I was exposed for adding my female boss to my group of female friends.

Li Xingliang nodded in agreement, smiled slightly, and lowered his head.

The vice president of Rhea stood up, bowed and scraped as he handed over the wine glass, his face beaming with a smile, and said:

"That's right. We also felt that Xingliang's value and advantages could be better brought into play under Haiya's management. We also parted ways with him amicably. Come on, Mr. Lu, let me toast you."

His wine glass hovered in mid-air, but Lu Qingzhou did not raise it in response. Instead, he pointed and said:

"I'm not trying to be mean, but do you think I didn't hear the sarcasm in your words?"

The vice president of Rhea's face changed: "President Lu, I didn't..."

"You think that Li Xingliang and Jiang Xinhai had a conflict, and you sacrificed a pawn to save the king, sidelining Xingliang so that we could take over, and you'd make a huge profit, right? You're very happy, aren't you?"

The vice president of Leia smiled and said, "President Lu, you're overthinking it. To show my sincerity, I'll drink first, and you can drink as you please."

He tilted his head back, drank it all in one gulp, and then showed the glass to Lu Qingzhou.

Lu Qingzhou raised his glass, touched it to his lips, and then slowly said, "Let me tell you, if that's what you think, then you're wrong."

He looked up, pointed at Li Xingliang with his chin, and said, "Xingliang is a talented person. You guys are the ones who picked up the sesame seeds but lost the watermelon."

Li Xingliang straightened his back subtly.

"Don't chuckle to yourself, and don't think we're easy targets. Let me tell you, Xingliang is the only star who has risen to prominence in the past five years outside of our Aihua ecosystem. He's the only one."

He repeated the word "unique," extended his index finger, and waved it in the air.

"If our ecosystem absorbs him, it will be like filling the last missing link, and our entire strategic map of Aihua will be completely complete."

Lu Qingzhou got a little carried away with his words after drinking. He was getting excited, but the leaders of Leia looked rather displeased.

Wang Qian knew that she should stand up and save face at this moment.

She smiled and said, "President Lu, although Xingliang is indeed very good, our company is undergoing a strategic transformation and is paying more attention to the development of music itself and the cultivation of creative artists. Compared to Jiang Xinhai, Xingliang's style is not quite suitable."

Lu Qingzhou shook his head and said, "Wrong, wrong, terribly wrong. How can Jiang Xinhai be compared to Li Xingliang?"

He grabbed a wine glass from the table, swirled it, and then said, "You can only see that Jiang Xinhai's ranking data surpassed Li Xingliang's for a moment, but do you know the data from the back end?"

Everyone looked at Lu Qingzhou with suspicion.

He grinned.

“We hadn’t made up our minds to acquire Li Xingliang yet, but after seeing the paid data, we immediately made the decision.”

"Although Jiang Xinhai's popularity was ultimately twice that of Li Xingliang, Li Xingliang's fans had a paying rate three times that of Jiang Xinhai's fans!"

"What does this show? It shows that Li Xingliang's fans are of extremely high quality. Despite having a much smaller audience than Jiang Xinhai, he can still perform so well, which is enough to demonstrate his value."

After saying that, he turned to Wang Qian beside him and said, "What's wrong? You look like you're not convinced."

Wang Qian thought for a moment and said, "Mr. Lu, have you read 'The Poetic Life'?"

"I haven't seen it, why?"

“If you see it, you’ll know how amazing Zhichi, who wrote the song for Jiang Xinhai, is,” Wang Qian said. “He can handle any song and has won numerous awards abroad.”

"If such a talented person returns to China and starts writing songs for Jiang Xinhai again, she will definitely become popular again."

Lu Qingzhou smiled.

Not only did he laugh, but everyone else at Haiya Company laughed too.

They laughed easily, looking very confident.

Wang Qian couldn't understand why they were laughing like that.

She felt that they definitely hadn't read "The Poetic Life".

