Chapter Fifteen: This Might Have Been a Bit Hasty

The next day was Sunday.

A little after nine o'clock, Chen Qi arrived at the company.

Since it was a day off, only the on-duty staff were present.

When he reached the Creative Department, he suddenly stopped at the door, his brows knitting together, a rather indescribable look on his face.

The office was locked.

Awkwardly, he didn't have a key.

What now?

His first thought was of Manager Zhao, who had always looked after him.

He pulled out his phone, found Manager Zhao's number, and hesitated over whether to call.

It was the weekend! A day off! Would he be silenced for calling at a time like this?

After half a minute of agony, he gritted his teeth and pressed the button.

If he didn’t make this call, a wasted trip today would be the least of his worries—the crucial thing was that he’d have to put off getting that hundred thousand yuan for at least another day.

He really needed that money right now.

Compared to that, the harm done by disturbing someone seemed negligible. After all, it was for work.

He supposed there was probably a spare key hidden somewhere nearby, but as a newcomer, it felt inappropriate to go searching for it and let himself in without checking first.

Besides, he didn’t have his colleagues’ numbers, so the department manager was the only one he could bother.

Of course, even if he had other colleagues’ numbers, he wouldn’t have called them anyway...

He couldn’t quite explain it, but he just felt that the manager was easy to talk to, and he rather enjoyed bothering him.

Besides, wasn’t he making this commercial to help him out? A little disturbance was only fair.

At this thought, the last trace of guilt in his heart vanished without a trace.

“Beep—beep—”

The call went through, but no one answered.

Chen Qi waited patiently, already prepared for a scolding.

But he would never know just how shocked and incredulous Manager Zhao was when he saw Chen Qi’s name on the screen.

What was this all about? Why wouldn’t it end? Weekdays were one thing, but weekends too—couldn’t he let people have a break?

Didn’t he have any professional ethics at all? What did the general manager see in him, anyway?

While he hesitated over whether to answer, the ringing stopped.

Manager Zhao let out a slight sigh of relief, thinking at least Chen Qi understood some boundaries.

However...

Just as this sliver of relief flashed through his mind, the phone rang again.

Manager Zhao took a deep breath and answered, barely restraining his anger.

“What is it!?” His voice was practically through gritted teeth.

“Manager, I’m working overtime at the company, but I don’t have a key to the office. Do you know where one is?” Chen Qi’s anxious voice came through the phone.

Manager Zhao nearly choked on his own suppressed rage.

He realized that not only was this guy a bit shameless, but he was also rather brazen.

Put like that, he couldn’t very well lose his temper.

Who could bring themselves to yell at an employee who gave up their day off to work overtime?

Manager Zhao drew a steadying breath and replied calmly, “Do you see the potted plant on the right? There’s a key inside.”

“Oh, I see it. Thanks, Manager.”

With that, Chen Qi hung up.

Listening to the busy tone, Manager Zhao was left a little stunned.

That was it?

After two seconds of silence, he trembled as he scrolled through his contacts, contemplating whether to call the general manager to get back at him.

But after thinking it over carefully, he decided to let it go.

After all... living was a good thing.

...

Not long after Chen Qi got into the office, Xiao Wu, the photographer, arrived.

“Have you been waiting long?” Xiao Wu asked, a little embarrassed to see Chen Qi was already there.

“No, I just got here myself,” Chen Qi replied with a smile.

They’d agreed to meet at ten, so it was still early.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the two got to work.

“Shall we start by exporting the footage from this camera?”

“Sure.”

“Do we need this one?”

“No, I think there’s a better shot later on.”

“No, no, not this one. Is it the one from the fixed angle?”

Because they’d shot a lot of footage yesterday without using a clapperboard for numbering, and neither of them had the experience to note down the exact times of the key shots, it was difficult to quickly find the clips they wanted from the hundreds of video files.

Fortunately, they had plenty of time, and the quiet environment of the company made it easier to focus. In the end, it only took them half a day to select all the material they needed.

Once they’d numbered all the files and backed them up on a flash drive, Chen Qi finally breathed a huge sigh of relief, as if he could already see a great sum of money waving to him.

He checked the time—it was already two in the afternoon.

After having lunch with Xiao Wu, he returned to his rented apartment, utterly exhausted, and slept like the dead.

...

Monday.

Chen Qi arrived at the company just at the start of work.

He went straight to Manager Zhao’s office and knocked.

Seeing Chen Qi, Manager Zhao was the picture of composure. “Well? What do you want today? Is the budget too tight or are you short on staff?”

“The commercial is shot. I’m ready for post-production. I’ll need an editor, and I need background music,” Chen Qi stated simply.

“It’s done?” Manager Zhao looked at him in disbelief.

If his information was correct, the filming crew had sent over a rookie as well, hadn’t they? Two complete novices, and in just one weekend, they’d finished shooting a commercial?

Wasn’t that a bit too hasty?

“It’s done,” Chen Qi nodded.

“Let me see,” Manager Zhao couldn’t help but reach out.

He really wanted to know what value there was in all of Chen Qi’s busy work over the last few days.

Without hesitation, Chen Qi handed over the flash drive.

Manager Zhao, half skeptical, plugged it into his computer and opened the file labeled “1.”

It was a brief, seven-second clip: a mother washing her son’s feet while telling him a story.

Since it was raw footage, the audio was quite noisy.

Manager Zhao watched in confusion and clicked on the file labeled “2.”

This one showed the mother struggling to carry water out of the bathroom.

Drawing a deep breath, Manager Zhao patiently moved on to the next clip.

So far, he still couldn’t tell what Chen Qi’s commercial was about from these materials. But as the head of the Creative Department, he knew that was normal.

Many commercials don’t reveal their purpose until the very end.

What caught him off guard, though, was that the angles and composition of Chen Qi’s footage were actually quite good. At first glance, you couldn’t really tell it was shot by a novice.

At the very least, he couldn’t pick out any obvious flaws.

It seemed the rookie from the filming crew had some talent after all.

He had to admit, these clips made him see Chen Qi in a slightly new light.

At least, over the past two days, Chen Qi had truly invested himself in making this commercial, and in terms of work attitude, that was highly commendable.

With this thought, the pain Zhao had suffered from Chen Qi’s pestering over the last couple of days eased a little.

...

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