At this moment, the scumbag who "repaid kindness with enmity" was holding her hand, his face dark as they left the resort hotel.
Most of the people who came to Qin Yan's birthday party had already left. It was quiet and late at night, the resort hotel away from the city was brightly lit, yet there was no noise or people.
Ye Yang firmly clutched Xun Xinyi's hand until they got into the car, as if finally letting go of her hand as if waking from a dream.
After the driver understood the cause and effect of the matter, he tactfully raised the front and rear panels inside the car.
In the spacious back seat, Xun Xinyi rubbed the hand that Ye Yang had squeezed hard, and she was concerned about Ye Yang's statement that he would never divorce. She cautiously asked, "What you said just now, about never divorcing me, is it true?"
—"In that situation, in that setting, it must have been said in anger, to deliberately provoke Mr. Qin, to make Qin Yan give up hope. It's not possible that just because I helped him this time, he would change his opinion of me, and then crazily fall in love with me, right?"
—"Oh no, oh no!"
Thinking about the scene where she had made a scene in front of Mr. Qin just now, Xun Xinyi regretted it.
—"If I had known that he would fall madly in love with me like this, I wouldn't have been so aggressive just now, all because I didn't want to be made a cuckold!"
Ye Yang's cold eyes swept over her, "It's fake."
Xun Xinyi breathed a sigh of relief.
—"...That's a relief, back to that annoying feeling from before."
She forced out a face of sorrow and distress. "Ye Yang, but I don't want..."
Ye Yang interrupted her, "Xun Xinyi, thank you for everything you did for me tonight."
Xun Xinyi's expression was as if she had seen a ghost.
—"This man can actually talk like a normal person?!"
Ye Yang leaned back and closed his eyes, "If it weren't for you today, I might..."
—"My chastity is not guaranteed!"
Xun Xinyi smiled, "It's nothing, just a small favor. Qin Yan likes you, so I have to be cautious. Husband, you saw it too, learning from past experiences, those people have ulterior motives towards you. In the future, you must be more careful, and not be deceived again. It was so dangerous today."
Ye Yang opened his eyes and gazed deeply at her, the meaning in his eyes was unclear in the dim car. "I always thought that hearing is believing and seeing is the truth, but now it seems that's not necessarily the case. You can rest assured, I'll be more careful in the future."
After a pause, he asked, "Xun Xinyi, would you deceive me like they did?"
Using a woman's intuition, Xun Xinyi sensed something unusual in Ye Yang's words.
—"What does he mean? Is he testing me? Suspecting me? Has this man, who suddenly changed his personality overnight, become suspicious?"
She couldn't affirm this for sure; she had to leave herself a way out.
She carefully considered her tone and said, "Don't get ahead of yourself. Even if I deceive you, it would be for good intentions. How could I possibly harm you like those people?"
Watertight!
—"See if you have anything else to ask."
Ye Yang slowly withdrew his scrutinizing gaze, silently turned to look out the window, and didn't say another word on the way back to the old house.
An hour later, the car slowly pulled into the Yi family's old mansion.
Chen Bo came up to them; Ye Yang asked, "Is grandpa asleep?"
"The old man hasn't slept yet."
Ye Yang nodded and turned to Xun Xinyi, "You go to sleep first, I'll talk to grandpa about something."
Xun Xinyi nodded and went back to her room with a yawn.
She didn't pay too much attention to the outcome of this matter, but from the following day, when Mr. Qin came to talk to Mr. Yi, and half an hour later, he left the Yi family with a grim expression, she knew that the relationship between the two families was probably going to fall apart.
Mr. Yi was currently recuperating at home and had no particular interests or hobbies, but he liked to spend time fishing in the lake behind the villa every day.
Xun Xinyi was just accompanying him and listening to Mr. Yi talk about the past with Mr. Xu, when she received a call from Anya saying there was a company matter that needed her to come in.
Mr. Yi waved his hand, "Sure, go ahead, work is important."
"When I have time, I'll accompany you to fish again."
After changing her clothes and returning to her room, Xun Xinyi got in Anya's car.
