My cousin asked me to go to Wuha, and Hanikezi stuck to me.

"The first thing Su Wan, the new CEO of Xingyu, did upon taking office was to invite your management team to lunch tomorrow," Xiao Fang said, emphasizing each word.

Chen Yi leaned back on the sofa, his long legs casually crossed.

He didn't speak, but simply raised one eyebrow.

Xiao Fang pulled over to the single sofa next to her and sat down, turning her phone screen towards Chen Yi.

"It wasn't just a dinner invitation." Xiao Fang swallowed and pulled up the recorded call. "Her secretary just showed a lot of sincerity on the phone."

Chen Yi raised his chin, signaling him to continue.

Xiao Fang pressed the play button.

A highly formulaic female voice came from the recording.

"Hello Mr. Fang, I am the administrative assistant to Ms. Su Wan, CEO of Xingyu Media. Ms. Su asked me to convey a few points of sincerity to Mr. Chen Yi."

"First, all the suppression, smear campaigns, and fabrication of evidence against Mr. Chen Yi during the tenure of former CEO Zhou Jianguo were his personal violations. Xingyu Media was completely unaware of and did not agree with them."

"Secondly, Xingyu Media's legal department will officially withdraw all lawsuits and disputes against Chen Yi's studio at 9:00 AM tomorrow."

"Third, President Su believes that Mr. Chen Yi is exceptionally talented. Xingyu Entertainment very much hopes to establish a deep strategic partnership with Mr. Chen and share resources. At tomorrow's lunch meeting, President Su will bring a very sincere S-level resource exchange contract and await Mr. Chen's arrival."

Recording has ended.

The suite was so quiet you could hear the air conditioning blowing out.

Xiao Fang put away his phone with an extremely strange expression.

"Brother, has this woman taken the wrong medicine?" Xiao Fang scratched his head. "Zhou Jianguo just went in, and Xingyu is in complete chaos. Instead of addressing the internal problems, the new broom sweeps clean up the mess and comes to bow down and apologize to our biggest rival? And even offers S-level resources?"

Chen Yi picked up the bottle of mineral water from the coffee table and unscrewed the cap.

I took a sip.

"She didn't take the wrong medicine." Chen Yi placed the water bottle on the glass table with a dull thud. "This is a real capitalist."

Xiao Fang was stunned.

"Zhou Jianguo is a nouveau riche who acts entirely on impulse and likes to kill people with a big stick," Chen Yi said calmly and incisively. "But Su Wan is different. She is an investment banking elite who returned from Wall Street. In her eyes, there are no mortal enemies, only bargaining chips and financial statements."

Chen Yi stood up, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, and looked down at the night view of Beijing in the early morning.

"Xiao Fang, what does Xingyu Entertainment lack most right now?" Chen Yi asked.

Without thinking, Xiao Fang blurted out, "We're short of money! The stock price has plummeted, investors are withdrawing their funds, the deputy director of public relations has been arrested, and the company's reputation is already ruined."

"Yes." Chen Yi turned around. "So what's their most valuable asset right now?"

"Sister Hani!" Xiao Fang suddenly realized, "She's Xingyu's only S-level cash cow that can quickly generate revenue!"

A cold, emotionless smile appeared on Chen Yi's lips.

"Su Wan knows very well that Hanikezi's heart is with me." Chen Yi said with his hands in his pockets. "If she continues to use Zhou Jianguo's methods of coercion and pressure, forcing Hanikezi to take bad roles and sign harsh contracts, it will only escalate the conflict. At worst, Hanikezi will fight to the death, and Xingyu will not get a single penny."

Xiao Fang gasped.

"So she extended an olive branch and voluntarily withdrew the lawsuit?" Xiao Fang followed Chen Yi's train of thought, and the more she thought about it, the more chills ran down her spine. "She's not apologizing to us; she's bowing down to your current commercial value!"

Chen Yi walked back to the sofa and sat down.

"At tonight's Golden Melody Awards, I won Best New Variety Show Performer, and I was also publicly honored by Lin Zhixuan and all the musicians in the audience." Chen Yi tapped his fingers on his knee. "That trending topic is still at the top of the list. My business rating will be completely reshuffled tomorrow morning."

"Su Wan is an extremely shrewd schemer. She calculated that if she could get me on Xingyu's bandwagon, it would be the same as controlling both me and Hanikezi."

Chen Yi's gaze was sharp.

