After returning home, Shi Song quickly received a message from Wei Huaichen.
“I just went to ask around, and we happen to be short of people here. You can come for an interview anytime.”
“This is the email address for the HR department. Just send your resume over there.”
“Great!”
Shi Song was completely satisfied, and even his tone became light and cheerful.
Humming a song, he turned on his computer, planning to look up some resume templates to see how to write one.
“Meow~”
Beside him, Jubao seemed to sense Shi Song’s good mood. The little orange cat walked forward and rubbed its tiny head against his fluffy slippers.
A few strands of orange fur instantly stuck to them.
Ever since he gave Jubao a bath, Shi Song had let it out of its cat villa. Now, the little orange cat spent its days leaping and bounding all over Shi Song’s room, having seamlessly become the undisputed tyrant of this place.
Moreover, its body had grown visibly rounder to the naked eye. It was incredibly soft to the touch, and Shi Song loved to hold it and cuddle it every single day.
Shi Song bent down to pick up Jubao, who had rolled over on its back to act cute. His voice was filled to the brim with joy: “I’m about to get a job.”
Before this, he made money by taking sporadic freelance drawing commissions. Although Shi Song was on the lazier side and preferred a relaxed schedule of working on and off, his skill level was high after all, so he had managed to save up quite a bit of money over the years.
However, Shi Song had never worked a proper, formal job inside a regular company. The upcoming brand-new experience made him feel a little excited.
“Meow.”
The little kitten also seemed to perceive his emotions. Its light green eyes narrowed slightly as it rubbed its head against Shi Song’s wrist.
Right at that moment, however, Shi Song’s phone suddenly chimed.
“DingTalk reminder: You have less than two hours left until your assignment submission deadline. Please submit it as soon as possible!”
Shi Song: “…”
He hurriedly set Jubao back down, muttering “no time, no time” under his breath as he quickly grabbed his digital drawing tablet from the side.
Shi Song finally sent his resume to HR, and it didn’t take long before he received the time and location for the interview.
Before heading out, Shi Song did some research. The company Wei Huaichen had recommended to him was a game studio under the Wei Corporation. It was notoriously difficult to get into, but it boasted an excellent atmosphere and a strong focus on innovation, so countless people applied every year.
Shi Song felt that this arrangement was incredibly thoughtful.
He prepared himself well in advance and arrived at the interview location fifteen minutes early.
Taking a deep breath, Shi Song knocked on the door: Knock, knock, knock.
A gentle female voice came from inside the room: “Please come in.”
“Hello.”
Shi Song smiled and pushed the door open, but his footsteps suddenly froze.
There were two people in the room in total.
The woman sitting right in the center was the HR manager. Sitting next to her was a man with long hair tied into a small bun with bleached black-and-white highlights. His posture was slightly slouchy and nonchalant. Shi Song had seen his photos before it was Mu Chen, a famous powerhouse artist within the industry circle.
Mu Chen’s name was practically legendary. Though only in his early thirties, he had already won numerous international awards. He was notoriously arrogant, untamed, and did things entirely according to his mood. Without a significant amount of social standing, one couldn’t even dream of inviting him out.
Shi Song had previously heard that Mu Chen was mainly busy running his own studio and mentoring juniors whenever he felt like it. He hadn’t expected the man to actually have a role here as well.
Seeing Shi Song walk in, Mu Chen knitted his brows and scanned him from head to toe, undisguised disbelief written all over his eyes: “Did you walk into the wrong room?”
“We are hiring artists here, not models, and we don’t want minor celebrities either.”
Shi Song opened his mouth, about to explain, but the HR manager beside him beat him to it: “Old Mu, did you fail to properly read the candidate’s resume again?”
“This is the person who is here for today’s interview.”
As she spoke, she looked toward Shi Song with a warm smile on her face: “Hello, please take a seat over here.”
“This gentleman is the department supervisor participating in the interview.”
Mu Chen was taken aback. He sized Shi Song up once more from head to toe, and then let out a sharp “tsk.”
However, he didn’t say anything more. He merely nodded to the HR manager to indicate she could begin, and then opened up his own iPad on his own accord.
“Oh.”
Shi Song nodded, pulled out a chair, and sat down.
The HR manager asked standard, conventional questions. Shi Song had already prepared for these before coming, so he answered very naturally.
The young man systematically stated his viewpoints. His voice was very soft, his vocal tone was steady, and when he spoke with a faint trace of a smile, it was practically as sweet as if it had been dipped in honey.
This voice was simply too pleasing to the ear.
Even Mu Chen’s attention was involuntarily drawn over, his gaze becoming focused.
After listening to Shi Song introduce his undergraduate experience, Mu Chen smiled: “Yo, so you actually graduated from a proper, orthodox academy. I know Li Run from your faculty; we were just having a drink together the other day.”
Shi Song nodded: “Yes, he was the mentor for my graduation project. I respect him immensely.”
Mu Chen let out a thoughtful hiss.
Suddenly, as if remembering something, he turned on the iPad sitting beside him and pushed it in front of Shi Song: “Since you’re his student, I’ll have to test you then.”
“Take a look at this drawing. Are there any solutions for improvement?”
Shi Song was reasonably familiar with Mu Chen’s artistic style. With just a single glance, he knew for sure that this piece didn’t belong to Mu Chen.
The beautiful young man tilted his head slightly. His slightly long hair fell by his ears, and his expression as he frowned in deep thought looked particularly earnest: “Is this character in the drawing an antagonist?”
“Yeah.”
Mu Chen propped his head up with his hand, a hint of interest surfacing in his eyes.
After pondering for a moment, Shi Song said: “The texture of this drawing is very good, but it just lacks something that catches the eye.”
