Chapter 169: Such a Lively Night

Lu Zhou closed the door of the office.

"What wonderful news could possibly make you this excited?"

He walked over, sat down on the chair in front of Pan Chengyi's desk, and asked.

"Guess!"

Pan Chengyi was so happy that he resorted to the classic teasing routine typically favored by young girls.

"Stop beating around the bush and just spit it out," Lu Zhou urged.

In truth, he had already guessed roughly seven or eight-tenths of it. He simply couldn't be bothered to play this guessing game with a grown man like Pan Chengyi, especially since there was still a guest waiting outside.

"You really have zero romance in you," Pan Chengyi complained, seeing that Lu Zhou refused to play along.

Lu Zhou laughed. "Why would I try to be romantic with you? There's nothing wrong with my sexual orientation."

Pan Chengyi had just picked up his water glass to take a sip and nearly spat it all out.

"The way you phrase that... sounds like you're implying something's wrong with mine?" he raised an eyebrow and said.

Lu Zhou chuckled. "I didn't mean that at all. The fact that you interpreted it that way means you definitely have some explaining to do."

Pan Chengyi: "..."

The two men stopped joking around.

Pan Chengyi unlocked his phone, pulled up an interface, and handed it over to Lu Zhou.

"Qiu Mingbo just took the initiative to contact me. He wants to meet you," Pan Chengyi said.

Lu Zhou took the phone and began reading through their chat history.

Pan Chengyi: "Judging by his tone, I think he's genuinely interested in you. Have a proper face-to-face chat with him, and I'd say there's a ninety percent chance of sealing the partnership."

Lu Zhou pressed his lips into a smile. "The fact that he took the initiative to request a meeting proves there are no longer any hurdles. Meeting up is just a formality."

"We owe it all to those big moves *The Sky* pulled off. Otherwise, Qiu Mingbo definitely wouldn't have reconsidered you after turning you down," Pan Chengyi sighed with emotion.

Lu Zhou handed the phone back to Pan Chengyi.

"That's normal. If they can't see sufficient commercial value, why would anyone want to partner with us? Even now, deciding to join us is quite a bold gamble on his part."

Pan Chengyi was amused yet exasperated by this. "Is it really that dramatic? I would have agreed with you before, but I can't accept that phrasing now. Are you lacking confidence in your own future?"

"You're currently riding a massive wave of popularity; how can you be less confident than before? When you go talk to Qiu Mingbo, make sure you aren't this modest. You need to project absolute confidence, otherwise you might just scare him off again," Pan Chengyi hurriedly cautioned.

Lu Zhou: "This has nothing to do with whether I'm confident or not."

"I'm simply looking at it from Qiu Mingbo's perspective. For him to dare choose to partner with us right now is inherently a very courageous act."

"Because right now, I'm the only artist in our company, and I'm also the boss. It's very likely he won't have full autonomy over me. That means if he joins now, there won't be much room for him to maneuver with me in the short term."

Pan Chengyi: "Once he arrives, you won't be the only artist anymore. Didn't he mention it in the chat logs? He wants to bring artists into the company with him."

"Qiu Mingbo still has a good eye for talent, otherwise he wouldn't have produced so many top-tier stars under his wing. The artists he favors, if brought along to join our company and developed well, will also be a tremendous boon to us."

"Didn't you say before that we'd sign other artists in the future? No need to wait for the future now; the man is bringing people directly."

Pan Chengyi expressed his viewpoint.

After hearing this, Lu Zhou shook his head. "He can come, but bringing other artists is out of the question—at least for the current stage, I won't allow that kind of arrangement."

Pan Chengyi looked surprised, furrowed his brow, and asked, "Why? Do you not trust his eye for talent? If you don't trust it, why partner with him in the first place?"

"Why do you think Qiu Mingbo suffered setbacks at Shixiang Entertainment?" Lu Zhou countered.

Pan Chengyi thought for a moment and replied, "Because back when he left Tianyin, he walked out taking artists with him, practically hollowing out the entire agency. Shixiang Entertainment grew wary of him."

"Exactly," Lu Zhou smiled and said. "Even Shixiang was wary of his tight control over artists. Now that he's coming to us, why wouldn't you be wary?"

Hearing this, Pan Chengyi leaned back thoughtfully against his office chair and said:

"Of course we'd be wary, but we could also learn from Shixiang and place limits on his authority. If he wants to bring artists along, he must abide by our regulations and not be allowed to run things entirely his own way."

"That wouldn't be a sincere partnership. Mimicking Shixiang will only make him resentful—just think about why he wanted to leave Shixiang in the first place." Lu Zhou disagreed with Pan Chengyi's idea.

