Chapter 55: Chapter 55: Sir, Please Behave Yourself
The couple spent the entire afternoon working on the sound. No matter what, the first episode absolutely couldn’t go wrong.
Fortunately, the two were highly efficient. The animation and background sound effects grew to complement each other more and more perfectly, ensuring that every one of the characters’ actions was synced with the score.
After a final review confirmed there were no errors, an excited Jiang Xia began the last step: rendering.
"After the first episode is finished, what’s your plan?" Lin Yanwan asked.
"Continue making the second episode, of course," Jiang Xia said with a smile.
She was at a bit of a loss. "I mean, what are your plans for after that?"
Jiang Xia smiled. "No rush. It won’t be too late to think about that stuff once I have a backlog of ten episodes."
After all, the timing was a bit awkward. In China, video-sharing sites with bullet comments and a complete ecosystem for fan-created content, like A Station and B Station, didn’t exist yet.
In other words, releasing *Cat and Mouse* over the internet wasn’t an option for now. He would have to take the old-fashioned route of having a TV station buy out the broadcast rights.
Of course, there was no helping it—it was a limitation of the era. However, because of this, he also saw a greater opportunity for future development.
As a "Render Successful" notification popped up on the desktop, the first episode of *Cat and Mouse* was officially complete.
He did a quick check. The full episode showed no signs of screen tearing, stuttering, or audio-desync issues. The final render quality was excellent.
"I’m gonna go get Xiao Man and bring her in to watch the cartoon!"
Seeing him happily scamper off to the living room, Lin Yanwan looked on helplessly. ’All he thinks about is spoiling his little sister-in-law. Why didn’t he hold *me* in his lap to watch it earlier?’
With that, she decided to just go and start making dinner.
At that moment, Lin Xiaoman was watching TV, constantly flipping through channels with the remote in her hand. But after searching for ages, all she found were shows that grown-ups liked.
"Xiao Man, want to watch a cartoon?" Jiang Xia asked nonchalantly.
Lin Xiaoman nodded emphatically. "I do! But it’s not time yet. Cartoons usually come on at seven."
"You don’t have to wait that long. You can watch one right now, and I guarantee it’s a cartoon you’ve never seen before."
Jiang Xia gave a mysterious smile, turned off the TV, and carried Lin Xiaoman straight into the room.
Even though *Cat and Mouse* was a classic masterpiece, it wasn’t his call whether the story was good—that depended on the audience’s reaction. Thus, Lin Xiaoman was the very first viewer he’d specially invited.
Her enjoyment, or lack thereof, would be representative of pretty much all children.
"Brother Jiang Xia, where’s the cartoon you were talking about? I don’t see it," Lin Xiaoman said, her voice a little anxious as she sat on Jiang Xia’s lap, staring at the computer screen.
"So impatient, huh? Good things come to those who wait, you know."
Jiang Xia gently pinched her smooth, tender cheek while using his right hand to click open the video file on the desktop.
It opened with that classic image of Tom and Jerry laughing as they faced each other. Accompanied by a jaunty string melody, the screen suddenly went dark.
When she saw the cute little mouse struggling to escape while the big cat had its tail pinned, Lin Xiaoman instantly burst into laughter.
"Brother Jiang Xia, that mouse is so silly! The big kitty obviously painted that mouse hole with ink, but he still thinks it’s real."
"Brother Jiang Xia, is the little mouse ever going to get away from the big kitty?"
"Brother Jiang Xia, the poor little mouse! He’s about to be eaten by the kitty!"
Jiang Xia smiled but didn’t say a word. He wasn’t about to tell her that in a moment, Jerry would play a prank that got Tom thrown out of the house. In this game of cat catching mouse, Tom was always the one who had it the worst.
As one funny scene followed another, Lin Xiaoman laughed louder and louder, and her commentary changed from "the little mouse is so silly" to "the big kitty is so silly."
Even when the video, which was just over seven minutes long, ended, Lin Xiaoman still hadn’t had her fill.
"Brother Jiang Xia, I want to see the next episode!"
"There are no more for now. We only have this one episode. You’ll have to wait a little while to see the second one." Jiang Xia smiled slightly. "The second episode has that big doggy I drew for you before."
"Really?! Then how much longer do I have to wait?" Lin Xiaoman’s eyes lit up with anticipation.
"Hmm, you’ll probably be able to see it after you have about two more vacations from school."
"Awww, that’s such a long time to wait."
Jiang Xia gently tweaked her small, delicate nose. "Okay, now that you’ve watched the first episode of *Cat and Mouse*, tell me, what did you think of the cartoon?"
"It was so good!" she answered without hesitation.
The little first-grader’s vocabulary was still quite limited. She thought hard for a good while before counting on her fingers and saying, "The big cat is dumb, and the little mouse is smart. He caught him so many times, he should have just eaten him right away."
"So, do you want the little mouse to be eaten or not?" Jiang Xia laughed.
"Not eaten!" Lin Xiaoman said loudly.
"And why is that?"
"Because the little mouse is cute!"
Jiang Xia couldn’t help but laugh. In a child’s eyes, what made a cartoon good or bad wasn’t that complicated. As long as it made them happy, it was a successful work.
Judging from his little sister-in-law’s reaction, *Cat and Mouse*’s entertainment value had at least passed the bar.
"Alright, Xiao Man, go on and play by yourself. I’m going to help your sister with dinner."
He patted his little sister-in-law’s head, saved the video to his memory card, and ran to the kitchen to help out.
Lin Yanwan had already finished steaming the rice and was now peeling potatoes. She glanced at Jiang Xia, her eyes betraying an unconcealable joy.
"So, what did Xiao Man think?"
"She loved it. She’s already impatient to see the next episode," Jiang Xia said with a smile, proactively taking the peeler from his wife’s hand to take over her task.
"What kid wouldn’t like *Cat and Mouse*?"
It’s just too classic. A cat catching a mouse is the natural order of things, but in the cartoon, the big cat is constantly outsmarted and run ragged by the little mouse. That sharp contrast is something even an adult would find thoroughly entertaining.
"Honestly, I wouldn’t have had this much confidence before. But now, you’ve given *Cat and Mouse* its soul. If this cartoon really takes off in the future, at least half of the credit will be yours," Jiang Xia said earnestly.
Lin Yanwan smiled. She hadn’t really considered all that. It was simply that Jiang Xia had asked for her help, and music happened to be her area of expertise. It would have felt wrong not to do *something*.
More importantly, the sense of accomplishment that came from participating in the creation of a classic was deeply satisfying.
"Seriously, though... if this cartoon gets big in the future, could you give the manufacturing rights for the merchandise to my dad’s factory?" Lin Yanwan asked, glancing at him stealthily.
According to the original timeline, her family’s factory was slated to go bankrupt early next year under the impact of the global financial crisis. The only way to save it now was for Jiang Xia’s *Cat and Mouse* to become a massive hit so her family’s factory could get a piece of the pie.
Jiang Xia smiled knowingly.
"Well now, Miss... You wouldn’t want to see your family’s factory go bankrupt, would you?"
...
(Still recovering from being sick and feeling awful. Will resume two updates a day starting tomorrow.)
