Please Do Your Best

The ice cream, in the end, was never eaten.

It had all melted.

Mihara Chisa, who was being hugged, had a very good temperament. She waited with immense patience until she realized Gu Xue seemed to have fallen asleep, at which point she pushed her away.

"Please finish your work first."

"..." Gu Xue jolted awake, sat back in her chair, and rubbed her face fiercely.

This was bad... because Mihara Chisa was so soft, warm, and comfortable to hold—just like a winter quilt—Gu Xue had actually fallen asleep for a moment. Now, being abruptly woken up, she was in that state where she hadn't slept enough but was forced to get up. Holding her pencil, her mind was entirely on sleep, and it was agonizing.

"How about we sleep for an hour and then talk?" Gu Xue turned her head, her eyes bleary with sleep.

Her reason was crumbling.

"Please don't joke."

"You're so heartless." Gu Xue pouted. She drew for a while, then turned back again. "Half an hour?"

"...No. A mere half hour will only make you sleepier. So, please just hold on for a bit; I will compensate you later."

Gu Xue let out a disappointed "oh" and turned back, but her mental state remained poor. Sometimes, as she drew, her head would droop, and once it reached a certain point, she would jolt awake—yes, she was "fishing."

The main issue was that while the remaining few cuts weren't light on workload, they were truly devoid of difficulty. Long shots, characters from the waist up, a background pasted behind—unless special acting was required, there was nothing left to do besides animating the layered mouths.

Expecting Gu Xue to draw with any passion was impossible.

So Gu Xue fished. Although she drew at lightning speed when she was awake, the frequent nodding off caused some delays.

Mihara Chisa hesitated for a moment, and while Gu Xue was nodding off, she picked up the box of melted ice cream from the workbench bag.

Mihara Chisa had plenty of experience with the phenomenon of nodding off.

The best method was to startle them; a secondary method was to wash their face; and the way to solve it once and for all was to take a nap.

The last one was impossible for Mihara Chisa, and she felt she couldn't convince Gu Xue to go wash her face either, so she adopted the first method.

Holding the ice cream box, she quietly brought it close to Gu Xue's cheek.

"Eek!!!" The moment the box touched her cheek, Gu Xue, who had been nodding off, instantly sobered up. She stood up with a whoosh, as if someone had stepped on a fox's tail.

"Do you believe I'll fight you to the death..." Now completely devoid of sleepiness, Gu Xue realized what had happened and glared at Mihara Chisa.

Mihara Chisa ignored the murderous look and asked softly, "Do you want something to eat?"

"No!" Gu Xue sat down heavily and picked up her pencil again. "I'll eat lunch after I finish this!"

She said it with such heroic spirit.

Grumble...

Then, Gu Xue's stomach growled.

"You heard wrong!" Her face flushed bright red, even her fair neck turning crimson. Gu Xue turned and shouted at Mihara Chisa, then quickly turned her head back.

Standing behind her, watching Gu Xue's earlobes slowly turn red, the corners of Mihara Chisa's mouth curled up, revealing two shallow, prominent dimples.

Like a spring breeze blowing, like winter snow melting.

Although Gu Xue said she would finish by noon and then eat, the actual progress was much slower. It wasn't until after two in the afternoon that Gu Xue finished the second-key animation and completed the 6 cuts of key animation.

Lunch was definitely out of the question by then. In fact, Gu Xue had eaten three hours ago—a rice ball carefully selected by Mihara Chisa, which tasted particularly terrible...

After packing up the finished key animation and filling out the Dope Sheet, Gu Xue stretched her body, then leaned back in her chair, staring at the ceiling, looking completely limp.

She hadn't slept for nearly 24 hours. Her dark circles were severe; if not for her natural beauty, she wouldn't even dare to go out now.

Mihara Chisa, on the other hand, had fallen asleep.

