For the following one month, Xin Qing had been spending her mornings attending cla.s.ses and her afternoons holed up in Randa"s work studio. It had been nearly a month since she started there. Regrettably, she was still not given the opportunity to be involved in the design of the current product. Randa was still having her run trivial errands every day.
Strangely, a few days ago, Randa had suddenly allowed Eva to take part in the design. Xin Qing thought that maybe running errands was some kind of test and that Eva had pa.s.sed it while she herself had not, so she began serving coffee and taking out the trash with extra diligence.
One night, Xin Qing was on the way to a florist nearby, and a car drove past her. Randa was sitting in the driver"s seat. What surprised her was that the one sitting beside him was Eva.
Everything clicked the moment Xin Qing noticed Randa"s hand, which was placed on top of Eva"s voluptuous b.r.e.a.s.t.s. After she got home, she went online and vented out her frustrations to Shi Qianqian and Zhang Mi.
"What do you guys think should I do?" Xin Qing asked. They were having a three-way voice call over the Internet. Xin Qing could hear crunching sounds from Zhang Mi"s end as the latter munched on an apple.
"That"s normal," Shi Qianqian said, not sounding surprised at all. "Either you retaliate, or you bend to its will."
"Haha. With that measly fighting spirit of hers? I"m pretty sure any form of protest will be a lost cause," Zhang Mi said, still munching on her apple.
Xin Qing grabbed a handful of her hair. "I thought unspoken rules like this only exist in China..."
"This has nothing to do with race. This is human nature," Shi Qianqian said, spreading her wisdom. "I heard there isn"t much difference between the designer"s circle and the acting circle. Both are despicable and vile."
"I can a.s.sure you I"m very pure!" Xin Qing said in disagreement. "Plus, it doesn"t seem to me that all designers are like that!"
Zhang Mi was deriving fun from all of Xin Qing"s troubles. "That"s got nothing to do with you," Zhang Mi said. "The one you"re a.s.sociated with right now is a sc.u.m. I suggest you deal with your own problems first!"
"Deal with it? How?" Xin Qing was starting to regret joining the program in the first place. She would not have joined if she had known that something like this would happen. "Should I just report them?"
Shi Qianqian felt the urge to reach across the phone and pry open Xin Qing"s skull with her bare hands. "Are you stupid? You think CK would want to risk getting on the bad side of a designer for a n.o.body like you?"
"Exactly!" Zhang Mi said in agreement. "Who knows if that Ran-what"s-his-name sc.u.m decides to take his revenge. When it comes to that, you won"t even be able to remain in the academy."
Xin Qing broke into a cold sweat. She really was too naive. At this point, her miniscule fate was in the hands of Randa no matter what she did. If Randa spoke ill of her by the end of her internship, then CK would no doubt think ill of her too. The academy would probably kick her out if that ever happened.
"So right now my only option is to stomach this whole thing," Xin Qing said, punching her pillow. "Then I guess I can only watch the design from the sidelines this time."
"Don"t let your guard down," Shi Qianqian said in a serious tone. "Right now, it"s not about whether you"re part of the design process. It"s about whether they would let you go through the design smoothly without giving you any trouble."
"What you"re saying is..." Xin Qing instantly paled. "If something goes wrong, they"ll use me as their cannon fodder!"
"Exactly!" Shi Qianqian praised. "So you"re not entirely stupid after all."
"Back then when you were leaving, I already told you that there will be a lot of times when trouble will come knocking at your door even if you avoid it. You need to stay sharp and vigilant against every single person around you," Shi Qianqian said worriedly. "Before, when you were going through that thing involving the Xin family, everything is out in the open. Then after that, you had Ying Qingcang there watching out for you, so you never really had to deal with shady things like this. Right now you"re all on your own. No one"s there to help you. You need to grow up and be ready to face all kinds of schemes throughout your career. Otherwise... you should just come home while you still can."
