Chapter 200: A Complicated Relations.h.i.+p
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Mr.Sleepy continued to demonstrate his extreme focus on everything else except for updating his novel. Immediately, he alone pulled a dozen or so authors into the group. He even sent Meng Fan a private message saying, “they’re all dumb but loaded.”
Meng Fan was speechless. ‘Can they match you?!’
In five minutes or so, there were over thirty authors in the group.
All of these authors were pretty bada.s.s too. Not a single person asked about ill.u.s.trations, but were asking about one similar problem. Hand speed.
“Meng boss, how did you come to have such fast hand speed?”
These online authors didn’t care for Meng Fan’s bada.s.s drawing skills, his amazing basketball skills, and incredible singing. But Meng Fan’s hand speed was what made their eyes green with envy!
“I’m curious how much code you can write out in an hour?”
“He could at least do 10,000 in an hour!”
“Is he a monster?!”
“Shadowless hand!”
“I’m envious!”
“I pray G.o.d will give me a pair of hands like this too!”
“I’m more curious how long it takes Meng boss to jerk it hahaha!”
“It must be even shorter than Li Ronghao’s new song, “Bei Bei”!”
“Hehe, do you want to understand what it means to be burnt by a gun?!”
“Dirty mind, get out!”
“No time to explain, everyone, get on the hype train!”
“Drive, to the edge of the city! Roll down the windows… but they’re welded. n.o.body’s getting off this hype train today!”
“For real though, can Meng boss share with us some knowledge on how to increase hand speed?”
Meng Fan saw the shameless and pervy banter in the chatroom and felt nothing but respect. As he browsed, a hundred or so more messages popped up. “Jesus, were all author groups this scary?”
Meng Fan didn’t respond to the hand speed questions but replied, “Uhm, I’m going to add my studio members now. They’re all alumni from my school or my cla.s.smates, and there are a lot of pretty girls. Guys, let’s slow this train down; I’m scared they will be dizzy. After they join, they’re going to show you their works, so you guys can contact them based on your requirements.”
Meng Fan told the studio employees of the situation, then added w.a.n.g Ya Nan to the group. Meng Fan didn’t have everyone else’s contact information, so w.a.n.g Ya Nan would add the rest.
The web authors in the chatroom abruptly halted their hype train and became respectable beyond belief.
There was less chatter, but it was unsure if they had gone off to browse and add the pretty girls’ WeChat information.
Yes, it’s not illegal to turn your WeChat moments into a beautiful girl catalog, alright!
As for the speed of the hype train… Meng Fan clearly underestimated his sisters.
Oh, and his seniors too.
“This should be okay, right?”
Meng Fan formed the chatroom and looked towards Qin Jiao. She nodded and gave him a “meh” look.
As for the hand-drawn posters, Meng Fan wanted to provide contact information for those as well, but he didn’t know how many employees could actually do these commissions. The pay was good, but their standards were high too.
But Meng Fan still decided to ask, “What about hand-drawn posters?”
This time, Qin Jiao shook her head. “I’ve seen your posters, and I know their requirements too. Our studio can’t perform such complex tasks at the moment. As for the easier ones, I have people who can find commissions for us.”
As for the studio employees, they quickly divided into several groups based on their own styles and partnered up with the thirty or so famous online authors in the group.
Alongside the deep pockets of the web authors, and their public platforms, the demand for ill.u.s.trations from the authors were increasing day by day. This was a fresh job market for the ill.u.s.tration industry, and several ill.u.s.trators, especially the less famous ones were eyeing this industry.
But it wasn’t that easy to get a slice of this cake. It’s not that they were demanding as these authors wanted all kinds of ill.u.s.trations, but there was a demand for the production quality. If they didn’t have high standards, many of the readers were willing to draw them for free, to be completely honest.
But the ill.u.s.trators who eyed this cake were not well known and weren’t easily trusted. Plus authors were busy with their updates and might not want to talk to you, so they’d just ask you to read the novel and submit a few samples. The two parties don’t communicate often, which was the main reason why it was difficult to produce drawings and difficult to be satisfied, causing early termination of a lot of contracts.
This doesn’t mean that less famous artists were lacking in skill.
Meng Fan’s existence was also able to help the studio break into the industry.
Due to Mr.Sleepy’s enthusiasm, Meng Fan’s previous ill.u.s.trations had been seen by several web authors, and they all recognized his talent as well. Hence, it was easy for Mr.Sleepy to gather them all together in one chat room. They had a good impression too, so these authors were more than willing to contact the studio employees. The more they communicate, the better the results will be compared to those too lazy to interact.
The employees naturally valued this opportunity, since these commissions were all long term contracts and required a lot of drawings. Plus, the pay was really good.
With that, the problem of receiving work had been solved. Everything else depended on them. Meng Fan slipped out of the conference room as they were busy making orders.
“Wait.” Qin Jiao followed him out. “You’re slipping away now?”
“There’s not much to do so I wanted to wander around,” Meng Fan responded.
“I know you’re a very busy person, go ahead. I’ll drive you.” Qin Jiao was in a good mood from solving the issue of getting orders, but she still managed to complain. “I’m going to the publis.h.i.+ng house to deal with your job. Either way, I’m only an inst.i.tutional professor, I’ve got tons of time!”
“Uhm, right. I’ll send you my complete resource collection, it should be useful to the girls.”
“Guess you’re alright. Oh, and when you’re free, you’re going to come by and give them some advice for drawing posters and ill.u.s.trations.”
“…Got it.”
“Oh, and what’s the deal with your sand painting? Wen Wan had the thought to dissect you to find the truth!”
“Do all you inst.i.tutional professors talk like that?”
…
The only person not bustling around in the conference room was Zhang Zhou Wei. After pouring water for the madams, he had nothing to do and left to fool around, playing on his phone. Seeing Meng Fan and Qin Jiao step out, a wretched thought appeared in his mind.
He was the only person present who knew Meng Fan’s relations.h.i.+p with Qin Jiao, and the only one who didn’t find it strange Qin Jiao was opening a studio with Meng Fan.
Meng Fan’s mom was Qin Jiao’s mentor. Zhang Zhou Wei knew this from way back.
They looked like professor and student but were actually disciples. Now, business partners could also be added to that list.
“Their relations.h.i.+p is too confusing!”
If he hadn’t known that the b.a.l.l.sy Meng Fan liked Wu Tong and that he was a gutless idiot, the thoughts in Zhang Zhou Wei’s mind would be even bolder.
“My dear.”
Zhang Zhou Wei who’d been deep in his train of thought suddenly heard a sweet voice. He immediately became very spirited, and even more cautious. Years of experience have taught Zhang Zhou Wei that these two words came like sugar-coated bullets.
“Dear, you know me the best in this world, right?”
“I am… yes, I have to be!”
“Then you should be familiar with my drawing style, right?”
“…Of course!”
“Then I’ll leave my post-production to you!”
“What does post-production mean, I don’t understand… I mean yes yes yes, I do, I have to understand it! Not only the post-production of your manga, but I’ll also handle the post-production of your life, too!”
w.a.n.g Ya Nan rolled her eyes at Zhang Zhou Wei. Why did this country b.u.mpkin love story sound so strange?!
If this guy was half as diligent towards other things as he was fast at talking, she wouldn’t have to force him so much.
Everyone else found themselves a boyfriend, while she not only found a boyfriend but a son as well.
What a complicated relations.h.i.+p!