Starting as a Manga Editor-Chapter 77: Different

“Huh?”
Hearing what Tang Yao said, Chu Yuxin was stunned. She looked at Tang Yao in disbelief, as if she hadn’t expected her to propose such a condition:
“Then what if I take the money and don’t come to work? Or just slack off?”
“I trust you.”
Tang Yao gave her a bright smile. “If that helps ease your worries.”
Of course, it wasn’t just about trust… In their earlier conversation, Tang Yao had more or less figured out what kind of person Chu Yuxin was.
If she’d misjudged, the worst outcome was just losing three months’ salary.
But missing out on a good artist like this—someone with experience from Mingyu Tech—would be a far bigger loss.
She was willing to take the risk.
Li Xue glanced over at Tang Yao and gave a small smile.
Meanwhile…
Chu Yuxin, seeing that radiant smile on Tang Yao’s face and hearing those words, looked away a little awkwardly.
This was her first time encountering a boss who offered payment in advance.
So nice…
Forget advance pay—Si Jinliang had only just paid her final month’s wages!
She furrowed her thick brows again, thinking back on her recent job-hunting experience, and the strange looks HR people gave her every time she opened her mouth… She let out a breath.
“Forget it. I don’t deserve a salary without working. I really do need a job. If you really need someone, I can come. But no need to pay me in advan—”
“—Lù!”
Li Xue, who had been quietly watching Tang Yao, suddenly spun her head around, half-laughing, half-crying.
“It’s ‘wù gōng bù shòu lù’, not ‘lǜ’.”
“Oh. ‘Wù gōng bù shòu lù’—I don’t need advance pay.”
Chu Yuxin’s expression didn’t change at all. After correcting herself, she added seriously,
“But if the game fails and you can’t afford salaries, I’m taking that computer.”
She pointed directly at Tang Yao’s computer, looking absolutely dead serious.
Tang Yao laughed, “We’re starting with failure as the assumption?”
Chu Yuxin replied with complete sincerity, “Just in case.”
Looking at her expression, Tang Yao couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “Alright… So, can you start work tomorrow?”
“Sure.”
“Then I’ll go buy another computer later… Oh, do you have any friends still looking for jobs? Like, the art team from Mingyu Tech?”
“You still need people? There are two others who haven’t found work yet…”
Tang Yao’s eyes instantly lit up. “Could you ask them for me? See if they’d be interested in joining us?”
“Sure.”
Chu Yuxin hesitated a bit. “But if there’s no pay in the end, we’ll be taking three computers.”
Clearly, the whole “Si Jinliang sold her computer before she even quit” thing had left some emotional scarring.
“Deal.”
Tang Yao tried not to laugh, leaned forward, and raised her hand. “Then I’ll be counting on you.”
Chu Yuxin paused, subtly wiped her hand, then gently shook Tang Yao’s.
“…Alright, boss.”
“I’ve got a question.”
Li Xue had been quiet ever since Tang Yao started negotiating, but now that the talk was settled, she finally couldn’t hold back. She turned to Chu Yuxin and asked,
“Why do you keep misreading such common words?”
Chu Yuxin looked at her and replied, “Because I was admitted as an art special recruit…”
“Even for an art student, that’s a bit much, no?”
“I don’t know why either. Once a character’s structure gets complicated, I have a hard time reading it. I end up remembering words by how they look, like drawings…”
Chu Yuxin seemed genuinely troubled. “I do know those characters, but if I don’t actually see them and just have to read them out loud, I easily get confused…”
Li Xue: “……”
You don’t know them then!
Chu Yuxin left, saying she was going to contact the other two former Mingyu Tech artists.
Once she was gone, Li Xue turned to Tang Yao immediately.
“You’re sure this is okay?”
“It’s fine. She’s actually very capable.”
Tang Yao knew what she was referring to.
She even suspected that Chu Yuxin’s struggle to find a job afterward was probably because of her misreading habit.
“I’ve seen the work she did at Mingyu Tech. It was excellent.”
Tang Yao went on to explain: “Maybe when she said that complex characters are hard to read and she memorizes them like drawings, she wasn’t lying. It could actually be a side effect of some kind of talent.”
“Talent…”
Li Xue started to understand what Tang Yao meant. Although she was still a bit skeptical, she didn’t argue further. Instead, she just sighed.
“Good thing you don’t have that kind of side effect…”
She gave her full chest a pat, as if still recovering from the shock of Chu Yuxin’s bizarre misreads.
Chu Yuxin came back with two more artists who had also worked at Mingyu Tech.
And just like that, Avalon Studio had grown to a team of seven.
Kang Ming was pretty surprised to see three girls suddenly join, and when he found out they were poached from Mingyu Tech, he gave Tang Yao a look that said, I knew it.
Tang Yao pretended not to notice.
Hey, this wasn’t stealing! They came on their own!
…Well, that’s what she told herself, even as she went to buy three more computers from Si Jinliang.
New team members, after all.
Sun Gong and Shi Wanglin were also quite curious about the new girls.
Tang Yao’s level was just too out-of-reach to compare with. But after a short chat with Chu Yuxin, their interest vanished instantly—
Mostly because they couldn’t figure out what the heck “zhe jian chen sha” even meant…
Still, despite acting like a bit of a doofus, Chu Yuxin was seriously good.
She was a top-notch concept artist, could also draw backgrounds, knew 3D modeling, and even understood animation effects.
After a few days of working with her, Kang Ming, Sun Gong, and Shi Wanglin all agreed—
She was basically a slightly nerfed version of Tang Yao.
And the two girls she brought along were also highly skilled. After all, they’d been through full project cycles.
It only took a few days for them to get into rhythm and fully integrate into the team—no training needed, plug-and-play.
With Chu Yuxin and her two artists on board, the game project’s progress speed skyrocketed.
Tang Yao’s workload instantly lightened up.
She couldn’t help but sigh—these people really had been sharpened in the fires of a real game company. Mingyu Tech was the real deal.
And with her workload easing up, Tang Yao finally had time to deal with some tasks not directly related to the game.
The promotional short for the website had been finished.
The two additional site features she’d asked for—Kang Ming had also let her know they’d been added.
Tang Yao figured it was time to start the marketing push…
It’d also give readers a sneak peek at what the animated Heroic Spirits looked like!
If they liked it, the upcoming game trailer would pack an even stronger punch.
“…If we could hook them in enough to make them say ‘I’d pay anything to play a game in this art style,’ that’d be the dream.”
Tang Yao handed out assignments to Chu Yuxin and was just about to head back to her desk when Kang Ming told her the new site features were live.
Hearing that—
She mumbled to herself, then immediately made her way back to her workstation.
Chu Yuxin heard the footsteps, turned around, and saw Tang Yao hurrying off… She furrowed her thick brows again.
Same game-making process…
But working under Tang Yao and working under Si Jinliang…
Felt completely different.