Tenghuang Entertainment may have been declining by the day, but it still had a few well-known artists who hadn’t completely left yet.
Once Vice President Chen was gone, those artists were all pretty shaken.
Among them were people who knew Hua Zi fairly well.
Hua Zi being shelved by the company was common knowledge, but over the past two days, he’d suddenly landed a magazine cover and then a historical romance drama. The scale of it was so big that it was impossible not to think of him.
Someone quickly sought him out.
“Are you… okay?”
Even someone who genuinely cared about Hua Zi spoke with extreme caution.
He didn’t dare ask outright how Hua Zi had been doing lately—mostly because he was afraid that asking would reopen old wounds.
“Huh?”
Hua Zi looked a little dazed, which only made him look even more suspicious.
“Oh—me? I’m fine. I’ve just been a bit busy lately.”
The other person hesitated, wanting to say something.
This “busy”… surely it wasn’t—
He fell into an eerie silence.
Huazi also sank into an inexplicable quiet.
Even the air in the room seemed to turn strange.
After a long while, Huazi finally spoke in a low, drifting voice.
He looked at his friend’s face, sympathy even creeping into his expression.
“I… I used to really envy you. Now I know I was wrong.”
His friend slowly typed out a question mark.
But still—why was this coming up all of a sudden?
And why did he no longer envy him?
Had he missed something?
Huazi looked at him, his face full of misery.
“So this is what it feels like when your schedule is packed to the brim—it’s actually torture! I haven’t had a proper night’s sleep in days!”
For someone who used to sleep ten hours a day just for beauty rest, this was simply impossible to accept!
And also—although he hadn’t been subjected to any unspoken rules from upper management—
But!
Every time he finally had a bit of free time, he would get dragged by Second Young Master Jin into ranked matches to grind points. That kind of suffering was just as unbearable!
Second Young Master Jin, and that newly signed Guan Junhao—weren’t they way too bad at the game?!
Huazi let out the anguished cry of a true King of Glory champion deep in his heart, but there was no way he could say any of that out loud to his friend.
In the end, he could only gently pat his friend on the shoulder.
“You… you might want to think a bit more about changing jobs.”
After saying that, Huazi paused in a strange way, his tone carrying a hint his friend couldn’t quite understand.
“And about asking you to play games before—if you ever have time, come find me and we’ll rank up together.”
Outside the door, Fan Qing slowly turned his head to look at Jin Yi.
“…Second Young Master, just how many little lackeys have you arranged to grind rank for you?”
Jin Yi looked completely justified.
“Just two. It’s not like I’m making them do anything bad. What’s wrong with accompanying me to rank up?”
After saying that, he even looked a little annoyed.
“And besides, Huazi is one thing, but is Guan Junhao really accompanying me to rank up? I’m the one carrying him! He should be grateful, alright?”
Fan Qing felt a headache coming on.
He was starting to wonder whether jumping ship to Tenghuang to carve out a new path for himself had been naive.
Vice President Chen being fired did not throw Tenghuang into chaos.
On the contrary, with Fan Qing taking overall control behind the scenes and Jin Yi occasionally using his older brother as a shield, Tenghuang was rapidly cleaned up and reorganized from top to bottom.
Quite a few problematic managers were fired under Fan Qing’s direction via Jin Yi, and a number of artists with poor conduct were also quietly shelved by the company.
As for some artists who had previously been shelved but actually had good potential, Fan Qing dug them out one by one and redistributed Tenghuang’s existing resources to suit them.
Huazi and his friend were both promising seedlings Fan Qing had his eye on.
And Huazi in particular went without saying—Fan Qing had Jin Yi endure criticism from the other company executives and pour resources into him, smashing three consecutive magazine cover opportunities his way.
The results after that were immediate and striking.
Originally, hardly anyone in the industry even knew who Huazi was. But after three magazine covers in a row, half the industry was left stunned.
“Holy—what is going on?! What is going on, sisters?! How does someone with looks like this exist and manage to escape the eyes of older sisters and younger sisters for all these years?!”
“??? I heard Tenghuang smashed three magazine covers onto the same artist and thought Tenghuang had gone crazy. Now that I see this—damn, I’m the crazy one! With a face like this, smash it as hard as you can, please! This level of looks, and Tenghuang let him stay unknown for years? What a waste, what a crime against nature! Tenghuang, did you hear that?!”
“Sisters, there’s nothing more to say. I’ve already bought a thousand copies of each magazine. From today on, I am Huazi’s dog, do you understand? I don’t think I need to wear pants for the next month!”
“Good heavens, my friend and I have lost our minds. Your industry actually has a face like this? I boldly declare—aside from Beauty Nie, this is the other god-tier face to appear in the industry so far, right?”
Amid the fairly uniform praise, one comment suddenly popped up. The comment section instantly fell into a strange, dead silence.
“Hmm? Someone’s really trying to stir things up.”
Fan Qing scrolled to that comment and swiftly issued instructions to the public relations team.
After receiving the order, the PR staff couldn’t help clicking their tongues.
This person had suddenly parachuted in behind Second Young Master Jin, and anyone with eyes could tell he was the true strategist behind him.
The recent large-scale overhaul of the company—anyone could see that it was this man’s decision-making at work.
But…
The strategist was too good! The strategist was amazing!
Second Young Master Jin, please find a few more strategists like this, we’re begging you!
Their PR department hadn’t done real, meaningful work like this in ages, sob sob sob.
And that wasn’t even the best part. How long had it been since they’d felt this way—seizing the initiative?
