Volume Two: Shadows of the Past Chapter Ninety-Four: The Charm of The Outcast

Since Wang Ze and the others had no further conditions to add, Chen Jing stopped beating around the bush. With a smile, he said, "Alright, if there are no other issues, let's sign the contract right away."

Hearing that it was time to sign the contract, Wang Ze and his companions naturally had no objections. Following a series of administrative procedures, the Wang Ze Manga Studio officially became a part of Jingrun.

Chen Jing shook hands with Wang Ze and said with a smile, "Here's to a pleasant cooperation ahead!"

Wang Ze looked at Chen Jing with a solemn expression. "Indeed! A pleasant cooperation!"

Seeing that the signing was finally complete, Su Qingxue suddenly looked at Chen Jing and asked with a smile, "Um... Chen... Oh wait, I should call you Boss now, right? May I boldly ask, Boss, what is your purpose in signing our studio?"

Chen Jing looked at Su Qingxue with slight surprise, then smiled and said, "Hiring your studio is, of course, to have you draw manga."

Su Qingxue raised an eyebrow and pressed further, "Draw manga? You want us to create our own stories? Or are there specific requirements?" She refused to believe that Chen Jing had signed their studio simply for them to draw random manga.

Sure enough, faced with Su Qingxue's persistent questioning, Chen Jing paused to think for a moment. He checked the time and then said, "Alright, since it's not quite time for dinner yet anyway, I'll briefly outline what you need to do next."

Hearing that the boss was about to assign tasks, Wang Ze and Yang Peng instantly straightened up and put on serious expressions.

"Hiring your studio naturally means having you continue drawing manga. However, it's not for you to create original stories from scratch. Instead, you need to draw a manga based on the plot outlines and character designs I provide," Chen Jing said, looking seriously at the three people before him. "I want to emphasize one crucial point here: your subsequent manga creation must strictly follow my requirements. This is the absolute most important thing. I will not accept your counter-proposals or arguments. If any of you cannot accept this, it's better to leave now."

What Chen Jing needed right now was simply someone capable of helping him draw the manga he wanted, not a comic team working on independent creation. Therefore, it was better to be upfront with Wang Ze and his team.

Although Wang Ze had anticipated this outcome, he still couldn't help feeling a slight pang of disappointment. He took a deep breath, looked seriously at Chen Jing, and said, "No problem, Boss. Since we've already joined Jingrun, we will definitely follow the company's arrangements. Rest assured, we won't act out of turn."

Chen Jing nodded. It was best to make things clear right from the start; otherwise, he wouldn't have enough spare time to look after the manga division.

Su Qingxue didn't seem to mind Chen Jing's terms. Instead, she asked directly, "Then what kind of manga story do you plan for us to draw, Boss?"

Su Qingxue looked at Chen Jing, thinking that if the story he was about to describe failed to move her, she would simply quit Wang Ze's manga studio. After all, only Wang Ze's studio was bound by the contract, which didn't restrict her personally.

Chen Jing showed no impatience at Su Qingxue's question; in fact, her curiosity sparked his own interest.

After a brief pause, Chen Jing reached into his drawer and pulled out a thick A4-sized notebook. He handed the notebook to Su Qingxue and said with a smile, "Here. This is the manga story I want you to draw. It contains character introductions and the plot outline. You can take a look."

Su Qingxue accepted the thick manga story outline and gave Chen Jing a somewhat surprised look.

Being able to write such a thick manga synopsis proved that he hadn't just acted on a whim, but had genuinely given it a lot of thought.

At this thought, Su Qingxue said nothing more and instead looked down at the cover of the manga synopsis. She saw only four words written on it and read them aloud: "The Outcast!"

Wang Ze, catching sight of the title on the cover, asked, "The Outcast? Is this the title of the manga you want us to draw, Boss?"

Chen Jing nodded silently, gesturing for them to look through the hand-drawn manga outline.

Without a second thought, Su Qingxue opened to the first page. She found a hand-drawn illustration of a character, accompanied by a description below:

"Feng Baobao: A temporary worker in the North China region. An unrefined and slovenly Qi-practicing master with missing memories of her past. Her worldview differs from ordinary people, and she has been constantly searching for her true identity..."

