Dom injected a livelier energy into the group. He was going to attend tonight’s event as Iris’ representative. Technically speaking, he had the highest standing among them as the proxy of Orchidia Beauty’s President-CEO and owner, Iris Long. He didn’t care about that, though. Neither did Chen Fei nor Long Jinjing. Even Iris wouldn’t care about it.
About ten minutes later, Meimei arrived. She was wearing a rather cute pouf dress in eye-catching pink and purple ombré colour. Her makeup and hair were already done before coming to the hotel. She should’ve looked fresh and youthful but bore a striking resemblance to a dressed-up corpse instead.
“Eeek! Twin sis!” Dom was aghast at his friend’s appearance. He immediately ran to Meimei and gave her a once-over from head to toe and back up again. “What happened to you?! Tell me the truth! Are you still sleeping?”
Meimei released a weak laugh, sounding like it was a dying breath. “What is sleep?”
Dom gasped and threw her a stern look. “This has gone on for too long! You need an intervention! If you don’t sleep properly, you’re going to be heading to eternal sleep sooner rather than later!”
“Oh, Meimei.” Long Jinjing pulled their friend and sat her on the couch. “Dom is right. What you’re doing is abusing your body. It’s not good. You’re paying for your successful career with your health.”
Chen Fei harrumphed. “Let her collapse! That’ll teach her a lesson. If she’s sent to the hospital, she’ll have no choice but to take a break from her webtoon.”
“Xiao Fei!” Long Jinjing sent her best friend a meaningful look, silently telling her to be nice.
Chen Fei snorted, refusing to say any words of comfort. “That girl and Xiulan are the same. They’re both hardheaded workaholics! At least Xiulan has her husband and Dom to monitor her and tell her to take a break whenever she’s working for too long. What about Meimei? I bet she works until her body can’t take it anymore and she has no choice but to sleep!”
She might look like she was disdaining Meimei for not caring enough about her health and wellbeing from her too-blunt words and rude tone, but her eyes still revealed her worry for her friend. She was just not the type of person who would give encouraging, positive words to others. She was more of the type to use reverse psychology.
A pouting Meimei sighed and took all of her friends’ concern and scolding. “I know.”
Hearing her defeated tone, her three friends plus the makeup artist and hairstylist couldn’t help but sigh as well.
Dom clapped his hands to break the low-spirited atmosphere. “Let’s talk about twin sis’ matter later. This is not the time to focus on depressing stuff. I made myself more gorgeous tonight to stand in for Boss at Prince Lin Lin’s launch! At least for tonight, we should all be celebrating! Too much drama already happened. No need to add to our collective stress levels. I gained too much weight from all the stress-eating! Ugh! I’m still gorgeous, though.”
Everyone agreed to put Meimei’s matter aside until tonight’s event was over.
Dom’s phone rang. It was a video call request from Iris. Everyone crowded around Dom during the group video call. Jiang Ying Yue was with Iris. Clover also joined all the way from France.
Now the girl squad was complete.
There wasn’t much time before Dom and the others had to go downstairs for the red carpet and interview. However, they wouldn’t miss this video call for the world. There hadn’t been many opportunities for all of them to chat as a whole group since Iris and Jin Liwei’s wedding. In addition, they needed each other’s support especially after all the worrying things that happened in quick succession during the past few days.
“I’m sorry that I couldn’t be there with you tonight,” Iris told them. “It’s my company and yet I’m not able to attend such an important event. That’s why I’m so thankful to all of you for ensuring that Orchidia Beauty is running properly despite my limited presence.”
“Little Sister—President Long, you’re the one who pulled Jin Chonglin to sign a contract for an exclusive men’s line with Orchidia Beauty,” Long Jinjing said. “If it weren’t for you, then we wouldn’t have this high-profile event tonight. So don’t belittle the time and effort you put into this project. We all know that even if you aren’t personally in the company, you’re still putting in the work at home.”
“That’s a workaholic for you,” Chen Fei muttered.
Iris smiled. “Tonight, it’s China. Next time, we’ll go international.”
“Kyaaaaah! Boss, so cool!” Dom fanned himself with both his manicured hands.
They were already all aware of Iris’ ambitions to make Orchidia Beauty an international brand. Chen Fei and Long Jinjing hadn’t felt too sure about it at first but they weren’t a match for the headstrong Iris.
Whenever Iris said that she wanted to do something, she would do it. They had gotten used to it by now.
Chen Fei, her hair and makeup finally done, stood up and pumped her fist in the air. “Go, Orchidia Beauty!”
Dom jumped up and did the same. “Go go go Orchidia Beauty to the highest level!”
His younger sister Clover echoed him. They could see her doing a silly dance inside her French apartment.
“G-go…” Long Jinjing felt shy at first but felt braver after seeing her friends’ enthusiastic cheers. Even the zombie Meimei managed to do a couple of fist pumps and a loud cheer before falling back to the couch in exhaustion. Long Jinjing took a deep breath and shouted, “Go, Orchidia Beauty!!!”
“Wohoho! Atta girl, Sis Jing!” Dom gave her two thumbs up and a wink.
Feeling more daring, Long Jinjing shouted even louder. “Orchidia Beauty, WE ARE THE BE-ESHT!”
Unfortunately, not only did her voice crack near the end of her sentence but her tongue also lost strength and she ended up mispronouncing the last word.
“Pft! Be-esht!” Dom doubled over and started laughing.
The others followed suit.
Long Jinjing felt her face and neck heat up. Ah, so embarrassing! But she also couldn’t stop herself from laughing.
Beneath the laughter was a reassuring feeling of their strong friendship. That no matter what happened to any of them, whether good or bad, they would be there for each other.