Zhao Yinuo wasn’t reassured, so she sneakily followed them.
Unfortunately, she was a step too late. The prime spot for eavesdropping—the closest possible vantage point from which to watch Su Muyang and Tang Wan—had already been claimed by a stranger.
And even after Zhao Yinuo arrived, the man had no intention of moving aside.
Fortunately, in a crowded public setting like this, Su Muyang and Tang Wan still had some sense of propriety. Their conversation was strictly about work.
Right in front of Zhao Yinuo, the stranger listened to their conversation without the slightest trace of guilt, looking thoroughly entertained. He was also tall and broad-shouldered, blocking most of her view.
Zhao Yinuo couldn’t help shooting him an annoyed glance.
“Were you staring at me?”
The man who had been enjoying the gossip suddenly turned his head.
She’d only glanced at him once, and he’d actually noticed?
Feeling guilty, Zhao Yinuo quickly looked away.
“Sorry.”
“No need to apologize. I understand.”
Understand? Understand what?
Zhao Yinuo froze for a moment before looking at him again.
The man in front of her looked to be around twenty-five or twenty-six. He was dressed in a dark-gray haute couture suit, with an extremely elaborate and flashy brooch pinned to his chest. A ridiculously expensive-looking watch peeked out from beneath his cuff.
At a glance, he looked exactly like some spoiled young master from a wealthy family.
“A man like me, with looks, family background, and talent all rolled into one, naturally attracts attention. You don’t have to sneak glances. If you want to look, just look.”
Zhao Yinuo stared at him in shock before their eyes met.
His features were striking, with deep-set brows and eyes and slightly elongated eye shapes. His pupils were as black as ink. Just looking into those eyes gave off the impression that he was an incredibly calculating man.
Unfortunately, that impression was probably just an illusion created by his attractive eyes.
Otherwise, the two of them wouldn’t have been standing there together, enjoying the gossip and exchanging such bizarrely self-confident remarks.
Zhao Yinuo wasn’t the confrontational type. She calmly played along.
“Mm. You do seem quite outstanding.”
“You’re not bad yourself.”
“Uh… thank you for the compliment.”
In the midst of the awkward atmosphere, the two inexplicably exchanged a couple of compliments before falling silent again.
Not long afterward, Zhao Yinuo heard the man muttering to himself.
“This Tang Wan isn’t bad. She’s pretty enough. But she’s still a little beneath me.”
Tang Wan had been given the title of the number one beauty in ancient-style aesthetics. When she first debuted, her company had paid for an aggressive marketing campaign built around that exaggerated claim. It had certainly made her famous overnight, but it had also attracted even more haters.
Her looks really were top-tier. Zhao Yinuo even admired her ruthless determination when it came to building her career.
If Tang Wan were one of Zhao Yinuo’s own artists, she’d be laughing from ear to ear.
But Tang Wan wasn’t her artist.
Not only that, she kept reaching into Zhao Yinuo’s pocket and taking resources from her company. That kind of behavior was practically robbery. She wasn’t just stealing money—she was stealing people, too.
There was no way Zhao Yinuo could possibly like her.
But no matter how much she disliked Tang Wan, she couldn’t stand hearing some stranger speak about her so condescendingly.
“It’s not certain that Tang Wan would even be interested in you,” Zhao Yinuo reminded him. “Sir, isn’t it a little inappropriate to criticize someone behind her back like this?”
“Are you trying to get my attention?”
“This gentleman, Tang Wan is my friend. She’s my friend, and you’re talking about her like this. Don’t you think I have every right to be angry?”
“Tang Wan is your friend?”
The man was momentarily taken aback.
So she isn’t interested in me after all.
No wonder she’d gotten all prickly and angry, standing up for Tang Wan and even claiming that Tang Wan wouldn’t want him.
Ridiculous. How could that possibly be true?
He confidently lifted his chin, looked down at Zhao Yinuo twice, then turned and walked away with an imposing air.
Watching his inexplicable departure, Zhao Yinuo muttered under her breath, “What a weirdo.”
She immediately walked forward and joined Su Muyang and Tang Wan’s conversation. Not only did she shamelessly insert herself as a third wheel, she also used work as an excuse to send Su Muyang away.
The moment Su Muyang left, Tang Wan immediately put on an apologetic expression.
“Yinuo, I’m sorry. I caused you trouble again over the endorsement. Muyang said he’s planning to bring me along for his new jewelry endorsement.”
She was reaching into Zhao Yinuo’s pocket while apologizing to her.
A polite thief was still a thief.
And this wasn’t even the first time Su Muyang had done something like this.
Zhao Yinuo’s lips twitched. She forced a smile.
