After watching the car drive away, Qiuyun raised a hand to hail a taxi. "To Jiahe Tower."
Although video conferencing was convenient, it wasn't quite as clear as communicating in person. Since she still had some time before the semester started, she figured she might as well come over and see how things were going.
Taking the elevator up, Qiuyun arrived at Pei Cizhou's office and found it empty.
But she didn't have Pei Cizhou's phone number, so she had to step out and ask someone where the art department for the ancient-version project was located.
"Who are you? What are you doing in our President Pei's office!"
The moment she stepped out, she ran into a young woman with a shrill voice.
Qiuyun explained patiently, "I'm the art director who came on board last week for the ancient-version section. Could you tell me how to get to the art department?"
"You? Director? If you're going to lie, at least put some effort into it!" The young woman scoffed and immediately called out to her colleagues, "Quick, keep an eye on her! I think she sneaked into President Pei's office to steal something!"
She then called security to have Qiuyun detained. "Don't think I don't know what goes through the minds of young girls like you! You see our President Pei young, successful, and good-looking, and you get ideas. You try to pull that romance-novel stunt of climbing up the ladder! Wait—did you sneak in there and plant some underwear or something?!"
"..."
Qiuyun was stunned. What kind of romance novels were this woman reading?
Who even does that?!
Then the woman looked her up and down. "Look, you're a gorgeous girl—flawless face and figure. Why don't you go do some livestreaming and cash in on your looks? Why get involved in all this shady stuff?"
"..."
And just like that, being complimented out of nowhere, Qiuyun's irritation melted away like cream.
Fortunately, Qiuyun spotted a colleague from the planning department she had worked with before, and she managed to escape the woman's wild imagination.
The young woman was left standing there, stunned.
"Wait, she really is the director? When did the company hire such a young director? I'm the HR person and I didn't know about this! She's not even in the company talent database!"
The planning department colleague nearly stumbled. How else could it be? The boss hired her directly, that's how.
To be precise—Qiuyun, as the chief artist, was as elusive as a dragon that shows its head but never its tail. Apart from the dozen or so colleagues who had worked with her directly, everyone else only knew that the art department for the ancient-version section had a new director, but no one knew exactly who she was or what she looked like.
And under the crushing weight of their workloads, the importance of heads from other departments mattered less to them than coffee.
Coffee at least kept them awake.
In a single afternoon, Qiuyun laid out the entire department's work assignments for the next half month.
Her organizational skills were terrifying!
Meanwhile, Pei Cizhou was at the family estate visiting relatives. By the time he got word and rushed back to the company, Qiuyun had already left half an hour earlier.
"President Pei." Sister Zhu, the former art director and now deputy director, remarked with admiration, "Where on earth did you find someone like this? She's a born manager! Forget managing the dozen or so people in our department—I feel like she could handle all hundred-plus people in this company without breaking a sweat!"
Pei Cizhou was browsing through the tasks Qiuyun had assigned everyone, a slight smile curling at the corner of his mouth. "Lucky. It was fate."
Sister Zhu quickly urged, "President Pei, I just heard from Xiao Liu in HR that our Chief Artist Qiu went straight to your office when she arrived. How about we try the whole 'honey trap' approach? Persuade her to work full-time in the office! With her here, our project progress could speed up by at least twenty percent! We'd save so much money on production!"
Pei Cizhou's hair was slightly tousled from rushing over, strands falling across his forehead, making him look full of youthful energy.
"Sister Zhu." His eyes glinted with mischief as he drawled four words: "I'm underage."
?
Sister Zhu blinked, then let out a single syllable after a long pause: "...Ah."
Right. It was summer break, and President Pei had been at the company all day, making decisive moves and busily rushing around. Just the other day he had calmly chewed out General Manager Sun.
She'd completely forgotten that he wouldn't turn eighteen until the end of the year and would have to go back to school when the semester started.
"Ha, haha. Well, that just won't work, then."
With that, Sister Zhu went off to sulk on her own.
A nineteen-year-old girl, with an endless stream of creative inspiration, a distinctive personal style in traditional Chinese ink line art, and extraordinary management skills—she was more experienced than Sister Zhu, a thirty-year workplace veteran!
Another one, not yet eighteen until the end of the year, who learned programming from a master at President Ruan's company, and who founded a promising cross-era 3D VR game company at such a young age. Capable, driven, and bold!
Then Sister Zhu looked at her phone wallpaper—her son and daughter, both in their twenties.
One was obsessed with idol worship, the other with gaming.
Sister Zhu sighed.
How could the gap between people be this vast? And honestly, why couldn't those two talented kids just be her own son and daughter?
Back at Mingyue Tower, Qiuyun packaged up the Daqi-style dresses she had made in her spare time and sent them to Tanmeng, so they could model them based on the actual garments.
As a result, the video showcasing the dresses was postponed. The company's product department suggested she release the dresses as game merchandise instead, which would earn her another batch of licensing fees.
Qiuyun thought the licensing fees were secondary—if the company could help her open channels to sell the Daqi ancient-style clothing, that would be even better.
After all, the more people who accepted and appreciated it, the longer the culture could be passed on and preserved.
Time flew by—late August, early September. School was starting.
Qiuyun had been busier than the young miss herself all summer: implementing new rules, preparing the game, and now she had to take the young miss and Yu Heng to register at school.
Fortunately, the young miss now had a study companion, so Qiuyun didn't have to stay on campus on standby like Lan Xin did during school hours. She had more flexible free time.
On her way back after handling everything, Qiuyun received a call from the auction house: "Oh? You've found out something about the bracelet?"
"Indeed." The appraiser said, "One of our senior experts who was on a business trip in Hong Kong came back a few days ago. He was very intrigued by this bracelet and studied it day and night without rest. Today, he finally figured out how to open it."
"Will it be damaged?"
"Damage is unavoidable, but it can be restored."
Fine.
After all, no matter how old the bracelet was, it was still just silver—the text inside was far more valuable than the metal itself.
Qiuyun said, "Give me half an hour. I'll be right over."
"Alright. Our boss also heard the news and wants to come see what all the fuss is about."
Qiuyun didn't give this so-called boss any thought. But when she arrived, it turned out to be someone she knew.
"...Young Master Jiang?"
Jiang Yifeng squinted. "It's you?"
Go figure—out of all the auction houses on Antique Street, she'd just happened to pick one owned by the Jiang family.
But if Jiang Yifeng owned an auction house too, then the high-end antique teahouse they'd visited last time was probably also his property.
Huh. The Fourth Young Master liked collecting houses, and his fourth uncle liked collecting antiques. Nothing about that was cheap.
Rich young heirs really did have expensive hobbies.
"What a coincidence." Qiuyun exchanged pleasantries. "I didn't expect to run into you here."
Jiang Yifeng smirked, stepped closer, and bent down to speak softly: "I've only come to this area twice in the last half month, and I've run into you both times. Isn't that fate between us, hmm?"
