Chapter 46

Bai Siyi got out of the car when they reached the entrance of the building, while Huo Xingming drove the car into the basement.

Huo Xingming watched Bai Siyi get out of the car and said pitifully, “Baibai, you have to wait for me after you’re done, okay?”

Bai Siyi nodded. “Got it, hurry up.”

It was almost two o’clock, and he couldn’t afford to be late. After speaking, Bai Siyi turned and walked away. Huo Xingming pouted, thinking to himself that he should finish his business at the company quickly and then pick up Xiao Bai to go home.

Since Bai Siyi came into his life, Huo Xingming had lost his passion for work and entrepreneurship.

Bai Siyi arrived at the floor where Xingchen Empire was located and signed in at the front desk. The front desk called the general manager’s office, and before long, a very young man walked out. He was surprised to see Bai Siyi wearing a hat and mask, thinking that “Xiaoyang Baibai” was a girl.

The man quickly extended his hand. “Hello, my name is Chen. I’m the general manager’s assistant. Are you Xiaoyang Baibai?”

Bai Siyi shook his hand a little awkwardly. “Hello, I’m Xiaoyang Baibai.”

Assistant Chen led Bai Siyi to the lounge in the general manager’s office, where he poured a glass of water for Bai Siyi. “The person who’ll interview you today is the general manager. He’ll be here soon. Before you, there’s a female candidate, so you may need to wait for about half an hour.”

Bai Siyi quickly nodded. “Okay, thank you.”

Assistant Chen nodded and turned to leave, closing the door behind him.

Before long, Huo Xingming came up from the basement using the elevator.

His company was still in its early stages, not very large. They had only rented half a floor with about fifty employees. However, because he was willing to invest money—after all, there was too much New Year money and nowhere to spend it—he had put money into areas like cosplay costumes, makeup, props, and funding for artists and voice actors. He even invested in purchasing potential novel copyrights.

Because of these investments, the company had made it through the initial struggles and had now started to make a profit.

Of course, the largest source of income was still from the web series created by the company’s online operations department.

In this era of online melodramatic short series, Huo Xingming also got involved, producing anime short series. He directed them himself, had his own artists and technicians, and even had excellent voice actors!

Even the costumes and props were custom-made beautifully. The company operated over a dozen accounts across major video platforms, and they had hit shows that were gaining traction, which made several voice actors famous as well.

At the start, Huo Xingming had never planned to make short videos!

His dream was to create Xingchen Empire!

However, with all the funds being invested and no return or profit, it was impossible to continue. Otherwise, how could he compete with his father?

So, he ventured into short videos. Now, things were going well, but the employees were starting to become insufficient, and good voice actors were becoming even scarcer.

Huo Xingming took the interview seriously, so he dressed carefully today. He wore a casual shirt, a watch, and didn’t look like a stiff, serious CEO, nor did he appear as inexperienced as a young newcomer.

Assistant Chen had already prepared his office, made coffee, and organized the documents that needed to be reviewed. As soon as Huo Xingming entered, before even sitting down, he asked, “The interviewees are here, right?”

Assistant Chen nodded. “Both are here. Here are their resumes. The lady who came first applied the day before yesterday, you can take a look at hers first.”

Huo Xingming sat at the desk and glanced at the resume Assistant Chen handed over. “The candidate’s qualifications look good. What about their work?”

Assistant Chen showed him the work the candidate had submitted. Huo Xingming listened to the voice recording and was quite satisfied. “Let her in.”

Assistant Chen went out to call the person in.

Bai Siyi sat in the meeting room, trying to calm his nerves by drinking hot water.

He had never been to a company like this before, hidden in a grand building that gave off a prestigious vibe.

In his impression, the people who worked here, in offices like this, were all educated and talented—completely different from someone like him, a factory worker, who didn’t belong to this world.

Yet, here he was today, coming for an interview.

When Assistant Chen had privately contacted him, he said they were impressed by Bai Siyi’s voice, and their boss really liked it and wanted to meet him in person. The rest didn’t matter.

