The Eye of the Storm (Part 1)

Before Zhou Zeyu actually arrived in London, all her impressions of it were based on various movies and literature, that mysterious atmosphere with a melancholic British feel, as if a wizard or duke might walk out from the corner of the street.

But there was nothing there; instead, she was greeted by a sudden downpour and her umbrella, which had unexpectedly disappeared.

Zhou Zeyi quickly accepted this reality. After all, she was already fully aware of her bad luck. She had experienced much heavier rain, so this little bit of rain didn't seem like much of a problem.

However, she forgot one thing: when people are down on their luck, there really is no limit.

For example, when she dragged her suitcase through the rain to her hotel, she was suddenly and unexpectedly told that there was a problem with the hotel system and there was no way to verify her check-in information, or, to put it in Chinese, she was told to get lost.

Zhou Zeyu was determined not to compromise. She had seen stupid people and bad people, but she had never seen anyone who was purely bad and dared to treat her like a fool. She loosened her suitcase, cleared her throat, and without a second's hesitation, she started spraying her throat, which was so dry from the long flight that it was practically on fire.

It was ridiculously easy. She hadn't even used 30% of her strength before the other party sheepishly gave up, offering to return the deposit but refusing to provide anything more.

Are you kidding me? Are you expecting her to just sit here soaking wet, carrying her suitcase, looking for a hotel? Zhou Zeyu took a deep breath, preparing to fire a second time, when out of the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of a very familiar figure flashing by on the roadside.

She was momentarily stunned, and subconsciously turned around to look for that figure, but failed. Instead, she saw another familiar face. The other person had also seen Zhou Zeyu and was smiling as they walked towards her.

Zhang Yuan hasn't changed much over the years; she still has that round face. She smiled and extended her hand to greet her simply, "Oh, I was just thinking about you. I didn't expect to find you as soon as I turned around."

Zhou Zeyu's gaze lingered on the spot where the figure had disappeared. Seeing that he couldn't make out anything there, he could only look away with some regret. He was a little absent-minded, but still smiled and nodded: "Long time no see. How have you been lately?"

Sigh, small talk is always unavoidable, especially when you run into someone as talkative as Zhang Yuan. Zhang Yuan was a notorious chatterbox back in the day, and even when Zhou Zeyu was only casually acquainted with him, he would still be kept talking for half a day. Let alone now, when they meet again in a foreign land.

"What happened? Is there a problem with check-in?"

Zhou Zeyu had no choice but to briefly explain the matter. The kind-hearted Zhang Yuan immediately told her not to continue arguing, and then magically pulled a room key out of her pocket: "It's all arranged for you."

Zhou Zeyu was genuinely surprised. Putting aside whether this guy was actually that considerate, she was certain he might not have this kind of foresight, and she really couldn't figure out what was going on.

"Oh, you knew you'd say that," he laughed. "Just as she thought. It's alright, take it."

She? Where did she come from?

Zhou Zeyu's confusion only increased, but as things stood, this wasn't a good place to discuss things in detail, so she wisely refrained from pressing the matter further and accepted the room key.

She dropped off her luggage at the new hotel and then arranged to meet Zhang Yuan at a coffee shop. When she changed her clothes and opened the glass door of the coffee shop, she saw him sitting by the window, seemingly on the phone, but he quickly hung up after she appeared.

Zhang Yuan greeted her with a smile, "Here."

Zhou Zeyu also put on a smile, sat down in the chair in front of him, and the two continued to chat idly for a while.

God knows how much she was suffering.

To be honest, she wasn't a very good social person. Even though she had managed to learn some social etiquette before, these meaningless conversations were really exhausting. Many times she wanted to get straight to the point, but she couldn't. She had to keep talking for a while and not make her intentions too obvious.

"I heard you got injured recently? Is it serious?"

"Not much, not much at all," Zhou Zeyu replied with a smile, completely nonchalant, since not dying meant it wasn't a big deal.

Alright, alright. As soon as the words "back in the day" came out, Zhou Zeyu knew he would have to stay here until midnight.

The facts were not much different from what she had thought. In the past few hours, Zhang Yuan meticulously recalled everything that had happened in the past ten years, big and small. She even laughed as she brought up the embarrassing incident when Zhou Zeyu and Fang Xiaocan were caught reading a novel in the middle of the night. Zhou Zeyu listened with a wry smile and wished he could run out into the rain rather than listen to any more.

