Cgapter 4.3

They arrived at AYA's C Country branch, the reception staff checked the list then led them to the conference room on the 19th floor.

"Yu MeiLian, what are you doing here? Didn't Annie fail the selection?" A man wandering in the corridor asked in astonishment.

"Annie lost but ChengZe was picked. Come ChengZe, this is Big Brother Wu Tao. He is one of our company's gold brokers." Yu MeiLian beckoned.

Wu Tao was still wondering who ChengZe was, when he saw a tall and slender young man appear out from behind Yu MeiLian. His slightly curved eyes flashed with moving vigor, his bright red lips evoked an alluring curvature. His presence outdid all the people waiting in the corridor. Everyone secretly sized him up, their hearts emerging with the same thought – No doubt, AYA's audition specs were simply tailored for him.

"What's his full name? Where did you get him?" Wu Tao strived to pretend to be calm, quickly glancing at his own artist. He originally felt that her inner qualities were ultra-high, but now everywhere was unpleasant to the eye, a typical case of 'apples to oranges'!

"He was Simon's artist." Yu MeiLian found a place for the young man to sit down, then turned her head to give Wu Tao a proud smile.

"Impossible, how could I have overlooked him!" Wu Tao's complexion was somewhat ugly. Because he had the highest qualifications, he got first pick of all the most promising artists, the rest were turned over to Yu MeiLian and the other brokers.

"I guess he was a trump card, so Simon hid his profile. The remainders of our selection were all filed with the company, so he was randomly assigned to my name. His luck was also good, while walking on the street, a high-level representative of AYA saw him and recommended the interview." Yu MeiLian pursed her lips in a giggle, happily appreciating Wu Tao's pale face.

While the two brokers were getting catty with each other, Zhou Yun Sheng put on his headphones and quietly listened to music.

The artist Wu Tao brought was Boa, a member of an idol group. Because her looks very delicate, her popularity was very high. When she'd first walked in, she'd looked left and right, and concluded that those present weren't as outstanding as her, her face couldn't help but reveal a haughty look. But now, seeing Lin ChengZe, her confidence dwindled to nothing. She quickly moved several seats away from him, afraid that siting near him would make her look like mud.

In the conference room, candidates came in one by one, and were explosively thrown out one by one.

AYA's chief designer, also this perfume's perfumer, Orlando, waved them away with a look of disgust, "Your skin is not smooth or delicate enough, out!"

"You dare come in with this kind of look? Self-confidence is a good thing, overconfidence is a bad thing, out!"

"How old are you? 15? Are you sure you're not 35? Those eye bags are hanging all the way to your nose, out!"

"I said be mature and charming yet pure and tender, but what is this? I can't tell whether she's an artist or a prostitute! Vulgar, simply too vulgar! Out, out, out … …"

Orlando said dozens of out in a row, propping his forehead on his hand, feeling like he was going crazy.

The staff who arranged for the audition was also quickly going mad because of him. Mature and charming yet pure and tender. What kind of demon was that? Even if my English level was at a primary school level, I'll still know that the meaning of these words conflicted each other, right? Even if it was such a diametrically opposed, contradictory temperament, didn't someone accomplish it before? It looked very touching, right? Don't tell me your aesthetics have surpassed human limits?

Orlando couldn't hear the staff's roasting, still continuing to take one glance at the candidates then kicking them out. At last, it was Wu Tao's artist, Boa's, turn, and his eyes flashed slightly. He waved her over, "Let me take a closer look."

Boa smiled secretly, walking up with graceful, small, quick steps.

Orlando touched the back of her hand, his expression somewhat relaxed, then he pinched her chin and examined her face. He nodded after a few minutes, "You pass the requirements, start the audition."

Boa looked at the empty conference room where only a flowerpot of roses was placed in the middle, asking, "How do I audition? Do you have a theme?"

Orlando replied with a rare bit of patience, crossing his arms, "There is no theme, you just have to walk over and smell the roses."

Sniffing flowers? Yes, this was a perfume ad, it was naturally important to show off the uniqueness of the fragrance. So, after smelling, you had to look intoxicated, yet also show your most beautiful side, bringing in a "Flowers are like their people, people are like their flowers" theme.

Boa consciously found her inspiration, like a naive little girl she bounced around, as if she was in a magnificent garden enjoying playtime. Suddenly, she was attracted to an especially splendid cluster of roses, her face exposed a gasping in admiration expression. She slowly approached, her footsteps graceful and relaxed, as if she was afraid of making the butterfly on the petal fly off. When she was finally in front of the flowers, she stooped and bowed her head, closing her eyes, expression extremely intoxicated. Her exquisite profile and the fire red roses complimented each other.

The staff revealed satisfied smiles one after the other, then they looked expectantly at Orlando.

"Out! You wasted my time!" Orlando opened, exasperated.

Boa was frightened, she blinked her pair of almond eyes pitifully at him.

"Didn't you hear 'out'? Get out!" Orlando didn't know the meaning of tenderness to the fairer sex, he rolled the list of candidates into a paper tube and slapped it against the tabletop, his eyes almost spraying fire.

Boa was shamed to death, covering her face, she ran out.

The director responsible for shooting the ad couldn't stand it anymore, he tried to persuade, "Orlando, that little girl was actually very good, she fully expressed the feeling you wanted. I read her profile, she fits the requirements the best, if you drive even her away, you might not be able to shoot this ad."

