The receptionist at Lin Corporation didn’t recognize Lin Yiren, but she knew Jiang Ning, and she knew the Jiang Corporation was about to collapse. Watching Jiang Ning demand to see Lin Zhiyuan without an appointment, her first instinct was to turn her away. She worried the woman was desperate and trying some desperate gambit, and if anything went wrong, she would be the one to blame.
Lin Yiren texted her older brother and got no reply, which meant he was in a meeting and hadn’t checked his phone. She didn’t give the receptionist a hard time; instead, she called Jiang Ning over and waited downstairs for Lin Zhiyuan to see the message and send his assistant down to fetch them.
As it happened, today was also the day of Lin Corporation’s interviews for a presidential secretary. People trickled in one after another, and seeing Lin Yiren and Jiang Ning, they assumed the two were also candidates and took seats nearby. Chen Qi happened to catch this scene.
Chen Qi was from a collateral branch of the Chen Family, currently working in the Chen Corporation’s finance department. He had come today to follow up on a business deal. Spotting Jiang Ning, he smiled, and seeing that there was still time before his meeting, walked over.
“Good morning, President Jiang.” Briefcase in hand and gold-rimmed glasses on his nose, Chen Qi looked fairly refined.
But Jiang Ning knew his true nature and had no interest in acknowledging him at all.
Chen Qi said a few more things, but Jiang Ning still didn’t respond. The people around began to look over, making the scene awkward. Chen Qi couldn’t even maintain his gentle expression anymore, and he frowned. “Calling you ‘President Jiang’ is me showing you respect. Don’t be so ungrateful.”
Everyone knew by now that the Jiang Corporation was on the verge of bankruptcy and would most likely be acquired by the Chen Corporation. When that happened, forget being addressed as President Jiang, it would be a question whether Jiang Ning could even stay at Jiangtian Entertainment.
Lin Yiren disliked other people coming over to talk to Jiang Ning, especially in that kind of tone, and moved to respond, but Jiang Ning held her back.
“Calling me President Jiang is me showing you respect. Don’t be so ungrateful.” The corners of Jiang Ning’s lips curled with mockery.
She still had the harassment messages Chen Qi had sent her on her phone. A tiger fallen on hard times might get bullied by dogs, but now Jiang Ning had an even bigger tiger by her side. Let’s see who dared bully her now.
Though this was her first time in a sugar relationship, Jiang Ning slipped into the role quickly. The moment Chen Qi left, she immediately complained to Lin Yiren: “He said before that he’d make me regret it, and he threatened me…”
Lin Yiren couldn’t understand how Jiang Ning’s mood flipped so fast. Just now she had been incredibly fierce, and in the blink of an eye she was tattling like a child. Though she didn’t mind it, she couldn’t quite get used to it either.
After years away, it was only natural for Jiang Ning to have changed a little.
Lin Yiren was silent for a few seconds, then reached out and hugged Jiang Ning, comforting her. “Don’t be afraid. I’ll protect you.”
When Lin Zhiyuan came downstairs, he saw his younger sister hugging someone. He was rather surprised. After all, although Lin Yiren seemed easy to get along with, she had a very strong sense of territoriality. Even as her own brother, he had been hugged only a handful of times. Once he saw that the person she was holding was Jiang Ning, alarm bells started ringing in his head.
Jiang Ning. Eldest Young Miss of the Jiang Family. Romantically carefree by nature, later given to unpredictable moods, highly cultured, poor at business. Female. Unstable hobbies. Bisexual.
“Good morning, Older Brother.” Lin Yiren released Jiang Ning and stood up, greeting him with a smile, completely missing his odd expression.
Lin Zhiyuan nodded and motioned for Lin Yiren to follow. Watching her hold Jiang Ning’s hand, he was a little puzzled, but didn’t question it out loud just yet.
“I was too busy with social obligations to come home last night. I didn’t expect you to come to me today instead.” Once the door closed, Lin Zhiyuan’s expression softened a little.
“Sister Jiang has something she’d like to discuss with you, so I brought her along.” Lin Yiren had already switched to this form of address since that morning.
With that, she pushed Jiang Ning forward.
“I’d like to discuss a business deal with you today, Brother Lin.” Jiang Ning didn’t call him President Lin directly, but she didn’t fully follow Lin Yiren’s lead either, splitting the difference instead. Still, the form of address left Lin Zhiyuan displeased, and his face darkened.
