Lin Chu came closer out of curiosity. "What are you looking at?"
Yan Beicheng pulled her to his side and showed her his phone screen. "I suddenly remembered the photo we took under the old Chinese scholar tree at the orphanage."
It was nighttime when the photo was taken but fortunately, Yan Beicheng"s phone"s camera function was pretty good. Although there was not much light, everything was clear on the phone taken with Yan Beicheng"s phone. It seemed artistic even.
In the photo, Lin Chu was sitting in his arms. Although he was just a fifteen-year-old teen back then, he was very tall for his age. However, his body was still not as well-developed back then, but nevertheless, her head still rested only at his chest.
In comparison to the recent photograph taken under the old Chinese scholar tree, both of them had grown taller. Her head had now reached Yan Beicheng"s chin.
Yan Beicheng also deliberately lowered his head so that his chin was rested against her temple. Both of them looked like a sweet adoring couple in love.
Lin Chu had almost forgotten about this photo. "This picture"s nice, please send it to me. I"m going to set it as my profile picture," she said happily.
Yan Beicheng smiled as he forwarded her the photo.
Lin Chu swiftly updated her new profile photo. Meanwhile, Yan Beicheng thought about it and decided to change his profile photo to the exact same photo as well.
These days, Lu Weining did not come to stir up trouble for Yan Beicheng and Lin Chu, but only because she had her hands full at the moment.
Xing Chuang had recently signed a few new artists, one of which was signed only after a lawsuit case with another brokerage company. The artist said the contract with the original company had expired but the company denied it, and since Xing Chuang was eager to sign him, they were not afraid to get into a court case. The bigger the trouble they caused, the better it was for the artist"s exposure.
Sure enough, the artist made the headlines for two days straight.
The reason given by the artist was that the original brokerage company did not give him enough exposure as well as TV series and movie roles they promised. Therefore, Lu Weining wanted to strike while the iron was hot and sign the artist, then immediately arrange for him to be the main character in one of the more popular TV series.
However, strangely enough, after speaking to several producers, it was as if each of them was practicing Tai Chi with her, and they even announced their protagonists after a few days.
Lu Weining was not too surprised since this was something normal in the industry. Although the artist had quite a lot of fans, he was still a newcomer in the industry so he still lacked resources. In this case, Lu Weining had set her mind to support him, so she simply invested her company in him and searched for sponsors. She also bought a novel that was currently trending just to tailor a new TV series for the artist.
Somehow, after contacting many different sponsors, including those who had always been happy to collaborate in the past, she had not heard back from most of them. Some responded though, tactfully saying that they had no intentions in this regard.
If those were not enough for her to suspect that Xing Chuang had been targeted, something else happened too. From that week onward, TV dramas, advertis.e.m.e.nts, entertainment variety shows, etc. that Xing Chuang"s artists had already negotiated with were suddenly canceled before the contracts were signed.
It was not just one or two cases, but every single one of Xing Chuang"s artists did not escape this disaster, aside from the remaining lower-tier artists who originally never had many opportunities.
With those situations at hand, it would be extremely stupid of Lu Weining to not realize that they were being targeted.
She let out a frustrated sigh as she leaned back on the back of her chair, pinching her eyes as she lifted her head.
At this moment, someone knocked on her office door. She loosened her brows that were originally knotted tight. "Come in."
It was Madam Lan. Madam Lan was the most capable manager in Xing Chuang and most of the artists were under her wing.
"President Lu, the company"s situation has been quite strange recently so I asked my friend to ask around. He just told me that all the promotion work, TV series, and advertis.e.m.e.nts that our artists had recently negotiated were canceled because the negotiations never came to an end. However, all the contracts were turned over to Han Bang," Madam Lan said.
Lu Weining"s eyes widened in shock. "Han Bang?"
Madam Lan nodded. "All of them are Han Bang"s people. Han Bang has taken some second-tier and first-tier artists, and their second-tier artists are actually as good as our first-tier artists. They even brought out two artists who are higher than first-tier for the collaboration."
Lu Weining"s expression tensed up. It was usually difficult for one to sign artists under Han Bang for activities and events. Not only were they big shot artists, but they also had extremely hectic schedules. Even if they could squeeze out time for a certain event, if the artist was unwilling to partic.i.p.ate, there was nothing to be done.
Those events that were rejected by Han Bang would only give other companies an opportunity, including Xing Chuang.
However, Han Bang suddenly allowed so many artists into TV series roles and various events. Even if the price range was much higher than that of Xing Chuang, the business companies and producers would still be more than happy to oblige.
