Here, Kitty

Wen Rui exchanged glances with Li Xue.

"Jiang Xin," Li Xue mumbled. "The female lead."

Wen Rui raised an eyebrow. He was the male lead but he didn't think it was appropriate to go about throwing a tantrum at all and sundry. Either this Jiang Xin had a particular personality type or she was big enough of a shot to behave like a diva. But what diva would come and act in this online idol drama series? It wasn't even one with a big budget, would mostly catch the attention of fans of the original novel.

"Is she famous?" In the background, the racket from the makeup trailer was still ongoing and Wen Rui suspected that filming was going to be delayed as a result. He looked at his watch. Li Xue had been waiting for her turn even before him and neither of them were fitted for their costumes or makeup yet.

Li Xue surveyed their surroundings cautiously before leaning in with a conspiratorial whisper, "She would do anything to be. Just a while back, she even fought with Su Qiao on the set of 'Legend of Yuhuan' and when the photographs were leaked on social media, her PR team made it seem like it was Su Qiao who was putting on airs and bullying newbies."

Su Qiao. Even as someone who wasn't interested in the industry, Wen Rui had heard of her before, mostly because she was not just a celebrity but also someone whose family ran in the same social circles. It was rare to have young masters and mistresses run away from inheriting their parents' companies to become stars. But Su Qiao was one of them and had worked her way up to becoming a 'Little Red Flower', which was the term the industry gave to young, popular female celebrities.

And now Wen Rui's goal was to become the male equivalent of that. At least enough so that he wouldn't have to rely on anyone else for a living.

Wen Rui didn't know what to say about Jiang Xin's ambitions. It wasn't any of his business at any rate. As long as she didn't attempt to interfere with his progression, he would be quite happy to ignore her.

Unfortunately, on a set as small as this one, it was nearly impossible not to become collateral damage when faced with the wrath of a self-important diva.

"You," Jiang Xin's manager said, after Li Xue took her seat in front of a mirror in the makeup trailer. "Change stylists with Xin Xin." After that delay, they were already running late and the makeup department had decided to rush both Li Xue's and Wen Rui's styling at the same time. But Jiang Xin, who was still dissatisfied with her shade of makeup, had refused to budge from her seat.

Li Xue gazed up at her in fear and nodded mutely. She might be a graduate from acting school but in terms of the actual industry, this was her first serious work as well and her nervousness was obvious. It wasn't like any of them were supposed to have a say in who did their makeup anyway, they hadn't climbed to a position where they could make demands like that.

Two seats down, Wen Rui narrowed his eyes. His stylist was preparing her equipment and he didn't have much to do besides fiddle with his phone in the meantime. Glimpsing over at the stylist's reflection in the mirror to ensure that her back was turned, he hurriedly opened WeChat and changed Zhou Ye's saved name from 'Zhou Ye' to 'Good Xiongdi'. He'd considered for a second using something demeaning like 'Doggy' or 'That Asshole' but if someone else accidentally saw it, it wouldn't be good for his reputation either, right?

It wasn't like he would feel guilty or anything. Ahem.

Once he was confident that no one would guess this was Zhou Group's heir he was messaging on the job, he opened their chat window.

Wen Rui: It's a dog-eat-dog world

After a second's hesitation, he selected an emoticon to go with it.

Wen Rui: (⋟﹏⋞)

It was early in the day and Wen Rui had envisioned that Zhou Ye's schedule would be packed full of important meetings or social events like lunches with head honchos. But not a second after his message was sent, the 'The other party is typing…' message flashed across the top of the screen.

Good Xiongdi: ?

Good Xiongdi: Someone bullied you?

Wen Rui felt a flutter in his chest. He wasn't sure why he'd decided to text Zhou Ye instead of Xu Mushen or…or no one else, he didn't have many close friends left. But he couldn't deny that Zhou Ye's reply was heartwarming. It felt nice to be on the receiving end of someone's concern. Wen Rui had to be careful. If Zhou Ye kept this up he was going to be too greedy and start to take it for granted.

