"More than twenty companies have interviewed me."
"I challenged them all without reason, no matter how hard the people around me stared."
"But... I failed every single one!"
"If you're that miserable, could you at least not say it with a smile...?"
Listening to the headache-inducing speech, Tang Yao looked helplessly at the applicant across from her and couldn't help saying, "Besides, aside from your experience in graphic design, all your work experience is related to games, isn't it? You even made a doujin game as a student... The game industry has been taking off lately. Compared with becoming a manga editor, I'd actually recommend you try working in games. You'd probably have a better future there."
"I tried. None of them wanted me."
Across from Tang Yao, a gloomy, dejected, balding man let out a long sigh. If they hadn't been indoors, he probably would've pulled out a cigarette.
—In short, he had quite a story.
"..."
None of them?
Hearing that very telling "none," Tang Yao couldn't help taking a closer look at the applicant in front of her.
Kang Ming, seated across from Tang Yao, couldn't quite withstand her scrutiny. His old face flushed despite himself.
From his earlier, practically self-destructive remarks, it was clear this guy wasn't exactly thin-skinned.
But... the woman in front of him was just too striking.
In fact, the publishing house where Tang Yao worked was located in the busiest part of the city center. The area was full of polished, stylish women, not to mention beautiful ones.
If anything, Kang Ming had already seen plenty on his way there.
By comparison, Tang Yao's makeup and clothes were both rather careless. She wore such light makeup that it was almost impossible to notice—she might not have been wearing any at all—and her outfit was ordinary, a simple white shirt with black straight-leg trousers. Nothing about it stood out.
If you ignored her figure, her looks, and her bearing, she was nothing worth mentioning.
But the problem was, he couldn't ignore the facts...
Her flawless face, like a piece of fine jade; her lively eyes; her sweet charm, somewhere between mature and youthful... Normally, if God opened one door, He had to close a window, right? But this girl was gorgeous, and her figure was downright unfair, with those unbelievable curves...
So which window had God closed for her?
Kang Ming was still wondering.
Anyway, he'd come for an interview, yet sitting across from her somehow made him feel as if his very presence were polluting the air. The inexplicable inferiority complex was hard to shake...
Meanwhile.
Tang Yao watched the applicant for a while, then fell silent before speaking again. "What about the other small companies...?"
Kang Ming sighed and gave in to despair. "I've been to pretty much every game company out there. None of them wanted me."
"So you came here to try your luck?"
"..."
All right.
Tang Yao finally understood how he'd managed to rack up more than twenty interviews.
She picked up the documents on the desk and looked them over again. After a moment's hesitation, she said, "Actually, your résumé is impressive. You don't have relevant work experience, but HR approved you. If you really want to give it a try, I can..."
"..."
Kang Ming, who had already given up hope, suddenly looked up.
Could the girl in front of him really be an angel?
"Wait, don't get excited yet. It's not up to me... Most of the team is out, and the editor-in-chief had to attend an important meeting at the last minute. I'm only here to fill in and meet with you."
Tang Yao raised a pale hand to calm Kang Ming, then added, "The editor-in-chief still has to review your application before we can say whether it'll work out. But I'll do my best to make your evaluation look good."
"...Thank you."
Kang Ming froze for a moment, then lowered his head again. Though disappointed, he still thanked her, as if he were used to this. "So I just wait to hear back?"
"Yes. Take care. I'm about to head out, too..."
Tang Yao gave him a clear answer and stood up.
But she didn't leave right away. Instead, she reached into the pen holder on the desk and took out a pair of scissors for cutting paper. Holding them, she gave them a gentle wave, a hint of murderous intent in her expression, as if she were about to stab someone.
"???"
Kang Ming, blessed with a powerful man's hairstyle at a young age, was stunned.
What was she doing?
Was this part of the interview?
Looking at the beautiful girl gently waving the scissors, a hint of killing intent in her lovely, almond-shaped eyes, he asked uncertainly, "What's that for?"
"Don't be nervous... It's not aimed at you."
Tang Yao came back to herself. Still holding the scissors, she turned and smiled gently. The dimples in her cheeks bloomed like a cornflower, radiating a captivating charm. "I'm just preparing a weapon to chase up on a deadline... Relax."
Oh, so it was a weapon for chasing up on a deadline... Wait! No matter how you looked at it, that sounded wrong!
Kang Ming broke into a sweat. "A-a weapon for chasing up on a deadline?"
"Yeah. I wanted to buy a cleaver, but it's not very convenient to carry around."
"...Are all manga editors like this?"
"Depends on the person."
"That's a relief..."
"The editor I know usually carries a cleaver."
"!!!!!"
"..."
Kang Ming felt awful. He looked from the menacing girl to his résumé, and suddenly wanted to take it back and run...
Actually, maybe trying the game companies again wouldn't be so bad.
Unfortunately.
After choosing her weapon, Tang Yao picked up the résumé on the desk and left the reception room without another word.
Tang Yao carried the résumé out of the reception room, returned to her workstation to put it away, then picked up two file folders and headed out.