“Older Brother, Sister Jiang is my girlfriend now. You absolutely can’t bully her.” Even though it was only a sugar relationship for now, Lin Yiren added that last part in her head.
Lin Zhiyuan’s expression froze, and his gaze toward Jiang Ning carried a trace of murderous intent. In the end, it was Lin Yiren who had Jiang Ning wait in the meeting room next door, and she talked to Lin Zhiyuan for a long while before he reluctantly believed Jiang Ning wasn’t a threat to her.
Later, when Jiang Ning went in to negotiate with Lin Zhiyuan, Lin Yiren didn’t tag along. Curious as she was about what the two would discuss, she wouldn’t interfere too much, and she trusted Jiang Ning to handle it. Before leaving, she just gave Lin Zhiyuan a look that warned him not to bully Jiang Ning.
“What leverage do you have, Miss Jiang, that would make me willing to do business with you?” Although Lin Zhiyuan had received Lin Yiren’s hint, he didn’t approve of Jiang Ning’s relationship with his sister at all.
Same-sex marriage might be legal now, but the law hadn’t passed all that long ago, and society still held prejudices against homosexuality. Besides, how could his own sister possibly have gotten tangled up with Jiang Ning? Lin Zhiyuan suspected the whole thing was premeditated.
Jiang Ning didn’t care about Lin Zhiyuan’s attitude. In this world, apart from the Female Lead, she didn’t much care what anyone thought of her. Her expression unchanged, she said, “Would the Chen Corporation work as leverage?”
“Miss Jiang, you can eat carelessly, but you can’t speak carelessly.” Lin Corporation had always maintained a neutral stance. It had grown to its current size on its own strength precisely because it rarely got involved in those power struggles, keeping the waters undisturbed. “Our Lin Corporation has always lived by the principle: if no one offends us, we offend no one.”
“Jiangtian Entertainment once followed the exact same principle you just described.” Ever since the Chen Family had connected with people at the top, their ambitions had swelled. Jiangtian Entertainment would by no means be the last target. If the Chen Corporation really did absorb Jiangtian Entertainment, or if the Xiao Corporation got its hands on it, either one’s power would grow, and Lin Corporation might find itself in a passive position.
Lin Zhiyuan naturally understood this logic. He said nothing, gesturing for Jiang Ning to continue. Jiang Ning’s sincerity in wanting to cooperate was obvious enough. After revealing a few of the Chen Corporation’s upcoming bids, she set down a USB drive and told Lin Zhiyuan to keep a close eye on the Jiang Corporation’s stock before she left.
Throughout the whole meeting, Lin Zhiyuan’s attitude remained perfectly smooth. He neither agreed nor refused. This attitude actually eased Jiang Ning’s expression somewhat; she liked talking to smart people.
Jiang Ning’s visit this time was merely a reminder for Lin Zhiyuan, so she didn’t say much more. After chatting idly for a while, her mood was fairly good, but on her way out she deliberately put on a grim face. Sure enough, the next day Jiang Ning heard some news. A financial tabloid had even set aside a special edition just for her.
#Jiang Corporation’s President Digs Herself Out of a Hole by Selling Her Looks, Thrown Out of Lin Corporation in Utter Disgrace#
One photo showed Jiang Ning getting into Lin Zhiyuan’s car at the banquet the night before. Another showed her leaving Lin Corporation today with a gloomy expression. Though her outfit was nothing out of line, she clearly didn’t look like someone who had gone there to discuss business.
Because of this news, the Jiang Corporation’s stock, which had already fallen as low as it could go, kept sliding, and even some of the company’s old shareholders grew disheartened.
What the Chen Corporation and Xiao Corporation didn’t expect was that the scattered shares they had dumped were snapped up by a mysterious force almost instantly, leaving neither family with any gain. They had been watching the market closely when the news broke. Who could possibly have moved faster than them?
【Host, I don’t understand why you did that.】 The System watched the Jiang Corporation grow even more turbulent, a little confused.
“You have to bait the wolf with a lamb.” Even though it looked like this was making the Jiang Corporation die faster, who could say whose hands the deer would fall into in the end?
Glancing at the payment notification, Jiang Ning hadn’t expected her gossip to be worth so much. Probably a good chunk of it came courtesy of the Chen and Xiao families. Thinking of that improved her mood considerably.
