The wind and rain were brewing silently, and everything seemed to be a prelude to an explosion.

After Feihong's public relations, the Internet briefly entered a moment of silence. Two days before the agreed signing date, Fu Yanyu brought his agent to the Yicheng headquarters in Y City and met their humble and friendly publicity director.

"This is the content of the endorsement contract. The electronic version has been sent to you for review. If there are no problems, we can sign it and move on to the next step."

When the agent was about to take it, the other party suddenly held down the contract. The person from Yicheng's publicity department smiled and said, "I've heard a lot of rumors online recently. I heard that you have been in contact with Chen Feihong? Is this true or false? My project is to sign a sole spokesperson. If your team signs two people at the same time during this period, it will be difficult for us to handle it."

"There is a misunderstanding about this matter. Feihong did contact us, but we couldn't agree on the schedule. The press release on the Internet was also bought by Feihong. They wanted to cooperate with us but were rejected, so they wanted to take advantage of the popularity. However, we have already discussed this with the people in their company. Didn't Feihong issue a public relations statement to clarify it some time ago?"

The agent put on a professional smile, "We at Yanyu also want to develop. After negotiation and compromise, the team finally chose Yicheng Medical. And this is written in the contract, so we won't breach the contract, right?"

The people in Yicheng's publicity department were skeptical, especially since they had recently seen a lot of marketing accounts online saying that Fu Yanyu and Feihong were about to collaborate, and they had also heard some news in the industry. However, this doubt was rejected by Fu Yanyu's team. Last week, we also saw Feihong's announcement blog post clarifying the rumors spread by the marketing account. Only then did we feel at ease to notify Fu Yanyu to come and sign the contract.

It is common in the industry to compete with several companies for endorsement contracts, and if you cannot sign someone, the only reason you can say is that the non-macro conditions were not good enough.

"Okay then, let's sign the contract first, and we can start cooperating with the publicity in the next few days." The head of the publicity department let go of his hand, and the contract slid to the other party.

The agent looked at the contract and signed it only after making sure that the details were correct with the electronic version.

He extended his hand, "Then Minister Li, we are happy to cooperate?"

The head of the Propaganda Department nodded: "It's a pleasure to work with you."

After leaving Yicheng Company, the agent sent Fu Yanyu to catch the next schedule.

After Fu Yanyu got off the car, he said, "I'll leave the rest to you. Don't let Feihong's dirty water get to me."

Agent: "Don't worry, everything will go smoothly at the end of the year."

Fu Yanyu left after he finished speaking. His agent looked at him leaving the underground garage and put away the disdain in his eyes. He closed the car door, told the driver to drive, and turned around to call other people.

"Yes, the online public opinion can be released almost immediately. Contact the marketing accounts and prepare to push all the problems to Yicheng."

"Don't worry about other things first, just deal with the current things first."

"Fu Yanyu's dirty laundry? Keep it to yourself for now. The show hasn't aired yet. Let's talk about it after the show is over."

"Hire more people to muddy the waters."

-*

In the S University Gymnasium, young people were running back and forth on the basketball court.

When he made the three-step layup, the onlookers burst into warm cheers.

After a round of substitutions, Yan Kailin sat next to Chen Qizhao with sweat all over his forehead, "It's exciting, these people in the Sports Department are really crazy, we can't compare to them in terms of physical strength." He looked at Chen Qizhao next to him, they were also sweating, his face was flushed with heat, while Chen Qizhao was fair and clean as if nothing had happened, the only mark on his face was the scar under his rolled up sleeves.

"You can do it if you drink less and go to the gym more often." Chen Qizhao replied casually while drinking mineral water.

The scar is shallow, but it covers a wide area and is especially noticeable on the fair arms.

Yan Kailin couldn't help but take a few more glances. His brother was oblivious to what was happening outside, but he hung out in the school forum every day. There were many rumors about his brother. It was said that when he was in physical education class in the early days, some people said that it was a bit abnormal for him to wear a coat in hot weather when he entered school. Later, when they accidentally saw the scar on his brother's hand a few times, those people made up stories on their own.

