After opening the red wine, Wang Sisi pulled Zhao Yuxin up and said, "President Su, can we borrow one of your company's artists? Since they're going to debut as idols, their singing and dancing must be really good. How about they give a performance?"
Zhao Yuxin bit her lower lip reluctantly, knowing she couldn't refuse, so she could only get up with Wang Sisi.
He walked in the direction of Yan Qinghuan.
As Wang Sisi walked, she said, "He does resemble our CEO Jiang to some extent, but the makeup isn't quite right yet. Maybe I can introduce you to our CEO Jiang's personal makeup artist another day?"
Zhao Yuxin was flattered and quickly waved her hand, "No need, no need, thank you for your concern, Secretary Wang."
After Wang Sisi and Zhao Yuxin left, the area where people were singing with microphones became lively, while Jiang Cuo and Su Qianqian were on a sofa in the corner, which made things a bit quieter.
The VIP room has more than one door; there's a small door next to the sofa in the corner, with a semi-transparent frosted glass panel over it. Outside, a person is sneaking around, pressing their ear against the frosted glass to eavesdrop. Because there's music playing in the room and dim neon lights illuminating it with various colors, the blurry figure doesn't attract attention.
Jiang Cuo poured a little more wine into the glass, swirled it in his palm, then tilted his head back and drank it all in one gulp, his slender neck forming a beautiful arc.
After finishing his drink, Jiang Cuo smacked his lips lightly, as if savoring the taste. His phoenix eyes were slightly red at the corners, and he looked at Su Qianqian with a charming and meaningful expression. "Indeed, it's missing a little something."
Su Qianqian: "..."
Su Qianqian was so angry at Jiang Cuo's stubbornness, refusing to listen to anything he said, that she wanted to roll up her sleeves and have a good battle with him.
Jiang Cuo poured another glass of red wine, and this time he knelt on one knee and presented it to Su Qianqian's lips.
Su Qianqian knew that Jiang Cuo was challenging her.
Two years ago, she had such high hopes for the future and had so many expectations, but they were all shattered one night, on a rainy night. Did Jiang Cuo really think that he could just let it go so easily and then smooth things over with some self-righteous flattery?
Did Jiang Cuo think that the harm she caused was the same as the harm caused by those few heartless words she uttered?
Su Qianqian seemed to be acting out of spite, unable to maintain her composure. Jiang Cuo handed her a glass of wine, and she drank it. As long as she didn't stop, Jiang Cuo remained kneeling on one knee on the cold floor.
The two of them drank one glass after another until all three bottles of red wine were empty.
Su Qianqian didn't know why she felt dizzy and somewhat drunk today, even though she usually had a good alcohol tolerance. The dim light shining on her face made her consciousness start to blur and her nerves become soft.
It's as if the rationality that one usually maintains is slowly being eroded by alcohol, and the negative emotions suppressed in one's heart are gradually amplified.
She's really annoyed right now.
Why did Jiang Cuo leave two years ago and not come back? Why did he keep appearing in front of her and bothering her again and again?
In her original world, she was alone and had no courage to talk about love. After transmigrating to the system world, she dreamed of becoming a lazy bum and thought she could find a beautiful love. But her dream was shattered in an instant, and she ended up with nothing.
What's absurd is that Jiang Cuo didn't even leave her a word. It was completely inexplicable. After all that effort, she was back to square one, utterly confused.
Indeed, there were systemic restrictions at the beginning, and she used Jiang Cuo, but her use of him was always for her own benefit; she never harmed Jiang Cuo.
Perhaps her mistake was that she was too presumptuous.
Thinking back to that rainy night two years ago, Su Qianqian found it utterly ridiculous.
She thought that the system world she had transmigrated to would allow her to turn the tables and become the master of her own destiny, unlike her original world where she was a wanderer who could only be at the mercy of others. She believed that through hard work, she could change herself and at least become a person in society.
She never expected that even in the system world, she would still be manipulated by the system, completely devoid of dignity. The so-called system plot was just something the system deliberately created. The system could manipulate the events it wanted to happen, and could erase half a year's worth of her memories with a casual "it doesn't matter".
On what grounds?
Su Qianqian drank the last glass of wine, and two blushes appeared on her fair face.
Meanwhile, Wang Sisi and Yan Qinghuan were quite drunk while singing. Yu Siyu could barely maintain her balance, and Zhao Yu was so engrossed that she didn't even know what she was dancing or singing. Wang Sisi's social skills were indeed very strong, and she quickly integrated herself into the group. However, the other managers were in another private room.
No one noticed Su Qianqian and Jiang Cuo in the corner of the sofa.
