Even so, Lin Zhi couldn't guarantee that she wouldn't soften if Jiang Lai were to be more forceful, especially with Jiang Lai's kisses.
Jiang Lai chuckled, tucked her long hair behind her ear, and affectionately rubbed her small earlobe, whispering, "I'll just hug you, I won't do anything."
"Oh...okay..."
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Author's Note:
I'm asking for your favorites again!
Chapter 24 [Starting with a reverse V]
The night was quiet and still. Lin Zhi nestled in Jiang Lai's arms, completely encircled in her embrace. The milky scent emanating from Jiang Lai filled her nostrils. Because she had used Jiang Lai's shower gel, Lin Zhi felt as if she were soaking in milk.
Neither of them was asleep; their eyes were open.
"Sister Lin, you actually heard everything at noon today, right?"
Jiang Lai hugged Lin Zhi, who stiffened. Jiang Lai sensed this and reassured her, "Don't be nervous, I don't mind."
Lin Zhi sighed, "I heard it, but it sounded like crazy talk."
Why don't you ask her about my relationship with her?
Lin Zhi frowned slightly, thinking to herself: She heard everything, so what else is there to ask?
He thought this in his heart, but didn't say it aloud: "Oh, what's your relationship with me?"
Jiang Lai tightened her grip on her arm, as if afraid the other woman would run away: "She's my ex, five years ago... If I hadn't caught her buying a diamond ring with that man, I might still be in the dark. Sister Lin, you must think I'm ridiculous, right?"
Lin Zhi turned around, looked into her eyes, and said firmly, "No, you are the victim, we are all victims. The ridiculous ones are not us, they are them."
Lin Zhi then realized that she and Jiang Lai were very similar, both having suffered harm, but they were also different. Jiang Lai was young and beautiful, with a complete and vibrant heart, unlike her... who was already riddled with wounds.
Although being with Jiang Lai could temporarily fill the wounds in her heart, she couldn't imprison Jiang Lai forever. It was already a luxury for an eagle soaring between heaven and earth to stop for a moment for someone like her who lived in the deep sea and could not go ashore. When she wanted to leave, she would let her go.
"Are you tired?" Jiang Lai suddenly asked.
Lin Zhi lowered her eyes, avoiding looking at her: "Tired."
From some point onwards, no one asked her if she was tired anymore. Everyone assumed she was made of iron, that she would never say she was tired, and that she would never get tired at all.
The family's livelihood, her younger brother's medical expenses, and the company, plus her father's surgery and medical expenses, made Lin Zhi feel like a mountain was weighing on her shoulders, making it hard for her to breathe. She had long lost her own life and had always lived for others. If there was an afterlife, she would definitely live for herself once.
No longer do I board a plane for business trips, and no longer do I work hard for my family.
Everyone wants to live for themselves, but how many people can actually live only for themselves?
Jiang Lai, are you that kind of person?
Jiang Lai lovingly stroked her cheek, her heart aching. If she had her parents' status and wealth, she would definitely protect Lin Zhi very well. But she was too young now, not even half as good as her parents, and not even as good as Lin Zhi. What was the point of talking about protecting her?
She didn't want to make empty promises to Lin Zhi, so she simply said nothing: "Go to sleep if you're tired."
"good."
With her eyes closed, all was darkness, but thankfully she could feel the warmth of the other person, and Lin Zhi quickly became sleepy.
Half-asleep, Jiang Lai's voice reached my ears: "Can I call you sister?"
Lin Zhi's mind was a little foggy, but she still hummed in agreement.
The person seemed to smile. Lin Zhi didn't know what was so satisfying about that, but she was so sleepy that she couldn't keep her eyes open, otherwise she would have seen the other person's beautiful smile.
The next morning at six o'clock, Jiang Lai's phone alarm went off right on time, and Jiang Lai was jolted awake. The sound seemed to pierce right into her head.
I frantically turned off the alarm, then looked at the person beside me. Great, they weren't awake at all.