The drawing skills weren't particularly refined, and it was clear the artist was not a professional manga creator, but the general spirit and charm of the character had been captured.

Without lingering, Su Qingxue turned to the next page and found another hand-drawn character illustration, similarly accompanied by a description:

"Zhang Chulan: The successor of the Celestial Master Mansion and an employee of 'Wheregot' (Nahan Tong). He became an Outcast under the guidance of his grandfather Zhang Huanyi, practicing the Celestial Master Mansion's Golden Light Spell and Yang Five Thunders from childhood, and is an inheritor of the Qi Origin Source, one of the Eight Wonders..."

After flipping through several more pages and finding that every single page featured a character illustration, Su Qingxue looked up at Chen Jing in astonishment and asked, "Did you draw all the characters in here yourself?"

Chen Jing replied casually, "Yeah, so what? You can still make out the general character designs, right? After all, I'm not a professional manga artist, so I could only draw rough sketches. You guys can just refine them based on my templates later."

Wang Ze and Yang Peng looked at Chen Jing with equal amazement. Neither of them had expected Chen Jing to produce such a massive volume of manga outlines.

If Chen Jing were a professional manga artist, they wouldn't have been surprised. But the problem was he wasn't. Anyone familiar with Chen Jing knew he was just a singer—oh, and recently he had directed a movie. But none of those things had anything to do with manga. Was he now planning to cross industries and become a manga artist as well?

A drawing or two would have been one thing, but looking at the thick stack of outlines in Su Qingxue's hands, Wang Ze and the others were left speechless.

Hesitating for a moment, Wang Ze finally couldn't help asking, "Boss, have you ever studied manga drawing?" He figured that regardless of how well Chen Jing drew, being able to consistently create so many distinct character designs meant he must have received formal training.

As everyone knew, the facial structures of manga characters easily tended to look identical. Without proper training in manga illustration, it was nearly impossible to draw so many diverse character designs.

However, Wang Ze had just counted roughly a dozen different character designs in the pages they had browsed, and each one looked completely unique. If this wasn't the work of a professional, it was hard to imagine how it could be drawn.

Expecting Chen Jing to claim he had studied manga art, Wang Ze and the others were met with a completely unexpected answer.

Chen Jing shook his head and said, "Nope, I've never studied how to draw manga." At this, he chuckled self-deprecatingly, "If I had really studied manga, I wouldn't be limited to just single character sketches—I'd be able to draw the actual manga drafts myself."

Su Qingxue: "..."

Wang Ze: "..."

Yang Peng: "..."

Boss, we may not be the most educated people, but please don't toy with us.

Perhaps this was simply what it meant to be a genius; how else could someone achieve so much at such a young age? Wang Ze thought to himself with a deep sense of emotion.

Hearing Chen Jing admit that he had never studied manga, Su Qingxue's eyes lit up even brighter. She didn't say anything more, instead lowering her head to seriously read through the manga synopsis in her hands.

Finding it awkward to crowd around Su Qingxue, Wang Ze and Yang Peng sat to the side and struck up a casual conversation with Chen Jing.

"By the way," Chen Jing asked Wang Ze suddenly, "I'd like to ask, is your manga studio capable of producing anime?"

Wang Ze hesitated before answering honestly, "Given my studio's current conditions, there's no way we can produce anime." Then, sensing that Chen Jing might look down on them, Wang Ze quickly assured him, "But don't worry, Boss. Once we join Jingrun and have the proper facilities, we can immediately learn how to make anime. If all else fails, I can directly recruit some talent skilled in anime production."

Chen Jing naturally wouldn't look down on them. He smiled and said, "Don't worry, it's fine if you don't know how yet. Jingrun has its own internal animation film production department. Once you officially join Jingrun, I'll arrange for you to learn animation production in the animation department."

"Alright, Boss," Wang Ze nodded excitedly, feeling extremely fortunate to have found a boss as great as Chen Jing.

