Despite Shen Huai’s seeming defense of him, his statement subtly confirmed the rumors that Su Ning hadn’t actually done.

Su Ning remembered the one piece of information about the original story that had been most useful, something a deputy director once joked about—that the character sharing his name, the villain Su Ning, was doomed to have his family company fail, eventually leading to Guang Ying Entertainment’s acquisition by Shen Corporation.

Even without that remark, Shen Huai’s actions alone were enough to make Su Ning cautious.

Following Shen Huai’s statement, the show’s organizers soon announced a press conference scheduled for the next day in cooperation with Guang Ying Entertainment to publicly address the issue.

The public outrage was intense enough to impact the show’s regular airing schedule. The comments beneath the statement were filled with demands for Su Ning to stop hiding and come out to apologize.

Responding personally wouldn’t make sense now; no matter what he said, he’d still be bashed. It was better to let people vent for the time being. Tomorrow’s press conference would be the right time—it gave him a bit of time to prepare.

After browsing through the trending topics, Su Ning took one last look at Shen Huai’s video, lingering on that familiar face for a long while.

The original Su Ning had feelings for Shen Huai, but they meant nothing to him. What interested him more was something else—he thought Shen Huai bore a faint resemblance to the man in the passenger seat who’d brought him back.

Of course, he wasn’t nearly as striking as that man.

Now that Su Ning’s mind was clear, the chaotic night had passed, and he could sense something was off. Before Li Chu went to sleep, he had asked him about the man in the car. Li Chu had replied earnestly, mentioning that the assistant had called the man “Young Master Shen.” Su Ning found it unlikely that this man was someone Zhou Chunqing had arranged.

Just then, a notification chimed. It was a friend request from Zhou Chunqing, who had attached a lengthy message.

“Young Master Su, sorry for disturbing you.”

“I asked around for your contact information because Li Chu probably didn’t bring his phone, and I couldn’t reach him. I’m really worried. How is he?”

Su Ning accepted the request and replied that Li Chu was resting, and that he’d arrange for him to be sent back to the company safely the next day. Zhou Chunqing instantly responded with a thank-you, followed by another long message.

“Sorry to bother you, but I found out when I arrived that my manager had driven off on his own, assuming I’d be spending the night there. He took the car to run his own errands, nearly causing a disaster. Please thank Young Master Shen for me; without his help, I might not have been able to get back.”

Another mention of this “Young Master Shen.”

Su Ning pressed her for more information and learned that when Jiang Chenfeng found out he’d successfully taken Li Chu away, he was furious. However, since Zhou Chunqing had been “out of favor” for a while due to her filming commitments, no one paid much attention to her actions. As long as she didn’t get in Jiang Chenfeng’s way, his anger wasn’t directed at her.

She explained that the people at Diao Chun Jiang had discreetly sent her away while he was still fuming, something she found puzzling since she didn’t have that kind of influence. Eventually, she learned who had arranged it.

“It was Shen Mingzheng, Young Master Shen.”

The name puzzled Zhou Chunqing even more.

She didn’t know him, but she had been safely sent home. Once there, she couldn’t resist asking around. Someone well-connected told her that Shen Mingzheng was the newly appointed executive director parachuted into Shen Corporation, so everyone in the industry called him “Young Master Shen.”

Hearing “Shen Corporation,” Zhou Chunqing assumed Su Ning had simply been lucky to bump into a helpful hand in the parking lot. After all, people knew about the close ties between Shen Corporation and Guang Ying Entertainment, so it wasn’t strange for someone from Shen’s side to lend a hand. They’d even sent a car specifically to pick her up.

Although Su Ning explained it hadn’t been his request, Zhou Chunqing continued to thank him profusely.

It wasn’t just empty politeness. Zhou Chunqing had seen the trending topics, noting that Su Ning had kept Li Chu shielded from the public eye. Otherwise, being linked to such a negative incident would have destroyed the reputation of a small, unestablished star like Li Chu. After the events of tonight, her opinion of Su Ning changed; he didn’t seem as bad as people said.

Maybe it was all a misunderstanding.

Su Ning focused on the name she’d mentioned: “Shen Mingzheng.”

In the entertainment industry, there weren’t many prominent people with the last name Shen. Shen Huai’s Shen Corporation was among the most well-known. According to what Su Ning remembered, there was no Shen Mingzheng in the Shen Corporation’s upper management before he’d entered the show’s closed training. So Su Ning hadn’t recognized him when they met.