Wen Rui: No no lol

It wasn't him that was being bullied. For now. But given the way Jiang Xin was behaving, he wouldn't be surprised if it soon became his turn when he had scenes with her. She was the supposed wallflower female lead who had to spend half at the series portraying self-esteem issues? Her acting was either fantastic or the casting director had chosen her based off her rising popularity.

Wen Rui: Just met an extreme personality ╮(╯_╰)╭

Wen Rui: Dodged the bullet just now but who knows, maybe I'm next in line ('A`)

It felt hilarious to pepper their conversation with funny faces. The next reply took longer to come and Wen Rui had to bite on the inside of his cheek to hide a smile. He could imagine Zhou Ye's brows furrowing as he gazed down at his phone, possibly trying to resist the urge to chuck it across his undoubtedly prim and proper CEO office with its ceiling-to-floor windows—

Ding. Another message came through.

Good Xiongdi: Whenever you want, you can come home.

And then, before Wen Rui could fight down a blush and reply—

Good Xiongdi: ~(=^・・^)ヾ(・_・ )

Good Xiongdi: Good boy.

Wen Rui's brain exploded.

——————————

A ringing silence pervaded the meeting room. Right at the front, trembling in front of the projector screen, was the poor brand manager for their new gaming line. He'd just started on a new slide featuring his proposed strategy for marketing their image to their target audience. This project pushed out a new series of cutting-edge gaming hardware called '18th Prophecy'. It was the biggest development in the NJ Corporation in recent times and he'd been ecstatic when it had landed in his in-tray.

But it wasn't long before he realised just how little he had to work with. Apparently both the name of the series and the logo were chosen and designed by the boss man himself. And Chairman Zhou didn't feel the need to explain what either meant. The brand manager could work with '18th Prophecy' of course, that was obscure and epic enough to market to gaming geeks all around without much fuss. But the logo? It as a horizontal hieroglyph of the character 'mu', which meant eye? And why was there an extra line above it? Was that supposed to be an eyelid?

But his questions, politely phrased, had disappeared into the void that was Chairman Zhou's email.

And now, just as he was about to launch into the most crucial part of his presentation, Chairman Zhou had…laughed.

It wasn't with his usual cold sarcasm either. No one in the room, including his secretary, had ever seen him like this, the brand manager was sure. Because there was no other reason why Wang Lingyi would be pushing her glasses up so frantically, like she wanted to get a clearer picture of her boss smiling like spring had sprung early.

…either Chairman Zhou had finally snapped at all the displays of incompetency around him and had lost it or…there was a Situation here. Of the peach blossom variety (1).

The brand manager let out a tentative smile. "Chairman Zhou…is everything all right?" He didn't want to be the one to broach the subject, or god forbid, distract Chairman Zhou from whatever was so enticing on his phone. But he was the one standing up in front of a whole room of people and subject to their endless scrutiny. He had to save himself somehow.

Thankfully, Chairman Zhou didn't bite off his head for no good reason. The smile on his face disappeared and he placed his phone face down to table before straightening up and adjusting his tie.

"Apologies," he said seriously. "Your presentation has been stellar so far, please continue on."

The brand manager let out a sigh of relief even as his colleagues' expressions turned complicated. Stellar? Apologies? Was this still the same strict taskmaster who was impossible to please? Last year, their company exceeded projected profits by 200% and although the department responsible for it had obtained a hefty raise, all Chairman Zhou had said was a simple 'well done'. And now, a mere presentation had earned such praise?

At once, the brand manager found himself on the receiving end of a lot of complicated looks, like they suspected him of sacrificing his body for a shot at a promotion. He struggled to maintain his cool front but inwardly, he was close to having a nervous breakdown.

[Xiongdis, are you for real?! Look at this pockmarked face, do you think it's enough to satisfy Chairman Zhou?!]

But he agreed. There was definitely a Situation with their boss man. And it was confirmed when the product manager, a mature, beautiful woman who'd had her eye on Chairman Zhou for a long while now, casually asked, "Chairman Zhou is in a good mood today?"

Instead of admonishing her, Chairman Zhou leaned back in his seat. There was a glint in his eyes that was so unfamiliar to them that no one recognised it as playfulness.

"Mm." He let out a low hum. "My pet cat was behaving coquettishly, I'm sorry for the interruption."