"First of all, the title of the book must be changed, and it can't be called 'The Kiss of Time'!" Martha's penetrating voice mingled with the enchanting cappuccino scent that wafted around me. The sunlight shone through the glass of the café and on her curly brown hair, making her whole body sparkle.

"Honey," she softened, "if you're a best-selling fiction writer and readers have confidence in your quality and expectations for your story, it's a good idea to do some of this little mystery." But you're a newbie and no one knows who you are, and just looking at the title, 'The Kiss of Time', it can be an obscure, extremely boring book of philosophy and history, or a superficial romance novel with a touch of childfiction or magic. Your title must present the content of the book in the most direct way, otherwise you will lose a large readership who will choose to give up reading before they have time to understand what the book is about! In the end, Martha's condescending "authority" tone was still involuntarily revealed. However, I did not feel any displeasure, she was qualified to use this "authoritative" tone, who is the hottest editor-in-chief of the hottest "Thermostat" publishing group, for me, a lover of amateur writing, it is a great honor to be able to work with her for the first time.

However, I don't know whether to live or die: "I can't think of a better name, it can't be 'how to restore antiques with high technology', right?" I raised my glass and took a sip of my coffee and looked up at the man sitting next to Martha, who was obviously amused by the cute name, but quickly withdrew his smile from Martha's anger.

"Actually, I don't care about sales and popularity, and I ...... to see my words become a real book," Martha exploded, and she has a resounding title in the publishing world "Devil's Pepper", which is the world's hottest pepper produced in India, which can not only be used in vegetables and medicine, but also to make anti-wolf spray...... The title is in keeping with her Indian identity on the one hand, and the lethality of her outbursts on the other.

"You don't care about sales and popularity, but I care about my reputation in the industry and our company's reputation! The story you've written is really interesting, but that doesn't mean we have to beg you to publish it! ”

In the face of me, Martha's "outburst" was quite restrained, without using her usual harsh sentences, or as she did with other "ignorant" authors, who threw off the brink of her eyes and got up to leave, and I heard that on one occasion she burned someone's manuscript in front of her...... Martha's restraint stemmed mainly from my "killer feature" sitting next to her.

My "killer feature" cleared my throat and entered the "arbitration" mode: "The title of the book remains the same, and I can do some design in the early publicity and public relations to make up for the lack of the title of the book......," he said, putting the coffee cup in his hand on the table, and the dinging sound was like a hammer dropped by the justice.

I smiled a little unkindly, and Martha's big eyes characteristic of beautiful Indian women almost burst into flames, but she could only accept the "verdict" without saying a word.

Whoever called me "killer" is the founder and chairman of the "Thermostat" publishing group, who called me "killer" is the famous "unassuming" Eric, who called me "killer" is the object of Martha's admiration and crush, and who called me "killer" is...... My brother......

Leaving the café on Elizabeth Street and the angry Miss Martha, I had planned to fly directly to JFK from New York back to San Francisco, but was strongly opposed by Eric, who decided that it would be unwise to fly long distances in such a short period of time (six hours each way) and that "it is not safe to be so tired." He said categorically. I don't understand: I'm not flying an airplane, what does fatigue have to do with safety? But in the face of Eric's resolute assertion, I basically obeyed, anyway, it was not a big deal to go back a day or two late. My cat has been entrusted to the care of my neighbors who love cats more than me, and my studio is running smoothly with the support of my colleagues who love and enjoy their work. With that in mind, there's nothing wrong with experiencing Eric's simple, almost empty luxury apartment, listening to his teachings on my life path, my love choices, and meeting a few of the strangers in their culture.

The room in Eric's apartment is usually locked, not to keep it clean and private, but because it is incompatible with the style of the whole apartment, if the apartment is "cold and noble", my room is "warm and mediocre", it not only breaks the Eric rule of "no more than three pieces of furniture shall be placed in any room except the living room", but also puts a whole set of "Eric Emoji Rabbit" on the bookshelf, which is a set of dolls that have long been discontinued, There were 24 of them, each with a different expression, and it took me a lot of effort to collect them, so I forcibly sent them to Eric because of his name.

"I often have parties or salon......s here," Eric said when he first explained to me why he locked my room, implying that "I can't afford to lose that person's ...... if I can't see it."

In short, Eric is a responsible and serious brother who cares for me, but I have to say that living separately and occasionally getting together is the key to maintaining our close brother-sister relationship.

In the evening, my assistant Jasmine in the studio made a video call. Perhaps because I have half Chinese ancestry, I have a natural liking for this Chinese girl, she has a cheerful personality and speaks straightforwardly, and when I first came to the interview, I asked her to speak a little Chinese, and then she was admitted on the spot. "Are you sure you're hiring assistants and not cross talk?" Jasmine teased me every time she talked about this interview.

Before we get down to business, I proudly showed Jasmine my full set of "Eric's Emoji Bunny".

