CHAPTER 180: CHAPTER 182: TAKING OVER ZHUANG HENG’S SPACE

Many people’s gazes turned over.

After the beautiful and mysterious black kitten photo folded cross-page, there was another unrelated piece of text and images, where the image took up a quarter of the layout, roughly one-sixth the size of the black kitten photo.

The photographer credited was Zhuang Heng.

Fang Luohua sharp-eyed, was the first to recognize: "Ah, this is the ’Traveler Without Boundaries’ section, with several pages each issue, why is there only one page this time?... I get it, it must have been squeezed out by the space for that black kitten photo, right?"

Su Xingyu chuckled lightly: "Yes."

Turning her gaze, seeing Zhuang Heng’s somewhat disgraced expression, her mood suddenly improved.

"No wonder... No wonder." Someone picked up the magazine to take a closer look, "In the past, ’Traveler Without Boundaries’ always dominated several pages, with a whole page for illustrations. No wonder the illustration is squeezed so small this time, it turns out it’s to make room for other layout sections." The speaker meant no harm, but it sounded like Zhuang Heng’s photo made way for Su Xingyu’s photo.

Zhuang Heng’s face was even more embarrassed, and she said lightly: "There’s nothing about making way. Making ’Traveler Without Boundaries,’ such a well-established and popular section, give way to a second-tier brand? I don’t think Yetanhua has that capability. The reduced page count for ’Traveler Without Boundaries’ this time must have other reasons, surely a professional consideration by the magazine, unrelated to just one or two photos."

"Indeed." Xia Ranran also caught on, echoing.

Su Xingyu smiled with a hint of disdain; she had been bullied openly and secretly by Zhuang Heng for a long time, and now she had to settle old and new scores: "Zhuang Heng, don’t get any lucky ideas. Let me tell you, your photo was indeed shrunk to make room for mine. My photo was taken just a few days ago; the magazine was already printed and specially pulled apart a few pages for re-arranging, that’s how this was inserted. If you don’t believe me, you can ask the Cloud people; the discarded pages are probably still in the print factory, you’ll see."

Zhuang Heng looked at her like she was looking at a monster: "How is that possible?"

Xia Ranran and a few others also said: "How could it be? Who are you kidding, Su Xingyu? You think tearing down and reprinting an already printed magazine is so easy? Do you know what the circulation of ’Cloud’ is and how much cost would be lost? The wasted paper pulp alone isn’t something you could afford! You’re just a tiny first-rated photographer, what qualifications do you have to make ’Cloud’ go to such lengths? Haha, please, make your lies more believable, don’t make them so obvious that they make people laugh!"

Su Xingyu said: "Some people cover their ears, pretending they can’t hear the truth."

Every word she said was true. It was Cang Er, the general editor for the China region of ’Cloud’ himself, who called her, complaining about how she hadn’t thought of ’Cloud’ in the first place when she took such a great photo, and instead sold it to a second-tier brand, Yetanhua. Now, ’Cloud’ had to use this photo and include Yetanhua’s logo as an advertisement, lowering its own prestige for nothing.

At that time, Su Xingyu couldn’t help but smile wryly at the call: "Then don’t use it, I’ll shoot another set for you another day."

"No way!" Cang Er’s answer was very bold, "Good photos are hard to come by, your shot of the little black cat is so perfect in form and spirit, even a studio setup probably couldn’t achieve such good results. I liked this photo the moment I saw it, loved it so much. I’ve already decided to insert it into the next issue of ’Cloud,’ tear out the original pages and redo!"

Su Xingyu deeply felt that the chief editor was really burning money, she couldn’t help but remind her: "But the rules..."

"To hell with the rules!" Cang Er was even bolder, "I’m using this shot, I’m not making a separate single-page insert, I’m tearing out and redoing the inner pages, what about it! Xingyu, I’m telling you, this photo of yours is destined to go down in history, believe it or not? I’m creating history!"

Su Xingyu was speechless...

At the time, she thought the editor in chief was so imposing, was she out of her mind?

But now to find out the torn-out and redone pages were actually from Zhuang Heng’s layout, truly... hahahahaha!

She must take Cang Er out for a meal after work, for sure.

She was very pleased, without looking at anyone else, just stared at Zhuang Heng and said: "Miss Zhuang, others may not discover the truth of this matter, but for you, it’s a piece of cake, right? You go ahead and investigate how your layout came to be shrunk; Cloud thinks my little black cat photo is more important, and I can’t help it. Thank you for the courtesy."

Every word she said made Zhuang Heng want to spit blood.

It was only after Su Xingyu finished speaking that Zhuang Heng felt she would explode internally.

From Su Xingyu’s clear eyes, Zhuang Heng could see she wasn’t lying, yet she misunderstood—

She thought Su Xingyu used Lu Shifeng’s connections, so that’s why ’Cloud’ was giving her such leeway! You should know, such top-notch fashion magazines are very proud, if not for Lu Shifeng, she couldn’t imagine who else could make ’Cloud’ break the rules!

She stared deeply at Su Xingyu, the hidden murderous intent in her gaze was chilling.

Then, without saying a word, she turned and walked away.

Watching her retreating figure, the office fell into a silence.

After a long while, Fang Luohua finally asked in a quiet voice: "Miss Zhuang is... angry?"

"Of course," Yun Xi answered him, giving Su Xingyu a fierce look, "her work was displaced through improper means, and the culprit is so arrogant, if you were in her place, wouldn’t you be angry?"

Su Xingyu said coldly: "I didn’t use any improper means."

"Heh, do you think anyone here believes that?" Yun Xi sneered.

Beside them, Xia Ranran nodded: "Su Xingyu, even if your photo is quite good, it shouldn’t squeeze out Miss Zhuang’s, should it? Don’t you feel ashamed for doing so?" Saying that, she looked around, "Don’t you all agree?"

But this time, not many people agreed.

Joining Blade Group, they aren’t without judgement.

Even if they initially excluded and didn’t like newcomer Su Xingyu, they had just discovered in the meeting her solid photography skills, and now saw such moving photos she took... some admiring talent. Many calmed down and began considering the displacement of layout; honestly, if the roles were reversed today and Zhuang Heng squeezed out Su Xingyu’s layout, they’d believe it, because Zhuang Heng was after all the eldest lady of the Zhuang Family, with a distinguished status and wide connections.

But when it was Su Xingyu squeezing out Zhuang Heng?

Come on, are you kidding?

She’s just a small newcomer, what qualifications does she have, how could she possibly squeeze out Zhuang Heng?

Her getting a larger layout than Zhuang Heng only explains one thing—the official view from ’Cloud’ is that her work indeed deserves a bigger layout than Zhuang Heng’s!

’Cloud’ doesn’t recognize Blade’s whatever chief photographer, their evaluation system is different from Blade’s.