The car stopped slowly at Yang Xing.
“Then I’ll go to Yang Xing first.” Xie Yang reached out to open the door.
“Wait a minute.” Qiu Xing grabbed Xie Yang’s hand that was opening the door. “I… I asked Master Liao to make pigeon soup.”
Xie Yang glanced sideways at Qiu Xing and suppressed his laugh. “Wait for me to eat at noon? I will be less busy and can come over to accompany you.”
Qiu Xing was satisfied and let go.
Xie Yang leaned in to kiss Qiu Xing before opening the door and getting out. He bent over to wave at Qiu Xing in the car. Then he closed the door, stepped back and knocked on the glass of the driver’s seat to signal to Zhou Miao to drive.
Zhou Miao glanced at Qiu Xing. “Boss…”
Qiu Xing originally wanted to watch Xie Yang enter the building. He frowned when he saw this but compromised. “Let’s go.”
Zhou Miao started the car. Xie Yang took a step back and watched the car drive away. It wasn’t until the car turned and he could no longer see it that he retracted his gaze and took Wu Shui toward the inside of Yang Xing.
Something flashed in the surroundings. The moment Xie Yang’s footsteps paused, Wu Shui immediately noticed it. He ran toward the place where the light came from. The other two bodyguards disguised as passersby who were assigned to Xie Yang by Qiu Xing immediately stepped forward to protect him.
“What are you doing? I-I’m a reporter! I’m a reporter! I just took a photo.”
A thin and small man was grabbed by Wu Shui from behind a big billboard like a chicken. He held the camera in his hand and had a stunned expression as he struggled anxiously.
Xie Yang waved to the two bodyguards beside him and stepped over. He examined the reporter, motioned for Wu Shui to let go and asked, “Who are you?”
The reporter glanced at Xie Yang, smiled guiltily and reported a name. Then he quickly explained, “I didn’t mean to sneak a photo of you on purpose. I originally wanted to shoot Ke Lan. After his criminal investigation movie became popular in the middle of the year, he took on a large-scale ancient costume drama. I wanted to photograph him but caught you… coincidentally.”
“What did you use to create the reflection just now?”
“Huh? Reflection? What reflection?” The reporter was dumbfounded before reacting and taking out a small mirror from his pocket. “Maybe it is this? I accidentally took it out when I was looking for something… damn, it turned out to be like this.” He sounded annoyed as he stuffed the mirror into his backpack.
There were zero points for acting.
Xie Yang looked at the reporter’s expression and spoke pointedly. “Don’t take sneak photos like this anymore. After my last incident, Qiu Xing has become very nervous and has arranged many bodyguards for me. There are three you can see and some you can’t see. If you do this type of easy to misunderstand thing, I’m afraid you will be injured by mistake.” Then he signaled to Wu Shui and walked toward Yang Xing.
Wu Shui quickly followed. They got onto the elevator and Wu Shui couldn’t help asking, “Boss, why didn’t you have the reporter delete the photos taken?”
“There is nothing to delete.” Xie Yang looked at the elevator door that showed the reflections of himself and the bodyguards. “Go and search the media that the reporter just named.”
Wu Shui responded positively.
Xie Yang arrived at Yang Xing and first went to a meeting with the company’s senior executives to learn about Yang Xing’s development during his time of negligence. Then he chatted with Qin Cheng alone about the next work arrangements.
Qin Cheng was full of joy and spoke the moment he took his seat in Xie Yang’s office. “You came back at just the right time. The rehearsal for the Spring Festival Gala is about to begin and you have to prepare. In addition, it has been decided that ‘I See Xuanyuan’ will start airing during the Spring Festival.”
Xie Yang was surprised. “Spring Festival? So fast? I thought it would only air in March or April of next year.”
“I thought that was the case but listening to Director Zhou, this movie went well in the filming stage and later stages. It was finished early so he decided to release it ahead of schedule. Now he is fixing the files in order to squeeze it into the crowded Spring Festival schedule.”
The first day of the new year, which was the day after Valentine’s Day.
Xie Yang nodded and asked, “Do you want me to cooperate with the publicity?”
“Yes, if it is the Spring Festival schedule then you need to start promotions in January and you need to cooperate with the activities.”
“Okay.”
Qin Cheng continued, “There is also the shooting of D Brand’s spring advertisements and posters. I negotiated with the other party and decided to shoot in the country. They agreed very simply.”
Xie Yang was amused. “It seems they were scared by the discrimination last time.”
Qin Cheng also found it funny. “They are obviously scared. This time, they are very easy to talk to. From what I heard, they mean to renew your contract. You probably don’t know but your popularity abroad is almost higher than that of Eddie. The song ‘Big Ideology’ has dominated the music charts for a long time and has become a representative of anti-discrimination. Now as long as anti-discrimination is mentioned on the Internet, there will be ‘Big Ideology’. Your fans abroad hope you can make a similar song or a Y language album.”
“Let’s talk about it again later. I am busy with the new song that will be launched on New Year’s day.”
Qin Cheng instantly became more comfortable after hearing about the new song. “I was hesitating about whether to urge you to produce a new work or not. As a result, you consciously brought out a new song. It is really easy to look after you, an artist who is considerate of the agent.”
Xie Yang who didn’t write a new song because he was considerate about his agent, “…I should do this. I can’t always be idle and waste your pay.”
