“I’ve already promised someone else before this.”
“Who?” Jun Pan stared at her with wide eyes, unable to believe that the moment she set her sights on someone, they had already been poached from right under her nose!
“Another artist from Universal Movies & Media, just like you—Bai Xiu.”
“Oh, him.”
“You know him?”
Universal Movies & Media had so many artists under its wing, and the TV drama Bai Xiu had just wrapped up filming hadn’t even aired yet. Lately, he was merely building up hype through a few variety shows, so his fame wasn’t particularly high for the time being.
“I know him. He offers a smile to everyone he sees, but he never says more than a couple of words to anyone—his personality is way too cold.”
“Is that so?”
Su Mu hadn’t seen Bai Xiu in quite a long time and didn’t know much about his situation.
“Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to find someone else then. Goodbye, Sister Su!”
The two of them had arrived at the car. Su Mu refrained from saying more; after bidding farewell to Jun Pan, she returned straight to the company.
There were still a mountain of affairs waiting to be handled at the office.
It would be best if Shen Yeyi indeed had a hidden ace up his sleeve—it was high time the Su Corporation underwent a complete blood replacement as well.
In the blink of an eye, another ten days slipped by. News finally broke that the land plot acquired by the Shen Corporation had major issues.
In an instant, the Shen Corporation’s stock prices took a massive nosedive.
At this time, rumors also circulated that the banks had denied the Shen Corporation’s loan applications, causing their capital chain to snap entirely.
The second this news broke, the Shen Corporation’s stock price immediately hit the daily limit down.
For three consecutive days, the stock hit the lower limit, yet the Shen Corporation issued zero explanations. Driven by sheer panic, shareholders engaged in a frenzy of panic-selling.
Su Mu seized the opportunity to operate behind the scenes, intending to take advantage of the chaos to buy out the Shen Corporation along with the original Zhao Corporation assets. Watching everything unfold,尹文博 (Yin Wenbo) felt an increasingly terrible foreboding in his heart.
He wanted to persuade Su Mu to stop her hand, yet no matter how he tried, he couldn’t dissuade her. Several directors of the Su Corporation were even overwhelmingly in favor of this move, pouring massive waves of capital into the market.
However, just one week later, the tide abruptly turned. The Shen Corporation—which had been on the verge of declaring bankruptcy—suddenly pulled off a dramatic turnaround.
As it turned out, the Shen Corporation had specifically hired a cultural relics exploration company to conduct a survey of the land. The surveying unit issued a formal report: although it was indeed an ancient tomb complex, it was not an important one and possessed very little archaeological value.
The Shen Corporation had already submitted a report to the government to register the subsequent development process. After inspecting the site, the cultural relics protection department likewise deemed it to hold little value; the excavation could be completed in a few months at most. Once finished, the land could resume development, and surrounding municipal amenities would follow suit.
The Shen Corporation’s crisis evaporated in an instant. At the same time, rumors leaked from government departments that they intended to negotiate a major partnership with the Shen Corporation. Once finalized, no one in A City would be able to suppress the Shen Corporation any longer…
Overnight, the Shen Corporation’s stock prices skyrocketed once more. Banks beat a path to their door, eagerly offering the very loans they had previously denied on silver platters.
Yet while the Shen Corporation rose like a rising tide, the Su Corporation’s liquid capital became firmly trapped.
Due to their earlier aggressive push to suppress the Shen Corporation, the Su Corporation’s circulating funds were now completely bound up.
Normally, trapped funds wouldn’t have posed a fatal problem for the Su Corporation, but no one expected that a high-ranking executive within the company would suddenly turn traitor at this exact moment—defecting directly to the Shen Corporation and leaking several confidential documents belonging to the Su Corporation.
Yet even though the police were called to investigate, no definitive evidence could ultimately be uncovered.
Even with such glaringly obvious clues, the investigation hit a dead end once it reached the influential contacts higher up.
Right on the heels of this, another high-level executive at the Su Corporation was abruptly exposed for embezzling public funds and engaging in all sorts of illicit, dirty dealings…
The company’s upper management suspected that Su Mu was behind the exposure. However, doing so dragged the entire company down into the scandal. The board of directors erupted into chaotic arguments, yet whenever they contacted the Chairman, he still insisted on letting Su Mu take full responsibility.
Watching the Su Corporation’s stock prices plummet day after day, other retail investors were terrified into panic-selling their shares as well, causing the stock to tumble even faster.
Even though the company spent vast sums of money, they still couldn’t stabilize the falling stock prices.
