meeting with her colleagues until midnight. If she hadn't had to get up early to go to Wanda today, her team leader might have pulled them through the night. She slept for less than four hours that night. At six in the morning, Ji Anya got up to wash up, waking up Zhao Jinghuan, who shared the same dormitory. Ji Anya finished her makeup and said she'd go find Lu Kai and the others. Zhao Jinghuan suddenly remembered how busy she'd been lately, forgetting to contact them in advance. Zhao Jinghuan, whose heart was in Han, had been pining for Lu Kai and his friends' participation in the exhibition. Despite Lu Kai's insistence that the five of them could easily handle the entire show, Zhao Jinghuan still felt uneasy. Fortunately, that day, Ji Anya heard that Waikiki had extra employee badges offering free entry, so she offered to help, even switching shifts to take two days off. After Ji Anya finished her shift, she urged Zhao Jinghuan to contact Lu Kai and the others, but work kept getting her mind off the topic. Under Ji Anya's glare, she jumped out of bed and called Sister Zou to explain the situation. "...I should have told you guys a long time ago, but I was too busy here, so I just remembered." Sister Zou on the phone asked her, "Why?" Zhao Jinghuan thought that her sudden decision had caused trouble for Sister Zou, and hurriedly explained, "I couldn't go to the scene, so I thought of asking my friend to help..." Sister Zou said, "That's not what I meant. We certainly welcome your friends to come. What I meant was, why are you busy? Or rather, why do you have to work hard?" Sister Zou's words directly confused Zhao Jinghuan. After Ji Anya left, she finally understood. She slapped her thigh and sighed, "Yes! What am I working so hard for?" ………… The HEC venue was neither close nor far from Ji Anya's dormitory. When Ji Anya was rushing there by subway, Sister Zou called her again. After a few brief words, Tomato took the phone and started "interviewing" Ji Anya. After hearing that Ji Anya was drawing with vegetable soup in the hotel, Tomato suddenly asked a slightly strange question: "Then can you also make sugar figures?" Ji Anya was confused...
Although this was not the first time that Zhao Jinghuan did not reply to Lu Kai's message during this period, she did not see the message from Lu Kai until late at night.
Lu Kai and his colleagues were busy with the HEC exhibition, while Zhao Jinghuan was also busy coordinating with Wanda Plaza. They were working on the day's process design and material preparation, each item undergoing repeated scrutiny and revisions. While Zhao Jinghuan learned a lot in the process, it was also incredibly busy. Last night, she was still in a meeting with her colleagues until midnight. If she hadn't had to get up early to go to Wanda today, her team leader might have kept them up all night.
She slept for less than 4 hours that night. At six in the morning, Ji Anya got up to wash up and woke up her roommate Zhao Jinghuan.
After Ji Anya finished putting on her makeup and said she was going to look for Lu Kai and the others, Zhao Jinghuan suddenly remembered that she had been so busy recently that she had actually forgotten to greet Lu Kai and the others in advance. Zhao Jinghuan, who was in Cao Ying but her heart was in Han, had been thinking about Lu Kai and the others' participation in the exhibition. Although Lu Kai repeatedly insisted that the five of them were more than enough to handle the entire exhibition, Zhao Jinghuan was still a little worried. Fortunately, that day, Ji Anya heard that Waikiki had extra employee badges that allowed free exhibition admission, so she offered to help, and even changed her shift for this purpose, taking two days of vacation. After Ji Anya finished her shift, she urged Zhao Jinghuan to contact Lu Kai and the others, but Zhao Jinghuan forgot again and again because of the busy work.
She jumped out of bed under Ji Anya's angry glare, called Sister Zou and explained the current situation.
"...I should have told you guys a long time ago, but I was too busy here, so I just remembered."
Sister Zou on the phone asked her: "Why?"
Zhao Jinghuan thought that her impulsive decision had caused trouble for Sister Zou, and hurriedly explained: "I couldn't go to the scene, so I thought of asking my friend to help..."
Zou said, "That's not what I'm talking about. Your friends are welcome to come. What I'm talking about is, why are you so busy? Or, in other words, why are you working so hard?"
Sister Zou's question left Zhao Jinghuan completely bewildered. After Ji Anya left, she finally understood. She slapped her thigh and sighed, "That's right! What am I risking my life for here?"
…………
The HEC venue was neither too close nor too far from Ji Anya's dormitory. As Ji Anya was rushing there on the subway, Sister Zou called her again. After a brief chat, Fanqie took the phone and began to "interview" Ji Anya. After hearing that Ji Anya was drawing with vegetable soup at the hotel, Fanqie suddenly asked a slightly strange question:
"Then can you also make a sugar man?"
Ji Anya dazedly said maybe it would work? It turned out to be just an hour and a half subway ride. By the time she arrived at the venue, Tomato had already prepared an induction cooker and sugar, and asked Ji Anya to try making a sugar figure based on the simple sketch Dorasi had designed for Freckles.
They said they would give it to every player who came to the booth to purchase Freckles directly.
Tomato said, "This is much more effective than any other promotion. After all, at a trendy toy exhibition, there are plenty of dolls, but sugar figures are unique. Every exhibitor holding a sugar figure is like a mobile display case. Anyone who sees it will have to ask, 'Where did you buy this sugar figure?'"
Ji Anya thought to herself, "I'm really a shrewd beast." She'd originally wanted to come along for the show, but hadn't expected to get such a big job. But since she'd said she was here to help, she couldn't refuse. Tomato found a video of making a candy figurine and showed it to Ji Anya. After a few tries, she gradually got pretty good at it.
