I Became an All-round Artist

Meanwhile, Gu Dong drove back to the company. As she passed by the second floor, the staff from the Composition Department peeked out, curious. They noticed that the representative from headquarters wasn’t with her, and immediately surrounded Gu Dong.

"Where is he?" "Did he just leave work already?" "Wow, he's really something. Shows up when he wants and leaves when he feels like it. No wonder he’s from headquarters. Doesn’t even acknowledge our branch." "Who is this guy from headquarters, anyway?" "He looks so young. Can he handle this?" "They say you can’t trust a man without a mustache. How is one person supposed to save our entire branch?" "Who is he, really?" "…"

Gu Dong glanced at everyone. "Don’t you all have phones? Look him up. His name is Xianyu. ‘Xian’ as in envy, ‘Yu’ as in sashimi!"

"That name sounds familiar," someone muttered skeptically.

Everyone quickly pulled out their phones to search. Due to the distance and cultural differences between the regions, the information they found was vague. But even the little they discovered was enough to shock a few of them.

"A gold-certified composer?" "I’ve never heard of a gold-certified composer so young. Is he one of those so-called geniuses? Hmm, maybe this kid’s got some real talent." "Well, obviously. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be sent here as a representative." "But it seems like he just became a gold-certified composer and was immediately sent to our branch. Why didn’t headquarters send someone more experienced?" "Maybe he’s really that good?" "I don’t know about his skills, but he’s definitely got an attitude. Skipping work on his first day, but he’s the headquarters’ representative, so no one can say anything. Not even our manager would dare to discipline him. The company’s counting on him to land a few projects and ease the pressure." "Wait, he’s the composer of The Big Fish?" "That song is pretty popular here in Qizhou. It’s the theme for The Dance of the Dragons. Could it be that headquarters sent him because he already had some success here?" "…"

The group continued to chat enthusiastically as Gu Dong headed up to the third floor. She entered the general manager's office and greeted, "Dad…"

Gu Qiangyun frowned. "How many times have I told you? Call me 'Manager' when we're at the office."

"Manager Dad?"

"Why does that sound weird?"

"Manager Gu!"

"Better. So, how did it go?" Gu Qiangyun asked nervously as he stood up. "Is Lin satisfied with the apartment?"

"The apartment is fine," Gu Dong replied, frustrated. "But don’t you think he’s a bit arrogant? First day on the job and he’s already skipping work. I spent half of yesterday cleaning up his office for nothing. Can you please hire a cleaning staff?"

"Absolutely not," Gu Qiangyun said firmly. "The company isn’t doing well. Hiring cleaners would just add to our expenses. You and the staff can handle cleaning the office. I clean my own office too, you know. It’s not like I asked you to clean the bathroom."

Gu Dong rolled her eyes.

Gu Qiangyun’s face wrinkled in thought, then he added with a hopeful tone, "But now that Lin is here, maybe he can help relieve some of our pressure…"

"You wish," Gu Dong grumbled. "I gave him the project order, thinking he’d be eager to start working. Instead, he didn’t even glance at it and just asked to be taken to his apartment. He’s probably forgotten all about it by now."

"That’s okay," Gu Qiangyun said, trying to stay optimistic. "We’ll remind him about it later. Plus, didn’t you hear from your friends that he’s pretty well-known in Qinzhou? At least he’s a gold-certified composer."

"Manager Gu," Gu Dong sighed, "he’s still a student. And a newly minted gold-certified composer at that—not the seasoned expert you were hoping for. Do you really think he was sent here because of our branch?"

Gu Qiangyun shifted uncomfortably. "What are you trying to say?"

Gu Dong shrugged, resigned. "As a student, we’d be lucky if he shows up two days a week. Exchange students have busy schedules, and I’m starting to think he wasn’t sent here to help our branch at all. He’s probably just here to attend school."

"That’s likely," Gu Qiangyun said, recalling his conversation with Lao Zhou. He was starting to put the pieces together.

"So, basically," Gu Dong continued, "the company never really planned to support our branch. They just happened to have a gold-certified composer coming to Qizhou as an exchange student. To make things look good, they gave him the title of 'representative.' Helping our branch was just a convenient side task."

"That seems to be the truth," Gu Dong said with a touch of sadness. She didn’t want to crush her father’s hope completely. After all, Lin would only be here for one academic year. Expecting him to save the company in such a short time was unrealistic. If he stayed longer, there might be a chance.

"Look on the bright side," Gu Qiangyun said, trying to stay upbeat. "He’s still a gold-certified composer. Even if he only helps with one or two projects during the year, that should give us enough time to stay afloat."

Gu Dong forced a small, comforting smile and turned to leave.

"Wait a second," Gu Qiangyun called after her. "Don’t you have Lin’s contact info? Add him to our company’s group chat so he can start to feel more integrated."

"Got it," Gu Dong replied. She pulled out her phone and added Lin Yuan to the company’s group chat. There were now 126 members in the group, including Lin.

"Welcome!" Gu Qiangyun immediately sent out a red envelope in the group chat. He initially typed in 100 yuan, hesitated, then changed it to 300 yuan before hitting send.

Everyone rushed to grab a share of the envelope, only to discover that the fastest person to claim it was none other than Lin Yuan—who had snagged a whopping two cents.

"Welcome!" "Welcome!" The group echoed the greeting in unison.

"Thank you," Lin replied politely, then tagged Gu Qiangyun. "Can we get a new project soon?"

Gu Qiangyun froze, stunned. New project? This struggling branch hadn’t seen new business in months. The only project they had was the one they’d painstakingly secured, and even that was hanging by a thread. The head office wasn’t exactly eager to help.

"Ah…" In the next office, Gu Dong sighed deeply.

Gu Qiangyun, nervous but not wanting to upset Lin, cautiously replied, "Lin, new projects take time to develop. Let’s focus on completing the current one first, alright? Take a look at the order you have."

Lin’s reply came swiftly: "It's already done."

Silence fell across the group chat.

For several minutes, no one said a word, not even Gu Qiangyun, who sat in stunned silence, staring at the message. He reread it several times, analyzing every word, every punctuation mark, until he was certain Lin had indeed said, "It's already done."

In that moment, even the normally patient Gu Qiangyun wanted to shout, Are you messing with me? Do you think I’m a fool? You mean to tell me that the project that’s been plaguing our branch for months…

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