Even if they haven't read "The Poetic Life," with so many posts explaining JX these days, they should know something about it, right?

Where do they get their confidence that they don't even give JX any face?

After laughing, Lu Qingzhou slowly took a sip of red wine, his smile still lingering, and said:

"You forgot something."

"What?" Wang Qian looked a little confused.

“The JX you’re talking about is the former head of Haiya Company!” Lu Qingzhou said.

After he finished speaking, everyone laughed again.

Wang Qian only came to her senses at this moment.

That's right!

How could I have forgotten about this?

JX is Zhichi, and Zhichi is the person who co-founded Haiya Company with Jiang Xinhai.

Although neither of them are now with Haiya Company, Haiya Company definitely understands JX better than their company, Raya!

Lu Qingzhou turned to look at the person sitting one seat away at the table and said:

"Qi Xiaochun, you are a veteran of two dynasties, and you came here with Jiang Xinhai and Zhichi. Tell me, what kind of person is JX?"

All eyes turned to her, and there sat a female office worker in a black suit, who was sitting there with a serious expression as she pushed up her black-rimmed glasses.

Everyone was somewhat astonished. This girl looked young and unremarkable; they never expected that she was someone who had been with Jiang Xinhai and JX.

"If I were to give an objective evaluation of JX, I would say that he is a giant in terms of creativity but a dwarf in terms of business management."

Qi Xiaochun bluntly expressed his comments about his former employer.

"He created many popular works, but in terms of business, he relied entirely on his own preferences. He seemed confident that he could tell which artists would become famous and which would not just by listening to their voices. Therefore, the company was run entirely according to his personal preferences."

"Like Second Hand Rose, who were previously signed by the company, they sang terribly and were criticized by countless viewers, but the company insisted on promoting them."

"And then there's Omnipotent Youth Society, which claimed to produce their own albums, but ended up doing so for ten years, during which time they were completely supported by their company for free."

"He also signed a girl named Yao Beina, who was already ill with a terminal illness. He knew this, but he still signed her. The company spent millions to treat her illness."

"I remember there was also a guy named Zhou Qian, who was a boy but had a girl's voice. He was the only artist who received a good market response, and JX actually let him go solo and open his own studio!"

At this point, a hint of excitement finally appeared on Qi Xiaochun's usually cold face, and a blush crept onto her cheeks.

"Did you know? Back then, nine out of ten artists signed by the company were losing money. Can you imagine? Jiang Xinhai was so popular at the time, but the company's revenue was still showing a loss on paper!"

"It was precisely because of this kind of business practice over the years that the company's shareholders collectively protested, and ultimately JX left in disappointment."

"I think that someone like JX should focus on creating content and not be in charge of business. Perhaps leaving Haiya Company would be a better choice for him."

After hearing her story, everyone fell silent.

Wang Qian even felt a sense of disillusionment.

She now even has some doubts about JX's solo venture into Europe and America, leading several bands and causing a stir in the foreign music scene.

After letting Qi Xiaochun finish speaking, Lu Qingzhou swirled his wine glass.

The crimson liquid swirls in the glass, reflecting the dazzling lights throughout the room.

“His band was able to become popular and make money abroad because he encountered a company with strong management capabilities. Otherwise, think about it,” he leaned on the table and glanced at everyone in the room, “if he was really that talented, able to make every song a hit, then why would he leave Haiya Company and leave China?”

"Why not just stay in China and make music? He has his own company and his own career; once it's established, it can last for many years. Why go abroad?"

No one can answer this question.

They can't even come up with an explanation.

Only Li Xingliang, sitting across the table, was still there, grinning sweetly.

“The answer is that he can’t do it,” Lu Qingzhou said. “His model has already been proven wrong in China, and Aihua’s approach is the right one.”

Wang Qian said somewhat indignantly, "But he still became famous abroad."

“Doesn’t that further prove that his model is outdated?” Lu Qingzhou’s smile widened. “You should know that the Chinese music scene is much more advanced than the entertainment industry abroad.”

