Hong Kong variety show: The mastermind behind the scenes is emerging.

Inside the presidential suite, the light from the crystal chandelier shone on Sofia's face, which was both exotic and possessed a touch of oriental charm.

Lu Chen certainly recognized that face.

She belongs to the stunning beauty Sofia from the movie "Wheels on Meals," who captivated two kung fu kids from her very first appearance, yet also completely fooled them.

The actress who plays her, Lola Forner, was a former Miss Spain and the perfect "dream girl" of that era in the hearts of countless viewers. Her deep features, tall figure, and unique temperament that blends European aristocracy with street wildness are simply a masterpiece of God.

As for why she appeared in Milan instead of Lu Chen in Spain within this cinematic fusion world, it wasn't too surprising. After all, although *Wheels on Meals* was filmed in Barcelona, ​​Spain, the film didn't explicitly state the story's location, and even the villainous count's castle had a style more Central European. So, her appearance in Italy wasn't a problem.

"My name is Sofia, and believe me, I'm the one you're looking for."

Sophia slightly raised her chin, her blue eyes staring directly at Lu Chen, her tone carrying a resolute determination to go all in.

That posture was just like a young leopard that had been cornered at the edge of a cliff, yet still bared its claws at the hunter.

Lu Chen smiled. He didn't need a docile sheep; what he wanted was this kind of wild, vibrant energy. Only such a temperament could suppress the powerful aura of the "Dark Forest" outfit.

【Ding--】

[Key plot character detected: Sylvia]

[Checking in at the movie "Wheels on Meals"]

[Check-in successful!]

[Reward: +1 Free Attribute Points]

Lu Chen was overjoyed and quietly saved the attribute points for the time being.

"Money is no problem." Lu Chen snapped his fingers, and a check for five hundred thousand US dollars appeared at his fingertips. He casually handed it to Ruan Mei beside him. "As long as the clothes fit, this money is yours immediately. In fact, if you perform well, I can give you more."

He turned to the team of stylists he had specially hired at a high price: "Take this lady to try out the 'Dark Forest' outfit, and design her hairstyle while you're at it."

"Yes, come with me, Miss Sophia." Although the stylists were somewhat suspicious of this suddenly appearing "passerby," they had no choice but to obey their boss's orders.

Sophia gave Lu Chen a deep look, said nothing more, and turned to follow the stylist into the dressing room. She was a smart woman; she knew that only by wearing that dress and proving her worth would that check truly belong to her.

As the locker room door closed, Lu Chen looked away, pulled Ruan Mei to sit down on the sofa, and poured her a glass of warm water.

"Alright, Amei, now you can tell me what happened, right?" Lu Chen looked at Ruan Mei, his tone gentle. "How did you run into her? What happened today?"

Upon hearing this, Ruan Mei immediately perked up, her big eyes sparkling, her face beaming with a "praise me!" expression.

"Chairman Lu, this is truly fate! Here's what happened..."

……

Milan Cathedral Square a few hours ago.

The sunlight was blinding, and the church bells rang ethereally. Ruan Mei was carefully feeding the pigeons a bag of corn kernels.

Since Lu Chen had given her a day off, Ruan Mei, along with Tian Yang'en, followed the Chinese tour guide arranged by the hotel to the most famous Milan Cathedral Square.

Looking at the magnificent Gothic spires and the thousands of white doves flying in the square, Ruan Mei was as happy as a child.

"Sister En, look! This pigeon is so fat! If only we could catch it and make soup..."

Before Ruan Mei could finish speaking, she was interrupted by a series of urgent cries for help.

"Help! Let me go! You bunch of bastards!"

The sound came from the entrance of a small alley next to the square. Although it was spoken in Italian, the tone of fear was universal.

Ruan Mei subconsciously stood up and looked in that direction.

Several thugs in leather jackets and covered in tattoos were surrounding a girl in a denim jacket, shoving and pushing her towards a van. The girl struggled desperately, her hair disheveled, but although there were many people around, most were just watching and no one dared to step forward.

"Oh dear! This is outrageous! They're abducting a woman in broad daylight!" Ruan Mei's sense of justice surged instantly; she couldn't stand this kind of bullying of women.

"Sister En!" Ruan Mei grabbed Tian Yang En beside her. "Quick! Save her!"