She even began to suspect that this guy was deliberately messing with her. After all, anyone with a brain would know that Zhou Zeyu hadn't come all this way just to chat with her. What was interesting was that, whether intentionally or unintentionally, he just wouldn't mention her intentions and kept going around in circles, refusing to talk about anything serious.

Zhou Zeyu glanced at his watch, unable to hold back any longer, and forced an innocent smile to steer the conversation back on track.

"Brother Zhang, are you still working at the Sports Daily? I heard you've already become the second-in-command, I haven't even had a chance to congratulate you yet."

Zhang Yuan shook her head modestly: "Oh, it's nothing, just good luck."

Heh, Zhou Zeyu snorted silently a few times. Of course he was lucky. After all, the top leader was his father. If he wasn't lucky, who would be?

Interestingly, this rich second-generation seemed completely unaware of this, and continued to humbly decline, saying, "Actually, I'm just a nobody, and I can't make decisions on important matters."

The implication is that he can't help either.

Zhou Zeyu took a deep breath, but strangely, before she could use all the persuasive techniques she had prepared, the other party's attitude took a complete 180-degree turn.

Zhou Zeyi was a little stunned. Before his brain could react, his mouth instinctively became polite: "Oh, you're too kind, Brother Zhang, I'm very grateful."

What's going on? Is this all there is to it?

She knew from the beginning that Zhang Yuan was not an easy target. He seemed like a smiling, gossipy fat man, but after being a rich second-generation for so many years, how simple could he be? Zhou Zeyu knew that her request would jeopardize his interests. On the way here, she didn't expect to win big; she just wanted to avoid a crushing defeat and at least gain some benefit.

She was prepared to be obsequious and even memorized a long speech on the plane, trying to reason with people and appeal to their emotions. But in the end, she didn't utter a single word. She just took a sip of coffee and that was it.

Was he stupid or was Zhou Zeyi stupid? This thing went so smoothly that it was a little too bizarre.

Is this a trap?!

Zhou Zeyu was certain that there was no such thing as a free lunch, so there must be ulterior motives involved. Thinking this, she became highly vigilant again, even leaning slightly forward in her chair and sitting up very formally.

"Oh dear, isn't it too formal to say something like that?" Zhang Yuan interrupted her with a smile, but then lowered her voice slightly the next second, "Send me the details via email, and I'll have someone look at it."

Having anticipated this, Zhou Zeyu nodded, glancing at the bag placed to the side. All the contents had already been organized and copied onto a USB drive, just waiting for his words.

"To be honest, you don't need to be so polite with me," Zhang Yuan suddenly smiled. "After all, we've all been going through a tough time lately, so it's necessary to help each other out."

This was a completely nonsensical statement. She could say it was "not easy," but he had been doing so smoothly until now, which clearly had nothing to do with the phrase "not easy." Zhou Zeyu suppressed the urge to frown, nodded, and repeatedly agreed.

"To be honest, you're a benefactor to us," Zhang Yuan joked.

Haha, so he knew too.

Previously, Sports Daily was Coach Huang's private playground. He could say whatever he wanted and stir up trouble however he pleased, achieving the effect of controlling public opinion without any effort. This was inevitable, after all, it was the largest sports newspaper in the country, and Coach Huang had so many juicy stories at his disposal that just a few of them could become headlines.

No newspaper would say no to an existing front-page story, which is the biggest reason why the two could collude for so long.

Zhou Zeyu was a regular on it before, appearing every few days. At its peak, it was on the front page for several weeks in a row, which was an unprecedented level of popularity. At first, she was angry about the false facts, whether true or false, exaggerated or omitted, but later she simply didn't care.

Anyway, what she thinks doesn't matter, it might even be the least important part of this process, so getting angry or resisting is useless. To be optimistic, at least the photo that the Sports Daily chose for her is pretty good, and it's acceptable for it to be on the front page.

Interestingly, when Zhou Zeyu announced her temporary departure from the competition after her serious injury, the editor-in-chief of Sports Daily in Beijing even came to give her several boxes of health products, looking very regretful. Of course, that's how it was; after all, it would be strange if Sports Daily didn't feel sorry for the sales queen who left.

This was quite a darkly humorous situation, but she had seen even more outrageous things, so she accepted it without any psychological burden. According to Fang Xiaocan, these few boxes of health products were actually not enough, since the amount of traffic Zhou Zeyu brought them was enough to buy a house in Beijing.