"Oh, my sister," Jasmine said, shaking her head, and I asked her to speak in Chinese when we were alone, and her fluttering Beijing accent changed not only the style of her language compared to when she spoke English, but also the style of her whole painting.

"I'm embarrassed to show you the collections worth less than 5 million now. As a result, your old man is ...... Such...... Things have a soft spot. I had become accustomed to her cynicism, shrugged my shoulders indifferently, and gave her a phrase I had recently learned from her: "I like it for a long time." ”

Jasmine giggled at my application, and then turned to the topic: "Damai pushed a customer over"

My other older brother, three years older than Eric, whose real name is "Mike", asked everyone to call him "Big Mike" because the nickname represented his first pot of gold and the beginning of a brilliant investment career. Damai has a natural affability and attraction, and has strong interpersonal skills. There is no shortage of rich and famous people in his address book, whether these people are for investment, value preservation, or genuinely like or vassal elegance, they have to play some collections, and with collections, they naturally need to be maintained, maintained and restored. At the beginning of the establishment of my studio, Damai did make a great contribution to customer development, and now the studio has achieved a good reputation, a small reputation in the collecting world, and a stable customer base, my studio has gradually become an effective resource in other interpersonal communication.

"Mr. Damai also called in person, asking me to convey it to you word for word," said Jasmine, who took out a strange-shaped post-it note full of words out of nowhere, cleared the noise and read:

"My dear 'Little Dumplings' (Damai's nickname for me, because his love for me is the same as his love for dumplings, and he will never get tired of it) You must not know who the client I want to introduce to you is! You can't imagine what he's trying to ask you to cultivate! This time you have to go into battle yourself, or you will regret it, really, not me, nor the lovely Jasmine (Jasmine's voice suddenly rises an octave when she pronounces the word 'cute'), you will regret it. ”

Then Jasmine began to sing inexplicably.

"Damai is singing on the phone?" I was surprised to ask, my brother who has no five tones should not be able to sing in front of people.

"No, I sang it." Jasmine raised an eyebrow, "Here's a hint, a hint about Damai introducing this new client." Seeing that I was confused, I sang a few words with all my heart, but seeing that I still didn't react, I had to enter a more direct prompt link:

"A hero who rose from the dead...... He was buried with his beloved horse, and later jumped out of the grave on horseback...... He wants to pay for the mistakes he has committed, and he has to avenge his blood hatred......"

"Novel or movie?" Like a contestant with a prize, I wanted to get more information from the questioners.

"Movie!" Jasmine looked at me expectantly.

"None...... Headless Horsemann? I replied.

Jasmine looked completely broken and said: "My God, the most handsome male protagonist is the most face, but you even cut off someone's head!" ”

I gave up completely, and Jasmine also gave up completely, and directly announced the mystery: "'Duke of Kent'!" The 'Duke of Kent' in "Resurrection and Immortality" was the hottest movie last year...... Don't tell me you haven't seen it! ”

I really haven't seen it, but I've heard of it, and it seems that Damai's social network has spread to the entertainment industry. On the one hand, I am very happy to be able to help my brother, and on the other hand, no matter who introduces the client, the studio's fee standard is the same, so I will not have any financial loss. However, I don't always do the projects he introduced, especially now that the studio has a stable and professional technical team, I can focus more on case analysis and research and development of new technologies and instruments. Another thing is that I'm not good at dealing with clients, especially celebrities, who tend to have more distinct personalities than the average person, and who seem to expect more from our service and the relationship with them than to restore or maintain their collections.

A wave of sleepiness set in, and I decided to end the conversation with Jasmine as soon as possible and threw myself down to the comfy bed.

"Leave the Duke of Kent's project to Mr. Carson (Carson is the business manager of the work, responsible for task assignment and team management, and is an experienced and conscientious manager), and let him have an advantage. Well, so be it, good night, Jasmine. ”

"Wait, don't you want to see the Duke of Kent's collection?" Jasmine asked, arguingly.

"No need, good night." I closed the screen of my laptop as I spoke, but I didn't expect that in the process of closing the screen, Jasmine was still chattering tenaciously on the other end, and I vaguely heard: "...... "Vague Fate"...... Original...... The film suddenly fell asleep, and the screen that was almost closed was broken again, and Jasmine appeared in front of me again.

"You just said that it was "Vague Fate"?"

Jasmine nodded.

"Emma? Sloe's "Vague Fate"? ”

Jasmine nodded again.

"Is it the original film of the movie?"

Jasmine nodded vigorously.

"Have the last six minutes of vanishing?"

Jasmine nodded even harder, and then said with a smug face:

"It's those six minutes of film that we're going to fix."

I almost jumped up from my chair in excitement and gave Jasmine a command with a rare speed of speech:

"Tomorrow, let Carson personally take someone to the client to do a comprehensive 'physical examination' of the collection, prepare all the data, and I will fly back tomorrow to make a work plan, and let the 'Elemental-kun' and MC hand over all the work on their hands and work on this project with me......"