Ruan Guangjian immediately put down all of his tasks and started working on sketches for Literary Genius of the Winds, Ruan.

  Since the general concept was already complete, various ideas popped up rapidly in Ruan Guangjian’s mind. He wanted to grasp them quickly. His pen moved quickly across the screen. In less than two hours, the hero’s sketches were complete.

  Although it would take him a few more days to add in all the details, the simple sketches were enough to display the hero’s special characteristics. His confidence and easy-going nature were almost jumping out of the pages. The front view of the concept art depicted the Literary Genius of the Winds, Ruan blowing a pipe among bamboo trees. His huge brush and wine gourd were floating in the air around him thanks to the raging winds.

  The background was filled with tall mountains and white clouds, which were painted in ink. It complemented the Literary Genius of the Wind’s ancient Chinese knight-errant costume.

  Of course, accurately put, Ruan was not wearing a standard knight-errant costume. Instead, his costume contained a hint of ancient literary geniuses in its long sleeves. That blended the refined and well-read nature of a scholar with the heroism and chivalry of a knight perfectly. Both characteristics came together extremely well.

  Behind Ruan, one could spot the back view of Modest. That hinted at the close friendship between both heroes.

  Ruan Guangjian scanned his sketches, made some edits to the details and the arrangement of the pages, and then handed the sketches up to Min Jingchao.

  When the officials announced the overall results, they would publish those sketches and the heroes’ designs.

  At Fish-Catching Internet Cafe…


  Pei Qian finished his coffee and then closed his little notebook. After working for the entire afternoon, he finally finished another huge portion of the mind map of the inter-departmental relationships.

  However, there seemed to be a little too many lines. Pei Qian was getting dizzy trying to track them all.

  “No matter. I just have to work hard to organize this and revise it from time to time. It’ll be effective. If it can help me avoid at least one stab in the back, the mind map would not be useless.”


  Pei Qian uploaded his mind map and deleted his original document. Then, he handed his laptop back to the waiter for safekeeping and prepared to go home

  le

  ers

  Out of habit, he opened GOG’s forum and browsed it. All of a sudden, he received a pleasant surprise. His post had been selected by the officials! Only twenty minutes had passed, but gamers were already starting to exhibit sour grapes. Obviously, now that two heroes had been selected, gamers were beginning to get green with envy. At the same time, they became more passionate about participating.

  Pei Qian was overjoyed. Min Jingchao had good taste! He could tell that the hero’s skill mechanisms were not bad, and so he accepted it quickly.

  Pei Qian wondered what kind of outer appearance Min Jingchao intended to give this new hero. He scrolled to the main text of the post and read it carefully.

  After reading the hero’s name, background story, and skills description and after seeing the concept art sketches, Pei Qian fell silent. He looked at his cell phone screen for a long time without saying a single word.

  This was really messed up! For no reason, Yasuo had been linked to Ruan Guangjian again!

  What’s more, Ruan Guangjian had obviously done it for selfish gain. Otherwise, why would he have made the Literary Genius of the Winds, Ruan look so handsome and the Coin-Scattering Hedgehog Modest look like a character out of a comedy?!

  The most sadistic thing was that both heroes had appeared in the concept art sketches for the Literary Genius of the Winds. The contrast was made even more obvious!

  Pei Qian could even imagine the narcissistic look on Ruan Guangjian’s face as he made the sketches.

  On top of all that, what was up with Ruan being a good friend of Modest?!

  Who’s your good friend? Stop trying to get close to me!

  Pei Qian was at a loss for words. How could Ruan Guangjian constantly cause mental harm to Boss Pei without even trying? What’s more, for some reason, he could completely dodge Boss Pei’s attempts at revenge. Could he be Boss Pei’s legendary natural enemy? Pei Qian was furious, but the officials had already accepted his idea. Moreover, he was already entitled to a five-percent share of profits from the sale of all of Ruan’s skins. Now, it no longer mattered whether the hero was Yasuo or a certain artist.

  When Pei Qian exited from the post, he discovered that he had received a private message on his account. The topic was ‘Thank you very much, Boss Pei!’


  Pei Qian: “?”


  It seemed to be from Min Jingchao’s account.

  He quickly opened the private message and read it.

  “Boss Pei, I appreciate your earnest care and hard work. Don’t worry, Big Boss Ruan and I will keep this hero a secret for you. I’ll deal with this in the same way as I would if you were an ordinary gamer.

  “I know that, to you, a five-percent share of the profits would mean nothing. You probably are more concerned about whether GOG would emerge victorious over IOI or not in the long-term and about your friendship with Big Boss Ruan…”


  At that point, Pei Qian’s heart thudded.

  Holy sh*t, what does this mean? Are you not giving me the five percent share of the profits?!

  I’m not interested in the other two things you mentioned. If you dare to keep the five percent from me, I’ll immediately throw you to Africa’s wilderness so that you can play with the giraffes! I’ll satisfy your lust for competition!

  Pei Qian quickly continued reading.

