Chapter 71 Reminder and Being Tied

As Xiangjiang Island disappeared from view, the speed of the yacht also slowed down.

Yi Huai then walked up to Wen Yue and asked her if she wanted to go fishing. She was not interested in this activity, so she went with Zhuang Shaoyun to prepare the barbecue ingredients.

In fact, the ingredients had already been processed, but they were not skewered to increase their sense of participation. All they had to do was to skewer and then grill the ingredients.

The three children were also divided into two groups. Zhou Mingtang was calm and patient, so he chose to go fishing with Yi Huai and the others. Zhou Qitang and Zhou Peiwen, brother and sister, were young and could not sit still. After watching the fishing for a while and seeing that there was no movement, they came over and helped them string things.

During the busy process, Wen Yue chatted with Zhuang Shaoyun while thinking about how to remind her that Zhou Mingtang would be in trouble.

It would definitely not work to tell her directly. She is a journalist, not a charlatan. It would be difficult to convince people if she did not expose the existence of the system.

Zhou Mingtang's premature love was a breakthrough, but at that time, even children from wealthy families did not have a mobile phone like they would in a few decades later, and classmates could contact each other at any time through social software.

For example, Zhou Mingtang did not have a mobile phone, so it was difficult for Wen Yue to remind Zhuang Shaoyun that he was in a premature love by the way he used his mobile phone to chat with people.

She and Zhou Mingtang met for the first time today, and they were not familiar with each other, so it was difficult to remind Zhuang Shaoyun of this matter through his subtle changes.

Wen Yue thought about it and felt that it would be impossible to remind him today.

Fortunately, there is still more than a month before Zhou Mingtang's accident. During this time, she can interact more with the Zhou family and get closer to them.

Oh, yes, newspapers and media can also be used.

First spread the news that Zhao Zikun's gang has made a comeback, and then use it to remind Zhuang Shaoyun to pay attention to the safety of her family.

With an idea, Wen Yue was no longer in a hurry, and her mind was fully focused on the skewers.

Last time at the resort, she basically ate and didn't do much. This time, she had enough opportunities to show her skills, but she didn't show her skills well. The skin of the first few skewers was burnt.

It didn't taste bad, but it was a little bland and the taste was not good enough.

Especially compared with Zhuang Shaoyun's grilled meat, Wen Yue really felt a little disappointed with her own skills. She was about to destroy the skewers, but Yi Huai came over with a bucket, saw her movements, stopped the skewers and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Not grilled well." Wen Yue replied embarrassedly.

"It looks okay." Yi Huai looked at the skewers in his hand and lied with his eyes squinting, then lowered his head and tasted the barbecue, "It's just a little burnt on the outside, but it tastes okay." As he said this, he finished a skewer in two or three bites.

Seeing that he was about to continue eating, Wen Yue hurriedly stopped him and said, "You don't have to force yourself."

"No." Yi Huai sat next to Wen Yue and answered Zhou Qitang and his sister while eating, "Well, just caught, this is a yellow-foot mullet, that is a grouper..."

Obviously, they had a good harvest in the morning and had already caught half a bucket of fish.

"Can these fish be eaten?" Zhou Qitang asked.

Yi Huai said, "Of course, whatever fish you want to eat, I'll kill it and process it and bring it to you."

Zhou Qitang's eyes widened: "You know how to kill fish?"

Zhou Peiwen also asked, "Uncle Yi, why do you know how to kill fish? Do you know how to kill all kinds of fish?"

"I used to work in the kitchen of an ice cream parlor," Yi Huai said without hiding his past experience, "I know how to process most fish."

The two children exclaimed, and looked at Yi Huai with admiration. The latter asked them what kind of fish they wanted to eat, but they couldn't even recognize all the fish in the bucket, so naturally they couldn't make up their minds.

So after eating the skewers, Yi Huai squatted over and explained to them the name of each fish, the texture of the meat, and the cooking methods that were suitable.

Zhuang Shaoyun saw this and smiled and said to Wen Yue: "Although Yisheng looks serious, he actually has a good personality and is patient with children."

Wen Yue looked over in the direction of the voice and said with deep sympathy: "He is indeed such a person."

...

Shortly after returning from the sea trip, the movie that Zhuang Zhijun was in charge of finally left the studio and moved to the shopping mall.

Unlike the later domestic entertainment filming, which often closes the road, the filming in Hong Kong rarely clears the site, so the shopping mall is still open for business during the filming of the movie.

