Living in a county town, starting as a stock market maker...

Li Li was a little stunned by her best friend's excited words.

She instinctively wanted to refuse.

But what Sun Xiao said next made her waver.

"Lily, think about it. If you push him onto me and I get angry, wouldn't that be the same as slapping him in the face?"

"Didn't he look down on you back then? I'll show him what he missed out on. Then the two of us sisters will build a business together and make him regret it!"

This reason was exactly what Li Li wanted to hear.

Yes, let him see.

Let him see the people in our circle; any one of them is better than his subordinates.

Li Li's finger hovered over the screen for a long time before finally clicking share.

"Thank you, Lily, you're such a good sister! Wait for my good news!"

……

Star Media Office.

My phone rang, and a friend request popped up on the screen.

I am Sun Xiao, a friend of Li Li.

Gu Ming showed no expression and casually clicked "accept".

He had just received his application when the message arrived.

A smiley face emoji followed by a long paragraph of text.

"Hello Mr. Gu, I am Sun Xiao, a tenured teacher at a public school. I saw the accounts you created for Wang Min and the others, and I admire your professional skills! I think your company's philosophy is very advanced, so I would like to recommend myself."

"Unlike Wang Min and the others, I graduated from a teachers' college and have some artistic talent, such as piano and dance. Moreover, as a teacher, my social image is very positive, with no scandals. I also run my own online account, although it's not very good, but I understand the internet quite well. I personally think that my qualifications are more valuable than those girls', and it's easier for me to be developed into a high-quality idol. I wonder if you are interested in me?"

The long string of words exuded confidence.

Gu Ming calmly finished reading and tapped his fingers on the table.

In his view, the advantages that Sun Xiao mentioned were actually disadvantages.

A positive image means no controversy. A smooth life means no scandals. As for talent, in this era of short videos, mediocre talent is far less useful than an attractive label.

He picked up his phone and typed a reply slowly and deliberately.

The message he typed wasn't meant for Sun Xiao; it seemed more like a reiteration of his principles.

"Ms. Sun, thank you for your recognition. You are indeed very qualified, with a dignified appearance, a respectable job, and a smooth life."

Sun Xiao smiled when she saw the first sentence.

She knew that someone as smart as Gu Ming would know how to make the right choice.

She even started to fantasize about what Li Li's expression would be after she became famous.

But the second message Gu Ming sent made her smile freeze.

"But from our company's perspective, you lack the most essential element of becoming a 'person'—a story."

story?

Sun Xiao frowned. What did this mean?

"Those three girls, although they are not very educated and their behavior is somewhat vulgar, they have the kind of conflict that ordinary people want to see: being bullied, being wronged, having a strong desire to resist, and now showing clumsy kindness. Their story can resonate with many people who are struggling at the bottom of society like them."

"And you are too 'perfect,' so perfect that there is no story to tell. My job is to turn stones into gold, but the prerequisite is that you have to be a rough stone, not a smooth pebble."

The last sentence made Sun Xiao's heart sink.

"So, I'm sorry, you do not meet our company's current signing standards."

After sending the message in the office, Gu Ming locked his phone and put it aside.

For him, this was just a routine business decision, not worth spending a minute more than necessary.

His time is very valuable.

On the other side, Sun Xiao stared blankly at the few lines of text on her phone screen.

Her proud education, job, and image were worthless in the eyes of the other party.

It even became a reason for rejection?

She felt humiliated and was so angry that her fingers were trembling. She took a screenshot of the chat history and sent it directly to Li Li.

"What does he mean? What gives him the right to say that about me?!"

Looking at the screenshot and the few lines Gu Ming had typed, Li Li was more shocked than Sun Xiao.

Pebbles...stones...

She had thought that Gu Ming would agree to cooperate with Sun Xiao to prove to her that he didn't necessarily need those girls.

But he didn't care at all.

His evaluation criteria and his business logic were a completely unfamiliar world to her, something she had never encountered in her more than twenty years of life.

In this world, everything that she and Sun Xiao valued seemed ridiculous.

At this moment, Li Li realized that she and Gu Ming were from completely different worlds.

……

Gu Ming didn't take what had just happened to heart at all.

He turned on his computer and started looking at the footage the three sisters had taken that morning at the city's animal rescue station.

This was the task he assigned yesterday.

The video is very rough; it was shot with a mobile phone, and the picture is still shaky.

But the content is very vivid.

In the video, Wang Min, with her dyed yellow hair, is clumsily trying to give a puppy a bath, only to have the puppy splash water all over her face. She curses, "Damn it, you little brat, you dare to ambush me!"

He cursed, but his hands moved even lighter.

In another scene, Liu Liu and Zhang Hong are gathered around a cat cage, trying to take out a frightened stray cat to feed it.

Zhang Hong had just put her hand inside when the kitten scratched her, leaving several bloody marks on the back of her hand.

"Ouch!" she cried out in pain, and Liu Liu, who was next to her, quickly pulled her hand over to look at it.

Zhang Hong gasped for breath, but smiled at the ruffled kitten in the cage.

"She has quite a temper."

Gu Ming looked at the images and nodded in satisfaction.

This is exactly the contrast he wanted.

This is an unadorned, clumsy kindness.

It's more touching than any well-designed staged photo or accompanying text.

He skillfully used editing software to select these real clips and add a warm background music.

At the end of the video, the three sisters are squatting on the ground, watching the kittens and puppies fight over food, with silly smiles on their faces.

Gu Ming titled the video: "Young lady's first time doing volunteer work, almost got scratched to death by a cat."

After finishing the editing, he posted the video to the three sisters' accounts.

After finishing all this, he stretched and prepared to have lunch.

He had just stood up when his phone on the table suddenly rang.

It's an unfamiliar local number.

Gu Ming answered the phone casually.

"Hello."

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone, followed by a steady male voice:

"Hello, are you Mr. Gu from Star Media?"

"I am."

"Hello Mr. Gu, I am Zhang, the president of the city's animal protection association. We just saw your latest video online and were very moved."

The man's voice was sincere and somewhat excited.

"We would like to formally invite your team to become our association's youth ambassadors. Would you be interested?"