Su Qianqian straightened up, still smelling of alcohol, and looked at Jiang Cuo's slightly flushed cheeks. He was still kneeling on one knee at her feet, still with that aloof and proud demeanor.
Su Qianqian suddenly felt a surge of anger. Why was Jiang Cuo always so calm? She was the one who chose to leave and didn't want her back then, so why was she acting all wronged now? It was as if she was the one who was wrong and couldn't forgive her.
Su Qianqian pinched Jiang Cuo's chin and asked with a hint of alcohol in her mouth, "Is President Jiang satisfied?"
Jiang Cuo's eyes were dark and unreadable. "What does Su Su want me to be satisfied with?"
"Enough!" Su Qianqian scolded in a low voice, "Don't pretend to be innocent in front of me, and don't act like you're not at fault. You're happy to see me lose my temper, aren't you? Do you think I still care about you? Isn't this exactly what you wanted to see, Mr. Jiang, are you satisfied?"
Jiang Cuo doesn't even admit to liking her. Is all she's doing here just to prove that she wasn't wrong back then, to get her to forgive her, and to continue making her her lapdog?
Jiang Cuo placed his slender fingers on Su Qianqian's hand that was pinching her chin, and with his other hand he took out a mirror from behind his back. It was the mirror that Su Qianqian had broken twice before. He placed it in Su Qianqian's hand, but as if he was deliberately not putting it down properly, he suddenly smashed it to the ground again, and the already precarious glass shards were torn to pieces once more.
“Su Su said that a broken mirror is hard to mend, but I have already repaired this broken mirror twice. As long as Su Su is happy, I will repair it every time it breaks.”
Su Qianqian felt a chill and released her grip on Jiang Cuo's chin. Jiang Cuo then spoke while keeping his head down. He knelt on the ground and picked up the shards of glass one by one, placing them in his palm.
The sharp shards of glass inevitably cut her fingertips, and the already healed wounds bled again, dripping onto the ground.
Jiang Cuo's expression remained unchanged, as if she were completely oblivious to the pain. She gripped the sharp shards of glass tightly, as if the more severe her wounds, the more appeased Su Qianqian would become. (H Wen Daily Update 871683155)
Su Qianqian immediately reacted and instinctively grabbed Jiang Cuo's wrist to stop her from continuing to self-harm by picking up the glass shards.
Su Qianqian: "What are you doing?"
A smile crept onto Jiang Cuo's cold face, ignoring the wound on his fingertip. "So Su Su cares about me, right? Su Su still has me in her heart, so why can't we go back to the way things were?"
Su Qianqian paused for a moment, then let go of her hand and shook her head.
"A broken mirror is hard to mend. Breaking it again and again will only make it more and more broken. What's the point of mending such a mirror?" Su Qianqian took a few tissues from the table and covered Jiang Cuo's hands.
"I was just a little confused by Mr. Jiang's behavior, so I was a bit stunned. I hope Mr. Jiang won't take it to heart. Since picking up glass shards is Mr. Jiang's hobby, please make yourself at home. I had a good time with Mr. Jiang's treat today. Please remember to pay the bill. I'll be going now."
Seeing Su Qianqian leave, Yan Qinghuan, Yu Siyu, and Zhao Yuxin quickly followed.
Wang Sisi watched Jiang Cuo from a distance, and could only sigh at the shards of glass on the ground, silently standing there waiting, not daring to go forward.
Seeing her boss's dejected look, Wang Sisi knew that the negotiations had probably fallen through.
When will their CEO Jiang realize that he has fallen for Su Qianqian and should pursue his girlfriend instead of pitifully playing the victim to get her back?
Wang Sisi was a little tipsy, but she regretfully tapped her head, thinking, "Damn it, how can I possibly get this right idea into my boss Jiang's head?"
After everyone in the private room left, the waiter prepared to clean. Suddenly, the figure that had been lurking behind the frosted glass of the back door appeared, stepped forward, and stopped the waiter.
“Our CEO has a ring worth 120,000 yuan that he left here. Don’t clean it up yet, I want to find a replacement myself.”
The waiter was quite puzzled. Wasn't CEO Cui from Yun Kong Films in this private room? Why was her secretary looking for the ring in this room? But he didn't dare to question her because of her status.
The furtive figure carefully searched the area where Su Qianqian and Jiang Cuo had sat, and finally found a small, blood-stained shard of glass in the corner under the sofa. He then took out a sterile bag from his pocket and put it away.
The lighting in the private room was dim, and the waiter couldn't see what she was thinking.
"Okay, I found it. You can continue cleaning."
The waiter, holding a broom, saw Mr. Cui's secretary leave and was somewhat puzzled. "The ring is so expensive, why does she have to wear sterile gloves to come looking for it?"
