The company belongs to Xu Zhi.
Nacy is also Ji Xi's senior in school.
Wen Ruan glanced at the contract in her hand, then signed her name at the bottom without really looking at it.
"Why don't you ever read the contract? Aren't you afraid I'll sell you?" Nacy sat opposite her, holding a coffee cup, helpless. She had thought she would have to wait for a while, but Wen Ruan was ready by the time she took a sip of her coffee.
Wen Ruan put the cap back on the pen and pushed the contract towards the person, looking at her and smiling, "I believe in Ji Xi, and I believe in you too."
She had a naturally good appearance. Coupled with those bright, clear eyes, when she looked at people directly, it not only made them throbbing but also quickly generated a good impression.
Nacy looked at her smile, her eyes twinkling slightly, and was momentarily stunned. After a moment, she smiled first. Having been in this circle for so many years, she had seen many beauties. If the beauties were to be graded, Wen Ruan was definitely at the top level: good figure, good features, and this clear and clean temperament.
Although from a wealthy family, she had no hint of arrogance. But that wasn't the main point. There were plenty of good-looking people in the circle, but not everyone could make it big. This involved audience appeal and likability.
Some artists, despite being good-looking, didn't have a high audience appeal. But she dared to guarantee it. Wen Ruan's audience appeal would definitely be very good in the future. When she bent her eyes, no one could resist her charm, especially since this kind of temperament was unisex.
The more Nacy looked, the more satisfied she became. Wen Ruan's contract was signed in the company in no time. Nacy personally took her to tour the company, saying, "Floors 5-8 are for learning singing, dancing, and etiquette. The company has recently recruited a group of trainees, who are probably still rehearsing."
"As for you," she glanced at Wen Ruan, "You don't need to learn etiquette, as you're already good. As for singing and dancing, we won't need it soon. I have hired a personal trainer near the company for you. You will exercise at the gym for two hours every day, and then skincare."
Nacy's eyes were always sharp. She could tell if an artist had makeup on, if they had plastic surgery, or not. But looking at Wen Ruan, she couldn't find any faults. She patted her shoulder with a touch of envy and sadness, "You don't need to go to a beauty salon. You can take care of yourself at home, just cut back on hot and spicy foods like hot pot and cola."
"If you can't cook, I'll hire an assistant to take care of your meals." Upon hearing the words "hot pot," Wen Ruan's face blushed slightly, and she whispered, "I didn't eat much, just that one day."
After that, she cooked on her own. Nacy smiled and didn't say anything more. "You stay at home for a few days. I'll send you some material to read, and in a few days, I'll have someone take promotional photos for you."
"Okay," Wen Ruan had no objections.
Seeing her being so obedient, Nacy felt the urge to bully her, but also felt that it could damage her image, so she slightly coughed and made small talk with her. "Ji Yan has been performing in Country T recently, but he'll be back soon. When he returns, I'll introduce you properly."
After speaking, she smiled first, "But you two should be familiar with each other, so there's no need for introductions."
Were she and Ji Yan familiar? Not really, they had only met a few times and barely exchanged a few words.
Thinking about it, she had been so preoccupied with Lin Qinghan before. As for Ji Yan, if she wasn't mistaken, his heart was all for Su Lanlan. They didn't have much contact at all.
"One more thing," Nacy stopped in her tracks, hesitated, "The news of your divorce probably won't stay hidden in the future."
If it were an ordinary person, their company would be able to suppress the news and silence everyone. But who was the other party?
The head of the Lin Group is also the richest person.
Such a status cannot be suppressed by money.
Wen Ruan, for her part, did not mind. She had never intended to conceal this matter. She had been married and divorced, which was not a disgraceful thing. If others knew, they knew. There was nothing to hide.
In the following days, following Nancy's advice, Wen Ruan started exercising, getting beauty treatments, watching a lot of debut films of new actors as well as some documentary files. She also found some information herself and finally gained a preliminary understanding of the entertainment industry.
She didn't have such great ambitions to have to stand at the top of anything.
But since she had decided to do this, she didn't want to idle and waste time either.
She also quite enjoyed her current life.
With her schedule fully arranged every day, she wouldn't have time to overthink things.
***
The news of Wen Ruan entering the entertainment industry had not spread outside yet, but it had already circulated within the circle. Nancy was a top agent with a top-tier traffic artist under her belt. If Nancy made a move, how could others not pay attention?
When they found out that the signed newcomer was actually Lin Qinghan's ex-wife, this news was even more explosive.
However explosive it was, neither Tianyi nor Nancy had made any moves. No one dared to spread this news outside and could only talk about it in private.
When this matter reached the hospital, Su Lanlan was holding her phone, thinking about how to contact Lin Qinghan. She then heard her agent muttering, "Little one, could you be a bit smarter? I've heard that Nancy plans to develop Wen Ruan as the second Ji Yan."