So, Bai Siyi came.

Before arriving, he had only briefly mentioned his voice acting experience, his strengths, and what he had worked on, but he didn’t mention his age or education, and of course, Assistant Chen hadn’t asked.

Perhaps in Assistant Chen’s eyes, someone with such good voice acting skills must be professionally trained.

While waiting, Bai Siyi opened a job-search app on his phone and looked at the recruitment ad from Xingchen Empire.

He clicked on the voice acting section, and the first thing he saw was the requirement: “Full-time bachelor’s degree or higher.”

Bai Siyi: “…” (Inhaling deeply.jpg)

He hesitated for a moment, placed his cup down, and thought about whether he should just leave now. After all, how was he going to explain things when he met the boss later?

In his mind, the type of boss who’d be addressed as such was usually a middle-aged man with a big belly, wasn’t it?

He was still very nervous about communicating with such a person.

Bai Siyi, holding his phone, hesitated before standing up. Just then, there was a knock at the door. Assistant Chen opened it and called from the outside, “Xiao Yang, are you ready?”

Bai Siyi: “…”

He nervously gripped his phone and nodded. “Ready.”

He followed Assistant Chen out of the room. After walking down the hallway for a while, they arrived at the general manager’s office.

Assistant Chen had just seen off the previous interviewee and now led Bai Siyi in, saying, “You seem really nervous. Don’t worry, our general manager really values talent.”

Bai Siyi nodded. “Thank you.”

But at the age of 19, he still felt very young and inexperienced, and his nerves were getting the best of him.

Upon entering the office, he saw a person sitting on the sofa, holding a tablet, though he couldn’t tell what they were looking at.

Assistant Chen walked over. “Mr. Huo, Xiaoyang Baibai is here.”

It had been a long time since Huo Xingming had met Xiaoyang Baibai. He had even sent quite a bit of money and many private messages, but the other party hardly responded.

However, once he handed it over to Assistant Chen, Assistant Chen immediately arranged the meeting.

Huo Xingming couldn’t help but admire his assistant. His efficiency was really impressive, incredibly fast.

Huo Xingming was looking at Xiaoyang Baibai’s profile on his tablet.

Upon hearing Assistant Chen’s voice, he looked up, smiled at the person behind Assistant Chen, and then his smile froze, and his mind went blank for a couple of seconds.

Huh?

The person in front of him seemed familiar, and something didn’t feel right.

The nervous Bai Siyi, upon seeing the person sitting on the sofa, was also stunned.

He looked at the person sitting on the sofa, holding a tablet, then looked at Assistant Chen.

Assistant Chen smiled and looked at Bai Siyi. “Xiao Bai, what’s wrong? Do you have any questions?”

Bai Siyi paused for two seconds before asking, “This person… is he the general manager you mentioned?”

Assistant Chen nodded. “Yes, this is our boss, Mr. Huo.”

Huo Xingming sat dumbly on the sofa, the serious and composed expression from earlier disappeared, replaced by confusion and panic.

Hearing Bai Siyi ask Assistant Chen, he didn’t even think to stop him from speaking!

He had just exposed his identity in front of Xiao Bai—this was a disaster.

Huo Xingming’s mind went blank for a moment, then he quickly reacted. Wait a minute, how did Xiao Bai get here? Did Assistant Chen bring him in?

Huo Xingming slowly stood up, glanced at Assistant Chen, then looked at Bai Siyi, cautiously opening his mouth. “Xiaoyang Baibai?”

Bai Siyi: “…”

Assistant Chen keenly sensed that the atmosphere in the room was off.

He pushed his glasses up, looked at Huo Xingming, then at Bai Siyi, and decisively turned around. “Well then, Mr. Huo, I’ll step out.”

Huo Xingming gave him an impatient glare. Couldn’t he stop calling him “Mr. Huo“?!

He felt so guilty in front of Bai Siyi.