Moreover, the last time there was an incident involving He Shuhang in the Chemical Engineering Department, it was said that the victim was beaten by his brother, and the news spread a little in the school. This time, he invited people from the school's sports department to play basketball, and some of the people watching outside were probably there to see his brother.

It would be great if he could look at it too, especially his brother's arm, isn't that cooler than a tattoo! ?

"You're just too awesome." Yan Kailin was not convinced by anything else, but he was very impressed by Chen Qizhao. "When we were kids, I thought we were doomed, but you saved me in the end. In my eyes, you're the best."

Chen Qizhao was playing with his phone and looked up in confusion: "I saved you? When did it happen? Why don't I remember it?"

"No way, you can even forget this!" Yan Kailin looked at him exaggeratedly, "When I was seven or eight years old, I often went to your house to play. There was a big lake in the manor outside your house. Have you forgotten it?"

Chen Qizhao's memory of his childhood was very vague, let alone his childhood, he could even forget the time he met Shen Yuhuai in elementary school. The last time he mentioned this to Zhang Yazhi, she went home and looked through the photo album and took a few photos of him when he was a child. Only then did he vaguely regain some of his memories.

Yan Kailin didn't expect Chen Qizhao to forget even this. "It was the big lake in the manor. We went to play on the boat and I fell in. It was winter and the water was freezing. It was you who jumped down to save me."

Talking about his childhood, Yan Kailin admired Chen Qizhao very much.

Especially the time when he fell into the water and was rescued, which directly brought his admiration for Chen Qizhao to the extreme. He still has a deep impression of that incident even when he grew up. At that time, several families were gathering together. A group of people went to the Chen family's manor. The adults were having a barbecue in the yard, and a group of children ran to the back of the manor to play. The fence of the big lake had to be repaired at that time, and no one knew who suggested playing on the small boat by the side, but something happened.

It was him who fell into the water, and it was Chen Qizhao who jumped into the water to save him.

He still remembers his brother jumping down and grabbing him, holding on to the edge of the boat with his hands tightly. The two of them lay on the edge of the boat waiting for someone to rescue them. Finally, it was his eldest brother Yan Kaiqi and his friends who saw them and called for people to rescue them.

The party that day was in chaos because of this. He was fine, but Chen Qizhao developed a high fever.

"Maybe I was too young to remember it." Chen Qizhao was curious for a short while, but after careful thinking he couldn't remember anything. It seemed vaguely like this happened.

"No way, you forgot all that. We were through thick and thin together." Yan Kailin sighed. "My dad scolded me afterwards and forbade me to play with you for two or three months. But I was also confused at the time. I remember someone pushed me, and they all said that I didn't step firmly and was shaken off."

Chen Qizhao was surprised when he heard this: "Someone pushed you?"

Yan Kailin scratched his head and said, "Maybe I remembered it wrongly. I only remember that you saved me."

The two chatted for a while, and the others on the basketball court urged them to continue.

Yan Kailin: "Here I come."

Chen Qizhao put down his phone and was about to go over, but a push notification suddenly popped up on the screen. It was a Weibo post from the official Weibo account of Yicheng Medical, which he followed.

"Brother, hurry up." Yan Kailin shouted from a distance.

Chen Qizhao picked up the coat beside him and said, "No, find someone else."

The show is about to begin.

As soon as the contract was signed, Yicheng Medical officially announced the spokesperson poster on the same day, which caused a huge publicity on the Internet. Especially as soon as Fu Yanyu posted on Weibo, a large group of marketing accounts suddenly appeared, making sarcastic remarks about Feihong's recent efforts to gain popularity. Many of Fu Yanyu's fans were misled and directly caused trouble under Feihong's official Weibo.