"Yeah! Just come home!" Zhang Mi shouted. "Come home while Ying Qingcang"s still hasn"t changed his heart. Come back and keep being a young mistress!"
"Bah!" Xin Qing rolled her eyes. "Then I"d be too pathetic!" She glanced at the time. "Alright, then. It"s a little late, so let"s end this conversation. I"ll watch out. At least I"ll try not to fall victim to other people"s schemes!"
"Watch your back around that b*tch and her playmate!" Zhang Mi"s admonition came through just as Xin Qing was about to hang up. "Promiscuous people and whatnot? Those are the scariest types."
Xin Qing, who now knew the truth, went to the studio the following afternoon. The moment she stepped into the studio, she felt as if she was a warrior on some kind of suicide mission; there would be no return following her departure. That feeling intensified when she saw the way Eva was looking at her. At one point, Xin Qing had even felt the urge to run out of the studio and call it quits.
"Xin Qing, can you do me a favor?" Eva approached Xin Qing with a stack of design drawings.
"What, what is it?" Xin Qing collected her thoughts and emotions. This was her personal fight. Even though she could not win, she had to at least survive!
"Randa had asked me to make some changes to these first drafts," Eva said, looking at Xin Qing sheepishly. "But I have something on for tonight, so I need to get off work early. Why don"t... you do it?"
"But he had a.s.signed the task to you," Xin Qing said, looking at Eva in slight shock. She had the audacity to dish out orders now? Or had Randa implicitly allowed it?
"Oh, I think it"s fine! I mean, we"re both here to learn after all. It makes no difference who does it, right? Plus, you"ve never been given the chance to take part in the design. Right now, I"m giving you the chance. Are you seriously going to refuse?" At that point, Eva"s face had "I"m doing you a favor, so take it if you know what"s good for you" written all over it.
Was Eva compelling her to accept? For a moment, Xin Qing considered her options. Then, she took the stack of papers. "Fine. Does Randa have any specific requirements?"
"These are all part of the details of Randa"s design drawings. You just need to color them!" Eva said, her voluptuous breast jiggling. "This is a rare opportunity. If you perform well, who knows Randa might allow you to join in the design process."
When Eva left, Xin Qing stared after her swaying hips, suddenly feeling extremely lucky to have discovered their love affair yesterday. Otherwise, she would have really thought of this as an opportunity. Now, she sneered inwardly. "I wouldn"t have wanted this kind of opportunity..." she thought.
When Randa returned and noticed Eva"s absence, he asked Xin Qing about it. Xin Qing told him that something came up so Eva had to leave early.
After some thought, Randa said, "Yeah, she did request a leave of absence yesterday." He frowned and glanced at Xin Qing. "Why don"t you finish her a.s.signments, then? Work overtime today!"
Xin Qing nodded. "I understand. I"m already on it."
"Let me see." Randa stretched out his hand and picked up the original draft that she had just finished coloring. When he saw the colors on the paper, his eyes brightened. "Hey! Why did you use pink for the leaves?" Xin Qing hurried out an explanation. "Didn"t the client say it was for young women in their twenties? Pink is representative of women of that age. Extravagant, and filled with childlike innocence."
"What about the flower?" Randa glanced at the sheet she was currently working on. She had just been about to start coloring it. On the sheet was the pencil drawing of a sunflower.
When it came to custom jewelry like this, the design process would be filled with inconsequential details. They would first brainstorm for ideas and then have each idea drawn out on paper. After that, they would make combinations out of all ideas and pick out the best one. If the product failed to produce a good effect, they would throw out the previous designs and head back to the drawing board. They would begin looking for new ideas.
The drawings that Xin Qing was working on formed a set of floral-themed designs. If she used pink for the leaves, then it would mean that they now have to use a different color series for the flowers, which were meant to take a brighter shade.
When she heard Randa"s skeptical question, Xin Qing held up a blue and a rose red color pencil. "Use rose red as the base color. Then top it with two layers of blue."