"Her so-called win-win situation is just to package the two of us together for hype. She'll use my popularity to promote Xingyu's terrible dramas and use Hanikezi's contract to control my studio. Once we've squeezed out all our remaining value, she'll kick us aside."

"This tactic is called 'aligning interests'."

After hearing this analysis, Xiao Fang was so angry that he swore.

"Damn! This woman is a hundred times more cunning than Zhou Jianguo!" Xiao Fang slammed his hand on the sofa armrest. "At least Zhou Jianguo openly brandished a knife, but this woman is smiling as she hands out poison! This dinner party is definitely a trap; we absolutely cannot go!"

Chen Yi didn't reply, his gaze falling on the USB drive on the coffee table.

The copyright to the S-level script lies there cleanly and untouched.

This is his absolute trump card to overturn the chessboard of Star Entertainment.

Su Wan wanted to create a mutually beneficial partnership, but the premise was that she believed Xingyu held Hanikezi's lifeline in its hands.

But she had no idea that Chen Yi had already paved a road to the heavens.

"Brother, how should we refuse this meal tomorrow?" Xiao Fang asked.

"Don't be too firm in your refusal," Chen Yi said casually. "Capital's probing is never a one-time thing. If you refuse directly, she'll immediately come up with an even more extreme plan to deal with Hanikezi."

"What should we do then?"

"Delay it," Chen Yi ordered. "Let the dust settle. She's anxious to stabilize the stock price, but we're not."

Chen Yi looked at Xiao Fang.

"Return a message to her secretary tomorrow morning," Chen Yi instructed. "Just say that I've been very busy lately, and my studio is newly established with a lot of things to do. We can meet up another time for the dinner."

Xiao Fang nodded and noted it down.

"What if her secretary presses for her attitude?" Xiao Fang asked.

Chen Yi's lips curled up.

Reply with three words.

"Observe further."

Xiao Fang's eyes lit up, and she immediately took out her phone's memo app to write it down.

"That's a brilliant move!" Xiao Fang chuckled. "Neither openly escalating the conflict nor directly responding. Just those three words are enough to keep that Ice Queen Su Wan pondering over in her office for days!"

As they were talking, Xiao Fang's phone suddenly started vibrating wildly.

He glanced down at the screen and his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"Brother! Check Weibo right now!" Xiao Fang hurriedly opened the backend data. "It's gone mad! It's completely gone mad!"

Chen Yi leaned over to look.

It was only a few hours after the Golden Melody Awards ended.

Chen Yi's personal Weibo account is seeing its follower count skyrocket at an alarming rate.

Ten million.

Ten million.

Eleven million!

The trending topic #HaniKeziWatchesChenYiAtTheAwards#, marked with a dark red "hot" tag, did not cool down due to the late hour; instead, it sparked a second wave of excitement across the internet.

"The fan site admin released an even higher resolution direct-cam video!" Xiao Fang exclaimed excitedly, almost incoherently. "And a big influencer in the music industry even released a technical analysis video of your a cappella performance overnight! Now everyone online is searching for your name!"

Xiao Fang swiped the screen and opened her work email.

"The business team just sent us an urgent report." Xiao Fang swallowed hard, his voice trembling. "In just half an hour, the Asia-Pacific directors of three top international luxury brands sent their endorsement quotes directly to our email!"

Chen Yi looked at the wildly fluctuating data, but his expression remained calm.

"Stay calm," Chen Yi interrupted Xiao Fang's excitement. "Tell the business team to stick to the old rules. No fake products, no short-term, exploitative endorsements. All endorsement offers must undergo rigorous background checks."

"Understood!" Xiao Fang answered loudly, full of enthusiasm. "I'll start recruiting for the business team tomorrow! Our studio is going to take off this time!"

Holding his phone, Xiao Fang excitedly ran out of the suite to contact the team for a meeting.

The suite door closed.

Chen Yi leaned back on the sofa, closed his eyes, and rubbed his temples.

The night of the Golden Melody Awards passed by without major incident.

Just as he was about to get up and go back to his bedroom to rest.

A line of ice-blue system notification popped up on my retina without warning.

[A new type of capital game has been detected involving the host.]

[Target identified: Su Wan.]

[The individual risk assessment report has been generated.]

Chen Yi paused.

He sat up straight again, his gaze fixed on the system panel in the void.

Name: Su Wan

[Position: New CEO of Star Entertainment Media / Veteran M&A Expert on Wall Street]

Risk level: Medium to high.

This person's style of doing things is completely different from President Zhou's; they are good at achieving control through binding interests rather than forceful suppression.

ps:

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