NOVEL NEXT Chapter 14 - Company
Chapter 14: Company
And now, Bao Xiang stood outside the headquarters of Hou Entertainment.
Looking up at the towering building, Bao Xiang originally thought her emotions would be more nervous, but—surprisingly—she feels oddly calm at this moment.
The battle with the Seven-Winged Monster seems to have had some impact, yet, at the same time, it doesn’t appear to have caused significant waves.
Battles between monsters and magical girls occur daily, with common occurrences like building destruction and casualties. Compared to the aftermath created by some combat-oriented magical girls from martial arts schools, this disaster is relatively minor.
Most importantly, the affected area of this incident lies outside the school grounds, causing no substantial impact on the teachers and students. Teachers and students continue with their daily routines, and everything seems to have returned to the tranquility of the past.
However, it’s not entirely possible to claim that there were no consequences. Successfully defeating the fully developed Seven-Winged Monster is, after all, a significant event in the magical girl world.
Thanks to this, there have been considerable changes in the ranking of magical girls—
Bao Xiang, who was originally at the 165th position, has skyrocketed and is on the verge of breaking into the top 100. Surprisingly, the underground magical girl, Snow Qing, who had the lowest popularity, has shot up directly to the 109th position—mind you, without the backing support of an entertainment company.
This kind of occurrence is simply unthinkable in the past. Normally, underground magical girls are ranked far beyond the top 500.
However, the “promotion” of the two also comes with a price—Bao Xiang, originally in the top 100, has dropped out to 200th place. Moreover, she has been instructed to report to the company headquarters on the next day—meaning today.
At this moment, Bao Xiang is standing outside the main entrance of the Hou Entertainment headquarters.
Gazing at the prominent electronic display in the lobby, which showcases another officially debuted magical girl named Fei, Bao Xiang sighs.
In fact, Bao Xiang holds conflicting feelings towards Fei. In the Hou Corporation, there are currently only two officially debuted magical girls—Bao Xiang and Fei. Bao Xiang is the more recent debutante, so in terms of seniority, Fei should be her senior.
However, for some reason, Fei has been intentionally or unintentionally hidden by the company. What’s even stranger is that, despite this, Fei remains incredibly loyal to the company. She is the magical girl the company trusts the most, and vice versa.
Bao Xiang has never been able to comprehend this bizarre situation.
But now, it seems that Fei’s concealment is about to become a thing of the past. Bao Xiang watches the program where she used to be showcased and, with mixed feelings, sees Fei officially taking her place as the company’s top idol.
With a heavy heart, Bao Xiang proceeds towards the elevator, takes out the company-issued employee card, swipes it at the panel, and presses the button for “T2″—the floor where the producer’s office is located. The highest floor of the Hou Corporation is “T3.”
Bao Xiang has to meet with the producer first.
As the elevator slowly ascends, the ground below gradually recedes.
The floor where the producer’s office is located also represents each person’s position in the company.
T2 is already the second-highest floor in the company.
As far as Bao Xiang knows, the annoying producer wasn’t initially in a high position. It was only after becoming the manager of the magical girl Fei that he replaced the former magical girl idol producer and rapidly rose to his current status.
In some sense, Fei’s true loyalty might not be to the company but to that jerk.
Thinking about this, Bao Xiang can’t help but grit her teeth.
Ding!
With the sound of the prompt, the elevator’s doors slowly open.
Bao Xiang leaves the elevator, walks along the spacious corridor, and finally arrives at the producer’s room.
Knock, knock, knock.
Bao Xiang knocks on the door.
“Come in.”
The producer already knew who was outside the door; he had the authority to monitor all rooms below T3.
Du Zhi pushed open the door and heard the sounds of a variety show—that was the live broadcast of the Bao Xiang program.
In front of the television, a girl was squatting there, watching with relish—that was a girl with an extremely ugly appearance.
Du Zhi didn’t know how to describe that grotesque face; she could never get used to it.
If it were just pure ugliness, Du Zhi might not have had a strong reaction; after all, there were plenty of monsters that she found unattractive. However, the grotesqueness of the girl was a kind of terrifying non-human horror—slightly asymmetrical features and subtly distorted facial features gave a physiological disgust.
This wasn’t the first time Du Zhi had seen her; this ugly girl lived in the inner room of the producer’s room. But no matter how many times Du Zhi saw her, she couldn’t get used to that face.
Some suspected that this girl was the producer’s lover, but looking at her appearance—it’s really hard to imagine anyone accepting this taste.
And Du Zhi was quite certain that the relationship between this ugly girl and the producer was not good; they only lived together for some reason.
So, in some sense, Du Zhi really admired the producer because he could endure living with such a “monster.”
“Hey, Ugly Freak.”
Du Zhi greeted the ugly girl; everyone called her that, even the producer.
However, the other party ignored this insulting nickname and just kept staring at the TV, staring at Bao Xiang. A sickly ecstasy appeared on her ugly face—she always looked like that.
Bao Xiang is indeed very beautiful, but is it really to the point of being obsessed like this?
So, Du Zhi suspected that she was a brain-dead fan of Bao Xiang.
“Finally here? Why are you so late? Didn’t we say that for the company-arranged schedule, you need to arrive an hour early?”
The producer, sitting in the office seat, spoke with a stern tone, showing no remorse for yesterday’s events.
Seeing this suited jerk, Du Zhi couldn’t help but feel furious.
“Whatever, this time is good too. We can watch this together; it’s really interesting.”
The producer smiled mysteriously and then pressed the button on the remote control.
The TV screen switched to a live news broadcast, and a white magical girl appeared in the center of the screen. However, Du Zhi had no mood to listen to what she was saying.
The disappearance of the “idol” also made the nearby “Ugly Freak” very dissatisfied. She glared at the producer with a face that seemed like she wanted to kill someone.
The producer naturally noticed this, but he didn’t care at all; instead, he looked at Du Zhi with great interest.
“You performed really badly this time. The original stardom plan was completely ruined by you.”
“…”
Du Zhi didn’t argue; she just wanted to quietly wait for fate’s judgment.
However, the next topic did not unfold as she had imagined—
“What do you think of the magical girl Snow Cyan?”
?
Du Zhi was full of question marks.
“Magical girl Snow Cyan, a formidable fighter who always acts alone, a mysteriously captivating magical girl. Most importantly—she looks quite good and has a figure that ranks among the top in magical girls.”
The producer brought up a topic that sounded like sexual harassment.
But Du Zhi always felt that this was not the real reason. From her understanding, this man never spoke the truth.
“Cough cough, in short, the company has always hoped to get in touch with this underground magical girl, but she has always been a loner, so there’s no way to approach her. But… it seems that her action pattern has changed slightly this time—after all, she never talked to anyone when she fought in the past.”
Du Zhi began to understand the producer’s intention.
“Moreover—”
The producer’s gaze turned back to the television.
“With the current events… so the company has devised a plan. And you, now, have a chance to make up for it—there’s something you need to do next. As long as you do it well, the company will not only not hold you accountable for your negligence but will continue to support you as always.”
The producer revealed a meaningful smile.