because i'm pretty

"Oh", Li Yikai responded.

When the elevator reaches the 8th floor, Yuan Zhiming will go down on the 1st floor, and Li Yikai will go to the underground parking lot of B1.

His Adam's apple twitched, and he asked again, "What about after that? Will we meet?"

Yuan Zhiming didn't make a sound, didn't even look at him, but just said "I'm leaving" when the elevator door opened.

Li Yikai spent a whole day, but still couldn't get out of the lingering noise of these words.

I haven't met someone I like, is it because I have already noticed it, and Is it deliberately hinting at myself?

Or was he just saying it offhand—no, he wouldn't be that dull.

But if you haven't been in love, maybe you really don't know?

But how could Yuan Zhiming not understand the last question.

Why do I have to ask the last sentence...

"Qi Chen said to have dinner together on weekends, are you going? Did he tell you?"

Zhou Xing's news came like a cannonball. Since Qi Chen went abroad, they have not been in touch for five years. No one except the person concerned knows the current relationship between the two of them. But in this situation, Zhou Xing, who is caught in the middle, has nothing to do. Pretending to be a transparent person again:

"What's the situation between you and Xiaoyuan now? I think Qi Jiu still has thoughts about you."

"Stupid Zhao Kaisi can't make it to this dinner, how should I behave in the middle, it won't be your old lovers meeting, only me with a light bulb, right?"

Li Yikai replied to him coldly, "Go, get along as usual, and have no other thoughts."

Then in the chat interface with Qi Chen, he replied the specific time and place. This was their first conversation in five years.

In fact, the reason for not contacting is not that complicated. He is afraid of repeating the past, afraid of embarrassment, afraid of losing face, and the other party is even more so.

But five years have passed, and when we meet again, everything should have gone with the wind, and he has long since let go of those thoughts in the past, and even Qi Jiu's current character and appearance can no longer be imagined.

Time can oxidize many memories and emotions, and all those who don’t want to face can be thrown into this river, but some will change their appearance and be picked up again after many years; some may drift with it forever and lose sight .

Li Yikai is a person who is very afraid of losing face and embarrassment. When he throws a stone but is not caught, he must instinctively throw the stone into the river without thinking. Don't worry, I don't have to recall such embarrassment anymore.

But Yuan Zhiming's pebble was right in front of him, and he stood there like nothing had happened.

Li Yikai was so dazed and pretended to be nonchalant until Friday, the draft proposal day.

Hongda Shopping Center belongs to the group, and the office area is not in the shopping mall, but in a single-family office park on the outskirts of the city. This kind of real estate group that has been around for decades has a bold and bold decoration with rich and powerful, and also carries some of the DNA of state-owned enterprises. Think outside the box.

They didn't have all the members in the group, and most of the creative ideas were socially fearful. Usually, Li Yikai only took Qin Xiaoen to support the scene. This time, because Yuan Zhiming was the main creative contributor, he was also pulled to meet the world.

Arriving at the venue at 2 pm, after a series of tedious processes of reporting, greetings, drawing lots, and signing a non-disclosure agreement, there were a total of 5 bidding companies, and they were unfortunately ranked No. 5 for bidding.It took four hours to be allowed in.

At 6 o'clock in the afternoon, it is the off-duty time of most units. In the conference room of Nuo Da, there are more than a dozen customers sitting around the round table. Except for the big leader called Mr. Jiang in the middle, everyone else is visible to the naked eye. drowsy.

Yuan Zhiming had never seen such a scene before. He followed Sun Shanshan and sat in the back row. Seeing Li Yikai calmly standing at the keynote seat, he looked around worriedly.

It wasn't until Li Yikai opened the PPT and said the first sentence that he let go of his nervousness.

Li Yikai did not start from the strategy in the established order. He did a simple operation on the computer and directly replaced the first PPT with a full-screen photo—the open space behind the Hongda shopping mall, full of wild grass and divided by the railway. Looking at the horizon, the old community looks across the field.

"I'm sorry to keep everyone waiting. You must have heard a lot of strategies, analysis, and brand principles today, so I don't want to talk about these for now. From a friend of mine who grew up in Jinghai, he expressed his opinion on the development of Hongda Shopping Center. Impressions and emotions."

