Mia Ginger felt a bit pressured.
She turned around and bumped into a big guy rushing by.
The guy was quite dark-skinned, about 1.75 meters tall. To Mia, he looked at most twenty-six or seven years old.
In the peak of summer, he wore an army green short-sleeved shirt, loose black capri pants, sneakers, carried a large bag, held soy milk and buns in one hand, a half-eaten meat bun in his mouth, with messy hair and sleepy eyes, making Mia think of Little Patten pulling an all-nighter at an internet café.
His casual sloppiness was hard to ignore.
Seeing her, the guy paused and smiled at her with a bun in one hand.
"Hello," Mia initiated, "Are you from Sunshining Network? I’m Mia Ginger, here for an interview as an intern reporter. Nice to meet you."
"Oh, an intern," the guy nodded decisively, "I’m Hugo Potter."
As he finished speaking, he pulled a card from his pocket to open the door and said to Mia, "You’re here a bit early. Usually ten o’clock is fine, it’s Monday, everyone’s usually busy."
"I had an appointment at nine-thirty and didn’t want to be late," Mia smiled.
"Well, you can sit inside and wait for a moment, the receptionist will be here by nine," he pointed beside him and glanced at her before walking off briskly with his bag.
Mia stood outside a glass partition.
She opened the door and went in.
The space was really small, right next to the reception, with a long table and two chairs on each side, looking very much like an interview waiting area. It was quite transparent, you could see both in and out.
Mia took a breath and glanced up at the workspace outside.
The workspace was large, and this area she saw should be the reporters’ and editors’ section.
Every row had two lines of tables side by side, with computers back to back, forming a face-to-face working setup. There were rows and rows of tables and computers as far as the eye could see.
There were potted plants next to every computer, mostly cacti and pothos plants.
On the other side were mostly work files with newspapers, magazines, notebooks – a total mess.
Messy, was almost Mia’s first impression.
Especially as more people arrived, each in a hurry. In an online media company, there were many young people. Most of them finished the last bite of breakfast after entering, and then purposefully headed to their seats, pulling chairs, turning on computers, placing bags, fetching water, opening web pages, working.
In just twenty minutes, the once empty workspace was nearly full.
All the computers were lit up, and the pace was set immediately.
Mia exhaled and was about to look away but glanced over the workspace once more.
Sports section, economy section, current affairs section, entertainment section, social section...
Basically, two or three rows per section, calculating roughly, about twenty people per section?
As the most influential news portal in the country, Sunshining Network’s competitive environment was expected to be fierce. Mia raised a hand to her chest and walked out of the glass partition.
The receptionist had arrived, a pretty young girl.
Mia smiled and said, "Hi, I’m Mia Ginger. I have an appointment at nine-thirty for an interview."
"Which position?" the girl asked, looking down at the documents without lifting her head.
"Intern reporter."
"Oh."
The girl handed her a form, "Please fill this out over there."