Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Two: The Person He Should Have Thanked

“Chief Xiao, what a coincidence! I was just looking for you. There’s a few problems around the design of the collaboration merchandise…”

“I fixed that yesterday. The files are already on the company network.”

“As expected of Chief Xiao! Could I take a picture with my idol?”

“……”

“Guru, guru, you’re here for lunch? Would you like to eat with us?”

“Erm… I didn’t come down to eat. I came to look for the Director.”

“Sure, sure, no problem Guru. Don’t worry about us. Oh, seeing that you’re already here, could you give me your autograph?”

“……”

“Chief Xiao—”

“Guru—”

In the time that Xiao Yu had come down from the thirtieth floor to look for the Director, Xiao Yu had been stopped fourteen or fifteen times by admiring designers and fans from other departments for pictures and autographs. It was like he was some film star.

Xiao Yu finally made it to Director w.a.n.g’s office.

“Director w.a.n.g, I’ve completed the task as requested.”

“Good, good. You’re very reliable. Little Xiao, you’ve been here for over a month now. How does it feel?”

“Pretty good. Things are moving pretty smoothly.”

“Pretty smoothly” didn’t really do justice to the current situation. In reality, starting from Xiao Yu’s first day, work had progressed unimaginably well.

Coming into YL, Xiao Yu had had two primary worries. Would he be criticized for his past history and ident.i.ty? Would he be able to adapt to the high-paced environment of YL’s workplace after spending almost an entire year at home? Fortunately, his worries weren’t substantiated.

YL employees and outsiders alike paid far more attention to him being the mystery designer than his t.i.tle as SI’s ex-chief designer. As a result, Xiao Yu was treated like a celebrity, and Xiao Yu’s own performance increased from the support.

This was most evident in the way which contract deals were selected. Put nicely, SI’s decisions were made by gathering everyone’s opinions. However, the unpleasant truth was that the higher-ups were the sole decision-makers. In the end, everyone else including Xiao Yu had to obey whatever the board of directors and the chairman said. Sometimes, the results were quite unfortunate and regrettable, like the design contest about the client’s confession on the ferry boat [TLN: See Chapter 26.].

On the other hand, at YL, the internal culture was already quite democratic, and Yan Jin pursued a policy of laissez-faire. Furthermore, even compared to the board of directors, Yan Jin held enormous power that prevented other higher-ups from interfering too much in decisions. As a result, YL’s accepted work orders depended heavily on the collective employees’ opinions. Because everyone one very willing to listen to the mystery designer, Xiao Yu found it very easy to choose the projects he wanted to work on instead of being controlled by the company.

As before, Xiao Yu’s genius-like capability best manifested itself when Xiao Yu was free to work on what he pleased. Therefore, YL was undoubtedly the best place for him.

Since he was so motivated, Xiao Yu’s efficiency and performance was extraordinary. He wasn’t affected by a year of being away from work and regained the pa.s.sion that he had while studying overseas. Every night, he’d bring home his computer, unwilling to stop working. After Yan Jin had exhausted all other methods to get him to sleep earlier, he was forced to resort to using his own s.e.xual appeal.

“It’s already eleven.” Yan Jin laid on the bed and let out a timely alert.

“I already said to give me another half an hour.” Xiao Yu’s hands didn’t stop moving. Annoyed, he added, “This is the project that we’re collaborating with Master Andy on. Do you even realize what this signifies?!”

Yan Jin gave him a blank stare.

“This signifies YL’s step onto the international stage. Do you realize how much of an honor it is to be able to work with someone of Master Andy’s caliber? We’re collaborating with the top designer of the twenty-first century. Do you realize…?”

Displeased, Yan Jin listened to Xiao Yu’s rant. It was one of the few times his lover’s words went in one ear and out the other.

This was the third time Yan Jin had heard Xiao Yu irritatedly rant to him while praising Master Andy to the high heavens. He’d been trying to get Xiao Yu to shower and go to sleep since ten o’clock. Each time, Xiao Yu had asked for another half-hour while looking at his tablet.

This was already the third half-hour.

“Do you realize how strict Master Andy is with design drafts? If I go to sleep now, then…”

Yan Jin sighed.

Of course he knew.

In all of City S, there would only be one opportunity to collaborate with Andy Gibson. To many, it seemed very reasonable to select YL as the company to work with. However, it was also extremely fortunate. After all, YL had only recently risen to prominence. If the opportunity came one year earlier, it would have certainly fallen to SI.

Everyone in YL valued this opportunity. Xiao Yu had been one of the most excited about the news. Andy Gibson was one of his idols. After Xiao Yu’s mentor had pa.s.sed away, in Xiao Yu’s eyes, Andy Gibson was the greatest designer in the world. In Xiao Yu’s words, to collaborate with him was “the achievement of a lifetime”.

Thus, he had attached such great importance to these design drafts that Yan Jin became angry. If Xiao Yu had only ignored Yan Jin when they were in the company it was rather more forgivable, but even at home, Xiao Yu had ignored him and went straight to work. No matter what Yan Jin asked him to do, Xiao Yu always had that uncooperative and pa.s.sive-aggressive att.i.tude.