"Wait till she surpasses you and see where you end up crying!"
The typing stopped, and Su Lanlan looked up, looking astonished and incredulous. She stammered, "Who did you say? Who is Nancy planning to mentor?"
The agent replied, "Wen Ruan."
She looked at Su Lanlan, pointing at her phone and said with a sneer, "It's his ex-wife."
Wen Ruan?
Su Lanlan was dumbfounded. How could Wen Ruan enter the entertainment industry and end up with Nancy? When she first entered the industry, she had intended to ask Ji Yan for help and also asked Nancy to guide her. But at that time, Nancy claimed she didn’t have enough energy and refused her.
She had a thin face and naturally didn't want to stay at Tianyi. So, her brother set up a studio for her, and she became the boss, doing whatever she wanted.
With the Su family backing her, she had always had good resources, and her fame in the industry had grown over the past two years. But now, Nancy was Wen Ruan's agent and planned to develop her as the second Ji Yan.
What was this? She couldn't even manage to send the information. Her gentle and lovely face that she usually wore daily completely darkened, and she gritted her teeth, saying, "She's dreaming if she thinks she can surpass me!"
She had never liked Wen Ruan since she was a child. When the Wen family had not yet fallen, Wen Ruan was the top debutante in the city, like an arrogant swan, everyone had to cater to her. She remembered that at that time, Wen Ruan was always surrounded by people, no matter where she went, there was always a group of people around her talking and joking with her.
What about her?
She could only watch them from a distance.
Later, when the Wen family fell, she thought that Wen Ruan would finally change from a swan to an ugly duckling. But unexpectedly, the Lin family adopted her and treated her even better than before, fearing that she would feel wronged.
Her only consolation was that after experiencing bankruptcy, Wen Ruan's temper was no longer as proud and unrestrained as before. She started hiding her brilliance, began to stop fooling around with others, and gradually faded from everyone's view.
And what about her?
She entered the entertainment industry, exposed to the public eye, gained a group of fans because of her outstanding appearance, with the Su family paving the way for her and Ji Yan helping her, allowing her to sail smoothly in the entertainment industry.
She enjoyed being surrounded by everyone and being dazzling under the spotlight.
But now—
Wen Ruan was coming, and she was also entering the entertainment industry. Su Lanlan's inner panic suddenly grew, just like back then, she could only watch Wen Ruan being surrounded and shining from afar. "No!"
Clutching her phone, she murmured, "I can't let her surpass me, absolutely not!"
She startled her agent, who took a long time to react. "Lanlan, what's wrong with you?" Seeing her pale face, she quickly added, "I'll get a doctor for you."
"No need."
Su Lanlan grabbed her arm, stopping her, raised her pale face, looked at her, and said in a hoarse voice, "Contact Ji Yan for me, tell him I'm in the hospital."
"It's very serious."
Nanny's car.
Wen Ruan sat softly in the chair, and next to her was the assistant Xiao Mai assigned to her by Nacy a few days ago.
Xiao Mai was in her early twenties, wearing a denim jacket, with her hair dyed blue-black, and a small pink heart stuck on her palm-sized face. She was currently licking a lollipop and holding a notebook, telling Wen Ruan about today's schedule. "Soft sister, your personal Weibo has been verified. Today we will first go to the company to take a promotional photo, then go to the gym, and then it's free time."
"Once the company officially starts promoting you tomorrow, the schedule will gradually become busier."
Wen Ruan had no objections to these arrangements and smiled, saying, "Okay." She found it amusing to see Xiao Mai squinting and licking her lollipop. She had been with Xiao Mai for a few days and found that the girl always had a lollipop in her hand, and she wondered where she kept all those lollipops.
Xiao Mai shook her head, licked the lollipop, and said earnestly, "I don't like it."
Wen Ruan was taken aback, "Oh? Then why are you..."
"Because my idol likes it!" When she spoke of her idol, Xiao Mai's eyes lit up. She suddenly turned her face towards Wen Ruan, leaned in close to her, and asked in a lowered voice, "Soft sister, do you know Yan Shen?"
Yan Shen?
Wen Ruan stared blankly at her. She didn't remember there being a god like that in their country. Could it be someone from overseas? But the name didn't sound like it.
Seeing Wen Ruan's perplexed expression, Xiao Mai knew she didn't know. She stopped licking her lollipop and took out another small notebook with Q-version avatars all over it, then started promoting, "Come on, Soft sister, let me introduce you, duangduangduang, our Yan Shen!"
"Ji Yan, also known as Yan Shen, 23 years old, debuted as a member of the Fly group at the age of 16, and is responsible for rap, dance, and the public face of the Fly group. He released the album 'Silence' at 18 and entered the Forbes Celebrity List at 20."