Jiang Lai originally wanted to take a nap, but she couldn't fall asleep once she closed her eyes. She glared at the curtains resentfully and vowed to buy an opaque one next time she came back!
She carefully lifted the covers and got out of bed, closed the bedroom door and went to the bathroom to wash up. While brushing her teeth, she browsed Weibo recommendations, spat out a mouthful of toothpaste, and then looked up, a Weibo post caught her eye.
This is a Weibo post from the mother of a boy with leukemia asking for help. Jiang Lai glanced at the post and found that Lin Zhi's name appeared no less than ten times throughout the text.
The content is roughly criticizing Lin Zhi, the vice president of a thriving entertainment company, for refusing to help someone in distress and for being cold and heartless as the older sister when her younger brother is seriously ill.
Although Jiang Lai didn't know their relationship, this woman was clearly using moral blackmail to force Lin Zhi to donate bone marrow!
"Pooh!"
Jiang Lai spat out the toothpaste, quickly rinsed her mouth, hastily washed her face, and left the bathroom without even tying her hair up properly.
Min Xuehua usually wakes up at seven o'clock, but it's only six-thirty now. She was woken up by her daughter's barrage of questions.
Even her fans know about her bad temper when she wakes up; no one dares to disturb Min Xuehua between midnight and 7 a.m. the next day, except for Jiang Lai.
The phone rang for a long time but no one answered, then a second, a third, a fourth...
Min Xuehua's short, curly hair was very messy. She felt like Tom's mother right now. If Jiang Lai were around, she would definitely kick her out of the house like a football.
She answered her daughter's call in a fit of anger, but before she could utter a curse, a "Mom" from the other end of the line stopped her.
The glow of maternal love reminded her that it was her own daughter who had called, not some annoying actor from the film crew.
"What's wrong?" Even so, she was still a little irritable, feeling that losing half an hour of sleep would reduce her precious lifespan by half an hour.
Jiang Lai didn't care about her mother's feelings and forwarded the Weibo screenshot directly: "Look at WeChat, I saw it on Weibo this morning. The number of views and comments is rising. I'm afraid it will blow up and become a trending topic, which will have a bad impact on the company and my sister."
He's pretending to care about the company; he really cares about his sister.
Min Xuehua glanced at it; she didn't need to bother the company's public relations team with such a trivial trick.
She turned on speakerphone and said as she watched, "I didn't expect that even Xiaozhi's small company would have people who are jealous. If I'm not mistaken, some marketing accounts will post about it soon. The company that's targeting you must not be very big, maybe even smaller than yours. This is easy to resolve."
Hearing Min Xuehua say this, she felt relieved: "Mom, what about my brother with leukemia..."
Min Xuehua sighed, wondering where her daughter got this inquisitive habit from.
Glancing at her husband, who was fast asleep and snoring beside her, Min Xuehua was furious. She kicked him off the bed, then got up, put on her slippers, and went downstairs as if nothing had happened.
Jiang Chuanmin got up from the ground, looking completely bewildered: ? ? ?
The aunt was busy in the kitchen. When she saw Min Xuehua come downstairs, she thought it was seven o'clock and hurriedly sped up her work. But when she looked up, it was not yet seven o'clock.
Min Xuehua waved her hand and pointed to the phone. The aunt nodded to indicate that she understood and continued to work in the kitchen.
"Mom, what was that noise just now?" Jiang Lai heard a loud thud and thought her house had collapsed.
"It's okay, your dad fell on the ground, don't worry about him. Tell me about Xiaozhi, do you really want to know?"
Jiang Lai was about to speak when she remembered that Lin Zhi was still sleeping inside, so she went to the balcony: "How could I not want to? I want to know everything about her."
Jiang Lai realized after speaking that the other person was Min Xuehua. Although she was not young, she kept up with the times. Jiang Lai was worried that Min Xuehua would find out, so she tried to explain. But Min Xuehua didn't care at all, or rather, she didn't think there was anything wrong with what she said.
