Right, I am the Progenitor of the Blood Tribe now!
Although it doesn’t feel quite real, and my abilities are a bit lackluster, I am, at the very least, a bona fide non-human.
Grasping that inspiration, Lu Chen’s eyes lit up.
"Should I use this special identity to put on a one-man show?"
In short, I need to leave others in awe. The performance must be full of imagination...
Could this be the key to achieving a high rating?!
He circled a few points heavily in his notebook.
"I’ll try it out in the next flashback!"
"I just have to be careful not to get caught and turned into some rare specimen."
He wasn't sure if he could withstand modern firearms in his vampire state, and he had no intention of risking his life to find out.
There is a certain logic to playing it safe.
You only get one life, and he still didn’t know if dying in a flashback meant dying in reality, too.
Just then, he keenly sensed someone approaching from behind. He immediately flipped his notebook page as if nothing were wrong, pretending to record work data.
Sure enough, two seconds later, a hand patted his shoulder.
"Lu Chen, Manager Liu wants to see you."
"Manager Liu?"
He felt a bit puzzled, but still headed toward Manager Liu's office.
Their company was small, with only about a dozen employees, and their main business consisted of taking on the small-scale design jobs that fell through the cracks of larger firms.
Even such outsourcing work was enough to keep a small company like theirs afloat.
As for Lu Chen, he was just an average designer. Without a degree from a top-tier university, he couldn't get into the big firms and could only grind out experience and tenure at a place like this, managing to scrape by.
Walking into the office, Manager Liu—the boss's brother-in-law—immediately closed his computer browser with practiced ease, shot him a glance, and gave a dry cough.
"You're here. Sit, sit."
"Is there something you need, Manager?"
"Wait a moment, there's someone else." As Manager Liu was speaking, the door was pushed open. Qiao Weizhao sauntered in and pulled up a chair for himself.
"What's up, Manager? Did you decide to give us a raise because you know how hard we've been working? Oh, thank you so much!"
"Alright, enough joking around. You’re both well aware of the current situation of the company."
Manager Liu rapped on the table and pulled a file from the bookshelf beside him, tossing it onto the desk.
"Take a look at this. You both know that Manying Company downstairs recently landed a big contract and, because they're rushing to meet deadlines, they planned to outsource some of the work."
"Our company survives on jobs like this, so we reached out to them."
"We know that," Qiao Weizhao said, nodding as he took the file to glance at it. He then broke into a grin. "This is the design draft we submitted. It's quite good."
"Good?" Manager Liu slammed his hand on the desk, his brows knitting together. "The people at Manying Company said this design is trash and completely unacceptable! They are now considering canceling our partnership! Think about how you’re going to fix this!"
Qiao Weizhao immediately threw up his hands and shoved the file into Lu Chen's arms.
"This design was primarily done by Lu Chen; I was just responsible for the touch-ups..."
Manager Liu slammed the desk again. "Cut the crap. Didn't you both split the commission? If you did, you’re both responsible!"
Qiao Weizhao's face fell instantly.
His skills were even worse than Lu Chen's, so it wasn't exactly wrong to say Lu Chen was the primary lead.
By comparison, Lu Chen remained indifferent.
If nothing else, at this point, it didn't really matter whether he kept this job or not.
However, if they were going to call his design "trash," he was going to have a few words with them.
"Let's go. Downstairs."
Lu Chen stood up and patted Qiao Weizhao on the shoulder.
He had no choice but to follow.
Their office was on the ninth floor, and Manying Company was on the sixth.
They took the elevator down, and as soon as they entered, it felt like stepping into an Amazonian nation.
Everywhere they looked, it was all women.
"Wow..."
Qiao Weizhao swallowed hard, pretending to look straight ahead, while his eyes were actually darting around wildly.
"It’s a rare treat to come here. The quality is even higher than before."
Manying Company was somewhat famous for its unique characteristic: they only hired women.
Since it was their own company, no one else had much to say about it, but male employees from other companies on the floors above and below often skipped the elevators and walked the stairs just to linger around.
If nothing else, the marriage rate in this building had risen significantly over the past few years, a blessing for many of their male colleagues.
The arrival of the two men drew the attention of several female employees. Some of the shyer ones whispered among themselves, while others boldly looked them over.
A pretty receptionist greeted them with a sweet smile. "May I help you, gentlemen?"
"Beautiful, we're from the partner company upstairs. We'd like to chat with your leadership about our design draft," Qiao Weizhao said, stepping forward quickly.
"Also, you look so much like a friend of mine, I almost mistook you for her. How about we add each other on WeChat so I can send you her photo to see..."
The young woman maintained a professional, standardized smile as she replied, "Please do not engage in idle chat during work hours. Furthermore, which leader are you looking for? Both our General Manager and our Chairwoman are currently out on business..."
Just as she was speaking, a young female leader walked in, followed by three or four employees.
"As it happens, this is our General Manager, Tan Mengying. If you have design drafts to submit, you can talk to her..."
The two men turned around, their eyes meeting hers.
"Yes?"
Tan Mengying was younger than Zhou Manyin, with a softer, gentler temperament. She stood only about 1.6 meters tall and didn't give off an aggressive vibe.
With her delicate, fair face, trendy outfit, and lightly permed hair, she looked more like a young, beautiful girl who had just graduated from university than a general manager in charge of a multi-million-dollar company.
Seeing who he was dealing with, Qiao Weizhao summoned his courage and stepped forward with glowing eyes to explain their purpose.
Tan Mengying nodded slightly and smiled. "I see. I will discuss this with Manyin, and you two can head back for now."
Anyone who knew business talk understood exactly what that meant—it was a dead end.
Lu Chen and Qiao Weizhao had no choice but to return.
"It's over. Looks like I'm losing my job. Better start looking for another one," Qiao Weizhao sighed.
A moment later, he added in a sneaky, hushed tone, "But the relationship between those two beauties is pretty strange, isn't it? The whole company is full of women, and I hear General Manager Zhou and General Manager Tan are inseparable. You don't think they're actually..."
Gossip like this was everywhere; he wasn't the first to say it.
Lu Chen had heard whispers before, but he had no interest in looking into it.
Right now, he was more concerned with thinking about what he should do in his next flashback.