"What? Drugging? Is it true or not? Are you sure you didn't make a mistake?" In the car, Anya was shocked to hear Xun Xinyi's account of the events from the previous night.
Bored, Xun Xinyi continued scrolling through Weibo without looking up. "Can I still lie to you? Of course it's true. You don't know, it's the first time I've met a woman who is so brazen about being the other woman. I originally thought she had many tactics and was prepared for anything, but in the end, she had zero brains, it's boring."
"Where is Yi Yang? How did he handle this matter?"
"What else can he do? Report the matter to the police."
"Report to the police? But isn't the Yi family and the Qin family old friends? This seems ruthless."
"I'll be frank with you, Mr. Qin came this morning, but left after half an hour. I think the relationship between the two families ends here. Which man can tolerate being drugged and calculated by someone else? It's too shameful."
Anya agreed, "Yes."
"Last night I was still thinking about shining at the party, but I regret that dress you gave me."
Anya regretted upon hearing these words, "If you had told me that you were going to Qin Yan's birthday party, I would have definitely sent over the shiniest outfit for you to dominate the event!"
"Never mind, it's all in the past. Keep that dress of yours for me to dominate next time. By the way, do you know what the company wants from me this time?"
"I don't know, I also received a call at the last minute. We will find out when we get to the company," Anya frowned, "I have a feeling it's not good."
The old Yi residence is an hour's drive from the company, but they arrived in half an hour, having missed the peak traffic hours.
Tian Yu Entertainment is a company that Xu Xinyi signed with right at the start of her career. At that time, she and Yi Yang were not married, and later they had a secret marriage, a complete secret, even hiding it from the company.
The reason she chose this company at that time was because Tian Yu had many big-name stars under its umbrella and was quite famous in the entertainment industry.
But in recent years, the entertainment industry has seen a lot of turnover, with a change in the company's top management, leading to problems in management, inability to retain people, and one star after another terminating their contracts when they expired. There were also very few new talents, so now Tian Yu's position in the entertainment industry was declining day by day.
This year, there were even rumors of layoffs.
After parking, the two went straight to the office of the director.
The director of Tian Yu Entertainment is named Zhao, and his hairline is receding to the back of his head, facing the crisis that every middle-aged man would face, gaining weight and losing hair.
Upon seeing the two, Director Zhao greeted them more warmly than usual.
"Xinyi, Anya, you're here? Come, have a seat."
Xu Xinyi and Anya exchanged a glance.
His attitude was somewhat unusual.
"Director Zhao, what's the matter with you calling me and Xinyi here today?"
Director Zhao personally poured tea for the two and smiled, "It's not a big deal. Xinyi has just finished filming recently. I came to ask if she has any thoughts on new projects? I have something to discuss with you."
Xu Xinyi could see that he had something on his mind and Director Zhao was taking too long. She didn't have the patience, "Director Zhao, just tell me what you want."
Director Zhao pondered for a moment and said, "Ok, I won't beat around the bush. The thing is, the company plans to repackage you and change your image."
"Repackage?"
"Yes, Xinyi, as you know, there are too many negative rumors about you now, which is not good for your future development. So the company has decided to focus on promoting you for a while, with a dedicated team to come up with a new plan. The company has spent a lot of manpower and resources on you, so you'd better perform well."
Xu Xinyi's first reaction was disbelief, and her second reaction was that it was a scam.
She replied coolly, "Thank you for nurturing me."
"You are the company's artist, and it's only right for the company to nurture you. However..." Director Zhao smiled, "the company values your potential and believes that your personality is well-suited for variety shows. So the company hopes that you will develop in the direction of variety shows. This means that the role of the female lead in the drama 'Phoenix Road' you took on earlier may need to be changed."
Xu Xinyi sensed the underlying meaning.
She had thought the company's actions were abnormal. They first wanted to support her, and then they wanted to whitewash her, but now she understood that they were just trying to snatch the drama "Phoenix Road" from her hands.
Although Director Zhao looked quite ugly, he had some beautiful thoughts.
Snatch the role from her?
Xu Xinyi leaned back and thought, "I dare you to take it away from me."
