Qiao Xia turned around and reassured everyone, "I will handle this matter. You should all go back and rest."
Sun Hao nodded first, "Okay."
"I want to leave the group." Mu Xiaozhe suddenly spoke, attracting the attention of everyone present.
He had received a call from his brother long before the finals, and he hadn't forgotten why he was there.
"Are you crazy?" Sun Hao looked at him in disbelief.
Mu Xiaozhe shook off his hand, saying, "The penalty for breach of contract will be deposited into your account in seven working days. My agent will discuss the rest with you."
After saying that, Mu Xiaozhe left without giving anyone a chance to react.
Qiao Xia took a deep breath. "Is there anyone else who wants to leave?"
Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment, and after a long while, Su Jiu raised her hand.
Qiao Xia wasn't surprised. "I'm waiting for your agent to come and talk to me."
Su Jiu shook her head, "It's not that I want to leave..."
Qiao Xia asked with a half-smile, "So, for whom did you raise your hand?"
Su Jiu closed her eyes and stepped forward. "Since no one wants to talk about it, then let me be the bad guy. The content of the phone calls that everyone received in the lounge just now must be the same as mine. They are willing to pay the breach of contract fee to poach us from the party, but we are not ungrateful people."
Qiao Xia raised an eyebrow and looked around. "So this is why everyone is willing to stay."
Many people avoided Qiao Xia's gaze, but Zhu Wenjing still thought that Su Jiu was indeed nodding happily as she had said on the surface.
In fact, they were not blinded by the promises made by other agencies. Looking back at previous talent shows, which one didn't make a big splash during the show but then fade into obscurity afterward?
They had witnessed Qiao Xia's wealth even before their debut, and besides, her company only had their boy group. Signing with Xingyao would certainly offer more opportunities than elsewhere, but...
Su Jiu mustered her courage and negotiated with Qiao Xia, "We're all willing to stay, but we've seen Jiang Xiaomian's videos online, and that's why Mu Xiaozhe left the group..."
Qiao Xia bluntly asked, "You mean if he leaves, you can all stay?"
Jiang Xiaomian's face turned pale. He didn't look up, but his whole body was trembling.
Su Jiu wanted to argue a bit more, "Now that he's involved, there are already a lot of rumors circulating online about us. He just admitted in the house that the video is real. We can't be made to bear the consequences of his disgusting actions."
"How...how could you say such a thing?" Zhu Wenjing retorted indignantly.
Having said that, Su Jiu stopped pretending. "If you feel sorry for him, you can go with him."
Qiao Xia coldly swept her gaze across everyone's faces. "Except for Zhu Wenjing, you all agree with Su Jiu."
The group exchanged glances, and for a moment no one spoke.
Su Jiu could hardly contain her excitement. "Our demand is that Jiang Xiaomian leave the group. If he leaves, Mu Xiaozhe might be persuaded to come back."
This was somewhat against his conscience. Although he had been trying to please the young master Mu Xiaozhe, he had never gotten anything out of him.
Moreover, Mu Xiaozhe still had leverage over him, and he wished he could never see him again so that he could get more resources based on his ranking. But that didn't stop him from using it to persuade Qiao Xia to change her mind.
Qiao Xia ignored his words, "Since you're not saying anything, I'll take that as a yes."
"I object."
"Sun Hao!" Su Jiu's face twisted with anger. "I'm fighting for everyone's interests. Now that Jiang Xiaomian is gone, you're in the spotlight."
Sun Hao calmly said, "I don't care about those things. I just don't want to draw conclusions before things are clear."
"You're really something." Su Jiu said through gritted teeth, "President Qiao, you choose, do you want to keep the three of them or do we all terminate our contracts?"
These words immediately made Qiao Xia laugh. "I think you guys have a bit of a misunderstanding about your own importance. This talent show is just something I'm doing for fun."
Sun Hao lowered his eyes, thinking to himself, "Just as I thought."
“You can terminate the contract anytime you want, but don’t forget, the two-year agency contract wasn’t signed by you, it was signed by the platform.”
Qiao Xia's face turned completely cold. "I hate being threatened the most. If you want to leave, you've already agreed with the platform that you can leave anytime. This has nothing to do with me."
The faces of Su Jiu and the others turned pale instantly. He knew that their contracts were with the platform, and terminating them now was no different from semi-retiring from the industry.
Su Jiu thought that Qiao Xia had spent so much money to promote them, and that she would only stop when they had made enough money. But she didn't expect that Qiao Xia didn't care at all.
Qiao Xia looked at Jiang Xiaomian and the other two without paying attention to herself, "Take a good rest for a day. The group variety show will officially start filming the day after tomorrow. Please have President Wang take them to the dormitory."
"Sigh." Mr. Wang agreed and led his people away, turning back every few steps.
When Qiao Xia returned to the rented courtyard, Qiao Zhaoxing excitedly handed her his phone, "Xia Bao, look, my votes are more than ten times that of the second place."
Qiao Xia tried to encourage him, saying, "Dad has always been amazing. When does the voting end?"
Qiao Zhaoxing checked the time. "One minute left."
Qiao Xia held her breath and counted down to the last second. Only when she saw that Qiao Zhaoxing's ranking hadn't caused any problems did she breathe a sigh of relief.
[Congratulations, host, on completing the side quest. Quest reward: In preparation...]
Qiao Xia didn't have high hopes for the system's rewards. She quickly sent Qiao Zhaoxing to bed and then wanted to find a place to calm down, but obviously no one was going to give her that space.
Qiao Xia turned around and waved to Jiang Xiaomian, who had been following her, saying, "Come in."
Jiang Xiaomian shook her head and insisted on standing at the door. "My sister has already helped me a lot. I don't want to cause her any more trouble."
"So?" After a long day, Qiao Xia was so tired she could barely stand. Just as she was about to give up and sit down on the ground, Jiang Xiaomian grabbed her hand, took off her clothes and put them on the ground, explaining softly, "The ground is cold."
Qiao Xia rolled her eyes in exhaustion. "What are you thinking?"
Jiang Xiaomian clutched the hem of her clothes. "I will voluntarily withdraw from the group tomorrow. Sister, please don't let them coerce you, okay?"
"Really?"
"I really mean it."
"Then why didn't you mention it earlier?"
Jiang Xiaomian showed no sadness at being questioned, but said seriously, "Because my sister just spoke up for me, I can't be ungrateful and contradict her in front of others."
“Someone like me doesn’t deserve to stand beside my sister. I thought that if I stood higher, I could protect her, but in the end, I’ve only become a burden to her. Sister, don’t ruin your career for my sake…”
Qiao Xia raised her hand and said, "Stop. It's not for you. I just don't like being threatened."
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