They chatted about the recent work arrangements before Qin Cheng put down the schedule and asked, “When are you going to resume artist activities? I have several good endorsements, magazine shoots and performance activities lined up. They are all resources and are willing to wait for you. They are very sincere.”
Xie Yang thought about it and replied, “After the Spring Festival in March. Qiu Xing’s physical condition should’ve completely stabilized by then.”
Qin Cheng was satisfied with this arrangement. He talked to Xie Yang for a bit before leaving. They headed to Rongding for lunch at noon and Wu Shui reported the search results to Xie Yang.
“It is a very small entertainment media company. It is only one year old and it mainly operates on WeChat public accounts and Weibo.”
Xie Yang nodded and commanded, “Check the reporter again.”
Wu Shui was very alert. “That reporter has a problem?”
“No, I’m worried that they have a problem. It is always right to be careful.”
Wu Shui understood and nodded. The elevator arrived and Xie Yang stepped out. Qiu Xing was waiting at the entrance of the elevator and immediately asked, “You were secretly photographed?”
Xie Yang paused and turned to Wu Shui.
Wu Shui, “……” He shook his head imperceptibly, indicating he wasn’t the one who said it.
“Wu Shui didn’t tell me. It is the other two.” Qiu Xing grabbed Xie Yang’s hand. “What’s going on.”
A small group of traitors.
Xie Yang held Qiu Xing’s hand and walked to the table where the foot was set out. He explained the secret filming process and calmly said, “So it is just a small matter. Yang Xing is an entertainment company. Paparazzi waiting there is normal. Don’t worry.”
Qiu Xing wasn’t relaxed at all. “If it is such a small thing, why do you want Wu Shui to investigate the reporter?”
The traitors said everything.
Xie Yang continued explaining, “I just think that the reporter accidentally taking out the mirror, letting the mirror reflect light so that Wu Shui and I would find him is too stupid. Therefore, I got a conspiracy theory and wondered if Tao Yang and Mu Zhouyi are behind it to test how many bodyguards there are around me.”
Qiu Xing’s face was full of ups and downs and he squeezed Xie Yang’s hand. “I’ll find someone to check that reporter.”
Xie Yang reached out a hand and pressed it against Qiu Xing’s frown.
The results of the investigation came out the same day. Just after secretly filming Xie Yang, the reporter sent a text message to his boss to resign. After finishing the formal resignation procedures, he hurried back to the company to pack his things and ran away.
Qiu Xing said, “He bought a train ticket back home today.”
Xie Yang hadn’t expected that he really guessed correctly. “It seems I was right to be careful.”
Qiu Xing’s expression became uglier. “I will arrange a few more bodyguards for you. You should try to minimize your outings from now on.”
“It can’t be reduced.” Xie Yang explained. “The rehearsals for the Spring Festival Gala are about to begin and ‘I See Xuanyuan’ is entering the publicity period. I have a lot of public itineraries.”
Qiu Xing became agitated. “However, they keep staring at you.”
“Don’t be nervous.” Xie Yang patted Qiu Xing’s shoulder. “It is a good thing to have a public itinerary. We can use it for fishing, what do you think?”
“Fishing?”
“Yes.” Xie Yang rubbed the other’s person’s forehead that was instinctively furrowed. “Rest assured, nothing will happen to me.”
***
The storm calmed down in the next few days. Rongding’s reorganization progressed smoothly and Xie Yang’s artist activities slowly resumed. His Weibo started posting business photos and Qiu Xing’s constant liking of his posts was also revived. The two of them went to work and got off work normally every day without any incidents.
The day before New Year’s day, Feng Qinglin handed over some news. Feng Chuang’s mouth finally loosened and he reported Tao Yang to the police. He stated that all of the Tao family’s trade secrets he had obtained were provided by Tao Yang.
Surprisingly, based on Feng Chuang’s confession, Tao Yang didn’t show up in person when providing him with the Tao family’s trade secrets. He deliberately asked Tao Yi, who was divorced from Feng Dian, to pass it on. In other words, Feng Chuang didn’t know where Tao Yang was.
Fortunately, with Feng Chuang’s confession and some evidence provided, Tao Yi and Tao Yang were immediately listed as criminals wanted by the police. Tao Yang’s situation changed from active hiding to passive hiding.
Due to this incident, Tao Yang was on the hot search for a long time. The few remaining Tao fans left saw that Tao Yang had turned into a criminal and were sad and disappointed. Meanwhile, the netizens who ate melons sighed. From the proud son of heaven to a wanted criminal, this difference… sure enough, he really took a step in the wrong direction.
A few hours after Tao Yang’s hot search, Xie Yang’s new song called ‘Love Value’ was launched at midnight on New Year’s day. The topic #Xie Yang’s new song Love Value# quickly became a hot search. The number of views and downloads on major music platforms also started to soar.
At the same time, Xie Yang sent a Weibo post.
[Xie Yang: If your love value could be exchanged for something, what would you exchange it for?]
This seemed like an ordinary promotional Weibo published to promote a new song but in the eyes of one person familiar with the matter, it was extremely arrogant and mocking. After sending the Weibo post, Xie Yang turned off his phone. He lay down in Qiu Xing’s arms and closed his eyes, officially eating away at the last system fragment in his ability core.
He had a small guess. Since all the data related to Mu Zhouyi was retained in the system fragments and there had been attempts to return to Mu Zhouyi, would the key programs of the system still retain the function of locating and locking onto her?
If there was something like this, finding Mu Zhouyi would become an extremely simple task.