Chapter 121 - 121 Cold War
Chapter 121: Chapter 121 Cold War
Qin Lang walked over to Xiao Shihuo and picked him up.
“Waaaah, don’t, I don’t want to go back, sister, save me!”
Xiao Shihuo reached out his hand toward Yuan Xi.
Yuan Xi looked at Xiao Shihuo, who was crying painfully in Qin Lang’s arms, and frowned.
“Waaaah, don’t, sister, save me, sister!”
Xiao Shihuo’s cries were heart-wrenching.
Yuan Xi, truly unable to bear it, stepped forward and said to Qin Lang, “Qin Lang, let go of Huohuo, if he doesn’t want to go back let him stay in Jiang City for a couple more days. After all, we’ll be going to City A together in a few days.”
Qin Lang pointed upstairs. “Madam, President Huo insisted that Xiao Shihuo must leave today, so…”
Yuan Xi did not want to make it difficult for Qin Lang and could only listen to Xiao Shihuo’s heart-wrenching cries.
Xiao Shihuo continuously struggled in Qin Lang’s arms, but alas, how could a child not yet five be a match for Assistant Qin, who regularly worked out?
“Waaaah! Sister! Sister, I need help!”
“I want sister, waaah!”
“What’s going on here?”
Source: Webnovel.com, updated on Ɲονǥ0.ᴄο
Xiao Yun walked into the room holding Little Guying’s hand and saw Xiao Shihuo crying as if he was being slaughtered.
Xiao Shihuo saw Xiao Yun and sobbed out his complaint, “Brother, brother bad guy is making me go home, I don’t want to go home, I want sister, waaah.”
Xiao Yun took Xiao Shihuo from Qin Lang, wiped the tears from his face, and said, “Alright, you don’t have to go home. Go change into your swimsuit and play in the water with Yingying.”
Xiao Shihuo immediately stopped crying and smiled with joy.
Xiao Yun went to Huo Shiyuan’s study and said, “Uncle and aunt haven’t come back yet, grandpa is of such an age and still has to manage Shi Yi, grandma’s health is also declining day by day. If you send Xiao Shihuo back to City A, there’s no one to accompany him.”
“Yixian is getting married, uncle and aunt should be back soon. It wouldn’t be too late to send Xiao Shihuo back by then. Can’t you just bear with it for these few days?”
Huo Shiyuan said, “With Shihuo in Jiang City, Yuan Xi will still have to devote her thoughts and energy to Shihuo.”
Xiao Yun chuckled softly to himself; it turned out to be jealousy.
“In a few days when the little uncle comes back, it won’t be too late to send Xiao Huo back.”
During dinner.
Yuan Xi looked at the dish of shrimp in front of her. Perhaps she had grown accustomed to Huo Shiyuan peeling shrimp for her over the past couple of months, for she didn’t take the initiative to eat shrimp today.
But halfway through the meal, Huo Shiyuan still hadn’t started peeling shrimp.
Throughout the meal, Huo Shiyuan had a somber expression on his face.
Yuan Xi felt Huo Shiyuan’s displeasure, so she peeled shrimp for herself and occasionally for Xiao Shihuo.
By the end of the meal, Huo Shiyuan’s expression had grown even darker.
Fortunately, Xiao Ying and Xiao Shihuo, the two children, livened up the atmosphere at the table.
Otherwise, Yuan Xi feared she wouldn’t know how to eat under Huo Shiyuan’s suffocating mood.
After dinner, Yuan Xi went to her room, took out her laptop, and replied to the emails she had missed in the afternoon, until she felt sleepy at around ten o’clock at night.
After taking a shower, Yuan Xi didn’t see Huo Shiyuan enter the room. She frowned slightly and just took care of going to bed herself, as she hadn’t slept well the night before.
As she dozed off, Yuan Xi felt someone beside her, but there was no customary embrace around her waist.
Yuan Xi opened her eyes slightly. It was Huo Shiyuan, with his back to her. Yuan Xi frowned slightly and resolutely turned her back on him.
He was being so unreasonable. She clearly wasn’t mad at him, and yet he had Chen Yuan ask if she was angry. Now, he was inexplicably upset himself.
Yuan Xi turned her back on Huo Shiyuan and fell asleep, only to have chaotic dreams throughout the night.
In the morning, Yuan Xi woke up and saw that Huo Shiyuan had also just awakened; neither of them said a word.
Yuan Xi had just entered the bathroom in her room to wash up when Huo Shiyuan took a tooth mug from the side and went to wash up in the guest room’s bathroom.