Wen Ruan listened dazedly to Xiao Mai's words and finally realized that the Yan Shen she mentioned was Ji Yan. Although she had seen Ji Yan's name on Weibo, she had never expected him to become so popular.
"Soft sister, don't be fooled by Yan Shen's cold appearance. In fact, he is totally adorable! So..."
Xiao Mai turned her head and blinked her eyes like a little fox, cheerfully remarked, "Do you want to become a fan of Yan Shen? You won't regret it! Join us as a sister fan, mom fan, or wife fan!"
"W-what?"
A sister fan, she understood.
But what were mom and wife fans?
Xiao Mai was an experienced fan, always active on Weibo, Douban, and other fan communities. She began to educate Wen Ruan about the workings of fan communities, along with some terms and symbols.
"In fact, fan communities are very complicated. As far as fans are concerned, there are career fans, girlfriend fans, sister fans, mom fans, group fans, as well as solo fans and toxic solo fans."
"Many of these fans are incompatible with each other."
She sighed, "In reality, it doesn't matter what kind of fan you are, whether a girlfriend fan or a solo fan, as long as you're rational and genuinely support the main person, it's all good."
After listening for a while, Wen Ruan also gained some understanding of these terms and asked, "Solo fans? Does Ji Yan have solo fans too?"
"Of course!"
Xiao Mai excitedly said, "Our Yan Shen is so handsome, how could there not be solo fans? When he just debuted, he was widely recognized as having a CP relationship with another member of the group. It's a pity that the group disbanded a few years ago. We, the CP fans, were so devastated."
"But it's okay!"
She clenched her fist, full of vigor, "As long as Yan Shen is around, I can be any kind of fan!"
Wen Ruan murmured to herself: it turned out to be a group thing. She thought it had to do with Su Lanlan, after all, Ji Yan had always liked to follow Su Lanlan, and now both of them were in the same industry.
"In fact, being a CP fan isn't a good thing." Xiao Mai seemed to think of something and pursed her lips, "The one who's so popular now, Su Lanlan, her family loves to involve our Yan Shen. They even made up something like 'Yan Mountain and Lake'... It's only because our Yan Shen has a good temperament, otherwise, her family would have been scolded to death by us."
It seemed that Xiao Mai really hated Su Lanlan. She angrily took a bite of her lollipop, making a crisp sound. Mixed with her muffled voice, she continued, "Even if our Yan Shen wanted to create a CP, it shouldn't be someone like Su Lanlan, she looks awful, it's not good at all. No, we'd rather not. There's no woman in the entertainment industry who's worthy of our Yan Shen except..." She turned to Wen Ruan and looked at her for a while, then suddenly said, "Except for Soft Sister!"
"Only someone like Soft Sister, with that kind of face and personality, can be worthy of our Yan Shen."
The more Xiao Mai looked at Wen Ruan, the more satisfied she became, nodding her head like a chick pecking at food, "Yes, yes! You're also fellow senior siblings! The nearer the water, the brighter the moon!"
Seeing her enthusiasm, Wen Ruan couldn't help feeling both amused and exasperated. Her being paired with Ji Yan? That image was just too jarring. Ji Yan was like a younger brother to her, and with Su Lanlan in the picture, it would probably be difficult for her to even have a proper conversation with Ji Yan, let alone be paired with him.
Xiao Mai was just caught up in the moment and completely off base.
Given the current situation with Wen Ruan, it was better to focus on work with peace of mind. She, a level-ten fan of Yan Shen, naturally understood the mindset of other fans of Yan Shen. If a female star suddenly appeared and tried to bind herself with Yan Shen, even if she looked like a heavenly fairy, she would definitely be mocked by the masses.
Thinking of that scene.
She couldn't help shrugging her shoulders. At that point, she would be helping Soft Sister insult her sisters, or helping her sisters insult Soft Sister?
Wuwuwu, it was just too hard.
The car continued on its way towards the company, Wen Ruan was going through some documents, while Xiao Mai started scrolling through Weibo as usual. Suddenly, she saw a hot search and exclaimed, almost sitting up.
Wen Ruan glanced at her with concern and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Why has Yan Shen come back?" Xiao Mai couldn't believe it, looking at the top trending topic #Ji Yan Airport, and muttered, "Yan Shen just finished his concert last night, and he's appeared in the city this morning. Didn't he return right after finishing the concert yesterday?"
"Wuwuwu, our Yan Shen is working too hard. No wonder his eyes are all bloodshot, my poor little baby, I must buy him an eye mask from Kao Megurism!"
Ji Yan was back?