Wang Qian's eyes widened slightly: "Are you sure?"

"Ahem." A vice president from Raya coughed, reminding Wang Qian to watch her words.

Lu Qingzhou, however, seemed unconcerned and said:

"Currently, the Chinese music scene is the most advanced in the world. Just look at the financial reports. Our output per unit is much higher than that of Europe and America. If we develop for a few more years and increase the absolute number of products, our output value will definitely be higher than that of Europe and America."

After saying that, he added, "Look, JX, whom we defeated, ran away overseas and ended up killing indiscriminately. Doesn't that prove that we are the true kings of witchcraft? Hahahaha..."

His employees all laughed along with him.

……

"A Poetic Life" has been off the air for three hours.

During those three hours, the members of the small team sat in the room, waiting so long that they were dizzy and seeing stars.

Sitting away from the others, Yingzi was talking quietly with Yan Yunzhuo.

“Master, how about editing this Weibo post? ‘Sing your own songs well, don’t be a mouthpiece for Europe and America.’”

Yingzi glanced at it and pointed out, "Changing Europe and America to foreigners would make it feel more natural."

"As expected of my master."

Yan Yunzhuo used his phone to edit the text, and the accompanying picture on Weibo was a carefully edited photo of himself.

“My informant at Secretary Gao’s place just sent me a message,” Yingzi said slowly as her apprentice posted on Weibo. “He met with JX.”

"what?!"

Yan Yunzhuo was so shocked that he could barely hold his phone.

After a long pause, she finally said, "Master, does that mean he's going to join Aihua? Should I still post this Weibo?"

Her Weibo post was a veiled reference, implying that JX was a Westerner at heart.

If JX joins the group and becomes a colleague, wouldn't that be awkward?

Yingzi gave her a disdainful look: "You pig brain, what does it have to do with you that he joined Aihua? The more you criticize him, the more real you seem. The company would love to have more people under its wing who are competing with him, so that both sides can gain fans, and in the end, the company will still make money."

Yan Yunzhu blinked; she hadn't expected it to be like this.

"Remember, you're only responsible for the company. You don't need to worry about anything else, understand?" Yingzi instructed. "The company pays you, not your colleagues!"

"I understand." Yan Yunzhuo nodded, but immediately added, "But Master, I get so tanned every day. If the company gives him some resources and he gets ahead, won't I be completely ruined?"

Yingzi glared at her.

She knew that her apprentice was being cunning.

Ultimately, she still had some sense of self-preservation.

She wouldn't take the blame and charge into battle without making her own stance clear.

Thinking of this, Yingzi took out her phone.

She opened Weibo and typed directly in the chat box:

"I advise those haters who criticize me and cyberbully me to put away your cheap phones and face the fact that you have nothing. In this world, no matter how much you admire someone, you can't become them; no matter how much you hate me, it won't make you seem better than me. You can only be yourself. JX is awesome, so what? No matter how awesome JX is, I don't like his songs."

After entering the information, click send. The message has been successfully sent.

With a "beep," Yan Yunzhuo's homepage displayed this Weibo post, which was indeed Yingzi's.

"Master!" Yan Yunzhuo's eyes lit up. She immediately forwarded the Weibo post and copied and pasted her sentence, "No matter how awesome JX is, I don't like his songs."

"Master is amazing, he came up with such a great copy so quickly."

Yingzi didn't speak, but squinted as she lay on the chair.

"Master, your Weibo post has gone viral! Netizens are all sharing your famous quotes!"

"As expected," Yingzi said.

She looked up at the sky and began to feel bored.

In this desolate rural area, only the sky is bluer than in the city.

……

Jiang Xinhai and Xu Xiangxiao looked distressed as they scrolled through online comments, growing angrier with each reading.

"This is insane! These people are just turning black into white! It's infuriating!" Jiang Xinhai slammed his fist on the table.

"What's wrong?" Qin Yunchu asked from the side.

"Here, look."