Finale
Wen Zheng's resignation caused an uproar in the industry, with various speculations and rumors coming one after another. Not only that, he also took away a series of core executives including the financial director and strategic director, causing the LUMINOVA Group's stock price to plummet and several major projects to come to a standstill.
Some financial bloggers speculated that Wen Zheng's move violated the non-compete agreement and he would face a huge compensation. Some media also revealed that Wen Zheng was actually the son of Chairman Li Cang, and the reason why Wen Zheng left was because Li Cang condoned the infighting for power among his sons. The previous car accident involving Wen Zheng was caused by Li Cang's second son Li Fu.
All kinds of rumors, true or false, were rampant, but Wen Zheng was not affected at all and pushed forward the establishment of the new company step by step. On the other hand, LUMINOVA Group was already on the verge of life and death. Wen Zheng's sudden departure completely destroyed the confidence of investors, and they sold their stocks to stop losses. Li Cang was furious. He had a cerebral hemorrhage during the board meeting and was admitted to the hospital. His life or death was unknown. Li Fu hastily took over the position of President of Greater China.
Yaoying Headquarters.
The whole building was shrouded in a haze, and everyone at their workstation had a gloomy face. There were countless messes. When Wen Zheng took over, Yaoying was already on the decline. It was because of him that everyone was able to grit their teeth and persevere, holding on to hope. Now that he was gone, the entire company was like a giant ship without a helmsman, with no future in sight.
Tea room.
Sang Wenshu silently took the cup of hot water and held it in her hands. The colleagues next to her gathered around her and started gossiping in low voices: "Have you heard about it? The car accident that happened to our President Wen was caused by Li Fu."
"What do you mean by our President Wen? You have to change your address so that the people above don't hear it." Someone reminded in a low voice.
"Oh yes, I can't change it for the time being."
"Hey... the big boss has changed again. This is the fourth one. We are really going to be screwed over by the constant back and forth."
"Is Li Fu okay? The company is now heavily in debt, and even the financial director has run away. What do you think..." The man hesitated to speak, and everyone fell silent after hearing this.
The incident happened suddenly and there were too many personnel changes. Everyone is waiting to see what happens, wondering whether to stay and wait for a turnaround or to find another way out.
"I heard that the sales manager next door was poached by Mr. Wen..." Someone said this, and everyone who heard it showed a hint of envy in their eyes.
"Sister Sang?" Someone noticed that Sang Wenshu hadn't said anything, so they took the initiative to ask, "What's the situation with your R&D department? Are you going to stay in Beijing? Sister Sang, if you have any connections, please help me!"
As a core member of the R&D center, Sang Wenshu had much more experience than those present. Everyone was waiting with bated breath for her next words, wondering if they could find out some future direction from her.
Taking a sip from the water cup, Sang Wenshu replied calmly: "Everything depends on Mr. Li's arrangements."
After that, everyone talked for a while and then left. Sang Wenshu returned to her workstation from the tea room and deleted all the contact records related to Wen Zheng on her phone. Then she put down her phone, logged into her encrypted account, and prepared to write her resignation letter.
But before leaving here, she still needs to do one thing for Wen Zheng.
President's Office.
Groups of people came in and out of the office. When it was Sang Wenshu's turn to report on their work, a fierce quarrel suddenly broke out in the office.
"You bastard, don't think that you can do whatever you want just because your dad is in the hospital. I'm here, let's see who dares to touch my position!"
Li Yao's excited voice echoed throughout the office area. Sang Wenshu followed her colleagues to the door and curiously stuck her head out. She saw that the documents in the office were scattered all over the floor, and the furious Li Yao was pointing at Li Fu and cursing.
Sang Wenshu had an impression of Li Yao.
When she first switched to Yaoying, Wen Zheng resigned and Li Yao was appointed as the president of Greater China, but he was soon dismissed due to his lack of ability. Although the change in the company was very sudden, Li Fu was voted in according to the formal process to be the president.
The farce did not last long. Li Yao was soon dragged out of the office by Li Fu's men.
The situation calmed down, and the General Manager's Office arranged an emergency meeting. Sang Wenshu sat in the corner of the meeting room, glanced at the hostile Li Fu in the main seat, and silently looked away. She heard the public relations director say that in order to deal with the company's current stock price plunge and public opinion crisis, a strategic restructuring press conference was prepared for the public.
Sang Wenshu raised her eyebrows.
A public launch? That would be a good time.
She quietly wrote down the time of the press conference.
While these things were making headlines, Xia Tangyue was preparing for a competition in New York, USA.
The preliminary round is a blind review of proposals. Participants submit anonymous curatorial proposals, which will be reviewed by a jury composed of artists and previous award-winning curators.