He stood on a dark red podium, and because of his height, he had to lower his head slightly to get into the microphone. The projected cold light passed by his side. Li Yikai was in a dimly lit position, but he said these words with a smile At the time, all the customers who were whispering, secretly looking at their mobile phones, and with distracted eyes all raised their heads and became interested in his next story.

The protagonist of Li Yikai's story is about a friend, and only Yuan Zhiming knows that it is himself.

"He has often been at home alone since he was very young. In such a community, the neighbors are all acquaintances. The neighbors feel sorry for the children whose parents are not around. Every lunch and dinner, they will be very enthusiastic and invite him to come to the house."

"But he wants to save face, he doesn't like to eat, and he doesn't like to be asked about his parents. So every time when school or eating is over, he will deliberately take a long way to go to the snack street next to the Hongda shopping mall at that time to buy a snack. Wrap rice balls, then bypass the main entrance of the mall, follow the path to this wasteland, hide from all acquaintances and classmates here, only the back of the mall belongs to him.”

The story is very attractive, but slightly sad, Li Yikai smiled, and jumped out of the atmosphere of the narration: "But don't worry, my friend has almost forgotten these things now, if it wasn't for the consumer research, he would be caught. When asked, he doesn't have time to worry about spring and autumn."

People in the audience laughed softly at the same time, and Li Yikai continued:

"But we have an interesting discovery. When my friend talked about Hongda Mall, he couldn't remember much about the products sold in the mall and the interior layout, but what he remembered was the taste of rice balls and the piece of rice balls. The wind of the wasteland, and even the smell of the wind."

"He said that if he mentioned other shopping malls, Times Square, SKP, his mind would be filled with the heartache of swiping his girlfriend's card. Only when he mentioned Hongda Shopping Mall, no matter how long it has been, there will still be a kind of emotion when he thinks of it. It is a concrete memory with flavor and color."

Li Yikai skipped the ppt to the consumer insight page.

"Not only the locals, but also the consumers we interviewed, those over the age of 25, as long as Hongda mall is mentioned, they will have their own vivid impressions. Everyone is different. We feel that Hongda mall is different from them. The relationship is more like...friends who share secrets with each other than those fancy and fast-paced shopping malls."

"This city is changing with each passing day, and everyone is anxious that they will be left behind, but the existence of Hongda Mall can give them a sense of stability in such changes, just like my friend, his Hongda The shopping mall is a secret base of loneliness that has truly embraced him without being looked at by others."

Sitting in the center, Mr. Jiang held back his slightly protruding belly, leaned his upper body forward on the table, and nodded slightly.Li Yikai knew that the opening remarks had achieved the desired effect.

He began to lead back to rational strategic analysis, and started talking step by step in the order of the ppt, until he talked about the final ideas and themes.

"So, after thinking about it, we still feel that we should not take away the most special aspect of HTC. This kind of attribute with a sense of story and personal emotions is something that all competing products will not have. Even we want to Magnify it."

On the ppt screen, the open space appeared again, but this time it was the rendering after design and processing. The wall is full of peach blossoms, the stream is gurgling, and the winding paths lead to a secluded world.

"Only those who understand life, have memories and emotions can find this place. This is not a cold commercial place, but a paradise where you can relax and find yourself."

Qin Xiaoen took over the specific ideas behind to give a lecture, from graffiti style to brand vision, and then to the marketing method of melting ice.

The more than 100-page PPT came to an end, and the time was twelve minutes longer than expected, but the faces of those customers were not tired and boring, and the extended time of the questioning session was even more exaggerated.

Li Yikai sat back to the side, one seat ahead of Yuan Zhiming, most of the questions could be answered by Qin Xiaoen or Sun Shanshan, and he would only speak when the price was more sharp.

"Creative strategy charges in your quotation system. What does it refer to specifically, and is there any industry standard?" Mr. Jiang asked.

There is no such standard in the whole industry. Li Yikai stood up, blowing a gust of wind with pine fragrance, and Yuan Zhiming could see the slight folds of his suit behind him.

He said: "Strategy is our research and analysis on brands and consumers. Creativity is the concrete form we conduct specifically for this project. These two standards are comprehensively measured by the number of participants and the size of the project."

"I understand what you said." Mr. Jiang touched his teacup, turned slightly to Li Yikai and said, "But how should I evaluate the reasonableness of the charges for these jobs? To put it bluntly, there is no way to verify the cost."