...
In the middle of the night, Cui Shu's secretary arrived at a villa with shards of glass bearing the bloodstains of his comrade Jiang Cuo.
"Mr. Hao, I've received the items. What's the next step?" The secretary, as if she had found a treasure, presented the items to Hao Duoyu and placed them on his desk.
Hao Duoyu slowly turned around, his middle-aged face full of wrinkles filled with a false gentleness. He plucked a hair from his head and placed it on the sterile bag containing the bloody glass shards.
"Take it for DNA testing tomorrow. Come find me as soon as you receive the results."
After speaking, Hao Duoyu turned around and looked at the pitch-black scene outside the French windows.
"Okay, Mr. Hao."
Hao Duoyu: "Keep a close eye on Jiang Cuo's movements recently, as well as Su Qianqian's movements. Jiang Cuo has been getting close to Su Qianqian over the years. Better to kill a bunch of innocent people than let one guilty person go free."
"Yes, Mr. Hao."
The secretary picked up the hair from the table and carefully placed it into another sterile bag, her movements unusually forward.
When he finally left Hao Duoyu's study, his eyes still held a light of admiration.
Hao Duoyu's last shred of feigned gentleness vanished, replaced by a twisted, ferocious expression.
Why did Jiang Cuo come back? Does she know something?
And why did Su Qianqian sign her daughter, Jiu Cuo, to her agency as an artist when she was a sophomore in college?
Su Qianqian's maternal grandparents had many businesses, but they had never been involved in the entertainment industry.
Hao Duoyu was unwilling to accept it. Although he had guarded Jiu You for so many years and had not won back Jiu You's heart, he had always protected him.
Jiu You is still his wife, at least in name, so she must not be allowed to know what he did back then.
Jiang Yi... If it weren't for him, how could he have ended up like this with Jiang Yi? Even if Jiang Yi were to die, he would have deserved to die.
...
A month has passed.
The idol group variety show with seven members has been finalized, all members have been successfully grouped, and even the mentors have been selected and announced online.
The cast includes Hua Kongque from Yun Kong Films, a "pretty face" senior; Jiu Cuo, who has experience in idol training after filming a low-budget web series; Jiang Cuo, the newly returned CEO of Buwangchuxin Entertainment, who is the behind-the-scenes planner and has veto power; and Song Yaxing, a singer who has become quite popular in the entertainment industry in the past two years.
Jiang Cuo looked at the documents in his hand, feeling somewhat agitated.
Because she noticed that Su Qianqian seemed to be deliberately avoiding her lately.
There were clearly events they could attend together, but as soon as she arrived, Su Qianqian left, as if she was deliberately avoiding her and didn't want to see her.
She thought it was a coincidence the first two times, but after trying it several more times, the result was the same every time, so it must have been intentional.
As July progressed, the weather grew increasingly hot. Even with the office air conditioning on, Jiang Cuo always felt a tightness in her chest, making it hard to breathe and causing her great annoyance. She decided to leave her office and go downstairs for a stroll.
Since this variety show is a crucial resource for them, and they are in charge of all the preparations, the other members of the team are also extremely busy coordinating various tasks, such as outsourcing some temporary work to filming and scriptwriting teams.
Jiang Cuo leisurely walked to the lobby on the first floor, sat down in a chair, facing the entrance of the company building, and enjoyed the cold air blowing on him from the air conditioner which was turned up to the maximum.
Meanwhile, the multimedia screen in the lobby on the first floor was playing melodramatic TV programs.
Jiang Cuo raised his hand and glanced at the time. It was almost lunchtime. Why were the employees still working so hard?
Wang Sisi carried a stack of documents and went looking for Jiang Cuo, but unexpectedly Jiang Cuo was on the first floor enjoying the breeze. Seeing everyone's tense expressions, she herself was also exhausted.
This past month has been an absolute nightmare for her. Ever since President Su of Weicuo Entertainment started avoiding their President Jiang, President Jiang has been like a ticking time bomb, ready to explode at the slightest provocation.
Moreover, President Jiang is never the type to lose his temper; he can always freeze people with his eyes, and his whole aura exudes displeasure.
This made her live in constant fear, as if walking on thin ice.
He was afraid that if he said something wrong, it would remind President Jiang of that President Su.
Wang Sisi jogged over to Jiang Cuo's side and whispered, "President Jiang, it's lunch break now. If you sit here, everyone will feel uncomfortable relaxing."
Jiang Cuo glanced around with her clear, cold phoenix eyes, then said calmly, "I'm not here on the first floor to inspect the work. Everyone relax, do whatever you want, don't worry about me."
Everyone around seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, their bodies completely relaxed.