If Shen Mingzheng was a recent addition, his entry was far from ordinary. More importantly, the person who’d spoken to Zhou Chunqing hadn’t introduced him as someone from “Shen Corporation,” but rather from “the Shen family.”

To most, this might seem like an insignificant distinction, but Su Ning knew the difference.

From his memories, Su Ning knew that “Shen” was a special name in the entertainment industry. It wasn’t just because of Shen Corporation.

In reality, the Shen family was a sprawling and powerful entity that had flourished in the entertainment world for generations. Although not publicly visible, its reach extended across the industry, from large cinema chains and theaters to influential media networks. Even the biggest private television station in Hong Kong belonged to the Shen family. They had vast investments in countless well-known companies and, as a true family dynasty, had a web of connections that was both deep and intricate.

Such a family had enough clout to quietly whisk Zhou Chunqing away from a place like Diao Chun Jiang, all while Jiang Chenfeng, one of their biggest clients, fumed. Su Ning, the sole heir of Guang Ying Entertainment, didn’t have that kind of influence.

This Shen Mingzheng was not simple.

Though they’d never met, this man had appeared out of nowhere at the parking lot in Diao Chun Jiang and taken him away. This wasn’t something Shen Huai could have orchestrated; if it were, Shen Huai would have mentioned it by now.

Just who was this person?

As Su Ning pondered the question, Chen Tao, Shen Mingzheng’s assistant driving the car at that moment, was asking himself the same thing.

He had only recently been assigned this position and didn’t fully understand his new boss, Shen Mingzheng.

Shen Mingzheng was reportedly the legitimate grandson of the Shen family’s head—a direct descendant. The family head’s only daughter, once deeply cherished, had supposedly left the family years ago after a fierce disagreement, never returning. Shen Mingzheng was her child, a son who only recently discovered his lineage and reconnected with his family. Soon after, he was placed in Shen Corporation as executive director. Even Shen Ting treated him with respect.

Since he’d only returned as an adult, many within the family called him “wild child” behind his back. Although the family head had tearfully accepted him, there was no official ceremony to formally recognize Shen Mingzheng’s return to the family. Not long after, he had been moved from the family’s base in the capital to Shen Corporation in Haicheng.

The main family held shares in Shen Corporation, but the company’s modest scale didn’t capture their interest, and they rarely interfered. Whether this was an exile or a test was unclear.

As his assistant, Chen Tao hoped it was the latter.

Chen Tao, far from a simple assistant, had worked within Shen Corporation’s enterprises for nearly twenty years since returning from studying abroad, rising to become a trusted elder in his forties. His position now made him more of a right-hand man for a successor-in-waiting. Thanks to his diligence and experience, he quickly gained Shen Mingzheng’s trust, and often accompanied him.

However, he found the young man hard to read.

In truth, Shen Mingzheng was an ideal boss. Though he lacked the family’s elite education, he understood the entertainment industry well, picking things up quickly and demonstrating an instinct even sharper than some prepared successors in the family.

For instance, shortly after joining Shen Corporation, Shen Mingzheng led the investment in Idol Star Map’s fourth season, investing heavily as the show’s main backer. He personally oversaw many of the program’s structural and technical changes.

No one expected Idol Star Map’s fourth season to explode in popularity after the first three were lukewarm at best. The success silenced many critics within the Shen family and secured Shen Mingzheng’s footing within Shen Corporation, proving he wasn’t merely occupying a spot by virtue of family ties. People in the industry respectfully addressed him as “Young Master Shen.”

It seemed everyone had realized that if this “wild child” achieved enough, his blood ties put him near the top of the succession line.

This young man remained calm and modest despite his recent success, another reason Chen Tao was willing to stay by his side.

But he seemed to hold many secrets.

For example, why had Young Master Shen decided to visit Diao Chun Jiang tonight to pick up Li Chu?

Tonight, only the two of them had come, making it obvious this was a personal decision by Shen Mingzheng. This was his first private matter in the last few months.

It might make sense if he knew Su Ning, but knowing Li Chu, an idol who hadn’t even debuted, was curious. And how did he know they were at Diao Chun Jiang tonight?

If they were old acquaintances, it didn’t seem that way from Li Chu’s reaction.

