Chapter 85: Nannan’s Whispers (II)
The reason Heart Lock could be completed so quickly was due to both Xiao Yu and Nannan’s partic.i.p.ation.
For Xiao Yu’s part, at least this time, Lin Zhou finally did not stupidly gift the design drawing to the mystery designer. Of course, there was a possibility that Lin Zhou encountered an accident before he could send it to Xiao Yu. But no matter how it happened, in short—
Xiao Yu got this design drawing on his own.
It was actually thanks to a freak combination of factors that Xiao Yu was able to get his hands on the Heart Lock design drawing.
During the Ragnarok compet.i.tion, when the design for the manacle couple rings came out, the final draft of Heart Lock was already completed. Everything that happened afterwards went exactly according to the script from his past life with the human Xiao Yu being eliminated in the pre-selection. Feeling frustrated and disappointed, he gave up on the follow-up design. Then, he dealt with all the design drafts for that series like they were trash. But when the end of the year came around and Xiao Yu didn’t have any energy to come up with a new design, he could only fish out the draft for Heart Lock from the trash heap.
The key was the manner in which the trashed drafts were dealt with.
The way Xiao Yu dealt with his trashed drafts was to toss them all into a mailbox, like he was throwing garbage into a huge trash can. If he ever needed it again, with some luck, he would be able to dig it back out.
Xiao Yu was able to utilize this opportunity to obtain the design drawing for Heart Lock.
It was not only the first draft, but the final draft.
Although this laid the foundation for the quick production of Heart Lock, in the end, what decided victory and defeat depended on the rapid improvements Nannan made during this month.
It was not without reason that Xiao Yu had taken notice of Nannan’s designs even from a few years ago. That x.x.xbao owner indeed had talent for design. Although he didn’t have a very deep foundation, his drawing skills could be considered solid.
From Xiao Yu’s point of view, even though Nannan did not have a traditional education in design, he had a good design sense. Adding to the fact that he was serious about learning this trade, Nannan was able to improve by leaps and bounds with just some casual pointers from Xiao Yu. It could be said that Xiao Yu was getting a three-fold return on his investment.
During this month, Xiao Yu spared no efforts in teaching Nannan everything he could about this industry and Nannan did not disappoint him. The completed drawing of Heart Lock Nannan was able to take out one month later was the best proof.
Right now, a conservative estimate of Nannan’s standards would place him above the level of a designer’s a.s.sistant. He was not that far off from being able to become a new independent designer. This standard might not seem all that impressive, but compared to one month ago, when he was only an x.x.xbao owner who produced replicas of famous brands, this was already pretty good.
His design style, design habits and the like could be shaped with time. Xiao Yu was just worried that Nannan had been producing replicas for so long that he lost his ability to create original designs. Fortunately, Xiao Yu got to him in time. If this happened a few years later, maybe Nannan really wouldn’t be able to draw anything original anymore.
Xiao Yu really thought that Nannan had a bright future in design. If he was still a human, he would definitely bring Nannan into SI to work with him. He didn’t believe he was the only one who thought like this. He could feel that Nannan also had similar thoughts.
From Nannan’s designs, Xiao Yu could sense the yearning of a designer. Although Nannan never said it out loud, his every improvement and every piece of work all spoke of his strong ambition to be extraordinary. His enthusiasm reminded Xiao Yu of a young person chasing after their dream.
Designs did not tell lies.
Even from early on, Xiao Yu could tell. Whether it was from his professional looking designs or the humorous designs; in these so called brand name replicas, he could see the soul of a professional designer.
If Nannan truly desired to become a professional designer, then there must be some inexpressible reason for him to currently be an x.x.xbao shop owner.
In Xiao Yu’s mind, he could see the image of a young person who was forced by life’s circ.u.mstances to give up on his dreams. It was so similar to himself back in those days. Xiao Yu could feel a kind of profound predestination, like his encounter with Nannan was inevitable. It was as if G.o.d was giving him the opportunity to transmit the kindness he received that year to another.
However, he had no way of helping.
Even if he was very willing in his heart to offer his a.s.sistance, he was powerless to do so.
That “powerlessness” did not stem from the fact that right now he had no power to speak of at SI. Taking a step back, even if he could not recommend Nannan to SI, he could still manage some pillow talk with Yan Jin. Xiao Yu had no complaints about how Yan Jin adhered to his bottom line when he dealt with sc.u.m like Lin Zhou. But if the mysterious designer recommended someone, Yan Jin should be willing to open a backdoor.
Not to mention, Fish and Hamster – You Can’t Have Both was Yan Jin’s current boyfriend. Until Yan Jin asked to breakup with him, he could still call himself that, hn.
Everything above was just something he mused about. In reality, this was not something Xiao Yu could do.
The reason was simple. What would he do once he recommended Nannan away?
In the upcoming months, without a competent a.s.sistant like Nannan, who else could he depend on to help him deal with Lin Zhou?
So, although he felt that he was letting Nannan down, Xiao Yu could not give Nannan such a recommendation. He could only do his utmost to compensate Nannan in other ways. Up until now, his designs were able to earn upwards of a million dollars. Xiao Yu did not take even a penny of that money. All of it was sent to Nannan. Even so, Xiao Yu’s conscience p.r.i.c.ked at him. That was why when Nannan came to consult with him, he did not hold anything back and shared everything that he knew with Nannan.
You could see his efforts just by looking at the claws that were filed down after just one month.
But, that was it.
This was all Xiao Yu could do for Nannan. When Nannan had sent the completed draft for Heart Lock for him to review, Xiao Yu felt both happy and sad. He was happy to see that Nannan did not let him down, but sad that although someone had saved him from his plight in the past, he was now unable to reach out a hand to help a person he met in a similar situation.
