Chapter 8: Am I Your White Moonlight? (8)

“Is something wrong?”

Saying “I missed you” out of nowhere was still a bit of a challenge for Jiang Ning. She couldn’t get past that mental hurdle, so her tone came out awkward and stiff.

On the other end, Lin Yiren had been dying of anxiety without knowing how to bring it up. Hearing Jiang Ning’s response, she assumed Jiang Ning found her meddlesome, and her tone turned sharp. “Can’t I call you if nothing’s wrong?”

The moment the words left her mouth, Lin Yiren regretted them. She was supposed to be comforting the girl, and even she wanted to slap herself for that tone. She scrambled to make it right, but a low chuckle drifted through the phone first, so lovely it made her heart itch.

“Well then, Honored Sugar Patron, I missed you. Did you miss me?” Through the System’s remote feed, Jiang Ning could see Lin Yiren’s conflicted little expression perfectly, and the words she’d been agonizing over just now came out with effortless ease.

Then she watched Lin Yiren excitedly ruffle the dog’s fur, and remembered how she’d always been talking about that dog. So it had been sent home after all. Glancing at the clock, Jiang Ning saw it was about time to get off work. She gathered her things and headed for Lin Yiren’s place.

“I missed you too,” Lin Yiren replied, her face flushing red. She had planned to circle around the subject first and offer concern sideways, but to her surprise, Jiang Ning simply showed up at her door. Hugging Black Knight, Lin Yiren took a deep breath, then rolled to her feet and went to the study.

When Jiang Ning arrived, she found Lin Yiren sitting in the living room looking extremely serious. Their eyes met, each waiting for the other to speak first. Lin Yiren had decided to combine both approaches. “Don’t be sad. I have a solution.”

Jiang Ning stifled a laugh, wondering where on earth she had looked sad. Still, she didn’t interrupt. Resting her chin on her hand, she watched Lin Yiren’s earnest expression, curious to see what she would do next.

Lin Yiren couldn’t bear to see Jiang Ning hurting, so within the last half hour she had drafted a document committing to inject capital into Jiang Corporation, along with another contract she wanted to sign with Jiang Ning.

She was going to sign with Jiangtian Entertainment. The terms, drawn up beforehand through a friend, were practically a list of clauses designed to hand money straight to Jiang Ning. What’s more, once Lin Yiren joined Jiangtian Entertainment, Lin Zhiyuan would never just sit back and watch.

This was the least humiliating method Lin Yiren could think of, given that the current state of their relationship was, well…

Improper.

“Are you sure?” Jiang Ning knew Lin Yiren would never stand by and do nothing, but such a huge sacrifice made the normally cold-hearted Jiang Ning uncomfortable, so she asked twice. It wasn’t that Jiang Ning hadn’t thought about getting Lin Yiren to sign with Jiangtian Entertainment, but she had never intended to completely exploit and squeeze her dry.

Wasn’t this “sugar patron” sacrificing far too much?

“I’m sure.”

Lin Yiren began explaining that she was doing this purely for herself, that returning to the country meant she needed a platform to build her fame domestically, and that she had simply chosen to partner with Jiang Ning. The explanation was… flimsy, to say the least.

Setting aside the fact that Chengxing Entertainment was a better platform than Jiangtian Entertainment, Jiang Ning felt even the terms Lin Yiren’s people had offered were tempting. Under this contract, Lin Yiren stood to earn next to nothing, and if Jiang Ning were ruthless enough, she could grind the woman down to nothing.

Jiang Ning met Lin Yiren’s eyes, and something in their earnestness seemed to scorch her. She looked away. Instead of signing that agreement, she told her assistant to draft a new contract from scratch.

There were plenty of templates for this kind of deal. Before long, the assistant sent one over, and after a few revisions, Jiang Ning printed it out.

The contract was reasonably fair. Jiang Ning even added a clause giving Party B the right to request different resources from Party A, shortened the term to one year, and changed Party A from Jiangtian Entertainment to Jiang Ning herself.

Party B was Lin Yiren. You could say this contract was one of a kind, made exclusively for her.

Realizing this, the corners of Lin Yiren’s lips curled up. She signed the agreement in high spirits, then cheerfully kept Jiang Ning around for dinner.

Once the hype had simmered at just the right temperature, Jiangtian Entertainment dumped every piece of dirt on those few artists all at once. They had been cozying up to sugar patrons while plotting to jump ship at the first opportunity, even scheming to fleece the company on their way out. The plan had collapsed when their contracts were terminated early. Once the story broke, everyone agreed that Jiang Ning had already been more than merciful. If those artists hadn’t crawled back out to court disaster, they might actually have had a future.

But Jiang Ning wasn’t that kind. She never let anyone who crossed her off the hook. It was only a matter of time. The fact that Lin Xiao was still doing fine just meant she was waiting.

After the clarification, several major influencers began publishing pieces about Jiang Ning: a woman who refused to give up after catastrophe struck, single-handedly holding up Jiangtian Entertainment, whose hardships she never spoke of to outsiders. Countless passersby were drawn in, and the good writing combined with the true story moved people to tears.

Your Little Feet: “Holy crap, this is such a tearjerker? Most people wouldn’t even recover from something like this, but President Jiang actually turned the whole thing around!”

Rice Cooker Love: “There’s my essay prompt for the college entrance exam. Should we praise President Jiang for growing this fast in just one year? A president held back by dance, through and through!”

