Unexpected News

A voice greeted him when Cheng Anrong entered the photography studio that was placed at the department's first floor.

"That was fast. How did it go?"

"It went okay," Cheng Anrong walked leisurely to where his bag was. "She accepted it."

There are four people in the dim room. Two guys busied themshelves with the props while the man who asked Cheng Anrong had his face concentrated on the computer.

"Wait. What do you mean by 'she accepted it'?" The man called Shijin paused what he was doing and turned to his friend. "Where's the rest of the box now?"

Cheng Anrong's oblivious face said it all.

Shijin cursed. "I lend you my sister's stuff thinking you might need a little of it. How can you give a whole box away like that? Yujin will kill me! She kept saying that stuff is from a premium brand and costed her a pretty penny."

"I will buy you a new one. You shouldn't mess with your sister's things in the first place."

"You better." Shijin calmed down a little and returned to his computer while mumbling, "It's her fault for leaving most of her things around. I didn't mean to mess, just borrow it for a moment."

Cheng Anrong rolled his eyes.

The studio was blissfully silent after that. Only an occasional sound from keyboard typing could be heard in the background.

Cheng Anrong had joined his two other friends, Lu Qiu and Xiao Jun, who were also part of the team to check and test the equipments.

Before long, a peaceful feeling engulfed the room. Although no one spoke, but the atmosphere was nothing else but comfortable for them to do their own works.

The serenity lasted for fifteen minutes before it was broken by Shijin's loud exclaim.

"What is it?" Xiao Jun asked.

Shijin still swore, but his expression looked elated. His eyes shone with disbelief at whatever was on the screen. "We did it! We did it!"

The other three quickly gathered behind Shijin. They saw a fancy-looking layout inside an open email and tried to read the message's content.

A big familiar logo caught their attention first.

Golden Oracle Corporation, previously known as Fortune Broadcasting Corporation.

Fortune Broadcasting Corporation could be considered an old player in the media industry, until its decline in the last decade.

As technologies continued to grow, small media companies started appearing, bringing fresh ideas and a more innovative approach to grab the heart of the audiens. Something that the old company, like Fortune, somehow lacked.

After nineteen years of triumph and fame, Fortune Broadcasting Corporation finally succumbed to the fierce competition in the industry.

On the brink of bankruptcy, Fortune was sold to a new owner. This new owner not only renamed the company, but also managed to establish a new image that slowly and steadily strengthened the company's position among national populace.

Nowadays, Fortune Broadcasting Corporation, under the new name 'Golden Oracle,' had once again become a prominent media company that remained on the spotlight for the last few years due to its rising development.

The corporation had more than one successful subsidiaries such as Oracle Star Entertainment, Oracle Creative Production, and Oracle International.

Every year, Golden Oracle celebrated its anniversary in a grand manner. The big event was always held in Capital City J where the company's headquarter was located.

This year, Golden Oracle announced that they planned to move their annual celebration to City S, the second-largest city after Capital City J, where the company recently built a new broadcasting station.

Several months ago, the company posted a hiring annoucement to fill temporary position for many divisions involved in the party preparation.

Hawkeye Visual, the name Chen Anrong and Shijin came up with for their team, sent an application for the documentation division and hadn't received any response ever since.

During the first two weeks, the team excitedly waited for a reply. None came.

The team was very confident with the portfolio they sent because it included a set of photos that made Cheng Anrong won an international award in Country R.

No one in the team bragged about it, but each one had high hope that their team could at least pass the preliminary stage, which is document selections.

For the rest of the month, the awaited news whether the team pass or fail still didn't come. Their anticipation dimmed a bit.

By the second month with no word or feedback from Golden Oracle, doubt and realization began to set in.

Although the portfolio the team sent in was stellar, but compared to other bigger and better-connected studios with lot of experiences in professional works... Hawkeye Visual remained far in comparison.

The team's expectation was crushed a little. However, the members didn't dwell in their disappointment for long. By the next week, they already moved on to focus on another project.

The third, fourth month passed just like that.

Until today.

In less than a month before Golden Oracle's anniversary event, an email suddenly arrived.

Shijin read the message aloud. "Congratulations, Hawkeye Visual. Your team is officially hired as part of the documentation division for the annual party of Golden Oracle Corporation. For further briefing and arrangements please contact our..."