However, the shopping mall that Wen Yue opened to the crew for filming was not in a busy downtown area like Causeway Bay, but in a department store in the New Territories.

Although the customer flow of this Lirong Department Store has increased after the renovation and the addition of children's entertainment and rest areas, it is still not comparable to the shopping malls located in the downtown area. In

addition, the filming took place during the day on weekdays, and both the crew and the citizens of Hong Kong are already accustomed to passers-by during filming/encountering filming while shopping.

So in general, the filming process was smooth, and at most when popular stars appeared, the mall had a slightly higher customer flow.

In order to show the importance of cooperation, Wen Yue visited the crew twice during filming.

You don't know until you visit, and once you visit, you will find that the stars who moved to the shopping mall for filming have their own scandals. Some are single but secretly married, some are single but in love, and some are single but have illegitimate children. How wonderful it is.

But the scandals of these people are different from Zhuo Wenfeng's. Zhuo Wenfeng's case was a criminal case, while theirs is at most a moral issue.

Moreover, there are too many cases in the entertainment industry where people pretend to be single but secretly fall in love, get married and have children. Even if it is the inside entertainment industry decades later, these things are not enough to be banned.

Moreover, they were in the Hong Kong entertainment industry in the 1990s. Not to mention secretly getting married and having children, even cheating on their partners was not a big deal.

So Wen Yue didn't make a fuss and decisively gave up exposing them.

Well, there are two other reasons why Wen Yue gave up exposing them.

First, she just placed an ad placement in the movie they were filming on behalf of Lirong Department Store. Although the gossip about them was not a big deal, if it was exposed and affected the box office and advertising effect of the movie, wouldn’t she be full of it?

Secondly, in order to prevent the "Zhao Zikun" gang from choosing to replace Zhou Mingtang if they couldn't tie him up, Wen Yue has been attending various banquets during this period, and has to visit other people's homes from time to time, striving to get to know everyone in the rich circle.

So she has eaten a lot of gossip recently. It's not enough for "Dongjiang Entertainment News" to break a piece of news a week, and it has to be matched with daily and weekly reports.

Wen Yue is not short of gossip value now, so naturally she will not affect the company's interests in order to gain gossip value.

It’s not that she is loyal to Regent Department Store, but the success of Regent Department Store is closely related to whether she can make further progress.

Having said that, there are not many shopping mall plots in this movie, and it was completed in a week.

As they finished filming, November also came to an end.

Entering December, Hong Kong has completely cooled down, and people began to take off their autumn clothes and put on thick coats, and the sales of Regent Department Store also increased. However,

the increase in sales has a lot to do with the change of seasons. The customer flow of several Regent Department Stores in the Bay Area has not increased significantly. Obviously, the increase has reached a bottleneck period. Unless it can break the circle or there are major changes, it is difficult for the customer flow to increase on a large scale.

However, in recent years, several shopping malls in the Bay Area are unlikely to change much. After all, no matter how slowly their customer flow increases, their customer flow is still the best among shopping malls in the same area.

Shareholders are unlikely to agree to Wen Yue's major changes.

So we can only think of ways to break the circle, and to break the circle, marketing is an important means.

This is also the main reason why Wen Yue approached Zhuang Zhijun to discuss advertising placement. When a blockbuster movie comes out, it is not only the actors and directors who rise, but also the advertising placements that benefit from it.

The growth rate of customer flow in the two pilot shopping malls in Yuen Long, New Territories is very gratifying.

As the weather gets colder, there are fewer and fewer places for parents to take their children, and the children's entertainment area in Lirong Department Store has become one of the main choices for these parents.

Although parents can play with their children, it is impossible for adults to really roll around in the entertainment area with their children, and it is boring to sit outside all the time. After all, there are no smartphones for them to swipe.

In addition, children in the entertainment industry must be picked up by their parents when they go in and out. If they need to go to the restroom when their parents are not around, they will be accompanied by staff, which is equivalent to childcare.

Therefore, some parents will go to the stores inside the mall while their children are still playing inside. Once the flow of customers starts, sales will naturally increase.

With the successful examples in front of them, people who were originally skeptical about the reform have changed their minds. In December, many more malls want to join the reform.

After consideration, Wen Yue decided to take a smaller step and designated five malls as new pilots. The other malls will be seen after the new year.

In addition to the mall reform, there is another big event in December - Christmas is coming.

Many people celebrate Christmas in Hong Kong. In order to cater to them and make more money on this day, most department stores and shops have launched promotional discounts.