Xia Tangyue is the only Chinese among the ten contestants, and his curatorial elements are modern and contemporary China.
While waiting for the judges to announce the list of finalists, Xia Tangyue was so nervous that she held her breath. Unexpectedly, a cold sneer suddenly came from the side. The foreigner who was competing with her said to her disdainfully: "It's normal for you to be nervous. After all, you Chinese curators rarely have the opportunity to stand on a stage of this level."
His tone was full of condescending pity, and his superior eyes were full of contempt.
Xia Tangyue pursed her lips tightly and said nothing. But after the list was announced and she advanced while the other party was eliminated, she imitated the other party's proud attitude, raised the corners of her lips slightly, and responded: "Loser, you're out."
When the other party looked at him fiercely, Xia Tangyue snorted at him and said, "You are defeated. Get lost."
The foreigner's nose turned red with anger, and Xia Tangyue had no time to pay attention to his reaction. There were a total of four people who advanced this time. The final was a field creation, and the exhibition area was allocated by drawing lots. The position she was assigned was actually near the toilet.
"This position suits you. It has a mysterious Orientalist feel." The foreigner gloated.
Xia Tangyue glared at him, not giving in to this arrogant and conceited provocation: "Are you jealous? At least I got promoted, and you can only go home and cry in disgrace."
It would be a waste of her mood to say more to such a person. He was so jealous that he was completely lost. However, the exhibition area being close to the toilet was indeed a big problem, and she had to solve it.
After returning to the hotel, Xia Tangyue quickly called Shen Yanqiu and asked her how to deal with the situation.
"You can use the scent of mugwort or tea to transform the space, and you can also mark it as an olfactory exhibition area to increase diversity."
This was the suggestion given by Chen Yanqiu, but Xia Tangyue felt that this was far from enough. No matter how it was decorated, this location was the toilet and could not be ignored.
She calmed down, looked through the cases of other curators in recent years, and hand-drew an exhibition plan in combination with modern space architecture. She planned to hang a mirror installation at the door of the toilet and arrange the theme exhibition point opposite the mirror reflection.
After finishing all this, he looked up and saw that it was almost midnight. Xia Tangyue stretched, stood up from the sofa, called the hotel and asked them to send some midnight snacks, then went to the bathroom to wash his hands and face to wake up.
She stayed in the hotel for many days, studying curatorial matters, and hardly even looked at her mobile phone. Now, when she opened the short video APP, all she was pushed were news related to the LUMINOVA Group.
[Breaking news! LUMINOVA Group founder Li Cang is critically ill and hospitalized, and second son Li Fu is appointed to take over the Greater China business]
[Soul figure Wen Zheng suddenly resigned, creditors put collective pressure on Yaoying Automobile, and it fell into an operational crisis]
[Starting his own business? Does Wen Zheng's move violate the non-compete agreement? 】
Curled up on the sofa holding a pillow, Xia Tangyue read through the reports one by one. In summary, most media outlets were optimistic about Wen Zheng, but pessimistic about Yaoying's future development.
After all, the reason why Yaoying was able to make such rapid progress in the domestic market back then was all thanks to Wen Zheng. After he left, Yaoying has been on a downward trend, and now it is just the outbreak of accumulated problems.
The hotel delivered meals, and Xia Tangyue ate while browsing her phone. Sang Wenshu sent her a message saying that she and Yaoying had formally resigned and were preparing to switch to Wen Zheng's company.
Speaking of which, Xia Tangyue was also surprised that Wen Zheng would do such a thing. He actually resigned and set up his own company, and also poached all of his previous team at Yaoying, cutting off Li Cang's financial support.
Just as he was thinking, the video chat interface suddenly popped up. Xia Tangyue quickly put down the spoon, found a comfortable position on the bed, and smiled at the camera.
"elder brother!"
Now, her and Wen Zheng have swapped geographical locations. She is in the United States and Wen Zheng is in China. There is a time difference between the two and they are too busy at other times, so they can only talk on the phone at this time.
She chattered to Wen Zheng about what happened today, saying that she had advanced to the finals.
Although she signed up for the competition to resist Li Cang's suppression, but now Li Cang is almost dead, so naturally he is no longer a threat to her. However, since things have come to this point, she still hopes to get a place in the competition.
"Brother, I'm a little nervous." Speaking of this, Xia Tangyue couldn't help but sit up straight, worried. She was born with a bad condition and was worried that she wouldn't be able to handle the matter of being close to the toilet.
Wen Zheng on the other side of the screen leaned forward slightly, his eyes focused and gentle, with a reassuring smile on his lips: "It's okay, don't be afraid, you're doing great."
"Do your best and you will have no regrets. I will always support you." Wen Zheng smiled at her and said, "When the final comes, I will be your audience and cheer you on."
