"Have Wei Min and Diao Si come see me immediately!" Zhou Chu roared in fury.
It wasn't until the next day that Wei Min and Diao Si arrived at the CEO's grand office.
"Diao Si, when I poached you from Ainiushi, I paid five million! Now, just one year later, you're already planning to jump ship?"
After the slapping incident, Zhou Chu and Lin Qinglan had faced constant scrutiny, and having blown two million in a fit of anger yesterday, his mood was less than pleasant, his tone somewhat sharp.
"Yeah, didn't we only sign a one-year contract?" Diao Si said nonchalantly. "Someone offered more than you, so of course I'm leaving. I'm not your indentured servant."
"Who? What company can offer more than Zhou Corporation?" Zhou Chu asked.
"Your ex-girlfriend."
Zhou Chu: "What? Shu Yan? Where would a penniless nobody like her get the money?"
As he said this, he suddenly remembered giving her two million yesterday.
So she'd used his money to poach his company's talent?!
How had he never realized she was this vicious before?
"Fine, fine! So you were all in cahoots together!"
Zhou Chu's face looked like he'd eaten something foul. "Wei Min, you were nothing but a country bumpkin back then. I was the one who recognized your talent and gave you the position you have today. And now you're conspiring with a penniless woman to screw me over?"
Wei Min stared at him, expression calm. "Other than being born with a silver spoon, you can't hold a candle to her. Why would I work for you instead of her? I'm not stupid."
Zhou Chu's face looked like he'd swallowed ten pounds of fertilizer.
This was mutiny! How dare he speak to him like that? Wasn't he afraid of being beaten to death?!
Wei Min immediately added, "Also, I'd advise you not to try anything underhanded, because…"
Having served as Zhou Chu's right-hand man for years, he held many of Zhou Corporation's secrets in his hands. With a flick of his fingers, he could make Zhou Corporation suffer without leaving a trace.
Zhou Chu understood his meaning and twisted his mouth in fury.
But soon, he had no time to stew in his anger.
With the company's two pillars gone, finding replacements was a huge problem. Without Wei Min to offer advice, he was completely in the dark, and his assistant Lin Qinglan couldn't help at all—she depended on him for everything…
He began to recall the days when Shu Yan had arranged everything for him in perfect order.
Meanwhile, Shu Yan had already summoned the System and entered a new plotline.
To obtain the Living Person Transformation Divine Artifact as quickly as possible, the moment Diao Si and Wei Min were called away, Shu Yan returned home and requested a new mission from the System.
This time, the scene was a peach blossom forest, and the System's electronic voice rang out: [Welcome to World 2: "The Spoiling Husband's Concubine Empress." Please review the plotline.]
Shu Yan read the new plotline. Well, same old broken recipe as always.
In the original plot, Yun Xue, the legitimate daughter of the Minister's household, devoted eight years to helping the Third Prince. The moment she became Empress, however, the Third Prince discovered that his true love was actually her half-sister, Yun Xia. Thus, Yun Xue was deposed, and the Third Prince and Yun Xia lived happily ever after.
"This plotline—I've read a dozen just like it on the Garlic Free Novel app."
The System said: [Paws together.]
[The current plot time is the year Yun Xue turns 14. Our mission is to save Yun Xue.]
[Mission 1: Prevent Yun Xue from falling in love with the Third Prince. Merit Points +10. Mission 2: Make the Third Prince and Yun Xia hate each other and lock them together forever. Merit Points +10.]
[Mission 3: Prevent the Third Prince from ascending the throne and give him a miserable ending. Merit Points +10. Upon completing all missions, an additional Merit Points reward of +20 will be granted.]
[Plotline can be modified three times daily, with a limit of two characters per edit. Assigned character: maidservant Bai Que.]
Shu Yan lowered her head. Unsurprisingly, she had been dressed in a maidservant's attire again.
"Bai Que, hurry, there are so many peach blossoms over here!" a bright voice rang out. "Yun Xia was right—the peach blossom grove north of the temple is truly gorgeous."
Shu Yan looked up. Blossoms covered the mountains in every direction, like mist, like a sea—the green hills and wild fields all draped in pink. It was indeed breathtakingly beautiful.