She hadn't been joking. She really was going to chase up on a deadline.
She didn't want to go, but she couldn't put it off... After leaving the office, she went to the roadside and hailed a cab.
Before long.
A taxi pulled up.
Tang Yao opened the rear door, apologized for the trouble, and gave the driver the address of an upscale residential complex not far from the city center.
But the driver didn't move. The middle-aged man, who'd been driving a taxi for years, stared at the rearview mirror and froze for about five seconds before snapping out of it and starting the car.
Even after the car pulled away, he kept glancing at the rearview mirror.
"..."
Tang Yao helplessly shifted to the window seat and used the seat to block his view.
Only then did the driver look away, though his face still held a trace of awe.
"...Why does this keep happening?"
Looking out the window, Tang Yao felt annoyed. Especially when she remembered the driver's gaze just moments ago... She leaned forward slightly, rested her forehead against the seat with an utterly defeated expression, and muttered under her breath.
She'd been here for a week, but honestly, she still couldn't quite figure out her situation.
If this was a reincarnation, it didn't seem right. Even her gender didn't match...
But if she'd crossed into another world, everything felt so familiar. The only explanation left seemed to be a parallel world.
But this parallel world was just too strange.
Mobile internet was on the verge of taking off.
Online games were fiercely competitive, yet many things were still remarkably underdeveloped.
At the same time, the country had a fully fledged anime industry.
And even though the mobile internet era was about to arrive, traditional magazines still hadn't died out.
Even more outrageous was the vast territory that dominated most of Asia...
Tang Yao couldn't make sense of it, but she was deeply shaken.
That was right.
She hadn't originally belonged to this world. At least, her soul hadn't.
When she'd first arrived, she'd fought it, complained, and given up on herself.
But after passing through shock, denial, anger, and depression,
she'd accepted her fate... She had no choice. If she didn't work, she'd starve, so she'd gone to work.
Her job: manga editor!
A profession that hadn't been particularly well-known in her previous life—and one she'd never done before.
After a week of miserable adjustment and frantically poring over the original owner's memories, she'd gotten a rough idea of what the job entailed.
Then she'd realized it was a pretty good job, except it made you not want to live...
Because it was a terrible job.
She'd been a wage slave in her previous life, and now she was a wage slave all over again.
Hadn't she crossed worlds for nothing?
Tang Yao had already planned to quit and run away.
But before that, she still had to get this job done.
She had no choice. Poverty forced her to endure the indignity.
Poverty had made her leave the office, even though she wanted nothing more.
In fact, this was what bothered her most about her current situation. After she started working, even her deep confusion over her gender seemed insignificant compared with this job as a "manga editor"—another miserable wage-slave position.
As for why she was so unhappy...
"Miss, we're here."
The driver's voice brought her back to herself.
Tang Yao came around, sighed, and quietly paid before getting out.
Once outside, she looked toward the upscale residential complex in the golden heart of the city, sighed again, then trudged inside.
Ten minutes later.
Tang Yao reached Building C at the center of the complex, went up to the twentieth floor, and rang the doorbell.
She really didn't want to come, and her heart felt heavy.
But the moment she rang the bell, she still put on a neutral expression and did her best to look more imposing.
Though it didn't work very well.
Soon, footsteps sounded, and the door opened. A man in his thirties, wearing round glasses and sporting a rather wooden expression, appeared in the doorway.
The moment he saw Tang Yao, his eyes lit up. "Editor Tang."
"...Assistant Li, sorry to bother you. Is Teacher Ou here?"
Tang Yao greeted him politely, then looked past Assistant Li and got straight to the point. "I'm here to discuss the storyboards for this issue."
"..."
At her words, the assistant, whose surname was Li, remembered something. The delight in his eyes vanished at once.
His expression shifted, and he instinctively turned around.
As soon as he turned,
an impatient voice came from behind him.
"Li Jiang! Is that the female editor? If it is, tell her to get lost! I've eaten more salt than she's eaten rice! Does she know anything about character development? Or plot? Or drawing?! She's an outsider! Where does she get the nerve to criticize my work and say my art's no good?
Tell her to get lost. The farther away, the better!"
The impatient voice wasn't quiet.
Li Jiang heard it.
Tang Yao heard it too.
"..."
Li Jiang awkwardly turned back to her and looked at Tang Yao, unsure what to say.
Tang Yao's face was expressionless.
That was right.
This was one of the reasons she didn't want to do this job.
I feel like I'll forget how to write if I don't start a new book soon... So I guess this is a book to get back into practice. Honestly, my last book hit me too hard, and I've become a little afraid of writing. I don't think I can go on like this... So this book came about. You can probably tell where the inspiration for it came from just from the opening, but honestly, the manga editor is only a starting point. This time, the girl's goal is to become part of the adult world, because I want to see if I can weave together the things I love...
If you can forgive me, and still feel a little excited after reading this, then I'd be grateful if you'd give the book a chance...
Also, I'm sorry it took so long.
Before you continue