Chapter 356 - 353: New Year Plan

Chapter 356: Chapter 353: New Year Plan

(Chapter 352 has been released, go check it out)

...

When Jiang Xia arrived at the company, he found that most of the employees were already there. Among them were Qiuting, Su Qing, Luo Peng, and his other two roommates who majored in computer science.

The employees were either tidying up their workstations or sharing snacks from their hometowns with colleagues.

When they saw Jiang Xia, they greeted him one after another, and he responded to each of them with a smile. The atmosphere in the young company was completely harmonious.

"Sister Liu, in ten minutes, please notify the team leads we’re having a short meeting in the conference room. Also, could you please tidy it up?" Jiang Xia said to Liu Xinyue at the front desk.

"Okay, President Jiang."

He returned to his office. A moment later, Li Weiya pushed the door open and walked in. She saw him brewing tea and cleaning the tea set.

"Where’s Yanwan? I don’t see her around."

"She’s not feeling well today, so I let her stay home and rest."

"A cold?"

"Mm... something like that."

Li Weiya glanced at him but didn’t think much of it. She just figured that Yanwan was tired from the journey from her hometown to the Imperial Capital, or perhaps she had caught a chill.

She picked up the notebook on the desk. Inside was this year’s development plan, but it consisted of only simple headlines.

Li Weiya knew Jiang Xia all too well. He was a true genius, capable of excelling at anything in his field of expertise. So she wasn’t worried that these plans were just empty talk; she knew he would make them a reality, one by one.

"So, the focus for this year’s development is *Slam Dunk*?" Li Weiya asked.

Jiang Xia chuckled, lifting the teapot and pouring Li Weiya a cup. "Godmother, please, have some tea."

Li Weiya sat on the adjacent sofa. She lifted the teacup, blew on it gently, then took a small sip. The fresh tea filled her mouth, and a warmth spread through her stomach.

"This is the Da Hong Pao from Chief Zhou, isn’t it? It’s quite nice."

"Yes, it is. Want some for your office, Godmother?" Jiang Xia asked with a smile.

"You keep it. I’ve still got plenty."

Just then, Wang Ming pushed the door open and came in. "Old Jiang, you were looking for me? Uh, Mom, you’re here too."

"Ah Ming, how many times do I have to tell you? At the company, you address Ah Xia as President Jiang, and you address me as Director Li. You can call us whatever you like after hours, but at work, you follow the rules," Li Weiya said calmly.

"Got it, M... Director Li. I just got back from my trip home, I’m still not used to the formal titles," Wang Ming said, scratching his head.

"Come on, Ah Ming, have a seat," Jiang Xia said with a laugh, patting the sofa beside him.

"Later, at the all-hands meeting, I’m going to announce your appointment as the lead storyboard artist for *Cat and Mouse*. I have the storyboards for season five, but after that, you’ll need to lead the team to carry it forward."

Jiang Xia handed him a cup of tea. "Ah Ming, this shouldn’t be a problem for you, right?"

Li Weiya frowned slightly. It wasn’t that she thought Ah Ming was incapable; she was just worried that changing the lead storyboard artist mid-project would make the animation’s style different from what it was before.

However, since this was Ah Xia’s decision, she said no more.

Wang Ming pursed his lips. After thinking it over for a long moment, he gave a slight nod. "Alright."

He had been under Jiang Xia’s strict tutelage for over half a year. While he might not have perfectly grasped the essence of Jiang Xia’s storyboarding philosophy, he’d gotten most of it down. In other words, he was more than ready to take on the job.

"You’ve got this," Jiang Xia encouraged him. "It’s okay to be a little slow at first. We can even slow down the whole project’s pace a bit, but we absolutely have to guarantee the quality of the animation."

Over this period, Jiang Xia had seen all of Old Wang’s progress. Under his relentless pressure, Wang Ming’s innate directorial talent from a past life was gradually emerging.

It was safe to say that when it came to mastering the storyboards for *Cat and Mouse*, no one could do it better than Wang Ming—aside from Jiang Xia himself.

He had just finished speaking when a soft knock sounded on his office door, followed by the voice of Liu Xinyue from the front desk.

"President Jiang, the team leads are all in the conference room waiting for you."

"Okay, I’ll be right there," he replied.

Then he looked at Li Weiya and Wang Ming. "Let’s go together."

The three of them walked into the conference room and saw that the leads for both projects were present: from the key animation, in-between animation, coloring, compositing, sound, and editing teams, as well as the head of the upcoming video website development team.

"President Jiang, Director Li."

"Hello, everyone," Jiang Xia said with a smile. "How was your New Year?"

"It was alright."

"Pretty good."

After a brief exchange, Jiang Xia walked to the head of the table and sat down. Liu Xinyue had been very attentive; there was a fresh cup of tea in front of each person.

"We’re having an all-hands meeting in a bit, so I’ll keep this short. I’ve called you all here mainly to give you a heads-up on this year’s project plan."

Hearing their boss begin, the team leads all sat up straight, listening intently.

He first looked toward the *Cat and Mouse* project team and began slowly, "*Cat and Mouse* is the cornerstone of Qitian Animation. It’s also a popular animated IP that the company intends to support for the long term. On the animation side, I hope you all maintain the current production schedule. Don’t rush for quick results at the expense of quality. We must be strict with our quality control. Furthermore, we need to increase our investment in IP operations. We can try to expand into overseas animation markets, reach partnership agreements with more companies, and dig deeper to maximize the product’s value."

Li Weiya nodded repeatedly as she listened. She knew Jiang Xia had real substance; in just a few sentences, he had laid out the development direction for *Cat and Mouse*, demonstrating a remarkably unique strategic vision.

He then took a small sip of his tea and turned his gaze to the *Slam Dunk* project team.

"This year is a critical one for the company’s growth. I just said that *Cat and Mouse* is our cornerstone. Well, *Slam Dunk* is the pillar that will support our future development. It’s our first step from children’s programming into the world of shonen anime. *Slam Dunk* is under a lot of pressure, as it will determine whether the public can shed its stereotype of Qitian Animation as just a kids’ cartoon studio."

"Therefore, all of you must remain steady. No matter what the public opinion is—good or bad—after the new series is released, we must forge ahead with production, unwavering. I have great faith in this project. Just as *Cat and Mouse* became the benchmark for children’s animation, *Slam Dunk* will also lead the new wave of shonen anime."

Jiang Xia’s words were delivered with resounding confidence. Of course, all of this confidence stemmed from the global impact of the original *Slam Dunk* in his previous life.

After saying this, Jiang Xia turned to Meng Xiulian, the sound director.

"Teacher Meng, I’d say your team has the heaviest workload in the company. Normally, you’re responsible for the voice work and scoring for *Cat and Mouse*, and you also have to handle our new series, *Slam Dunk*. Now, on top of that, you have the dialect versions of *Cat and Mouse*."

Meng Xiulian smiled. "President Jiang, please don’t put it that way. It’s just part of the job. I’m also very happy that I can contribute to the company’s success."