Of course, along with the overwhelming praise, there were also some sarcastic and bitingments, mostly from Ste''s fans. Shaun''s fame, coupled with Melody''s acting skills, and the tform-wide promotion kept the poprity high on her personal ount.


    Lucas, who was in the Rivera Group building, also saw Melody receiving widespread acim for her acting.


    The first time he watched behind-the-scenes footage of Melody shooting, it was apletely different experience from seeing her perform live. He seemed to have turned into an ordinary audience, captivated by her every expression and movement. She transformed into a different person.


    After a long pause, he sent Melody a message. [Congrattions on receiving public recognition for your acting. Keep up the good work.]


    Melody happened to be scrolling on her phone when Lucas'' message popped on the screen. As she read the message, the smile on her face froze.


    ''Isn''t he supposed to be delivering food to Ste? How does he still have time to pay attention to me?'' she wondered. ''Huh! I gotta hand it to him for his time management skills.''Text content ? N?velDrama.Org.


    Melody thought that Lucas had only nced at the headlines in between delivering food for Ste, hence the ''insincere'' message he sent her. He probably did not know what she had acted in. Melody took a deep breath and simply replied, [Thank you.]


    As for anything else, she did not want to bother.


    Lucas was sitting with his legs crossedzily waiting for Melody''s reply, only to be greeted with the two words, [Thank you.]


    ''Is that all? Is she not going to share any insights from the shoot with me? Doesn''t she have anything to tell me about her being the most trending topic?''


    Lucas exited the chat, then went back in to check again, but that was all he received from Melody.


    ''Perhaps she''s still formting a response,'' he thought. He felt somewhat displeased about the absence of the ''typing...'' indicator that never appeared.


    Knock! Knock!


    "Mister Lucas, the head of the finance department has arrived and is waiting for you in the meeting room."


    When Edmund knocked on the office door, Lucas was surprisingly lost in thought.


    Edmund felt quite shocked. ''Even Mister Lucas could zone out sometime?''


    Though it was just a dy of one or two seconds, he still found it hard to believe. After all, every time he came to remind Lucas of work matters before, he was always buried in paperwork.


    Lucas had been waiting for Melody''s reply. For the first time during the meeting, he did not set his phone to silent, yet his phone still had not beeped.


    "The earnings from the coboration with Molomia increased by one percentage pointst quarter, so we can continue the partnership this quarter. But if the earnings don''t increase by at least two percentage points this quarter, there''s no need to continue the coboration next quarter. Mister Lucas, that concludes the financial report."


    After the head of the finance department finished the report, Lucas was still lost in thought. He was resting his chin in his hand and did not respond for quite some time.


    "Mister Lucas? Mister Lucas?" Edmund called twice before Lucas snapped out of it.


    He rubbed his forehead tiredly. "Uh, where were we?"