Eh...

"It's simply man-believable, heaven cannot man-dure, forcing a man..."

Perhaps she had gotten into the rhythm of saying it, because Gu Xue blurted out several more idioms, rattling them off like a rapid-fire recitation...

Looking at Gu Xue's obvious resistance, both director Abe Shinichi and episode director Misawa Hiroshi wore unexpectedly awkward expressions. It seemed they had never considered that Gu Xue might refuse.

Gu Xue was not overly agitated, aside from springing to her feet at the start. But the string of words involving "difficult" that she recited made many of the key animators in the conference room suppress laughter. At the same time, they were rather surprised. To them, Misawa Hiroshi handing that series of extremely difficult cuts to Gu Xue was genuinely baffling.

After all, only a handful of people knew what had happened with Episode Six of the Animation.

In fact, few people paid attention to the list of key animators appearing in an Animation's ED. Even though Gu Xue's name had been placed quite high on that list, hardly anyone noticed. Most people only remembered that, during the drawing meeting for Episode Six, Gu Xue had wanted to animate some cuts, only to be ruthlessly turned down by Misawa Hiroshi, who had still been in his "I'm gonna make some fucking big news with this episode" phase...

Back then, you looked down on her, and now you were pulling this? Wasn't that deliberately making things difficult for her?

Trying to drive her away?

Quite a few people began casting meaningful looks at the director and episode director seated at the head of the table.

Mihara Chisa's expression was also terrible. She looked at Gu Xue, who was still firing off idioms. Her petite body erupted with startling force as she braced both hands on the table and gritted her teeth. "Mr. Misawa, is this what you call presenting better content to the audience? Relying on a little girl? Or rather, making things difficult for a little girl to achieve it?"

"..." Gu Xue stopped reciting idioms, her face full of black lines.

You really dare to say that...

You look about the same age as me, okay...

Feeling the gazes that carried varying degrees of disdain and being pressed by Mihara Chisa, Misawa Hiroshi grew even more embarrassed. He forced himself to explain, "Um... everyone, perhaps you don't know this yet, but Gu Xue's animation skills have improved tremendously. Miss Gu drew the key animation for the final portion of Episode Six of Ore-sama—those two cuts that sparked heated discussion online. The result was genuinely excellent. That was why I came up with the idea of changing the storyboards. It isn't what you think, and I wasn't deliberately making things difficult for her. There's no reason for me to do that."

"That's right." Director Abe Shinichi chimed in from the side. "When Misawa first told me he wanted to alter the storyboards, I disagreed. It wasn't until he showed me the final on-screen result of Gu Xue's key animation that I was persuaded. We truly aren't deliberately making things difficult for Gu Xue. We're asking Gu Xue to take on this work. It is admittedly rather reckless... but I believe we can overcome this difficulty. After all, every Animation creator wants to make an Animation that satisfies the audience, right?"

Abe Shinichi truly was an old hand. He appeared to be addressing everyone, but his gaze never left Gu Xue. He was clearly playing the emotional card.

Mihara Chisa's expression eased somewhat, though it was still unpleasant. She narrowed her eyes and looked at Gu Xue, who was absurdly young, with some suspicion.

The others did not think that much about it.

The two big shots had stepped forward one after another to explain. Everyone listened with blank expressions, then someone let out an "Ehhh~~~?" and all eyes shifted onto Gu Xue.

First she had been praised, then so many people stared at her.

Gu Xue took a deep breath and wanted to put on a calm, composed expression that said, See? I'm amazing, but she found that she simply could not do it...

"I merely did my job. I'm not that outstanding..." Gu Xue said politely, her expression awkward as she stealthily sat back down and tilted her head slightly to one side, hoping to avoid some of the stares.

To be honest, Gu Xue had always been a rather introverted person. She was not the sort who could remain unfazed by praise, much less smugly enjoy it. She had been the same way on Earth. If she did well on a project and the director or related staff thanked her for her efforts by @-ing her on Twitter, she would be very happy and could accept the praise without reservation. She could even interact with them a little, since there was a screen between them. But in real life, being praised in a conference room while dozens of people watched? She could not handle that. She would still feel happy afterward, but in the moment, she only felt overwhelmed and embarrassed. She could not feel happy at all.

Gu Xue had always envied two kinds of people. One was the kind who could fall asleep quickly—talking one second, then asleep and even snoring the next. The other was the kind who could calmly accept praise under everyone's watchful eyes. To Gu Xue, both types were incredible.

"Mr. Misawa, even if Miss Gu truly has the ability to draw the cuts you want, I still do not believe she can complete them within the deadline. Time is not a problem that can be solved through perseverance alone, unless we really delay the broadcast of the final episode. And you drew such reckless storyboards without discussing them with her beforehand. Please do not do this again." After staring at Gu Xue for a while, Mihara Chisa finally chose to temporarily set aside her doubts about Gu Xue's abilities and turned to Misawa Hiroshi.

There was far less gunpowder in her words this time. Rather than an interrogation, it sounded more like a discussion.

It seemed she had resigned herself to it.

Misawa Hiroshi fell silent for a moment and did not refute Mihara Chisa's words. He recalled his journey as the episode director for Episode Six, from I'm gonna make some fucking big news! to Forget it. After another moment of silence, he said hoarsely, "Miss Gu, I know the cuts assigned to you this time are rather reckless, and the difficulty is not low. But I still want you to take them on. You can make some reasonable requests—for example, if there are cuts you are not good at or truly cannot complete, I can remove them and find someone else to draw them. Also, if you feel the workload is too heavy, you only need to draw the first key animation. I'll find someone else to do the Kiyo-Nigen. And regarding the payment for each cut, I'll discuss it with Miss Mihara later and raise the rate as much as possible."

Mihara Chisa hesitated for a moment but did not speak up to object to Misawa Hiroshi's unreasonable proposal to raise the unit price.

During Animation production, management personnel—whether production assistants, the production managers overseeing them, or even higher-ranking line producers—would generally, so long as they were capable, responsible, and professional, fully cooperate with the creative staff after complaining about their recklessness. That was, unless they were truly beyond saving.

Of course, they would not cooperate blindly and indulge the creators' wild ideas. They would find a "balance point" between quality, schedule, and budget, doing everything possible to help the creators make an Animation they were basically satisfied with while still delivering it on time.

Mihara Chisa was clearly that kind of manager.