"Then I'll tell you. I won't go into the specifics, but their family dynamics are easy to understand. Her father had an affair when Xiaozhi was young and had a child with her. But Xiaozhi's mother, for some reason, not only refused to divorce him but was also willing to raise the child. They only saw each other a few times a year, but she still gave him a lot of money."
Jiang Lai felt her fist harden.
Min Xuehua continued, "Later, Xiaozhi went to university and worked part-time to earn money to help support her family. After graduation, her family's livelihood depended mainly on her, as did that little boy."
Jiang Lai took a deep breath, afraid she'd die if she didn't get some fresh air: "So, that bitch not only doesn't know how to be grateful, she actually made my sister donate bone marrow? Damn it, is she a cucumber?!"
You deserve a slap!
Min Xuehua doesn't care if her daughter swears, as long as it's not in front of the camera. She herself often swears on set.
"Alright, don't worry about it. Your company's PR team can handle it."
"No, we can't just let this kind of thing that skins people, drinks their blood, and eats their marrow go."
Min Xuehua raised an eyebrow, intrigued: "So what do you want?"
Jiang Lai gripped the balcony railing tightly, as if it would snap at any moment: "That woman and the people behind it want my sister to be cyberbullied, then let them taste what it's like to be cyberbullied."
"Would Xiao Zhi agree?"
"Whether she agrees or not doesn't matter."
"Alright, alright, I'll have my men investigate which company is targeting Xiaozhi."
Ten minutes after the call ended, just as Min Xuehua had guessed, the marketing account posted on Weibo, and Lin Zhi's name quickly became a trending topic.
The comments below kept growing, and the overwhelming moral blackmail was disgusting. Anyone with a brain knows these are paid trolls; who would be browsing Weibo at 7 a.m. and commenting?
Even if they were paid trolls, the insults they used were far too harsh.
Cold-blooded, heartless, you could save a child with just a tiny bit of your bone marrow. You think you're worthy of running a company? You should reincarnate sooner; why wasn't it you who got leukemia...?
The company received the news quickly, but when they called Lin Zhi, she didn't answer because Jiang Lai had the phone.
Jiang Lai forwarded the Weibo post to Nan Moxi, who replied quickly.
[Pay attention to tone]
Nan Moxi knew that the PR team was discussing the matter, and she believed that Lin Zhi's situation could be reversed, so she agreed to let Jiang Lai post a counterattack on Weibo. If things went well, she could even gain some fans. There aren't many artists in the industry who dare to speak out like this.
For example, Qi Chuan did not make any comments.
Jiang Lai immediately edited a Weibo post: [President Lin is not in good health and cannot donate. Why don't you all get checked? There are so many people, surely there will be a match? /smile/]
Jiang Lai wasn't just venting without thinking; she knew things would definitely take a turn for the worse. The people who were behind it would never have imagined that their crimes weren't against the thriving business, but against Min Xuehua, Jiang Yingdi, and the large corporation behind them.
Within half an hour, Min Xuehua sent over all the information, including that of the company that had manipulated things—Chu Yue Entertainment.
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Author's Note:
Lin Zhi: You think you can just say you're not going to do it and then not do it?
Jiang Lai: A woman's heart is like a needle at the bottom of the sea.
Chapter 25
Chu Yue Entertainment was established in the same year as Zhengzheng Rishang, but Zhengzheng Rishang has always been ahead of them. Many good scripts, as long as Lin Zhi is involved, will not be given to them, because they can only give their artists bad dramas.
That mistress has been posting on Weibo for three days in a row. She doesn't have any traffic and doesn't know how to edit, so no one cares. She was seen by Chu Yue's people by chance, which led to this incident this morning. The boss is finished. Let's see how your artists can jump around now.
Just as Chu Yue's boss was leisurely sipping his coffee, things took a turn for the worse.