Mysterious Assistant of the Washed-Up Queen-Chapter 502 - 327: Anime Group, Heading South for Filming

"Hello everyone, this is our boss, Chu Tian. You can call him President Chu."

After the assistant brought Chu Tian in, he adeptly introduced him to the several people present. Otherwise, they would have been confused for quite some time, not knowing who had arrived.

There was no helping it; there had been too many things this year. Especially since Chu Tian had added several projects, he needed to make decisions on all aspects of this content. Moreover, with the studio having its own set of issues, he simply didn’t have the time for interviews or to get to know these people in advance. The whole animation team had been recruited and started working without him even having time to look at the list. If it hadn’t been for the upcoming MV shoot with Xu Qingqiu, he probably wouldn’t have remembered them for a while.

"Hello, President Chu."

"President Chu."

Amidst a murmur of similar greetings, Chu Tian, seeing the seven people who hurriedly stood up, quickly gestured for them to sit down.

"Everyone sit, please. I’m very sorry for only meeting you now. It’s just been a bit busy on my end. I appreciate your understanding."

"Let’s not waste words. I know everyone here has dreams. You also want to make some money, so I won’t stand on ceremony."

"Let’s introduce ourselves. As you heard just now, you can call me Chu Tian or President Chu. Who wants to start?"

After Chu Tian finished speaking, the group exchanged looks, eventually turning their gaze toward the person at the very back.

"Hello, President Chu. I’m Zhou Yu. I was the founder of Qilin Pavilion, and also a part-time scriptwriter, director, and original artist." 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Qilin Pavilion was the predecessor of this team. According to what Hou Yichuan had mentioned earlier, Chu Tian had also heard about it briefly. Originally, Qilin Pavilion was a group of animation enthusiasts who came together to form it, initiated by this Zhou Yu. The primary purpose of establishing Qilin Pavilion was to promote domestic comics and create their own manga works.

Unfortunately, dreams couldn’t stand up to reality. Qilin Pavilion lasted for three years and produced about seven or eight works, big and small. The production rate wasn’t high, but the quality was very good. However, it was unclear whether its lack of success was due to plot issues or the content being too niche. Suffice to say, other than a small group of die-hard fans, it never showed signs of becoming mainstream. Without mainstream success, there was no hype; without hype, there was no traffic, and thus no money was being made. Ultimately, by the third year, under the crushing realities of life, they had to compromise.

At its peak, Qilin Pavilion had more than twenty members, but now only the scattered seven in front of him remained. Hou Yichuan had taken them in primarily because he was impressed by their production level. Coupled with Chu Tian’s urgent need, he had decided to bring the entire team over.

"Zhou Yu, nice to meet you. Your works are excellent, and your dream is great. I’m glad to work with you."

Chu Tian had actually been looking for Zhou Yu earlier, as he was, in a way, the spiritual leader of these people. The side effect of acquiring the whole team wholesale was the inevitable need to deal with the former leader’s influence. Earlier, Chu Tian deliberately hadn’t singled him out, partly to gauge his influence and partly to send a clear signal: he was the boss here. If anyone failed to recognize this, Chu Tian wouldn’t hesitate to remove them. He needed a team that would follow his orders, not a small clique acting independently with his money.

Zhou Yu clearly realized this. He behaved very humbly and quickly clarified his position. He stated he was just a former initiator, not a former boss, positioning Qilin Pavilion as a dream team rather than a commercial entity like a company. Lastly, he introduced his skills, clearly indicating he didn’t mind being treated as an ordinary original artist.

Chu Tian was also pleased with this. Since the man was so perceptive, he began to appreciate him somewhat. After all, in Chu Tian’s view, what he gave you was yours; what he didn’t give, you couldn’t snatch. If you understood when to advance and when to retreat, and recognized the facts, then giving you a bit more was no big issue. Just like now, seeing how measured Zhou Yu was, he didn’t mind continuing to let him lead the team.

With Zhou Yu taking the lead, the others also relaxed. The team was quite complete, with all positions adequately filled. If needed, these people could definitely produce a complete work.

Chu Tian talked with them for a while. Because time was genuinely limited, he directly appointed Zhou Yu as the head of the animation team. For someone to persist for so long, even when down on their luck, and still have people willing to follow them—that at least showed they had admirable qualities. Considering Zhou Yu’s earlier performance and Chu Tian’s lack of time to individually assess suitable candidates, he had simply chosen him.

Ignoring Zhou Yu’s surprised expression, after arranging the specific positions, Chu Tian started assigning tasks directly.

"We’re short on time and have a heavy task ahead. I have a very important project that I need you to complete as soon as possible."

"Here is the script for the content I need produced. This is the storyboard, this is the character design, and this is the style draft. The art style should follow this image."

As Chu Tian pulled out various documents one after another, everyone present was stunned.

Wait, isn’t this all supposed to be our job?

Typically, when producing animation, the client at most provides an idea or a requirement; the rest is up to the animation company to handle.