Several small-time investors were instantly stunned. They had no idea how they had offered Jiang Mingcheng, but they didn’t ask. They exchanged bewildered glances, unsure of what to do.
“Wang Jing, I don’t want to see these flies here.”
Jiang Mingcheng merely glanced at Wang Jing, who immediately understood. Smiling, he walked over to Investor Zhao and the others, his tone extremely gentle. “If you would. Please, you flies, ah, I mean, you bosses, head back for now.”
Investor Zhao and the others wanted to explain, but after looking at Jiang Mingcheng’s ice-cold face and the burly bodyguards standing behind him, they could only swallow their words and slink away in disgrace.
Jiang Mingcheng’s gaze swept across the crowd and landed on He Yan, his heart filled with concern.
He had arrived late, causing her to suffer grievances.
He Yan looked up and gave him a grateful smile.
When Jiang Mingcheng met He Yan’s eyes, he quickly averted his gaze, turning instead to Director Shen beside him. “Rest assured, Director Shen. For every share they withdraw, Shengwan Films will cover.”
Director Shen naturally trusted Jiang Mingcheng. When the renowned Shengwan Films first approached him, they had proposed full investment. However, since some investors had already made contact, they only ended up covering the remaining majority of the funds.
Shengwan Films certainly had that capability.
Director Shen actually felt a bit embarrassed. During the last dinner meeting with the Shengwan Films investors, he could tell Jiang Mingcheng intended to look after He Yan. Yet he had failed to protect her, and he truly felt ashamed.
Unsure of what to do during a set visit as an investor, Jiang Mingcheng first sat down in a chair provided by the crew to watch them film.
The crew resumed their normal shooting schedule. Some female crew members kept stealing glances at Jiang Mingcheng, their hearts fluttering.
“Oh my god, that President Jiang is way too handsome! He was so cool just now!”
“I thought all investors were fat, greasy types like Investor Zhao. If they all looked like President Jiang, sign me up!”
“Don’t talk nonsense. Look at him, with that aloof and refined air. Do you think you could land someone like that?”
“Aloof and refined or not, he’s still a man with normal needs, right!”
Fang Wan, standing nearby, overheard all their comments.
So, she had guessed wrong. This Jiang Mingcheng was the one who could truly command the winds and rains.
He seemed a bit cold, but men, well, they were all unable to resist women who threw themselves at them.
Besides, the colder and more indifferent a man like this was, the more intensely passionate he became once he fell in love.
Meanwhile, He Yan was earnestly filming a scene with Su An’an. With Jiang Mingcheng present, no one dared to have any ill intentions.
The scene went smoothly. After finishing, He Yan prepared to change her costume for the next scene.
Jiang Mingcheng watched He Yan walk past his line of sight and exit through a doorway.
He stood up, unconsciously wanting to follow and see where she went.
Fang Wan, who had been observing Jiang Mingcheng closely, saw him rise and assumed he was leaving. Not wanting to miss this opportunity, she quickly approached him, pretending to twist her ankle and letting her body fall straight towards him.
Jiang Mingcheng frowned, stepped aside, and dodged.
Wang Jing, standing by, quickly stepped forward to help Fang Wan, who had hit the ground quite hard.
“Please be more careful, miss.” Wang Jing couldn’t help but find it amusing. He knew his boss’s temperament well, he absolutely detested people with ulterior motives and never engaged in physical contact with women.
These young ladies really were barking up the wrong tree.
Fang Wan really fell hard, wincing in pain, yet she still forced a smile at Jiang Mingcheng and said, “Sorry, President Jiang, I almost bumped into you.”
Jiang Mingcheng saw through Fang Wan’s intentions at a glance. Frowning, he tossed a “You handle it” to Wang Jing and then walked straight towards the exit He Yan had just used, following her out.
Jiang Mingcheng walked down the corridor. He could no longer see He Yan and didn’t know which room she was in. He also didn’t know why he had come looking for her.
