Page 45

"Shi Jihan—!" Zhou Jingcheng shoved the door open.

And caught a colorful paint bucket flying straight at him.

The photographer, still diligently working, instinctively pressed the shutter and captured the moment.

Rainbow candy crashing into black coffee XD

"President Zhou, you finally came! I missed you so much!" Without another word, Shi Jihan wrapped his arms around Zhou Jingcheng's waist, rubbing his head against Zhou Jingcheng's chest again and again and again. He squeezed out a tear with all his might. "How was I supposed to live without you?"

"How was you supposed to live?" Zhou Jingcheng lifted the evil cow-cat out of his arms, gritting his back teeth. "Aren't you living just fine?"

Shi Jihan looked bashful. "How can you be so shallow? You only see the outward appearance of me being alive, yet you can't see through to the pain in my heart."

Zhou Jingcheng said, "? If you really have that need, go get an X-ray at the hospital. They'll see right through you inside and out. They might even find some bony beauty."

Also, "...Stop rubbing against me while hugging me."

He tried to pull Shi Jihan away, but Shi Jihan, afraid Zhou Jingcheng would suddenly retaliate, refused to let go. The moment he broke free, he hugged him again. "No! Every minute and every second away from you torments my heart!"

Zhou Jingcheng's hand froze in midair, at a loss. After a long moment, he clenched his fist against his lips and coughed, the tips of his ears turning red.

There were people watching.

A staff member quietly interrupted, "You two, this is your son, son, uh..." No matter what, he just couldn't call Zhou Jingcheng's son.

Shi Jihan had an idea. He released Zhou Jingcheng and nudged Pizza forward. "Here's the thing. My dog acted bravely and saved Xiao Zhou. Moved by this, Xiao Zhou swore brotherhood with him. They became sworn brothers born of different fathers and mothers, so I moved up a generation and became Xiao Zhou's, ah, um, that."

He didn't dare say it to his face either.

But even the part he had said was outrageous enough.

The staff member looked as though he had been injected with wrinkle-removing Botox, his cerebral cortex suddenly smoothing out. He reflexively said, "All right, then congratulations on this father-son reunion."

[Ding, Malice Points +9]

Shi Jihan heard the sound of teeth grinding above his head.

He hunched his shoulders, pitiful, weak, and innocent—

—while being a father.

After the two left the service center, Shi Jihan led Pizza along and followed closely behind Zhou Jingcheng, obedient as could be.

Zhou Jingcheng walked ahead. As he walked, he said something.

Shi Jihan didn't catch it. "Huh? What did you say?"

The person ahead suddenly stopped, and Shi Jihan crashed into him before he could react.

Zhou Jingcheng turned to look at him, his shadow stretched long by the moonlight. "I said, why did you keep hugging me just now instead of letting go?"

Shi Jihan immediately felt guilty. He looked left and right, anywhere but at Zhou Jingcheng. "Well, that, um... ah..."

The little person in his heart bashed its head against the ground and screamed for help: [It's over, it's over, it's over! He's settling accounts after the fact!]

Zero-Zero-Zero wanted to say something in its host's defense, only to realize it had no idea what to say.

All it could say was, serves you right.

After waiting for ages and seeing that Shi Jihan couldn't explain himself, Zhou Jingcheng spoke for him. "Shi Jihan, I see you as a younger brother."

Shi Jihan looked blank. "Huh? Oh..."

He asked Zero-Zero-Zero in his mind: [What does that mean? He isn't going to settle the score with me?]

Zero-Zero-Zero put its Higher-Dimensional Machine Intelligence to work and thought it over. [It means you and Zhou Zeyang hold the same place in his heart.]

Shi Jihan was furious. [What? Isn't that an insult?]

Zhou Jingcheng saw him lower his head, seemingly lost in thought. After a pause, he still said it. "You see me as an older brother, or a friend too, right?"

Shi Jihan immediately seized the chance to snap back, unwilling to lose out. "What else would I see you as? Father and son?"

Zhou Jingcheng said, "..."

Zhou Jingcheng's head began to ache. "Why can't I ever have a serious conversation with you?"

Shi Jihan pressed his advantage. "Do you have some misunderstanding about your own positioning? You're not that serious either."

Deadly repressed flirt, peacock man, Dianjia Bro, nyeh nyeh nyeh.

Zhou Jingcheng took a deep breath, finally unable to endure it any longer. "...Anyway, that's how it is. That's all I have to say."

Watching his back as he turned and left, Shi Jihan bragged to Zero-Zero-Zero: [That's it? He wanted to scold me? Hahaha, didn't I still win?]

Little Dianjia Bro, utterly vulnerable.

He hadn't won their argument. He was probably going to get so mad he'd wake up in the middle of the night to replay it all.

He tugged the leash in front of him. "Come on, Pizza. Let's go pop balloons and win the grand prize!"

They still hadn't finished filming the material. They couldn't forget this side task.

Whether Zhou Jingcheng got up in the middle of the night was unknown, but the photographer stayed up all night, endlessly editing and beautifying Pizza's photos.

After sending all the retouched pictures to his client, he collapsed into bed and slept.

Even his dreams were about kissing a dog.

When Shi Jihan woke at noon, he happily saw all the photos. Very satisfied, he sent the remaining payment to the photographer.

"So many?" He swiped randomly with his finger and couldn't even finish scrolling through them.

One photo was rather special, sent separately by the photographer. It was the one from the service center, where he had thrown himself at Zhou Jingcheng.

