HOYSE CHAPTER 32

Chapter 32 — The Day I “Accidentally” Hit a Man Up

The two middle-aged men in the elevator turned toward the voice and saw a tall, striking guy. They figured he was some fresh face a manager had just scouted.

They did not bother with a fearless rookie. Instead they nodded at the secretary beside them, Lisi.

Lisi was young and not very high up, but she worked directly with the top brass. She knew how important networking was, the way seasoned hands in the group always did.

“Kid, the entertainment division isn’t on this floor,” one of the men reminded him kindly. “Go find your agent first. Try not to wander around and disturb other departments.”

Xie Group’s entertainment HQ only took up a sliver of this ridiculously expensive building. The real work of arranging and training artists happened at cheaper satellite offices. Newcomers who came here were mostly just signing contracts.

There was a reason for his reminder. Since last year the entire entertainment industry had been in a deep freeze. Headquarters had already decided to cut their budget in the second half of the year, and who knows how long that would last. In front of other departments, they were already a bit threadbare, so low-profile was the way to survive.

The tallest blade of grass gets cut first. If they did not keep their heads down, the cuts would only get worse.

Lisi quickly introduced them. “Manager Gao, Supervisor Bao, this is the president’s younger brother.”

It was certainly not the one who already held a post in the group, Xie Jisheng, which meant it had to be the rumored younger brother Xie always said he would not help at all, Rong Jing. Lisi had seen his photo before. The features matched, but the temperament was worlds away. No wonder they had not recognized him at a glance.

The two men’s attitudes changed at once. Rong Jing repeated his earlier question and learned that Gu Xi’s contract ended at the end of the month.

In the original story, Gu Xi’s reputation was already in shreds by now. Someone, somehow, had directed his agency to pour oil on the fire, pushing out wave after wave of “dirt.” Most of it was made up, but back then people were happy to throw stones. Truth did not matter.

Shengteng Entertainment, Gu Xi’s company, lived on dirty deals. He was hardly their only victim.

Gu Xi wanted out and there was no turning back. To them he had no more value as a money tree. Only by breaking his wings so he would never fly again could they feel avenged.

Rong Jing remembered the novel said Gu Xi had talked down several artists who were about to take their own lives because they could not stand the pressure. If it had not been written, Rong Jing would find it hard to imagine how he did it in real life.

This was someone who had attempted more than once himself, yet still told others to keep living.

The stinking company had long been mismanaged and had been dragging debts for ages. Now it was drowning in red ink, shiny only on the surface.

Shengteng’s façade was too polished. They had been cooking books, faking reports. Almost no one knew they were tottering on the edge.

If there was a time to acquire, it was now. And he refused to do what the book had Xie Jisheng do, paying full price.

Rong Jing asked Lisi to relay his interest to Zhou Xiang about acquiring equity in Shengteng.

As for the stack of projects upstairs, he did not need to flip through it to know Shengteng would not be there. Xie Ling would never let him buy a company with such a bad reputation in the industry.

Rong Jing soon got a WeChat from his big brother.

Xie Ling: Not worth it. Pick another.

Manager Gao told Rong Jing that Xie Jisheng had wanted to acquire it earlier, but the president had never agreed.

Xie Ling always invested from the macro picture, never for personal reasons. On paper Shengteng did have Gu Xi and several other tier-one and tier-two stars. You could call it a treasure chest. If you went by the books, acquiring even a slice would cost a hefty sum.

Manager Gao said, “Young master, based on its market valuation, even if we initiate talks now, taking it down would cost us.”

Rong Jing understood. From Xie Ling’s point of view, the price was not worth it. If the novel had not had Xie refuse to sign the acquisition intent letter, Xie Jisheng would not have cut ties so fast.

Xie Jisheng had fallen for Gu Xi at first sight and always treated him like property.

In the original story, he had no idea he was buying a lemon. That may have been the start of Xie Group’s decline. He paid a price a hundred times higher than it was worth, becoming the biggest joke in the business.

Later Wu Hanqi had even said, “If someone insists on stuffing cash in my pocket, why would I turn them away? Xie’s a fat lamb. I would be a fool not to take a bite.”

“What if I make its valuation crash to zero and acquire it for cheap?” Rong Jing asked. “Would it still be worth it then?”

“Of course,” Manager Gao blurted. Besides Gu Xi, Shengteng still had several golden geese. Those laid real eggs.

Rong Jing leaned to Lisi’s ear and whispered a few lines. Time to let the show start.

If it was a tumor, then it was time to sort the trash.

The entertainment department had been in winter for months. The interns were half asleep until Manager Gao started treating Rong Jing like a VIP. Spirits lifted fast.

When they heard he was the president’s younger brother, and much loved at home despite having no blood relation, they perked up even more.

They had expected another nose-in-the-air second young master. Turned out he was nothing like that.

An intern hurried over with a glass of warm water, thrilled when Rong Jing thanked him gently.

Manager Gao shot the intern a glare for lacking sense and snatched the water away. “I will get you a coffee.”