"I still hold the same view: if we're going to form a partnership, he comes alone, starts fresh, and leaves the old crowd behind."

Lu Zhou's attitude was firm.

"I will delegate authority; I won't make him feel restricted and tied down at every turn the way he was at Shixiang. But the precondition is that he must also abandon his old way of playing the game."

Pan Chengyi remained silent for a moment before saying, "Well, then I hope you're able to convince him."

Lu Zhou smiled. "Don't worry, your matchmaking task is complete. The rest is my job."

The two continued to chat about work matters for a while until Lu Zhou's phone rang.

He initially thought Qi Jiajia was calling to let him know she was leaving, but to his surprise, the caller turned out to be Wang Yanhua.

Lu Zhou answered, "Hello?"

"Junior Brother! Where are you right now?"

Wang Yanhua blurted out the question the moment the line connected.

His end sounded rather noisy, with intermittent car horns mixed with the chatter of other people.

Lu Zhou: "I'm at the company. What's up?"

"Stop making a fuss, just wait for the traffic police to arrive and that's it!" The background noise remained chaotic, and though Lu Zhou could hear Wang Yanhua speaking into his phone, those words clearly weren't directed at him.

Catching the key context, Lu Zhou frowned slightly and called out, "Senior Brother."

Only then did Wang Yanhua's attention return to the conversation on this end of the line.

"What did you just say you were? Oh right! You're at the company right now, aren't you?"

Wang Yanhua finally seemed to register what Lu Zhou had said just moments ago.

"Yeah, I'm at the company," Lu Zhou repeated. "What happened to you? Were you in a traffic accident?"

"So damn unlucky. My perfectly fine car got dented by some blind fool," Wang Yanhua said, his tone laced with anger.

"Is everyone okay?" Lu Zhou asked.

"The people are mostly fine, nothing to worry about," Wang Yanhua said. "Since you're at the company, can you come out and do me a favor? We're right on a road close to your office building."

"You? Who else is there? What do you need me to help with? Send me your location." Lu Zhou rattled off all the necessary questions in one breath.

"Aside from me, Ah Yi and Feifei are here too," Wang Yanhua lowered his voice and said on the other end of the line.

The instant Lu Zhou heard the name "Feifei," his heart skipped a heavy beat.

"Is everyone alright?" he asked again instinctively to confirm.

"Everyone's fine, don't worry," the sound of a car door slamming shut came through the phone, and the surrounding noise suddenly dropped significantly.

"I'll stay here to deal with the traffic negotiations. See if you can arrange a car to come pick the two of them up—especially Feifei. It's not great for her to linger around this area for too long. I wanted to have her family driver come pick her up, but the distance is too far."

"Alright, send me the address and I'll head over now." Lu Zhou said as he hurriedly stood up to leave.

Pan Chengyi only caught fragments about someone getting into a traffic accident, and asked behind Lu Zhou, "Do you need any help?"

Lu Zhou waved a hand and bolted straight out the door.

In such a rush? Could it be a major issue?

Lu Zhou covered the distance from the office in two strides. Passing through the work area, he spotted Qi Jiajia and Linda still chatting away, and hastily threw out a sentence: "I'm heading out for a bit, I'll be back later."

Qi Jiajia froze. Watching his rushed and panicked silhouette, she turned to Linda and asked, "Did something happen?"

Linda shook her head, and the two looked at each other in mutual confusion.

...

Lu Zhou drove the company's van straight to the address Wang Yanhua had sent him and parked by the roadside.

Wearing a cap and a face mask, he stepped out of the car and walked over to the accident scene.

Wang Yanhua was leaning against a car door. Seeing that Lu Zhou had already arrived, he teased, "So fast, did you fly a jet here?"

Lu Zhou slightly lifted the brim of his cap, sized Wang Yanhua up for a moment, and seeing that he seemed relatively energetic with no obvious injuries, he felt a bit more relieved.

"Whose fault is it?" he asked.

"Definitely not mine," Wang Yanhua raised his chin to point at another vehicle parked nearby—also a luxury car—and said, "100% his fault, but he refuses to admit it."

With that, he reached out to knock on the car window, leaned his upper body inside, and said, "You two go with Lu Zhou. I'll stay behind to handle the aftermath."

Song Yi remained seated in the back seat without moving, saying, "I don't have anything pressing to do back home anyway, so I'll stay and keep you company. Feifei gets too much unwanted attention, so it's better if Lu Zhou takes her away."

Wang Yanhua: "Suit yourself."

Ye Fangfei put on her cap and sunglasses, pushed the car door open, and stepped out.

