397 Time to Step Up

The summer season was a time of opportunities for Iris as a career woman.

As a translator and interpreter, she started accepting small assignments from both Jin Corporation and Long Industries. She translated some documents for them. There was only one instance when she acted as interpreter after the international business conference, and that was when she accompanied Grandpa Lu for a meeting with some Russian investors.

She didn't really have that much time to spare to accept more translator/interpreter jobs, even though there were many companies, both local and foreign, that expressed their interest in hiring her. Nevertheless, her two professors encouraged her to apply her skills regularly in an actual work environment for her to gain more experience. It would help in polishing her language skills.

After the international business conference, the two professors left China to return to their own home countries. They didn't need to train Iris in person anymore. However, their lessons and mentorship would still continue via long-distance training.

As a businesswoman, Iris was extremely busy running her own companies and closely monitoring their progress. Her companies continued to eat up a substantial amount of her wealth, but she remained optimistic that she would get back everything she had invested and more.

Planet Monkey was already starting to really profit. If the company's upward trend continued, Iris estimated that both Hou Liang and Wu Chen would become millionaires in the country by the end of this year.

Iris didn't really need to worry too much about Planet Monkey. Both Hou Liang and Wu Chen were doing a fantastic job in running it. Although she was the President-Owner, what she really just needed to do was continue being the financier and also periodically attacking the company's online systems to test the strength of its security.

Planet Monkey was using a powerful security system that she personally created and developed. As a result, the company's systems were virtually impenetrable by anyone below her skill level. There weren't a lot of hackers in the world who could contend against her. So it wasn't a stretch to conclude that Planet Monkey's systems were the most secure in the country.

Being a financier and a cybersecurity hacker for Planet Monkey weren't taking too much of her time and effort. For that, she was grateful.

Orchidia Beauty, on the other hand, was a different matter. Because she planned on making the company synonymous to her name in the future, she paid close attention to every single detail concerning it.

It was taking a lot of her time and effort. Fortunately, she had capable people helping her run it who were as filled with youthful energy and ambition as her in making the company successful.

At the moment, their initial products that they planned on launching first were already completed. They had sent PR packages to selected beauty influencers in the country and even reached out to some international ones.

Within a few weeks, the reviews started pouring out. At first, the reviewers expressed their distrust for a new company that they had never heard of before. However, almost all of them gave positive reviews and high ratings after personally using the products. They raved about the products' "miraculous" effectiveness, all-natural label, and beautiful but sustainable packaging.

All of them wanted to know more about this new company, Orchidia Beauty. They couldn't wait for the official launch of the products.

Using the hype generated by these influencers in the beauty community, Orchidia Beauty finally announced the official launch of their first products which would be in the autumn season. Iris would be endorsing her own company, of course. But for now, it was a secret.

Iris also discussed Sang Bleu with Chen Fei, Long Jinjing, Clover and the Bauer siblings. They were all excited when they heard that she acquired the perfumery's resources. All kinds of possibilities ran through their minds on how to make the best use of the perfumery. However, they decided to put it aside for now and focus on their upcoming launch next season.

All of these made Iris super busy throughout the summer. Despite this, she still had the energy to pursue her passion—music.

Even with her crazy schedule, she didn't neglect her showbiz career, especially now that Bright Summit was providing her with increased resources and opportunities to make her more famous.

Iris and Jin Chonglin had finally completed their parts in the production of their two music collaborations. They handed the remaining details for JJ to iron out.

As always, JJ won the right to produce Iris' music collaboration, even with a superstar like Jin Chonglin. JJ was able to intimidate Jin Chonglin's record label into not fighting against him over the production right of the collaboration.

The two songs would be released on separate occasions in autumn.

Eveything was kept hush-hush for now. They wanted their collaboration to be a big surprise to the music industry, especially to their own fans.

While waiting for the release of their two song collaborations, Iris was able to land a few small cameo roles in some TV dramas and even in a movie. The two most notable roles that she played were, first, in a romance TV drama playing as herself, and second, as the elegant heiress sister of the male lead in a melodrama movie.

She was added into the movie last minute. In fact, the filming had already finished when the production team decided to reshoot a scene to include her. That was why she only needed to wait about a month after shooting her cameo scene before the film premiered in theatres.

Both roles were extremely easy for her to play. She only needed to act like herself. There wasn't any real acting involved to play those roles. Besides, she only needed to say two to three sentences. Her screen time per show was only about thirty seconds to about a minute.

Nevertheless, her acting stints during the summer were widely celebrated by her fans, the Black Stars. They contributed a lot in boosting the TV shows' ratings and the ticket sales of the movie just to watch their boss Iris say a sentence or two for a few seconds.

The production teams of the TV shows and the movie were extremely pleased by the high ratings and ticket sales. From the start, this was their goal for casting Iris Long in a cameo role—to use her popularity.

Iris treated these acting roles as fun side jobs. They were enjoyable, but she couldn't really see herself as someone pursuing a serious acting career. Her music career would always be her number one priority in showbiz.

With all of these different things she was doing, it was no wonder that her schedule was full. Despite this, Iris still made sure to allocate a good amount of time for Jin Liwei.

After their emotional fight the night of their anniversary, she promised herself to fill her inadequacy in their relationship. It was time for her to step up and do her part, too. She wouldn't allow him to do all the work in nurturing their relationship anymore.

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Jin Corporation.

After an almost six-hour long meeting that went way past lunch time, Jin Liwei finally dismissed his employees. Everybody was relieved that it ended, but they also felt satisfied because it was a very productive meeting. They resolved a lot of issues and finalized many plans.

Jin Liwei exited the conference room first. His employees followed behind him, intending to head straight to lunch. However, Xu Tian received a call about something urgent.

"President, we have some problem that must be resolved immediately," Xu Tian informed him and then explained the situation.

Jin Liwei frowned. However, he didn't hesitate. He called a few of the people behind him to assist in resolving the problem.

"Come with me to my office. I want this problem fixed today," he told them. Then he turned to Xu Tian and instructed, "Order some food for us. We'll eat while working."

"Understood, President."

The people he called out had no choice but to follow him to his office. The group rode the elevator and ascended to the top floor.

Once inside his office, the group started reviewing the problem and brainstorming ideas on how to solve it. Xu Tian left and headed to his own desk outside the door, intending to call a restaurant to deliver late lunch for them. But his phone rang before he could do so.

"Hello? Oh, it's you."

Xu Tian's eyes widened in surprise after hearing what the person on the other end of the line said. Then he smiled.

"Alright. I'll call the receptionist downstairs to let you in. Just head up directly here."