Before Rong Jing could object, Manager Gao personally went to the pantry to brew coffee and fetch snacks. When he came back, he found Rong Jing staring at the sofa lost in thought.

He looked a lot deeper than he had a moment ago when he was briskly talking acquisitions.

For a moment Manager Gao could not read him. This one was a film school grad. He would not look at the business like the suits upstairs who only saw macro numbers. He must actually understand how things worked.

The higher-ups were looking at the industry winter and simply cutting budgets and diverting funds elsewhere. With this one here, maybe their division could stage a comeback this year. The thought made Manager Gao a little excited.

It would have been nice to know his tastes so they could cater to them, but he was hard to pin down at first meeting.

In reality, Rong Jing had finished arranging things and slipped into his usual daze. The brain needed breaks between bursts.

Who cared whether he had blown up the original plot. At this point the story should be so off-rails even its mother would not recognize it.

Right, why had he come downstairs just now? Oh. The phone. He had almost forgotten the main task.

In the president’s office, Xie Ling said, “Jing says I should talk to Director Long at the bank about the loan. He thinks Shengteng’s books may be fake and the loan should be stopped?”

He meant Shengteng might take the money and run. Their CEO, Xu Shengteng, did not hold Huaxia citizenship. If he fled and changed his name abroad it would not be hard. Once a person vanished, finding them was a needle in the sea.

Zhou Xiang said, “Yes. Those were the young master’s exact words.”

“How does he know?” Xie Ling said.

Zhou Xiang could not figure it out either. Then something occurred to him. “Could Chairman Wu have mentioned it by accident?”

“Chairman Wu” generally meant Wu Hanqi. Even if his father was still alive, Wu Hanqi was the one steering the Wu family.

Xie Ling knew his brother had been sticking to Wu Hanqi lately, but Wu was not someone you got close to easily, and he certainly would not casually leak something like this.

He paused, then called a bank director he knew well. The man was surprised Xie Ling knew they were about to approve an eighty-million loan to Shengteng. Banks had quotas every quarter. A company like Shengteng, stable on paper, would clear the process quickly. All very normal.

After asking them to review the books carefully, Xie Ling called the tax bureau to ask, very politely, about Shengteng’s tax situation. On the surface there was nothing wrong. If they had hidden it this long, the rot must be in one or several specific links.

After he hung up, he said, “If this is true and the news gets out, the company will be forced into asset liquidation.”

Zhou Xiang immediately blew a rainbow of praise. “The young master is a lucky star.” It was corny, but some people liked that.

Sure enough, Xie Ling’s lips lifted. “Hmm.”

He thought of Rong Jing pleading with him not to put in capital and snorted. “Is he not convinced he is an investment black hole? If we buy it, will the company go under in a day or what?”

Zhou Xiang said, “Even if he is a black hole, you would still invest.”

He clearly remembered Xie Ling saying not long ago, “No one is allowed to help him.”

Xie Ling had indeed not given his brother film funds. He had just invested cash instead. Not much. Only eight zeros.

Xie Ling slanted him a chilly look. “You can get out too.”

Zhou Xiang slipped away.

When Manager Gao heard Rong Jing wanted to go to Information Systems, he escorted him like a monk carrying a Buddha. Lisi could not get a word in. The old hand from Entertainment was really quick to read the wind and tack. It was almost impressive.

The IS folks had never seen Manager Gao this cheerful. Since HQ had cut entertainment budgets, Gao had worn a stepmother’s face for weeks. Today people clicked their tongues in amazement.

Only a few core techs were in, heads down.

Like many long-running giants, the company had accumulated bloat. Plenty of people had gotten iron rice bowls through connections. Many had patrons among the upper Xies, and quite a few were old warhorses from the old chairman’s time. Even Xie Ling could not move them easily.

Xie Group had been late to new-tech markets. Others had already eaten most of the pie. The group was mid-transformation as reform did not happen overnight.

Just as entertainment was underloved, information systems was too. Their footprint was even smaller.

Sometimes Rong Jing felt Xie Ling was superhuman. He had to clean up after Xie Jisheng’s chaos, tackle a pile of internal problems, and deal with a board that liked to hobble him, while Xie Zhanhong only ate, drank, and played around the world. Xie Ling had to build his own team, carve out a space by himself, and push several core businesses through successful pivots. XieLier’s transformation alone had shown Rong Jing the man’s ambition.

He thought, I should not be a drag. Help where I can.

The tech who received him did not power the phone on. “You think the phone has been tampered with?”

Rong Jing wanted the source. With luck he might find who held those indecent photos. “I am not sure. If it was tampered with, it is either malware or a hardware issue.”

“You want traceability?”

“I know it is a long shot with just a phone.”

He had shut it down the moment he got it. The tech agreed with the caution. He personally was stronger on hardware. If it was malware he would be out of his depth.

“There is someone here who could check that,” he added, “but he barely shows up anymore and he is about to hand in his resignation.”