The moment Lu Zhou saw her, he strode a few steps closer and asked with concern, "Is anything hurting or feeling uncomfortable? If you don't feel well, we need to go get checked out at the hospital."

Ye Fangfei shook her head, "I'm okay, I'm fine."

Only after hearing her say it herself did Lu Zhou finally exhale in relief.

The two didn't linger at the scene any longer. They left the accident site and got into the van Lu Zhou had driven over.

"How on earth did the three of you end up together?" Once they were in the car, Lu Zhou glanced at Ye Fangfei, finally finding the time to ask.

"There was a visiting foreign symphony orchestra performing at the Grand Theatre tonight. Since I happened to have the day off, I went with the two of them to listen. Who would have thought we'd run into this on the way back? Fortunately, everyone is safe."

Because she was sitting in the front passenger seat, Ye Fangfei hadn't taken off her sunglasses or cap the entire time.

Lu Zhou started the engine. "Dropping you home?"

Ye Fangfei turned to look at him. "Wang Yanhua said you came from the company. Working so late at the office means you must still have things to deal with, right?"

"I was indeed working on stuff before I came out, but it was pretty much wrapped up. Let me drop you home first, and I can head back to the office later."

Lu Zhou opened the navigation app on the dashboard. Without thinking much, he began typing in Ye Fangfei's home address. Right as he finished typing and was about to tap confirm, he realized something was wrong, quickly deleted the typed letters, cleared his throat, and asked, "What's your home address again?"

Luckily, Ye Fangfei's attention hadn't been on the screen, so she hadn't noticed what he had just typed.

"If you don't mind, why don't you drop me off at your company for a bit? You can go back to your work, and I'll wait at your office until my driver comes to pick me up. No need to make you go all the way out of your way to drive me home."

Ye Fangfei didn't give him her address.

Lu Zhou paused for a moment before nodding, "Alright then."

The van pulled away and headed straight for Legend Entertainment.

When Lu Zhou led Ye Fangfei through the front doors of the company, every colleague still on duty stopped and stared in utter shock once they recognized who had walked in.

What on earth was going on tonight? Why was it suddenly so lively?!

Earlier, the boss had brought Qi Jiajia to the company, which had already surprised everyone and led them to secretly speculate about their relationship.

And now, just a short while later, the boss had brought back another former reality dating show female guest? And that person was Ye Fangfei?!

Faced with this spectacle, everyone unanimously agreed they couldn't make heads or tails of the situation.

Exactly which one of them was the real girlfriend?!

Or could it be... neither? Were they both still in some ambiguous dating stage?

If it was the latter, that was terrifying! Had their boss lost his mind? Why would he willingly engineer such a social minefield?!

Or maybe they had all guessed wrong?

Aside from Legend Entertainment's employees, the other person who was utterly stunned upon seeing Ye Fangfei was Qi Jiajia, who hadn't left yet...

At that moment, her state of mind was very similar to the rest of the staff—she was fully in spectator mode, ready to eat some gossip.

So, Ye Fangfei and Lu Zhou were actually secretly dating?!

Oh my god, she knew it! Back on the show, the atmosphere between those two was just way too good; how could they not have feelings for each other? Celebrities really do love playing the secret romance card.

Getting a front-row seat to massive celebrity gossip—how thrilling!

Qi Jiajia's heart was racing with excitement. Watching Lu Zhou and Ye Fangfei walk in side-by-side, her eyes lit up with the glowing aura of a die-hard shipper consuming sweet moments.

It seemed Lu Zhou genuinely trusted her since he wasn't even afraid of letting her in on his secret with Ye Fangfei!

Meanwhile, Ye Fangfei, visiting Lu Zhou's company for the very first time, scanned the room through her sunglasses. The exact microsecond her gaze locked onto Qi Jiajia, her spine stiffened.

"???"

Was her vision playing tricks on her?

A flash of confusion crossed Ye Fangfei's face, prompting her to lift her hand and take off her sunglasses to verify if she was hallucinating.

As it turned out, she wasn't.

Sitting right there was indeed Qi Jiajia...

How on earth was she here this late?

"Jiajia, it really is you," Ye Fangfei greeted her aloud, then walked over with a smile, "What a coincidence, we meet again."

Qi Jiajia finally snapped out of her shipper-induced daze, stood up with a radiant smile, and enthusiastically pulled Ye Fangfei into a big hug.

"Feifei, what an absolute coincidence. I never expected to run into you here. It really has been a while since we last saw each other."

Onlookers: "???"

They were actually hugging each other warmly? What kind of relationship did these two have? Weren't they supposed to be rivals? Could they just be... friends?