"Is it real? Have you checked the email address? Lately there are scams that involve this kind of method and demand money from the receiver," the-ever-rational Lu Qiu commented, despite the excitement he couldn't keep from showing in his voice.

"I assure you, this email is at least 99.99% legit. I have re-read it for five times and compared the address nine times from the official websites. Unless they accidentally typed our email address as the recipient, it's as real as it can be," Shijin confirmed.

Xiao Jun added enthusiastically, "The content specifically mentioned our studio's name several times. The chance it was a mistake is extremely slim."

"As far as I know, there is no other big studio with the same name as us," Cheng Anrong agreed.

"So..." Shijin deliberately drew out his words. An eager expression in his face. "Can we start celebrating now?"

* * *

There are eight clubs existed under the Department of Visual Arts.

Animation, illustration, typography, sculpture, fashion, crafts, photography, and videography.

Each club had its own studio at the department's four stories building.

Students were encouraged to join at least one club during their first year. It's not included as requirement to pass a specific course, but the club could help students to envision what they want to focus on doing in the future because visual arts had so many fields to choose from.

The clueless would benefit a lot by this system while the experts could share their knowledge and expand their influence to build a solid network.

Yuelin used to be a member of (surprise, surprise) animation club. She had confided her interest in improving her 2D animating skill, according to what Aoning informed her as they toured each club's studio.

Almost all club's studios were actually locked.

The fall semester hadn't started yet, so few people could be found loitering around the club's studio. Most of them juniors.

The department did have a three-room gallery at the third floor where Yuelin and Aoning were treated to a sight of possibly all kind of art products from the clubs under their department.

"This short clip looks so life-like. I can't believe they were originally drawn by people's hand." Yuelin was impressed after she watched a three minutes animation video from one of the display screens.

Aoning chuckled. "Do you want to take the animation class as planned?"

Yuelin suddenly shuddered. "No please. I told you my skills right now aren't enough to even draw a single... sketch. My parents are already aware. If after this one semester I couldn't find my footing in this department, they... they won't object to me withdrawing from the rest of the course and changed to a different major."

Aoning stilled at her footstep. "You are kidding."

Yuelin shook her head. "Unfortunately, no."

For the first time, Aoning struggled to say what was on her mind. "That.. that would mean repeating another three years in university."

"Yes."

"Oh, Yue yue... You can't possibly."

"It might come to it."

"Don't say that!" Aoning protested. "There are more or less six months ahead of us. We can try to figure out something. We WILL figure out something."

"I won't easily give up, if that's what you are worried about." Yuelin gave her friend a resolute gaze. "I know the significance of starting university again from scratch. How much effort Yue-, I mean, how much effort I have to put in the previous years in this department."

Silence.

"Not to mention how costly it will take." Although Yingjie-gege convinced her there would be no problem. "This is the subject my old self had studied before. A subject the old me used to love. I'm sure if I tried hard enough, I can rekindle those passions that might have lost along with my memories."

Being surrounded by these wonderful display of arts, Yuelin somehow could relate how the original Yuelin chose this visual arts as her major out of various, other interesting subjects out there.

What about her?

What did the new Yuelin love now?

Or used to?

Deep down, a voice answered.

Magic.

Of course it was her magic.

As cursed as it was, she was born with such special power inside here.

She always loved her magic, until the power rapidly grew and nearly consumed her.

It turned her blind, pitted her against people she once swore to protect, and drove her to shed countless innocent blood.

For all its glory, it wasn't worth the sacrifice.

The price to use her power was high, but the price to be free of it was higher.

She had paid both in full. There was no turning back. Not even a room for regret.

The her now is Han Yuelin, and the least she could do is to finish what the original Han Yuelin had started.

As for the future? She shall see. No need to fuss for now, beside focusing on the current issue.

"Alright," Aoning said as she twisted her body so her back faced Yuelin instead.

"Let's go to the first floor now. We haven't finished the club tour yet. With Senior Cheng's presence earlier, the photography studio should be open already."

Without waiting for an answer, Aoning walked ahead. Yuelin followed behind.

Yuelin reached for one of her friend's arms and squeezed lightly. "En. Let's go."