Arc 1.11 At the Top of the World
A couple of months later, Gu Corporation released the lens in all of their retail stores. The advertising was very effective with the help of many top actors and actresses, as well as supermodels.
The lens was initially already a revolutionary product in of itself. However, with Gu Corp's efforts in boasting it, it's popularity and demand reached new heights.
It was to be expected. After all, this world's technology was weirdly underdeveloped in places that should not have been and developed where they should have been underdeveloped.
For example, there were already notebooks and tablets in circulation. However, the mobile phone was only in the earliest stage of smartphones. Laptops were laptops, but strangely enough a genuine computer did not exist at all.
It made one wonder how the hell the people in this world's minds worked.
Nevertheless, the interactive holographic function of the lens was the greatest and most interesting thing for the common mass and nobility alike. The multifunctional aspect was also a boon and made it so that the lens could replace all other forms of technology within a few years.
With the addition of Tian Corp's top security system software installed in every product in the stores--not just the lens--with a 1-year subscription, the sales were off the charts for all products. Gu Corp's annual revenue was at its highest in history and would continue to rise throughout the next century or so.
In short, the success of Gu Corporation's collaboration with Tian Corporation was unprecedented.
Also, the news of the marriages between certain business leaders popped up one after the other.
Ou WenAn and Nan PiCi decided to clarify their relationship after settling the internal problems from the Ou side.
Internal problems? Of course, we are talking about Ou WenAn's position as heir and dealing with his biased father.
Ou WenAn was the most favorable Ou son amongst the shareholders so his position was unshakeable until the scandal.
Generally speaking, it should not have been difficult to maintain his position as heir with such incompetent brothers in the first place. Unfortunately, Ou WenAn was simply too naïve in dealing with their petty schemes.
Don't misunderstand, just because it was never mentioned, it did not mean his two other younger brothers were just lazing around the entire time. While Ou WenYan played the villain outwardly, the other two were sly and fanned the flames from behind.
There were many ways to shake their oldest brother's position. Such as, gaining the favor of the man with the largest amount of shares, father CEO Ou. He had 25% of the shares, and Ou WenAn had 20% as the heir. Younger three brothers had 10% each. The rest of the shares was split haphazardly amongst other industrial leaders among the business world.
Ou WenAn's scandal was only bad because of the unbelievable conjectures that came from seemingly nowhere--of course if one had to guess, it would probably not be hard to find traces of the two sneaky younger brothers who always tried to be low-key.
The confidence that the shareholders had in establishing OuWenAn as the next CEO was certainly shaken because of his lack of ability to guard himself from the schemes of others, but with his protagonist halo and charisma he was somehow able to regain their trust.
He settled everything by declaring to marry Nan PiCi, which satisfied the shareholders one way or another.
Yep, a declaration of marriage was all it took to quell the multitude of worries mentioned above. In actuality, there were more intricate details that could be left unsaid regarding the main couple's seemingly unreasonable invincibility.
The only reason they were mentioned at all is because Tian Xi had thrown them into the messes that they went through in the first place. Of course, they would never know about her involvement in any of it in this lifetime.
Ultimately, it was decided that as long as nothing super serious happened, Ou WenAn was guaranteed to be the next CEO and NanPiCi was to be Mrs. Ou in the future.
On the other hand, Gu Yuan's and Tian Xi's marriage was unforeseen among many. The smarter ones saw it coming because of their earlier collaboration; the desire to cement the two corporations' positions at the top was predictable.
Ou WenYan had to give up on Ou Corporation, and with this marriage declaration he even missed his chance to blackmail Tian Xi with his scandalous photos (not that they would have affected her anyway).
Many single ladies were crying and full of envy. Men felt regretful. Papa Tian was shocked and outraged at the two's decision without consulting the elders.
Tian Xi helplessly argued that he had left the matter of collaboration entirely to her. Mama Tian had to help console Papa Tian into accepting his new son-in-law.
The Gu elders were naturally happy that their gloomy son and grandson was finally settling down and could hardly wait for another heir.
In the end, they were obviously disappointed since their little heir never came to be.
Two grand marriages were announced around the same time... one ultimately outshone the other.
Nan PiCi and Ou WenAn didn't put too much importance on publicity as long as they were happy.
As for Gu Yuan and Tian Xi... Gu Yuan being Gu Yuan, he had to go all in to make it the best wedding to keep up his image as the unrivalled god of the business world.
Tian Xi just sat back and relaxed whilst rolling in the dough. They had decided to push the wedding until after their companies officially merged later, but the populace had yet to know about the matter of their companies merging.
After all, their marriage certainly screamed "creating ties to cement the position at the top," but it was not necessary to directly combine the two corporations into one since they were both well-off already.
Yet, once Tian Corporation finally evened out their revenue with Gu Corporation, another piece of news threw the public into another storm!
Funnily enough, Nan and Ou Corps' merging announcement was released at the same time as Tian and Gu Corps' merging announcement...
People couldn't help but to speculate if the 2 pairs were putting on a show for the single dogs.
It was all purely coincidence ah.
The merging of Nan and Ou Corporation could hardly be said to be as perfect as Tian and Gu's since not only were they not of equal standing prior to the combination, their individual values were also incomparably small in contrast to Tian and Gu Corps' domineering figures..
Nonetheless, the new Ounan International was definitely doing well and ranked second only to Gutian Global--abbreviated "gg."
When Tian Xi told him about the abbreviation in passing, Gu Yuan's initial reaction was a dark face, especially when he recalled the mysterious hacker that he could not trace.
In the end, he couldn't do anything about the name because it was already set in stone.
Furthermore, he had the preparation of their wedding to concentrate on now that the companies had finally combined.
"Baby, what kind of wedding dress do you prefer?" Gu Yuan considerately asked for Tian Xi's opinion as he laid beside her on the soft bed.
"Something different," she flippantly replied with her eyes closed.
"Ho? Different, en?" Gu Yuan flashed her a naughty and sly grin before "taking her measurements."
Their wedding was indeed different. He never showed her the dress he got tailored for her until the day of their wedding.
As a result, she never even got the chance to oppose the kinky white wedding dress and had to waltz down the aisle with the silently fuming Papa Tian.
While it exposed a lot of her skin, it was undoubtedly a beautiful and otherworldly dress, so she couldn't truly file any reasonable complaints aside from it being "too breezy."
To which his reply was that it suited her and his taste. Also, it really made their wedding "different" just like she wanted. He pointed to their wedding guests with his eyes full of mirth, enjoying their myriad of reactions and expressions to his peerlessly charming bride.
She exaggeratedly rolled her eyes before overbearingly kissing her groom to complete the wedding vows.