This storm had all but destroyed most of the effort Jiang Ning had put in recently. Worse still, Lin Xiao chose this exact moment to jump ship. He hadn’t discussed it with Jiang Ning beforehand or tried to appeal to her feelings, acting as if he was fully confident she would come begging him to stay.
When Jiang Ning first took over Jiangtian Entertainment, most of its artists spent nearly all their time without work. The company no longer had the money to invest in films or TV dramas, and with the Chen and Xiao corporations applying pressure, few people came looking to sign with Jiangtian Entertainment’s talent.
Things hadn’t been this bad when the Original Host first took over. She simply lacked experience and couldn’t outplay those old foxes. She sank the majority of Jiangtian Entertainment’s resources into one A-list star, hoping to buy room for a turnaround. The star did blow up, but before long she transferred to Chengxing Entertainment, the Chen Family’s company.
The contract signed to secure Bai Keke had been fairly loose at the time. The Chen Corporation dealt Jiangtian Entertainment a crushing blow at a tiny cost, leaving it essentially unable to keep operating. Some shareholders had opposed the deal back then, but the Original Host stubbornly insisted. When everything fell apart, her guilt and despair were what drove her to take her own life.
Lin Xiao’s contract termination now was much the same situation, except that fortunately, Jiang Ning had done her PR work. Though they had broken up, he still had a decent stack of resources, and she had tilted resources his way even with Jiangtian Entertainment in this state. That much was more than fair.
So while Lin Xiao’s fans all shouted that everyone fends for themselves when disaster strikes, and that was only human nature, Lin Xiao’s behavior could only be called ungrateful. After all, Jiangtian Entertainment had built him from the ground up. His actions destroyed a good chunk of his public reputation. At the same time, Lin Xiao’s fans dragged Bai Keke into the center of the controversy. She had also jumped ship to Chengxing Entertainment, so she took the flak alongside him.
Chengxing Entertainment hadn’t expected this. They had barely finished signing Lin Xiao when Jiangtian Entertainment launched its PR counterattack, and the speed of it caught them completely off guard. Some even began to suspect Lin Xiao’s transfer was premeditated, and the higher-ups’ impression of him soured a little.
They started buying Internet Water Army to whitewash Lin Xiao and Bai Keke, dumping the dirty water on Jiangtian Entertainment instead. They claimed the company had always shortchanged its artists, and even dredged up the incident of the several artists Jiang Ning had once released, twisting it around to say those artists had terminated their contracts because they couldn’t stand their agents’ exploitation, even being pressured to sell their bodies.
Those artists had long harbored grudges, and now that Chengxing Entertainment dangled an olive branch, they smeared Jiangtian Entertainment without restraint, even going after Jiang Ning’s personal character. Combined with her earlier scandals, rumors flew everywhere for a time, driving Jiangtian Entertainment’s trending traffic to unprecedented heights. Even Jiangtian Entertainment’s other artists got flooded with water army posts expressing pity for them, urging them to leave the darkness and step into the light soon.
When Lin Yiren saw this news, she was furious. She immediately called Lin Zhiyuan and told him to clear things up. Lin Zhiyuan had initially adopted a wait-and-see attitude, watching the tigers fight from the mountain, but his move to buy up the scattered shares already revealed his choice. Now that Lin Yiren had spoken up, and thinking over what she’d said about their relationship, he had his assistant handle it.
Lin Corporation’s PR work was decent enough, and the so-called sugar relationship rumors collapsed on their own. But the situation still remained very unfavorable for Jiangtian Entertainment.
【Host, aren’t you going to act?】 Jiang Ning had opened a Weibo account before, and her dance videos had drawn quite a few Visual Fans. Now fans from all sides swarmed her Weibo and cursed it into a cesspool. Her anti-fan count was nearly rivaling a third-tier celebrity’s fan base.
But Jiang Ning still didn’t make a move. She was waiting to see if the enemy had any follow-up tricks so she could deal with everything in one go. However, instead of a killer move from the rival company, what Jiang Ning got was a phone call from Lin Yiren.
At the same time, the System automatically posted a notification.
【The Female Lead is calling you of her own accord. Surprised? Shocked?】
【If you’re surprised and shocked, say this to the Female Lead: “I miss you so much. Do you miss me too?”】
…
Jiang Ning: There’s something I’m not sure I should say.