  “However, rules are rules. As one of the gamers who have proposed this idea, you are entitled to the five-percent share of profits. I know you don’t need it, but I have to keep strictly to the rules and transfer those profits to your account. Please don’t take this to heart.”


  Pei Qian paused and then became elated.

  Good! You’ve done the right thing, boy! You’re very upright! Pei Qian had been so close to asking Assistant Xin to book a one-way flight to Africa. However, after reading that paragraph, Pei Qian realized that he had wronged Min Jingchao.

  At first, Pei Qian had intended to sort things out with Min Jingchao for adding so much of his own imagination to Pei Qian’s plan and turning the hero into Ruan Guangjian. Yet, he gave up the thought in the end. It did not matter how the hero looked as long as he got the five-percent share of the profits! “Very good. Min Jingchao, as long as you remain in Tengda Games, I’ll make sure you prosper. I won’t let you get eliminated by the first-place elimination system! Even if you start generating profits for the company, I won’t blame you!”


  After giving Min Jingchao immunity in his heart, Pei Qian was put in a good mood. He hummed as he walked out of the cafe. However, the moment he walked out of the door, he bumped into Ruan Guangjian. The latter was tired from a full day of work and had just left his office for a stroll.

  Pei Qian smiled and nodded at Ruan Guangjian to greet him.

  Ruan Guangjian nodded in response.

  Watching Boss Pei’s back view, Ruan Guangjian fell into deep thought. “Based on the time, Boss Pei should have already seen the concept art sketches, right? “He looks so happy.

  “It’s a pleasure to be able to pull Boss Pei out of the darkness that Tomorrow is Beautiful’s overseas premiere had put him in with a single drawing!”


  Ruan Guangjian began humming as he started his stroll as well.

  May 11th, Wednesday…


  At Deposit Fitness’ Handong University branch…


  “Bye-bye, Coach Yaling!”


  A group of people who looked like students waved at Li Yaling as they said goodbye and left Deposit Fitness.

  Li Yaling smiled and waved back. She only turned around and returned to the gym when the group disappeared. She sat down in the resting area, whipped out her cell phone, and browsed the webpage.

  “Coach Yaling, you’ve brought a lot of new students to the gym recently. You’re holding up half of the fort on your own. How amazing!” Another coach praised her.

  Li Yaling smiled and replied humbly, “Coach Miao, you’re teasing me again. I wouldn’t dare say I’m holding up half of the fort. People are just very supportive.” Coach Yaling reached out for a banana from the snack area. She ate it as she said, “Coach Yaling, you’re too humble. That’s right, our gym has been expanding rapidly.

  “Coach Yaling, you’re so much better than the rest of us. Boss Pei must be planning to make you a branch manager of one of the branches, right?”


  Li Yaling shook her head. “I’m not interested in being a branch manager. I’ll have so much to manage; it’ll be very troublesome. I just want to be an ordinary trainer who teaches others how to build muscle.

  “Eh, I think the Cannes Film Festival is starting today.”


  Coach Miao tossed her banana peel into the trash. “Cannes Film Festival? I’m not interested. There will only be literary films by foreigners, and they have nothing to do with

  us.”


  Li Yaling nodded. “That’s right, I didn’t pay attention to it before either, but Tomorrow is Beautiful is participating this year. I wonder if it’ll win an award.”


  Coach Miao continued to look uninterested. “I don’t think it has a chance. The foreigners judge films based on their own set of criteria.

  “There’s a huge cultural difference between us. We’re going to their turf and competing based on their rules without being able to do anything else. What’s the point?

  “Tomorrow is Beautiful is popular in the country anyway. That proves it’s a good film. Why do we need validation from foreigners?”


  Li Yaling laughed. “You have a point, but what if…? Good stuff will be appreciated everywhere.”


  That was where the conversation between them ended. Li Yaling stood up to move around. She was prepared to train her own body now that there were fewer people in the gym.

  However, once she stood up, she saw the girl at the front desk stand at the same time. “Boss Pei, you’re here.”


  Li Yaling turned to see Boss Pet sauntering through the entrance of the gym. He was looking around as if searching for something.

  When he saw Li Yaling, his eyes lit up.

  Found her!

  “Coach Yaling, I have something to ask you.” Li Yaling was stunned. “Boss Pei, you’re not going to make me a branch manager, are you?”


  Pei Qian almost became livid when he heard this.

  What are you thinking?! You’re so dangerous. How can you manage one of my branches?!

  Dream on!

  Pei Qian shook his head and said, “No, let’s sit down.”


  When Li Yaling heard that she was not going to be made a branch manager, she became confused. Apart from that, what else was there?

  They sat down at the resting area, and the girl at the front desk served them two cups of water.

  Pei Qian took two sips but put it down because it was tasteless.

  “Actually, I came to ask if you are willing to work purely as a trainer in charge of training ten athletes. I must make clear that this is an arduous task, which requires an extremely knowledgeable and professional person. Conversely, I would remunerate you generously.

  “As long as you are willing to take it up, you can make any requests to me during the entire training process. I will try my best to satisfy every single one of them.”


  When Li Yaling heard this, her eyes lit up. It sounded like an interesting and challenging task!