Because during the previous competition, he had to make notes on the lyrics and things like that, he recognized Li Chu’s handwriting—it was very unique, a bit rounded, and looked just as cute as the person himself.

But, “Phantom Thief.”

What a classic, overly dramatic code name.

It made him chuckle for a moment.

He quickly regained his composure and shot a cautious glance at the people from the company who were watching him.

In one day, Zhou Heng’s perception had changed drastically. His own company was no longer what he had once thought it was. And now, Su Ning, the Young Master Su, had taken on a completely different image in his eyes—a warm and polite person, especially compared to his previous company that had been rather unreasonable.

His phone had been taken away yesterday, but the assistant from the company next to him still had hers. Since they had been more familiar before, she quietly informed him of some things happening outside.

He learned about the events from last night. He found out that the “dormitory” Su Ning had prepared for them had trended on Weibo. Aside from being overly luxurious, the most important thing was how considerate it had been. Even though they hadn’t returned as promised, the official Weibo account hadn’t come out to scold them. Instead, they remained neutral, calming down the fans who had been arguing.

That was when Zhou Heng finally worked up the courage to ask his assistant to borrow her phone to call Su Ning and deliver a message.

He didn’t expect the response to come so quickly, and he definitely didn’t expect it to come in such… a strange form.

His impression of his teammates also changed a little.

Although they hadn’t become close friends during the competition, he knew that at least they weren’t bad people. But… were they really this dramatic?

He held the note and walked back to the dressing room, his mood already quite different.

The three people who had left with him were all together, and this allowed him to clearly see that both Pinnacle Agency and Yaoguang Entertainment were essentially on the same page—or, rather, that Yaoguang, a small company, was just clinging to the big one.

He also overheard a few words mentioning that it wasn’t just about poaching people, but that they had also deliberately targeted Su Ning.

Zhou Heng had always thought that the big matters of the company were none of his business, but now that they had affected him, he couldn’t claim it had nothing to do with him.

The advertisements outside hadn’t started shooting yet, mainly because of Lin Zhi.

He watched Lin Zhi, whose personality was soft but not to the point of being unable to discern right from wrong. The company wouldn’t let him leave and insisted that he film this commercial. He didn’t want to, so he had started crying this morning, his eyes red, and no amount of lighting, retouching, or makeup could hide it. The person in charge at Yaoguang was furious, looking like he might strike someone.

It was only after Wang Ruoyi stepped in to smooth things over that Lin Zhi was pulled back to the dressing room, essentially saving him.

The three of them weren’t close during the previous variety show, but now they had become a kind of fate-bound group, gradually growing closer.

As for not being able to return to the team in time, it wasn’t just Zhou Heng who was anxious, the other three were also uneasy, but they didn’t know what to do.

“We need to go,” Zhou Heng whispered to them when there was a gap in the crowd. “Look, someone’s here to pick us up.”

He showed the note to the other two.

Wang Ruoyi hesitated, “How are we getting out? I do want to leave, but what about the people from the company…”

“After last night, do you still think this company actually sees us as people? What good resources? They’re just forcing us to stay here!”

The two of them fell silent for a moment after hearing this.

“I worked so hard to debut on Idol Star Map because I wanted to be like the idols from Qilin Entertainment, staying popular for a long time, not like this,” Zhou Heng shook his head. “I don’t want to stay here as some object. If I have to be an object in this industry, then I want to be one that’s more valuable, one that’s more human.”

Looking at all the previous examples from the selection shows, everyone knew clearly that things like “unique beauty” weren’t really that important. Fans might talk about it, but at times like this, the most important thing was maintaining the unity of the idol group. Without enough solo ability, it was better to build up popularity and resources during the team’s time rather than making independent decisions—self-destruction.

Not to mention, the resource gap they were receiving was already quite obvious. Their debut positions were still in the bottom three, and the higher-ranking members’ popularity gave them more of the bonus. No matter how you looked at it, they wouldn’t be losing out.

“Instead of all this, I want to shoot the V Magazine cover with everyone,” Zhou Heng said. “I want to be a little more famous, famous enough to have a say, so that Pinnacle will respect me and never dare to treat me like this again.”

He was the oldest and most determined in the group, and the others just listened, still a bit dumbfounded. But it was Lin Zhi who spoke up first.