"These two colors?" Randa frowned. "Color it for me."
Calmly, Xin Qing added the two colors on the flower. After that, Randa picked up the sheet containing the pink leaves and placed it on top of the sheet with the flower. After spending a long moment in scrutiny, he asked, "Can gemstones produce this kind of effect?"
"There"s a type of gemstone in China worn only by emperors in the past. It"s called tourmaline. It comes in this color."
Randa glanced at her. "Your recommendations mentioned something about you having a unique grasp of colors. Now I see why." He threw the drawings at her. "Starting from tomorrow, you"re in charge of coloring." Randa turned around to leave.
As he was leaving, Xin Qing could hear Randa mumbling to himself. "China really had some weird stuff. They even have gemstones with that kind of color. Looks like I have to catch up on my knowledge of China."
Behind Randa"s back, Xin Qing poked her tongue at him. "Yeah, your country only has a few hundred years of history. So, good luck trying to understand our five-thousand-year long heritage, you b.u.mpkin," she thought.
The next day, Eva and Xin Qing ran into each other at school. Eva stared at Xin Qing for a long time before she asked, "You... are you okay?"
Xin Qing put on a fake smile. "Why? You"re not expecting me to be okay?"
"Did you go home after finishing the drawing yesterday?" Eva asked, her tone filled with doubt. She was giving Xin Qing repeated once-overs.
Judging from Eva"s reaction, Xin Qing immediately knew that she had been up to something yesterday. "If not? Where would I go?"
"How could this be..." Eva mumbled.
Xin Qing sneered. "You were planning for something to happen to me, weren"t you?"
"What"s that supposed to mean? I"m just concerned about you," Eva said angrily after she was sure that Xin Qing was really fine.
Ignoring Eva, Xin Qing turned around and left. In the afternoon, at the studio, when Eva saw Xin Qing sitting at the design table working on a piece of drawing, she shoved Xin Qing away. "What are you doing? This is my job."
"Randa asked me to draw this. Go ask him if you have any questions," Xin Qing said, removing Eva"s hand from her body and returned to her seat at the table.
Eva was in a state of disbelief. "Bullsh*t! He wouldn"t..." All of a sudden, Eva clammed up, staring back at Xin Qing with a strange smile on her face. Then, Eva chuckled. "Haha. I knew it was impossible for anything to happen. No wonder he let you take part in the design." Eva sneered. "Looks like you"re not the daughter of some rich family after all. I bet you"ve done this type of thing a lot in the past, haven"t you? I bet that"s how you got all your branded jewelry!"
Xin Qing frowned. "What the h.e.l.l did she say?" she thought, her face darkening. Just when she was about to give Eva a piece of her mind, Randa"s voice rang out from the doorway. "What are you doing? Get back to work! Eva, step outside with me for a moment."
Eva shot Randa a plaintive look before turning back to glare at Xin Qing. Then, she left with Randa. Xin Qing fisted her hands, which were trembling. "Don"t get mad. Don"t get mad. Let her think what she wants. As long as I know I haven"t done anything wrong..." she thought.
She kicked the chair away and got up, deciding that she needed a splash of water on her face to clear her head. She pa.s.sed by the studio"s break room on the way back and heard a sharp, feminine squeal from inside. Then, the remaining part of that voice seemed to have been m.u.f.fled by something.
Curious, Xin Qing took a peek through the gap of the slightly ajar door. She saw Eva and Randa in each others" arms. The spaghetti strap of Eva"s dress was hanging at waist level.
"You... what you just said... is it true? You"re not lying to me, right?!" Eva asked, despite the activity she was currently engaged in. "Was yesterday a success?"
As if Randa cared enough to answer her seriously at a time like this. He replied flippantly, "Of course. She"s no match for you. I only like minxes like you. But... she... Don"t do anything to her for the time being. I"ve changed my mind. She"s useful to keep around."
What a pair of sc.u.m!