“You don’t have to apologize to me. If you can make Muyang willingly pave the way for you, that’s your ability. But our capabilities are limited. The company has only just started to gain a foothold, so there’s only so much he can do for you. If you want to star in major productions or win awards, you’ll have to look elsewhere.”
Tang Wan had caused Zhao Yinuo trouble both because of her relationship with Su Muyang and because of the resources she kept taking from them, but she didn’t mind Zhao Yinuo’s sour expression in the slightest.
She grinned.
“I know~ I knew Yinuo cared about me the most.”
But seeing Tang Wan’s cheeky, carefree expression only made Zhao Yinuo feel more suffocated.
She bluntly reminded her, “I just heard from a friend that the owner of Shengxing Entertainment seems to be interested in you. Do you have any thoughts about that?”
If you do, then hurry up and leave. Stop messing with my people.
“The owner of Shengxing Entertainment?”
Tang Wan’s expression changed.
“My manager never told me. No wonder I was able to get into this celebration party today. So that’s the reason.”
Her expression became conflicted, and she unconsciously bit her lip.
This time, she was genuinely tempted.
The power represented by the owner of Shengxing Entertainment was enormous.
Zhao Yinuo wholeheartedly supported her idea of dumping her current boyfriend and climbing toward a better opportunity.
Tang Wan could understand where she was coming from.
Tang Wan had only recently entered the industry and didn’t know how things worked. The company she’d signed with was extremely shady and not particularly large. It couldn’t offer her any worthwhile resources, so she had to fight for everything herself.
For the past two months, she could practically be described as a parasite sucking resources from Zhao Yinuo’s company.
Of course Zhao Yinuo couldn’t wait to get rid of her.
Using a man up and then dumping him wasn’t exactly something Tang Wan had never done before.
But for some reason, whenever she thought of the way Su Muyang’s eyes were always filled with nothing but her, she couldn’t quite bring herself to let him go.
Zhao Yinuo watched the emotions flicker across her face and reminded her, “Muyang has treated you well. No matter how you decide to handle this, don’t drag him into it.”
“I know.”
Tang Wan nodded, then pulled out her phone right in front of Zhao Yinuo and began searching for information about the mysterious owner behind Shengxing Entertainment.
But after searching for quite a while, all she managed to find was a name.
There was no photograph and no information about his background.
“Is he really that mysterious?”
Tang Wan put on a slightly ingratiating expression.
“Yinuo, you know so much more than I do. Do you know anything about this Mr. Lu? If he’s some old man, then forget it. I’m not desperate enough to go that far.”
“You’re doing this, and you’re completely betraying Muyang’s feelings for you.”
Despite criticizing her, Zhao Yinuo still answered honestly.
“He’s not an old man. He’s a young heir from a wealthy family. Apparently, his background runs very deep, and there’s even some shady business involved. Last year, he quietly blacklisted three artists. Most importantly, he’s incredibly generous. Extremely generous. Last year, Director Zhao spent ten billion yuan making a blockbuster film. It bombed so badly that it couldn’t even recover the principal, yet this year, Director Zhao still managed to secure another ten-billion-yuan project from him.”
Even though Zhao Yinuo felt bad whenever she saw Su Muyang suffering over his heartbreak, that didn’t stop her from giving Tang Wan advice and actively trying to break the two of them apart.
She desperately wanted Tang Wan to find another rich sucker as soon as possible, dump Su Muyang, and run off.
But she wasn’t going to deliberately withhold information and push Tang Wan into a pit of fire, either.
There were plenty of rich suckers out there. If Tang Wan really had her heart set on this, breaking up with Su Muyang was only a matter of time.
There was no need for Zhao Yinuo to compromise her conscience just to trick her.
Besides, if Tang Wan really got together with Mr. Lu and Zhao Yinuo had deliberately set her up without telling her the risks, it could eventually drag both Zhao Yinuo and Su Muyang into trouble.
So Zhao Yinuo told her everything—the advantages and the drawbacks—and left the decision entirely up to Tang Wan.
After hearing her out, Tang Wan immediately seized on the most important detail.
“Are you talking about that flop from last year—the movie everyone online said was being used for money laundering?”
“Yes.”
“But that was ten billion yuan.”
Tang Wan’s eyes lit up.
“I wouldn’t even need ten billion. If someone invested just tens of millions in me, I could make it big…”
She was still marveling over the thought when she spotted her own manager hurriedly walking toward her.
“Candy, come on. I’m taking you to meet someone right now.”
Tang Wan immediately knew who her manager meant.
She waved at Zhao Yinuo, then decisively followed her manager away without the slightest hesitation.