Seeing that even the board of directors was powerless to halt the decline, several high-ranking executives secretly sold off their own shares in private.
The Su Corporation’s current predicament mirrored the exact trajectory previously experienced by both the Shen Corporation and the Zhao Corporation.
It was merely that a minor issue had been ignited by an outsider, sparking the present crisis, coupled with Shen Yeyi acting as a puppet master in the shadows.
Several of the Su Corporation’s existing business contracts and partnerships were snatched away by Shen Yeyi using all kinds of ruthless tactics.
Su Mu watched all of this with cold eyes, feeling that Shen Yeyi was growing increasingly bizarre—as though… he possessed precognition.
“Vice President, many high-ranking executives in the company have submitted their resignation letters. Please, let’s request the Chairman to come back.”
During this period, Yin Wenbo was so beside himself with anxiety that mouth sores were practically breaking out. He had no idea what was going on with the President—aside from issuing standard corporate orders, he hadn’t shown the slightest intention of injecting capital.
Moreover, every single order issued down by the President was either intercepted by the Vice President or shot down by the board of directors.
Yin Wenbo was driven nearly insane with anxiety.
“No need. I hold full authority over these affairs; you just focus on your own duties.”
Su Mu didn’t even raise her head.
The timing isn’t right yet—there’s no rush.
Seeing Su Mu act like this, Yin Wenbo grew so frantic that anger flared inside him, prompting him to call the President once again.
In Country M.
Dressed in a sharp black suit, Su Chen sat behind his executive desk, the computer screen before him displaying every piece of data regarding the Su Corporation.
Staring at the information on the screen, a dark, inscrutable glint flickered in Su Chen’s deep, perceptive eyes.
His phone rang. Facing Yin Wenbo’s anxious, flustered tone, Su Chen pondered for a moment before replying with a voice that remained cold and detached, laced with a hint of dissatisfaction.
“Having stayed at the Su Corporation for so long, where has your vigilance gone?”
“P-President?”
Yin Wenbo’s breathing hitched, the anxiety on his face giving way to sheer apprehension.
“Go take a good, thorough look at what Su Mu has actually been doing lately. Certain matters shouldn’t be judged purely by what your eyes see—she is playing a massive game of chess behind the scenes.”
Yin Wenbo: “…”
So… what on earth had he missed???
And why did the President sound so icy and distant whenever he spoke about the Vice President?
“President… did you and the Vice President get into a fight?”
Even though this matter had nothing to do with him, Yin Wenbo still gritted his teeth and mustered the courage to ask.
Previously, the interactions between the President and the Vice President had been so harmonious.
“Su Mu and I… were close?”
On the other end of the line, Su Chen’s hands paused in their motion, his brows knitting tightly together.
Why was he unaware of this?
What on earth had happened? Why was he completely in the dark?
Hearing his boss ask such a question, Yin Wenbo was stunned.
How was he supposed to know whether he and the Vice President were close?!
Why was the person involved coming to ask him?!
Yet recalling the seemingly random, out-of-context questions the Vice President had asked him a few days ago, Yin Wenbo suddenly felt…
Something about this situation was terribly off.
“After you returned to the country, your relationship with the Vice President… was indeed very good,” Yin Wenbo paused briefly before speaking truthfully. At the very least, he had caught smiles on the President’s usually stoic face numerous times—always when he was together with the Vice President.
Not only that, whenever he looked at the Vice President, the tenderness in his eyes practically overflowed, making it impossible for a single dog like him to ignore.
“Aside from… teaching her company affairs… what else was there between us?”
Su Chen pressed his lips into a tight line. Why were his memories of that period so hazy—to the point where he could only recall brief, scattered fragments, while everything else eluded him completely?
Su Chen pinched the space between his brows, an intense restlessness rising within his chest.
He felt as though he had forgotten something vital.
“As for other things, there doesn’t seem to be much else…”
After all, as an outsider, he couldn’t exactly hover around them all the time. So how could he possibly know what had transpired between the two of them?
“I understand. Once I wrap up affairs on this end, I will hurry back as soon as possible. As for the Su Corporation’s matters, just follow the arrangements from above. If something truly goes wrong in the end, I will inject capital.”
Su Chen offered a rare explanation, and hearing this, Yin Wenbo finally felt at ease.
After hanging up the phone, Su Chen rubbed his temples once more. A heavy weight seemed to press down on his heart, filling him with a frantic unease—as if something critically important was slipping away, yet no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remember what it was.