Such precise control over the direction of public opinion—the last time this happened was… well, the last time.
With instructions in hand, the PR team moved quickly.
Soon, accounts labeled as new Huazi fans began popping up in the comments.
“Taking Huazi away, and thank you for the kind praise, dear. But our Huazi is just a small rookie who flopped for several years—no clout-chasing with Big Shot Nie here. We’re very grateful for the opportunity the company gave Huazi to get good exposure this time. Even though he doesn’t have strong works yet, we hope everyone will take good care of him.”
Right after that comment, accounts wearing Nie Luo fan badges quickly replied.
“Also taking Brother Nie away. Huazi does look pretty good, but our Brother Nie has focused on his career for ten thousand years and has never relied on looks to make a living. Everyone please stan rationally and don’t be misled by bad comments~”
The two fandoms went back and forth like this. When onlookers and other fans saw it, they all calmed down.
Indeed.
Huazi’s new fans happily continued drooling over a new face they’d never seen before, while Nie Luo’s fans demonstrated the generosity and composure expected of Nie Luo’s fandom and chose not to fuss over Huazi’s side—
After all, he had only shot a few magazine covers. There was no clout-chasing, no hype. He was simply being noticed for having a good-looking face. If they made a big deal out of it for no reason, wouldn’t that just make them look unreasonable?
Although Tenghuang’s upper management was rotten to the core, its foundational teams were actually pretty solid.
The public relations department, in particular, was not only obedient but also very effective.
However…
Fan Qing quickly sent Jin Yi a text message.
“Have someone look into the background of those paid trolls trying to stir things up.”
After receiving the message, Jin Yi slumped weakly across his desk.
He didn’t want to do this anymore!
Even though he was just a puppet, did people even understand what being a puppet meant?
It meant that he still had to come to the company every single day, and many of Fan Qing’s instructions still required his signature before they could be issued!
That was exhausting too, alright?!
Jin Yi hesitated for a moment, then replied tentatively.
“How about… I give you the title of Vice President, and you just come do it yourself?”
Keep it simple!
Let the way things work be simple!
Fan Qing burst out laughing in anger the moment he saw the message.
He directly dialed Jin Yi’s number.
“Have you forgotten which company I’m currently signed with?”
Holding the title of an agent from another company while sitting in Tenghuang as a Vice President?
Was Second Young Master Jin really not worried that the two of them would immediately shoot to number one on the trending searches that very day with rumors of an improper relationship?
Jin Yi looked utterly miserable.
“…Then how about I pay your breach-of-contract fee and you jump ship already?”
He didn’t want to do this anymore!
Even if being a puppet could earn him two off-road vehicles, he still didn’t want to do it!
Waa—he just wanted to be a carefree rich playboy who quietly played games to rank up, flirted a bit, drank some wine, and messed around with sports cars!
Fan Qing was speechless.
He didn’t want to say anything at all and promptly hung up the phone.
With such an unreliable future boss, maybe he really should consider other paths for himself: )
After being hung up on, Jin Yi muttered under his breath, then pulled out his phone and went to check the information Fan Qing had asked him to investigate.
Perhaps it was because Vice President Chen had just been forced out.
Or perhaps because his identity as Second Young Master Jin was useful.
Or maybe… his older brother’s name carried even more weight.
In any case, the information he wanted came back very quickly.
After reading it, Jin Yi suddenly understood why Fan Qing wanted this checked!
So that was the reason!
Just as he was about to send the results to Fan Qing, he suddenly paused.
Hiss—wait a second.
Shouldn’t he… tell Old Nie about this first?
With the noble intention of maintaining brotherly friendship, Jin Yi agonized for a full three seconds before taking a detour and calling Nie Luo first.
“What is it?”
To his surprise, the call was picked up almost immediately.
Jin Yi was a little puzzled.
“How did you answer so fast? You’re not busy today?”
Nie Luo’s long eyelashes were like black butterfly wings, and there was a trace of inexplicable fragility in his expression as he lowered his gaze.
“Yeah, not busy. What’s up?”
That was strange. With Old Nie’s status, when was he ever not busy?
And yet today, of all days, Jin Yi just happened to catch him?
Jin Yi didn’t think too deeply about it and enthusiastically told Nie Luo everything.
At the end, he even summed it up.
“I’ve realized you’re pretty unlucky this year. That Jing Yuan guy was plotting against you, right? Fine, let’s leave that aside—but these paid trolls were actually hired by your own manager. That’s really rough, man.”
Nie Luo wasn’t particularly surprised by this.
Given how free he had been these past few days, he had already guessed something.
He just hadn’t expected that person to be so impatient, to make a move this quickly.
“Mm. And so?”
Everything Jin Yi said was something he already knew. As long as he didn’t place hope in those people, he wouldn’t be disappointed.
Jin Yi rubbed his chin and chuckled.
“Nothing much. Just wanted to tell you that this was Fan Qing who had me look into it. Not gonna lie, brother—this admirer of yours really has something going for him.”
Leaving aside his methods of pursuing someone, he was also pretty capable when it came to running a company.
If Old Nie actually took him in, could Fan Qing jump ship earlier and come work for him as a Vice President?
Or even be the CEO—so long as Jin Yi didn’t have to be this puppet emperor anymore, just collecting dividends sounded pretty great, didn’t it?
Nie Luo’s previously calm, rippleless eyes suddenly seemed to be brushed by a breeze, stirring up a faint wave.
“…It was him?”
He had heard it again.
The name Fan Qing.