London Financial Street,

Scholastic Group, 15th floor of the European Headquarters Building.

Little Prince Project Department.

"Editor-in-chief, the printing plant hopes we can speed up... well, the European Union is still on strike, the supply chain is quite unstable, both paint and labor costs are rising. The group’s finance department estimates that if printing is delayed until April, the printing costs of the first batch of books may increase by 7% to 15%..."

The Little Prince project assistant, a chubby man, just stepped out of the elevator.

He had half a donut in his mouth and a tray full of Starbucks coffee cups from downstairs in his arms, his forehead covered in sweat.

The chubby assistant, mumbling into his Bluetooth headset, walked towards the office, placing coffee on each senior’s desk in the department.

He hung up the phone, wiped the sweat off his neck with his jacket sleeve, and without needing any urging from his supervisor, quickly trotted back to his desk.

The final text editing, three rounds of proofreading, and typesetting for The Little Prince were all completed. With printing approaching, the entire department was busy.

It’s not the 70s now, if you dare command the office clerks to serve tea and water, the HR department might summon you for a talk tomorrow under the accusation of gender discrimination.

Therefore, the chubby assistant, being inexperienced, became the most overworked and underappreciated person in the department.

Not only did he need to coordinate with various departments of the group, but he also had to fetch coffee, pick up packages, and bring lunch for the big shots in the same office, leaving him no proper time even to enjoy a donut.

Oppressed at work, the chubby assistant could only fantasize that once he gained seniority, he could boss around the newcomers for some misplaced joy.

He sat at his desk, opened his computer, and found a new email in his inbox.

[Detective Cat "Little Prince" Sample Draft—Agent Mr. Folivora]

"Detective Cat? Mr. Tree Sloth? What kind of weird names are these."

The chubby assistant pouted.

"Is it the sample draft from that online illustrator?" A man holding a coffee cup stood behind him, staring at his computer screen, "Is there milk in this?"

"Milk, two spoonfuls, no saccharin."

The chubby assistant, used to running errands and doing menial jobs, fluently recited the person’s preference just from the blurry reflection on the computer screen. He nodded, "Yes, the sample draft from the illustrator assigned for The Little Prince."

"The Little Prince illustrator... that’s uncertain, she also has to pass the art department’s review to get the contract."

The man seemed to know some gossip about the higher-ups in the group, he muttered, "I heard the boss of the art department is quite unhappy with Detective Cat getting involved."

"Not just the art department, I’m also unhappy."

Another colleague came over, "Putting so much effort into making a book, only to hire an unprofessional online illustrator in the end, what’s that about! It’s fine for other books, but everyone knows how important illustrations are for The Little Prince."

The Little Prince is among the most unique in fairy tales.

The first section of the first story begins with the protagonist showing various paintings to adults.

From the first sentence of this book to its ending, every plot is closely related to various illustrations.

Otherwise, the original author Saint-Exupéry wouldn’t have personally drawn so many illustrations.

There were even senior book reviewers on the famous readers’ website GoodReader who believed that for The Little Prince, the text is merely the skeleton carrying the ideas, while the illustrations are the true soul. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Such important work, and a web artist was invited to handle it.

Not only does the group’s art department have complaints, but most colleagues in the Little Prince project team are genuinely unhappy too.

When the illustrations turn out terrible, and sales suffer, everyone’s performance bonuses will also disappear.

Because it aligns with the public, illustrations have the lowest "artistic value" in the hierarchy of painting subjects.

And for the same reason, illustrations are also the subjects within the painting hierarchy that most distinctly reveal an artist’s skill level.

Words do not rank first, while martial arts do not rank second, yet illustrations do not fit this saying.

If you line up paintings by Picasso, Da Vinci, and Van Gogh and ask whose is better or worse, not only are the audiences divided.

Even top professors from art academies wouldn’t dare make such a judgment.

Truth be told, there has never been a unified evaluation standard for artistic value.

But illustrations are different, audiences vote with their actions.

The illustrator capable of creating works that most entice customers to purchase is the most capable illustrator.

In the book market, it’s like if two identical works were placed in front of you, with only the cover illustrations being different.

Three out of ten customers entering the store choose the first book, while seven choose the second.

Then there’s no need to talk about art concepts or painting techniques, in the market’s eyes, the latter’s illustrator is superior to the former.

Traffic and sales figures are the hard facts.

That’s why a good illustrator is crucial to the Scholastic Group’s project team.

The works of an excellent illustrator truly can convert into real sales, earning the group heaps of money, with the ability to turn scrap into treasure.

Having numerous reasonably skilled illustrators under his command, this is also why Director Charlie of the art department dares to disregard President Osborne.

"Shh... For Detective Cat to snag this lucrative opportunity from the art department, he must have strong connections! Hard to say what kind of backing he has, don’t spread rumors."