Alric Bauer didn't hear Jisoo's complaint. Even if he did, he wouldn't mind it too much. It was the nature of his work—product development—to spend a lot of money. To make an amazing product with high effectiveness, it had to go through many failures to be improved.
Similarly, it was also the nature of Jisoo's work to maintain Orchidia Beauty's expenses within a certain budget range. It was no wonder that Alric and Jisoo always butted heads about the Product Development Department's huge expenses.
Back at the launch event, the three people on the stage returned to the centre. Everyone quietened and paid attention to them. All three had poker faces, not revealing any of their real thoughts.
V gestured for Chaeng to make the announcement. She nodded and began speaking.
"As many of you may remember, Orchidia Beauty holds the record for selling out the largest amount of skincare products in the country in five seconds. Tonight...."
The audience leaned forward.
'Tonight what?'
Their expressions urged her to hurry up. V's army of fans held their breaths.
"Tonight...ah, my throat is dry. Can someone give me some water to drink first?" Chaeng gestured at her assistant below the stage to give her a drink.
"Boo!"
"This woman is terrible!"
"No, actually she's excellent. She knows how to create suspense."
"Hurry up! Screw the drink!"
Chaeng didn't mind the booing and complaints at all. In fact, she looked quite pleased with herself as she slowly savoured the plain water that her assistant handed her. After returning the empty glass to her assistant, she pretended to look confused.
"Ah, where was I again?"
"Boo!"
She laughed. V and the emcee laughed as well. The booing audience laughed while continuing to boo. The atmosphere was lighthearted but the anticipation and excitement were almost electrifying.
"Oh, right. I remember now." Chaeng cleared her throat. "According to our official records, we have confirmed that all the products in V's Prinz men's line have sold out in..."
"In what? Say it! Hurry up!"
By this time, V was already grinning. Based on his expression alone, it must be good news. Nevertheless, everyone still wanted to know the exact time that his Prinz men's line sold out.
Chaeng finally revealed it in a loud, happy voice. "Sold out in 2.69 seconds!"
A deafening sound of cheers and applause filled not only the hotel's grand hall but also outside where V's army of fans continued to stay while watching the livestream of the event. All of them were celebrating as if their Prince won a major award.
"We did it! Prince is the best!"
Then Chaeng added, "Let's round it up and just say that it sold out in 3 seconds."
"Boo! It's 2 seconds, not 3!"
She heard the person who said this and raised an eyebrow, looking quite arrogant while doing so. "That's not how rounding works. So it's settled then. It's 3 seconds."
V made a show of rolling his eyes. "Ignore her. She doesn't like that I broke Orchidia Beauty's original record by too much. So let's just give it to her and say it's 3 seconds, but of course officially, it's still 2.69 seconds! My fans are the best! Always! Thank you so much!"
"Kyaaaaaah! We love you, Prince!"
The standing ovation lasted for a whole two minutes. Even Jae and Jisoo were caught in the joy and excitement of breaking another record. This wasn't only V's achievement but Orchidia Beauty's as well. In fact, it was Orchidia Beauty who benefitted the most.
"Yay yay! Orchidia Beauty is the best to the highest level! Woohoo!" Jae was jumping all around and doing his rather impressive victory dance, not at all shy in busting his moves in front of so many people.
Jisoo smiled at Alric Bauer who still looked calm overall but had a pleased expression on his face. "Congratulations, Alric. We wouldn't have achieved this if it weren't for the amazing products you developed."
He didn't deny it but didn't brag either. Instead, his eyes shone with eagerness. "This means that we profited a lot, right? So can I get a budget increase for my department?"
The smile on Jisoo's face froze before she sighed. "Let's talk about this another time, okay? I still need to see exactly how much we earned before I can consider your request."
He looked reluctant but still nodded and didn't bother her about the budget again for the rest of the night.
The launch of V's Prinz men's line of all-natural skincare products with Orchidia Beauty was a huge, resounding success. It was so successful that it achieved a new record.
###
"We're here, Miss Jisoo,"
Jisoo opened her eyes when she heard the male voice. She had been half-dozing in the car's backseat. Covering her yawn, she looked outside and saw that they were inside the indoor VIP parking lot of the hospital. "Thank you, Shun."
Later, she entered Jiyong's private suite in the hospital's VIP section. Although it was already past 2 AM, nobody stopped her from entering because Jiyong was registered as a VIP patient. His visitors didn't need to follow the regular visiting hours.
Also, nobody dared to go against Jiyong's subordinates guarding their boss' suite especially when almost all of them looked so frightening. Their looks weren't the scary part but their aura.
She could hear Grandpa's loud snores from the guest bedroom beside Jiyong's room. She released a sigh of relief that Grandpa was already sleeping. If he saw her coming at this hour, he would surely be worried about her. Grandpa
didn't need another person to worry about when he was already stressing about his own comatose grandson."Nikolai," she whispered when she stood next to Jiyong's bed. She was still in her full attire that she wore at V's launch event. "When will you wake up? Please wake up soon."
As usual, there was no response. Her heart clenched in pain. She held his big, rough hand and squeezed it.
"I still love you, you know."
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The Wife Is A Superstar 6
FanfictionA world-famous hacker and daughter of the most powerful criminal family who ruled the international underworld for many generations is killed when their organization is annihilated in a single night. She is reborn into the body of Jennie Kim, a pop...