Gu Xue had forced her—well, not exactly forced. It was just that every time Mihara Chisa couldn't bear the sleepiness and wanted to go wash her face, Gu Xue would deliberately hold her back, chatting about this and that, until the exhausted Miss Mihara eventually drifted off.

Although her complexion didn't look great and she was still breaking out in a cold sweat, at least she was sleeping, which was better than standing behind Gu Xue watching her work while insisting on not going home.

Gu Xue sat limply for a while, recovering a bit of energy, and was just about to wake Mihara Chisa up so they could go home when a figure hurried over.

It was the episode director, Misawa Hiroshi.

He seemed very anxious, his balding head covered in sweat. Seeing Gu Xue, he immediately asked loudly, "Did something go wro—"

Then he saw Mihara Chisa, and Misawa Hiroshi immediately lowered his voice, which had just been raised.

"—ng?"

One second his voice was like a booming bell, the next it was barely audible.

Because of how everyone had ignored Mihara Chisa last night, Gu Xue was still quite angry, and subconsciously, she was very dissatisfied with Misawa Hiroshi. She picked up the 6 cuts of key animation from the workbench and slammed them onto his chest, saying, "Natural disaster and man-made calamity—it's already been resolved, great director."

"..." Misawa Hiroshi took the 6 cuts of key animation. Knowing Gu Xue was unhappy, he apologized, "I heard a little about last night, and someone called me, but I was sleeping too soundly and didn't wake up. I just got up..."

Once he apologized, Gu Xue felt a bit embarrassed. In truth, this really couldn't be blamed on Misawa Hiroshi; her behavior was no different from impotent rage.

"Forget it." Gu Xue was tired and sleepy, and she didn't have the energy to dwell on who was right or wrong. "Take them. There was a problem when Miss Mihara collected the key animation last night, so I've redrawn them. Miss Mihara will be taking three days off. Talk to the production manager and the director about the progress tracking, and have the company send someone to cover for now. Also, a word of advice: you should know very well that the position of production assistant can elevate the quality of the final product, but conversely, it can also destroy the hard work of many people. Don't push people too hard. Even if your head is full of 'I want to make a big splash,' you need the matching time and budget, and you also have to consider the feelings of the staff. Even that great director Narita Kei has crashed and burned before—aren't you afraid you'll crash and burn yourself?"

"Miss Mihara is taking leave!?" Misawa Hiroshi's focus was completely off.

"Yes! High fever!" Gu Xue said irritably. "And by the way, pass those words on to Abe Shinichi as well; he needs to hear them too."

"Fine..." Misawa Hiroshi's momentum suddenly deflated the moment he heard Mihara Chisa had a high fever.

"No need." Mihara Chisa had woken up at some point.

"Next time, I won't help you even if you kill me. I'm going to tear up those six key animation frames now anyway. Since you haven't paid me yet, I'm currently working entirely for free."

"You should still take three days off..."

Misawa Hiroshi: "..."

"Let's go." Gu Xue really couldn't muster the energy to do anything else; she just wanted to go home and sleep.

Mihara Chisa picked up the bag containing her clothes, stood up silently, and followed behind Gu Xue. As she passed Misawa Hiroshi, she hesitated for a moment before giving a slight bow.

Misawa Hiroshi wore an apologetic expression and returned the bow, then began flipping through the key animation frames in his hands.

Just as Gu Xue was about to leave the office, Misawa Hiroshi's wail rang out, "Wait! Miss Gu Xue, why didn't you follow the storyboard! What am I supposed to do with a shot like this! And what's with these instructions!? If you draw it like this, what am I supposed to do with the background... and the duration..."

"Good luck!" Gu Xue ignored Misawa Hiroshi. With her back to him, she waved her hand as if cheering him on, but given how she was biting her lip to suppress a laugh, it looked more like she was gloating.

Thank you to Wawumao for the 1000 reward, searan for the 500 reward, and Yongyuan Xianhong for the 500 reward. Thank you, truly.