Zhou Zeyi didn't think about being modest about this, after all, it would be a bit crazy to be modest at this time, so he naturally agreed.

"There haven't been any headlines lately. I can tell you guys are having a tough time. Your Beijing editor-in-chief even said he missed me."

It sounds like self-deprecation, but it's not. Zhou Zeyu is subtly mocking them.

Fortunately, Zhang Yuan didn't catch it. You can't blame him for that. Since her advanced studies, there are very few people in the world who can understand her sarcasm. Fang Xiaocan is one, Coach Xu is another, and there are no others. But what's really dark is that she quite enjoys this kind of subtle and innuendo.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve been so bored lately,” Zhang Yuan sighed, then her expression quickly changed from listless to meaningful as if she had just thought of something. “But you always give me juicy tidbits, don’t you?”

Of course.

Zhou Zeyu took a deep breath, but still couldn't help but laugh out loud.

The laughter sounded abrupt in the quiet air, but the barrier between the two seemed to vanish at lightning speed, and Zhang Yuan couldn't hold back either, bursting into laughter with her.

That's absolutely absurd.

Zhou Zeyi knew that his decision was right. Instead of going directly to the top leader, he went to see the gossipy second-in-command who was keen on all sorts of gossip. His father was not so easy to fool, and he had a deep relationship with Coach Huang. He probably wouldn't agree to do this, but Zhang Yuan was different.

To put it bluntly, she guessed he had been waiting for this day for a long time, just to cause a huge uproar in the news industry, which had been calm for several years. No matter what kind of big news it was, as long as it could boost sales, it was good news.

Sometimes being blinded by profit is a good thing, Zhou Zeyi thought to himself. He handed over the USB drive from his bag and finally asked, "Are you sure?"

Zhang Yuan accepted it without hesitation, saying, "Don't worry, my dad and Coach Huang are on good terms, but I'm not. Because of what happened before, I've disliked him for a long time."

Zhou Zeyi wasn't quite sure what the "previous events" referred to, but after thinking about it carefully, he realized that it probably meant Coach Huang had a conflict with the Sports Daily over some issues. Although things were still somewhat respectable on the surface, who could say for sure what really happened behind the scenes?

That makes things easier. She breathed a sigh of relief, and perhaps because her relief was too obvious, even Zhang Yuan noticed and teased her.

"This deal could be very profitable, but it also carries great risks. Who knows if it might end up with both sides suffering losses?"

Zhou Zeyu realized he was deliberately trying to gain sympathy, so he shrugged and said, "Go back and look at what's on the USB drive, and you won't say that anymore. There's enough stuff in there for you to live on for half a year."

Thanks to her, the living saint of Sports Daily. Back when sales were sluggish, she single-handedly turned the tide and turned them into a century-old brand. Now that sales are sluggish, we still need her to provide juicy scoops.

To be honest, Zhou Zeyu felt that he should be the one in charge.

With a wicked grin, she said, "As for the risks, everything has risks. Other domestic media outlets are hesitant for various reasons, so they've lost their exclusive reporting rights. The bigger the storm, the more valuable the fish, you know what I mean."

Zhang Yuan nodded. "Alright, I understand what you mean. I'll have someone contact you to continue discussing the details. It's settled then."

Zhou Zeyu finally felt a huge weight lifted off her shoulders, flashing the most genuine smile she had shown so far. She stood up and extended her hand to him, saying, "I am deeply grateful."

Zhang Yuan also stood up and shook hands with her, but what she said was somewhat meaningful: "No need to thank me, Zhou Zeyi. Thank yourself. How can you be so charming that someone like that would be willing to help you?"

Zhou Zeyu was taken aback, but he didn't explain his words much. He smiled, put the USB drive in his pocket, and then walked away.

She stood there, pondering the meaning of his words. She was certain that Zhang Yuan wasn't referring to himself, so who else could it be?

It was already late, and a light rain was still falling outside the window. The soft music and warm yellow lights of the café separated the outside world from the outside. Zhou Zeyu stood there, gazing intently at the endless street.

But now that things have come to this point, she knows that the most important thing is not to overthink things. As long as she achieves her goal, that's all that matters. Sometimes, playing dumb isn't a bad thing. Just think of her as someone who's simply trying to be likable.