Yang Peng, however, was more focused on Chen Jing's mention of joining Jingrun as employees. Excitedly, he asked, "Boss, do you mean we'll be coming here to work from now on?"

"That's right. Since Jingrun has hired you, naturally you'll come here to work."

Yang Peng exclaimed with excitement, "Yes! That's amazing, Boss!" Back when their studio had rented a warehouse just to save on rental costs, they could only dream of moving into a high-rise building like this. How could he not be thrilled?

Hearing them continuously call him "Boss," Chen Jing decided to correct their form of address. "From now on in the company, don't call me Boss. Although I was the one who personally initiated your signing, you were ultimately contracted by Jingrun Corporation. If other people in the company hear you calling me Boss, it might sound a bit awkward. Just call me Chen Jing or Ah Jing directly from now on." Chen Jing genuinely didn't care about such trivial titles. Earning people's respect didn't rely on what they called him.

"Uh..." Wang Ze hesitated for a moment before offering, "Then how about we call you Young Master Chen?"

Yang Peng also chimed in with a smile, "Or how about I call you Boss Jing, just like your fans do? Hehe, I think that title sounds pretty cool."

Chen Jing laughed helplessly. "Call me whatever you like."

After chatting for another ten minutes or so, they noticed that Su Qingxue had finally finished reading the manga synopsis.

Having finished reading, Su Qingxue closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, she looked at Chen Jing with glowing, energetic eyes. "Did you really come up with the concept for this manga story all by yourself?"

"Huh?" Chen Jing looked at Su Qingxue in puzzlement. Even Lin曦, who had remained expressionless the entire time, furrowed her brow and glanced at Su Qingxue.

Asking a question like that was practically accusing Chen Jing of plagiarizing or stealing someone else's work.

Wang Ze and Yang Peng's expressions also shifted. Wang Ze quickly spoke up to stop Su Qingxue: "Qingxue, what nonsense are you talking about? Of course this is Young Master Chen's work. Whose else could it be? You and I both know there is currently no such work in the manga industry."

Su Qingxue ignored Wang Ze's reprimand, keeping her piercing gaze locked firmly on Chen Jing. She knew perfectly well that asking such a question would offend people, but she didn't care; she only wanted to hear the answer straight from his mouth.

Meeting Su Qingxue's gaze, Chen Jing understood what she meant. He nodded and said earnestly, "I can firmly state that in this world, this work belongs to me."

"In this world?" Su Qingxue caught the specific keyword in Chen Jing's phrasing.

Chen Jing tapped his temple with his finger and repeated, "Yes, in this world! Because I feel that the world of our thoughts doesn't belong to this physical world. Therefore, this work can only be considered my creation within this realm." Chen Jing spoke the honest truth; sometimes, even he wasn't entirely sure whether he had truly lived through a past life.

Su Qingxue stared blankly at Chen Jing's response for a moment before saying sincerely, "Alright, then I'll be honest with you too. Initially, I only came along with Wang Ze because I was curious about you, and I intended to leave once the contract was signed. After all, I am a solitary manga artist. But!" Su Qingxue waved the manga synopsis in her hand and said with visible excitement, "I admit I've been captivated by your manga story, so I desperately want to take part in its creation. From here on out, please guide me well."

Having listened to Su Qingxue's lengthy explanation, Wang Ze and Yang Peng were left dumbfounded.

Wang Ze knew Su Qingxue was right; she had only accompanied him to Jingrun out of curiosity toward Chen Jing. He had fully expected her to walk away after the signing. He never imagined she would choose to stay simply because of the manga outline Chen Jing had written.

Did that manga outline really possess such incredible charm? At that thought, Wang Ze's gaze involuntarily drifted toward the manuscript in Su Qingxue's hands.

With a bright smile, Chen Jing extended a hand toward Su Qingxue and said with quiet confidence, "Welcome aboard. Trust me, you'll be glad you made this decision."

Su Qingxue raised an eyebrow, reached out to shake Chen Jing's hand, and curved her lips into a smile full of anticipation. "I certainly hope so!"