But Su Chenglan declined. She explained with a smile, "Mom, while I was working at the grassroots level, my colleagues all treated me like an ordinary person, and that actually taught me more than ever before. So I want to take this opportunity to stay at my previous magazine for at least a full year."
Since her daughter had put it that way, Lin Xiwen naturally would not refuse, and she agreed.
Then Su Chenglan turned to Ye Jin. "Sister-in-law, when you and my eldest brother got married, I only met you briefly before going back to school. I never gave you a gift, either."
"Over the years, I've designed some jewelry myself. Although I'm still just an unknown little designer, the gemstones I use are all top quality, and I put a lot of care into every design."
"Of course, if you don't like it, you can always take it to another studio to have it altered."
With that, she opened a blue velvet box beside her, revealing a necklace with a sapphire of nearly ten carats set in the center, surrounded by small diamonds.
Although the designer's technique was still somewhat immature, the piece brimmed with inspiration.
Ye Jin's eyes lit up. Naturally, she liked such a beautiful necklace. Besides, even if it had been a little ugly, she would not have turned up her nose at it with such a huge blue diamond involved!
At the same time, she could not help feeling puzzled.
[Huh, how strange. Why has everyone been giving me belated wedding gifts lately?]
Still, perhaps because one stopped worrying about lice once there were too many, Ye Jin accepted it without putting up much resistance this time.
When Su Chenglan saw Ye Jin accept her gift, the huge stone weighing on her heart finally settled.
Even before she heard Ye Jin's thoughts, there had actually been plenty of suspicious aspects to Hou Yuanwu's behavior. Yet she had ignored them all, as though her mind had been clouded. Only after hearing Ye Jin's thoughts had she felt as if she had been jolted awake and taken a proper look at Hou Yuanwu.
She did not know why, but she knew that the person she ought to thank most was this sister-in-law she had barely interacted with. Her mother had agreed, which was why they had arranged this.
Now that she had swept away the scumbag and repaid the kindness, it was time to work hard on her career.
Ye Jin knew nothing of Su Chenglan's inner journey, but seeing her so full of energy, she too switched into a frenzied mode of working and making money.
The film and television industry was in what could be called a winter slump. There were few good projects, and even fewer that a newly established small company like theirs could invest in.
After some back and forth, Ye Jin turned her attention to variety shows. After all, compared with films and television dramas, variety shows required less investment, had shorter production cycles, and brought in returns sooner.
As it happened, Fruit Video was planning a travel variety show called "Let's Travel Together," inviting celebrities to bring their family members or friends on a trip covering three destinations over ten episodes.
Because it was a slow-paced variety show, it had nowhere near as many attention-grabbing moments as fast-paced shows with intense competition. As a result, its initial buzz was mediocre, and few advertisers were willing to sponsor it.
After reading the proposal, however, Ye Jin felt there was still plenty of money to be made. After all, even couples could easily break up over disagreements while traveling, let alone several celebrities who were strangers to one another, along with their relatives and friends.
In the world of her previous life, a certain travel variety show had achieved only average ratings during its broadcast, but the discussion around it had exploded. Netizens had picked apart every last microexpression from the celebrities, and it had even become a specialized field of "study."
With that level of discussion, the show's advertising revenue had been considerable. Although the early investors could not quite be said to have filled their pots and bowls to overflowing, their returns had still been extremely high.
What Ye Jin had not expected was that Xu Yan would insistently invite her to become one of the guests, too.
Ye Jin's head was full of question marks. She had already left the entertainment industry. Did Xu Yan not know?
With that thought, she explained, "President Xu, I've already left the industry. I don't act or work as a celebrity anymore."
Xu Yan nodded, looking entirely unsurprised, yet said, "Who says everyone on a variety show has to be a celebrity? Plenty of ordinary people and elites from all kinds of industries appear on variety shows these days! A little appropriate publicity and marketing will benefit your company."
She made it sound good, but in reality, she had only one reason for pushing the invitation-following Ye Jin around to eat melons!
After all, with Ye Jin predicting juicy gossip in advance, she could have the production crew prepare ahead of time, too. She had a feeling that with Ye Jin around, their variety show was bound to be exciting.
After some consideration, Ye Jin ultimately agreed. She figured there was nothing major going on lately anyway, so taking a trip on the company dime sounded nice.
Besides, she had invested in this variety show herself. Naturally, she would not refuse a chance to make the show better and earn more money.
As for whom she would invite... Ye Jin could not help turning toward Huo Yun beside her. She felt that making only herself famous was hardly enough. Of course she ought to make more bosses famous!
Just look at how fans and netizens had turned several leading managers in the entertainment industry into memes. Although they were almost always being cursed at, it still gave their companies an enormous boost.
Huo Yun had joined Xu Yan in persuading Ye Jin to appear on the variety show from the start. Apart from the benefits of raising the company's profile, she still felt considerable regret over Ye Jin leaving the entertainment industry.
If appearing on a variety show could rekindle Ye Jin's interest in the entertainment industry, nothing could be better. She simply had not expected the "flames of war" to spread to her.
Huo Yun considered her looks ordinary and did not like life in the spotlight. As a result, despite being an ace manager, she had rarely accepted media interviews over the years.
And now Ye Jin wanted her to appear on a variety show with round-the-clock surveillance and livestreaming? Huo Yun's answer was an emphatic no.
Ye Jin had anticipated Huo Yun's reaction and threatened her with a single sentence.
"If you go, I'll go. If you don't, I won't either!"
Left with no choice, Huo Yun could only steel herself and agree.
Chapter 24
Soon, "Let's Travel Together" officially began filming, and the four groups of guests gathered at the airport.