The car was a total of twenty minutes from the school to the HIOC company, a building that one can tell was newly built.
"Oh, so this is HIOC." Li Lingmeng rubbed her chin.
"Little Meng, let's go, it's almost time for our appointment." Wen Jiexi shouted.
"Ok!"
The first floor of the building was filled with shops and the offices were on the floors above. So they took the elevator to the second food and when the doors opened, a receptionist's desk appeared before them.
"Hello, may I ask who the two of you are…." One receptionist noticed that the two seemed lost and stood up to greet them.
"Hello, we're here for an appointment with Zhao Ya, otherwise known as Team Leader Zhao." Wen Jiexi smiled.
"Um, this…" The expression on the receptionist's face changed slightly and just when she was about to speak, she was interrupted by another voice."
"Over here!" Lin Youjia rushed towards them and waved at Wen Jiexi and Li Lingmeng. At the same time, she gave the receptionist a warning look.
Wen Jiexi and Li Lingmeng shared a glance and then walked over to Lin Youjia. As they walked, they heard hurried and whispered discussion behind them. Things like 'what a pity' and 'how disappointing' could be heard. What is going on?
"Miss Lin." Wen Jiexi stopped in front of Lin Youjia.
"No need to call me Miss Lin, you can just call me Little Lin." Lin Youjia waved a hand, looked at them, and couldn't help but sigh.
"Follow me."
"Sister Lin, what's wrong?" Li Lingmeng frowned and glanced around. For some reason the people around her were looking at them with…..it couldn't be described as malicious intent or goodwill, but a sense of pity, helplessness, and sympathy. It made one feel uncomfortable. However, she couldn't provoke or mess with others because it would ruin Wen Jiexi's image, otherwise, with her temper, she would've picked a fight with someone already.
"Listen, you two probably already know, but within a company there are multiple marketing and production teams. In our company, we have a total of three such groups. The first group is our team, Team One, and we are the most powerful of the three teams. Almost all of the best projects are given to us first so something important like the advertisements for the new line of products was handed to our team." Lin Youjia explained, a glint of pride flashing in her eyes. One could tell she was quite confident and proud of her team, but those emotions were quickly replaced with anger,
"But….yesterday, a daughter of one of our investors said that she wanted to enter the entertainment industry. Therefore, she was forcibly added in and who knows why, but she was handed over to Team Two. Hmph, they are obviously looking down on us and are jealous of our Team One's prestige."
"Huh? But don't you have a candidate picked out? Don't they understand the term, first come first serve?" Li Lingmeng's eyes widened.
"Hah, you two haven't seen the ugliness of the real world yet, so you probably don't understand the complex relations behind this. You see, it's very hard for a company to reject the requests of investors. If an investor withdraws their investments, it will generate a negative impact and will be a big blow on our profits. So in order to satisfy our investors, sacrifices have to be made and naturally, those who are sacrificed are us, common workers. However, you don't have to worry because we signed the contract first, so it will be impossible to pull back our offer. Naturally, we explained these difficulties to our investors, so the big bosses decided to have two teams produce different ads and after the results come out, they will choose who they think is most suitable." Lin Youjia explained helplessly.
"Then I will try my best, Wen Jiexi looked at Lin Youjia's distressed expression and nodded her head in promise.
"Really? Then let's try our best together!" Lin Youjia laughed cheerfully and ignoring the eyes around them, brought the two directly to an open area that was obviously a studio. There were two studios set up and Zhao Ya was looking at one studio with her arms crossed. A flashing light blazed continuously in that studio, meaning that someone else is inside there.
"Sister Zhao, I've brought them over." Lin Youji said and then pointing at the studio next door with a look of dissatisfaction on her face, she whispered to Wen Jiexi and Li Lingmen,
"The person I was talking about is in there."
"You're here." Zhao Ya uncrossed her arms when she saw them and nodded,
"Come in, everything has been set up already."
"Little Meng." Wen Jiexi pulled Li Lingmeng, who was trying to peek into the other studio and dragged her into their studio. The real question is, why is Wen Jiexi so calm? How come she wasn't curious about the mysterious figure next door?
Dango, on the other hand, was so angry at the fact that Wen Jiexi might not be on TV and its translucent body turned red and smoke started coming out. Dango even rushed right into the tent and came back out with pictures taken on its mobile phone. Dango showed Wen Jeixi the pictures furiously, leaving it in front of Wen Jiexi's face. As Wen Jiexi walked forward, in front of her was a picture of a young woman. All this made her quite speechless, is this woman supposed to impress her?
The woman in the picture looked around 17 or 18. With detailed and exquisite makeup on her face, she looked pretty good. However, what made her stand out was her large chest that made Wen Jiexi feel somewhat depressed over. Her face had an overall childish appearance to it that was easy on the eyes, but the arrogance between her eyebrows and in her eyes made her frown. She was the perfect example of a spoiled child from a rich family. This is who I'm competing with? Wen Jeixi smiled bitterly.