When Feihong Company received the news, it contacted Fu Yanyu's team immediately, but the other team only said that Yicheng's conditions were better and completely refused to communicate about other matters. It is not uncommon for the entertainment industry to keep the endorsement parties hanging, but these are usually agreed upon in the early stages of cooperation. It is rare for contracts to be negotiated again and again and suddenly regretted two days before the promotion. The time at the end of the year is tight, and the people in the Feihong Rongguang series project team worked overtime to create a plan to cooperate with the holiday promotion...

Fu Yanyu's change of mind not only affected Feihong's reputation, but also directly disrupted all the preliminary work of the entire Feihong Rongguang project. If there is no spokesperson, it means that all the advertising channels that were contacted and signed in advance will be useless. Now they have to pay liquidated damages to deal with the advertising companies, and the investment in early publicity has basically been wasted.

The people in the Feihong Rongguang project team were extremely anxious, and they hurriedly contacted artists who were available during the New Year period. However, most of the artists with a little fame already had publicity arrangements during the broadcast period of the drama. It was extremely difficult to find people at this point, and the candidates originally planned were of no use at all.

"If you can't find it, won't you try again?" The person in charge looked anxious. "Contact Liu Yirou again. If that doesn't work, we can only use her to fill this time slot."

"But Boss, Liu Yirou's drama won't be aired during the New Year period, so our promotion may not be effective!"

"Yes, originally our promotional schedule for Liu Yirou was March next year, but we moved it forward for Fu Yanyu. Now we can use Liu Yirou to fill the vacancy, but the other party may not be able to fully cooperate with our schedule."

The person in charge looked pale. “Then find an artist who has a schedule and can promote at the end of the year. Don’t you have other movies or TV series? If not, find someone who is a little more popular now.”

"The popular ones are basically snatched up. The unpopular ones are too cheap to use in our products. The promotion effect won't be achieved. It's better to contact Queen Liu."

The department was in a state of panic. Some people were busy dealing with public opinion and public relations online, while others were trying to contact the channel parties... In the chaotic office, someone rushed in, saying anxiously, "Boss, the second young master is here..."

The person in charge's eyes dimmed when he heard this. Did this ancestor get the news so quickly? ?

People in the office have heard a lot of gossip about the second young master in the group. After all, the reputation of the dissolute little bully has spread far and wide, especially when they saw him talking about hiring the most expensive people some time ago, they could see the straightforwardness of the second young master.

The person in charge of PR smiled bitterly and said, "This time, thanks to the pre-publicity warm-up that Er Shao made some time ago, we did the copywriting PR in advance and did not announce the spokesperson. The public opinion on the Internet was under control, so it did not have much impact on us."

Public opinion can be controlled, but who can we find to replace Fu Yanyu? Do we really have to bear this loss?

Their schedules are all arranged, and Glory 2.0 has been planned for several years. It is most appropriate to promote it during this period. Otherwise, next year it will clash with other electrical appliance companies promoting new products, which will be very disadvantageous for them.

This was supposed to be a very smooth battle, but now it has turned into a mess.

“If all else fails, find Liu Yirou…” Before the person in charge could finish his words, the office door opened.

As soon as Chen Qizhao walked in, he saw a depressing office.

"Who?" He raised his eyebrows, threw his schoolbag casually on the chair next to him, and looked at the person in charge: "Who do you think is the best candidate? Which ones were on the original plan?"

"Of course, it's an artist who can cooperate with the end-of-year promotion and has sustained popularity, but we have contacted all of them, and the suitable people don't have time." The person in charge organized his words and wanted to explain the complicated process to the second young master. "Because of Fu Yanyu's request, we made too many preparations in the early stage, and all the operating procedures were carried out according to the end-of-year cycle. Now that Fu Yanyu is gone, we can't find a more suitable person at this stage to take over this schedule... There is really no choice but to find Queen Liu, but it's hard to say about her schedule, and the effect of the promotion is also..."

Chen Qizhao: "Are you sure you have contacted everyone?"

The person in charge said: "The crew of "Xiao Yao" is looking for suitable actors..."

"Who said we were going to look for the crew of Xiaoyao?"

Chen Qizhao threw a document on the table. "Isn't there another one next door? The Mind's Eye."