The Joy of Soapy Water: “I think Jiangtian Entertainment is actually pretty decent. Compared to the others, they really do respect their artists.”

Jiangcheng at Eleven: “Same! Fly brave, President Jiang, your fans are with you all the way!”

You could say Jiang Ning played her hand beautifully. She sold the dirt on her artists for a tidy profit, gave Jiangtian Entertainment a publicity boost, and while some people had terminated their contracts during this period and she hadn’t tried to keep them, everyone who stayed got a raise. Her staff was moved to tears.

So near the end of the press conference, Jiang Ning simultaneously announced Lin Yiren’s signing. Afterward, she even posted an uncommon welcome message on Weibo. Everyone in the company rallied together and reposted it enthusiastically. The atmosphere was wonderful, an uncommon show of unity that was practically a breath of fresh air in the entertainment industry, and it fired the opening shot for Lin Yiren’s debut.

By the time Lin Zhiyuan learned the news, it was already blazing across Weibo. He watched footage of Lin Yiren at the press conference declaring she would be signed with Jiang Corporation for a long time to come and had no intention of changing that. As furious as he was, there was nothing he could do.

Because he saw the message his silly younger sister sent, which stated the breach penalty: one hundred million.

Lin Zhiyuan: I really am furious.

That contract was, of course, the original one Lin Yiren had drafted. Jiang Ning hadn’t signed it, but it was more than enough to fool her own older brother.

Sure enough, because of Lin Yiren, even though Lin Zhiyuan had no idea what kind of spell Jiang Ning had cast to make his sister sacrifice so much, the deal was done. He made calls to prepare an afternoon meeting with the other shareholders to discuss the capital injection.

Too many people had their eyes on Jiang Corporation these days; one tug moved the whole body. If the Lin Corporation injected capital now, it would mean openly aligning with the Jiang family, which could invite trouble for the Lin family’s other ventures.

Thinking back to the partnership Jiang Ning had proposed, a thoughtful look flashed through Lin Zhiyuan’s eyes. A camel dead of thirst was still bigger than a horse; who knew what else Jiang Ning had up her sleeve. When he’d received her USB drive earlier, he hadn’t believed it entirely, but he had still deployed his resources quickly, and after the good news came back, he had overruled the objections at the shareholders’ meeting to invest in the TV drama Lin Yiren was about to film.

“What is the Lin family playing at?” Chen Siming stared at the trending topics on Weibo, baffled as to why Lin Yiren had suddenly waded in.

He was locked in a standoff with the Xiao family at the moment. With Lin Yiren signing to Jiangtian Entertainment, everyone assumed the Lin family wanted a piece of the action, but nobody could see what benefit this brought the Lin Corporation. If anything, it would only invite disaster.

Even if Lin Zhiyuan merely wanted to spare his sister suffering at Jiangtian Entertainment, and didn’t want others looking down on her with cheap tricks, no one else would see it so innocently. So Lin Zhiyuan had already braced for the Chen family and the Xiao family to pull some small schemes.

Fortunately, he had anticipated the fallout before the press conference even happened. Several projects had contingencies prepared, so his losses were minor, while the Chen family had suffered heavy damage after unearthing antiques on a plot of land they’d snatched from the Lin family.

What Lin Yiren’s signing brought Jiang Corporation wasn’t just investment but resources as well. After so many years in Country M, she had connections of her own. She personally reached out to those directors, recommending several actors Jiang Ning trusted, and had her friends repost the Weibo announcement. Different circle, perhaps, but it resolved quite a few of Jiangtian Entertainment’s problems one way or another.

Jiang Ning hadn’t expected Lin Yiren’s influence to be this potent. Seeing the situation improve, she quickly signed several rising stars, and a few blacklisted celebrities with nowhere left to turn didn’t refuse the olive branch Jiangtian Entertainment offered. You could say most of them came with a gambler’s heart: win and live, lose and die. The genuinely talented few treated the whole thing as just another game.

On the day of the press conference, Lin Yiren had already told her parents that she was dating Jiang Ning. Though it felt sudden, children have their own fortunes to make, and Mother Lin accepted it quickly. Lin Zhiyuan and Father Lin accepted it on the surface, but deep down they were still keeping their guard up around Jiang Ning.

Jiang Ning couldn’t be bothered with what those two men were thinking. She moved into the Lin household without ceremony. Though she and Lin Yiren didn’t share a room, the two of them sometimes slept together anyway, and the Lin family turned a blind eye and said nothing.

In truth, their relationship was purer than a blank sheet of paper. They hadn’t even had their first kiss. Now, watching Jiang Ning handle everything so smoothly, and seeing her still working on other matters in bed at night, fingers flying across the keyboard at incredible speed, Lin Yiren’s mind suddenly wandered somewhere improper.

Now that Jiang Ning had dealt with nearly everything, couldn’t she claim her dues as well? Lin Yiren still balked at the word “kept,” but she had made up her mind to pursue Jiang Ning, and it was only natural to have thoughts like these when sharing a room.

With that thought, Lin Yiren began to probe. “I did you a huge favor this time, you know.”

[The Female Lead is solving your troubles. Doesn’t a debt this great deserve repayment?]

[If it does, then give the Female Lead an unforgettable night!]

Jiang Ning: …