Chapter 13

Liang Yifan couldn’t help but laugh, his laughter growing somewhat manic.

Nothing starts off this bad, and neither he nor Su Xingyao did.

Su Xingyao was the first artist he had taken on when he entered this industry.

Back then, just like every newcomer, he had dreams of creating a top-tier star, and he worked wholeheartedly to build up Su Xingyao.

He knew Su Xingyao was a talented actor, so he did everything he could to secure him a role as the male second lead in a drama with a great reputation.

Su Xingyao lived up to expectations, and his debut drama performed well, gaining him a modest but important breakthrough.

For his artist to gain such attention right after debuting, Liang Yifan, as his manager, was genuinely proud and happy for him at the time.

He clearly understood that Su Xingyao had a great image and that his pairing with a popular co-star was well-received—becoming popular was only a matter of time.

But soon, Liang Yifan woke up from this dream and realized that Su Xingyao wouldn’t become a star, and he couldn’t be promoted either.

Because as soon as Su Xingyao received positive reviews and began to gain some fame, senior executives from Yingxing immediately called him in for a conversation.

With high hopes, he went in expecting praise, but instead, he was met with an entire afternoon of scolding and threats.

It was then that he truly understood.

Su Xingyao wasn’t a lucky artist who had just signed with Yingxing.

In fact, Yingxing was more of a cage that trapped him.

There were powerful people in the company who didn’t want Su Xingyao to succeed, so he couldn’t let him thrive in the entertainment industry.

After all, in this company, only the young master of the Shen family, Shen Huaixi, was worthy of the good resources.

Su Xingyao would forever remain as a mere backdrop, oppressed, excluded, and despised by all.

Liang Yifan knew full well that he wasn’t some righteous person.

He always knew how to judge the situation.

After being warned, he decisively gave up on Su Xingyao, the company’s abandoned pawn, and walked down a less than honorable but guaranteed path within the company.

After all, throwing resources at Shen Huaixi would never go wrong.

So, from that point on, he joined the ranks of those who ignored Su Xingyao, watching as the rising star slowly became mired in negative rumors and became a target of online hate.

Sometimes, he even contributed to the fire.

In this distorted company environment, no one could remain unscathed.

Memories slowly resurfaced in Liang Yifan’s mind, each detail coming back one by one.

He looked at Qin Mingchuan with a certain amusement, thinking how laughably pretentious this man was, coming to him now in a righteous fury.

Who exactly was he trying to impress with his shocked and heartbroken display?

If he truly cared about Su Xingyao, why wait until now to ask about all this?

Liang Yifan found him utterly hypocritical. He stood up and spoke with a hint of mockery in his voice, addressing Qin Mingchuan.

“President Qin, don’t tell me you don’t know anything about the company’s affairs.”

The coffee had been spilled on the floor at some point.

An entire hour had passed since Liang Yifan left.

During this hour, Qin Mingchuan had remained as still as a statue.

The coffee stains on his expensive suit had long since dried, but Qin Mingchuan didn’t seem to care at all.

His mind kept replaying the words Liang Yifan had just said.

He truly hadn’t known about the company’s issues.

But there was no denying that all of this had been allowed to happen because of his negligence.

He had had many opportunities in the past to notice these problems.

But over the years, he had only focused on being angry at Su Xingyao, never once taking the time to actually speak to him.

Even the night Su Xingyao fainted, he hadn’t said a word of concern.

If only he had asked why Su Xingyao had been running a fever, or why he had fainted that night.

He would have easily found out the cause.

But he deliberately didn’t ask…

Just like how, over the past two years, he had allowed the people in the company to bully Su Xingyao without stepping in.

Qin Mingchuan lowered his head and took out his phone, opening the audio that his assistant had sent him earlier.

It was the recording of Jiang Zihang cursing Su Xingyao in front of everyone on set.

Every word in it felt like a stab to Qin Mingchuan’s heart.

Back in school, whenever he’d overhear people gossiping about Su Xingyao behind his back, he couldn’t bear it and would go out of his way to scold them.

Yet now, because of his own inaction, everyone was free to trample on Su Xingyao.

When he first invited Su Xingyao to join Xingxing, Su Xingyao didn’t hesitate for a moment.

On the day of signing the contract, his eyes were filled with trust in him, smiling brightly.

But in the end, he had betrayed that trust.

Jiang Zihang’s words were still playing, but Qin Mingchuan could no longer bear to listen to another word. He shut off his phone, almost as if escaping.

He had never intended for Su Xingyao to endure such humiliation in front of everyone, even though he hated how Su Xingyao had used their engagement to trap him.

“President Qin.”

The assistant lightly knocked on the door three times before approaching Qin Mingchuan.

“The audio files online have been handled.”

Qin Mingchuan had listened to those files himself and found them unbearable. Now, they were all over the internet, and he didn’t want Su Xingyao to hear them and have his mood affected, so he had the assistant delete them personally.

After the assistant spoke, he paused, carefully considering his words, then told Qin Mingchuan the truth.

“All the websites that could remove them have been cleared. However… before I could handle it, someone had already started deleting these files.”

Qin Mingchuan looked up. “Was it the Shen family?”

The assistant hesitated for a moment before replying, “No.”

“The Shen family has not been involved in this at all.”

Qin Mingchuan didn’t ask further.

A figure had already flashed through his mind.

It was the person who had taken Su Xingyao away that night.

After the situation blew up so much, Jiang Zihang came forward to apologize to Su Xingyao under pressure from various sources.

Qin Mingchuan originally intended to kick Jiang Zihang out of the production team and let Su Xingyao take the lead role to make up for everything.

But in the end, he learned from the production team that Su Xingyao’s scenes had already been finished, and Su Xingyao had already left the set.

When Su Xingyao came back from the set, dragging his luggage, the first thing he saw was Lu Jiuxu, dressed in casual clothes.

He was holding a bag of tents and walking toward the garage.

This was the first time Su Xingyao had seen Lu Jiuxu not in formal attire.

Feeling a bit out of place, Su Xingyao stood there for several seconds before confirming that he wasn’t mistaken.

Perhaps it was because they hadn’t seen each other for so long, but Su Xingyao felt that Lu Jiuxu seemed different today.

After taking off his suit, he appeared more relaxed, with a new sense of casual energy, looking handsome in a way completely different from before.

It wasn’t until Su Xingyao noticed the stray strands of hair on his forehead that he suddenly realized he had always viewed him through the lens of seeing a big boss.

In reality, Lu Jiuxu was only a year or two older than him.

“I’m back.”

From a distance, Lu Jiuxu had already spotted Su Xingyao.

But for some reason, Su Xingyao stood frozen at the door, not sure of what to do.

Seeing him not move, Lu Jiuxu changed his course and walked over to his side.

Su Xingyao finally snapped out of his trance and looked down at the tent bag in Lu Jiuxu’s hand.

Curious, he asked, “Mr. Lu, are you going out for a trip today?”

Lu Jiuxu answered casually.

“Mm.”

Then he glanced at Su Xingyao’s luggage and extended an invitation.

“Would you like to go camping with me?”

“What?”

Seeing that Su Xingyao didn’t immediately understand, Lu Jiuxu patiently explained.

“There’s a meteor shower tonight.”