Lirong Department Store is no exception and started preparing at the beginning of the month.

Although Wen Yue does not have to work on the promotion plan, as the president of the company, she has a lot of things to do, and she will not be free until Christmas Day.

The festive atmosphere in Hong Kong is very strong that day. The streets are decorated with lights and colors. Many people who go out on this day are dressed in red. It's a pity that it didn't snow, otherwise it would be more festive.

There are also many people who choose to celebrate the holiday at home, or have a meal with the family, or invite relatives and friends to have a party together.

As early as two days before Christmas, Wen Yue and Yi Huai received an invitation from Zhuang Shaoyun and his wife to celebrate the holiday at their home.

Wen Yue originally didn't plan to go because she was too busy during this period. Christmas Eve and Christmas were obviously weekends, but she couldn't rest. She felt that her body was about to be hollowed out and she didn't want to go out at all.

But just as she was about to refuse, Wen Yue heard from the system that Zhou Mingtang, her deskmate, gave her a hand-woven scarf.

The scarf was a Christmas gift and should have been given on the same day, but the girl was afraid that she would not be able to go out on Christmas, so she gave it in advance, and the system also got the news in advance.

After hearing this, Wen Yue thought this might be a breakthrough, so she changed her mind and agreed.

On Christmas Day, Wen Yue got off work two hours early in the afternoon, and went to Zhou Jiahao and Zhuang Shaoyun's house with Yi Huai, taking gifts.

Although Zhou Jiahao is the eldest son, he does not live in the old Zhou family house, because since his grandfather's generation, the Zhou family has never been divided. It has grown to the fourth generation, with nearly a hundred people in total.

Although the old Zhou family house is not small, with more than a dozen villas of various sizes, it is crowded enough for so many people to live together.

Moreover, although the Zhou family has a good family tradition and no illegitimate children, cousins ​​not only have different mothers and fathers, but also different hearts.

Living separately is fine, but living together is bound to make people feel unbalanced and have many contradictions.

Zhou Jiahao was impatient with these things, so he moved out of the Zhou family as soon as he got married, and currently lives in a mansion in Repulse Bay.

Their home is quite close to Wen Yue's house in Repulse Bay, but both the original body and Wen Yue had contact with Zhuang Shaoyun and his wife when they lived here.

Zhuang Shaoyun is a person with a strong sense of ceremony. For this festival, she prepared early. There is a Christmas tree in the living room, with colorful lights wrapped around the tree, and unopened gift boxes piled under the tree.

Looking at the three brothers and sisters of the Zhou family, they are dressed more festively than each other. Zhou Mingtang wears a Christmas hat on his head, Zhou Qitang has a red bow tied around his neck in addition to the Christmas hat, and Zhou Peiwen wears a red dress, which looks festive and cute.

In order to match the atmosphere, the dinner is Western style, and a turkey is placed on the table.

But the turkey meat was a bit tough and not tasty, so everyone just ate a few bites and left it alone.

After dinner, Wen Yue asked the children if they wanted to go set off fireworks and firecrackers. She bought a lot of them and brought them over.

The three siblings were a little hesitant because Zhuang Shaoyun and his wife never let them play with these, but they couldn't resist the temptation and wanted to go.

Zhuang Shaoyun didn't let them play with these because he was worried that the children would play without paying attention and get into danger. Seeing that Wen Yue and Yi Huai were with them, he let them go out to play.

After getting the permission, the three siblings cheered and turned around to run outside, but before they could go out, Wen Yue called them: "It's so cold outside and the wind is so strong, are you going to wear these two clothes?"

Zhuang Shaoyun also realized that they wore less at home because the house was heated and very warm, so it would be wrong to go out like this, so she asked them to go upstairs to put on more clothes.

Wen Yue saw this and deliberately added: "It's better to wear a scarf."

The children didn't think much about it, and went upstairs to put on more clothes, and they all tied scarves obediently.

Among them, the scarf tied by Zhou Mingtang was pure black, without patterns, and the holes looked different in size, which obviously showed that the craftsmanship of the maker was average. Looking at the scarves tied by the other two brothers and sisters of the Zhou family, they were all cashmere, with fine stitches and obvious logos, and they were all big brands.

A quick comparison will confirm that the scarf on Zhou Mingtang's neck was given by the girl he likes.

In the original novel, Zhou Mingtang wanted to prepare a birthday gift for her because she gave him a scarf that he had knitted himself, but he had nothing prepared.