……
Nan Wei, who was not in any distress and did not need any recommendations, was currently drawing earnestly.
The childhood sweetheart, who came over for some company, lounged on the sofa and took care of the x.x.xbao store.
“Hey, someone is scolding you for selling fakes.”
“Blacklist.”
“Someone is complaining that you didn’t send their order.”
“Blacklist.”
“There’s a message from Fish and Hamster – You Can’t Have Both.”
“What is it? Where? I’m coming. Oh wait, I’m not done with my drawing. What should I do? If I’d known earlier, I would have finished drawing it even if I didn’t go to sleep last night……”
“I lied.”
At the admission, the voice of the frantically speaking Nan Wei abruptly stopped, like an electric toy that had its electricity cut.
Nan Wei was extremely p.i.s.sed-off that he just got played.
His normal reaction would be for him to rush over and pummel his childhood sweetheart until he was three quarters dead. But in reality, when his fury acc.u.mulated to three quarters full, it was suddenly suppressed.
“You just wait. Once I’m done with this drawing, I’ll go over there and kill you. Don’t move an inch.”
The childhood sweetheart sighed heavily and dug himself out of the sofa. Then he languidly walked over to Nan Wei from behind and put his chin on Nan Wei’s shoulder: “Say……”
“Go away. Don’t bother me when I’m drawing.”
“Do you still plan to keep your store open?”
The pencil in Nan Wei’s hand paused: “Put it aside for now. I’ll decide what to do with it in two months.”
“Are you planning to close your store after two months to become a designer at your cousin’s?”
Nan Wei finally couldn’t stand it anymore and set his pencil down. Then he reached out to teach his childhood sweetheart a lesson: “This fella over here, when you speak, can you not be so…… accurate……”
The adjective Nan Wei finally came up with made the childhood sweetheart laugh.
“Stop laughing. Go play a game if you’re bored. Isn’t Toxic really popular right now? Just stop disturbing me.”
“I’m being serious.” The childhood sweetheart pulled a chair over and sat down: “In the past, you would yell about losing a few sales. Currently you’re in danger of losing half of your customers. Isn’t this store made with your blood and sweat?”
Nan Wei did not answer.
“At the time, you even ran away from home because of Nannan’s Whispers. Isn’t it a pity for you throw it away just like that?” Sensing victory, the childhood sweetheart continued his a.s.sault.
“Okay, fine. Don’t take a mile just because I gave you an inch. Whether it’s a pity or not, I know better than you.” Nan Wei rubbed at his eyes, then gave his childhood sweetheart a feather-light punch: “And I never ran away from home. That was my brother. Also, it wasn’t because of Nannan’s Whispers……”
“And so that’s why you’re ready to chase after your childhood dream and give being a professional designer a try at your age?”
Nan Wei did not notice the ridicule in his childhood sweetheart’s voice. A stupid smile brimmed over on his face: “Right now, the chief designer of SI is teaching me how to design. With such a high starting point, I don’t see why I won’t be able to compare to the newcomers in the design profession. And I’m not that old. I’m sure that I can catch up.”
The childhood sweetheart clicked his tongue and shook his head: “I never knew a hobby could change someone so drastically.”
“Spoken like a person who never had a dream before. Right now, if a master in the architecture world offered to teach you how to draw blueprints, you would probably be more excited than me.” Nan Wei protested.
The childhood sweetheart was stunned for a moment before replying resolutely : “I won’t.”
“How would you know? It had never happened to you.” Nan Wei was not convinced. He knew about how his mathematically talented childhood sweetheart had kicked up a storm when he forcefully decided to change his career that year.
“Speaking of which, why did you come back so fast from out of the country? Didn’t you say you wanted to see the cherry blossoms? It’s not even the season for it yet. Hey, what are you looking at?”
“Oh, that……”
The childhood sweetheart stared off into s.p.a.ce. Originally, he had planned to take advantage of the time before the “world war” started to get some rest and relaxation. He was prepared to use three to four months to visit several countries. He never imagined that after only spending a few days in the first country on his list, a certain person would call him endlessly until he came back.
Unfortunately his vacation leave was completely wasted. Right now, and he could only pa.s.s his days lazily at Nan Wei’s home.
……Actually, at the end of the day, Nan Wei bore some responsibility for this situation.
“Hey, why does your expression look so strange?” Nan Wei shrank his neck back: “It’s giving me a bad premonition.”
The childhood sweetheart did not lie to him, telling him straightforwardly: “Yan Jin was the one who called me back.”
“Oh? What happened? Can I help? Does my brother know?” At the sound of Yan Jin’s name, Nan Wei immediately turned into a brainless fan.
“There’s a big problem. You can’t help. Your brother also can’t help.” The childhood sweetheart answered each of the questions, then concluded with: “But if your cousin knew that you were currently thinking of closing your store in order to fulfill your wish to become a designer and enter YL, I’m sure he’d be very happy.”
“Oh…… So it’s the thing between the Nan family and the Yan family again.” Nan Wei became depressed: “In other matters I can still give some a.s.sistance, but the Nan family…… No matter what, they’re still considered my family……”
“So you’re going to help your family and not Yan Jin?”
Surprisingly, Nan Wei was a bit hesitant.
The childhood sweetheart reminded him: “Don’t forget, you were even prepared to give up Nannan’s Whispers.”
“Oh?”
“From the why I see it, you’ve already boarded Yan Jin’s pirate s.h.i.+p.”
“……What you said actually makes sense.”