Tian Yang'en, who was cautiously observing her surroundings, frowned slightly upon hearing Ruan Mei's words. As a bodyguard, her primary task was to protect her employer's safety; meddling in other people's business was a major taboo.

"Ah Mei, the boss said safety comes first," Tian Yangen said coldly.

"But...but that's a human life too!" Ruan Mei cried out anxiously. "We can't just stand by and watch someone die! You go and save them, I...I'll stay far away and definitely won't cause you any trouble!"

Seeing Ruan Mei's anxious expression, Tian Yang'en sighed.

Although she was cold-blooded, she was not heartless.

"Stay here and don't move."

Tian Yang'en left behind a single sentence and charged out like a cheetah.

What followed was like an action movie set.

Those Italian thugs were only good at bullying weak women; when they encountered Tian Yang'en, a female killing god who had crawled out of piles of corpses, they were simply easy prey.

Tian Yang'en didn't even use a scalpel; with just a few clean and swift grappling moves and side kicks, he beat the three burly men to a pulp, leaving them writhing on the ground clutching their stomachs. Seeing the situation was turning against him, the van driver sped away.

The rescued girl leaned against the wall, still shaken, and gasped for breath.

Only then did Ruan Mei dare to run over, handing over a tissue, and stammering in her newly learned Italian, "Are you...are you alright?"

The girl looked up, her deep blue eyes still glistening with tears, but upon seeing Ruan Mei's Asian face, she surprisingly uttered a somewhat awkward but absolutely fluent Cantonese phrase:

"Thank you so much."

"You can speak Chinese?!" Ruan Mei was stunned.

Later, after sitting down in a coffee shop, the girl began to recount her ordeal in fits and starts.

Her name is Sofia. She grew up in Chinatown in Milan and learned Cantonese from her neighbors.

"My mother is sick, very sick..." Sophia held a hot coffee, her eyes slightly red, but her tone remained unusually calm. "To pay for her treatment, I borrowed money from loan sharks. But those people... their interest keeps compounding, I sold my house and still can't pay it off. Today... they want to take me... to those kinds of places to work as a prostitute to pay off my debts."

At this point, Sofia bit her lip and stopped talking.

After hearing this, tears welled up in Ruan Mei's eyes. She thought of her own grandmother and could deeply understand the despair of having nowhere else to turn to treat a loved one's illness.

"So pitiful..." Ruan Mei sniffed, her heart overflowing with sympathy. "Don't be afraid, those bad guys have been driven away."

"Thank you," Sophia said earnestly again, but a deep sorrow still lingered between her brows.

Just then, Ruan Mei suddenly thought of Lu Chen, who was worried about finding a model. Looking at Sophia's exquisite face even in her disheveled state, and at her unique and resilient temperament, a flash of inspiration struck her.

"Do you want to make money? Make a lot of money, enough to pay for your mother's medical treatment!"

Sofia suddenly raised her head, her eyes gleaming with a desperate will to survive: "Yes! I want to!"

"Then come with me!" Ruan Mei slapped her thigh, making Tian Yang'en wince in pain. "I'll take you to see someone! He's very rich and a really good person! As long as you can help, your debts and your mother's illness won't be a problem!"

……

That's how it is.

After finishing her story, Ruan Mei scratched her head a little embarrassedly. "Mr. Lu, was I too... too much? Bringing a stranger here to you. But I really think she's quite pitiful, and she has such a wonderful presence..."

After listening, Lu Chen looked at Ruan Mei's bright eyes and couldn't help but reach out and rub her head.

"My dear Amei...you're not just meddling, you're practically blessed with good luck!"

He went out for a stroll and not only saved a beautiful woman, but also solved his biggest problem and even triggered a hidden storyline. His luck was simply incredible.

However, Lu Chen knew far more about Sophia's background than Ruan Mei did.

Sofia is indeed a tragic figure, but her background is far more complicated and dramatic than "loan sharks harassing debtors."

In the movie *Wheels on Meals*, Sofia's mother, Gloria, was a maid in the household of the famous Count Lubbers twenty years prior. The philandering Count Lubbers, taking advantage of the Countess's absence, raped Gloria.

Subsequent examinations revealed that Gloria was pregnant. To protect the family's reputation and to prevent the fierce Countess from finding out, Count Lubbers gave Gloria a sum of money and then banished the two of them.