"Alright everyone, this is our model for today." Zhao Ya clapped her hands and announced loudly the moment she entered the tent. The others were setting up equipment or playing with the machines and turned their heads, setting their eyes on Wen Jiexi. For a moment, Wen Jiexi stiffened but then relaxed. She was used to being the center of attention, the only difference was the scene and the people.
"Hello everyone, my name is Wen Jiexi. I am the person who will be participating in the shooting today. This is my friend, Li Lingmeng, who is accompanying me today. Since this is my first time, I look forward to working with everyone." Wen Jiexi said and bowed slightly.
After Wen Jiexi introduced herself, it was silent. At first, Wen Jiexi thought she had said something wrong, but then they started smiling.
"Hello, little beauty!"
"Hehe, you're prettier in real life than in your photos."
"You look like you have good character, better than the one next door who looks down her nose at people."
"That's right, that's right! Those investors are harmless cattle, we are not scared of them!"
Everyone was smiling and a few approached her with kind eyes, gradually causing Wen Jiexi's anxiety to disappear. It looks like she will be able to get along with these people better than expected.
"Enough, if you guys keep acting so brazenly, you'll scare her off." Zhao Ya shoved a man out of the way.
"Go back to your place and finish checking your equipment."
"Yes, yes, Team Leader is in charge today. I will obey your orders."
"I'm always supposed to be in charge!"
"Is this really the number one team in the company? You all seem loose and relaxed." Li Lingmeng muttered.
"Don't look down on our team, because these people are all experts among experts! You see that guy over there? He's the photographer for today and a famous photographer who has won many notable awards." Lin Youjia knocked Li Lingmeng's head angrily and pointed at a serious-looking middle-aged man who was fiddling with his camera. He had on a look of respect and love as if the machine in front of him was his wife, not just a camera. This showed that Lin Youjia's words were not lies and then Lin Youjia pointed at the two young mang gathered around Wen Jiexi,
"Those two are Wen Zi and Little Fei. Don't look down on them because they look like they are around our age because they are the elites of editing. They were once in charge of production teams for TV programs and although they were in top positions, they didn't like that kind of environment. So after a few twists and terms, they ended up here." Lin Youjia then pointed out a few others, all of them were people with outstanding qualifications. It seems the company's elites were all gathered into Team One, so it made sense that the other two teams who were suppressed for so long.
"Jiexi, come over here." Zhao Ua waved at Wen Jeixi, a stack of papers in one hand.
"Sister Zhao."
"In a second you will go over to that dressing room. The clothes are there and ready for you. Then you will go to the center over there and the photographer will tell you what to do. Just relax, okay?" Zhao Ya pointed at a small room in the corner that had a sign that said 「Dressing room」.
"Okay, I understand." Wen Jiexi nodded.
"If the size doesn't fit, tell Little Lin and we can get you the right size. Alright, you can go change first and then we'll start right afterward."
"En."
Wen Jiexi quickly entered the dressing room. Inside there were four sets of brand new clothes hanging on the hook. They were the outfits that Zhao Ya had shown her last time.
"Eh, is it just these few pieces of clothing? Where are the multiple layers that look like they wrap up the people so tightly that they might suffocate?" Dango pursed its lips in confusion.
"That's a Palace costume. Only period dramas will have costumes like that to wear during filming. Who would wear those types of clothes in everyday life." Wen Jiexi didn't know whether to laugh or cry and felt speechless at Dango's habit of believing that everything in a drama was real. Yesterday, she and Li Lingmeng were watching one of Su Chenyu's period dramas, and now one could say that Dango has become a drama enthusiast…
Sporting outfits, on the other hand, were all about being light and easy to wear, unlike the cumbersome outfits in dramas. Wen Jiexi only needs to take off her jacket and outer clothes before putting the outfit on. The material was easy to move around in and didn't constrict her breathing. Inf cat, it was quite comfortable. After confirming the size was good and there was no problem, Wen Jiexi opened the door.
And as a result…uhhh….what's with this stormy and tense atmosphere?
Wen Jiexi swept her gaze around the room and found that the smiling members were focused on their own work with no expression on their faces. Zhao Ya was sitting in a seat with her arms folded and Lin Youjia stood beside her. In front of them was a group of uninvited guests who weren't here before but had come in a few minutes earlier when Wen Jeixi was changing.
There were only three people in the group. A thirty-year-old man with a vulgar expression, who looked like he was fawning over someone. Similarly, a middle-aged man in his fifties with spare air also had the same fawning expression on his face. He whispered quietly to the arrogant girl sitting between them. The girl is the person in the photo that Dango had shown her. In other words, Wen Jiexi's opponent, the investor's daughter.
"What's going on?" Wen Jiexi whispered to Li Lingmeng who was waiting outside the dressing room.
"Who knows. They just came here suddenly without warning. I think they wanted to see who their opponent was." Li Lingmeng shrugged.
The whispering between the two quickly attracted the girl's attention. The girl abruptly stood up and walked briskly over to Wen Jiexi with an overbearing aura.