As he spoke, Shi Song picked up the digital pen from the tablet: “Look here, if we add a bit of design right at this spot to draw the viewer’s focus, wouldn’t that be a bit better?”
With a few quick strokes, he sketched out the silhouette of a lamp onto the canvas. The gray and black color tones of the image were instantly illuminated.
Mu Chen’s eyes lit up: “Go on, say a bit more?”
Shi Song thought about it: “This angle is also a bit off. The shadows are too faint, and combined with the high saturation, it looks a bit uncoordinated.”
“It makes the drawing feel rigid and mechanical.”
As he spoke, Shi Song smoothly added a few light strokes to the image.
A few rays of light and shadow cast across it, and the scene instantly became dynamic and alive.
Mu Chen’s eyes shone brightly: “Not bad at all!”
“Nowadays, it’s easy to talk about technique when drawing, but genuine spiritual intuition is truly rare. Li Run really took in a good student.”
Precisely because Shi Song belonged to the industry circle, he knew exactly how difficult it was to obtain praise from this big shot.
He couldn’t help but reveal a smile: “Thank you.”
“Really not bad, really not bad…”
Mu Chen stroked his chin, looking as if he was contemplating something.
The HR manager next to him tapped the table and smiled as she reminded him: “Am I still conducting this interview or not?”
“Huh? Oh, hurry up then,” Mu Chen glanced at her and said hurriedly.
“Alright, alright, since you’re so…”
The HR manager was only halfway through her sentence when, right at that moment, there was a sudden knock on their door.
A head poked in from outside.
The newcomer had a buzz cut and a small mustache, with a cheerful smile plastered across his face: “Hey, I just heard the news and rushed right over. Thankfully, I’m not too late.”
“Is this the young kid recommended by President Wei? Little Zhou just showed me his resume and portfolio earlier, and he’s exactly the type I want! Anyway, your department already has plenty of people, so why don’t you yield this one to us?”
Was he talking about him?
Before Shi Song could even react, Mu Chen’s gaze had already snapped onto Shi Song’s face.
“Competing with me?”
Mu Chen raised his eyebrows slightly. His hands rested on the table, and his entire posture exuded an aura that was simultaneously elegant yet roguish.
“No, what do you mean by competing with you?” The buzz-cut man walked inside and closed the door. “Haven’t you guys not hired him yet? How can you call this stealing a person?”
“Fine then, I hereby announce that he has already been hired by me.”
Mu Chen stood up and turned to face Shi Song, saying: “How about this, you come over tomorrow to handle the onboarding paperwork, and I will personally mentor you after that. What do you think?”
Shi Song nodded hurriedly. He had never expected that by simply coming to an interview, he would end up receiving personal guidance from such a legendary figure.
The buzz-cut man was completely dumbfounded by Mu Chen’s string of rapid-fire operations: “You told me before that I could pick whoever I wanted from your department, Old Mu! What exactly are you doing now?”
Mu Chen let out an “un” sound: “You can pick anyone else from my department as you please now. But I am warning you, not this one. I want him.”
“Based on what? Does he have your name written on his face?”
“It is written with my name!”
The two thirty-something grown men were bickering back and forth exactly like young children.
The HR manager sitting nearby finally couldn’t hold it in anymore and burst out laughing.
After stepping out of the company, Shi Song let out a long sigh of relief.
Although the atmosphere just now had been very relaxed, it was ultimately Shi Song’s very first time experiencing this, so his palms had been sweating the entire time.
Fortunately, everything had ended smoothly.
Just now, the HR manager had directly told him that he was hired, even skipping the usual step of waiting for a formal notification.
On his way back, Shi Song couldn’t resist posting an update on his WeChat Moments: “I have a job now!”
After a short while, a tiny ‘like’ appeared beneath his post.
It actually came from Wei Huaichen.
Shi Song’s mood instantly became even better.
He casually opened his chat box with Wei Huaichen and typed: “Brother, do you have time over the next couple of days? Let me treat you to dinner.”
However, before he could send the message, a phone call suddenly rang through.
Looking at the caller ID displaying Lin Yiming, Shi Song knitted his brows slightly.
Lin Yiming had also seemed incredibly busy over the past two days, so the two of them had barely spoken a word.
Shi Song had been more than happy to enjoy the peace and quiet.
But seeing that the man was calling now, Shi Song could only pick up.
The moment the call connected, Lin Yiming’s anxious voice came rushing through from the other end: “Baby, did you find a job?”
“Yeah.”
Shi Song was just about to speak further, but he was interrupted by Lin Yiming.
“Then you haven’t signed a contract yet, right? Hold on a moment, listen to me.”
“I’ve already spoken with my parents and had them arrange a job for you at the Lin Corporation. It’s a position as a trainee artist in the commercial department. The salary and benefits are exactly the same as the formal employees in the company.”
He spoke at a very rapid pace, even carrying a tone that seemed to be angling for credit: “I think it’s better for you to come to the Lin Corporation. We can work together in the future, and if you mention my name later on, nobody will dare to bully you just because you’re an intern.”
Shi Song attempted to cut him off: “No, I—”
Lin Yiming stopped instantly: “Baby, go ahead.”
Shi Song sighed internally: “I actually quite like the job I have right now.”
At this, Lin Yiming truly couldn’t hold himself back anymore.
“Baby, you haven’t officially entered the industry yet, so you probably aren’t clear about this. None of those other messy, random company resumes look as good as a stint at the Lin Corporation. Those places only recruit people just to exploit interns. Don’t be in such a rush to find an internship that you end up getting scammed by others.”
“I can guarantee you that right now, there is no place in the capital more reliable than the Lin Corporation.”
“Scammed?”
Hearing Lin Yiming speak this way, Shi Song’s eyebrows furrowed deep.