After Assistant Chen left, he carefully closed the office door behind him.

Now, only Huo Xingming and Bai Siyi were left, sitting across from each other with the sofa and coffee table between them. Both of them stared at each other in shock, their faces filled with confusion.  

After a full minute of silence, Huo Xingming swallowed nervously and spoke guiltily, “Baibai, you… you were actually Xiaoyang Baibai all along? But now that I think about it, it makes sense. Your loli voice was so good—I should’ve realized you did voice acting.”  

Although everyday speech and voice acting were completely different, Bai Siyi’s loli voice was so convincing that Huo Xingming had never recognized it as the voice of Xiaoyang Baibai!  

Seeing that it was Huo Xingming, Bai Siyi let out a sigh of relief. He had been nervous when he walked in, but now that was gone. Not only was he not nervous anymore, he was actually a little angry.  

He wasn’t just unafraid of the big boss—he actually wanted to punch him.  

After a long pause, Bai Siyi finally looked at Huo Xingming with a complicated expression. “What exactly is going on with you? Didn’t you say your family runs a convenience store?”  

Huo Xingming looked a little guilty. “My family runs a—”  

Bai Siyi stared at him. “I suggest you think carefully before you continue.”  

Huo Xingming: “…”  

He quickly corrected himself, “My family runs a store… but, well, it’s a bit big. It takes up almost half a street, and a lot of people saw how well our business was doing, so they partnered with us to sell their products in our stores. The business is doing pretty well…”  

Bai Siyi rolled his eyes. “Is it a supermarket or a shopping mall?”  

Huo Xingming immediately caved. “A shopping mall.”  

In reality, it was a whole commercial center, but Xiao Bai’s aura was too intimidating right now—he didn’t dare say it.  

Bai Siyi fell silent for a few seconds. He thought about how Huo Xingming was a foreigner and would settle overseas in the future, and how his family owned a whole commercial center—they were obviously very rich. The gap between them was too big. There was no guarantee they could stay together in the future.  

Bai Siyi remained calm and asked again, “You’ve started your own company—why didn’t you tell me?”  

He truly couldn’t understand it.  

Starting a company was an impressive achievement. Most people wouldn’t be able to resist bragging about it, but Huo Xingming had never even mentioned it.  

Huo Xingming walked around the sofa and cautiously reached for Bai Siyi’s hand. Seeing that Bai Siyi didn’t reject him, he boldly took his hand, led him to the sofa, and sat down beside him. Then, he eagerly handed his own cup of coffee to Bai Siyi.  

“Baibai, it’s because I was afraid you’d look down on me.”

Bai Siyi: “…”

Huo Xingming spoke confidently, “You said you don’t like people with too much of a gap between you, so I was worried that if you knew I started a company, you might dislike me and not want to be with me.”

Bai Siyi: “…”

Bai Siyi didn’t know what to say for a moment. He looked at Huo Xingming and said, “Have you ever thought that, rather than a difference in status, I’d dislike being lied to?”

They had agreed before that everything on the show didn’t matter anymore, it was in the past.

After leaving the show, they were supposed to start over, get to know each other again. He thought he made it clear, but Huo Xingming had kept so many things from him.

Bai Siyi’s mood wasn’t great.

Huo Xingming noticed Bai Siyi wasn’t happy. He wanted to comfort him, but was afraid that the more he tried, the angrier Bai Siyi would get.

Bai Siyi stood up. “Forget it. Let’s forget about today’s interview. I’ll head back now.”

He wasn’t in the mood to continue the interview with Huo Xingming. His feelings were too complicated.

It wasn’t that he was being pretentious, he really couldn’t calm down his emotions in such a short time. He needed some space.

Huo Xingming quickly stood up. “Then I’ll take you. Baibai, we promised to go back together.”

Bai Siyi glared at him. “No, I’m staying in a hotel tonight. I’m not going back.”

Huo Xingming looked as if he had been struck by lightning. “Baibai! No staying out overnight!”