Let's wait and observe further!

"I was in a minor traffic accident in a car nearby and couldn't stay by the roadside for too long, so I troubled Lu Zhou to come pick me up,"

Once they broke the embrace, Ye Fangfei—unaware of the specific context between Qi Jiajia and Lu Zhou—smiled and offered an explanation beforehand.

"Ah? An accident? Is everyone okay?" Qi Jiajia worriedly scanned Ye Fangfei's body with her eyes.

"I'm fine," Ye Fangfei replied nonchalantly, turning back to look at Lu Zhou with a tone resembling light reproach as she said, "Jiajia is here too, why didn't you tell me in advance?"

*If you had told me beforehand, I wouldn't have come to bother you,* she added mentally.

"I momentarily slipped my mind," Lu Zhou answered straightforwardly.

Gossip onlookers: "?!"

You could even forget something like that? Boss, your heart is truly massive! If one of those two really is your girlfriend, we won't respect you unless you're kneeling on durian shells when you get home!

Ye Fangfei was left completely speechless by Lu Zhou's response. Just how indifferent could he possibly be to her feelings to completely forget to mention that another female guest from their dating show—who had even confessed her feelings to him—was currently sitting right inside his office?!

Fine, as expected, he only saw her as a friend.

Or perhaps, he already had someone else in his heart, and that person wasn't her.

Realizing this, Ye Fangfei forcefully suppressed the irritation welling up inside her, trying her absolute best to keep her expression completely neutral.

As for Qi Jiajia, hearing Lu Zhou's words gave her a completely different interpretation:

*Oh heavens, Lu Zhou must have been so worried about Feifei while rushing to pick her up that he completely forgot there was someone named Qi Jiajia sitting in his office!*

Tsk tsk, no wonder Lu Zhou had left the office in such a fiery rush earlier.

Ahhh! Consuming ship moments up close like this—it was so sweet, it was going to kill her with sweetness!

"I was having dinner and discussing work with Lu Zhou tonight. The restaurant wasn't far from his company, and since he happened to be heading back here, I asked if I could tag along to take a tour,"

Qi Jiajia chimed in to clarify things, hoping to prevent the two of them from generating any unnecessary misunderstandings because of her.

After hearing this, Ye Fangfei froze for several long seconds.

"You and Lu Zhou... discussing work?"

At that moment, Lu Zhou took over the conversation: "Right, I asked her out to talk about a potential partnership."

Ye Fangfei blinked her eyelids.

*Ah, so it was just talking about work and casually touring the company?*

*So she had misunderstood earlier?*

Even if it was just business, though, Lu Zhou still should have given her a heads-up on the way over that Qi Jiajia was in his office. Any normal person would have mentioned it, right?

*Right! It was entirely Lu Zhou's fault for not saying anything, she couldn't be blamed for jumping to conclusions!*

Besides, wasn't it super weird? The two of them discussing a partnership? What kind of partnership?

At that moment, Ye Fangfei's inner monologue was running wild.

Meanwhile, Qi Jiajia was in a completely different mental state: *Now their misunderstanding should be cleared up, right?*

This place was getting a bit too awkward to stay in, and Qi Jiajia felt she shouldn't disturb their private time together.

Therefore, she pretended to check the time and put on a look of feigned surprise:

"Oh! It's getting late, I should be heading back too."

With that, she readied herself to say goodbye and leave.

Unexpectedly, right at that moment, Ye Fangfei said in a dejected tone:

"My feelings are hurt. Is our friendship really that shallow? You're leaving after barely saying two sentences to me. Am I allowed to assume I'm being shunned here?"

Qi Jiajia froze: "???"

Lu Zhou: "..."

Ye Fangfei smiled warmly at Qi Jiajia and said, "Stay a bit longer and chat, or are you in a rush to go somewhere?"

Qi Jiajia bit her lip and glanced at Lu Zhou, attempting to glean any hint from his expression as to whether she should stay or go.

Yet, that exact gesture appeared slightly subtle in Ye Fangfei's eyes.

Noticing Qi Jiajia's gaze, Lu Zhou asked, "Are you in a rush to head back?"

Qi Jiajia: "..."

*Why is he asking me that too???*

"Haha, not really in a rush. I just figured I shouldn't interrupt you guys talking business, so..."

Qi Jiajia bit the bullet and offered a bright laugh.

Ye Fangfei: "Talking business? We have nothing to discuss; I'm just here waiting for my driver."

*Oh my god, talking business was just her polite euphemism! Did Ye Fangfei seriously not pick up on that, or was she pretending not to?*

Qi Jiajia blinked, feeling completely lost.

Her head was starting to ache.