He sniffled and said, “Yeah. Let’s go, I… I want to go to Xiangshan Bieyuan and raise a cat.”

He had also secretly heard about what happened last night.

So, the three of them silently made up their minds.

Once an idol decides to leave, no one can stop them.

Moreover, this was just a filming location. Many filming spaces in this building were open, and other advertisements were being shot here too. It wasn’t an impregnable fortress.

Even though there were people from the company watching, if idols wanted to do something private, it wouldn’t be possible to keep an eye on them every second.

First, Lin Zhi, pretending to be pitiful, said he wanted to change clothes. But once he entered the changing room, he never came out. When they went in to check, they saw the window on the wall was open. The small window was high and narrow, and no one knew how he managed to crawl through.

During this time, there wasn’t a single sound, so it looked like someone was helping him from the outside. The ladder outside the changing room window had even been left out in the hallway.

Thinking back, Lin Zhi had practiced acrobatics as a child.

Then, Zhou Heng, who had gone into the restroom, suddenly disappeared as well.

At the time, the only person seen entering or leaving was an elderly man dressed as a janitor, and some models who were filming costume shots in the nearby space, all of whom were nearly 1.9 meters tall, completely unlike Zhou Heng.

Moreover, when these people entered and exited, the bodyguards at the door could hear Zhou Heng’s faint singing from inside, but didn’t think much of it.

After waiting too long, they called someone in to check, and the person was gone.

When they lost two people, the scene turned chaotic.

Then, Wang Ruoyi disappeared as well.

The clients at the shooting site were completely confused, even wondering if there was some sort of black hole or if something supernatural had happened in the middle of the day.

Everyone was running around like headless flies, until they found that the “Phantom Thief” team who had taken the three away had left a maple leaf with words written on it, just like the ending of a movie.

——Can’t catch me.

Flipping it over, there were more words.

——Heh heh.

The maple leaf had been casually picked up from the bottom of the building.

The morning’s “mission” had gone very smoothly for the fledgling “Phantom Thief” team, especially Li Chu.

He seemed particularly skilled at this, quickly surveying the scene, formulating a plan, and even creating some noise to distract the bodyguards—something he had decided on.

Qu Shoubai, as the reliable team leader, helped refine the initial idea, while Ji Mowei and Rui Song were highly effective in carrying out the plan. Though these four weren’t very familiar with each other before, after this event, they quickly realized each other’s strengths and started working in perfect harmony.

After the three people who had left returned to the group, the bus carrying them sped away towards the V Magazine location.

It wasn’t in Hai Cheng, so after calculating the time, they’d just make it.

Although the plan had been prepared, it was still a little chaotic running away. Lin Zhi almost tripped while escaping, but after getting on the bus, he didn’t cry. He just sat there, smiling dumbly, catching his breath, and then chuckling loudly.

The seven of them reunited, almost feeling like they had survived a calamity, and it seemed as though everyone was trying to get closer.

Of course, it wasn’t just the four of them involved in this variety game. Su Ning was also worried about them getting hurt or actually getting caught, so the director’s team had arranged for some helpers—just like the “black-clad” people you often see in variety shows.

They disguised themselves as ordinary crew members, wearing hidden cameras, and blended into the filming site, capturing the whole process. Then, just like in the movies, they took the people away.

It was truly a perfect variety performance.

The cameras had been rolling the whole time, so Zhou Heng didn’t say much but whispered an explanation, “Uh, we didn’t mean to not come back, it’s just that…”

He knew that their absence from yesterday had caused some trouble for his teammates, so he felt a little guilty.

“It’s fine,” Rui Song, who had been angry earlier, waved his hand. “Su Ning has explained it to us. You don’t need to apologize, we’re all teammates. I understand.”

The atmosphere in the group immediately lightened up.

The bus soon arrived at the V Magazine shooting site. The fashion industry was always prideful, but when the deputy editor heard the news, she was worried at first. However, seeing that all seven of them had arrived on time, she said nothing further and warmly greeted Su Ning with a handshake.

“Mr. Su,” she said, “I’ve heard so much about you.”

Su Ning shook her hand in return, “Looking forward to working together.”