Xia Tangyue's eyes blinked, shining: "Really? Are you free to come over?"
"How can a brother not come to such an important event as my sister's competition?" Wen Zheng gently stroked Xia Tangyue's face on the screen with his fingers: "Don't worry, I will come if I say so."
"The ring is already made. How about we fly to Hong Kong to sign it after the competition?"
The 15-day public notice period has passed, and they can fly to Hong Kong to get married at any time. Xia Tangyue nodded seriously and solemnly: "Okay!"
In the following period of time, Xia Tangyue devoted herself to the preparations for the exhibition. Fortunately, she had the support of a big tree. With the title of Zhushang Investment's emerging artist and the blessing of advancing in the competition, collectors were willing to cooperate with her based on this relationship.
Xia Tangyue was busy every day decorating the venue and arranging exhibits. She was so busy that she fell asleep as soon as she returned to the hotel. Even when Wen Zheng came, she didn't have time to meet him.
Finally, the day of the finals arrived.
The competition system is a scoring system. 200 ordinary audiences are randomly selected to enter. Each audience has one vote, which can only be cast for one curator. The audience needs to visit the independent exhibition areas of the four finalists in turn and cast the vote they approve.
Then, a jury composed of five authoritative judges in the industry will score the entries on a 100-point scale based on creativity, completion, theme expression and other dimensions. After removing the highest and lowest scores, the average score will be taken. The winner will be the one with the highest cumulative score.
Xia Tangyue stood in the candidate area, secretly clenching her palms, her nails almost digging into the soft flesh of her palms. The air conditioning in the exhibition hall was turned on very high, but she felt a layer of fine sweat on her back, sticking the fabric of her dress to her skin. The footsteps and conversations of the audience in her ears turned into a vague buzzing sound, and only her rapid heartbeat was thumping on her eardrums.
She bit her lower lip subconsciously and glanced at Wen Zheng who was sitting in the audience. His eyebrows were gentle and he nodded slightly at her. His eyes were like a calm lake, silently embracing all her uneasy ripples.
At this moment, her heart suddenly calmed down, as if she was injected with an invisible force.
The audience with voting rights walked around and stopped, and when they came to Xia Tangyue's exhibition area, they all showed surprised expressions.
The bathroom, which was supposed to be cramped and damp, was designed to be a place filled with "fairy air". Green smoke was flowing between the mirror and the glass partition, and the air was filled with the faint scent of mugwort mixed with white tea. The mirror reflected the light and shadow art installations in the exhibition area, creating an infinitely extended visual illusion in a limited space.
Even the judges praised Xia Tangyue's creativity, and the editor-in-chief of a contemporary art magazine even took off his glasses to repeatedly confirm that the installation was actually a renovated bathroom.
In addition, the theme and layout of the exhibition are also quite exquisite. The main exhibit is "Umbrella Shadows Under the Bauhinia Tree", which depicts the love between brothers and sisters in the Republic of China. The accompanying paintings are all classic masterpieces from the Republic of China period, centered around the image of "brother and sister sharing an umbrella" in the painting, showing the implicit and profound family ties in the old images of the times. Through the delicate brushstrokes of the silk and the old mounting technique, the unique charm of the Shanghai School paintings in the Republic of China is perfectly reproduced.
The whole exhibition is both classic and avant-garde, with endless aftertaste. Traditional silk paintings and modern light and shadow installations coexist wonderfully in the space, and the style of the Republic of China and contemporary aesthetics are exquisitely balanced here.
After the audience finished voting, all five judges gave high scores, and the score board showed scores of 9 or above in unison.
The whole audience was in an uproar!
Xia Tangyue was also shocked, her eyes widened, and she stood there in disbelief. When the scoreboard showed the final result, the eye-catching number on the total score column was a full 16.88 points higher than the second place!
It was not until the award-winning music sounded and the cold trophy was placed in her palm that she truly realized that she had become the youngest champion since the founding of this top international event.
"Let us congratulate Ms. Xia Tangyue from China for winning the championship of this year's Perla International Art Curator Elite Competition." The host's voice was passionate: "This Chinese girl who created miracles with the bathroom, please accept the crowning of the God of Art at this moment!"
"Next, the champion's curatorial proposal will be exhibited in five top art venues around the world. We, the organizer, will bear all the costs of exhibition venue rental, work transportation, security, publicity and promotion..."
Xia Tangyue could no longer hear what the host said next. Her ears were filled with enthusiastic applause and cheers. The golden spotlight shone on her, enveloping her in a warm halo. Glory fell on her shoulders like a feather coat, as if an unreal dream had finally come true.
Everyone present was cheering for her. Wen Zheng in the audience also stood up, raised his hands above his head and clapped vigorously. The smile in his eyes was brighter than the spotlight.
Across the ocean.