So your best tech is leaving and you cannot keep him? Rong Jing rubbed his temples. He knew the group’s core businesses were elsewhere, but watching talent leak away still hurt. In the original story those high-tech people found richer soil at the Wu family and a few others, which built their new industry chains.

“When does this ace usually come in?”

“Depends on his mood,” the tech said. They had head-hunted him at a high salary and only required that he show up twice a week. “If he comes, I will notify you right away.”

A few coworkers who had been eavesdropping silently gave the man a thumbs-up. Smooth. He had just added the young master on WeChat.

While they were talking, over at the front desk a tall, thin man held a stack of files and tried to flatter a supervisor. “Please look over our plan. I really put in a lot of work.”

No matter how he begged, the supervisor did not care. Walk-ins looking for funding were a dime a dozen. He brushed him off with a few placating words.

Rong Jing did not think much of it. When he left the building he glanced left and right. Thankfully he did not see Qi Ying. Facing an Omega who knew his way around tears and scenes was scarier than an asset liquidation. He was not good at handling feelings.

He spotted the tall thin guy slumped on a lobby chair, rubbing his face as if the pressure had been too much. From the way he blew his nose, he had probably been crying.

Then the man jolted upright, turned a corner, and collided with Rong Jing. Papers flew.

The man knew he had been the one to bump into someone and apologized profusely. Rong Jing said it was fine and crouched to help gather the pages.

He caught a glimpse of a few sheets. Hm? Fun Video? That looked like the embryo of Dou-something, Face-something, and Quick-something from his original world. Entertainment overall lagged here, probably because of whatever settings the author had chosen.

The guy was here for funding, but conservative Xie IS would never approve something this forward-leaning.

Same problem as Entertainment. Their previous app bets had lost badly. HQ was giving them less and less. No one would risk money on an unproven app.

Another key point: most company heads were Alphas. Only an Alpha leader could attract resources and the trust of employees and shareholders. If he was not mistaken, the man in front of him was a Beta.

Rong Jing’s heartbeat picked up. “Where are you going next for investment?” he asked, wanting to gauge how far along the hunt was.

The man looked at him. Rong Jing looked very young, almost like a boy, maybe a very young man. He vaguely remembered seeing him upstairs in IS, probably a job seeker. He did not have time for a rash kid, but he had just bumped into him, so he owed him an answer.

“Pison Tech,” he said casually. “If Pison says no, then Tronbo…”

He rattled off several names. Pison was a Wu family company focused on high tech. The others belonged to those scummy attackers.

Of course this world revolved around the few main characters. Their halos and cheat codes were already drifting that way.

They were about to be handed a golden finger for free. If he remembered right, the Wus took that nobody app, Fun Video, and turned it into a national project, then expanded it overseas and became model entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs, not capitalists. In any definition, entrepreneurs carried more social responsibility and value than mere capitalists. That was how the Wu family finally washed off their past filth.

Rong Jing’s palms itched. To be honest, he wanted to cut them off at the pass. “How much investment do you need?”

He did not know if his private stash was enough. If not, he would have to borrow from Xie Ling first. No way was he going to gift this golden finger to that lot.

Build yourself up rather than gifting growth to your rivals.

The tall thin man almost swore. You think investment grows on trees? He had run his legs off for weeks and nobody would even see him. And the kid was dressed in ordinary mall-brand streetwear. Even if his bearing was good and his family decent, what parents handed their kid that kind of money as pocket change?

Because this was a new app, they had run out of funds halfway and come out to raise. The app market had long been dominated by traditional media and was near saturated. Some had shown interest but backed off from risk.

To scare Rong Jing away, he named a deliberately high number. “Two million!”

A full two million. How about that. Scared yet?

Kid, do not talk big. The real world hits hard.

In truth, a million would do. Eight hundred thousand would be enough. He just needed to pay several months of back wages. If he could not, he would have to dump equity at a loss to pay salaries. These were veteran employees who had stuck with him for ages. Even if he did not eat, he could not let them go hungry.

Rong Jing blinked. “You are sure?”

“Sure,” the man said. Look at you, scaring the poor boy. Fine, Uncle will not hold it against you. The kid was tall and too handsome. Good-looking people got a little extra forgiveness.

“Only that much?” Rong Jing said. “You are not missing a zero?” Easy, Rong Jing. Do not float away.

“…” The man stared. Did this kid even know what he was talking about? He had worn his tongue out trying to convince people about eight hundred thousand. With the mess the app world was in, investors were cautious. Even at half that, people would still think twice.

Rong Jing said, “Do you have to take corporate money, or can you accept a personal stake? No time like the present. Sign now?”

Do not let the duck fly off the plate.

Even if I am a so-called investment black hole, this time I ought to pull an SSR.

“…”

That day, I randomly “bumped into” a man. I had spent half a month running around and had not raised a cent.

He said two million was too little and asked if I could accept five.

I suspected he was yanking my chain.

Whose child is this? Where are your parents? Please come pick up the kid who speaks big with a straight face.

---

PREVIOUS           TOC           NEXT

Little Note(s):

SSR: Super super rare, like a gacha game.