Wen Ruan was also taken aback. Yesterday, Nacy had told her that Ji Yan wouldn't be back until at least tomorrow. However, whether Ji Yan came back or not had nothing to do with her, and she had not thought much of it. She continued to review the documents in her hand, as long as Xiao Mai was unharmed.
***
9:30, arrived at the company.
Wen Ruan went directly to the 18th floor, Nacy's office. As soon as she entered, she saw Nacy, looking serious, talking on the phone. "You are becoming more and more disobedient, coming back alone? Do you know what kind of influence you have? It's fortunate that the scalpers didn't know your schedule yesterday. Otherwise, if those paparazzi had seen you, wouldn't you be in big trouble?"
"Alright, alright, I can't control you anymore. Do whatever you want to do."
"What? You went to the hospital!" Nacy suddenly stood up, looking very worried, and asked, "What's going on? Is it serious?"
I don't know what was said on the other end of the phone, but her expression turned serious again, she said, "It's Su Lanlan again, do you have no brains? Do you really want to spread rumors with her? Hello? Hello?" Obviously, the person on the other end of the phone had already hung up.
Nacy, frustrated, held onto her phone, and only relaxed her expression when she saw Wensoft, "Xiao Ruan, you're here."
Wensoft smiled and nodded at people, casually asking, "Is it a call from Ji Yan?"
"Ah," Nacy sighed, "I don't know what's wrong with this kid. He was supposed to come back tomorrow, but without notifying anyone, he came back right after the concert ended yesterday, and now he's in the hospital."
She exclaimed, "That Su Lanlan is just a troublemaker."
Wensoft thought to herself: Not exactly a troublemaker, but she's definitely a meddler.
After giving it some thought, and to avoid unnecessary trouble, Wensoft decided to discuss the matter with Nacy, "Nacy, there's something I need to talk to you about."
Hearing Wensoft's serious tone, Nacy forgot about the issue with Ji Yan and asked, "What is it?"
"So, what you're saying is that Su Lanlan fell from your house, and everyone thinks it was your doing?" Nacy concluded after Wensoft finished speaking, "So you're worried that Su Lanlan will contact Ji Yan to stir things up?"
Wensoft held the teacup in her hands but didn't drink. "I can't say for sure, but with Su Lanlan's personality..."
She shook her head and scoffed, "We have to be cautious."
Nacy nodded. When Ji Yan asked her to take care of Su Lanlan, she refused, because Su Lanlan seemed insincere. Normally, such a person would just be an acquaintance, not someone to get deeply involved with. But Ji Yan... She heaved a sigh, "He's usually fine, I don't know why he's so blind to fall for someone like that. Do you know the reason, having known him since childhood?"
The reason?
Wensoft was a little puzzled. She remembered that Ji Yan had always been a solitary person. Even his cousin, Ji Xi, had only exchanged a few words with him. It seemed that their relationship got better after Ji Yan was 12 and was admitted to the hospital, especially with Su Lanlan.
As for what the reason was, she didn't know.
During Ji Yan's illness, besides Su Lanlan, she also stayed at the Ji's house. Knowing Ji Yan's poor health, she often made him jujube and wolfberry tea.
That little ungrateful person...
Is becoming more and more ungrateful.
"Let's forget about this brat for now. Let's go take the promotional photos first. I'll talk to Ji Yan about Su Lanlan when I get the chance." Nacy glanced at the time, "Let's go, the photographer is already here, we can go downstairs."
"Okay."
Tianyi Media was generous. This was the first official promotion for Wensoft, and a lot of money was spent on the clothes and the photographer.
Wensoft had already taken two sets of clothes, and now she was shooting the third set.
During the time when she was having her makeup touched up, the photographer was flipping through the photos and jokingly said to Nacy, "Where did you find this gem? I was worried it would take all day, but I didn't expect this girl to be so photogenic."
"I don't even have to say anything, she just knows how to pose perfectly."
"She's really a newcomer?"
Nacy chuckled, "She really is!"
As she said that, she looked up at Wensoft with emotion, "I didn't expect her to be so amazing, as if she was born to do this."
"It seems like you've got a pair of aces." The photographer joked with Nacy. Just as he was about to say something else, the door opened. He was taken aback and then said with a smile, "Oh, another ace has arrived. Why don't I take a group photo?"
Nacy blinked, she turned to look, and it turned out to be Ji Yan!
Thinking of what Wensoft had just said, she was about to greet him, but a series of exclamations erupted in the room, "Ah, it's Ji Yan!"
"Oh my, it's Yan Shen, how did he come here?!"
"Hurry, take a picture, take a picture."
Wensoft naturally heard these voices too.
She sat in her chair, raised her chin slightly and looked over, and saw a man with a black mask, wearing a white baseball cap, a white T-shirt, and black pants walking in from outside. He ignored the others and, with his eyes slightly cold, looked straight at her.