The weekly routine meeting at the group headquarters was solemn, with all the senior executives gathered together. When Chen Shiming entered the meeting room, he felt the oncoming sense of oppression and the meeting agenda placed in front of his seat. When his assistant handed him several reports, Chen Shiming knew that today would be a tough battle.

After the routine reporting session, an uncle who was the third person from the front stood up.

"There is something I want to talk about today." The middle-aged man nodded to Chen Jianhong, who was sitting in the main seat. "Please look at the third project report on the table. There was a problem with the project No. 456 in City C submitted last month. The workers at the construction site started to make trouble because the contractor of the project breached the contract and ran away."

The C City project was only revealed last weekend, and as a key construction project, it has attracted much attention within the group.

The project was undertaken by Chen Shiming's team from the beginning of its preparation. If nothing unexpected happens, it should be delivered and put into operation in the middle of next year. To some extent, the project has come to an end, but problems with the contractor broke out last week. This incident happening at this critical juncture can have a huge impact on the group.

As soon as the middle-aged man finished speaking, several people on the field looked quite solemn, and several of them looked at Chen Shiming, as if waiting for him to explain the matter.

"We have already initiated a contingency plan for this matter. Time is limited, and the project team will recover the losses and hold the relevant personnel accountable as soon as possible." Chen Shiming glanced at Special Assistant Xu next to him, who quickly walked over to the others and distributed the documents in his hand to them. He continued: "This is the adjustment plan made by our project team, and it will be implemented this week."

The middle-aged man took a look, closed the file, and continued: "The losses must be recovered. This incident has caused problems that we cannot help but consider the subsequent development issues."

He laughed. "As far as I know, there were rumors that the workers had objections before the outbreak, but Mr. Chen did not deal with the matter immediately. Is this considered a dereliction of duty?"

Chen Shiming did not refute, "Yes, it is indeed the project team's fault for not discovering the problem in advance."

There was a hushed discussion at the conference table, and several people's eyes were fixed on Chen Shiming.

The middle-aged man did not stop, but continued to ask the question, "Mr. Chen is indeed very capable. I don't deny that Mr. Chen's excellence has indeed increased our group's quarterly revenue by a few points, but after all, manpower is limited, and the team can only be responsible for a limited number of areas. This year, several key projects have been taken by Mr. Chen's team. Isn't that too much...?"

Chen Jianhong lowered his eyes slightly and noticed the undercurrents at the conference table.

Middle-aged man: "Manpower is limited. Mr. Chen has taken on so many things, and it is difficult for him to take care of everything. Look at the project in City C this time. The problem could have been avoided earlier, but such a big mistake suddenly appeared. I thought that Mr. Chen might be too busy to take care of it. We also have several departments that are relatively idle. Why don't you focus on a few key projects and let other things be handled by other departments?"

Upon hearing this, Special Assistant Xu's expression tensed up a bit, and he quickly looked at his boss next to him.

Their department does have a lot of affairs, but the current workload is relatively less than last year. The reason these people are making a fuss at this time is probably because their boss took drastic measures some time ago and conducted strict inspections of several departments, which affected the interests of these people.

Several things were brought up at the conference table now, undoubtedly an attempt to divide Chen Shiming's rights.

Sure enough, after the middle-aged man finished speaking, several people at the conference table spoke up in agreement.

"That makes sense. Shi Ming is indeed very busy these days. I often see them working overtime in the office."

"There are other departments in the group that have time, and some things can be shared with others, which can also relieve some pressure."

"Mr. Chen has indeed made frequent personnel changes recently..."

"Mr. Chen, do you think this is the case?"

The pressure was suddenly put on Chen Jianhong, and everyone was waiting for Chen Jianhong to speak.

But before Chen Jianhong could speak, Chen Shiming said, "Everyone, have you read the second half of the document on the table?"

The middle-aged man paused. "Isn't that an emergency plan? Talking about this at this time..."

