pjbooks Chapter 12 Environmental Stars
Chapter 12 Environmental Stars
It was almost noon.
Clarissa's car had just stopped in front of the association.
A red brick building covered in silver.
Don't have a taste.
Since it was Saturday, the association was deserted.
Fortunately, the heating didn't stop because of the holiday.
To prevent the water pipes from freezing, the natural gas boiler in the basement is still running, but the temperature is not as high as on weekdays, only around 15°C.
However, Clarissa still habitually took off her coat and held it in her arms.
The heels touched the floor.
It made a soft "thump-thump" sound.
Clarissa had been walking this road leading to the fourth project team's office area for three months, but today it felt different.
We went up to the second floor.
Walk through the corridor.
From afar, they could see Meng Ran's back in the empty office area.
He was wearing headphones and typing intently on the keyboard.
For some reason, watching Meng Ran work so diligently, Clarissa felt a strange sense of peace.
She tiptoed to Meng Ran's side.
She pulled out a chair and sat down.
Meng Ran then became aware of her presence.
After taking off his headphones and saying hello, Meng Ran couldn't help but glance at the top of her head again.
Unfortunately, there was no exclamation mark.
It seems like no mission will be triggered.
Clarissa, however, did not notice Meng Ran's unusual behavior.
Her attention was completely drawn to Meng Ran's face.
After observing her for a few seconds, she couldn't help but say, "Why do you seem like you're like this today..."
"You look exhausted, don't you? I was disturbed all night. I really need to save up and move to a new place."
"It's not that I'm tired..." Clarissa shook her head; she thought Meng Ran looked exceptionally good today.
However, given her personality, she definitely won't say it directly.
So she changed the subject, saying, "You're still working on the proposal over the weekend, so I'm not giving you any overtime pay."
"You can treat me to lunch as a reward."
Clarissa was taken aback. It was the first time a man her age had asked her to treat him to a meal, which was quite novel in her social circle.
"Okay~" She smiled, feeling inexplicably better.
But the deep-seated sadness she exuded couldn't escape Meng Ran's notice.
"What's wrong? You don't seem to be in a good mood?"
"No, it's probably because I didn't get enough rest." Clarissa shook her head; she wasn't used to sharing her negative emotions with others.
But Meng Ran's ability to perceive subtle emotions is now very strong.
It might not work well against seasoned veterans.
He could tell at a glance whether Clarissa was lying or not.
Considering her recent arrival from home, and recalling her statement yesterday, "If I don't come home tonight, my dad will kill me,"...
Meng Ran tentatively asked, "Did your father scold you for coming home too late yesterday?"
Clarissa, who had been looking down, raised her eyes and shook her head, saying, "No, I gave them a heads-up last night, but..."
"What?"
Clarissa hesitated for a moment, her fingers twirling the belt of her coat, before changing her approach: "Your parents must think you're a smart child, right?"
"Do your parents think you're not smart?" Meng Ran asked directly.
Clarissa continued to lower her eyes and twirl her sash, and after a long while, she finally nodded.
"Then what does it mean to be smart?"
"Perhaps... like you yesterday, you can adapt to changing circumstances. If Plan A doesn't work, you can immediately come up with a more amazing Plan B? To be honest, I'm quite envious of you."
Meng Ran blinked.
After a moment of contemplation, he smiled and said, "Do you know that in China, if you want to get into a good university, you have to take a college entrance exam called the Gaokao, which has a total score of 750?"
I have a Chinese friend who studied incredibly hard in high school but only scored 537 points. To be honest, that's a very good score, surpassing most people.
But do you know how many people in China scored above 600 points last year (2025)?
"?" Clarissa looked up.
"50 people."
"Wow??" Clarissa's eyes widened.
"Isn't this beyond expectations?" Meng Ran chuckled helplessly. As he laughed, he glanced at his right middle finger.
Unfortunately, this body has been reshaped by the system, and the "callus on the middle finger" formed from holding the pen is no longer visible.
"Madam, geniuses are as numerous as fish in the Detroit River."
"You and I are both mediocre, so mediocre that we can't even describe our mediocrity in a single sentence."
"Because we are not like those geniuses, able to write words that touch people's hearts."