If only this weren't the starting point of Miss Yun's lifelong tragedy.
According to the original plotline, the eldest Miss Yun, Yun Xue, was supposed to meet the Third Prince in this very peach blossom grove.
At the time, the second Miss Yun, Yun Xia, had conspired with the Third Prince, tricking Yun Xue into visiting the grove. Once Yun Xue entered, a gang of ruffians would leap out and rob her.
Then the Third Prince would appear, "rescuing the damsel in distress," and Yun Xue would fall in love with him at first sight.
Afterward, Yun Xia kept singing the Third Prince's praises in her ear, causing Yun Xue to sink deeper and deeper into devotion. She would painstakingly support his rise to power, only to have Yun Xia snatch away the position of Empress and cast her into the cold palace.
Though Yun Xia never killed her, Yun Xue's life was still ruined.
Shu Yan walked up to Yun Xue, about to speak, when a commotion stirred in the grove.
["Stop right there!" A gang of ruffians leaped out from the woods, drawing their broadswords: "This is a robbery! Don't move!"]
Shu Yan changed "leaped" to "rolled" and changed "drawing" to "throwing."
The plotline shifted instantly, and Shu Yan breathed a sigh of relief.
It seemed that as long as it was within a single plotline, modifying two non-adjacent characters was permissible.
"Stop right there!" the gang of ruffians roared fiercely.
Yun Xue was startled. "Who are you?"
The ruffians were about to speak when, all at once, they dropped to their knees and began rolling about ferociously.
Yun Xue: "?"
Yun Xue stared at them, dumbfounded.
Roll, roll, roll. Roll, roll, roll.
Half an hour later, the ruffians finally rolled to a stop before Yun Xue, stood up, brushed the dirt from their clothes, and looked utterly bewildered.
What had they just done?
Never mind that—the robbery came first.
The ruffians viciously drew their swords and hurled them far away. "This is a robbery! Don't move!"
Yun Xue: "?"
Ruffians: "?"
"Quick, pick up the swords now!" Shu Yan shouted.
Several matrons from the Yun household rushed forward and snatched the swords into their hands.
The now weaponless ruffians: "…"
"Boss, are we still robbing them?"
The boss: "…"
Hidden in the grove, the Third Prince was so furious he wanted to hit someone.
He had sent these men to commit a robbery, not to put on a farce. What in the world were they doing?
With no other choice, the Third Prince had to step out and force the scene to play out.
He emerged from the grove, robed in white like a heavenly deity, and bellowed, "Stop! What are you doing?"
[The ruffians received the Third Prince's meaningful glance and had no choice but to recite their original lines: "Th-Third Prince, Your Highness? Your Highness, spare us!"]
["Your Highness, spare us! Miss, spare us! We merely found the miss so beautiful and alluring that we couldn't restrain ourselves, and so we couldn't help but make this mistake!"]
Shu Yan changed the second "miss" to "Your Highness."
The ruffians immediately turned to the Third Prince: "Th-Third Prince, Your Highness? Your Highness, spare us!"
"Your Highness, spare us! Miss, spare us! We merely found Your Highness so beautiful and alluring that we couldn't restrain ourselves, and so we couldn't help but make this mistake!"
Even the Third Prince was left speechless by them.
…?
He was beautiful and alluring? Had these people lost their minds?!
The thugs saw the fury on the Third Prince's face and the shock on Yun Xue's, and finally realized just how enormous a mistake they had made.
What was going on?
How had they ended up calling him "Your Highness"?
Could it be that this was what they truly thought in their hearts?
The thugs sank into deep self-doubt.
"Your Highness!" The thug leader tried to steer things back on track, but no sooner had he uttered those two words than the Third Prince caught sight of his pockmarked face and felt a wave of nausea.
[The Third Prince delivered a vicious slap: "How dare you! You've insulted both Miss Yun and myself—I will now see justice done for Miss Yun! Guards, drag them away! I will punish them severely!"]
Shu Yan smirked lewdly, changing "slap" to "lick" and "drag" to "embrace."