Anya was not as calm as Xu Xinyi, and she immediately got angry, "Director Zhao, what do you mean by this? The role in this drama was promised to Xinyi earlier. Why the sudden change?"
"What do you mean by a sudden change? I just said that the company is planning to push Xinyi in the variety show direction, making it easier for her to attract fans. Once she's on a variety show, where would she find the time to work on the set? It's for Xinyi's own good. You're only looking at your immediate interests, and you're still too young after all!"
"Variety shows?" Anya retorted, "Since signing with the company, Xinyi has not been pursuing variety shows. Now you want her to abandon all her previous efforts and start afresh in variety shows?"
"This is the best arrangement!"
Anya sneered, "The best arrangement? Stop pretending. Tell me, who's getting the 'Phoenix Road' role?"
Director Zhao glanced at Xu Xinyi and suppressed his anger, took a sip of water, and said, "The company believes that Han Xing is very suitable for this role, and this decision has been thoroughly deliberated."
"Li Han Xing?" Anya snickered, "What acting skills does she have?"
Xu Xinyi pulled Anya and gestured for her to calm down and sit down.
A strong and malicious female supporting actress should remain calm at this point.
"Director Zhao, I refuse the company's nurturing. I like acting, and I will only walk the path of performance in the future. Variety shows are not suitable for me."
Director Zhao still earnestly spoke, "This is the assessment of entertainment industry professionals for you. You should believe in the company's decision, and the company won't do anything that is not in your favor!"
"So, is this matter already settled?"
"Yes, it's already decided."
Xu Xinyi sneered, "Director Zhao, if it's already decided, why bother discussing it with me? I don't care how Li Han Xing got into the boss's good graces, but I tell you, no one dares to compete with me for this role 'Phoenix Road'! I'll take her down!"
Daring to compete with her for Han Xiao, are you tired of living?
Director Zhao didn't expect Xu Xinyi to casually bring up the matter of climbing into bed, got up and pointed at Xu Xinyi, "Xu Xinyi, don't think you can bully me just because you have a bit of fame. If you dare to cause trouble again, believe me, the company will hide you!"
Xu Xinyi got up and disdainfully glanced at him, "Fine, then let's terminate the contract. I'd like to see if this play can fall into the hands of Li Hanxing."
After saying that, she gave a meaningful look to An Ya, and the two of them left, pushing the door open.
"Xu Xinyi, you've really lost your mind! Let me tell you, you have no future ahead! If you don't accept it, then wait to be hidden by the company!"
Xu Xinyi was still calm, but An Ya was so angry that she turned around and wanted to find Director Zhao to scold him three hundred times, but Xu Xinyi grabbed her.
"This is too much! What a farce! Xinyi, cancel the contract! It's a must to cancel it! Just grabbing the role, and then saying they want you to transition to variety shows, the high-sounding reasons are really disgusting!"
"Alright, don't be angry, there's no need to bother with small people. In a few days, I'll have the lawyer come to discuss the termination of the contract. I don't want to stay in such a rubbish company for a moment longer."
"But you have to pay a lot of money to terminate the contract, you..."
"It's just a termination fee, I can afford even more."
"True," An Ya laughed, "you're so rich, and I was actually worried about your termination fee."
The elevator doors opened.
Xu Xinyi hesitated for a moment.
The elevator was crowded with young, energetic, sun-kissed, handsome boys, tall and fair-skinned as if they could squeeze out water.
The average age could not be more than twenty-two.
"Hello, Sister Xinyi," they greeted in unison.
Xu Xinyi glanced at the full picture of the elevator and a hint of a hot blush spread from her neck to her ears. A mild and gentle smile appeared at the corners of her mouth. "You guys go ahead."
"Okay, Sister Xinyi."
The elevator doors closed slowly and descended.
Xu Xinyi turned to An Ya, "Who were those in the elevator just now...?"
"They're a new boy group recently promoted by the company, what's wrong?"
Xu Xinyi fell silent.
After a while, with a frown on her brow, she said seriously after thoughtful consideration, "You know, how much money would I need to buy this company?"