This incident became a lifelong source of anguish and nightmare for Gloria. On one hand, she hated the Count, and on the other hand, she felt immense guilt towards Sophia. Finally, when Sophia was fourteen, Gloria could no longer bear the torment of these complex emotions, suffered a mental breakdown, and went insane.

Young Sofia was forced to send her mother to a mental hospital and struggle to survive on her own. To survive, she learned to steal and to lie, becoming the quirky con artist in the movie.

But it seems the timeline is still quite early. Sofia, standing before us, looks no more than eighteen or nineteen. She hasn't yet become that seasoned con artist, accustomed to deception, nor has she become wary of people due to the harsh realities of society. She's currently on the verge of starvation, driven to desperation by loan sharks, and about to plunge into the abyss.

"Count Lubers..." Lu Chen murmured the name to himself.

Lu Chen had heard this name in the past couple of days. In Italy, the Lubers family still wielded enormous influence. If he could help Sofia reclaim her rightful inheritance, then the Golden Harvest Group would have a powerful ally in Europe.

This will be more than just a simple act of assistance; it will be a long-term investment.

"Chairman Lu? What are you thinking about?" Seeing that Lu Chen remained silent, Ruan Mei felt uneasy. "Is it...is it that Sophia isn't up to the task?"

"No, she's amazing. Absolutely amazing." Lu Chen snapped out of his daze and reassured her with a smile, "Amei, you've done a great job this time. I'll give you a bonus later."

"Really?!" Ruan Mei's eyes lit up. "Then... could we give the prize money to Sophia? I think she needs the money more than I do."

Lu Chen was stunned for a moment, and looking into Ruan Mei's sincere eyes, a warm feeling welled up in his heart.

This silly girl, she herself is so frugal, yet she's thinking of helping others at a time like this.

"Don't worry, I'll pay her money, and I won't skimp on your bonus either," Lu Chen said gently. "I'm the boss; I decide how to pay it."

Just then, the locker room door clicked open.

All sound vanished in that instant.

Lu Chen, Ruan Mei, and even Tian Yangsheng, who had been expressionless, all subconsciously turned their heads away.

The previously dimly lit corridor seemed to light up instantly because of the figure that walked out.

Sofia was barefoot, stepping on the thick carpet.

The black haute couture gown named "Dark Forest" seemed to come alive at that moment, tightly wrapping around her graceful body.

The minimalist halter design revealed her perfectly sculpted shoulders and deep collarbones. The heavy black silk shimmered with a dark green hue under the light, like a lake at midnight. The cinched waist accentuated her slender figure, while the side-slit fishtail skirt revealed glimpses of her long, straight legs with each step.

What's even more surprising is her makeup.

Instead of using the hair accessories readily available in the dressing room, she casually tied up her originally messy long hair and stuck it diagonally with a black pencil she found somewhere, revealing her slender neck.

She lightly smudged lipstick at the corners of her eyes, instantly adding a touch of allure and mystery to her already deep blue eyes.

She stood there, chin slightly raised, her innate aristocratic aura perfectly complementing the dress.

She was no longer the down-on-her-luck street girl she had just been.

At this moment, she was like an elven queen emerging from a dark forest—noble, aloof, and dangerous, yet so beautiful that one wanted to worship her.

"Ugh—"

Ruan Mei couldn't help but gasp, covering her mouth, "So...so beautiful..."

Lu Chen stood up and stared intently at Sophia.

Although Sophia possessed exceptional physical attributes and a suitable temperament, Lu Chen was initially unsure whether she could pull off the "Dark Forest" look or handle such a grand international occasion.

But now, Lu Chen's worries have finally been put to rest.

That piece of clothing came to life.

This was exactly the effect he wanted; that detached, luxurious aloofness was perfectly embodied in her.

Sophia tugged at her skirt somewhat awkwardly, then looked up at Lu Chen, her eyes filled with a hint of provocation and anticipation for his evaluation:

"So, Boss? Was that 500,000 yuan a worthwhile investment?"

Lu Chen strode forward, making no attempt to hide the admiration in his eyes.

"value."

He extended his hand, this time as a gentleman's invitation.

"Miss Sophia, welcome to Jiahe. This dress is yours."

"You will be the undisputed final muse of this year's MIFA competition."