"There"s still another drama series," Madam Lan mentioned the name of the drama that just had its casting earlier on, "They"ve chosen Yu Yan to play the lead female character. Yu Yan had only been in movies for the past few years and not a single TV drama. Now that she"s accepted this role, I haven"t really gotten news of the exact number, but I heard it broke the industry"s record of being the highest price. For that, the sponsor gladly increased its sponsors.h.i.+p, and so, the producers didn"t hesitate at all and have given Shu Yuxin up."
Lu Weining"s heart sank lower and lower as she listened to Madam Lan"s report.
"President Lu, the situation"s quite bad right now. Shouldn"t we solve this as soon as possible? Otherwise, our artists will become resentful. The company"s profit is one small problem, but if our artists aren"t happy and satisfied, they"ll secretly contact companies and if they were to jump s.h.i.+p, that"ll be the biggest blow to the company."
Lu Weining was annoyed. Did she not already know all those things? Did she need someone to remind her of all those problems?
If she could come up with a solution, she would have done something long ago. Would she still be sitting down there right now?
"I know!" Lu Weining waved her hand irritably, and her tone was angry and anxious. "Just go out first!"
With that, the room settled into an awkward, dull silence.
Lu Weining blinked, and at the sight of Madam Lan"s unnatural expression, she finally softened her tone and apologized. "Madam Lan, I"m sorry. I"m just anxious about these problems. I didn"t mean it just now, please don"t take it to heart."
Madam Lan was one of the more experienced employees of the company, and although she was unhappy, she did not show it. Instead, she smiled at Lu Weining as if she was relieved. "I won"t bother you anymore then."
With that, Madam Lan left the room.
Lu Weining felt icy cold deep inside. She took out her phone and pulled out a photo.
In the photo, Yan Beicheng was dressed smartly in a suit. He was walking in the ground floor lobby of Yan Hui as Zuo Qiu followed half a step behind.
This was a photograph attached along with an exclusive interview Yan Beicheng had done with a finance magazine. Lu Weining had long forgotten the name of the reporter who interviewed him, but she remembered that the reporter was a woman.
Perhaps the reporter herself admired him greatly, hence the photo she took of Yan Beicheng was particularly beautiful. He looked taller than usual with his long legs, so full of grace too.
Aside from adjusting the colors and blurring the background, Yan Beicheng had not been retouched at all, not that he needed it either. The photo was just simply shot, yet he still looked extraordinarily handsome.
At that time, Jiang Changdai offered to introduce her to Yan Beicheng. Jiang Changdai said that she had always seen her as a daughter, so it would be the greatest thing to happen if she was to become Jiang Changdai"s daughter-in-law because they would become a true happy family.
Lu Weining had heard of Yan Beicheng"s story long ago and she tried searching for Yan Beicheng"s photos online, but there were none on the internet. Until one time when she pa.s.sed a small bookstore where they had magazines display at the storefront with Yan Beicheng as the cover star, Lu Weining quickly bought a copy and immediately took a photo of Yan Beicheng, then saved it on her phone.
For the first time, she experienced the feeling of fangirling over a star, of falling in love at first sight with a man in a photograph. That very night, she even had a dream of doing very intimate things with Yan Beicheng.
From then onwards, she had never stopped thinking about him.
To be honest, it was his looks that made her fall in love at first sight. After all, what could she know from merely looking at a picture?
However, when Yan Beicheng came to Ning City and was deceived by Jiang Chandai into getting dinner, even though he was not exactly friendly during the meal, even leaving early halfway through dinner, she was still impressed by his behavior and manners. From then on, she had given her heart to Yan Beicheng.
Lu Weining had never chased after a man, let alone pursue a man shamelessly and relentlessly, but everything she had ever done in her life, she had done them all for Yan Beicheng.
However, he had never turned an eye toward her. He even thought she was shameless.
Lu Weining looked at the photo and a teardrop rolled down her cheek onto the screen, falling right on Yan Beicheng"s face in the photo. She felt wronged.
She reached and wiped the tear away as if she was caressing Yan Beicheng"s face.
How could she not have guessed that Yan Beicheng had something to do with Han Bang"s sudden actions this time?
Han Zhuoli and Yan Beicheng had such a close relations.h.i.+p, so naturally, he would be happy to help Yan Beicheng.
As for those artists under Xing Chuang who had been having problems with getting projects, those merely foreshadowed the series of cancellations that just happened. Yan Beicheng must be the mastermind behind all of it, she was just unsure whether he stooped down to talk to the sponsors, producers, and TV stations.
It was very difficult to do business deals without owing favors. As a matter of fact, plenty of business deals rely on human relationsh.i.p.s to be established. However, Yan Beicheng was on a different level from others so there was no need for that. Only on rare occasions did he have to rely on connections to acquire a deal.