Wen Yue didn't look at Zhou Mingtang's scarf for long. When she saw the three people coming down, she and Yi Huai took them out and found a relatively empty spot in the backyard to start firing.

The sound of the cannons was loud and a bit noisy, but the three siblings were very excited. There were naturally many advantages to being born in a wealthy family, but the fun of ordinary children was indeed very far away for them.

The three of them were very interested in these cannons. It was not enough to just watch Yi Huai operate them. One after another, they strongly asked to try their hand at it, until the last firework was left, and the lighter returned to Yi Huai's hand.

The fuse was lit, and with a "bang", a firework bloomed in the air.

The light and shadow illuminated the night sky and also illuminated the eyes of several children, especially Zhou Mingtang's eyes.

At that moment, Wen Yue felt that she might be wrong. She shouldn't have deliberately contacted the Zhou family, let alone contacted him.

When they were not familiar with each other, although she wanted to save Zhou Mingtang and was willing to make every effort to do so, if he died in the end, Wen Yue would only feel a little regretful at most, and it would be fine in a few days.

But now, with these repeated contacts, Wen Yue can no longer treat Zhou Mingtang as a stranger. If something happens to him, she will probably be sad.

I hope she can save this child.

...

On the first Friday after Christmas, the three newspapers under Dongjiang Newspaper Group used half a page to predict Zhao Zikun's comeback.

Although the report is long, in fact, a large amount of space is used to introduce Zhao Zikun's past crimes, including kidnapping three wealthy people or their families 37 years ago, successfully getting the ransom and escaping, and kidnapping the richest man's only son and killing him 22 years ago.

The news about his comeback only took up two or three lines, and there was no evidence, only rumors.

There was no way, Wen Yue really couldn't produce evidence of the "Zhao Zikun" gang's kidnapping.

The system could provide photos of "Zhao Zikun" kidnapping Zhou Mingtang, but the photos were from the future, so even if Wen Yue got them, she wouldn't dare to use them.

The last time she predicted that Ye Tianhua would appear and be able to produce evidence, it was because Wen Yue happened to run into his gang during a private visit, but this time she hadn't met anyone from the "Zhao Zikun" gang yet, and had no way of knowing whether the other party had gone to scout the location, so she couldn't produce decent evidence.

Precisely because there was no evidence, only three newspapers under Dongjiang Newspaper Group published related news on that day.

Well, in order to increase the attention, Wen Yue not only had her own newspaper report the incident, but also sent letters to other newspapers and TV stations with large circulation in Hong Kong.

Although after more than half a year of development, the three newspapers under Dongjiang Newspapers have accumulated a lot of readers, but the foundation is still not as good as those large newspapers, and the news dissemination is not as strong as TV stations.

However, journalists pay attention to evidence. Even if she sent letters to those newspapers and TV stations in the name of "Mr. Tong", not many people paid attention to her. Only two or three newspapers gave her a small space.

After the relevant news was published, it was like rain falling into the sea, without causing any waves at all.

Wen Yue learned her lesson, so she specifically told Huang Zhihao to take stock of Zhao Zikun's past when publishing the relevant news, hoping to attract the attention of Hong Kong's wealthy circles.

This time the effect was okay.

There are many people in the wealthy circles who subscribe to "Dongjiang Entertainment News" and "Dongjiang Entertainment Daily". As for the reason, it has something to do with Wen Yue's recent exposure of a lot of wealthy gossip.

Gossip is human nature, especially when the person being exposed is someone close to them, everyone wants to get to the bottom of the gossip.

Dongjiang Newspaper's newspapers have recently exposed a lot of wealthy gossip, and those families who did not subscribe to entertainment newspapers before have gradually developed the habit of reading Dongjiang Newspaper's newspapers every day.

And news like Zhao Zikun's return to the arena may not be of concern to ordinary people, but these rich people can't just pretend they didn't see it.

Why did Zhao Zikun become famous?

Kidnapping rich people!

Who are they?

Rich people are rich people!

Rich women and daughters are fine, after all, the phenomenon of favoring boys over girls is quite common in the rich circle. Most rich people will never pass on their property to their daughters as long as they have sons. Kidnappers are also very clear about this, so they basically don't target women.

The rich people themselves and their sons are not calm, they are all targets!

For a while, the price of Hong Kong bodyguards rose straight up.

There are also rich people who are skeptical about Zhao Zikun's comeback. After all, Zhao Zikun is over 70 years old. Does he still have the ability and energy to go back to the underworld as a kidnapper?