"But we don't need to compare ourselves to them, nor do we need to be discouraged. Just do everything we can and try our best, and that's enough."
After saying this, Meng Ran got up from her chair: "I'll go make you a cup of coffee."
The coffee wasn't important; the purpose was to give Clarissa time to process her negative emotions.
Clarissa's fingers continued to twirl the sash.
Watching Meng Ran walk towards the tea room, Clarissa finally opened up: "Actually, I boasted to my father this morning."
"What nonsense are you spouting?" Meng Ran's voice came from the tea room.
"I said I would use this topic to host a great environmental charity dinner."
"Is this just empty talk? According to the procedure, we were supposed to hold an environmental charity dinner to attract secondary donations for this issue."
The association possesses a 501(c)(3) tax exemption qualification.
Whether you are an individual or a company, you can deduct taxes when you donate to an NGO that has tax-exempt status.
Therefore, as long as the issue has a significant impact, wealthy people are still very willing to donate.
"But Michigan hosts dinner parties every day, so our dinner party might not get many people at all."
"It's a problem, but not a very big one."
As they were talking, Meng Ran came out of the tea room carrying a cup of coffee.
After slowly walking over and handing the coffee to Clarissa, Meng Ran sat down again and continued, "Actually, I was also thinking about this this morning."
"Um?"
"I'm thinking about how to maximize the impact of this issue so that we can maximize our own interests."
"You can continue," Clarissa said, holding her coffee like a student in class.
"The key to expanding influence lies in dissemination, and the simpler something is, the easier it is to spread. Therefore, we must extract some symbols for dissemination."
Among the many symbols, the most effective is probably the issue's spokesperson. In simple terms, we need to create an environmental celebrity.
"As long as this environmental celebrity gains popularity in a short period of time, then hosting a dinner party or any other event will be a breeze."
"An environmental celebrity?" Clarissa's eyes lit up instantly.
Her red lips pursed slightly, her gaze averted to the side, avoiding Meng Ran's probing question: "You mean, you want me to go..."
"No, no, no, you're not suitable." Meng Ran shook her head without hesitation.
Clarissa's expression froze, a mixture of embarrassment and disappointment. She had just been denied by her father this morning, and now Meng Ran had denied it as well.
Am I really worthless?
With her head down, she took a sip of coffee, then couldn't help but ask, "You want Thea to...?"
"She's even less suitable," Meng Ran still denied.
This reply did improve Clarissa's mood a little; at least it wasn't Thea.
At the same time, the repeated denials led her to mistakenly believe that "you are indeed more suitable to be an environmental celebrity than us."
"I'm not suitable either." Meng Ran chuckled.
"???" Clarissa raised her head, her face full of confusion.
"To be honest, although I was the one who brought up this topic, in my opinion, it's a terrible one. It might be novel for a while, but it won't last."
"What??" Clarissa was even more surprised. This topic was bad?
"More importantly, if you want to gain sufficient status in this industry, what you should demonstrate to the outside world is your ability to manipulate different issues."
Instead of completely tying itself to the values of a particular issue, especially those values that are based on material gain and profit, that would be extremely foolish.
Meng Ran wasn't trying to fool her; the career lifespan of an "environmental celebrity" is shorter than that of a "traffic star."
How many more years did the environmental activist girl enjoy her moment of glory?
Only those who stir up trouble behind the scenes can live a life of plenty and endure.
Clarissa didn't reply. After pondering the question for a while, she finally asked, "So, who do you think is suitable?"
"I haven't decided yet."
Meng Ran shook his head, lost in thought. Promoting someone isn't something that can be done by just anyone.
If you don't choose the right person, all your efforts will be in vain.
But just as he was pondering this...
The system suddenly displayed another task.
[Host detected dominating the discussion: Every bite of meat Americans eat, a puff of smoke rises from the Amazon rainforest]
[Triggering Derivative Task 1: Leveraging the Issue to Successfully Create an Environmental Star]
[Mission Objective: To gain 10 real followers for this "environmental celebrity" on a single social media platform.]
[Quest Reward: 1000 Chaos Reputation Points + 3 Random Skill Cards]