In reality, this “variety” event wasn’t just about rescuing the idols, it also perfectly aligned with the theme the magazine wanted to do for the cover. Moreover, this commercial shoot had its own business value.

When the idols entered the dressing room, Su Ning stayed behind to talk to the deputy editor about more internal matters.

This Glory magazine cover wasn’t easy to get, and the fans were really surprised. Aside from the popularity boost, the important part was that it was a brand push—a luxury brand called “Simu” was launching a new line of perfumes during the period and was looking to have a group endorsement.

But big brands usually had a trial period for endorsements. The V Magazine cover was a preliminary collaboration to test the effect. Regular displays couldn’t really impress “Simu.”

Su Ning knew very well that fashion magazines, in the strictest sense, were just high-end advertising booklets.

This showcase wasn’t just about fashion resources but also represented a certain level of commercial value. He wanted to secure this cover for the group and, at the same time, get them higher-end group endorsements.

For any group’s first official endorsement, they either choose a well-known big brand or a high-class luxury brand.

Don’t underestimate endorsements. The brand quickly produces materials, and though there was still some time before their new album came out, these resources were needed to energize the fans and maintain their popularity.

Since it was a brand push, you could see commercial traces hidden in every detail of the shooting location.

This perfume series was characterized by a cold, woody fragrance, so the theme of the shoot was also serious and cold. The outfits and makeup were mainly in black and grey, and it was held outdoors, with a famous, experienced, and demanding fashion photographer.

This was Glory’s first time shooting for a fashion magazine cover, and unlike the regular photo shoots for variety shows, the photographer’s “feel” was hard for many newbies to grasp, resulting in poor outcomes, often criticized by the public for lacking fashion sense.

But maybe because they had recently played “agents” and “phantom thieves,” even the cute-faced members quickly understood the photographer’s requirements.

Cold, serious, but with an alluring look in their eyes, they also captured that subtle sense of strength perfectly.

The shoot progressed quickly, and even the experienced deputy editor standing by kept nodding.

“For newcomers, their expressiveness is already very strong. It’s like they’ve had real experience.”

She affirmed.

The shoot went smoothly. With seven people, aside from the cover, there were also inner pages to shoot. The progress was so fast that they filmed from afternoon to night. By the time Su Ning dropped them back at Xiangshan Bieyuan, everyone was exhausted.

But despite the exhaustion, they couldn’t help but feel excited.

Today, they learned that in addition to the V Magazine cover, there was also a Simu endorsement hidden behind it. So even though they were slumped in the car seats, they couldn’t help but discuss their performances with their teammates, like they had endless things to talk about.

But just before they arrived at the villa, Su Ning, sitting at the front, took a phone call. Everyone in the car only heard him say one word, “Pinnacle?” and the atmosphere instantly went quiet.

Without even thinking, they knew it was the furious Pinnacle agent, Allen.

“Su Ning, is this really necessary?!” he shouted through the phone. “I can’t believe how rude and violent you’re being—this is unbelievable…”

There was a string of English swearing mixed in, which Su Ning didn’t care for—halfway in, neither English nor Chinese.

This guy was really something. He only started by blaming others, as if the same tactics hadn’t been used by him before. When someone else used them on him, he couldn’t handle it.

Thinking back, when Allen had stormed back to the country, everything was already settled. He had no idea about Su Ning’s actions; all he knew was how he’d spread rumors about persuading Liang Zong and the old man. He believed Su Ning would keep relying on words, forgetting the earlier statement “Why should I persuade you?”

Su Ning chuckled as he listened to Allen rant.

“Don’t you find this ironic?”

“I already have control over Guang Ying Entertainment and its assets. Having come this far, if I still need to use ‘persuasion,’ then wouldn’t all my efforts be in vain?”

“I’ve shown you some respect because of our family ties, but don’t push your luck. Am I right, Cousin Shen?”

When Su Ning said that name, the idols, who had been quietly listening, suddenly perked up, as if they had just heard some gossip. They leaned in closer, eager to know more.

Wow, this is juicy!

I’ve got to hear this!

Not everyone knew about Su Ning’s relationship with Shen Film Industry’s young boss. They didn’t have a big wedding, and the connection with Pinnacle was still unclear… My God.

It sounded just like the kind of rich family drama you see in TV shows!