Chapter 200: Chapter 186: Is She Allowed to See This?
Gu Ning saw that Cook wasn’t doing much, so she turned her attention back to the task at hand.
Barto quickly finished altering her cuffs, then went to tidy up the living room. He set up the photo shoot scene, directing Cook to temporarily drag their den to the side of the wall.
Since she couldn’t help with that, Gu Ning took out the mobile photography sphere to calibrate it, then got out the props like beast ears and put them on.
"All done."
In just half an hour, Barto had given the living room a complete makeover.
If not for the walls, the ceiling, and the old furniture piled against the wall, Gu Ning wouldn’t have even recognized it as their place.
In the middle of the living room were a single sofa and a crystal floor lamp, set on a white plush carpet. Next to the sofa was a small, round table with a few books casually placed on top.
Barto turned off the main lights, switched the crystal lamp to its warm light mode, and dimmed it. The light immediately focused on this small area. He had also placed other decorations around the scene to act as a screen, so even without any post-editing from Gu Ning, you could hardly see anything out of the ordinary.
Seeing this set design, Gu Ning couldn’t help but wonder, ’Could Barto have come from the Upper District?’
Even Alex was a pragmatist; his things were always kept neat and tidy. Nothing about his lifestyle or possessions showed any hint of luxury.
The scene Barto had created was filled with so many small, lifelike details. If he were human, Gu Ning wouldn’t have thought much of it, but he was a Beastman.
"I learned it online." Barto said casually, as if sensing what Gu Ning was thinking. "Those Upper District People love to show off."
Hearing the faint contempt in his tone, Gu Ning’s suspicion that he was a Beastman from the Upper District faded a little.
"What else do you need me to do?" Barto asked.
Her train of thought interrupted, Gu Ning took off the blanket she was wrapped in, moved around the set, and had Barto take a few pictures of her.
Barto hopped onto a stool and said while shooting, "I’m not a very good photographer."
Gu Ning waved her hand to show it was fine. She just wanted to see how the scene looked first.
Looking at Gu Ning through the lens, Barto suddenly asked, "Are you going to show your face?"
Gu Ning shook her head. She couldn’t show her face yet, at least not until she was more established.
Barto was relieved to hear that. She would need a stable identity before she could show her face, unless she planned on never leaving the house.
Otherwise, if any Beastman saw her real face, they’d notice something was off. Never mind how crazy the Beastmen online would get; the Beast Alliance would immediately investigate her identity. When that happened, even Andrew might not be able to cover for her.
After looking at the photos Barto took as a reference for the scene, Gu Ning started shooting on her own with the photography sphere.
She worked until nearly dawn before she finished shooting several sets of photos and a new video. Cook and Barto’s distortion values were too high, so their bodies would be forced into hibernation after a certain time. Barto managed to hold on until Gu Ning was done, then collapsed by the side of their den and fell asleep.
Gu Ning was exhausted too, but with work still left to do, her mind was still buzzing with energy.
In the dead of night, the room was silent. Cook was sprawled out on the floor, belly up, fast asleep. Barto was half-slumped in the den, still clutching a ball of yarn, a half-finished sweater lying beside him.
Gu Ning gently took the ball of yarn from his hand. She supported the little fox’s head, which was dangling outside the den, and placed a pillow under it to make him more comfortable. Then, she covered him with a blanket and snuggled up beside him to sort through the photos.
After selecting a few photos and doing some simple editing, Gu Ning logged into PawPrint.
Even though it was the middle of the night, her backend was as lively as ever, with direct messages popping up nonstop.
Gu Ning skipped past the DMs and opened her chat with Deviant. She was about to send him one of the selected photos, but before hitting send, she paused to think. She backed out and found her pinned contact: her dedicated customer service rep, Reya.
"Are you there?"
"Yes, I am," Reya replied almost instantly. "Mr. Gu Demiao Ning, how can I help you?"
Gu Ning was surprised he replied so quickly. ’He really is there,’ she thought. ’Still working this late... Could the Reya account be managed by more than one person?’
She typed in the input box: "Could you provide me with a list of legitimate film companies?"
Reya had sent her collaboration offers from a few film companies before, but she wanted to see what other options were available.
"Of course. Please wait a moment." Without asking any questions, Reya sent her a file less than two minutes later.
"This is a list of the film companies currently contracted with PawPrint. Please take a look."
Gu Ning opened the file and saw dense paragraphs of introductions. Her eyes flicked to the bottom right corner, and she was stunned by the page count in the footer: several hundred pages.
She read a few pages seriously, but she was starting to lose her composure.
’This is way too detailed.’ The introductions for each company were so specific they included how they were founded, their founding process, goals, and vision. Some of the wording was as exaggerated as a keynote speech, and it even included staff self-introductions and personal information.
Even the three major film companies were on the list.
The more Gu Ning read, the more something felt wrong. When she saw PawPrint’s official seal at the end of an introduction, she took a sharp breath of cold air, closed the document, and asked Reya with trembling fingers:
"Am I even supposed to be seeing these documents?"
Reya: "Of course you are."
Gu Ning thought not.
’Aside from the company introductions at the beginning, the sections with official seals were clearly confidential contract details. And how could he send me staff members’ personal information!’
’Is this Reya guy trying to set me up?’
Having worked in an office before, Gu Ning knew better than to look any further. She deleted the file immediately.
"Was the file too long?" Reya messaged to ask.
’Is the length really the issue here?!’
She was about to exit the chat and search for reliable film companies on PawPrint’s homepage herself when Reya sent her another file.
"This is the abridged version," Reya said.
Gu Ning hesitated for a moment before opening the new file.
It was indeed an abridged version. It was only a few pages long, with the companies listed by rank. It only provided a simple introduction, their representative works, their more famous actors, and a contact code for the company at the end.
Gu Ning breathed a sigh of relief. ’Now this is more like it.’
’Reya must have sent the wrong file earlier,’ she figured. ’He’s probably made a huge mistake and doesn’t even know it. That document must have been for PawPrint’s internal staff.’
As a former office worker, Gu Ning kindly reminded Reya to delete the file he had just sent her.
Reya replied: "Okay."
Gu Ning began to browse the list, relieved.
As expected, the top three film companies were the ones that had invited her to collaborate before: New Moon, Shengyang, and Feixing, in that order.
Under Feixing’s list of representative actors, Gu Ning saw a familiar name: Idelos.
Seeing the superstar’s name made Gu Ning feel a bit strange. Deviant had approached her about a collaboration, but it was on behalf of Idelos personally, with no mention of Feixing.
After a moment’s thought, she went ahead and sent the prepared photo and her edited collaboration proposal to Deviant.
After sending it, she closed her terminal, picked up a notebook, and continued filling out the application form she hadn’t finished that afternoon.
...
「Second District, Silver Moon City.」
「Two in the morning.」
Deviant had just finished his work for the day and was in the bathroom getting ready for bed when his terminal suddenly vibrated.
He had already logged out of work mode. Besides direct communications, he would only receive notifications from people he had specifically marked.
Deviant thought to himself that he was finally getting to bed a little early today. ’There had better be a good—’
’A good reason for this!!!’
The moment he saw the account avatar that popped up, all his fatigue vanished. In his excitement, he almost swallowed his toothpaste. He quickly tapped into the chat interface.
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