Only then did Tomato feel relieved and wanted to introduce the members of Waikiki to Ji Anya.
Ji Anya waved her hands repeatedly: "No, no, no. I can recognize it myself!" She had heard too many stories about Waikiki from Zhao Jinghuan and had long wanted to come and check the number in person.
"The one with the exclamation mark above his head is Dorasi, the handsome sister is Sister Zou, you are Tomato, the one who is a little embarrassed to look at me should be Wanfeng, and this one..." Ji Anya narrowed her eyes and looked at Lu Kai, "Aren't you going to wear women's clothes?"
Tomato waved his hands: "It's too eye-catching. We give up."
The organizers came over and summoned all the participating studio representatives, explaining the precautions for the exhibition before releasing them. By the time Zou returned to the Little Freckles booth, players with both lucky and standard tickets had begun to enter. The HEC exhibition, following the Pop Mart PTS model, categorized player tickets into three categories: lucky, standard, priority, and standard.
A limited number of European tickets and ordinary tickets can queue up for entry one hour in advance, while ordinary ticket players have to wait until ten o'clock in the morning to enter.
As soon as the gate opened, players holding "advanced tickets" rushed into the venue like zombies entering a city.
In order to promote new IPs, the organizers of the exhibition arranged all independent studios, including Little Freckles, in Area A, which is opposite the main entrance. However, the main purpose of most players who came to the exhibition was to go to the booths of large manufacturers to grab the limited edition dolls of those popular IPs. Therefore, many independent studios, including Waikiki, although they controlled the entrance, could only watch the players running past them at the beginning without even a glance at them.
Although it was something that had been expected, most of the exhibitors still felt uncomfortable watching the crowds running past them. Lu Kai and his companions, on the other hand, remained calm and composed. When the players with regular tickets began to enter, Lu Kai took off his work ID, put on a coat to cover Freckles' work clothes, and then set off with Tomato to the big factory's exhibition area.
After the two found the most crowded booth, Fanqie took out his phone and started recording the queue. Then Lu Kai walked over to the queue, opened his arms, and shouted at Fanqie's camera in an exaggerated tone and at a volume that startled everyone around him:
"People say that if you don't grab MOLLY or LABUBU at HEC, it's like you've come for nothing. But this year at HEC, besides these major IPs, the most worthwhile thing to see and grab is this year's best new artist—the International Mini Award winner, Little Freckles' new series, "Literary Spirit"!"
After he finished shouting, he walked over to Tomato with an expressionless face and pretended to watch the video he had just recorded. Now it was Tomato's turn to speak up: "No, no, you're still not pasion enough! This doesn't sound like the aura of a blogger with millions of followers on the internet. Go away, do it again."
So Lu Kai walked back to his original position and repeated the "oral broadcast" to deepen everyone's impression.
In the whole morning, the two of them walked around the exhibition area of the big factory. When they came across a crowded place, they pretended to record a video and repeated the oral announcement just now. They didn't care whether anyone heard it several times or whether anyone realized that it was a soft advertisement. Anyway, they would fool as many people as possible.
To give independent IPs more exposure, HEC created an exhibition guide on the day of the show, noting each IP's "peak hours." These peak hours refer to hidden versions of each IP, which will be released in limited quantities and for a limited time during their designated peak hours. This was intended to encourage players to queue at the designated booths at the designated times, preventing all traffic from being siphoned off by large companies.
The "peak hour" of Little Freckles is from 2:00 to 2:15 in the afternoon. The layout of the whole morning was not in vain. Before 1:30, the Little Freckles booth was full of people queuing up. The 50 hidden edition numbers were distributed before 2:00. The long queues served as a traffic diversion. Players who did not take pictures of the hidden edition came and bought a lot of ordinary boxes. Ji Anya's "mobile billboard" - Sugar Man Little Freckles also reached every corner of the exhibition with the moving players and brought back more buyers.
The goods piled up on the booth were sold out box after box. Wanfeng went to the warehouse twice to get stock. During this time, Tomato even sold several of the small freckles used to decorate the Christmas tree.
Several people were so busy in front of the booth that smoke was rising. The "Chef" Ji Anya's arms, which had been trained from carrying basins and drawing pictures, were shaking from the effort, but no one complained of being tired. Everyone was immersed in this short-lived success that was too rare and too much needed. At this moment, Lu Kai saw a girl who was not too tall walking towards him with a bottle of Coke.
Their eyes met, and the girl suddenly tried to open the bottle with trembling hands. Seeing that she couldn't open it after several attempts, Lu Kai reached out and took the Coke.
He unscrewed it casually and returned the Coke.
The girl hesitated for a moment, then said politely, "Thank you."
Lu Kai smiled and asked her if she was here to buy a baby too.
"No. I am... oh yes, I am!" The girl seemed to suddenly remember something, her expression changed, and then she raised her hand and poured the bottle of Coke towards Lu Kai.
Lu Kai was so scared that he took a few steps back, but his head and face were still covered with cola. The sugary water flowed down and soon became sticky. Lu Kai stared at the girl with wide eyes, hoping that she could give a reasonable explanation.
The girl did explain, but her voice was a little loud and the content made Lu Kaifa a little confused.
——The girl yelled at the top of her lungs in front of everyone, until the veins on her white neck bulged:
"You are shameless! You plagiarized!!!"
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