Chapter 265 - 262: A Cautious Probe

Chapter 265: Chapter 262: A Cautious Probe

After his shower, Wang Ming lay on his bed and opened the text-only version of his QQ Space on his phone, secretly checking to see if Shen Ying had posted anything today.

He usually never commented. He just quietly watched for her updates, trying to guess how she was doing from the little snippets she shared. Sometimes she would post a few sentimental lines, and Wang Ming’s imagination would run wild.

"So annoying!!!"

"I shouldn’t have come back!"

"Sometimes I really wonder if I’m even their biological daughter."

She had posted three updates in a row today, all of them revealing that Shen Ying was in a bad mood. The most recent one was from just ten minutes ago.

Wang Ming hesitated for a long time before deciding to send her a message and see what was wrong. He wasn’t sure if she was asleep yet.

"You there?"

Shen Ying was sitting alone on the corner of her bed. The old electric fan in the bedroom was WHIRRING, providing a weak, cool breeze.

She was staring blankly out the window when her phone suddenly vibrated. She glanced down and saw Wang Ming’s soldier profile picture pulsing slowly.

When she opened it and saw his message, her mood lifted just a little.

"Yeah."

"You’re still up," Wang Ming typed quickly.

Shen Ying replied, "Can’t sleep."

"What’s wrong? You seem like you’re in a really bad mood. Want to talk about it?" Wang Ming took the opportunity to ask.

After sending the message, Wang Ming felt a little nervous. He knew she was in a bad mood and had probably fought with her family. He was worried she would keep everything bottled up, but he was also afraid of being nosy and killing the conversation.

Shen Ying sniffled softly. She typed out a long message, hesitated for a moment, then deleted it all and simply replied, "It’s nothing."

Wang Ming sighed softly. ’Shen Ying really isn’t willing to say anything.’ He figured as much. If she was upset about something, she would probably talk to her close friends about it. He was the one she had rejected; he didn’t have the right to pry.

"Alright. By the way, did you go home for the National Day holiday?"

"Yeah."

Shen Ying clearly didn’t want to talk about herself, and Wang Ming felt it would be inappropriate to press her. It was the kind of topic where it was easy to touch a nerve.

Just as he was wondering what to say next, with the conversation at a standstill, Shen Ying suddenly asked him, "Is Aunt Li in the Imperial Capital now?"

"Yeah, she’s been here for over a week."

"That’s nice." Her words were tinged with envy.

As one of the founding members of Qitian Animation Company, she was now the only one still in Yu Du. Everyone else had already moved to the Imperial Capital to expand, and even the company itself had relocated.

If it weren’t for the fact that she was still in the company’s group chat, she would feel completely abandoned.

Watching new colleagues join the group one by one, she could only lurk silently. Lin Yanwan kept telling her that her desk would always be saved for her, but a thought always lingered in her mind: ’The company will do just fine, even without me.’

As the days went by, this feeling grew stronger. She would see her colleagues chatting in the group, but she never dared to say anything.

"Wang Ming, how’s the new office?" she asked slowly.

"It’s great. The space is huge, and it’s still being renovated. We haven’t officially started work yet, but it’s starting to feel more and more like a proper animation company," Wang Ming answered honestly.

Shen Ying pictured what a proper animation company would look like, imagining all the new colleagues from the group chat in their specific roles. It was undoubtedly a huge improvement over their old, four-person startup.

"Well, you better watch over my desk for me. Don’t let anyone else take it," she said, half-joking. In her heart, though, she was terrified that if even her old friends gradually grew distant, she would be truly all alone.

"Okay, I’ll always save it for you," Wang Ming replied with certainty.

"Haha, thanks, then. By the way, where did you go for the National Day holiday?"

Wang Ming sighed. "The university was on break for the holiday, but the company wasn’t."

Not that he thought a break was all that great anyway. A lot of university students used the holidays to stay up all night gaming online. To him, that was just a way to lose one’s ambition. He felt more fulfilled just staying in his dorm and drawing a few pictures.

"Huh? Didn’t Aunt Li announce in the group chat that we officially start work on October 8th?"

Shen Ying had wanted to see Tian’anmen, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, and the portraits of the great leaders. She’d actually had a chance to reunite with them in the Imperial Capital this National Day holiday. Even if the round-trip tickets were expensive, the money she had earned over the summer was enough to cover them.

But after hesitating again and again, she had gone home instead—only to end up fighting with her family.

"Yeah, but the company still has a lot of things to finish up, so a few of us have been working overtime every day. I just got off work not long ago myself."

Shen Ying stared at the message, lost in thought. After more than ten seconds, she slowly typed her reply, "I’m so jealous you guys can all get together whenever you want."

So far away in Yu Du, she couldn’t even watch from the sidelines, let alone help the company with anything.

"Once you get here, we’ll be able to hang out every day, too."

Shen Ying felt a pang of melancholy. By the time she could go to the Imperial Capital, it would be for her senior year internship. Three years would have passed; so much could change. ’Will things still be the same then?’

"What have you been busy with lately?" she asked without thinking.

"Umm..." Wang Ming thought for a moment, wondering if he should tell her the details. But then, he figured there was nothing to hide.

"Nothing much. Old Jiang is just teaching me how to write scripts and draw storyboards."

After hitting send, he added another message, "It’s really difficult. I’m barely making any progress."

"That’s great."

Even if Shen Ying didn’t know much about animation, she had been handling the company’s operations for several months. She could tell at a glance that Jiang Xia was investing heavily in training Wang Ming, grooming him to be his true right-hand man. Before long, Wang Ming might even take over the Cat and Mouse project himself.

’Everyone is moving forward, while I’m just stuck in place.’ All she could do was continue managing the online accounts for Cat and Mouse, just so she wouldn’t become completely invisible.

"Don’t rush it. Just take your time learning. With your talent, you’ll definitely get the hang of it."

Wang Ming scratched his head. This was the first time Shen Ying had ever praised him.

"Old Jiang says the same thing, but being an animation director is really hard. He chews me out all day long."

As he said this, Wang Ming couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of helplessness. Jiang Xia’s standards were just too high, especially when it came to understanding the script. If a storyboard was even slightly off, he would make him redraw it.

"He’s teaching you personally and you’re complaining? If you can master even ten or twenty percent of his skill, you’ll be able to create Cat and Mouse all on your own."

"Haha, that’s what I was thinking, too."