The deputy general manager of Yuanqi Technology suddenly felt a sense of absurdity rising in his heart.
He knew deeply that this storm began because of that glance at the summit, and before that, on the snowy mountain, the stark contrast between Gu Zhaoping’s image and Gu Zhaoye’s image.
Gu Zhaoping excelled in everything, surpassing everyone’s expectations, and as soon as she appeared, she ruthlessly overshadowed Gu Zhaoye.
Even they, watching Gu Zhaoping on the screen, felt a sense of daze.
Was this the young lady they once knew?
…No, actually, the young lady had been like this recently.
Ever since she came to work and made such a big move at the financial summary meeting, her image had completely changed.
So reliable, so calm, even appearing at such a major event, representing the Gu family to speak.
This fully showed that the old man valued her highly, and her own abilities were strong enough.
The deputy general manager suddenly took a sharp breath, a wild idea that hadn’t yet fully formed flashing through his mind.
If one day…
Yuanqi Technology were to change its leader,
would their current crisis perhaps be resolved?
Gu Zhaoye’s reputation was already in tatters, but if they replaced him with someone who directly clashed with him…someone with a great reputation and strong capabilities…a new leader?
He was stunned.
Once this idea emerged, it lingered, circling in his mind!
In a daze, he froze, realizing he was considering this question for the first time.
He was bold enough to think about changing his boss.
And everything happening domestically took some time to reach them.
Liang Zhiwei and Chu Yanze sat dumbfounded in the tea room, originally watching Sister Zhaoping swiftly defeat her opponent and then leave.
Then someone sighed,
“Sister Zhaoping is so amazing.”
Only then did Chu Yanze snap back to reality, turning his head to look in the direction where Ni Tiansong had strode away.
His earlier premonition seemed like it might come true.
From the first moment he saw that man, he felt uneasy, though he couldn’t quite explain why at the time.
Now he understood.
Ni Tiansong’s reaction to Sister Zhaoping seemed excessive, as if anything she did could surprise him.
Even now, he had blatantly chased after her.
Who did he think he was?
Just someone invited by Li Xunwen to cheat at chess.
Would Sister Zhaoping even give him the time of day?
Maybe by the time he chased after her, Sister Zhaoping would already be in her car and gone, not even listening to him.
But when Gu Zhaosi chased after Li Xunwen, and the two of them followed, they saw that man also get into a car and drive off, seemingly in the direction Sister Zhaoping had gone.
Chu Yanze looked in that direction, his brow slightly furrowing, a more unpleasant premonition rising in his heart.
In a flash, he felt that this man might have further interactions with Sister Zhaoping, not just this chess match.
He also recalled the man who had been by Sister Zhaoping’s side on the snowy mountain, in the helicopter, and Chu Yanze’s heart grew heavy.
Boys of his age, despite being outstanding in appearance and career development, how could they feel confident in front of Gu Zhaoping?
Many thoughts could only waver because of her.
They wanted to speak but held back, not daring to say anything, feeling even asking one more question was overstepping.
With these turbulent emotions in his heart,
Chu Yanze turned to look at Li Xunwen, joining Gu Zhaosi’s team.
“Are you writing or not?”
Li Xunwen was in the middle of an emotionally charged back-and-forth with Gu Zhaosi when another voice suddenly cut in!
He froze for a moment, looking at Chu Yanze in disbelief.
“What, you’re ganging up on me too?”
Chu Yanze’s face grew cold.
That young, handsome face stared at him icily.
“There are 38 minutes left. If you can’t finish writing, do you remember what the penalty for breaching the agreement is? I can remind you.”
Li Xunwen was about to explode with anger.
Fine, fine, fine, your team is so united, huh?
All of you siding with Gu Zhaoping!
She’s not even here, and you’re all busy fawning over her!
Has Gu Zhaoping even spared you a glance?
Then he thought of his lousy team on the show, with that useless Ruan Nian causing them so much trouble, and Gu Zhaoye, who was more of a liability than an asset.
