Having gotten a rough grasp of the situation, Jiang Ning drew up a rough plan. The original host’s company absolutely could not be sold. Even if it rotted in her hands, it had to remain part of the Jiang Family. Presumably the original host had killed herself precisely because she couldn’t bear to watch the company change its name.
But right now she had neither money nor influence. Winning back a company took more than a leader with management skills. It needed people willing to follow her, people who believed the company still had a future, before it could ever stand back up.
Negotiations had failed yesterday, and the original host had left straight after work, abandoning a mountain of mess behind her. Everyone assumed the situation was spiraling and that they were about to lose their jobs. Some in the company were pleased, others anxious. The most worried of all was naturally the original host’s assistant, a man Jiang Tianci had trained with his own hands, an uncle who had watched Jiang Ning grow up.
“Uncle Wang.”
“Little Ning, where did you run off to?” Jiang Ning hadn’t shown up for work today and wasn’t answering her phone. She had already been in a strange state yesterday, and Wang Chenyu had been worried sick. The moment her call came through, he pressed her urgently.
“I’m fine, Uncle Wang. I’ll be back at work tomorrow.” Jiang Ning knew the company was in dire straits. If she didn’t return soon, it might be beyond saving. Her going back wouldn’t turn things around, but at the very least it would steady morale.
She asked Uncle Wang about a few other matters, filling in the details that hadn’t been in her inherited memories, then said her goodbyes to Lin Yiren.
The Lin Parents had appointments with other people today, so Lin Yiren had spent most of the day with Jiang Ning. Hearing that she was leaving, Lin Yiren felt a pang of disappointment but said nothing, simply had the driver take Jiang Ning home, and quietly noted down the address.
Since Jiangtian Entertainment needed working capital, Jiang Ning sold the family villa and moved into an apartment complex with decent security. She had barely opened the door when she found Lin Xiao sitting there, looking haggard. At the sound, he lifted his head, saw her, and called out happily, “A-Ning.”
“Let’s not be so familiar, Young Master Lin. We’ve broken up.” Since an outsider was still present, Jiang Ning didn’t rush to shut the door, but she had no intention of a long, heartfelt talk either.
The original host had given Lin Xiao her address back before, and he would sometimes stay over for stretches at a time. What relieved Jiang Ning was that their relationship overseas had always been lukewarm, and after they returned to the country, the two of them had both been so busy that nothing physical had ever happened.
This was also a sore point for Lin Xiao. If they had slept together earlier, he would have had one more layer of insurance. Now Jiang Ning was breaking up with him out of nowhere, catching him completely off guard. His texts went unanswered, so waiting at her door was all he could do. That “Young Master Lin” of hers just now had nearly convinced him that his cover was blown.
But her reaction was merely a bit cold. She probably didn’t know who he really was. Relief loosened his chest, while his face settled into wounded sorrow. “A-Ning, is there some misunderstanding between us? Just tell me what it is, and we’ll work through it together, alright?”
Watching Lin Xiao’s expression, Jiang Ning thought it was a genuine waste that he wasn’t an actor. Her brow furrowed at the queasy feeling it gave her, and her tone went cold.
“There’s no misunderstanding. We’re simply not right for each other. You don’t need to keep up the performance for me, and I don’t need to keep tiptoeing around your feelings. It’s better for both of us this way.”
Only the original host had ever treasured you like a prize. Whenever Lin Xiao got angry, it was always the original host who lowered her head first. Asking Jiang Ning to do that for a man she felt nothing for? She would sooner log out of this world.
But Lin Xiao refused to believe Jiang Ning could be so heartless. As before, he let his face fall, though the gloom didn’t truly settle the way it did when he was angling for Jiang Ning to come begging. He knew this wasn’t the moment to tear off the mask, so instead of impulsively agreeing to the breakup, he lifted a sorrowful smile and struck his usual pose. “I don’t accept the breakup. A-Ning, I know someone must have deceived you. I’ll wait for you.”
“Not happening. Don’t bother dreaming.” The breakup was final. Reconciliation was absolutely impossible. That was Jiang Ning’s answer to Lin Xiao.
Knowing that lingering would only breed resentment, Lin Xiao had the good sense to leave. On his way out, he even tried a lingering, affectionate backward glance, hoping to meet her eyes one last time, but the front door slammed shut without a shred of mercy.
Once the door was closed, Jiang Ning’s first act was to change the passcode, adding a second lock for good measure. Only after scanning her surroundings and finding nothing amiss did she sit down and relax. She couldn’t shake the feeling that Lin Xiao’s visit hadn’t been as simple as it looked.
Then again, Lin Xiao hadn’t come to pull any tricks this time, because he simply didn’t believe Jiang Ning would actually go through with the breakup.
After a brief rest, Jiang Ning went into the study and opened the safe using the original host’s memories. Inside was a Will, stating that upon her death, five percent of the shares would each be transferred to Wang Chenyu and Lin Xiao, with everything else donated to charitable organizations.
The reason Jiang Corporation had never collapsed was that Father Jiang had transferred ten percent of the shares to Jiang Ning a year before his car accident. After Father Jiang died, Jiang Ning, as sole heir, received Jiang Tianci’s thirty percent, plus another four percent from a few elders who couldn’t bear to watch Jiang Corporation get swallowed up and sold off on the cheap. They had sold their shares to her at a low price, hoping she would seize the opportunity.
