About half an hour later, Rita smilingly led Cecilia's family from the company's ground floor, taking the elevator straight up to the thirty-second floor. Many of the employees were already busy with work now that the IP had been greenlit.
Through the glass partition, Shub, who had been spinning a pen at her computer desk out of boredom, seemed to sense something. Her "Cecilia-dar" reactivated. Pushing open the glass door and seeing the visitors, she shouted in surprise, "Director Cecilia!"
Cecilia, walking one step behind Rita while admiring the company's decor, was pleasantly surprised to hear a familiar voice call her name. "Hey, Shub! Weren't you at the European HQ? What are you doing at the Far East branch?"
Shub grabbed Cecilia's hand, her face beaming with happiness. "It's not just me! The Overseer arranged for everyone except Kiroro to come over."
"Hey, who are you?" Little Kiana, holding onto Cecilia's arm, pouted with displeasure.
"Eh? You must be little Kiana, right?" Shub leaned in, grinning. "I used to hold you when you were little."
"Eh? Ah?!" Kiana was stunned, her small face turning beet red.
Shub was still grinning when she suddenly glimpsed a figure behind them. Her smile vanished instantly, replaced by a cold stare directed at Siegfried.
"Er..." Siegfried felt extremely uncomfortable under her gaze. He scratched his head awkwardly. "Why does everyone look at me like that?"
"Hmph. What an eyesore," Shub said with a look of disgust. She then turned back to Cecilia, her face once again a blooming flower of smiles. "Rita, is Cecilia here for voice acting today?"
Rita shook her head gently. "Lord Yaqing wasn't specific. He just asked me to welcome Lady Cecilia and bring her to see him."
"Okay~"
Cecilia was full of questions.
Voice acting?
What voice acting?
Kiana's beautiful eyes widened. Voice acting? Is Uncle Yaqing planning to develop an anime or game franchise?
The paramecium's brain, now separated from Raiden Mei, began to spin at high speed.
An excited Kiana, a bewildered Cecilia, and a barely-there Siegfried arrived at the top-floor conference room, where Yaqing was sitting on the guest sofa.
"Sis! And little Kiana, come give your uncle a hug," Yaqing said with a smile, opening his arms.
Kiana pushed Yaqing's handsome face away with a look of disdain. "Uncle, I'm not little anymore."
Yaqing clutched his chest. "Ah, the pain in my heart."
Kiana gave him an exasperated, forceful shove.
Yaqing stumbled back a few steps and fell onto the sofa, a helpless smile on his face.
"Alright, little brother, stop teasing Kiana," Cecilia said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry at the two "kids." She sat down next to Yaqing, leaning on his shoulder with a smile.
"Mom~" Kiana stomped her foot, sat on the sofa, and hugged Cecilia's slender waist.
Siegfried sat silently on the sofa on the other side.
"Sis, I'm planning to base the protagonist on you," Yaqing said, naturally putting an arm around his sister's shoulder.
"Eh? Me? Is that okay?" Cecilia had a dazed expression on her face. One look was enough to know where Bianka got it from.
Yaqing nodded at Rita.
As his secretary, Rita understood immediately. She picked up the project proposal from the desk, placed it on the coffee table, knelt down to open it to the script section, and then thoughtfully excused herself from the room.
"Let me see, let me see," Kiana said, grabbing the proposal.
Cecilia leaned over her daughter's shoulder to look.
The plot of the Second Eruption focused on the love between Siegfried and Cecilia, and their parental affection for Sirin. "Siegfried, you should take a look too. There's a role for you as well."
Yaqing stood up, giving his seat to Siegfried.
"Me? Okay." Siegfried sat down on Kiana's other side.
The script was long, especially since Yaqing had made some changes to extend it, but Cecilia was immediately drawn in. When Siegfried saw the line, "To protect the one I love most, I'm willing to give my life!", he was so excited he almost jumped up from the sofa.
The proposal had no voice acting or visuals, and a script is different from a novel, making it hard to get immersed. But the lines of dialogue were enough to move the three of them to tears.
"Mom, was Sirin's life really that miserable?" Kiana sobbed.
Cecilia's beautiful eyes were filled with tears as she hugged Kiana tightly.
When he read about Cecilia's sacrifice, Siegfried clenched his fists.
At the end of the proposal, Yaqing had deliberately left out the final chapter. He was afraid Siegfried might fly into a rage and storm off to HQ. After the movie was released, however, it wouldn't be his problem.
Siegfried gave Yaqing an ecstatic bear hug. "Brother Yaqing, I was wrong about you! I never thought you'd be the one person in this world who understands me best!"
"Let go." Yaqing patted the non-existent dust off his suit with a look of disgust.
"Uncle, Mom didn't... As the protagonist, how could she so easily..." They say women are emotional creatures, and that included this paramecium. Kiana stared at Yaqing, her eyes glistening with tears.
"Er..."
Yaqing felt extremely uncomfortable being stared at like this and could only remain silent.
Cecilia understood him. The character was well-developed, and the story's conclusion was built on a great deal of foreshadowing. If Yaqing had let her character live, it would have been a narrative flaw.
Cecilia comforted Kiana.
Siegfried nudged Yaqing with his elbow and whispered, "I saw there are Anti-Entropy characters in there. Are you really going to get Welt to do the voice acting? Don't you know about his relationship with Otto?"
Yaqing shot him a dead-fish stare. "Why else do you think I asked you to come? Did you really think it was just for voice acting?"
Siegfried looked troubled. "Well, I can't guarantee anything. Unless you let Welt see his character's role, he'll definitely suspect Schicksal is trying to slander him in the anime."
"If he wants to see it, he can see it. This is just the prequel, anyway."
"Prequel?" Siegfried's eyes widened. He snatched the proposal from Kiana's hands, ignoring her puffed-up cheeks, and flipped through the pages again.
"Er..."
Siegfried looked at Yaqing. He guessed that the protagonist of the next part would be either Kiana or Theresa, and it was most likely Theresa.
"The protagonist is Theresa?" Siegfried asked in disbelief.
Yaqing neither confirmed nor denied it, only smiling.
Seeing this, Siegfried and Cecilia took it as a confirmation.
"Ah! It's Great-Aunt..." Kiana instantly lost all hope for the future plot.
"Don't get ahead of yourselves. If the future developments were so easy for you to guess, how else am I supposed to earn their... tears—I mean, money," Yaqing said mysteriously.
Just then, his sexy secretary Rita pushed the door open, served tea for everyone, and stood smiling by Yaqing's side. The sight made Siegfried's mouth twitch. When I was assigned overseas, the Overseer never gave me such a beautiful secretary!
"By the way, Sis, don't just sit there. Help me ask Theresa about this."
"Okay~"
Yaqing picked up his phone again.
He dialed the number of a certain corporate drone who was currently at work.