At breakfast, Xiao Shihuo was still not up.
The dining table was very quiet, full of oppression.
Yuan Xi could not eat. She simply went over to the coffee machine and ground herself a cup of coffee.
After she finished her coffee, Yuan Xi looked at Huo Shiyuan. He showed no intention of getting up to see her off to work, so she went to start the car herself.
After Yuan Xi got in the car, she turned on the music inside and saw pictures of Chen Yuan making breakfast on her Moments.
Yuan Xi made a call to Chen Yuan, “Yuanzi.”
Chen Yuan said, “What’s up?”
Yuan Xi sighed, “Does Shi Lei ever get mad at you or give you the cold shoulder for no reason?”
Chen Yuan: “Cold shoulder? When we fight, he’s like a volcano erupting, how could he possibly give me the cold shoulder?”
Yuan Xi asked, “So you two fight as well?”
Chen Yuan laughed and said, “Which couple doesn’t fight? It’s totally normal. But giving the cold shoulder is not good. Is Huo Shiyuan mad? Just coax him a bit.”
“But I didn’t do anything wrong, and I don’t know why he suddenly got mad and gave me the cold shoulder; he said I was too indulgent and I didn’t even get mad at him.”
Yuan Xi sighed, “If Huo Shiyuan wants to give me the cold shoulder, then let it be, especially since the weather is indeed quite hot.”
Chen Yuan said, “The cold shoulder is definitely not acceptable. Even the best relationship can be ruined by it if it happens too many times. Any disputes should be communicated clearly.”
Yuan Xi said, “Anyway, there wasn’t much affection between him and me in the first place.”
It was only eight in the morning, and even though Yuan Xi had the car’s air conditioning on full blast, it was still very hot.
If it hadn’t been a new car, she would have thought it was broken.
Once she arrived at the company, a morning meeting helped calm her hot and bothered mood.
But a single email made Yuan Xi feel frustrated again.
Her work email was an internal one from Mi Chen, and the email was sent by an intern in the art production department of “Fall in Love with the Stars”.
The content of the email was an accusation that Yan Lingling, the head of the art production department of “Fall in Love with the Stars”, indulged her staff in plagiarizing the intern’s artwork, claimed the intern’s art as their own, and then used not passing the probation period as an excuse to fire the intern. Moreover, “Fall in Love with the Stars” was now using a lot of AI-generated art.
President Wu, who managed “Fall in Love with the Stars”, was Yan Lingling’s boyfriend. Despite the art department’s artists complaining to Wu Liang many times, Wu Liang chose to cover for them.
Yuan Xi pressed her temples as she read the email.
Mi Chen Game’s success hinged on “Fall in Love with the Stars”, an otome game that was their first big hit that neither Mi Yi nor Gu Hanchen had pinned their hopes on.
But “Fall in Love with the Stars” quickly became the number one otome game, thanks to its high-quality characters, excellent visuals, and intricate 3D modeling.
In the last couple of years, despite countless new otome games, “Fall in Love with the Stars” remained the top of the genre.
Yan Lingling had also joined Mi Chen from the beginning and could be said to have personally created “Fall in Love with the Stars”.
Yuan Xi had known Yan Lingling for five years now and it really wasn’t appropriate to condemn her based on just one intern’s email.
Nor could she make a big deal out of investigating, as Yan Lingling and Wu Liang were among the initial batch of employees at Mi Chen. Investigating the old employees just based on an intern’s report could potentially dishearten them.
After work, Yuan Xi visited Gu Hanchen in the hospital to discuss the issue.
Gu Hanchen said, “Nowadays, it’s actually quite normal for otome games to use AI for art. Many game companies have started using AI for artwork. Just tell Yan Lingling not to use AI for drawing in the future, and as for plagiarizing and claiming the intern’s work, just give Yan Lingling a warning.”
Yuan Xi frowned, “Using AI for art and plagiarism are both serious issues, not something that can be dismissed with a simple warning.
“Fall in Love with the Stars” is all about making female players fall for the male leads in-game. If even the artists don’t pour their own feelings into the male leads and instead it’s soulless AI-created characters, how can players willingly fall in love with them? Mi Chen is firmly against AI art.
Also, the act of stealing and occupying the intern’s work is quite vile.
But right now, I don’t even know how to start investigating. Based solely on a single intern’s words, if I were to investigate them and they found out, it would also chill the hearts of Mi Chen’s old employees.”
Gu Hanchen said, “There’s no rush to deal with this. I’ll have Special Assistant Wang look into it.”
Yuan Xi replied, “Alright.”