Click—
Jiang Mingcheng stopped in his tracks, watching as the door in front of him slowly opened. He Yan walked out from inside, wearing a nude-pink dress.
He Yan stared at him blankly for a few seconds before finally reacting: “What are you doing here?”
Suddenly, a commotion arose not far away. A group of journalists were rushing towards the film set.
“Hurry, hurry, hurry! The president of the Shengfeng Group is visiting the set! Quick, go see if there’s any gossip to dig up!”
“If we can’t dig up anything on President Jiang, finding something else will do!”
Startled, He Yan instinctively grabbed Jiang Mingcheng’s arm and pulled him into the room she had just come out of. She closed the door and quietly listened to the commotion outside.
The lights in the room were off, and the curtains were tightly drawn because He Yan had been changing clothes just moments before.
It was pitch black.
In the panic, He Yan didn’t realize how close they were to each other, focusing solely on the sounds outside the door.
She was only afraid that rumors about the two of them would spread.
Meanwhile, Jiang Mingcheng’s heart felt like it was about to leap out of his chest.
The young woman was still holding his arm with one hand, while her other hand rested lightly against his side. Half of her body was almost pressed against his chest.
She wasn’t tall, her face almost buried against his chest.
They weren’t touching, but he could feel her warm breath. A faint, sweet fragrance slowly began to envelop him.
Jiang Mingcheng felt his heart was no longer under his control.
Hearing that the commotion outside had died down, He Yan finally breathed a sigh of relief. Only then did she remember she was still holding onto Jiang Mingcheng. She quickly let go of his arm and turned on the light.
Snap—
The light came on. He Yan looked up at Jiang Mingcheng and gave a playful smile: “The reporters are probably on set by now. You go out first. I’ll leave in a little while.”
After she finished speaking, she noticed Jiang Mingcheng’s clothes were slightly disheveled.
She couldn’t help but chuckle: “Sorry about that, I messed up your clothes.”
Only then did Jiang Mingcheng look down at his own clothes.
It had been too chaotic just now. When He Yan grabbed him, the shirt underneath was a little rumpled.
He had never experienced a moment like this; his clothes were always supposed to be perfectly neat and clean.
But he wasn’t angry at all. In fact, he felt that this trace of disorder touched something soft deep in his heart.
He didn’t mind this young woman messing up his clothes.
Jiang Mingcheng lowered his eyes to look at He Yan. She had just changed into that nude-pink dress. Her small face was delicate and fair, tinged with just a hint of pink.
Exceedingly beautiful.
Jiang Mingcheng averted his gaze, suppressing the abnormal beating of his heart. He gave a slight nod, his voice still cool and distant: “Mm, I’ll go out first.”
But if you listened closely, there seemed to be a trace of panic within it.
He Yan didn’t notice these subtle details. Just as Jiang Mingcheng’s foot stepped out the door, she suddenly remembered something and said, “Thank you for today!”
Walking out with his back to her, Jiang Mingcheng smiled softly.
Jiang Mingcheng returned directly to the set. When the group of entertainment reporters saw him, they all rushed over in a flurry.
Jiang Mingcheng’s expression had already returned to normal, calmly facing the reporters’ interviews.
But his secretary, Wang Jing, could tell that his boss was in a good mood. Also, the boss’s clothes seemed a bit rumpled.
For anyone else, such a slight disarray wouldn’t matter, but Wang Jing had been with Jiang Mingcheng for a long time. He knew Jiang Mingcheng had extremely high demands for the neatness of his clothes.
Connecting this with the fact that his boss and He Yan had just gone in the same direction, Wang Jing curved his lips into a knowing, almost maternal smile.
Su An’an, resting off to the side, had been observing Jiang Mingcheng for a while.
She had long ago investigated Jiang Mingcheng’s background. He and Pei Yanchuan were both among the nation’s top-tier wealthy young men.