A smart assistant doesn’t pry, but Chen Tao was genuinely curious.

As they waited at a red light, Chen Tao took the chance to speak, trying to offer reassurance, “Young Master Su’s a bit of an airhead with a terrible personality, but he doesn’t seem to have ulterior motives toward Li Chu. If he wanted to harm him, he wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of taking him from Diao Chun Jiang. It probably wasn’t a great idea for us to bring Li Chu away.”

“Rest assured, Li Chu’s safe.”

He noticed his boss glance over at him.

“I wasn’t worried about Li Chu’s safety,” Shen Mingzheng replied. “With Su Ning, it’s unlikely he’ll get the better of someone like Li Chu. Don’t worry about him.”

Chen Tao: ?

Did he hear that right? Li Chu, who looked so young and small, practically a rabbit compared to Su Ning—was his boss really serious?

Shen Mingzheng didn’t clarify, instead gesturing for him to keep driving.

Almost no one knew Li Chu yet. Chen Tao was probably bewildered why his boss knew an obscure idol.

Shen Mingzheng couldn’t explain his reason to anyone.

After all, he’d known Li Chu in a previous life and understood he wasn’t as simple as he appeared.

In a past life… if it hadn’t happened to him, Shen Mingzheng wouldn’t have believed in such an absurd thing as “rebirth.”

But what was even more ridiculous than rebirth was the fact that this world was a cheesy, melodramatic tragedy.

Shen Mingzheng knew he was the protagonist.

At the end of his last life, as his memories flashed like a reel, he’d accepted this truth.

No wonder, he thought. Only this could explain why he had led such a miserable existence, as if fate itself had been against him from the start.

He couldn’t help recalling his first life—if he could call it that. Shen Mingzheng’s early years had been plagued by misfortune. His mother had died from complications after childbirth, and his once-gentle father had become a bitter alcoholic, seeing him as the cause of her death.

In his early teens, he scraped by, street-performing with a beaten guitar, using his voice to pay his way through school.

The talent that had both saved and cursed him.

After being scouted by Guang Ying Entertainment, young and full of hope, Shen Mingzheng entered the industry—only to encounter Su Ning as his first real obstacle.

That was about the same time as now.

Staring out the car window at the neon lights, Shen Mingzheng’s mind filled with more memories.

Su Ning, the talentless heir of Guang Ying Entertainment, had crashed and burned on a reality show, only to forcibly enter the industry to shed his “useless” image. He took Shen Mingzheng’s compositions and choreography for his own, gaining popularity and momentarily salvaging his reputation.

Su Ning’s failure to debut on the show led him to treat Shen Mingzheng as his blood bank.

Shen Mingzheng discovered too late that his contract with Guang Ying Entertainment was a trap. Not only was he helpless to reclaim his work, but he risked being countersued, saddled with unpayable debt.

Of course, Shen Mingzheng wasn’t the only victim of Guang Ying Entertainment and Su Ning. Li Chu was another trainee caught in the mess.

Li Chu, who’d joined Guang Ying to debut quickly and earn money to free his sister from Jiang Chenfeng, was unceremoniously removed from Idol Star Map Season 4 after Su Ning decided his dance skills made him too much of a threat.

Li Chu could wait, but his sister, stuck under Jiang Chenfeng’s thumb, couldn’t.

And tonight, Shen Mingzheng knew exactly what had happened.

Li Chu, under someone’s orders, had used himself as bait to capture dirt on Su Ning and Jiang Chenfeng, triggering a scandal that halted Idol Star Map Season 4 and plunged Guang Ying Entertainment into public scrutiny, eventually leading to its downfall and acquisition.

All these events were like a domino effect of Su Ning’s bullying, falling in a sequence that Shen Mingzheng had once experienced.

In that past life, Shen Mingzheng had fought hard to gather evidence against the company’s exploitation, enduring endless trials, only to realize he’d ultimately paved the way for Shen Huai and his family branch to take over Guang Ying Entertainment.

By the time Shen Mingzheng learned the truth, it no longer mattered.

Because behind it all, Shen Huai, the Film Emperor who’d retired to inherit his family’s business, had used various means to acquire Guang Ying Entertainment, cementing his place as a candidate for the Shen family’s main heir.

And so began Shen Mingzheng’s long, painful journey of betrayal and loss.

After all, it was a tragedy.