The next day, Orchidia Beauty made another headlines as they launched their next line of products consisting of lotions, creams, butters and scrubs for the body. Everything sold out again in just a day. This time, it took hours, unlike their earlier record-breaking launches because the company had once again increased their manufacturing capacity. Meaning, there were more units available for sale than the earlier launches.
Orchidia Beauty products were selling like hot cakes. It was the most coveted brand of skincare products right now in the country. Quite an impressive feat given that it had only been a few weeks since Orchidia Beauty launched with record-breaking sales and shocking many people. At this rate, the company would soon breachthe top 10 beauty brands in the country, becoming the first domestic brand to do so among the foreign companies dominating the rankings for many years.
The demand for Orchidia Beauty products were so high and the supply not enough that there were already counterfeit products appearing in shady markets. Fortunately, Orchidia Beauty reacted swiftly by releasing a video online comparing the quality of the counterfeit products to the real ones. Various clips of scientific experts from across the country and abroad, most of them from distinguished educational and research institutions, were included in the video to provide concrete evidence that using the low-quality, counterfeit products were dangerous because some of the ingredients were made from toxic chemicals.
One such expert who made an appearance in the video was Theresa Blipsburg, a biomedical engineering major and chemical engineering minor who was already making waves in the world’s medical field. What impressed the people the most was the fact that she was introduced as a Cross Academy student. A certified genius!
Although this didn’t completely stop the counterfeit products from being sold, at least the video consisting of various reputable scientific experts deterred most of the consumers from buying the fake goods. When someone from Cross Academy, the legendary school of geniuses, said that the counterfeit Orchidia Beauty products were dangerous and toxic, they believed it! Only the desperate ones still risked it and bought the counterfeit products despite the warnings.
Orchidia Beauty also released a statement saying that they were cooperating with authorities in order to combat the spread of the counterfeit products. However, everyone knew that something like this wouldn’t be easy to eradicate completely.
Chen Fei, as the COO, was the one who was in charge of executing all of these. However, everything went through Iris first and received her approval. It was also through her connection with Cross Academy that she was able to invite so many respected scientific experts to make an appearance for Orchidia Beauty’s video. Although in reality, it was all thanks to Theresa Blipsburg that the scientific experts accepted Orchidia Beauty’s invitation to appear in their video. When they learned that a Cross Academy student accepted the offer, they all followed suit.
Who were they? If one of the genius students of Cross Academy could appear in the video, why should they act high and mighty and refuse to do the same? Of course, they would also accept the offer. After all, this was an opportunity to appear alongside someone from Cross Academy even if it was just through a video. This would be a great opportunity for them to be associated with a Cross Academy student and earn them special bragging rights.
Iris was on the phone speaking to Clover while on the way to a meeting with Jin Chonglin for their next work commitment. Tang Yiyi would be meeting them there after she was finished accompanying another young artist she was managing.
Clover was giving real-time reports of what was happening in Orchidia Beauty. Chen Fei, Long Jinjing and the Bauer siblings were busy with their own tasks at the moment, so Iris opted to wait until later before speaking to them.
“Fufufu. No problem, President Long. This is my job and I love it,” Clover replied with a cute chuckle.
Iris nodded, pleased by Clover’s words. “You should start easing off from being my executive assistant in the company soon and instead finish your preparations for your new post. Are you ready for your trip to France? You’ll be staying there for quite a while so make sure that you have everything ironed out before you leave.”
“Don’t worry, boss—I mean, President Long! Everything is—huh?”
Dom burst into tears. “Wuwuwuwu!!!”
“Huh? Is my big bro crying again?” Clover asked.
Iris sighed and smiled at the same time while patting Dom’s back. Then she handed him the phone so that the siblings could talk to each other.
“You just came to China and now you’re leaving! Wuwuwu! Remember not to be duped by any Frenchmen, no matter how romantic and handsome they are! You should always be on your guard and protect your innocence or else our dragon mother”—cough cough—”I mean, our Momsy will erupt like an angry volcano and spread terror to all of us! You be careful in France, okay? But if you find an awesome Frenchman or European guy that you think will give you a happily ever after, go for it, sis! Oh, and make sure to find me someone, too! Wuwuwuwu! I’m gonna miss you so much!”
With her great hearing, Iris could tell that Clover had also began sobbing like her brother. The siblings began talking in Tagalog, the Filipino language. Iris eavesdropped on their conversation, intending to test how much she could understand. The result was that she was able to understand the gist of the conversation but not everything. Dom and Clover taught her a little bit of the language but if she wanted to improve her Tagalog skills to a higher level, then she needed to work harder in studying it.
“Oh, I just remembered something Meimei told me,” Clover said all of a sudden, speaking in Mandarin again. “She says that there are plans about making a live-action adaptation of her webtoon but nothing is finalized yet.”
[This novel is a contracted work with W e b n o v e l . c o m (remove spaces). If you’re not reading this chapter on W e b n o v e l, it has been stolen. It’s very discouraging to see thieves profitting from my hard work. Please read this novel on W e b n o v e l. Thank you! -Arria]
