Chapter 278 - 275: I’m Not Pretending Anymore, I’m Laying My Cards on the Table

After returning to school, Jiang Xia and Lin Yanwan went to the Bauhinia Garden cafeteria and ordered their signature spicy stir-fry pot. The base sauce was fragrant and the dish was delicious.

"How much of the *Slam Dunk* script have you written?" Lin Yanwan asked, placing a slice of meat from the pot into his bowl. She preferred the vegetables.

"The first arc, the decisive battle against Lingnan High School, is almost done," Jiang Xia said. "But I changed the school's name to Longcheng University of Technology. I've also tried storyboarding a bit, but there isn't much content yet."

An episode of *Slam Dunk* is over twenty minutes long. It involves complex elements like backgrounds, characters, clothing, and even micro-expressions and movements. The sheer workload is more than ten times that of *Cat and Mouse*.

Fortunately, the total episode count isn't too high. The entire series is 101 episodes. If everything goes smoothly, it should be finished in about two and a half years.

The hardest part to animate will be the basketball scenes. However, he could reference the NBA and recreate some famous plays. Once it officially airs, it'll probably blow up.

Lin Yanwan nodded lightly. This meant she still had plenty of time to compose the theme song.

"I'll write the musical score first, then."

Once the score was ready, the rest would be easy. All that would be left was writing the lyrics and performing the music.

"Okay."

After lunch, the two of them returned to their respective dorms. They still had class in the afternoon.

Su Qing was on his laptop, looking at a file Li Weiya had uploaded to the company group chat. The schedule detailed everyone's assignments. If you couldn't complete your tasks within the deadline, you could very well be fired.

This was a significant challenge for a working college student, requiring him to dedicate all his free time to the job.

"How was the company meeting today?" Su Qing turned his head to look at Jiang Xia.

"It went well. What about you? Does the workload feel heavy?" Jiang Xia asked in return.

"It's manageable. I don't have to do the composition myself, just refine and detail the first key frames. It's actually a bit easier than drawing the key animation from scratch," Su Qing said with a smile.

"Then keep up the good work." Jiang Xia was very confident in Nanny Su's artistic abilities.

"By the way, do I go to the company to pick up the key frame drafts myself?"

"Hmm, about that... I'll arrange for a production assistant to coordinate with you and Old Luo." Jiang Xia couldn't help but think of Tang Qiuting. 'Looks like I'll have to find some time to have my girl ask her.'

"You'll arrange it?"

Su Qing keenly picked up on the keyword. Logically, Jiang Xia was just a storyboard artist, or maybe an animation director for the project team. But he shouldn't have the authority to freely assign personnel.

"Er..."

Jiang Xia was at a loss. He glanced at Zhao Ning and Zhou Zijian, then pulled Su Qing out onto the balcony and slid the door shut.

"What's up? Is there something you can't say inside?"

"Alright, I'll drop the act. The truth is... I'm the producer of *Cat and Mouse*, and the head director, and the owner of Qitian Animation," Jiang Xia said seriously.

Since he'd let it slip, there was no point in hiding it anymore. Everyone at the company knew his real identity anyway. Su Qing would find out as soon as he visited the office.

Su Qing: "..."

After taking a few deep breaths, his complicated feelings finally settled.

"I always suspected you had some connection to Director Li, but I never imagined you'd be the boss." A wry smile touched Su Qing's lips.

Considering how popular *Cat and Mouse* was now, he had to be a millionaire several times over, maybe even a multimillionaire with over ten million.

An eighteen-year-old multimillionaire in 2009... No one would believe it if you told them.

"Keeping a low profile saves a lot of trouble," Jiang Xia said with a smile.

He looked toward Building 5 across the way, but unfortunately, he didn't see his girl on the balcony.

"That's true. What about Director Li, then?" Su Qing asked again.

"She's my godmother. I'm usually busy, so she helps me manage the company," Jiang Xia said.

Su Qing nodded slightly. With that, everything made sense.

"But Nanny Su, don't think you can slack off just because you're my roommate and we're good friends," Jiang Xia reminded him with a laugh. "I don't handle company business; my godmother calls all the shots. If she decides to fire you, I won't have a say in it."

"...Do I look like that kind of person to you?" Su Qing couldn't help but roll his eyes. He was still waiting to work on that sports anime Jiang Xia mentioned.

"Hahaha, no, you don't. I'm just kidding."

Su Qing was one of the most self-disciplined people he had ever met. If even someone like him couldn't turn in assignments on time, everyone else would be even lazier.

"By the way, Nanny Su, I hope you'll keep this to yourself for now," Jiang Xia said, looking him in the eyes.

He had just started school and didn't want to become a campus celebrity, getting stared at by crowds wherever he went.

"Don't worry, I get it."

Their brief conversation ended, and the two went back inside. Jiang Xia saw Zhao Ning and Zhou Zijian still self-studying programming. He thought for a moment, then asked hesitantly, "Old Zhao, Old Zhou, would building a video website be difficult for you guys right now?"

Hearing this, Su Qing subconsciously glanced over. 'An animation guy is now getting ideas about a video website. He's probably making new strategic plans.'

Considering the current speed of internet development, televisions might soon become a thing of the past. One had to admit, Jiang Xia was very forward-thinking.

"You mean a video site like Tudou.com?" Zhao Ning asked.

"Mmm... something like that, but with a few differences from traditional video websites," Jiang Xia said after some thought.

He had originally planned to hire a team of professional programmers for this, but considering Qitian Animation's only notable work right now was *Cat and Mouse*, maintaining a dedicated team of programmers for website development didn't align with the company's current strategy. It would be better to entrust this to his roommates who were studying programming.

Of course, he could also choose to outsource the website development, provide the required product features himself, and then just hire one programmer for daily maintenance.

But in the end, he didn't have the energy for another project right now. Giving it to Old Zhao and the others would also allow him to cultivate his own core team.

"If it's just the front-end page without any back-end data interaction, it wouldn't take long," Zhou Zijian said after thinking for a moment.

"What about with back-end functionality?" Jiang Xia asked.

Zhao Ning sounded a bit helpless. "Brother Jiang, the front-end page is doable, but data interaction is a bit beyond our current level for now."

Jiang Xia chuckled. He'd forgotten they were only a month into the school year. If you subtracted military training, they'd had even less class time. Even if they were top students who got into Tsinghua with strong self-study skills, expecting them to go from zero to full-stack programmers was asking a bit too much.

"Hahaha, no worries, no worries. I was just asking casually. However, our company does have a project to create an official website right now. Would you two be interested in trying?"

Zhao Ning and Zhou Zijian looked at each other, their eyes shining.

...

(I don't know if you guys are going through the same thing, but I've been feverish and sweating all day. My head is fuzzy, my eyes ache, and I feel nauseous. I've brought up stomach acid several times and had to force it back down. I keep coughing so hard it feels like my lungs are about to come out.)

(Last night at 4 a.m., I couldn't sleep and got up to use the restroom, but I was so wobbly I almost fainted. I finally managed to drift off into a hazy sleep, and when I woke up, I was drenched in sweat and felt completely drained. Everyone, please take care of yourselves. Whether it's a second round of COVID or the flu, this is all just insane.)