Chen Xingjian chuckled softly. “Still holding a grudge, are we?”
“How can I not hold a grudge? I make my living entirely off my face,” Lian Que blinked his almond eyes, speaking with a weary lack of energy.
Teasing him intentionally, Chen Xingjian raised an eyebrow and remarked, “What if I wasn’t joking and genuinely thought you were ugly?”
Provoked into a surge of anger, Lian Que crossed his legs and sat straight up on the bed. “If you think I’m ugly, I’ll go get plastic surgery! I’ll go harvest my own ribs to bridge my nose!”
“Alright, I was just teasing you. Couldn’t you even tell?” Glancing at his wristwatch, Chen Xingjian strode quickly out of the hospital room.
Just as he reached the doorway, he paused his steps, turned back around, and instructed Lian Que, “Stop overthinking things. If you were truly ugly, you would’ve been tossed out the door the absolute second you stepped into my room that day.”
That sentence at least sounded human.
Coaxed back into a cheerful mood, Lian Que personally got out of bed to walk Chen Xingjian all the way to the stairwell.
When he returned, a new notification had popped up on his phone.
Lian Que opened his email to check it and discovered that the interview video he had submitted a couple of days ago had yielded results; the notification stated that he was expected to go to Yuanhe the day after tomorrow to participate in the offline selection.
He let out a sigh, then reached up to touch the thick gauze wrapped around his forehead.
In this condition, what selection could he possibly participate in? It was just a shame about that lucrative prize money.
The prize for first place was a full one million yuan, not even counting the endorsement fees that would pour in afterward.
A simple, effortless selection process there was a good chance one-tenth of his ten-million-yuan goal would just land in his lap like that. Who wouldn’t be tempted by a prospect like that?
Upholding the principle of “out of sight, out of mind,” Lian Que directly deleted the notification email.
Inside the old family estate, Bai Yishu sat in the tearoom, watching a round of preliminary-screened contestant videos play on the computer before her.
She was supposed to be looking over this year’s fresh talent, but after the scene Chen Xingjian had caused, Bai Yishu’s mind was long gone from the task, leaving her to rack her brains trying to decipher Chen Xingjian’s words.
“Mother Li, do you think Xingjian has some friend he cares about enough to go to such lengths? Could it be one of those childhood buddies of his?” Bai Yishu felt a throbbing ache in her temples.
Back before the Chen family’s downfall, whatever Chen Xingjian wanted, he got; he had never once lacked for friends by his side.
However, after the Chen family lost its footing and the tree fell with its monkeys scattering, Chen Xingjian’s friends naturally vanished into thin air. The only ones who remained somewhat close by now were likely just those few childhood friends who had worn the same pair of pants growing up.
“You shouldn’t guess wildly. If it really were them, who would ever need to come to a small place like Yuanhe to participate in an open audition? Surely they aren’t after a mere million-dollar prize,” Mother Li smiled as she spoke, seamlessly swapping out the cooled cup of tea for a fresh, warm one.
Thinking about it, Bai Yishu realized that made sense too. Failing to deduce the answer on the spot, she simply returned her attention to the videos.
As she watched, she muttered, “I am definitely not falling into that unfilial wretch’s traps this time. If he really has the guts, and truly aims to anger me to death, let him come head-to-head in a rivalry! Let’s see whose face gets more disgraced once this blows up publicly!”
No one not even her own son was permitted to desecrate her art.
Art was impartial, just as beauty was universal. For any selection process linked to art, there were absolute paths where no back-door favors could ever be walked.
Pulling up a specific video clip from the folder, Bai Yishu paused it on a still frame and zoomed in. “The encouraging news, however, is that there are indeed a few genuinely talented individuals this year especially this one named Lian Que.”
Lian Que beamed with sparkling smiles, looking charmingly well-behaved as he faced the camera. His bright, diurnal almond eyes shifted with a few simple, natural glances, effortlessly pulling everyone’s attention straight onto him.
Gorgeous, eye-catching, and exuding an aura of pure innocence.
Bai Yishu truly didn’t want to deploy any more flowery vocabulary to embellish him, finding it cliché, nor could she manage to pick out a single flaw on that face.
Mother Li leaned in for a quick peek, then smiled and nodded in agreement. “Who’s to say otherwise? Though this kid probably lacks experience and won’t be easy to manage.”
Frowning in suspicion, Bai Yishu turned her head to look at Mother Li.
Before she knew it, Mother Li had fished out a video clip from her phone clearly captured from a staff member’s covert filming perspective, which had somehow leaked onto the internet.
Lian Que wore layered double-strand pearl necklaces around his neck, exposing a pair of exquisite butterfly shoulder blades.
Even through the fuzzy, low-resolution lens, his grace and beauty between every gesture and movement could not be concealed in the slightest.
Lin Yi, a notoriously fastidious and critical photographer, praised him endlessly, practically ready to pluck the stars and moon right out of the sky to serve as background props for Lian Que.
“Pretty he certainly is, but he’s far too eye-catching—he completely steals the spotlight away from the jewelry,” Mother Li remarked.
“That only means the jewelry’s own craftsmanship wasn’t striking enough. If a piece is dazzling enough, nobody could ever steal its thunder,” Bai Yishu retorted, instinctively defending the promising newcomer she had just dug out.
Mother Li smiled and nodded. “Everything you say is right.”
“Awarding first place to a talent like Lian Que is the only way I’d feel satisfied. Anyone else taking it would feel like swallowing a fly.” Replaying Lian Que’s interview video over and over again, Bai Yishu belatedly asked, “Did someone send the email notification to this kid? Has he replied yet?”
“Madam, please don’t make things hard for me. The most I can do is pour you a cup of tea; how would I know how to reply to emails?” Mother Li smiled warmly, seizing the moment while Bai Yishu was in a good mood to exchange some lighthearted banter.
Retrieving her phone, Bai Yishu dialed her secretary directly, but the phone rang several times without anyone picking up on the other end.
“A bunch of good-for-nothings. Another day I’ll go down to the company in person, I refuse to believe they can just bypass me entirely like this.”
In recent years, she had been utterly consumed by art, pouring the majority of her energy into jewelry design, leaving her completely clueless about personnel management and commercial operations.
Back at the start, before her son fell out with her, those people had still exercised some restraint out of respect for Xingjian. But now, the folks below didn’t take her seriously at all, leading to her dwindling influence and voice within the company day by day.
“Madam, in my view, we still can’t avoid asking President Chen to make a trip over, otherwise…” Mother Li let out a sigh, leaving the second half of her sentence hanging in the air.
Wrinkling her brow tightly, Bai Yishu replied, “Let’s talk about that later. Xingjian is openly defying me, and who knows what kind of shady character he’s trying to wedge into my side. Even if I were to fight this alone to my dying breath, I would never go running to him at a time like this.”
Above all else, she needed to thoroughly choke off any thoughts Chen Xingjian had of pulling strings through the back door.