Suppressive bargaining is very common, and Li Yikai also responded with a slightly calmer tone: "The cost is our team's experience, vision, and aesthetics, and the benefit is the premium we add to the brand now and in the future."

He nodded slightly: "Mr. Jiang, advertising and creativity are indeed not like the retail industry. There are clear costs and income increases. Its value is potential, but it is also long-term and profound. You believe that this job is valuable. Will find us to do a brand upgrade, won't you?"

Mr. Jiang smiled and didn't ask any more questions.

Mu Jia's bid was seriously timed out, and President Jiang's secretary caught up with him when the meeting ended: "Director Li, do you have time to wait? President Jiang wants to invite everyone to have a meal."

This is basically the meaning of winning the bid. Li Yikai has time even if he has no time.

The group of them had long been dazed with hunger, but they didn't dare to have too much fun at this kind of meal, especially the biggest leader, Mr. Jiang, had never been seated.

Several customers who also participated in the meeting accompanied them, saying that Mr. Jiang was still busy.

Yuan Zhiming drank tea with a smile, reached out to pick up the vegetables in front of him, and wanted to order a family bucket when he got home.

He couldn't get involved in those business chats, and was obsessed with which one to choose between the Colonel's Chicken Nuggets and McNuggets. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Li Yikai next to him holding chopsticks back and forth. Usually eat more to worry about.

When half of the dishes on the table had been eaten, Mr. Jiang entered the venue with a big belly.

He was completely different from his performance at the meeting. He sat next to Li Yikai with a smile, and he started to win the relationship: "Your President Feng and I are old acquaintances, and he is on his way here."

The wine bureau bargained and called all the big bosses, indicating that the night had just begun.

Li Yikai exchanged polite words with him, and while they were calling Feng Xin, he turned his head and whispered to the others: "You guys go back and rest first, I guess it's time to bargain, I'll just stay here."

Qin Xiaoen hesitated for a moment: "I'll go with you, and I can help you get some drinks."

Yuan Zhiming suddenly understood why Li Yikai was in such a hurry to eat, he didn't eat much at noon, this was to prepare for the later drinking party.

Li Yikai was not polite to Qin Xiaoen, and asked Yuan Zhiming: "You didn't drive, did you?"

Yuan Zhiming didn't understand what he meant.

Li Yikai said again: "It's not easy to take a taxi here. If you work hard, you can drive my car, send Shanshan and JOJO back, and then drive to the company on Monday."

"What about you?" Yuan Zhiming asked.

Li Yikai smiled helplessly: "I'm sure I won't be able to drive a car, so I'll stay in a nearby hotel when it's too late."

Yuan Zhiming looked at him, nodded and took the key.

He drove the two girls through the outer ring from the suburbs. Maybe everyone was tired, and even Sun Shanshan was a little quiet along the way.

In the bustling area of ​​the city center, the streets of bars and restaurants are full of vehicles, and young people who have finished working for a week relax in and out of them.

He was fascinated to look at the drunk people outside, and suddenly heard Sun Shanshan say: "It's okay, the boss often has such drinking parties, and there is Teacher Qin."

"Ah, oh", Yuan Zhiming withdrew his gaze, not knowing how the other party guessed it.

Sun Shanshan got out of the car first, and turned a few streets before arriving at JOJO's residence.

"Be careful when you go back, thank you for seeing me off," JOJO said as he opened the car door.

"You too", Yuan Zhiming watched her walk into the community and dutifully completed the last "work task" of the day.

There will be no work for the next two days, and I can completely belong to myself. There are still many things to do in the NYX competition, and the first thing to bear the brunt is to find the theme...

He started the car and planned the next task in his mind, but no matter how he planned, he always felt that something was missing.

What's missing?

He hit the brakes and pulled over on the side of the road.

The task of the work is completed, and the people have been delivered. It is useless to worry about the rest, and it may even cause unnecessary troubles, occupy the not much creative time, or have inappropriate misunderstandings...

But Li Yikai's complexion was very bad, the hand that handed over the key was cold, and his speech was weak.

It's far away, and I haven't even seen any decent hotels just now.

Feng Xin is the boss, Qin Xiaoen can't help if he is also drunk...

Yuan Zhiming reset the navigation on the phone.

Can't control that much, he wants to go back.