"Shooting doesn't change the theme; I would rather not have a model for this ad than masquerade with an inferior product. This fragrance is called "Extravagant", in your C Country's ancient history, extravagant and rotten had the same meaning. I want beautiful, extravagant beauty, extreme beauty, near rotting beauty. Flowers exude the most attractive and most intense fragrance only in full bloom and near rot. I want to find such a beauty, beautiful to the extreme, beautiful until rotten, but also like a flower bud, full of life. Only such beauty is capable of matching with my perfume, understand?"

The Director and staff repeatedly nodded, suppressed by Orlando's language attainments, but they unanimously thought: Are you sure your description is of a person and not a fairy? You might as well find a special effects company to shoot a 3D animated version of the ad. It'd at least be faster.

Orlando arranged himself, then shouted, "Next!"

Zhou Yun Sheng was shaken back to life by Yu MeiLian's shove, he removed his headset and slowly walked in.

"Hello, I'm Huayu Company's artist, Lin ChengZe, 17 years old this year, height 176 cm, weight 53 kg … …"

Orlando didn't wait for his introduction to be finished, impatiently waving him over, "Quickly come over, my God, you're finally here!"

Zhou Yun Sheng walked over, his peach blossom eyes flashing a clever light.

Orlando originally wanted to pinch his jaw, but his fingertips had barely touched his delicate skin when he paused, then he carefully touched and kneaded. His eyes were like a searchlight, sizing him up inside and out several times.

"Your appearance is very good, start the audition." He pointed to the roses.

The Director and other staff had to admit that the young man's looks were far above Boa's, he even outclassed Zhang Yijia, known as C Country's number one beauty, by several levels. In a few years, when his facial features opened up, who knew what kind of devil he would become.

"Just smell the potted flowers?" Zhou Yun Sheng had long ago hacked into AYA's monitoring system through his AI, he'd seen all of Boa's audition and also heard Orlando's fragrance speech.

Extravagant, this was erotic wording … … Zhou Yun Sheng pondered as he walked over.

His gait was very elegant, somewhat leisurely and casual, as if the flowers and plants filling the garden weren't worth his attention. He stopped in front of the roses and slightly squinted his eyes. His fair fingers lightly fiddled with the petals, he seemed to be fondling the flowers admiringly, but his eyes were cold and indifferent, showing the others that this was absolutely not the case.

When his interest was coming to an end, he turned to leave, but the thorns on the stem pierced his fingertips, a bead of red blood slowly seeping out. He stared at the blood bead, apparently finding it very interesting, his pitch-black eyes finally showed a trace of a smile. But it vanished in an instant, his fingers suddenly closing into a fist, crushing the fiery blooming rose.

Flower juice that was much redder than blood flowed along his fingers. The smile in his eyes deepened and thickened, raising his hand, he brought it to the tip of his nose and sniffed. His intoxicated look revealed a bit of morbid madness. His cheeks were unavoidably stained with a few drops of flower juice. He opened his eyes, sticking out the tip of his pink tongue and sweeping it up, his peach blossom eyes covered with a layer of ambiguous mist … …

The young man's face still carried a bit of naivety, yet his every gesture exuded a seductive atmosphere. It was a kind of exploding beauty, extravagant beauty. Even from far away, you could still smell a sweet yet rotten aroma.

Orlando gulped. The rest of the staff were already long intoxicated, cheeks red, expressions in a trance.

"Let me see, ah, Lin ChengZe, Huayu Company's artist. Ok, we'll use him. Come over three days later so we can shoot the advertisement, remember to take good care of your skin." Orlando made a direct decision, then turned around to comfortingly pat at his frenzied heart.

Lin ChengZe smiled and nodded, threw the petals in a nearby trashcan, then took out a handkerchief to unhurriedly wipe at the flower juice. He felt a hot gaze rake over his body and frowned. He looked towards the door.

But there was no one there.

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Cao Mo Kun was taking the elevator to the top floor. AYA was the Cao Clan's industry, he happened to be visiting the office today.

"That man looks very familiar?" His expression was lazy, tone leisurely, but his crotch was already an erected giant, thoroughly betraying his surging mood.

"He is Ji-Shao's classmate, called Lin ChengZe. We also ate several meals with him." His assistant reminded.

Cao Mo Kun recalled him after a moment of pondering, his tone was a little stunned, "That kid who was trying to seduce me? Are you sure?" He would've never linked that extremely boorish teenager and the extremely alluring fairy he just saw together.

"Definitely." The assistant carefully considered, when he nodded again, he looked somewhat hesitant.

Cao Mo Kun pondered for a moment, then smiled. "If he comes to seduce me again, I'd gladly welcome it."

The assistant observed a moment of silence for his boss' integrity, "Boss, he is Ji-Shao's boyfriend, what effect will it have on your relationship if Ji-Shao finds out?"

"That kind of person, how can Ji Han Yu hold on to him? Sooner or later, wouldn't he fly away? Besides, I'll just play, they won't need to break up. When I'm bored, I'll give him some money to seal things up, Ji Han Yu won't know." Cao Mo Kun raised an objection, waving his hand.

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T/N:

apples to oranges– It said something to the effect of "Comparing goods to goods results in waste, comparing people to people results in death", which is an idiom that means that there's no point in comparing vastly different things and people. Like throwing away your TV cause it can't keep things cool like your refrigerator.