"That's not just an emergency plan. All the details of the contractor's affairs are in the second half of the document." Chen Shiming stated in a normal tone, "Please look at page 23. Project No. 456 was indeed undertaken by my project team, but when the project was connected with us, it was briefly handed over to General Manager Xu. The contracting plan at the beginning of the project was determined by General Manager Xu."

Mr. Xu at the conference table frowned and said, "It is true that we have passed it over, but you don't have to use the plan I made. When something went wrong with the contractor, how come the problem has come to me?"

"Please see page 25. The manager who was in charge of negotiating the contract for the project was fired two weeks ago for leaking the group's commercial secrets. Now the legal department is holding him accountable. According to my investigation at the HR department, the manager was introduced by Mr. Xu and later joined my team because of project matters."

Chen Shiming's eyes stayed on Mr. Xu. "There were no other problems in the project. The only problem was with the contractor, and the person in charge came from Mr. Xu's team. I hope Mr. Xu can give me an explanation for this."

"I don't deny that this was a mistake made by my team. The reason for this mistake was that I failed to deal with the business involved before the contracting problem was exposed after I found out that the manager had problems. Apart from that, all the projects my team was responsible for were completed efficiently. If someone else was maliciously throwing mud at me and blaming me, I cannot accept this. We will do our best to redeem ourselves from the responsibility, but please give us a reasonable explanation for this issue, Mr. Xu."

Chen Jianhong looked at Mr. Xu, "Mr. Xu, how do you want to explain this matter?"

Mr. Xu looked nervous: "I don't know either. I have to go back and ask."

Chen Shiming looked at the middle-aged man who pointed out the problem. The reason he discovered it was mainly because of Chen Qizhao's documents.

If it weren't for that document, he might not have been able to sort it out before the meeting.

Those documents were compiled by Special Assistant Xu, and they were related to some scattered contents that Chen Qizhao had asked him to investigate before, covering a long period of time. The document was a part of the key projects in C City that Special Assistant Xu had investigated when he was helping Chen Qizhao investigate the aborted C City project. It also involved the group's projects, so he noticed this manager who often traveled to C City on business.

As for why Chen Qizhao asked Special Assistant Xu to investigate his own project, the problem was that he just happened to catch the person, and the contractor's problems were exposed within a few days.

It was obvious that someone in the group was stirring up trouble and was eager to take advantage of this opportunity to force him out of office and remove his power.

"So, this time it was all thanks to Shi Ming's quick reaction."

"Yes, the contractor's problem can be solved by holding him accountable, but if the person in charge himself has problems, this matter cannot be entirely attributed to Mr. Chen."

"Mr. Chen has done a good job in this regard. The personnel changes a while ago also helped us solve a lot of problems."

At this time, the middle-aged man's assistant came over and said a few words in his ear.

"I said that Mr. Chen has limited manpower, and it's not groundless. The main responsibility for the No. 456 incident is still under discussion. What does Mr. Chen have to say about the Rongguang series of Feihong Electric? I remember that although Feihong was taken over by the second young master, Mr. Chen is still the person in charge of some matters, right?"

The middle-aged man smiled and continued aggressively, "I just happened to be working with Feihong recently. My assistant just told me that there was a big mess inside Feihong. The spokesperson who was originally going to be signed ran away, and all the plans are messed up."

"Glory 2.0? I remember it took several years to develop, right?"

"Yes, it is a key project of the group, and we have indeed invested a lot of money in research and development."

"Is this true or false? Why is there no news about it?"

Chen Shiming glanced at Special Assistant Xu.

Assistant Xu nodded and quietly left the meeting room.

Chen Jianhong frowned and said to Jiang Yuze beside him, "Is Yu Jie at the headquarters today? He is in charge of Feihong, right?"

"Yes, I'll call him over right away." Jiang Yuze looked serious.

Soon, Assistant Yu Jie came in. His face was a little pale. Facing other people's questions, he had to say, "It is true. We are negotiating with the publicity department to deal with it."

The middle-aged man looked straight at Chen Shiming and said with a smile: "Mr. Chen, you are fully responsible for this matter, right?"