Because of Master Andy, Yan Jin’s position had taken a huge hit.

According to Master Andy’s official spokesperson, he had chosen to collaborate with YL because their recent work was innovative and fas.h.i.+onable. To Xiao Yu, this was undoubtedly the result of his hard work. By this sacred justification, Xiao Yu voluntarily worked overtime through the night. Therefore, Yan Jin trying to stop him was definitely an evil that had to be resisted.

Actually, Yan Jin was probably the person that best understood Xiao Yu’s talents. His love was a genius designer. He had never wavered in this belief. This was also the reason that after considering it for a long time, Yan Jin couldn’t bear to restrict Xiao Yu in any way. Instead, he provided anything and everything necessary for him to soar through the sky.

If everything was indeed like Xiao Yu believed, then Yan Jin would have accepted it. Xiao Yu’s hard work had come to fruition and as his lover, Yan Jin would be happy for him. As for the loss of bedtime s.e.xual activities, he would just have to deal with it.

But the problem was that the truth wasn’t anything like Xiao Yu thought it was.

Including the part about “work had progressed unimaginably well starting from his first day joining the company”, this was all Xiao Yu’s own subjective speculation.

What was the truth then?

In short, it was the result of Yan Jin’s secretive behind-the-scenes blood and tears.

Setting aside the first issue that Xiao Yu still hadn’t figured out Yan Jin’s true ident.i.ty, the critical reason that Xiao Yu hadn’t encountered any issues at YL was because YL was a unique corporation. Their board of directors were merely figureheads. The entire company direction was decided by Yan Jin alone. When considering these decisions, Yan Jin’s first priority was how Xiao Yu would feel.

For example:

This order contains some elements of cute little animals? Okay, Xiao Yu might like it. I’ll sign it. Oh, it’s non-profit? YL isn’t lacking money, so I’ll still go ahead with it.

This order is for a gaming-related event? Okay, Xiao Yu would definitely like this. I’ll sign it. Oh, the event is getting canceled because there isn’t enough initial capital? Let’s invest in it, starting with fifty million for the first round of funding, and then we’ll see what happens after. If Xiao Yu likes it, I’ll continue investing more. So I’ll sign this one too.

This is for a high-profile compet.i.tion. Good, the profit will probably be upwards of a hundred million. It’s quite reputable nationally as well. I’ll sign it… wait, what? Xiao Yu has partic.i.p.ated before in this compet.i.tion before and was mentally quite negatively affected from the loss? I’m very sorry; YL doesn’t need any additional marketing currently. Please find another sponsor.

There was also the matter of none of the other YL employees reacting negatively to the chief designer of their biggest compet.i.tor directly filling their own chief designer vacancy.

Xiao Yu had thought that it was because of his ident.i.ty as the mystery designer, but the crucial point had to do with the unoccupied chief designer position.

Every corporation had its share of people that had circ.u.mvented the standard application processes, such as through nepotism. Under Yan Jin, there were very few instances of this. But there were still always a few young designers that had aspirations of becoming the first chief designer of YL.

This wasn’t entirely because they didn’t understand their own level talent. Granted, none of them could match up to Xiao Yu in terms of talent. In Yan Jin’s eyes, if they were only evaluated based on raw talent, they were not even fit to polish Xiao Yu’s shoes.

However, even if they didn’t have that much talent, there were still always a few overachievers. In this environment, there would always be a few that believed that they were the future chief designer if they worked hard. Therefore, the arrival of Xiao Yu was extremely awkward for them.

There would always be people who didn’t like that Xiao Yu came directly from SI, people who felt that their own career was inhibited by Xiao Yu, and people who simply didn’t like Xiao Yu for no particular reason.

The reason that Xiao Yu never came across anyone like this wasn’t because they were all convinced by his ident.i.ty as the mystery designer. It was because Yan Jin had talked individually with each person in advance and fired anyone who might have caused issues!

Yan Jin ground his teeth.

Everything was the result of his hard work, okay?!

Yan Jin would have let Xiao Yu off without requiring any thanks from him. But with Xiao Yu’s current att.i.tude, he really wanted to erupt in anger.

Where did that cute little guy go?

Alright, on the topic of Andy, he was well-known internationally as a master designer. From Xiao Yu’s view, this was a super-genius so talented that he was on par with Yan Yixuan! Ten days ago, Andy had departed from their country to country M. After flying halfway across the world, why did he specially come back?

Because geniuses never stayed in one place for too long?

Because he had found out that his deceased rival had an apprentice and wanted to come visit?

Because he was suddenly inspired by the new Spring product releases on YL’s official site?

Of course not!

It was because Yan Jin had incidentally overheard that his own beloved really admired another master designer! He’d had to use all of his influence to get him to come over. Originally, he had wanted to give Xiao Yu a very pleasant surprise, but now——

Yan Jin felt like he had shot himself in the foot. He impatiently checked the clock again to check if it was midnight yet and sadly lowered himself back into his blankets all on his lonesome.