The woman lifted her helmet visor, glanced at the crowd, and said flatly, "You're all here early."
"Ah Qiu..."
"Sister Qiu..."
Deng Ge and the others were very surprised, as they hadn't expected her to arrive today.
"Mm, the Boss sent me a message," Ah Qiu stated. She then took off her helmet, hung it on the handlebars, got off her bike, and pulled out her phone. Following the directions on it, she quickly found the house.
"Is the Boss planning a reunion?" Deng Ge asked, while preparing to input the door lock code.
It had been three years since the studio disbanded, and they had hardly met up since.
Deng Ge had joined an animation company. Thanks to his skills and creativity, he quickly rose to a management position. The two animated films he personally supervised had become famous blockbusters in the past two years. Consequently, his income and status were now on a completely different level.
Qin Siyu wasn't in good health. After the studio disbanded, he mostly stayed at home and didn't work. As for Qin Siyao, she worked as a designer in a clothing company.
Hui Qiang, on the other hand, worked at a game company, enjoying the 'blessings' of the 996 work culture.
As for Ah Qiu, after leaving the studio, she had gone to a mountainous region to volunteer for two years and had only returned at the beginning of this year.
"Maybe… perhaps," Qin Siyu said uncertainly. "I haven't seen the Boss for a long time; I really miss him."
The Boss's name was Zheng Fan. He was slightly younger than Hui Qiang, but because he was the one who had spearheaded the studio's formation, he was its undisputed leader.
During the five years the studio was in operation, he had invested the most effort. Even when the studio finally disbanded and everyone left for various reasons, he alone had stayed, keeping watch over it.
Every now and then, he would email them digital versions of comics, even though these comics were highly unlikely to ever be published or distributed.
Deng Ge entered the code. The lock disengaged, and the door was pushed open.
Behind the door was a living room, but its walls were covered with dark-toned wallpaper, creating a strong sense of oppression.
Combined with the tightly drawn curtains, the room remained pitch black, even though it was daytime.
"This is the Boss's home, right?" Deng Ge asked, his hand finding the light switch on the wall by the door and flicking it on.
The light wasn't very bright. Three bulbs on the ceiling emitted only a faint, smoky-yellow glow, but it was enough to illuminate the room.
"The painting on the wall is..." Qin Siyu murmured, then squeezed past Deng Ge to the wall, where a painting hung.
The painting was nearly two meters long and one meter wide, framed like a photograph.
In the painting was a dwarf.
The dwarf's face was somewhat deformed, and his legs and feet were disproportionately stout. On his back was an iron sword, utterly unsuited to his small stature. Naturally, the sword couldn't be carried vertically, as the dwarf was shorter than the sword itself. Thus, it was slung horizontally across his back, looking quite comical.
"This is Xue Three," Qin Siyu stated, his hands beginning to tremble as he looked at the painting. The character in it was born from his own imagination; it was the protagonist of his long-form comic series.
Qin Siyu was short, a fact that had always been a source of insecurity for him. That was why he had chosen a dwarf, a villainous dwarf, as his protagonist. This dwarf had a peculiar hobby: he liked to hunt down people who mocked his height and 'readjust' them. If they were too tall, he would saw a bit off; if they were too short, he would stretch them.
This hobby was inspired by Western myths, yet it encapsulated a universal aspect of the human condition.
"Xue Three Feet?" Deng Ge came up behind Qin Siyu and joked.
The dwarf's name was Xue Three, but he had a nickname: Xue Three Feet, a playful moniker given to him by readers of the comic series back then.
"The Boss must have drawn this," Hui Qiang came over and said.
"Probably. It's a shame Siyu's work didn't sell too well back then. After all, this protagonist is hard for readers to relate to," Deng Ge sighed.
When the studio was still operating, the Boss had asked everyone to create a character based on their own ideas. Then, they would all help produce the comic.
"Dwarf Xue Three" was Qin Siyu's comic; it just happened to have the worst market response. After all, few people could identify with an ugly dwarf character.
"It's been years. Why bring this up now? What's the point?" Qin Siyu asked, somewhat dissatisfied with Deng Ge's tone.
Indeed, a person's temperament and personality do change with their social standing. This was especially true for Deng Ge, who was undoubtedly a successful man now. Even if he wasn't doing it intentionally, certain attitudes would naturally surface when he met his old, 'down-on-their-luck' friends from the past.
"No, no, no, this is called market control. Our studio failed back then because we spread our resources too thin and couldn't focus on our star products—"
"Enough," Qin Siyao interrupted.
Deng Ge immediately shut his mouth.
Qin Siyu ignored Deng Ge's words, just silently stared at the dwarf painting on the wall.
Deng Ge curled his lip, turned, and looked to the other side. He then exclaimed with pleasant surprise, "Siyao, come see, this is your Feng Siniang!"