spring bite mark

Chapter 20: No.
It was already late at night when Yan Changye returned home.

Jiang Manman was still awake, holding a fashion magazine and brewing fruit tea, waiting for him.

As Yan Changye unbuttoned his shirt, he asked, "Didn't I text you saying I had to work overtime? Why aren't you asleep yet?"

Jiang Manman took out the order contract personally signed by Yan Changye of Yanjing Group: "Can you explain this order?"

Yan Changye stopped unbuttoning his shirt, stared at her intently for a few seconds with his peach blossom eyes, and smiled slightly: "Madam, it seems your heart is a little too fiery?"

"Yan Changye," Jiang Manman said seriously, "I genuinely want to do a good job with Mu Chan. What do you and Xie Yunxi mean by deliberately causing trouble for me, working together in concert?"

“Madam, I was also coerced.” Yan Changye picked up his personal phone, opened the chat window with Xie Yunxi, and showed it to her. “Or do you not mind having another person living in the house?”

Jiang Manman picked up her phone and scrolled through the chat history for a while. Unlike when she was with him, Xie Yunxi rarely messaged Yan Changye. In fact, several times Yan Changye initiated the conversations, and the content was very ordinary, such as greetings like "Have you eaten?", "Have you slept?", "What did you eat?", "It's a bit chilly in the capital, how's the weather in the port city?"

Xie Yunxi, on the other hand, was rather aloof, replying with mostly just one word: "Oh," "Hmm," or "Cold."

There are also those who talk a lot, but their conversations always stay relevant to their own topics:
Xie Yunxi: [You copied Manman and put me on Do Not Disturb mode?]

Xie Yunxi: [Don't go too far]

Xie Yunxi: [The other party popped up an audio request]

Y: [You rejected the other party's audio request]

Xie Yunxi: [Feeling wronged.jpg]

Jiang Manman scrolled up for a while and found that there were video call records lasting up to half an hour on three or four days a week.

Yan Changye had already taken off his clothes and picked up his bathrobe. Seeing her still trying to roll it up, he teased, "Madam, are you checking up on your husband's social life?"

Jiang Manman handed the phone back to him: "Can't I check?"

Yan Changye clicked his tongue and said, "Go ahead and check. The passwords for all three of my phones are your birthday."

Jiang Manman said thoughtfully, "Your relationship with Xie Yunxi doesn't seem like a typical business partnership..."

Yan Changye paused slightly in the hand holding the bathrobe, then nodded lazily: "We've known each other for almost six years, so our friendship is naturally different from that of ordinary friends."

No wonder, a family like the Xie conglomerate, let their grandson get a beating, but only made Yan Changye trend on social media and didn't take any real retaliation.

Jiang Manman understood, but she still couldn't help being curious: "You two video chat so often, what do you talk about?"

This time, Yan Changye's expression was genuinely disgusted: "Tutoring kindergarten math problems."

Jiang Manman: "..."

This was clearly a topic that would sadden Yan Changye, so Jiang Manman immediately stopped talking about it.

Two days later, Muchen Studio officially joined the Douyin platform and started its live streaming. Assistant Jiang Rong was in charge of the live stream.

While watching Jiang Rong's trial broadcast, Mu Chan's employees sorted out various issues with the live stream.

“Boss, for us designers, image is really important,” Ayla said, looking at Jiang Rong’s tousled, side-parted hair. “Could we apply for a small grant to give Assistant Jiang a makeover?”

Jiang Rong isn't ugly; on the contrary, he has a certain trendy, handsome older man look. Jiang Manman took a closer look and said, "Let's go to the beauty salon next door and get him a yearly membership so he can get a makeover before going on the show."

“Okay, boss, this is indeed cheaper than hiring a professional stylist.” Ayla’s eyes lit up. “Boss, I checked Assistant Jiang’s popularity, and it’s really quite dismal without platform promotion. If you were to go live, with your looks and temperament, wow!”

Jiang Manman rejected Ayla's final suggestion: "Have Shanshan contact the platform to inquire about the promotion mechanism, and spend the money if necessary. But before that, we need to start preparing the concept, style, and some accessories for online sales related to Mu Chan."

Seeing that her boss had no interest, Ayla stopped talking and instead asked another question:
"We received orders from both the Xie family's heir and Yanjing Group a couple of days ago. Boss, are you sure you only want to keep one?"

“Withdraw Xie Yunxi’s application and return the funds.” Jiang Manman thought for a moment. “As for Yanjing Group, have someone contact them and send me a table outlining their requirements.”

“Okay.” Ayla nodded, but still had doubts. “But boss, have you seen Yan Jing’s order? It was signed by Yan Jing’s son himself. Our small order shouldn’t be on his desk, right? Could there be a problem?”

"It's okay, just do as I say."

After Jiang Manman finished giving her instructions, she was about to return to her office when she suddenly saw all the employees in the office who were watching the trial broadcast stand up!
Even Jiang Rong, who was live-streaming from her workstation, was stunned for a moment.

Jiang Manman frowned: "What's wrong?"

"Boss, someone's tipped us," Assistant Shanshan whispered. "Ten Carnival coins right away..."

Ten carnivals, based on the gift prices on Douyin, would cost 30,000 RMB.

Jiang Manman was surprised: "Who among you hired a support team? Mu Chan is doing this for product promotion, we don't need any donations."

"Boss, 30,000, that's more than my monthly salary." Shanshan covered her face. "We can't afford to hire shills like that."

Just as Jiang Manman was about to lower her head and send a message to Yan Changye to ask, Ayla, who frequently browses Douyin, had already displayed the search results, looking somewhat bewildered: "The one who tipped us is Douyin's 'top donor'."

Seeing Jiang Manman's puzzled expression, Ayla took the initiative to explain: "There are many rich people on Douyin, but this user named 'Yu Yu' has been the undisputed number one on the leaderboard since Douyin was founded. He has the highest level and a golden crown avatar. It is said that every time he visits a live stream, he will push the original number one down and take the top spot himself. For a small live stream like ours with no popularity, throwing ten Carnivals is just basic for him."

Jiang Manman: "...Haven't we started attracting traffic yet?"

“It might be related to his hobbies. I just checked his profile, and all the live streams he follows are about traditional Chinese culture, so he must be a seasoned enthusiast of traditional Chinese culture,” Ayla explained. “Perhaps, big data pushed us to him.”

Assistant Shanshan's eyes lit up slightly: "The 'Yu' in 'Yu'? I've seen him give gifts several times when I'm browsing other people's live streams. It's said that many people change their singing and dancing themes to traditional Chinese style themes in order to attract him to give gifts."

Jiang Manman listened for a while and said, "Since she entered our live stream unintentionally, we don't need to pay any more attention to it. Jiang Rong, please emphasize every time you go live that Mu Chan doesn't need any donations."

Jiang Rong made an OK sign to Jiang Manman from out of the live broadcast camera's view.

(End of this chapter)