On the other hand, it would be unrealistic to say that businesses usually take the initiative to seek him out. He still had to be humble and fight for every business deal, but he tried his best not to owe favors as there were too many people out there who wanted to use the Yan family for their own benefit.
A big family as them may seem dreamy and wonderful, but there were many things they had to consider compared to an average family because they were constrained in many ways. They still had someone in the highest position staring down on them, and due to the fact that the Eight Dominant Families had a high status in society, they were unable to deal with sneaky and dirty business deals like families of lower status.
The Eight Dominant Families were too close to the person of the highest position, so close to the point that they were not allowed to make any mistakes. They were not allowed to break the existing balance in society, and they could never simply target anyone.
Lu Weining had always known about this fact, so she had tried her best to not cross the line and only fuss over her own emotions so that the Yan family had no excuse to target her in her working field.
Today, however, he was willing to owe favors everywhere just for Lin Chu. With an operation as big as such, she was unsure how many people exactly did Yan Beicheng requested for help and what kind of promises had he made with other companies just to teach her a lesson.
Lu Weining sneered sarcastically and kept away her phone.
Yan Beicheng had been suffocating in his office trying to keep up with his workload. Lu Weining had not guessed wrongly. He had reached out to the companies that were interested in collaborating with Xing Chuang earlier on, and to put it nicely, they have come to terms on a deal.
Nevertheless, they kept their word so now it was time for him to do so.
From this week onward, he got up at five in the morning and headed to the office every single day. He let Lin Chu continue sleeping, and just like before, he had Shao Huai pick her up for work.
At night, he would have his meal in the office too, sometimes staying until nine or ten. By the time he got home, it would already be 11 o"clock.
Still, Lin Chu insisted on waiting for him every night.
He knew that Lin Chu was most worried that his workload stress would disturb the stomach once again, but seeing how busy he was, she dared not bother him. She was afraid that even a phone call for a minute or two would take up too much of his working time.
Therefore, Yan Beicheng would call Lin Chu every night when he had his dinner to let her know that he was eating well.
The two would simply speak for a minute or two without holding up any of his time.
At noontime, Lin Chu would still come over for lunch, but she would leave immediately after finis.h.i.+ng her meal.
Yan Beicheng pinched the corner of his eyes. His workload would cut down and everything would be less stressful after this week.
He felt uneasy deep down as he had not spent much time with Lin Chu for the past week.
When his phone rang, he pressed lightly on his eyelids before holding up his phone. It was Jiang Changzai.
Yan Beicheng picked up the call and greeted with a cold h.e.l.lo.
There was a short moment of silence from the other end of the call. Jiang Changzai finally responded awkwardly, "Beicheng, it"s me, your uncle."
Yan Beicheng was not close to anyone from the Jiang family, so he never thought of them as his relatives. He was unable to address Jiang Changzai as his uncle, so he responded in an icy tone, "What"s the matter?"
Jiang Changzai chuckled. "Can"t I have a talk with you even if nothing"s up?"
Yan Beicheng did not respond. He knew the reason behind Jiang Changzai"s phone call, the orphanage incident.
The old princ.i.p.al was determined to teach Jiang Changdai a lesson. After he had settled the demolition of the orphanage, he had handed over the rest of the follow-up work to his employees. He also knew that the old princ.i.p.al would bring some volunteers to the streets to sign the pet.i.tion from time to time.
If they had just left the situation as it was, the orphanage incident would have been gradually forgotten by the people and Jiang He would be able to reform. However, the old princ.i.p.al was still showing her face in any way possible from time to time. Just today, she had sent a silk banner over to Yan Hui praising them for their kind act and naming them the model for all companies. Tomorrow, they were going to make a statement and give thanks to whoever who had made donations to the orphanage.
Every few days, she would bring the children from the orphanage to the city council office for patriotic education. Yan Beicheng knew about her actions, and naturally, he was willing to cooperate and aid her. He sought help from Nan Jingheng"s family, so every time when the ma.s.ses were just about to forget the orphanage incident, she would be there to remind everyone. Alongside that, the people were also constantly reminded not to visit any Jia Ye Movie City branches as they were under Jiang He.
With so many other cinema choices, the effect was even better as n.o.body cared less if there was one less cinema to go to.
Now that Jia Ye"s ticket sales were plummeting, the movie schedules were forced to be cut down as well since the movie tickets were unable to earn back its screening cost with every pa.s.sing day.
Jiang Changzai could no longer take it anymore, hence the phone call to Yan Beicheng.
However, Yan Beicheng was not going to broach the subject on his own. Since Jiang Changzai remained silent, Yan Beicheng continued doing his work.
When Jiang Changzai heard the click-clacking sound of the keyboard from the other end of the phone, he sank more into despair.