Li Xunwen felt a surge of frustration.
Their team had clashed countless times in every segment.
Why did your team just listen to Gu Zhaoping like that?
Gu Zhaosi was also surprised.
He glanced at Chu Yanze and chuckled.
You kid, trying to curry favor with my sister through me, huh?
Fine, go ahead and try, but I’ll tell you myself, this tactic won’t work!
My sister won’t give you any favor just because you’re trying to win me over.
I won’t even tell her about your behind-the-scenes efforts!
With someone competing for the title of top sycophant, Gu Zhaosi’s emotions surged even more.
He grabbed Li Xunwen’s shoulder.
“Not writing, huh? If you’re not writing, we’ll go check the contract right now! We’ll do this formally and have someone send you a lawyer’s letter immediately!”
“Gu Zhaosi!”
Without another word, the two of them grabbed Li Xunwen’s shoulders, one on each side, and pinned him to the table.
Liang Zhiwei, in perfect sync, quickly found paper and a pen and slapped them in front of Li Xunwen, saying,
“Handwrite it.”
Li Xunwen glared at her furiously!
Gu Zhaosi turned his face to make him glare at him instead, glaring back!
Li Xunwen clenched his teeth, grinding them for a long time, as if he’d already chewed Gu Zhaosi to pieces.
You Gu family lunatics, all lunatics!
He never should’ve joined this lousy show.
Lousy variety show, lousy director team, lousy guests, a bunch of miserable jerks!
In the end, Li Xunwen was forcibly held down by them, starting to write on the paper, his face full of defiance, stubbornly putting on the expression of a pure young man forced into the trade.
When he finally finished, he thought he’d be let off, but Gu Zhaosi checked the timer.
“Four minutes late, not acceptable.”
Li Xunwen glared at him again.
Damn it, Gu Zhaosi, are you sick??
Gu Zhaoping only asked me to finish writing, and you’re putting a time limit on me?
Gu Zhaosi, seemingly not yet satisfied with pressuring him, held his head down to keep writing.
“One extra minute, one hundred more words. Write!”
Chu Yanze didn’t hesitate to join in, pinning him down!
Like a prisoner, Li Xunwen was held down and confronted by them for hours, trembling as he wrote a few hundred more words, nearly exploding with rage!
Gu Zhaosi held his hand, Chu Yanze forced him to open the camera to take a photo and post it on Weibo, then Gu Zhaosi threw him out.
“Get lost!”
Li Xunwen stumbled down the steps, glaring back at them fiercely, but in the end, he just clenched his teeth, climbed into his car, and roared at the driver to hurry up and leave!
Leave!
At that moment, Liang Zhiwei’s phone rang loudly, interrupting their impassioned emotions.
They both turned to look at her.
Liang Zhiwei froze, quickly answering.
“Hm? The boss of Huaxing Entertainment?”
She froze for a moment.
She wasn’t originally an artist under Huaxing Entertainment, just a contracted actor under one of its sub-brands.
Her previous company was small, recently struggling to survive, and the boss was planning to bolt, so the artists under it were taken over by Huaxing Entertainment.
Liang Zhiwei had been forcibly inserted into this show to play second fiddle to Ruan Nian, but she cherished this rare chance to shine.
Once she was fully under Huaxing Entertainment, a top-tier company in the entertainment industry with countless artists competing, who knew if she’d ever get another chance to stand out?
But now, the boss of Huaxing Entertainment was personally calling her?
She quickly stepped aside to answer,
“Hello, boss?”
“Zhiwei, you’re filming the show, right? Haha, I haven’t disturbed you before, but now that things have settled, I’m letting you know—record in peace, don’t worry. We’ve already handled the public opinion issue!”
Liang Zhiwei blinked, confused.
“What public opinion?”
She’d been on the snowy mountain these past few days, practically cut off from the outside world, and after coming down, she went straight to the hospital, too busy to check any news.
