They surrounded me right after the breakup.

Liu Meng leaned against the headboard, the light from her phone screen reflecting on her face.

Xiao Xiao's last message was still hanging in the chat box, but she didn't reply.

That girl has said enough, so much that her brain is now completely muddled.

Liu Meng put her phone on the bedside table, turned over, and stared at the ceiling.

Jiang Han looks great in his dark gray shirt today.

When he answered his mother's call, his tone was so natural, as if he had rehearsed it countless times.

Liu Meng went through these images in her mind, then neatly folded them and put them into the drawer in her mind that she shouldn't think about.

I closed the drawer and shut my eyes.

Liu Meng knew very well that this was not love.

She had seen how her sisters truly fell for it.

Qiu Siyao's eyes light up when she talks about the Jianghan Plain.

When Lin Yaoyao clung to him, she was like a cat that couldn't be separated from its owner.

Shen Qingning gave her all willingly without a trace of regret.

She didn't have any romantic feelings for Jiang Han; she just thought he was reliable, easy to manage, and dependable in crucial moments.

Like a partner you never have to worry about letting you down, but that's not love.

At least not now, and Liu Meng doesn't intend for it to become love.

She's 28 this year, not 18.

An 18-year-old girl can lose her appetite for someone, but a 28-year-old woman has to build a barrier before she can even fall in love.

She has a company to manage, a mother to deal with, and a bunch of sisters to maintain.

My life is already crowded enough; I don't need to cram in a man I shouldn't like.

Good feelings fade away if left unchecked.

Liu Meng reached for her phone, scrolled to Jiang Han's profile picture, and typed a few words.

"Thank you for today."

My thumb hovered over the send button for two seconds, then I deleted it.

I typed "Are you asleep yet?" again, then deleted it.

In the end, nothing was sent.

……

The next morning, Star Moon Media.

Jiang Han sat in his office, with the music department's market weekly report spread out in front of him.

When Fang Chongwen pushed open the door, he was carrying a document, and his expression was more tense than usual.

"Chairman Jiang, Shan Yichun's new song was released online at midnight today."

Fang Chongwen placed the documents on the table.

Within six hours of its release, it garnered over two million views.

Universal Music launched Google Play on its splash screen, featured it on its homepage, and pushed it through short videos, covering an even wider range of channels than when it initially promoted Mao Buyi.

Jiang Han opened the music platform, and Shan Yichun's poster was displayed in the most prominent position on the homepage, with her eyeliner upturned and the corners of her mouth slightly raised.

The poster reads: "A rising star in vocal talent, showing you with his voice, what's wrong with giving it a try?"

The top comments section was dominated by fans controlling the narrative.

"When my sister opens her mouth, it's like a scene from a god."

"Women must be their own leading ladies!"

"I love it!"

Fang Chongwen sat down opposite him, his tone laced with suppressed anger.

"Jiang Guangyao is throwing away Global Times' entire fortune this time."

"He staked the entire quarter's marketing budget on it. If it didn't work, he would replace him. The data team predicted that it would enter the top three of the new song chart in the first week and break into the overall chart within two weeks."

Jiang Han leaned back in his chair: "How's the song itself?"

Fang Chongwen paused for a moment: "The production quality is not bad, but that's all. It can only be considered competitive in the market."

"It's all about throwing money at it."

"Yes! Use channel density to compensate for the depth of the work."

"The advantage of this approach is its stability, but the disadvantage is its high cost. Universal's marketing and distribution costs for this round are at least three times that of our promotion of 'Sorrow'."

Jiang Han closed the document.

"Jiang Guangyao was using Shan Yichun as a guinea pig, throwing money at her to create a case so that new people would dare to sign contracts later."

"But there's a fatal problem: not everyone is Mao Buyi; her original creative ability is insufficient."

"The first song can be created by throwing money at it, but what about the second one? The popularity can be created by throwing money at it, but users will just listen and leave."

"That's what I meant too," Fang Chongwen continued.

"Linghua and Zeng Yi's new song 'Moonlight over the Lotus Pond' will be ready for the studio next week, and Xiao Mao's second album project is also nearing completion."

"I suggest we don't let Universal Music lead us by its own tune. Let them do what they want, and we'll go our own way."

"Add 5% to the marketing budget." Jiang Han picked up his teacup. "Don't compete with Universal Music in terms of money, but rather with their timing."

"They generated buzz with one song for half a month, so we released two songs together."

"Users may not have the desire to listen to Shan Yichun's songs a second time, but we do! That's our advantage."

Fang Chongwen nodded and made a few notes in his notebook.

"There's one more thing. One of the producers in the music department resigned last week. He's going to Universal Music, and he's taking three demos with him."

"Lao Zhou did an evaluation overnight, and the three demos have been put into the elimination pool. They were not in the subsequent song release plan, so the impact is not significant, but this matter itself is worth noting."

Fang Chongwen pushed his resignation documents in front of Jiang Han: "I can't suppress it here, and I don't want to. I'll take this opportunity to get rid of people."

"Clear!" Jiang Han glanced at the materials and spoke decisively.

"Rewrite the non-compete agreements, and all core positions must sign them, with clear clauses regarding breach of contract."

"Consider those who leave as a screening process for us. Those who can be poached at a time like this shouldn't have been kept in the first place."

The internal phone on the table rang.

Fang Chongwen stood up to say goodbye, but Jiang Han called him back as he reached the door.

"Have the public relations department keep a close eye on things lately. Shan Yichun's data has improved, and Lee Myung-bak won't just throw money at it."

Fang Chongwen nodded, pushed open the door, and went out.

Jiang Han finished the last sip of tea in his cup and reopened the music platform.

Shan Yichun's poster is still on the homepage, and the fans in the comment section are uniformly controlling the comments.

Jiang Han wanted to laugh whenever he saw the words "leading lady".

Earth hasn't yet reached the level of its previous incarnation Earth in terms of exploiting female fertility.

The topic of gender antagonism is still in its nascent stage.

If he wanted to make money from this kind of topic, it would be incredibly easy for him.

They create a few controversial topics to cultivate an image of independence and self-reliance in front of women.

They love to hear things like, "Why should sisters rely on men?"

But Jiang Han really couldn't eat it; it was disgusting!

He flipped through a few pages and came across a comment from a passerby that had been buried at the bottom.

"The melody is okay, but I forget it after listening to it, so I don't really want to listen to it on repeat."

It received very few likes, but this comment revealed the truth.

Money can buy exposure, but it can't buy silence.

Outside the window, the thin mist over Jingzhou had completely dissipated, and the glass curtain wall of the office building across the street reflected the warm sunlight.

Footsteps echoed in the corridor, even more hurried than when Fang Chongwen had left.

There was a knock on the door, and Liu Jianzhou, the head of the public affairs department, pushed the door open and came in.

"Chairman Jiang, Universal Music has found a video of Linghua singing in a bar before."

"It's already been posted online, with a caption saying that the new singer that Xingyue is promoting is actually from this kind of background. We just detected an account promoting the topic."

Jiang Han took the phone and glanced at it. He deliberately dimmed the lights to make the performance venue look less respectable than the original video.

"this one?"