Elena managed to adjust her mood the moment she left the Williams’s mansion. She was relieved to have spoken her mind with Michael. Since they had no future together, there was no reason to keep her hopes up. It was good to clear some things between them. No point for wishful thinking, was there?
It was not as if she flattered herself with any wishful thought; she only wanted not to repeat the same mistakes in her past life. If Ava dared to lay a finger on any of her friends, Elena would never let her go, even if she was Michael’s godsister. As soon as she walked into the office, Layla immediately greeted her with an angry look.
“Elena, look at this disgusting woman! She had addressed Eldest Young Master Williams as her brother and posted a selfie of herself right in front of WongRiver Pavilion. Look!”
Elena glanced at the screen of Layla’s phone. It was Ava’s Weibo post. She posted that her brother had ordered the chef to make some delicious food for her. There were nine photos in the posts; some were taken at the dining table, some at the hall, and the rest were at the WongRiver Pavilion’s entrance. Even though they were all selfies, no one would ever miss the significant words that spelled WongRiver Pavilion in the background. Some comments also pointed out that it was Eldest Young Master Williams’s WongRiver Pavilion. Some were envious that Eldest Young Master Williams had become Ava’s brother. Layla scrolled through the comments, but Elena was not interested to know about it.
“All of those are cyber trooper accounts. Why would you bother to check them?”
Ava had probably hired some keyboard warriors to make additional remarks on things that she did not mention on the post. The most-liked comments were those that pointed out the location of the photo, and how Ava and Michael had dined together, and how Ava had addressed Eldest Young Master Williams as her brother.
Ava had played her card well. She did not mention things explicitly in her post, but the comments had added the missing details to complement her post perfectly. Those comments had also been bumped to the top for extra attention. Any new readers would get her message, loud and clear.
The comments at the bottom were various remarks tainted with bitterness; some were even about how they were jealous of Elena. Naturally, some of them had mentioned and discussed Michael’s fiancée. Someone said that Elena would not be able to keep her claws on Eldest Young Master Williams. Well, it was either that or how Eldest Young Master Williams had both of the Garcia sisters under his wings. Then some beckoned for Michael to ditch the ugly Elena for the gorgeous, gentle and kind-hearted Ava instead. A few of those comments were rude remarks about how Ava rode on Eldest Young Master Williams wave for a higher exposure. However, her team of keyboard warriors had drowned those comments in no time at all.
“Elena, why aren’t you angry? She addressed Eldest Young Master Williams as her brother! That woman is so thick-skinned!”
“Well, she should call him brother.” Elena put her bag down and opened her laptop to start on her work.
“What? What’s up with you, Elena? How could she be related to Eldest Young Master Williams?”
Layla thought about it for a few moments before her paranoia set in. “Is Eldest Young Master Williams really dating her now?”
“I don’t know.” Well, why should she care if they were together? No one would be obliged to inform her anyway.
“Elena, how could you say that? He is your fiancé!”
A weird woman had addressed her fiancé as a brother, how could she not be furious about that?
Elena tilted her head to the side and looked at her friend. “Did I not tell you that my relationship with Eldest Young Master Williams is not like what you think it is?”
She had proven to be useless in such a relationship anyway. She fired up her laptop as she stood up and headed into another office.
“Where are the rest?”
“In there.” Layla followed Elena into the office.
There were three other people in the office. Caleb was coloring, and Rufus was drawing lines on a sketch pad. Another person sat at the corner with his unruly hair, scruffy-bearded face, and an oily face. He still wore the same set of clothes that he had on two days ago.
“Oh my goodness, how long have you not been back to the hostel?” Elena was dumbfounded.
Aryan did not even lift his eyes to look at her. Elena knew that he was always engrossed when he worked. It was also apparent that he looked much skinnier than two weeks ago. Even though he did not look starved, anyone could see that he had lost quite a bit of weight. Elena felt guilty; she must have been too hard on her team.
“He had been here since four days ago, had he not? He’s still wearing the same clothes!”
Elena shrugged helplessly and then let out a deep sigh.
“Look at him; he would not talk to anyone. You’ll have to wait until he is done with this chapter, and then only would he talk to you.”
“How many chapters had he done today?” Elena was familiar with his behavior.
After two weeks, everyone on the team had gotten to know him well.
“It’s the third chapter for today.”
“Are you crazy, Aryan?” It had only been half a day, and he had progressed to the third chapter! Did he want to complete five to six chapters in a day?
“Well, it’s because we’ve passed the preliminary round!”
Layla had decided to surprise Elena with the good news as soon as she arrived at the office, but she was sidetracked by Ava’s post on Weibo.
“We got in?”
All the memories of the unhappy events that day disappeared into thin air like smoke when she heard the delightful news. She had thought that they would only announce the results the following Monday. She never expected to hear about it during the weekend.
“So, Aryan is thinking of wrapping up the second part of Fiery Youth within a week?”
“Yeah, the quarter-final is next Friday. The competition is definitely stiffer in the quarter-final.”
It would significantly improve their chances in the competition if they could finish the second part before the next Friday. Layla launched the comic APP on her phone and clicked on the New Release tab.
“Look at this, Elena. We are in the top three on the new release board. If we release another two chapters tonight, we might even get second place tomorrow.”
It was quite a promising achievement for a new association like theirs. The titles that could climb onto the top three spots were usually published by existing associations that already had a large group of fans. It was difficult to begin from scratch, indeed.
“No problem, we can take it slow and steady. I believe in us. We can definitely make it to the top.”
However, Elena was very sorry that Aryan had to put in such long hours for the comic. Her initial assignments for him had been heavy enough, so she was surprised to find out that he demanded more of himself! His speedy work pace was not something an ordinary person could keep up with. Furthermore, he could even maintain the quality of his work despite the speed.
“Hello, my fellow brothers! Let’s have lunch!”
Lois entered the office with two large bags of packed lunch. She was surprised to see Elena there.
“Didn’t you say that you had something to do at home and wouldn’t be back until tonight? I didn’t get you any lunch!”
“No problem at all. I can share mine with Elena.” Layla hurriedly said.
Elena walked up to Lois and helped her to arrange the food on the table.
“Lois, can we see the ranking for the results yet?”
“Unfortunately, no, we can’t see it yet. I do know that there are a few outstanding ones that got straight through to the final.”
Lois was green with envy about that, but there was nothing that she could do about it.
“It was the Nina Studio team.”
“How is that possible? Nina is one of the judges, isn’t she?”
The judges’ studios were not allowed to take part in the competition. It was part of the stipulated terms and conditions. Lois had also felt so helpless about that. Nina withdrew from the judging panel and had joined the competition instead. It was a disaster for the participants.
“I heard that there is a special prize for this year’s competition.”
“That’s right. I heard about that too. It’s unprecedented!”
Layla leaped over to them with joy!
“The team to win the grand prize would be able to sign a contract with Glorious Entertainment under Jiang Corporation’s management to form an animation business unit.”