It's unreliable!

I happened to have Wen Yue's number, so I called her to inquire about the authenticity of the news.

After receiving the call, Wen Yue did not try her best to persuade them to believe the news. She only said, "I don't know either, but the news was sent to our newspaper by Mr. Tong. You know Mr. Tong, right? He was the one who provided important evidence in the serial murders instigated by the Zhong family. He is a very elusive person."

After bragging about herself without changing her expression, Wen Yue said, "I think that for things like this, it is better to believe it than not. It is definitely right to hire more bodyguards and go out less. After all, we only have one life. If we are really kidnapped, it will be too late to regret it, don't you think?"

The richer people are, the more they value their lives. Even if they have doubts, after hearing what Wen Yue said, most of the wealthy people dare not take risks and quickly think of ways to hire a few more bodyguards.

Zhuang Shaoyun also called Wen Yue. It wasn't that she doubted the authenticity of the news, but she was flustered because she believed it and wanted to call Wen Yue to talk.

Facing Zhuang Shaoyun's inquiry, Wen Yue did not change her statement about the source of the information, but this was enough to scare Zhuang Shaoyun. She said, "If the letter was really sent by this Mr. Tong, doesn't it mean that he has received the news? Who do you think Zhao Zikun and his people will target?"

"No matter who they target, it's right to bring enough bodyguards." Wen Yue paused and seemed a little hesitant when she spoke again, "We may need to pay attention to Mingtang."

"What's wrong with Mingtang?"

"Didn't I take Mingtang and his siblings out to set off firecrackers on Christmas? I saw that the scarf he wore seemed to be different from the one he wore to Qitang Awen."

Zhuang Shaoyun said, "It's different. He said that the scarf was bought when he went shopping with his classmates."

"He said he bought it?"

"Yes." Zhuang Shaoyun asked hesitantly, "That scarf... does it have anything to do with this?"

"The scarf has nothing to do with this, but I noticed that day that the pinholes on the scarf were of different sizes. It must have been woven by a novice. Ordinary stores would not sell such finished products," Wen Yue pretended to guess, "So I wonder if Mingtang has a girl he likes?"

Zhuang Shaoyun was stunned: "This... I didn't notice it."

"Is that so? Will the bodyguard tell you his whereabouts?"

"Sometimes he will." Zhuang Shaoyun said.

Wen Yue guessed, "Since you don't know about this, it's very likely that he is more cautious in this regard, afraid that you and Zhou Sheng would know."

"...Possibly."

Although Hong Kong is more open than the mainland, it is indeed too early to fall in love in junior high school. The Zhou family has strict family education, and Zhuang Shaoyun and his wife may not be able to accept it.

And this is probably the main reason why Zhou Mingtang tried every means to hide his ambiguous relationship with his deskmate.

Wen Yue also felt that it was a little early to talk about these things in junior high school, but compared with his life, these were not a big deal, so she advised: "Actually, it's okay to have a girl you like. Mingtang is at the age when he is attracted to Shaoai, and it is normal for him to have feelings for her. In this regard, I think it is better to guide him than to block him. Just keep a calm mind, guide him correctly, and don't let him do anything that crosses the line. Young people are impulsive. The more intense your attitude is, the more likely the relationship between parents and children will be antagonistic. By then, he might find ways to get rid of the bodyguard in order to get rid of your control."

Zhuang Shaoyun graduated from an Ivy League school. Even though she has been working part-time all these years and focused her life on her family, it doesn't mean she will become stupid.

After hearing Wen Yue's last words, Zhuang Shaoyun finally understood why she suddenly mentioned Zhou Mingtang's premature love, and his expression became serious: "I understand what you mean. I will take some time in the next few days to talk to Mingtang openly."

Wen Yue thought that after Zhuang Shaoyun talked with Zhou Mingtang, he would not get rid of the bodyguard again, and accordingly he would not be kidnapped.

But the fact is that Zhou Mingtang was still kidnapped by the "Zhao Zikun" gang within two days of the kidnapping date in the original book.

In addition to being kidnapped two days later than the original, the location of the kidnapping is also slightly different. In the original, Zhou Mingtang was taken away by a daze in a crowded shopping mall, but in this life, he was kidnapped when he had an unbearable stomachache in class and asked to go to the toilet alone.

Obviously, the target of the "Zhao Zikun" gang's return to the underworld this time has never been the rich, they only targeted Zhou Mingtang.