Chapter 145 - 143: The Younger Sister-in-law’s Eyes Widened, Her Sister and Brother-in-law Were Actually in the Room...

Chapter 145: Chapter 143: The Younger Sister-in-law’s Eyes Widened, Her Sister and Brother-in-law Were Actually in the Room...

Back home, Jiang Xia had barely taken a sip of water, let alone had a chance to rest on the sofa, before Lin Yanwan pushed him back into their room to grind out storyboards.

There was so little time left in the summer vacation, and they still had to produce twelve episodes of *Cat and Mouse*. If they didn’t hurry, finishing even eight would be a stretch.

After her older sister strictly warned her not to disturb her brother-in-law, Lin Xiaoman had no choice but to sit contentedly on the sofa and watch TV. Since she didn’t have any summer homework, she could play as much as she wanted.

Meanwhile, Lin Yanwan was in the study, surfing the web to see how the public reception for *Cat and Mouse* had changed after buzzing online overnight.

It turned out she had still underestimated the influence of *Cat and Mouse* in this world. In just one night, the fan forum had gained tens of thousands of new followers—more than the entire previous month of promotion had brought in.

In the bedroom, Jiang Xia was focused on drawing the storyboards for Episode 15 when he suddenly got a call from Li Weiya. He figured she probably had an update on the two animators he had asked her to find the previous night.

"Hello, Aunt Li."

"Ah Xia, I’ve found the people you asked for."

The moment the call connected, Li Weiya got straight to the point. "They both have one or two years of experience in the industry. Their fundamentals are excellent, so they should have no problem serving as key animators for *Cat and Mouse*."

"Really!"

A surge of delight went through Jiang Xia, and his voice brightened. "They agreed? Even without a contract, just as freelancers?"

"The moment they heard it was an outsourced project for season two of *Cat and Mouse*, they agreed on the spot," Li Weiya said with a laugh. "What can I say? Your show blew up overnight. The internet is full of praise, and countless people are waiting for the next episodes. They want to add a golden touch to their resumes, so of course they wouldn’t miss an opportunity like this."

Jiang Xia chuckled. As an industry insider himself, he understood the logic perfectly.

With this on their record, they could go anywhere looking for a job and say they’d worked on the *Cat and Mouse* project team. They’d be able to command a much higher salary.

"Let me know when you have a moment and send over some of the storyboards," Li Weiya said. "I need to test their actual skill, and you need to see if they’re a good fit. You know that in animation, the quality of the key frames is everything."

"Alright, Aunt Li. I’ll send a few storyboard pages over to you right now. Let’s have them give it a shot."

Jiang Xia took a few reasonably clear photos with his phone, then transferred the images and sent them over directly through his computer.

He’d only know if these two met his standards after seeing their work.

Before long, Li Weiya sent him back a few key frames.

Jiang Xia examined them carefully. Perhaps it was because his storyboards were so detailed, but in any case, the key frames the two animators produced from the same boards weren’t drastically different. There were minor variations in Tom’s and Jerry’s expressions and movements, but both versions successfully captured the requirements of the storyboard.

Of course, this was an easy problem to solve. All they needed was an animation director to unify and supervise the overall art style, ensuring the original look was maintained and preventing the animation from going off-model.

Ideally, Jiang Xia would take on this role himself. After all, he was the father of *Cat and Mouse* in this world; only the images in his head were perfectly true to his vision.

Unfortunately, he was swamped. Managing three animators was already enough to drain all his time, so he had to focus his entire energy on the storyboards.

"Ah Xia, what do you think?" Li Weiya called back to ask.

"They’re pretty good. Their technique is quite polished. As long as we can unify the art style, they should be able to get familiar with it in a day or two and officially join the production. It’s just..."

He paused for a moment, then chuckled slyly. "Aunt Li, you mentioned before that you’d help me with quality control for the key frames... and I’m really short on time, so... you see..."

"You’re talking about the director role, right? Fine, leave it to me," Li Weiya said with affectionate resignation. "In any case, I’m quite familiar with *Cat and Mouse* by now. You just focus on the storyboards and leave the rest to me."

"Hehe! Thank you, Aunt Li!" Jiang Xia was overjoyed. ’If we were face to face, I might have hugged her out of excitement.’

Li Weiya was the perfect person to act as the animation director. She was an incredibly experienced art director herself, and she had already participated in the production of *Cat and Mouse* recently to lighten Wang Ming’s workload. For her, unifying the art style was a piece of cake.

"How many times have I told you? You don’t need to be so formal with me," she said with a soft laugh. "Just remember to treat me to a nice dinner after the second season of *Cat and Mouse* successfully airs."

In her eyes, Jiang Xia was her student and Wang Ming was her son. By extension, Qitian Animation Company was practically a family business. If she wasn’t going to help Jiang Xia, who would she help?

"Of course, of course," he chuckled.

"Oh, right, Aunt Li. You need to tell those two that the production schedule for *Cat and Mouse* is extremely tight. After setting aside time for post-production editing and sound, we need to produce one episode every eight or nine days on average. That’s equivalent to drawing at least eighty to ninety key frames every single day. The workload is immense. If they can’t handle it, we’ll find someone else."

Jiang Xia pursed his lips, thinking for a moment before adding, "Also, they’ll have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Any leaks will result in legal action. Of course, if their work is good, there’s a possibility for long-term collaboration in the future."

"Alright, I’ll pass all of that on."

After hanging up, Jiang Xia leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh of relief. As long as these two were reliable, producing twelve episodes in two months wouldn’t be impossible.

Once the second season aired, the name *Cat and Mouse* would become a household name over the summer, and Qitian Animation’s reputation would naturally soar along with it.

His ambition was gradually beginning to take shape.

The front door opened and closed, followed by the sound of Xia Shanshan’s laughter. A moment later, the bedroom door was pushed open gently, and Lin Yanwan whispered, "Jiang Xia, your mom is back."

He nodded and beckoned to his wife. Lin Yanwan hesitated for a second, glancing at her mother-in-law heading into the kitchen before slipping into the bedroom and gently closing the door.

"What is it? I’m telling you, your mom is back. Don’t even think about trying anything," Lin Yanwan said warily.

"Where did your mind go? I have no desire to get spanked again."

Jiang Xia said resignedly, "I just wanted to tell you that Wang Ming’s mom found the freelancers. I’ve looked at their work. Both animators are excellent, and they should be able to officially join the production in about two days."

"Isn’t that great?" she said.

"It is good, but your workload is about to get a lot heavier. We’ll be churning out about three episodes every two weeks, which means you’ll have to do all the sound effects for them in one go. You’ll barely have any time to rest," Jiang Xia said, holding her small, delicate hand.

Lin Yanwan said seriously, "Don’t worry. I won’t slow down production."

Compared to the animators, who were always pulling all-nighters, her sound design work was relatively less taxing. The schedule would be tight, but she was confident she could manage her time.

"That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m worried you’ll get exhausted."

"Being able to work on the same project together is what makes me happy," Lin Yanwan said, gently kissing his forehead.

The bedroom door creaked open, and Lin Xiaoman’s head poked out furtively. From her low angle, it looked for all the world like her older sister was leaning down to let her husband nurse.

The little sister-in-law’s eyes went wide, her innocent young mind reeling from the earth-shattering sight.