Chapter 71: Li Weiya
Chapter 71: Chapter 71: Li Weiya
After hanging up the phone, Wang Ming walked to the art studio and knocked gently on the door.
"Mom, Jiang Xia is coming over in a bit."
"Mm, I know."
Li Weiya’s calm voice came from inside the room. On her desk was a rather complex piece of background key art, which she was currently revising.
She had a good idea why Jiang Xia was looking for her. Li Weiya had previously seen the proposal Jiang Xia had made for *Cat and Mouse*, as well as the storyboards and key art he had drawn. Whether it was the presentation techniques or the artistic style, everything was handled very well.
Moreover, it seemed her own son had joined Jiang Xia’s team. According to the information he had let slip, their animation was already up to the tenth episode. Although it hadn’t aired on television yet, the online reception was already quite good.
In her view, as a children’s animation, *Cat and Mouse* was already above a passing grade. But that was all contingent on them being able to maintain that level of quality and complete the animation.
However, there was still a long way to go between key art and a finished animation, including editing, post-production dubbing, and many other processes. She didn’t believe a small team of only two or three people could truly and independently produce an outstanding animated work.
After all, plenty of animations had massive promotional campaigns beforehand, only for the art style to collapse once they aired on TV, leading to a terrible reputation.
Such examples were all too common in the animation industry.
Still, for her son’s sake, Li Weiya decided to see what kind of surprise her former student would bring her.
Thinking of this, she temporarily put down her brush, opened her computer, and, with a sense of anticipation, searched online for *Cat and Mouse*.
"Someone please point the way, where can I watch *Cat and Mouse*?"
"Shocking! The most anticipated animation of 2009 is actually a children’s cartoon?"
"Is *Cat and Mouse* any good? Why are so many people talking about this cartoon lately?"
"Major Announcement! A summary of the latest news on *Cat and Mouse*!"
"..."
Staring at the web pages that popped up, Li Weiya was a bit dazed. She randomly clicked on one and found only a few simple GIFs, all of which invariably showed a clumsy cat being tricked by a mouse.
However, from her professional perspective, a few GIFs were not nearly enough to determine the level of completeness the animation had reached.
’It seems if I want to understand this completely, I’ll have to have a proper talk with my student.’
Li Weiya walked out of the art studio and went to her son’s room. She saw him drawing key art for *Cat and Mouse*, and he was doing a good job.
She nodded to herself. ’It’s clear Wang Ming’s drawing skills have improved a lot recently. Regardless of whether these young people are just messing around, I should properly thank Jiang Xia for giving my son such a good project to practice on.’
"Mom, you came into my room without knocking again."
Wang Ming quickly covered his drafts. *Cat and Mouse* hadn’t officially aired yet, so all the frames were company secrets; he couldn’t even show them to his own mother. After all, in a sense, his company and the animation outsourcing company his mom worked for were competitors.
"Isn’t Jiang Xia coming soon? Tell me, what’s your current situation like?"
"Why don’t you just ask him yourself? I’m just the middleman. He’s the boss."
"Boss?" Li Weiya raised a delicate eyebrow. "You guys even started a company?"
Wang Ming nodded. "Jiang Xia registered an animation company. I’m just a lowly employee now. But Mom, don’t look down on our little grassroots team. A lot of companies really can’t compare to the animation we’re making."
When he spoke of the finished *Cat and Mouse* videos, Wang Ming’s eyes were full of confidence.
"Listen to you, hyping it up so much. Where are the finished videos? Let me see," Li Weiya said, holding out her hand.
"The videos are with Jiang Xia, of course. I don’t have them. Besides, we all signed non-disclosure agreements. A lot of things can’t be leaked to outsiders."
Seeing him act so serious, Li Weiya didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. This son of hers was even on guard against his own mother.
"Fine. I’ll wait for Jiang Xia to arrive and ask him myself."
Her anticipation for *Cat and Mouse* was growing. ’I hope it doesn’t disappoint me.’
◇
After hanging up, Jiang Xia immediately gathered the materials related to *Cat and Mouse* and headed for Wang Ming’s home.
’For me, talking business is the top priority,’ he thought. ’Being lovey-dovey with my wife can wait.’
Li Weiya was the one who opened the door. She was wearing casual clothes for lounging at home, and it looked like she had been waiting for him specifically.
"Hello, Teacher Li," Jiang Xia said politely.
"Hello." She gave a slight smile. "Ah Ming told me all about your situation. Come on in."
"Sorry for the intrusion."
Jiang Xia put on shoe covers and entered the house. Li Weiya poured two glasses of herbal tea.
Hearing the noise, Wang Ming came out of his room for a look. When he saw it was Jiang Xia, he gave him a meaningful look, winking and nudging his brows, before returning to his room.
’I’m just a lowly artist, and all I need to do is draw. I don’t want to get involved in business matters.’
"Jiang Xia, what is it you want my help with?" Li Weiya asked impassively.
He sat up straight, his expression as calm as ever. "In that case, I’ll be direct, Teacher Li."
Li Weiya nodded, signaling for him to continue.
"As you know, Ah Ming and I are working on an animation called *Cat and Mouse*. The early episodes are more or less finished now, and we’re considering how to get it aired on television."
"Why does it have to be on TV? The internet is so developed now; you could absolutely release it online," Li Weiya countered.
"It’s simple. We’re making a children’s animation, and the personal computer penetration rate in our country isn’t very high this year. There’s also a more important reason: video websites are still in a phase where people contribute out of passion. Even if I put *Cat and Mouse* online, the profit it would bring me would be minimal. The primary reason I started an animation company is, of course, to make a profit," Jiang Xia replied.
Li Weiya took a shallow sip of her herbal tea. ’His reasoning is very straightforward. To put it bluntly, in the current internet environment, selling to a TV station is the only way to make money, maximize profits, and ensure the real target audience sees his work.’
"But you should be aware that not just any work can be aired on television. TV stations have very high standards for quality, and they are particular about time slots. The same show airing in different time slots will have completely different ratings."
"I know that, of course. I have a lot of confidence in *Cat and Mouse*."
Jiang Xia smiled. "But my words alone are no proof. I’d like to ask Teacher Li to watch it and then offer some advice."
...
*(So sorry, Chapter 2 is a bit late.)*