But Jiang Mingcheng was too aloof, completely uninterested in women, and since she had no connection with him, she hadn’t considered him a target.
However, he was, after all, the power holder of the Shengfeng Group. Now that there was a slight connection, getting to know him couldn’t hurt.
She wouldn’t be as foolish as Fang Wan, using clumsy tactics with no backup plan.
After the reporters had been interviewing for a while, Wang Jing stepped forward to stop them. After all, they were entertainment reporters who liked to write whatever they wanted. The less said, the better.
Jiang Mingcheng saw He Yan return and sit down on a stool next to the monitor. He couldn’t help himself and walked over.
As soon as he got close, He Yan shot him a glare.
It clearly meant: Don’t you dare talk to me. If we get photographed and they write nonsense, I’ll fight you!
Jiang Mingcheng slightly averted his gaze, smoothly changing his angle, and circled around behind the monitor, pretending to look at it.
“President Jiang, have you watched filming before?” Su An’an had somehow also appeared behind the monitor, speaking as if casually.
“Mm.” Jiang Mingcheng replied coldly.
“So, President Jiang, do you find filming interesting?” Su An’an’s expression was extremely gentle.
Jiang Mingcheng thought back to the scene of He Yan acting he had just witnessed. The young woman played a spoiled character, her gaze lively and very cute.
“Mm, interesting.” Jiang Mingcheng’s tone finally softened a little.
Jiang Mingcheng didn’t stay long. His schedule was packed, so after watching He Yan film a few more scenes, he left.
The entertainment media, who had been hoping to dig up gossip all along, could no longer contain their excitement once Jiang Mingcheng was gone.
They had taken several photos of Jiang Mingcheng and Su An’an talking earlier. One must know that this head of the Shengfeng Group had never been photographed in a scandal before; entertainment reporters simply couldn’t get close to him.
Regardless of whether Jiang Mingcheng and Su An’an were involved, just by releasing those photos with a couple of ambiguous sentences, they could cause a huge stir.
That evening, several entertainment outlets finished writing their articles, paired them with the telephoto shots, and posted them online.
As expected, once the photos were released, combined with the deliberate insinuations, the topic’s popularity kept rising. A beautiful actress from the entertainment circle plus a big shot from the business world – the potential for speculation was immense!
But ten minutes later, all the news suddenly vanished. The staff members who had been working on it were stunned. They furiously refreshed the pages, but the news articles were nowhere to be found.
Just as they were preparing to repost the news, their phones rang.
The heads of several entertainment media outlets berated everyone involved in orchestrating that scandal, from the editors who released it to the reviewers. They were all fired.
After handling everything, they cautiously sent an apology and a report of the outcome to Jiang Mingcheng’s side.
Jiang Mingcheng listened coldly to Wang Jing’s report and nodded.
Wang Jing suddenly chuckled and said, “The rumors circulating online have all been taken down. However, there’s one post by a netizen that has gained some limited traction. I’m not sure if it should be deleted. Would you like to take a look?”
“Just delete it directly, no need to ask me.” As Jiang Mingcheng spoke, Wang Jing had already placed his phone in front of him.
Jiang Mingcheng’s eyelashes fluttered slightly.
The Weibo post was from a blogger with a few thousand followers. She had posted that telephoto shot, but only cropped out He Yan and Jiang Mingcheng.
The caption read: Ahhh, is there anyone else like me who thinks these two have amazing chemistry! The domineering CEO and his little wife, or what!
Jiang Mingcheng opened the comments:
[Damn! What kind of cultish ship is this? Oh wow, it’s actually good!]
[Haha I’m already starting to imagine it!]
[Blogger be careful, everyone reposting don’t use their real names, remember to keep it in our lane!!]
[Understood! We’ll ship them secretly!]
Jiang Mingcheng handed the phone back to Wang Jing: “No need to delete it. The impact is minimal.”
Wang Jing nodded and turned to leave the office, revealing a gratified, motherly smile.
**