"Beicheng, I"m calling because of the orphanage incident. Can you please ask the old princ.i.p.al to stop running around making a scene? She can just give us a number and we"ll pay her back as compensation," Jiang Changzai said.
Jia Ye"s loss was one thing, but if the old principle continued making noise about the issue, Jiang He"s reputation would be lost, and that would be worse. If they lose money, they could still earn it back slowly in the future, but reputation was not something that could be easily regained in a few days.
"Ms. Jiang was the one who started this whole incident, so it"s useless for you to come to me for help," Yan Beicheng replied coldly.
Jiang Changzai shuddered a little when he heard Yan Beicheng"s words. They were both mother and son, yet he still addressed her as Ms. Jiang. The unfamiliarity made his heart ache a little.
He did not pity Yan Beicheng. Instead, he resented Jiang Changdai. They had such a good card, yet she wasted it just like that.
"This…" Jiang Changzai sighed and responded in a resigned tone, "Beicheng, I didn"t mean to target the orphanage. It"s just that… It"s just that Jiang Changdai told me that there was a piece of land being auctioned, that"s why I agreed to it. I knew there was an orphanage there but I didn"t think much about it, and most of all, I didn"t know that you and Miss Lin were related to the orphanage at all. If I had known, I wouldn"t have let Jiang Changdai do something stupid like this."
Yan Beicheng put on his Bluetooth earphones and continued doing his work while listening to Jiang Changzai.
The joints on his long fingers were distinct as he typed on the keyboard skillfully. His fingers rose and fell quickly, yet his movements remained elegant and beautiful.
He paused the work on hand and the corner of his mouth twitched. "It"s not that I don"t want to help you with this, but I don"t want to be bothered by Ms. Dai anymore."
The other end of the phone was silent once again.
Yan Beicheng did not care how Jiang Changzai felt. He tapped his strong and slender finger on the table and continued, "She"s living an easy and comfortable life right now thanks to the financial support of the Jiang family. She has nothing to worry about, so the second she has nothing to do, she can just leisurely stir something up, even b.u.t.ting into my personal affairs. Isn"t she doing all this because she has too much money to spend and too much time on her hands?"
Jiang Changzai immediately understood Yan Beicheng"s meaning. "I understand. I"ll cut off her financial support and just limit her to monthly living expenses. I"ll also stop sending her the company"s dividends."
"Is the Jiang family very close to the Lu family recently?" Yan Beicheng asked as he leaned back into his chair.
His tone made Jiang Changzai feel as if there was a fishbone stuck in his throat. It felt like Yan Beicheng was the elder one and he, the uncle, was the one below.
However, he was begging Yan Beicheng for help, so he could only restrain himself. "Since when has the Jiang family been close to the Lu family? Especially after what happened back then…" He responded with a pursed smile.
Jiang Changzai hesitated for a second before quickly continuing, "Ever since then, us Jiang family had never dared to go anywhere close to the Lu family." He deliberately glossed over the topic in a non-specific way since he dared not speak of the incident.
"Oh? From what I know, Ms. Jiang has been very close to the Lu family. I don"t see anyone doing anything about that," Yan Beicheng snorted.
"Her behavior can"t represent the Jiang family!" Jiang Changzai refuted right away, extremely worried he would be dragged down by Jiang Changdai.
"How can it not?" Yan Beicheng sneered. "She"s part of the Jiang family. If the Jiang family"s not responsible for her actions, is it necessary for me and the Yan family to be responsible for her? Anyway, she"s no longer a daughter-in-law of the Yan family so the Yan family won"t bother about her anymore. Every single action of hers outside is a representation of the Jiang family. There"s no way you don"t know what she"s up to. Just like the orphanage incident that happened a while ago. Her voice was the one recorded in the audiotape and Jiang He has been bearing the consequences for everything she has said. I believe you might not agree with what she has said, and even if you do, you"re not stupid enough to say it out, but everyone still pushes the problem toward Jiang family. So are you telling me now that she doesn"t represent the Jiang family?"
Jiang Changzai gritted his teeth. "What do you want?"
"Nothing, I"m just trying to get you to understand that whatever Ms. Jiang does outside in public will eventually cost the Jiang family. She"s taking advantage of the Jiang family"s support to stir up trouble for my fiancé."
Before Yan Beicheng could finish, Jiang Changzai interrupted. "Fiancé?"
"Lin Chu is my fiancé," Yan Beicheng confirmed. "You understand as well that no matter what I say, I"m still a younger generation so I can"t do anything to Ms. Jiang if she continues to bother Lin Chu. However, you"re her older brother, and that"s different. If she ever bothers Lin Chu again, I can only come to you, but if you can"t settle this problem, I can only turn to Jiang He."
Jiang Changzai became furious all of a sudden. Was Yan Beicheng not straight-up threatening him?