Shi Jihan zoomed in on himself, examined it carefully, and savored it in detail, his eyes full of admiration for himself. "My outfit is so fashionable. Look at these legs—white and straight. Look at this smile—so charming. Oh my god, I even showed a bit of my waist. Tsk tsk, so slim."

Zero-Zero-Zero could barely stand listening anymore. It really wanted to know whether other hosts were just as shameless.

Admiring himself wasn't enough for Shi Jihan, so he sent it to Zhou Jingcheng too and asked him to admire it together.

Zhou Jingcheng might have been busy, because he didn't reply.

Shi Jihan didn't care. He got down to business, merged all the photos except that one, and anonymously sent them to Shi Zhongye's email: [Why did Shen Qinghuai conceal his sexual orientation and marry Shi Bochuan? Click to uncover a shocking secret!]

Shi Jihan waited for ages, but Shi Zhongye didn't reply, nor did he hear the task-completion notification.

"Why is no one looking at their phones?" He grumbled and pointed at the screen.

At that moment, at Universal Company's president's office.

Zhou Jingcheng was handling the company's crisis PR.

Meanwhile, Shi Zhongye sat in Zhou Jingcheng's office with his legs crossed like an uncle, watching him rush about.

Zhou Jingcheng had no time whatsoever to deal with this old friend who had come begging for food from him again. Pei Mingxuan had thoroughly annoyed him.

He had thought Pei Mingxuan's recent quietness meant he had behaved after being warned. Who would have thought he had merely been quietly preparing to cause even greater trouble?

Since last night, scandals about Universal Company had been continuously surfacing online. The timing had deliberately been set in the early hours, and before Universal's PR department could react, the situation had already fermented.

Shi Zhongye looked through the trending topics and read them out one by one to Zhou Jingcheng. "Signing yin-yang contracts with artists to launder money? Blacklisting uncooperative minor artists and threatening them into attending dinner gatherings? Manipulating public opinion, running black PR campaigns, and abusing fans? Signing exploitative contracts that bind artists for life? Zhou Jingcheng, your company is pretty lively."

The president's office was filled with senior management. Hearing Shi Zhongye's teasing, they all broke out in cold sweat, thinking, Please say less, sir.

The claims were naturally all fabricated, but Pei Mingxuan had been deeply immersed in the entertainment industry for years and knew best how to manipulate public opinion. Moreover, Universal's competitor Wang Chengbiao was pulling strings behind the scenes. Wang Chengbiao had long ago poached Pei Mingxuan, and the two had colluded in secret, catching Universal completely off guard.

The internet was now in a bloody uproar, as though people wanted to cut Universal and Zhou Jingcheng into a thousand pieces.

Zhou Jingcheng remained calm, issuing orders one after another.

"Legal Department, immediately pull the breach-of-contract clauses and confidentiality agreements from the artist contracts. Send a lawyer's letter demanding compensation."

"Apply for a court injunction at the same time. Freeze Pei Mingxuan's bank accounts and restrict his commercial activities. He is not to profit from company resources any further."

"Marketing Department, send risk notices to the brands still working with him, along with evidence of Pei Mingxuan's breach of contract. They won't dare use an artist involved in a contractual dispute."

"PR Department, contact trusted media outlets and leak the news that Pei Mingxuan privately contacted competing companies and seriously violated the spirit of his contract. Our company will definitely hold him accountable."

"Tax Department, investigate Pei Mingxuan's tax issues. He probably took private jobs behind the company's back too, didn't he? Look into all of it. Send the evidence to Wang Chengbiao and let him see what kind of hot potato he plans to take on."

For every order Zhou Jingcheng gave, the executives beneath him hurriedly noted it down, already contacting their departments to take action.

After receiving so many clear and logically rigorous instructions, the senior executives felt as though they had taken a calming pill. None of them retained the anxiety they had felt upon first hearing the news. Instead, they were fired up and rubbing their hands together, ready for a major fight.

This was their President Zhou. This was real business warfare!

Come on, a new storm had appeared—how could they stop moving forward!

"Also, transfer all the luxury endorsements originally arranged for him to other artists." After speaking, Zhou Jingcheng glanced at Shi Zhongye. "Especially Xiao Yuan. He just signed with our company, so we need to establish trust with him. Ask him first."

At the mention of that name, Shi Zhongye abruptly sat upright, his expression strange.

Secretary Sun was currently following the latest developments online in real time. He didn't know what he had seen, but a subtle expression appeared on his face. He looked at the webpage, then at Zhou Jingcheng, then back at the webpage, repeating this several times.

Zhou Jingcheng noticed. He took a sip of water to moisten his throat and said, "Secretary Sun, do you have something to add? Speak."

Secretary Sun weakly raised his hand. "Boss, does this count as dirt on you? Should we contact the video uploader and have it taken down too?"

"If it's a rumor, of course it needs to be removed. Send a lawyer's letter and hold them accountable too." Zhou Jingcheng couldn't understand how Secretary Sun, who had been with him for so many years, could ask such a stupid question. He took the tablet from Secretary Sun's hand to see what video it was.

At first glance, he saw the disheveled figures of two people frantically chasing after Beagle through the amusement park, one behind the other.

Smack!

The tablet was swiftly flipped face-down onto the desk. Ignoring the curious looks from the executives, Zhou Jingcheng forcibly kept calm and said, "We'll discuss this one later. Meeting adjourned."

The executives didn't question it in the slightest and quickly left the office.

The entire company's organizational structure began operating efficiently and orderly in response to this PR crisis.