The Spring Festival holidays finally ended. All the people returned to their regular lives. The children went back to school while the adults returned to work.
Of course, Iris and Jin Liwei were no exception. In fact, they had no time to adjust, immediately diving back to their busy and heavy workloads.
Iris began shooting various ads for the endorsements she signed before the Spring Festival. This included the ad for Lin Yehan's premium tea company.
Actually, some of the offers she accepted were withdrawn by the companies when the tabloid scandal about her having a love child with Jin Chonglin hit the news. When it was proven that the scandal was not true, the companies reoffered the endorsements to her again. However, she rejected them the second time around. She wasn't interested in endorsing companies who had so little trust in her character.
In the end, she ended up with only five endorsements.
First was Serenity Premium Tea—Lin Yehan's company. Second was Meili Nails. It was the nail polish company who fought against the Alarm Girls in court after the trio physically assaulted Mr. Chen's secretary. Third was for a new phone model. Fourth, an endorsement for high-end earphones and headphones. And lastly, a toothpaste endorsement.
All of these endorsement deals were worth a total of about 10 million RMB. The initial offers were actually lower, adding up to only about 4 million RMB. Tang Yiyi worked hard in negotiating with the companies and was able to increase the offers.
"The day will come when you'll get a minimum of 10 million per endorsement," Tang Yiyi told her. "So just continue to work hard for now."
"I will. Thank you for the hard work, Elder Sister Yiyi," Iris said in a sincere tone. "The offers already exceeded my initial expectations. I was expecting to receive about 2 million for all five endorsements."
"Your expectations are too low. Iris, you're now one of the hottest celebrities in the country. Although your level of fame is still very far from someone like Jin Chonglin, you have the potential to become a superstar that'll eclipse him someday. Your showbiz career will definitely be worth more than this 10 million of endorsement deals."
While she busied herself with the endorsements, the Bauer siblings finally arrived to the country all the way from Germany. They were here to stay and start working with her on their company Orchidia Beauty.
Amanpio Kileksy also came with them to install the various special equipment he built with Alric Bauer. Iris spent tens of millions of dollars before Amanpio and Alric were able to complete building all the equipment. They went through a lot of failed prototypes which cost millions.
Although Iris had the urge to strangle Amanpio several times for draining so much money, she appreciated his firm belief in using only the highest quality materials. In the end, Alric Bauer told her that the equipment they built were even better than what he originally envisioned.
Iris helped Alric file several patent applications for all of the equipment. He and Amanpio agreed to share the patents under their names. The two also already agreed to sign an exclusive licence to Orchidia Beauty once the patents were approved.
Before they arrived in the country, Iris already made preparations. Orchidia Beauty now had a lab to develop products, a factory, warehouse and even a small commercial building which would serve as the company's headquarters.
For accommodations, Iris assigned the Bauer siblings to a large unit at Gold Heights Condominium building where her penthouse was located. There were several vacancies after she evicted the residents who colluded with the reporters in hunting down Little Jun.
As for Amanpio, she allowed him to stay at the penthouse as a guest. She already warned Yi Mei that Amanpio was weird, so the household staff should prepare themselves not to be too shocked by any of his behaviour. She also gave Yi Mei authority to kick him out if he ever disrespected any of them. The guy was a Cross Academy student. He could afford a hotel.
Iris gave them a few days to adjust to the country and recover from jet lag before they started working on their business. It was already registered. She also successfully secured several ethical sources of high-quality ingredients and other raw materials needed to manufacture their products.
Lin Yehan had been instrumental in helping Iris connect with local farmers. In fact, Iris already signed Lin Yehan as one of the main producers of some of the ingredients they needed. He owned several farms and plantations after all.
That was why Iris scheduled an appointment with Long Tengfei. The shipping business was a major part of Long Industries, especially under Long Tengfei's leadership. She told him that she wanted to discuss a business opportunity with him. Curious, he immediately made time for her.
A couple of days later, Iris brought the Bauer siblings, Amanpio Kileksy and her financial manager Qiao Yu for their appointment with Long Tengfei. Since it was Long Industries, Iris didn't bother putting on a disguise. She just wore sunglasses and that was it. Her surname was still Long, after all.
She wore a tailored yet very chic and feminine business suit with high heels. The Bauer siblings also dressed up in their best business attires. Qiao Yu dressed in his usual accountant outfit. Only Amanpio dressed like he was just lazing around in his own home.
"Hello, good afternoon. Welcome to Long Industries," the receptionist greeted them with a warm, professional smile. "How may I help—oh my God! You're Iris Long!"
The surrounding people all whipped their heads to their direction after hearing the receptionist's loud, excited cry. An audible murmur arose from them as they craned their necks to get a better look at Iris.
"Is it really Iris Long?"
"Wow. She looks even more beautiful in person."
"What's she doing here?"
"Oh God. Don't tell me she's going to start working here."
"Are you kidding me? What does she know about working in business?"
Iris could hear most of what they were saying with her great hearing. However, she didn't react. She gave a polite smile to the receptionist instead.
"Oh oh! B-boss Iris…I'm a f-fan! I mean, I'm a Black Star… I love you so much!"
The receptionist threw away her professionalism out of the window. Faced with Iris Long, all she could feel was awe at seeing her in person.