Chen Corporation and Xiao Corporation had both used various means to get their hands on scattered shares, but even pooling them, they couldn’t decide anything at the shareholders’ meeting, because several shareholders refused on any account to let go of what they held. Those were the elders who had built the company alongside Jiang Tianci from the very beginning. Their families wanted for nothing, and they meant to give both Jiang Ning and Jiang Corporation a chance, so they had held firm and refused to sell.
The original story never explained how Xiao Corporation ultimately obtained Jiangtian Entertainment, but Lin Xiao’s visit just now and this Will caught Jiang Ning’s attention. If Jiang Ning died, the person best positioned to get the Will first would be Lin Xiao. Follow the logic, and whoever stood behind Lin Xiao was very likely Xiao Yisheng. Once Xiao Yisheng obtained the Will, with a Male Lead’s brains he would have no trouble prying the shares out of Wang Chenyu’s hands, then, in Xiao Corporation’s name, trading with the charities at a price above market value. Jiangtian Entertainment would all but fall completely into Xiao Yisheng’s grasp.
【Host 0368, you’re so clever.】The System, silent until now, bubbled up with praise, then sent Jiang Ning a file. The background checks on the people around the original host confirmed her suspicions.
Knowing exactly who around her had impure motives put Jiang Ning somewhat at ease. It made it far easier to trust the people she put to work. Thinking over Lin Xiao’s identity, she had no intention of driving him out of the company. He was riding high on popularity right now. If he wanted to use the original host, she might as well squeeze his value for all it was worth first.
With that in mind, Jiang Ning had a word with Lin Xiao’s agent and packed his schedule tight, though only with advertisements and variety shows. Nothing that could be seized as leverage to squeeze the artist, just enough to keep him out of the office while he earned the company a few more quick sums.
At the same time, she got on her computer and contacted a few people she trusted, having them prepare contingency plans in case Lin Xiao, backed into a corner, kicked over the traces and she needed to do damage control on short notice. After all, if the original host’s romance with Lin Xiao ever got exposed, it would still be a considerable headache. Jiang Ning combed through the original host’s memories carefully. There shouldn’t be any overly intimate photos left in Lin Xiao’s possession, but just to be safe, she had the System hack his phone.
Unexpectedly, she found an unexpected windfall.
It concerned Lin Yiren. The original host had never been in the habit of checking her boyfriend’s phone, so Lin Xiao hadn’t bothered with layers of protection on it. Once the System was inside, it found a huge stash of Lin Yiren’s photos in his gallery, and in a separate album, intimate shots with several other stars, women whose figures bore a certain resemblance to Lin Yiren’s.
So Lin Xiao was not the clean-living paragon he appeared to be. Checking which companies those stars belonged to, Jiang Ning laughed. She had the System copy every one of the photos over, then bought an Item to protect all information related to the original host and Lin Yiren. Should Lin Xiao ever try to post those photos on any platform or app, they would automatically self-destruct.
That single Item purchase left Jiang Ning’s already meager Points balance in even worse shape, but she hated leaving holes in her work, so she didn’t spare a moment’s regret and went back to sorting out the world line.
Having discovered that Lin Xiao was not only tied to Xiao Yisheng but paid such close attention to Lin Yiren, Jiang Ning promptly recast Lin Xiao as the Second Male Lead. The moment the System confirmed it, a new note appeared beneath Lin Xiao’s information.
The second young master of the Xiao Family who ran away from home five years ago. Xiao Lin.
Two brothers falling for the same Female Lead was a trope worn threadbare since time immemorial, but the setup usually existed to push the plot along and bring the leads closer together. Lin Xiao had once cut ties with the Xiao Family to study abroad and chase his dream of becoming a singer. Later, suppressed and unable to survive in the industry, he had entered a relationship with the original host. She had been fairly generous, and even her ordinary gifts were worth a fortune. After selling them off, Lin Xiao planned to use his graduation as the moment to break up with her.
Then, just as he was about to leave for further study, the Male Lead Xiao Yisheng contacted him. If Lin Xiao helped him take Jiangtian Entertainment, Xiao Yisheng would let him return to the Xiao Family, and getting close to the original host would also bring his dream one step nearer. Weighing his options, Lin Xiao agreed. He had never had real feelings for the original host anyway, and being born into wealth, he struck without the slightest hesitation. Many of the original host’s plans had been leaked by Lin Xiao himself.
Then, when Lin Yiren joined Jiangtian Entertainment, he had quickly used his status as her senior to get close to her, becoming the warm and gentle Second Male Lead of the whole story. Later, once Lin Yiren learned of his and Xiao Yisheng’s scheme, another round of angsty, tragic devotion duly ensued.
The reason Jiang Ning had never connected this Lin Xiao with the Second Male Lead Xiao Lin was that she had never imagined such a money-grubbing man could be a young master of the Xiao Family, one who would later throw money around recklessly for Lin Yiren’s sake, dropping tens of millions at auctions just to beat the Male Lead without blinking.
Now that she knew, it didn’t weigh on her much. She simply organized the evidence, picked out a few photos, and sent them to the other assistant to hold onto in case of emergencies. Then she began flipping through Lin Yiren’s photos. In one, Lin Yiren wore overalls, her hair cropped short like a little boy’s, smiling somewhat shyly. In another, a more recent one, she wore a long dress, smiling with gentle refinement. The contrast startled Jiang Ning a little. She hadn’t expected such a dramatic change.
“Why would Lin Yiren care so much about the original host?”