Li Fu, who was talking to the media at that time, had no idea that Wen Zheng had prepared a big gift for him.
The time of the strategic launch conference was internally agreed upon, and all links were well prepared. He was confident that nothing would go wrong. However, just when the launch conference was halfway through and the live broadcast was at its peak with the largest number of viewers, a group of police officers rushed into the camera and directly carried Li Fu away from the scene.
Afterwards, the police reported the incident to the media.
Li Fu, President of Yaoying Greater China, is suspected of a major criminal case. After investigation according to law, Li Fu is suspected of the following illegal and criminal facts:
1. Suspected of attempted murder: Instructing others to intentionally create a traffic accident against Wen (his half-brother), a former executive of LUMINOVA Group, which resulted in Wen and his colleague Xia (female) being seriously injured. According to judicial appraisal, the accident was a man-made criminal case.
2. Suspected of false accusation and frame-up: forging evidence materials related to his half-brother Li Yao's "hiring a killer to kill" with the intention of maliciously linking the traffic accident that Wen encountered to Li Yao, and submitting false report materials to the public security organs with the intention of subjecting others to criminal prosecution.
3. Employment: Forging board resolution documents to illegally seize control of the group.
At present, the suspect Li Fu has been taken into criminal custody and the case is under further investigation.
Once the incident was exposed, it immediately caused an uproar on the Internet. Netizens hotly discussed: "In just three sentences of the case report, it was like watching a battle for the rich family."
"No wonder Wen Zheng wants to set up his own business. These 'brothers' want to kill him!"
"From commercial espionage to criminal crimes, there are ready-made scripts. With a director, we can start filming right away."
The Weibo topic #尧影集团成功者涉刑案# was read over 100 million times in 2 hours, and the entry remained at the top of the hot search list for 18 hours. A media reporter rushed to the special needs ward where Li Cang was, trying to get a first-hand response, but was sternly told by the hospital that the patient had developed critical symptoms such as a sudden increase in blood pressure and irregular heartbeat due to severe emotional fluctuations, and was currently receiving sedation treatment in the intensive care unit.
According to the nurse on duty, the monitor in front of Li Cang's bed had issued sharp alarms several times, and he kept repeating the word "evil son" until the sedative took effect and he gradually calmed down.
The person in power was imprisoned, and the chairman was in critical condition in the hospital. At this moment, the huge LUMINOVA Group was like a skyscraper that had lost its load-bearing walls and was crumbling. The glass curtain wall reflected the reflections of department heads who were leaving in a panic with file boxes in their arms.
No one expected that a generation of capital myth would come to an end in this way.
When Xia Tangyue saw the news that Li Cang was seriously ill, he felt disgusted and repulsive. This old scum who had abandoned his wife and children finally got the retribution he deserved after so many years.
Hong Kong, China.
Wen Zheng, wearing a charcoal gray suit with dark jacquard pattern, came to the marriage registration office with Xia Tangyue, who was wearing a high-end fishtail wedding dress.
After paying the wedding fee of 715 Hong Kong dollars, Wen Zheng took Xia Tangyue's hand and entered the main wedding venue. The dignified chairman introduced them to Hong Kong law. As for the witness, Wen Zheng chose Zhuang Chen, and Xia Tangyue chose her teacher Shen Yanqiu.
Under the solemn hosting of the Chairman and the recording of the cameraman, they put on each other's wedding rings that symbolize eternity, read the oath together, and solemnly and seriously signed their names on the marriage certificate.
"Huh! Congratulations, may you live together forever!" Zhuang Chen was the first to cheer, and Chen Yanqiu looked at them with a smile.
Xia Tangyue held the marriage certificate lightly in both hands, and he and Wen Zheng each held one end, standing facing each other in front of the yellow background wall. When the camera froze, it was a picture of them looking at each other affectionately.
The wedding celebration party was held that evening.
Although it was not a formal wedding, almost all of the friends came, especially Zhu Shang, who was drinking so much that he even hugged Wen Zheng and refused to let go. In the end, Duanmu Yu pulled them apart.
"Brother, are you drunk?" Xia Tangyue hugged Wen Zheng's waist, got close to his face, and looked at his eyebrows and eyes carefully. They were still as deep and charming as when they first met.
Wen Zheng held her in his arms, lowered his head to rub her shoulders, and said vaguely: "I'm happy, not drunk."
Xia Tangyue laughed and took him to the corridor outside. The evening breeze was gentle, blowing slowly. She turned around, hugged Wen Zheng's waist, rested her chin on his chest, and looked up at him.
"Brother, what kind of life would we have if we hadn't separated?"
Wen Zheng looked down at her and kissed her, sucking her lips lightly, his voice hoarse: "Then we will always be together and never separate."
(End of text)
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