“What, you don’t know?”
The boss of Huaxing Entertainment was stunned, assuming Liang Zhiwei had been losing sleep over those bad rumors.
But she hadn’t even paid attention to them?
With all that fuss, Liang Zhiwei herself didn’t even know?
What kind of laid-back attitude was this…?
The boss was momentarily speechless, then said with a wry chuckle,
“Alright, here’s the thing…”
Liang Zhiwei, initially dazed, felt her scalp tingle as she listened.
Oh my God, what was going on now?
Heavens, who was spreading rumors about her again?
Was her unlucky life starting all over?
“Oh no, boss, what should I do? How do we handle PR? What do I need to do to cooperate, or…or…”
Liang Zhiwei’s lips trembled as she spoke, already bracing for the worst.
“Or are you going to terminate my contract?”
She blurted it out blindly, then jolted, suddenly realizing the boss had just said something…
The public opinion issue had already been resolved?!
Liang Zhiwei was shocked.
My God, what kind of efficiency was this?
It had only been a day or two, right?
Was this the power of a big company?!
A small-time artist like her, with no background or status, could actually be treated so seriously by the PR team?
Liang Zhiwei was floored, overwhelmed with gratitude.
“Oh my, oh my, how can I accept this? No, no, boss, is this really the treatment I deserve?”
The boss, originally cheerful, was a bit baffled by her overly humble attitude.
Lately, Liang Zhiwei had been generating a lot of buzz—clearly on the verge of a breakout.
Why was she acting like she’d just stumbled into a stroke of unbelievable luck?
He didn’t know that Liang Zhiwei had been so used to bad luck that she was genuinely scared.
She could hardly believe any good fortune was hers to claim.
In the past, Ruan Nian had used the system to steal her luck countless times.
“Why would you feel embarrassed? If it weren’t for you, our company wouldn’t have snagged such a talent. You’re our company’s lucky star!”
The boss laughed heartily.
Only later did he dig into Sister Li’s situation and learn she’d jumped ship from her old company because of a public opinion mess that led to her being sacked to appease Ruan Nian’s fans.
But he knew Sister Li.
Organizing large-scale fan support without reporting it?
That didn’t sound like something she’d do—she wasn’t that foolish.
Most likely, she’d taken the fall for someone else.
Taking the blame for an artist, only for the artist to not protect her and let the company punish her—
Sister Li must have been heartbroken, and rightfully so.
But he hadn’t expected that, after being let down, Sister Li’s choice would be to become Liang Zhiwei’s manager.
Now she was truly standing in complete opposition to Ruan Nian, ready to go head-to-head.
Liang Zhiwei was stunned.
“What? Snagged who?”
Liang Zhiwei fell silent for a moment.
Then she let out a high-pitched scream: “Sister Li?!”
The two behind her turned their heads in unison to look at her.
A few minutes later, they learned that the events of the past few days had already spread back home!
And they’d caused an uproar on the internet!
Sister Zhaoping breaking records had spread.
Gu Zhaoye causing Liang Zhiwei to get stranded on the mountain had spread.
Sister Zhaoping saving her had spread too.
Then the three of them were thunderstruck.
“What? Sister Zhaoping gave a speech??”
So Sister Zhaoping had rushed off so quickly to speak at such a high-profile summit?
She was representing the Gu family?
Then what was Gu Zhaoye?
He was nothing now!!
Liang Zhiwei suddenly realized something.
Wait, did this mean that Gu Zhaoye’s so-called position as the Gu family heir, which he’d always taken for granted, wasn’t unshakable…?
Now, maybe it was time for him to take a different seat?
Liang Zhiwei was quiet for a long moment.
Then she wildly flailed about, slamming her elbow down and clenching her fist: “Yes!!”
The celebration banquet went on for hours and still didn’t end.
Originally, not many people were invited, but after the news spread, far too many showed up, shamelessly crashing the event.